diff --git a/ss2013/1_Web Mining/Uebungen/1_Uebung/abgabe/abgabe_1.pdf b/ss2013/1_Web Mining/Uebungen/1_Uebung/abgabe/abgabe_1.pdf new file mode 100644 index 00000000..d5da9b8e Binary files /dev/null and b/ss2013/1_Web Mining/Uebungen/1_Uebung/abgabe/abgabe_1.pdf differ diff --git a/ss2013/1_Web Mining/Uebungen/1_Uebung/abgabe/keaddon/keaddonWithHeuristic.xpi b/ss2013/1_Web Mining/Uebungen/1_Uebung/abgabe/keaddon/keaddonWithHeuristic.xpi new file mode 100644 index 00000000..06ea59fa Binary files /dev/null and b/ss2013/1_Web Mining/Uebungen/1_Uebung/abgabe/keaddon/keaddonWithHeuristic.xpi differ diff --git a/ss2013/1_Web Mining/Uebungen/1_Uebung/abgabe/keaddon/sources/student.js b/ss2013/1_Web Mining/Uebungen/1_Uebung/abgabe/keaddon/sources/student.js new file mode 100644 index 00000000..e0af1625 --- /dev/null +++ b/ss2013/1_Web Mining/Uebungen/1_Uebung/abgabe/keaddon/sources/student.js @@ -0,0 +1,50 @@ +var lang = require("language"); +var util = require("utility"); + +function student(text) { + + // word counter + var deWordCount = 0; + var enWordCount = 0; + var frWordCount = 0; + + // tokens + var tokens = util.tokenize(text); + + //check every token + for (var i=0; i= enWordCount && deWordCount >= frWordCount) { + return lang.german; + } + + if (enWordCount >= deWordCount && enWordCount >= frWordCount) { + return lang.english; + } + + if (frWordCount >= enWordCount && frWordCount >= deWordCount) { + return lang.french; + } + + return lang.german; +} + + +exports.student = student; diff --git a/ss2013/1_Web Mining/Uebungen/1_Uebung/abgabe/keaddon/sources/utility.js b/ss2013/1_Web Mining/Uebungen/1_Uebung/abgabe/keaddon/sources/utility.js new file mode 100644 index 00000000..673053eb --- /dev/null +++ b/ss2013/1_Web Mining/Uebungen/1_Uebung/abgabe/keaddon/sources/utility.js @@ -0,0 +1,42 @@ +/* +Tokenize a text at whitespace. +Some punctuations are removed +*/ +function tokenize(text) { + var lct = text.toLowerCase(); + lct = lct.replace(/(\.|,|!|\?|'|"|\\|\/|\|)/g,""); + var result = lct.split(/\W/g); + return result; +} + + +function arrayContains(array, element) { + for (var i = 0; i < array.length; i++) { + if (array[i] === element) { + return true; + } + } + return false; +} + + + +function getDeStopwords() { + return ["aber","alle","allem","allen","aller","alles","als","also","am","an","ander","andere","anderem","anderen","anderer","anderes","anderm","andern","anderr","anders","auch","auf","aus","bei","bin","bis","bist","da","damit","dann","der","den","des","dem","die","das","daß","derselbe","derselben","denselben","desselben","demselben","dieselbe","dieselben","dasselbe","dazu","dein","deine","deinem","deinen","deiner","deines","denn","derer","dessen","dich","dir","du","dies","diese","diesem","diesen","dieser","dieses","doch","dort","durch","ein","eine","einem","einen","einer","eines","einig","einige","einigem","einigen","einiger","einiges","einmal","er","ihn","ihm","es","etwas","euer","eure","eurem","euren","eurer","eures","für","gegen","gewesen","hab","habe","haben","hat","hatte","hatten","hier","hin","hinter","ich","mich","mir","ihr","ihre","ihrem","ihren","ihrer","ihres","euch","im","in","indem","ins","ist","jede","jedem","jeden","jeder","jedes","jene","jenem","jenen","jener","jenes","jetzt","kann","kein","keine","keinem","keinen","keiner","keines","können","könnte","machen","man","manche","manchem","manchen","mancher","manches","mein","meine","meinem","meinen","meiner","meines","mit","muss","musste","nach","nicht","nichts","noch","nun","nur","ob","oder","ohne","sehr","sein","seine","seinem","seinen","seiner","seines","selbst","sich","sie","ihnen","sind","so","solche","solchem","solchen","solcher","solches","soll","sollte","sondern","sonst","über","um","und","uns","unse","unsem","unsen","unser","unses","unter","viel","vom","von","vor","während","war","waren","warst","was","weg","weil","weiter","welche","welchem","welchen","welcher","welches","wenn","werde","werden","wie","wieder","will","wir","wird","wirst","wo","wollen","wollte","würde","würden","zu","zum","zur","zwar","zwischen"]; +} + +function getEnStopwords() { + return ["i","me","my","myself","we","our","ours","ourselves","you","your","yours","yourself","yourselves","he","him","his","himself","she","her","hers","herself","it","its","itself","they","them","their","theirs","themselves","what","which","who","whom","this","that","these","those","am","is","are","was","were","be","been","being","have","has","had","having","do","does","did","doing","a","an","the","and","but","if","or","because","as","until","while","of","at","by","for","with","about","against","between","into","through","during","before","after","above","below","to","from","up","down","in","out","on","off","over","under","again","further","then","once","here","there","when","where","why","how","all","any","both","each","few","more","most","other","some","such","no","nor","not","only","own","same","so","than","too","very","s","t","can","will","just","don","should","now"]; +} + +function getFrStopwords() { + return ["au","aux","avec","ce","ces","dans","de","des","du","elle","en","et","eux","il","je","la","le","leur","lui","ma","mais","me","même","mes","moi","mon","ne","nos","notre","nous","on","ou","par","pas","pour","qu","que","qui","sa","se","ses","son","sur","ta","te","tes","toi","ton","tu","un","une","vos","votre","vous","c","d","j","l","à","m","n","s","t","y","été","étée","étées","étés","étant","étante","étants","étantes","suis","es","est","sommes","êtes","sont","serai","seras","sera","serons","serez","seront","serais","serait","serions","seriez","seraient","étais","était","étions","étiez","étaient","fus","fut","fûmes","fûtes","furent","sois","soit","soyons","soyez","soient","fusse","fusses","fût","fussions","fussiez","fussent","ayant","ayante","ayantes","ayants","eu","eue","eues","eus","ai","as","avons","avez","ont","aurai","auras","aura","aurons","aurez","auront","aurais","aurait","aurions","auriez","auraient","avais","avait","avions","aviez","avaient","eut","eûmes","eûtes","eurent","aie","aies","ait","ayons","ayez","aient","eusse","eusses","eût","eussions","eussiez","eussent"]; +} + +exports.arrayContains = arrayContains; +exports.getDeStopwords = getDeStopwords; +exports.getEnStopwords = getEnStopwords; +exports.getFrStopwords = getFrStopwords; + + +exports.tokenize = tokenize; diff --git a/ss2013/1_Web Mining/Uebungen/1_Uebung/abgabe/stopwords/README b/ss2013/1_Web Mining/Uebungen/1_Uebung/abgabe/stopwords/README new file mode 100644 index 00000000..fb651801 --- /dev/null +++ b/ss2013/1_Web Mining/Uebungen/1_Uebung/abgabe/stopwords/README @@ -0,0 +1,9 @@ +Stopwords Corpus + +This corpus contains lists of stop words for several languages. These +are high-frequency grammatical words which are usually ignored in text +retrieval applications. + +They were obtained from: +http://anoncvs.postgresql.org/cvsweb.cgi/pgsql/src/backend/snowball/stopwords/ + diff --git a/ss2013/1_Web Mining/Uebungen/1_Uebung/abgabe/stopwords/danish b/ss2013/1_Web Mining/Uebungen/1_Uebung/abgabe/stopwords/danish new file mode 100644 index 00000000..d3edc675 --- /dev/null +++ b/ss2013/1_Web Mining/Uebungen/1_Uebung/abgabe/stopwords/danish @@ -0,0 +1,94 @@ +og +i +jeg +det +at +en +den +til +er +som +på +de +med +han +af +for +ikke +der +var +mig +sig +men +et +har +om +vi +min +havde +ham +hun +nu +over +da +fra +du +ud +sin +dem +os +op +man +hans +hvor +eller +hvad +skal +selv +her +alle +vil +blev +kunne +ind +når +være +dog +noget +ville +jo +deres +efter +ned +skulle +denne +end +dette +mit +også +under +have +dig +anden +hende +mine +alt +meget +sit +sine +vor +mod +disse +hvis +din +nogle +hos +blive +mange +ad +bliver +hendes +været +thi +jer +sådan diff --git a/ss2013/1_Web Mining/Uebungen/1_Uebung/abgabe/stopwords/dutch b/ss2013/1_Web Mining/Uebungen/1_Uebung/abgabe/stopwords/dutch new file mode 100644 index 00000000..cafa0324 --- /dev/null +++ b/ss2013/1_Web Mining/Uebungen/1_Uebung/abgabe/stopwords/dutch @@ -0,0 +1,101 @@ +de +en +van +ik +te +dat +die +in +een +hij +het +niet +zijn +is +was +op +aan +met +als +voor +had +er +maar +om +hem +dan +zou +of +wat +mijn +men +dit +zo +door +over +ze +zich +bij +ook +tot +je +mij +uit +der +daar +haar +naar +heb +hoe +heeft +hebben +deze +u +want +nog +zal +me +zij +nu +ge +geen +omdat +iets +worden +toch +al +waren +veel +meer +doen +toen +moet +ben +zonder +kan +hun +dus +alles +onder +ja +eens +hier +wie +werd +altijd +doch +wordt +wezen +kunnen +ons +zelf +tegen +na +reeds +wil +kon +niets +uw +iemand +geweest +andere diff --git a/ss2013/1_Web Mining/Uebungen/1_Uebung/abgabe/stopwords/english b/ss2013/1_Web Mining/Uebungen/1_Uebung/abgabe/stopwords/english new file mode 100644 index 00000000..a9130116 --- /dev/null +++ b/ss2013/1_Web Mining/Uebungen/1_Uebung/abgabe/stopwords/english @@ -0,0 +1,128 @@ +i +me +my +myself +we +our +ours +ourselves +you +your +yours +yourself +yourselves +he +him +his +himself +she +her +hers +herself +it +its +itself +they +them +their +theirs +themselves +what +which +who +whom +this +that +these +those +am +is +are +was +were +be +been +being +have +has +had +having +do +does +did +doing +a +an +the +and +but +if +or +because +as +until +while +of +at +by +for +with +about +against +between +into +through +during +before +after +above +below +to +from +up +down +in +out +on +off +over +under +again +further +then +once +here +there +when +where +why +how +all +any +both +each +few +more +most +other +some +such +no +nor +not +only +own +same +so +than +too +very +s +t +can +will +just +don +should +now + diff --git a/ss2013/1_Web Mining/Uebungen/1_Uebung/abgabe/stopwords/finnish b/ss2013/1_Web Mining/Uebungen/1_Uebung/abgabe/stopwords/finnish new file mode 100644 index 00000000..47ee200f --- /dev/null +++ b/ss2013/1_Web Mining/Uebungen/1_Uebung/abgabe/stopwords/finnish @@ -0,0 +1,235 @@ +olla +olen +olet +on +olemme +olette +ovat +ole +oli +olisi +olisit +olisin +olisimme +olisitte +olisivat +olit +olin +olimme +olitte +olivat +ollut +olleet +en +et +ei +emme +ette +eivät +minä +minun +minut +minua +minussa +minusta +minuun +minulla +minulta +minulle +sinä +sinun +sinut +sinua +sinussa +sinusta +sinuun +sinulla +sinulta +sinulle +hän +hänen +hänet +häntä +hänessä +hänestä +häneen +hänellä +häneltä +hänelle +me +meidän +meidät +meitä +meissä +meistä +meihin +meillä +meiltä +meille +te +teidän +teidät +teitä +teissä +teistä +teihin +teillä +teiltä +teille +he +heidän +heidät +heitä +heissä +heistä +heihin +heillä +heiltä +heille +tämä +tämän +tätä +tässä +tästä +tähän +tallä +tältä +tälle +tänä +täksi +tuo +tuon +tuotä +tuossa +tuosta +tuohon +tuolla +tuolta +tuolle +tuona +tuoksi +se +sen +sitä +siinä +siitä +siihen +sillä +siltä +sille +sinä +siksi +nämä +näiden +näitä +näissä +näistä +näihin +näillä +näiltä +näille +näinä +näiksi +nuo +noiden +noita +noissa +noista +noihin +noilla +noilta +noille +noina +noiksi +ne +niiden +niitä +niissä +niistä +niihin +niillä +niiltä +niille +niinä +niiksi +kuka +kenen +kenet +ketä +kenessä +kenestä +keneen +kenellä +keneltä +kenelle +kenenä +keneksi +ketkä +keiden +ketkä +keitä +keissä +keistä +keihin +keillä +keiltä +keille +keinä +keiksi +mikä +minkä +minkä +mitä +missä +mistä +mihin +millä +miltä +mille +minä +miksi +mitkä +joka +jonka +jota +jossa +josta +johon +jolla +jolta +jolle +jona +joksi +jotka +joiden +joita +joissa +joista +joihin +joilla +joilta +joille +joina +joiksi +että +ja +jos +koska +kuin +mutta +niin +sekä +sillä +tai +vaan +vai +vaikka +kanssa +mukaan +noin +poikki +yli +kun +niin +nyt +itse diff --git a/ss2013/1_Web Mining/Uebungen/1_Uebung/abgabe/stopwords/french b/ss2013/1_Web Mining/Uebungen/1_Uebung/abgabe/stopwords/french new file mode 100644 index 00000000..e7cbf4c9 --- /dev/null +++ b/ss2013/1_Web Mining/Uebungen/1_Uebung/abgabe/stopwords/french @@ -0,0 +1,155 @@ +au +aux +avec +ce +ces +dans +de +des +du +elle +en +et +eux +il +je +la +le +leur +lui +ma +mais +me +même +mes +moi +mon +ne +nos +notre +nous +on +ou +par +pas +pour +qu +que +qui +sa +se +ses +son +sur +ta +te +tes +toi +ton +tu +un +une +vos +votre +vous +c +d +j +l +à +m +n +s +t +y +été +étée +étées +étés +étant +étante +étants +étantes +suis +es +est +sommes +êtes +sont +serai +seras +sera +serons +serez +seront +serais +serait +serions +seriez +seraient +étais +était +étions +étiez +étaient +fus +fut +fûmes +fûtes +furent +sois +soit +soyons +soyez +soient +fusse +fusses +fût +fussions +fussiez +fussent +ayant +ayante +ayantes +ayants +eu +eue +eues +eus +ai +as +avons +avez +ont +aurai +auras +aura +aurons +aurez +auront +aurais +aurait +aurions +auriez +auraient +avais +avait +avions +aviez +avaient +eut +eûmes +eûtes +eurent +aie +aies +ait +ayons +ayez +aient +eusse +eusses +eût +eussions +eussiez +eussent diff --git a/ss2013/1_Web Mining/Uebungen/1_Uebung/abgabe/stopwords/german b/ss2013/1_Web Mining/Uebungen/1_Uebung/abgabe/stopwords/german new file mode 100644 index 00000000..edef220b --- /dev/null +++ b/ss2013/1_Web Mining/Uebungen/1_Uebung/abgabe/stopwords/german @@ -0,0 +1,231 @@ +aber +alle +allem +allen +aller +alles +als +also +am +an +ander +andere +anderem +anderen +anderer +anderes +anderm +andern +anderr +anders +auch +auf +aus +bei +bin +bis +bist +da +damit +dann +der +den +des +dem +die +das +daß +derselbe +derselben +denselben +desselben +demselben +dieselbe +dieselben +dasselbe +dazu +dein +deine +deinem +deinen +deiner +deines +denn +derer +dessen +dich +dir +du +dies +diese +diesem +diesen +dieser +dieses +doch +dort +durch +ein +eine +einem +einen +einer +eines +einig +einige +einigem +einigen +einiger +einiges +einmal +er +ihn +ihm +es +etwas +euer +eure +eurem +euren +eurer +eures +für +gegen +gewesen +hab +habe +haben +hat +hatte +hatten +hier +hin +hinter +ich +mich +mir +ihr +ihre +ihrem +ihren +ihrer +ihres +euch +im +in +indem +ins +ist +jede +jedem +jeden +jeder +jedes +jene +jenem +jenen +jener +jenes +jetzt +kann +kein +keine +keinem +keinen +keiner +keines +können +könnte +machen +man +manche +manchem +manchen +mancher +manches +mein +meine +meinem +meinen +meiner +meines +mit +muss +musste +nach +nicht +nichts +noch +nun +nur +ob +oder +ohne +sehr +sein +seine +seinem +seinen +seiner +seines +selbst +sich +sie +ihnen +sind +so +solche +solchem +solchen +solcher +solches +soll +sollte +sondern +sonst +über +um +und +uns +unse +unsem +unsen +unser +unses +unter +viel +vom +von +vor +während +war +waren +warst +was +weg +weil +weiter +welche +welchem +welchen +welcher +welches +wenn +werde +werden +wie +wieder +will +wir +wird +wirst +wo +wollen +wollte +würde +würden +zu +zum +zur +zwar +zwischen diff --git a/ss2013/1_Web Mining/Uebungen/1_Uebung/abgabe/stopwords/hungarian b/ss2013/1_Web Mining/Uebungen/1_Uebung/abgabe/stopwords/hungarian new file mode 100644 index 00000000..94e9f9a0 --- /dev/null +++ b/ss2013/1_Web Mining/Uebungen/1_Uebung/abgabe/stopwords/hungarian @@ -0,0 +1,199 @@ +a +ahogy +ahol +aki +akik +akkor +alatt +által +általában +amely +amelyek +amelyekben +amelyeket +amelyet +amelynek +ami +amit +amolyan +amíg +amikor +át +abban +ahhoz +annak +arra +arról +az +azok +azon +azt +azzal +azért +aztán +azután +azonban +bár +be +belül +benne +cikk +cikkek +cikkeket +csak +de +e +eddig +egész +egy +egyes +egyetlen +egyéb +egyik +egyre +ekkor +el +elég +ellen +elõ +elõször +elõtt +elsõ +én +éppen +ebben +ehhez +emilyen +ennek +erre +ez +ezt +ezek +ezen +ezzel +ezért +és +fel +felé +hanem +hiszen +hogy +hogyan +igen +így +illetve +ill. +ill +ilyen +ilyenkor +ison +ismét +itt +jó +jól +jobban +kell +kellett +keresztül +keressünk +ki +kívül +között +közül +legalább +lehet +lehetett +legyen +lenne +lenni +lesz +lett +maga +magát +majd +majd +már +más +másik +meg +még +mellett +mert +mely +melyek +mi +mit +míg +miért +milyen +mikor +minden +mindent +mindenki +mindig +mint +mintha +mivel +most +nagy +nagyobb +nagyon +ne +néha +nekem +neki +nem +néhány +nélkül +nincs +olyan +ott +össze +õ +õk +õket +pedig +persze +rá +s +saját +sem +semmi +sok +sokat +sokkal +számára +szemben +szerint +szinte +talán +tehát +teljes +tovább +továbbá +több +úgy +ugyanis +új +újabb +újra +után +utána +utolsó +vagy +vagyis +valaki +valami +valamint +való +vagyok +van +vannak +volt +voltam +voltak +voltunk +vissza +vele +viszont +volna diff --git a/ss2013/1_Web Mining/Uebungen/1_Uebung/abgabe/stopwords/italian b/ss2013/1_Web Mining/Uebungen/1_Uebung/abgabe/stopwords/italian new file mode 100644 index 00000000..6ee02b51 --- /dev/null +++ b/ss2013/1_Web Mining/Uebungen/1_Uebung/abgabe/stopwords/italian @@ -0,0 +1,279 @@ +ad +al +allo +ai +agli +all +agl +alla +alle +con +col +coi +da +dal +dallo +dai +dagli +dall +dagl +dalla +dalle +di +del +dello +dei +degli +dell +degl +della +delle +in +nel +nello +nei +negli +nell +negl +nella +nelle +su +sul +sullo +sui +sugli +sull +sugl +sulla +sulle +per +tra +contro +io +tu +lui +lei +noi +voi +loro +mio +mia +miei +mie +tuo +tua +tuoi +tue +suo +sua +suoi +sue +nostro +nostra +nostri +nostre +vostro +vostra +vostri +vostre +mi +ti +ci +vi +lo +la +li +le +gli +ne +il +un +uno +una +ma +ed +se +perché +anche +come +dov +dove +che +chi +cui +non +più +quale +quanto +quanti +quanta +quante +quello +quelli +quella +quelle +questo +questi +questa +queste +si +tutto +tutti +a +c +e +i +l +o +ho +hai +ha +abbiamo +avete +hanno +abbia +abbiate +abbiano +avrò +avrai +avrà +avremo +avrete +avranno +avrei +avresti +avrebbe +avremmo +avreste +avrebbero +avevo +avevi +aveva +avevamo +avevate +avevano +ebbi +avesti +ebbe +avemmo +aveste +ebbero +avessi +avesse +avessimo +avessero +avendo +avuto +avuta +avuti +avute +sono +sei +è +siamo +siete +sia +siate +siano +sarò +sarai +sarà +saremo +sarete +saranno +sarei +saresti +sarebbe +saremmo +sareste +sarebbero +ero +eri +era +eravamo +eravate +erano +fui +fosti +fu +fummo +foste +furono +fossi +fosse +fossimo +fossero +essendo +faccio +fai +facciamo +fanno +faccia +facciate +facciano +farò +farai +farà +faremo +farete +faranno +farei +faresti +farebbe +faremmo +fareste +farebbero +facevo +facevi +faceva +facevamo +facevate +facevano +feci +facesti +fece +facemmo +faceste +fecero +facessi +facesse +facessimo +facessero +facendo +sto +stai +sta +stiamo +stanno +stia +stiate +stiano +starò +starai +starà +staremo +starete +staranno +starei +staresti +starebbe +staremmo +stareste +starebbero +stavo +stavi +stava +stavamo +stavate +stavano +stetti +stesti +stette +stemmo +steste +stettero +stessi +stesse +stessimo +stessero +stando diff --git a/ss2013/1_Web Mining/Uebungen/1_Uebung/abgabe/stopwords/norwegian b/ss2013/1_Web Mining/Uebungen/1_Uebung/abgabe/stopwords/norwegian new file mode 100644 index 00000000..9ac1abbb --- /dev/null +++ b/ss2013/1_Web Mining/Uebungen/1_Uebung/abgabe/stopwords/norwegian @@ -0,0 +1,176 @@ +og +i +jeg +det +at +en +et +den +til +er +som +på +de +med +han +av +ikke +ikkje +der +så +var +meg +seg +men +ett +har +om +vi +min +mitt +ha +hadde +hun +nå +over +da +ved +fra +du +ut +sin +dem +oss +opp +man +kan +hans +hvor +eller +hva +skal +selv +sjøl +her +alle +vil +bli +ble +blei +blitt +kunne +inn +når +være +kom +noen +noe +ville +dere +som +deres +kun +ja +etter +ned +skulle +denne +for +deg +si +sine +sitt +mot +å +meget +hvorfor +dette +disse +uten +hvordan +ingen +din +ditt +blir +samme +hvilken +hvilke +sånn +inni +mellom +vår +hver +hvem +vors +hvis +både +bare +enn +fordi +før +mange +også +slik +vært +være +båe +begge +siden +dykk +dykkar +dei +deira +deires +deim +di +då +eg +ein +eit +eitt +elles +honom +hjå +ho +hoe +henne +hennar +hennes +hoss +hossen +ikkje +ingi +inkje +korleis +korso +kva +kvar +kvarhelst +kven +kvi +kvifor +me +medan +mi +mine +mykje +no +nokon +noka +nokor +noko +nokre +si +sia +sidan +so +somt +somme +um +upp +vere +vore +verte +vort +varte +vart diff --git a/ss2013/1_Web Mining/Uebungen/1_Uebung/abgabe/stopwords/portuguese b/ss2013/1_Web Mining/Uebungen/1_Uebung/abgabe/stopwords/portuguese new file mode 100644 index 00000000..6b247786 --- /dev/null +++ b/ss2013/1_Web Mining/Uebungen/1_Uebung/abgabe/stopwords/portuguese @@ -0,0 +1,203 @@ +de +a +o +que +e +do +da +em +um +para +com +não +uma +os +no +se +na +por +mais +as +dos +como +mas +ao +ele +das +à +seu +sua +ou +quando +muito +nos +já +eu +também +só +pelo +pela +até +isso +ela +entre +depois +sem +mesmo +aos +seus +quem +nas +me +esse +eles +você +essa +num +nem +suas +meu +às +minha +numa +pelos +elas +qual +nós +lhe +deles +essas +esses +pelas +este +dele +tu +te +vocês +vos +lhes +meus +minhas +teu +tua +teus +tuas +nosso +nossa +nossos +nossas +dela 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Mining/Uebungen/1_Uebung/abgabe/stopwords/russian b/ss2013/1_Web Mining/Uebungen/1_Uebung/abgabe/stopwords/russian new file mode 100644 index 00000000..ecb83d4a --- /dev/null +++ b/ss2013/1_Web Mining/Uebungen/1_Uebung/abgabe/stopwords/russian @@ -0,0 +1,151 @@ +и +в +во +не +что +он +на +я +с +со +как +а +то +все +она +так +его +но +да +ты +к +у +же +вы +за +бы +по +только +ее +мне +было +вот +от +меня +еще +нет +о +из +ему +теперь +когда +даже +ну +вдруг +ли +если +уже +или +ни +быть +был +него +до +вас +нибудь +опять +уж +вам +ведь +там +потом +себя +ничего +ей +может +они +тут +где +есть +надо +ней +для +мы +тебя +их +чем +была +сам +чтоб +без +будто +чего +раз +тоже +себе +под +будет +ж +тогда +кто +этот +того +потому +этого +какой +совсем +ним +здесь +этом +один +почти +мой +тем +чтобы +нее +сейчас +были +куда +зачем +всех +никогда +можно +при +наконец +два +об +другой +хоть +после +над +больше +тот +через +эти +нас +про +всего +них +какая +много +разве +три +эту +моя +впрочем +хорошо +свою +этой +перед +иногда +лучше +чуть +том +нельзя +такой +им +более +всегда +конечно +всю +между diff --git a/ss2013/1_Web Mining/Uebungen/1_Uebung/abgabe/stopwords/spanish b/ss2013/1_Web Mining/Uebungen/1_Uebung/abgabe/stopwords/spanish new file mode 100644 index 00000000..59bc786c --- /dev/null +++ b/ss2013/1_Web Mining/Uebungen/1_Uebung/abgabe/stopwords/spanish @@ -0,0 +1,313 @@ +de +la +que +el +en +y +a +los +del +se +las +por +un +para +con +no +una +su +al +lo +como +más +pero +sus +le +ya +o +este +sí +porque +esta +entre +cuando +muy +sin +sobre +también +me +hasta +hay +donde +quien +desde +todo +nos +durante +todos +uno +les +ni +contra +otros +ese +eso +ante +ellos +e +esto +mí +antes +algunos +qué +unos +yo +otro +otras +otra +él +tanto +esa +estos +mucho +quienes +nada +muchos +cual +poco +ella +estar +estas +algunas +algo +nosotros +mi +mis +tú +te +ti +tu +tus +ellas +nosotras +vosostros +vosostras +os +mío +mía +míos +mías +tuyo +tuya +tuyos +tuyas +suyo 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/dev/null +++ b/ss2013/1_Web Mining/Uebungen/1_Uebung/abgabe/stopwords/swedish @@ -0,0 +1,114 @@ +och +det +att +i +en +jag +hon +som +han +på +den +med +var +sig +för +så +till +är +men +ett +om +hade +de +av +icke +mig +du +henne +då +sin +nu +har +inte +hans +honom +skulle +hennes +där +min +man +ej +vid +kunde +något +från +ut +när +efter +upp +vi +dem +vara +vad +över +än +dig +kan +sina +här +ha +mot +alla +under +någon +eller +allt +mycket +sedan +ju +denna +själv +detta +åt +utan +varit +hur +ingen +mitt +ni +bli +blev +oss +din +dessa +några +deras +blir +mina +samma +vilken +er +sådan +vår +blivit +dess +inom +mellan +sådant +varför +varje +vilka +ditt +vem +vilket +sitta +sådana +vart +dina +vars +vårt +våra +ert +era +vilkas diff --git a/ss2013/1_Web Mining/Uebungen/1_Uebung/abgabe/stopwords/turkish b/ss2013/1_Web Mining/Uebungen/1_Uebung/abgabe/stopwords/turkish new file mode 100644 index 00000000..5a48ccce --- /dev/null +++ b/ss2013/1_Web Mining/Uebungen/1_Uebung/abgabe/stopwords/turkish @@ -0,0 +1,53 @@ +acaba +ama +aslında +az +bazı +belki +biri +birkaç +birşey +biz +bu +çok +çünkü +da +daha +de +defa +diye +eğer +en +gibi +hem +hep +hepsi +her +hiç +için +ile +ise +kez +ki +kim +mı +mu +mü +nasıl +ne +neden +nerde +nerede +nereye +niçin +niye +o +sanki +şey +siz +şu +tüm +ve +veya +ya +yani diff --git a/ss2013/1_Web Mining/Uebungen/1_Uebung/abgabe/task2.py b/ss2013/1_Web Mining/Uebungen/1_Uebung/abgabe/task2.py new file mode 100755 index 00000000..45bb009a --- /dev/null +++ b/ss2013/1_Web Mining/Uebungen/1_Uebung/abgabe/task2.py @@ -0,0 +1,168 @@ +import sys +import re +import matplotlib.pyplot as plt + +def split(text, regex): + ret = re.findall(regex, text) + for i in range(len(ret)): + ret[i] = ret[i].lower() + return ret + +def splitAll(files, regex): + words = [] + for filename in files: + print "Processing " + filename + "." + print "\tSplitting words..." + words += split(open(filename).read(), regex) + wordcount = len(words) + print "Absolute word count: " + str(wordcount) + return words + +def countWords(words): + counts = {} + for word in words: + if word not in counts: + counts[word] = 1 + else: + counts[word] += 1 + return counts + +def reverseDictionary(dictionary): + ret = {} + i = 0 + for word in dictionary.keys(): + if dictionary[word] not in ret: + ret[dictionary[word]] = [word] + else: + ret[dictionary[word]].append(word) + return ret + +def printWordCounts(countToWords, maxCount = -1): + totalcount = 0 + for count in countToWords: + totalcount += count * len(countToWords[count]) + + print "#\t| Abs.\t\t| Rel.\t\t| Words" + sortedKeys = sorted(countToWords.iterkeys(), None, None, True) + i = 0 + breakOuter = False + for count in sortedKeys: + for word in countToWords[count]: + fmtStr = str(i+1) + "\t| " + str(count) + "\t\t| %3.2f %% \t| " + word + values = (float(count) / float(totalcount) * 100) + print fmtStr % values + i += 1 + if i >= maxCount and maxCount > 0: + breakOuter = True + break + if breakOuter: + break + +basedir = "/Users/Michael/Uni/allgemeiner Git/college/ss2013/1_Web Mining/Uebungen/1_Uebung/u1-u4/" +file0 = "A History of Banks for Savings in Great Britain and Ireland by William Lewins.txt" +file1 = "Expository Writing by Mervin James Curl.txt" +file2 = "A Little Girl in Old San Francisco by Amanda Minnie Douglas.txt" +file3 = "Einfuehrung in die moderne Logik.txt" + +words = splitAll([basedir + file0, basedir + file1, basedir + file2], "\w+") + +# (2.1) +print "\n=== 30 most frequent words ===\n" +countToWords = reverseDictionary(countWords(words)) + +printWordCounts(countToWords, 30) + +# (2.2) +print "\n=== 30 most frequent words w/o stopwords ===\n" +countToWordsWithoutStopwords = {} +stopWords = split(open(basedir + "english").read(), "\w+") +for count in countToWords.keys(): + newWords = [] + for word in countToWords[count]: + if word not in stopWords: + newWords.append(word) + + if len(newWords): + countToWordsWithoutStopwords[count] = newWords + +printWordCounts(countToWordsWithoutStopwords, 30) + +# (3.1) +xValues = [] +yValues = [] +i = 0 +sortedKeys = sorted(countToWords.iterkeys(), None, None, True) +for count in sortedKeys: + for word in countToWords[count]: + xValues.append(i) + yValues.append(count) + i += 1 + +'''plt.plot(xValues, yValues) +plt.xlabel('word rank') +plt.ylabel('word frequency') +plt.xscale('log') +plt.yscale('log') +plt.show()''' + +# (3.2) +xValues = [] +yValues = [] +sortedKeys = sorted(countToWords.iterkeys(), None, None, True) +for count in sortedKeys: + xValues.append(count) + yValues.append(len(countToWords[count])) + +'''plt.plot(xValues, yValues) +plt.xlabel('word frequency') +plt.ylabel('number of words with this frequency') +plt.xscale('log') +plt.yscale('log') +plt.show()''' + +# (4) +characters = splitAll([basedir + file0], "\w{1,2}") + +print "\n=== characters by frequency (text 1) ===\n" +countToWords = reverseDictionary(countWords(characters)) + +printWordCounts(countToWords, 10) + +'''xValues = [] +yValues = [] +i = 0 +sortedKeys = sorted(countToWords.iterkeys(), None, None, True) +for count in sortedKeys: + for word in countToWords[count]: + xValues.append(i) + yValues.append(count) + i += 1 + +plt.plot(xValues, yValues) +plt.xlabel('character rank') +plt.ylabel('character frequency') +plt.yscale('log') +plt.show()''' + +characters = splitAll([basedir + file3], "\w{1,2}") + +print "\n=== characters by frequency (text 2) ===\n" +countToWords = reverseDictionary(countWords(characters)) + +printWordCounts(countToWords, 10) + +'''xValues = [] +yValues = [] +i = 0 +sortedKeys = sorted(countToWords.iterkeys(), None, None, True) +for count in sortedKeys: + for word in countToWords[count]: + xValues.append(i) + yValues.append(count) + i += 1 + +plt.plot(xValues, yValues) +plt.xlabel('character rank') +plt.ylabel('character frequency') +plt.yscale('log') +plt.show()''' \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/ss2013/1_Web Mining/Uebungen/1_Uebung/abgabe/txt/A History of Banks for Savings in Great Britain and Ireland by William Lewins.txt b/ss2013/1_Web Mining/Uebungen/1_Uebung/abgabe/txt/A History of Banks for Savings in Great Britain and Ireland by William Lewins.txt new file mode 100755 index 00000000..b3321af6 --- /dev/null +++ b/ss2013/1_Web Mining/Uebungen/1_Uebung/abgabe/txt/A History of Banks for Savings in Great Britain and Ireland by William Lewins.txt @@ -0,0 +1,15054 @@ + CHAPTER I. + + INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. + + "Archimedes was wont to say that he would remove the world + out of its place, if he had elsewhere to set his foot, and + truly I believe so far that otherwise he could not do it. + I am sure that so much is evident in the architecture of + fortunes, in the raising of which the best art or + endeavour is able to do nothing, _if it have not where to + lay the first stone_."--SIR HENRY WOTTON. + + +The habit of laying something by in a prosperous season for the wants +of an adverse one is one of the very oldest customs in the world. All +our laws, Divine and human, enjoin the exercise of providence and +frugality as a social, and as a personal duty. These habits which are +inculcated in Scripture as positive duties, and which find ample +illustrations in many of the arrangements of nature and Providence, +have been common in one form or other to all people in every country +and in every age. In England, in almost everything relating to the +social advancement of the industrial population, there has been a +great and manifest improvement since the commencement of the present +century. In nothing is this more true than in the incentives and +appliances provided for the growth of provident habits amongst them. +An old stocking, a hole in the floor, or a crevice in the wall, was +formerly a sufficient bank for such of the poor as cared to save +anything; but were that mode of investment unsatisfactory to some few, +it was not possible to obtain better. The change which fifty years +have wrought in the means for saving and investing small sums of money +is remarkable. Not only have these savings assumed in consequence a +variety of different forms, but they represent a sum which in the +aggregate must be well calculated to astonish anyone who can remember +anything of the last century. Before dealing, however, with this as +our special subject, a few words may not be spent in vain in +endeavouring to trace the gradual advancement made among the poorer +classes, the causes that have led to the improvement in their +condition, and the means by which the difficulties in their position +have been encountered. After this it will not be inappropriate to +refer to what still remains to be done. + +"The nineteenth century," as Mr. Gladstone, in addressing the working +men of Glasgow, has just said, "whatever else it is, is undoubtedly in +a new and peculiar sense the century of the working man." "It is the +century which has seen his position raised, his circumstances +improved, new means organised for his benefit, new prospects opened +for the future, and he has before him--I mean not the individual but +the class--a prospect which, I trust, nothing can mar--of increased +weight, increased consideration, increased usefulness, increased +happiness in the generations to come." The Chancellor of the Exchequer +might with justice have said that the second quarter of the present +century has seen this great improvement inaugurated and carried on. +Beginning with 1830, and letting the period of the removal of +political and fiscal burdens mark the commencement of the better order +of things, the progress of political economy, of social knowledge, and +the favouring circumstances of the times achieved the rest. In the +first quarter of the century the working population, left pretty much +to themselves, or given over to the tender mercies of political +demagogues, were either stolidly indifferent to any improvement, or +were kept in a constant turmoil of excitement and confusion. The +Reform Bill bringing political power to the better class of artisans, +gave a decided stimulus to the intelligence of the people, and an +impulse to the then existing means of education. This political power +brought its responsibilities, and it may be fairly assumed that +increased political knowledge was the result. Whether so much will be +granted or no, it is certain that schools and educational +establishments now began to multiply in a manner unknown to any +previous decade. It was now that there came demands for knowledge, and +that the demand brought forth supplies of the most practical kind. The +story of the popular literary ventures of 1832--the very first of +their kind--need not be repeated here, though a volume might well be +written on the subject, and showing the influence which they, and +other ventures to which they gave rise, have had on the intellectual +progress of the people. On the demand for knowledge there followed in +quick succession the removal of many barriers that stood in the way; +and more important still, the remissions of, to the poor man, enormous +fiscal burdens which pressed with great weight upon his energies.[1] +It would scarcely be too much to say that every year for the last +thirty years the working man has found himself better able to cope +with the disadvantages of his position, and, if he should so choose, +to place himself to a very great extent beyond the reach of absolute +want. + +We have alluded to the necessity which began to be felt for the mental +improvement of the adult population; still more important were the +steps taken from time to time to educate the children who are the old +people and the adults of the present day. The present century, among +many wonderful changes which it has witnessed, has seen a complete +revolution in the means of education for the masses. Many generations +since, Milton, with that clear mental vision which was in him like a +kind of second sight, foretold that a time would come when the bulk of +the people would get a better education "in extent and comprehension +far more large, and yet of time far shorter, and of attainment far +more certain, than hath yet been in practice;" and although we may not +have exactly reached the point prefigured by the poet-seer, some +marvellous strides have been taken during the present century. A +dramatist of Milton's own period makes a man of substance reply, in +answer to the query, "Can you read and write then?" "As most of you +gentlemen do, my bond has been taken with my mark at it."[2] At the +beginning of the present century little had been done for the +education of the masses. Grammar schools for the children of the +middle classes, and Free schools, as they were called, for an +infinitesimal fraction of the poor of our towns had been long +established, and, so far as they went, with certain enough results; +but, if we except the establishment of Sunday schools by Mr. Raikes of +Gloucester in 1783, nothing had been done for the educational wants of +the general poor. Malthus in his "Essay on Population," published +twenty years after this date, says, "It is surely a great national +disgrace that the education of the lower classes should be left merely +to a few Sunday schools supported by subscriptions from individuals," +adding at the same time, that the country "lavished immense sums on +the poor which we have every reason to think have constantly tended to +aggravate their misery." "In their education," he goes on to say, "and +_in the circulation of those important political truths that most +nearly concern them_, which are perhaps the only means in our power of +really raising their condition, and of making them happier men and +more peaceable subjects, we have been miserably deficient." What the +state neglected, private enterprise took up; earnest men like Raikes +and Pounds, the working shoemaker, not only set an admirable example +in their own spheres of labour, but roused to action other men who +applied to the work greater powers of mind and the benefits of greater +system. Dr. Bell and Mr. Lancaster were two of these, who nearly at +the same time expounded their views of a general scheme for educating +the people; and who were strengthened in their opinion, as one of them +tells us, of its necessity, by the clamour of many who held that the +stability of our institutions was only sure so long as the people were +kept in ignorance. Mr. Whitbread, a statesman whose name was very +prominent about this time for efforts to promote the interests of the +bulk of the people, tried to induce Parliament at this stage to take +the subject into its consideration, by proposing a plan for the +establishment of parochial schools "for the exaltation of the +character of the labourer," and it would have been well if he had met +with more success. As it was, the sage legislators of the day, led on +by Mr. Windham, considered that such a plan would be very liable to +give an education to these classes much above their condition, and Mr. +Whitbread's scheme, like many other of his wise proposals to which we +shall have subsequently to allude, was set aside. The work, however, +had begun and could not be stopped by the attitude of the government. +Dr. Bell commenced his system by the establishment of National +schools; Mr. Lancaster, supported by Nonconformists principally, set +up Lancasterian schools. Although there was for some time much +hostility displayed between the rival factions, both organizations +struck deep into the dense masses of ignorance in our towns and +villages. Then came Government assistance, and gradually that system +of Government education and supervision which, in spite of many +objections to it, has been an untold blessing to the land. + +Within the last thirty years the wise legislation of the Government +has had a direct influence on the progress of the people in education, +and in their social well-being. No more powerful aid, for example, was +given towards the triumph of enlightenment than the passing, in 1839, +of the penny postage measure, when thousands of the poorer classes +became emulous of each other in learning the rudiments of education, +so as to be enabled to possess themselves of the untold advantages of +this wonderfully successful scheme. Mr. Laing, the celebrated +traveller, after visiting the Continent, declared that the system of +penny postage was far more likely to cause the spread of education +among the masses than the Prussian system of education, if it came to +be adopted in this country. Only second to the repeal of the taxes on +correspondence was that of the reduction of the newspaper stamp duty, +and, still more recently, the abolition of the paper duty. The +relinquishment of these taxes redounds to the honour of those who took +part in the agitation for their abolition, and who held that no +artificial impediment, such as a paltry consideration of revenue, +ought to stand between the people and the free circulation of thought. +Lord Brougham said on one occasion that, "if newspapers, instead of +being sold for sixpence, could be sold for a penny, there would +immediately follow the greatest possible improvement in the tone and +temper of the political information of the people." Lord Campbell once +expressed a hope that newspapers would be sold for a halfpenny. Much +of this has been realized, and the result has been powerful for good. +On this point no one can speak with anything like the authority of Mr. +Gladstone. Speaking of the repeal of the paper duty, this eloquent +statesman has said within the present year, "I did to the best of my +ability fight a hard battle for its repeal. And I find now that not +only in its repeal was there involved the liberation of a great branch +of trade, but there was involved a seed of social and moral good that +has sprung up with rapidity, producing a harvest such as, I confess, I +had hardly been sanguine enough to anticipate."[3] The cheap press now +finds its way into the homes of the poorest, keeps them informed of +the current public events, and makes them interested and anxious in +all that concerns their country and its institutions; and, inasmuch as +the press of the present day is, under proper conduct, well qualified +to enlarge the minds of those whom it must instruct, it is a "seed of +social and moral good" from which a constantly-increasing harvest of +good fruit may be obtained. + +In view of such facts it cannot be said that, during the last quarter +of a century, the industrial classes have been entirely thrown on +their own resources for the means of their enjoyment and improvement. +Over and above the tendency of the legislation of the past thirty +years, the upper classes have felt it their duty, as it is +unquestionably their interest, to attend to the wants and requirements +of those at the bottom of the social scale. They are the safest when +the vast mass of our working population are the happiest. Dr. Chalmers +must have felt this when he wrote, "I would like to see a king upon +the throne, not like an unsupported may-pole among a level population, +but a king surrounded by a noble aristocracy and gradations below +them, shelving downwards to the lowest basis of the people." Society +has been very often and very truly likened to a pyramid, at the apex +of which is the throne; gradually descending, we have substantial +strata of the ruling, the upper, and the middle classes, the rough and +strong material at the base not inappropriately said to represent the +unpolished millions of our industrial population. How far it may be +considered true that the foundations of English society are laid in +this great class, and how much of the social superstructure they bear +on their broad shoulders, we will not attempt to decide. We will +content ourselves with saying that the well or ill-being of every man +forming this great social pyramid must have a direct or reflex +influence on every other man. _Homo sum, humani nihil a me alienum._ + +Of the hundreds of charitable and benevolent agencies set on foot to +improve the condition of the English artisan we can only speak in the +aggregate. We have the clearest evidence of our senses, that many of +them have not been established in vain. Some of them, indeed, have +been born and carried on under serious misapprehensions, fatal to +their existence, and so have perished without doing half the good +which the expenditure of money and time would have warranted. But this +is the exception and not the rule. Under the influence of properly +organised and properly conducted societies of this nature, which have +been quietly working for years, there is a sensible improvement in +public morals among the masses of the people. Within the memory of the +present generation lewdness, profanity, and vulgarity polluted the +atmosphere of most large workshops, and the effect of all this on the +minds of the younger portions of the workers must have been utterly +demoralizing. Then their hours of idleness were hours of mischief; in +them the old proverb of "an idle brain" being "the devil's workshop" +was fully exemplified; bull-baiting, cock-fighting, low drinking, and +gambling were their amusements; Sunday nor weekday did their children +frequent any school, nor they themselves any place of worship; they +made no provision for want, sickness, or death, and in times of +enforced idleness they were a terror and reproach to the country, only +kept in order by the strong arm of the law. To say that all this is +changed would be idle, but that much of it is changed is beyond doubt. +Even humble society now quickly lays its ban upon those who would +think "to rule the roast" by proficiency in vulgarity and profanity; +in our large workshops we are assured that acquirements of this nature +get less and less appreciation, nor do their exhibition often escape +rebuke. Under better and happier influences, many of the rules and +social regulations among large congregations of workmen, such as fines +and footings, which have always offered great encouragement to +idleness and intemperance, have either been done away with or altered +for good;[4] masters not only see it to be their interest to encourage +their men where they can in habits of sobriety and prudence, but they +are now often enabled to enforce regulations tending to this end which +before they were almost powerless to effect.[5] + +The good results of such habits to the industrial classes themselves +and to all portions of society are neither few nor doubtful. The +pursuit of economy and thrift will beget, as a matter of course, +self-dependence; and as soon as men become socially independent they +also become self-relying and self-supplying. "Few men come to the +parish who have ever saved money," said one large employer of labour +before a Committee of the House of Commons on Poor Laws. Another never +knew a man who had saved a pound out of his earnings who had in the +end become a pauper. But the good work does not stop here. "In +proportion as our men save money," said another large employer, "their +morals are improved; then they come to see that they have a stake in +the country, and behave better." Or, as Vegetius, describing the Roman +soldier, puts it, "knowing that his property is deposited with the +standards in the public chest, he never thinks of desertion, becomes +attached to his standards, and in battle fights more bravely for them; +according to the nature of man, who has always his heart where his +treasure is." Arrived at this stage of the upward journey, the +provident man feels the need of education, and must have it; he must +also take a part in exerting an influence among his fellows, and even +in the government of the country, and if his reading takes a +rigid-turn, higher principles of duty are superadded; he will do his +work, whatever it is, in every sense better. "I would rather have," +said another well-known gentleman, to the Committee just referred to, +"a hundred men in my employ who save money than two hundred who spend +every shilling they get; the sober, saving man is always to be +depended upon, and the one lot in the long run will almost do as much +work as the other." + +The improvement of which we have been speaking must not blind us, +however, to the darker side of the picture. Notwithstanding the +improvement which has been made, and the inestimable good which flows +from the practice and pursuit of frugality and economy, it is still +the exception and not the rule among the bulk of our labouring +population. For the hundreds who look to the exigencies of their life, +there are thousands who are utterly careless of such considerations, +and who, in the coarse enjoyment of the present, bury alike all +thought of the past and all expectation of and hope for the future. +The stigma of improvidence has long attached, and we fear must yet +long attach, itself to the generality of English artisans. But for +this stigma there would be no operatives in the world equal to the +English operative either in wealth, intelligence, or influence. No one +with any experience in the case, and with any care as to accuracy, +would venture to say that the English workman, _sui generis_, is not +industrious at his work,[6] but too many can say that he is not +provident in his home.[7] The English artisan has been said to be at +once the hardest worker and the hardest spender in the world. He works +like a horse and spends like an ass. So foolishly, indeed, is much of +this hard-earned money spent, or misspent, that it were a charity to +withhold it, or if it could be done, to throw it into the sea. The +consequences attending this riot of expenditure is as natural and as +inevitable as any of the laws of God's government. As one who knows +them well, and one who has done much for the intellectual culture of +the better portion of the artisan class tells us: "In a time of +prosperity they feast; in a time of adversity they _clem_." Any +depression of trade, be it even of the most transient nature, finds +them totally unprepared for it; those who have been accustomed to the +best wages invariably suffer the most; for, accustomed to the greatest +amount of indulgences, they can do worst without it. It is such +classes as these that must be reached by some means. In the +improvement brought about in the social habits of the people of late +years we have a happy augury of the future.[8] + +It is time that we brought these introductory remarks to a close. We +have to enter upon the consideration of helps and accessories to the +spread of prudential habits among the working classes. We have to +direct attention to the history and working of some of those schemes +which, since the commencement of the present century, have been +started to teach men self-reliance and self-dependence, and how they +might best help themselves. Anxious not to over-estimate the +importance of the subject, we still think it not too much to say that +on our industrial classes depends very much the continued and onward +progress of the world. Let them but be thoughtful and sober, and these +classes, which are the direct agents in our wondrous and manifold +British industry, will, not only under circumstances of huge toil and +no inconsiderable danger, continue to provide all classes with the +necessaries or comforts of life, but they will yet strike out new +paths; they will become, in the future, as they have been in the past, +the skilful inventors of new instruments and new modes. No fact is +more capable of proof than that almost all the successful inventions +that have been given to the world to economize the strength of the +human hand have been either the productions of thoughtful and +industrious workmen, or of those who have risen from that class. +"Deduct all," says Mr. Helps, "that men of the humbler classes have +done for England in the way of inventions only, and see where she +would have been but for them." Nor is this all. The list would be a +long one of those who have risen by their own industry and +perseverance from the lowest ranks to fill the highest positions in +every department of life. "It is notorious," says Mr. Smiles, "that +many of our most successful employers, and some of our largest +capitalists, have sprung directly from the working classes, and to use +the ordinary phrase, have been 'the architects of their own fortunes;' +whilst many more have risen from a rank scarcely a degree above them. +It was the prudent thrift and careful accumulations of working-men +that laid the foundations of the vast capital of the middle class; and +it is this capital, combined with the skilled and energetic industry +of all ranks, which renders England, in the quantity and quality of +her work, superior to any other nation in the world."[9] And what the +humbler classes have done for England in past times they may do, and +indeed _must_ do in the future, if we would keep our country in the +proud position she now occupies in the world. It requires no prophetic +vision to foresee that labour must yet undergo many transformations; +and it is of paramount importance that the labourers themselves be not +only intelligent but sober and frugal, in order that they may always +compete on at least equal terms with the skilled workmen of any other +nation. + +It is far more difficult to point out what course of action will tend +most successfully to secure the fair results of sobriety and frugality +than it is to show how necessary it is that these virtues should be +cultivated. "The difficulty of doing good," as one writer expresses +it, "is at least equal to its luxury." The task we have undertaken is +far from easy, and beset with perils, but we will endeavour to avoid +all occasion of dispute. The pointing out of safe and profitable +investments for the hard-earned savings of the frugal and industrious +need not and should not be regarded as an invidious task. It seems to +us that, as Savings Banks have to do primarily with the foundation of +the habit of saving money, and indeed scarcely ever can be considered +as competing with any of the numerous schemes for the investing of +money, the subject should never be regarded with any jealous feeling. +The principle upon which these institutions are founded "interferes," +to use the words of one who has written most ably on such subjects, +"with no individual action, saps no individual self-reliance." "It +prolongs childhood by no proffered leading-string; it valitudinarises +energy by no hedges or walls of defence, no fetters of well-meant +paternal restriction. It encourages virtue and forethought by no +artificial excitements, but simply by providing that they shall not be +debarred from full fructification, nor defrauded of their natural +reward. It does not attempt to foster the infant habit of saving by +the unnatural addition of a penny to every penny laid by; it contents +itself with endeavouring to secure to the poor and inexperienced that +safe investment and that reasonable return for their small economies +which is their just and scanty due."[10] Strengthened by such +testimony, we will proceed at once to sketch the history, and, as far +as we are able, to show the benefits to be derived from the various +kinds of banks for savings established from time to time amongst us. + + + [1] The following table taken from the _Statistical Returns_, + presented by the Board of Trade, shows in a clear light how much + of the position of the working classes must have been improved by + the removal of fiscal burdens. Almost all the impositions of + taxation between 1850 and 1864 have fallen upon the wealthier + classes:-- + + +------------------------+------------+-----------+-------------+ + | |Repealed or | |Diminution or| + | | Reduced. | Imposed. | Addition. | + +------------------------+------------+-----------+-------------+ + | | £ | £ | £ | + |Customs | 12,208,604 | 3,291,820 |D. 8,916,784| + | | | | | + |Excise | 5,607,000 | 6,380,000 |A. 773,000| + | | | | | + |Property and Income Tax | 16,265,000 |14,764,000 |D. 1,501,000| + | | | | | + |Other taxes | 2,608,800 | 600,000 |D. 2,008,800| + | | | | | + |Stamps (including | 1,428,000 | 2,411,200 |A. 983,000| + | succession duty) | | | | + +------------------------+------------+-----------+-------------+ + | Total |£38,117,404 |27,447,020 |D. 10,670,384| + +------------------------+------------+-----------+-------------+ + + [2] In 1846, according to the Report of the Registrar General for + that year, out of the persons married in that year, one man out of + three, and one woman in two, signed the register with marks. What + was being done for the children of that year may be gathered from + the return for 1864, where it is shown that only eighteen in 100 + of those marrying in that year were unable to write their names. + + [3] Speech at Newton-le-willows, July 22, 1865. + + [4] By way of giving an example of our meaning, we would adduce + the case of the workmen employed in the large brass works of + Messrs. Guest and Chrimes, Rotherham. When one of their number, + for instance, gets married, instead of the accustomed + hard-drinking, the men and their wives drink tea together, and a + piece of furniture of substantial value is presented to the + newly-married pair, paid for out of the subscriptions by the men. + On one of these occasions it is related, that the head of the firm + was asked to present articles which had been bought for two + newly-married couples, and Mr. Guest complied and introduced the + business as follows: "The custom you have adopted deserves the + warmest commendation and support, and is well worthy of + superseding those footings, fines, treats, &c., which, until + recently, had become a source of the most cruel, heartless, and + unjust robbery to which workmen could possibly be exposed by each + other. Thank God that wicked system is fast passing away." + + [5] In 1851-2 a large and well-known engineering firm in Leeds had + a serious struggle with their workmen on account of the masters + having determined to pay the men according to their merit and the + character of the work turned out. A determined strike was the + result, which, though the original difference was only with eight + men, threw eventually more than 600 out of employment. Fresh hands + were obtained with the usual difficulty, and these were subjected + to great annoyance and even danger; in eighteen months, however, + the works were again all going and were efficiently manned. The + masters henceforth made it a condition of employment under them + that no member of a trades' union should be engaged, and the + sequel was a better behaved and superior class of men. Not only + so, but the masters are now enabled to make their own regulations + for the benefit of those employed under them, which before, owing + to the interference of the trades society, they could not make. + They have instituted a sick and funeral fund to which the men + contribute by working _ten minutes additional time when + necessary_, an arrangement which we recommend to other large + employers of labour and large bodies of workmen. That the masters + should be acquitted of any selfish motive, they allow the funds to + be managed and applied by a committee of workmen appointed by + themselves from their own number. + + [6] "No labourer," says Mr. Smiles in his _Workman's Earnings, + &c._, "is better worthy of his hire than the English one. It is + not merely that he works harder than the labourer of any other + country, but he generally produces a better quality of workmanship. + He possesses a power of throwing himself bodily into his + occupation, which has always been a marvel to foreigners;" and he + then recurs to the well-known example of the surprise created + among the French peasantry when gangs of English navvies proceeded + with the works of the Rouen railway, and worked amidst constant + exclamations, of "Voilà! voilà ces Anglais! somme ils travaillent!" + + [7] We put the matter quite mildly here, though it is customarily + and very properly spoken of much more severely. For example, Mr. + Norris, one of the Government inspectors of schools, in speaking + of the well-paid miners and iron workers of Staffordshire--who + doubtless are little worse than the same classes throughout the + country--says in one of his able reports: "Improvidence is too + tame a word for it--it is recklessness; here young and old, + married and single, are uniformly and almost avowedly + self-indulgent spendthrifts. One sees this reckless character + marring and vitiating the nobler traits of their nature. Their + gallantry in the face of danger is akin to foolhardiness; their + power of intense labour is seldom exerted except to compensate for + time lost in idleness and revelry; their readiness to make + "gatherings" for their sick and married comrades seems only to + obviate the necessity of previous savings," &c. + + [8] Much of what we have said in the foregoing pages is admirably + summed up in a sentence or two in an article on "Savings Banks," + which we would not be far wrong in attributing to Dr. Wynter, and + which we had not seen before these pages were written: + "Contemporaneously with the growth of savings banks, we have seen + a growth of civilization among the poorer classes. Thrift has not + effected _all_ that amelioration of morals which contrasts so + happily the mid years of the century with its younger ones; but it + has been no mean confluent to the tide of progress, the softening + of manners, the spread of education, the humanising of popular + sports and pastimes, the wakening up of the natural dignity and + self-reliance of the people,--the broad and indispensable basis of + every other virtue."--_London Review._ + + [9] _Quarterly Review_, 1859. + + [10] Mr. W. R. Greg in the _Edinburgh Review_, 1853, p. 406. + + + + + CHAPTER II. + + ON THE ORIGIN OF SAVINGS BANKS. + + "It would be difficult, we fear, to convince either the + people or their rulers that the spread of Savings Banks is + of far more importance, and far more likely to increase + the happiness and even the greatness of the nation, than + the most brilliant success of its arms, or the most + stupendous improvements of its trade or its agriculture. + And yet we are persuaded that it is so."--_Edinburgh + Review_, 1818. + + +Great Britain can with justice, we think, lay claim to the original +establishment of the system of Savings Banks. One well-known +writer[11] on this and cognate subjects has traced them to +Switzerland, if not to Hamburg, at a time prior to any experiments +with them in this country; but from the best investigation we have +been able to make, the institutions in question were something very +different from Savings Banks as English people understand them, +dealing, as they did, in business more like the sale of deferred +annuities. The institution at Hamburg, which is said to have been +founded in the year 1778,--and which is interesting to readers of +history as being one of those whose coffers the First Napoleon swept +of their funds, thus giving it its death blow,--simply took the spare +cash of domestic servants and handicraftsmen, and granted annuities on +the members arriving at a certain age. No withdrawal of money was +allowed. In this country the first proposals for a bank for savings +were made in 1798 or 1799, according to the judgment of the reader as +to which of the two original schemes best deserves the name of Savings +Bank, or whether either of them is entitled to the honour. The two +persons whose names it is customary to speak of in connexion with the +earliest people's banks are those of the well-known Priscilla +Wakefield, and the Rev. Joseph Smith of Wendover. In the mind of each +of these estimable persons we think the question of becoming the +bankers for the poor around them was at first only a subordinate +measure, and quite auxiliary to other matters deemed of greater +importance. Mrs. Wakefield's scheme arose out of a well-meant anxiety +to better the condition of the weaker and more defenceless portions of +the community, an object to which she devoted much of her literary +ability, and was first started in 1799, for the benefit of women and +children in her own village of Tottenham, and under her immediate +superintendence. Members paying according to their age certain sums +per month became entitled to a pension after sixty years of age; in +case of sickness, four shillings a week; in case of extraordinary +misfortune a certain amount could be withdrawn; in case of death a sum +of money was allowed for the funeral. Honorary members paid +subscriptions, which went to meet deficiencies and current expenses. +In 1801 there was added, first, a fund from which loans were made to +those who had been members for six months; and second, a regular bank +for savings. The interest given in the latter case was the same as +that charged in the former, or five per cent. The clauses relating to +children were such as almost to entitle the founders to the honour of +being the originators of Penny Banks, if nothing else; juveniles were +encouraged to deposit their penny per month, which was kept for them, +along with interest, until such a time as the accumulation was needed +for apprentice fee, clothes, or such like object. The management of +this Parent Institution, as it may well be called, was equitably +divided amongst the honorary and the "benefited" members. In 1804 the +Tottenham Bank was more regularly organized, and Mr. Eardley Wilmot, +M.P. and Mr. Spurling, were appointed Trustees.[12] + +The Wendover institution, which was really started a year before that +at Tottenham, partook at first so largely of the nature of a charity +as to make it almost of the character of a private undertaking between +a rich and benevolent rector and his poor parishioners. Still, there +was here the germ of that of which we are in search. Mr. Smith, and +two of his richer parishioners, who joined him in the work, circulated +proposals in the summer of 1798 to receive any surplus money which any +of the working population round them felt they could spare--provided +it were not less in amount than twopence; to keep a strict account of +every deposit made in this way; and then to repay the money during the +winter season, or generally about Christmas, with the addition of one +third of the whole, which would be allowed as interest on their +deposits--or to speak, perhaps, more correctly, as a bounty for their +economy. Any depositor might receive his money before Christmas on +demand; and it was further stipulated that, in case of sickness or +loss of employment, these fruits of his savings should not preclude +him from parish relief, if otherwise he could obtain it. A Christmas +dinner was the comfortable addition to the good round sum which, +generally, was garnered at this time, the dinner, too, being provided +by the three directors. It is rather curious that the time chosen to +receive deposits was limited to Sunday evenings; but we suppose this +would be justified by the scriptural text, not generally applied in +this fashion, which they chose for their motto, "Upon the first day of +the week, let every one of you lay by him in store, as God hath +prospered him." For several years these benevolent gentlemen carried +on their operations, and had generally about sixty subscribers, who +deposited from five to ten pounds every season. + +In February, 1807, Mr. Whitbread introduced his Poor Laws Amendment +Bill into the House of Commons, and went over the whole ground of the +condition and the wants and requirements of the working population in +an eloquent manner. That speech--which must have been of several +hours' duration--dealt with the past legislation on the subject, and +commented on the various steps which ought to be taken, over and above +the mere collection of poor-rates, to alleviate the condition of the +poor. After dwelling on the subject of national education, and hinting +at a mode such as was eventually brought into operation many years +afterwards, Mr. Whitbread went on to describe the want felt by the +poor of some safe and profitable investment for their earnings; "that +so few are found to make any saving may in a great degree be accounted +for by the difficulty of putting out the little they can raise at a +time." He described the action of Friendly Societies, and showed that +at that early period they were open to the same objections that are +now being continually raised against them. "Mr. Malthus,"[13] said Mr. +Whitbread, "had just proposed the establishment of county banks, but +he would go farther than Mr. Malthus, and extend his principle." It +seemed to him that there would be less trouble in his proposals than +in the less extensive proposals of Mr. Malthus. + +Mr. Whitbread then went into the matter of his proposals under this +head, and we give his own words:[14] "I beg gentlemen not to start at +what I am about to suggest, which to many who hear me may be quite +new, but to afford it their cool and deliberate consideration. I would +propose the establishment of one great national institution, in the +nature of a bank, for the use and advantage of the labouring classes +alone; that it should be placed in the metropolis, and be under the +control and management of proper persons; that every man who shall be +certified by one Justice of the Peace to subsist on the wages of his +own labour shall be at liberty to remit to the Accountant of the +Poor's Fund (as I would designate it) any sum from 20_s._ upwards, but +not exceeding 20_l._ in any one year, and not more than 200_l._ in the +whole." He then proceeded to show how the money might be invested in +Government Stock, in the name of commissioners to be appointed, and by +this means interest would be allowed to depositors at the highest rate +possible. "The plan," added Mr. Whitbread, "will be more amply +detailed in the Bill itself, and such regulations are provided as +will, _with the intervention of the Post-office_, give ample +facilities to its execution. Gentlemen need not to be told that the +perfection attained in the management of that great machine is such as +to give the most easy and rapid means of communication with the +metropolis, much greater, indeed, than usually subsists between the +remote parts of any county and its capital town." Mr. Whitbread then +went on to say, that in addition to this form of investment, the same +machinery might be employed to give those who might wish it an +opportunity of purchasing annuities by the payment of stated regular +sums up to a certain age; and even to insure their lives. So strong, +indeed, was this feeling, that he eventually proposed, as an addition +to his bill, that under the same management there should be an +Insurance-office for the poor, with properly-calculated tables and +modes of payment. We need not here dwell upon the miscellaneous items +which he fully went into in his admirable speech. He finally begged +the patient attention of the House and the country to the +consideration of the general outline of the plan which he had +proposed, in order to encourage the labourer to acquire property, and +to secure to them the certain and profitable possession of it when +acquired. He had the greatest hope of a happy effect from its being +put in practice. "If the poor," said he, "should be found to avail +themselves of it to any extent, the advantage to them and the country +would be incalculable, and the expense attending it would speedily be +covered." This Bill went through several necessary stages; there was +little objection manifested to Mr. Whitbread's plans for securing the +savings of the poor, but there was also little anxiety to forward the +measure. Mr. Whitbread in this, as in many others of his wise +proposals, was far ahead of his time, and he suffered the matter to +drop towards the end of the session.[15] + +One at least of the important organs of public opinion frowned upon +Mr. Whitbread, and laughed at his scheme; an organ whose frown and +whose laugh was no joke at that date. It has not unfrequently been a +subject of remark how persistently the _Quarterly Review_ stood in the +way of progress, clogging the wheels of all kinds of reform. In +matters of this kind, however, it generally showed a most enlightened +policy, and was not unfrequently in the van of improvement instead of +obstruction. It was not so always with its more powerful rival, the +_Edinburgh Review_. It commented upon Mr. Whitbread's "strange +project" of uniting the savings banks throughout the kingdom in one +national establishment, and his minor proposals under that head, and +very warmly ridiculed all. "Neither from theory nor from experience," +it concludes an article, "are we able to discover any kind or degree +of good as likely to result from so vast a project; though it is easy +to see that it might be productive of infinite confusion, trouble, and +expense. In fact, every savings bank is perfectly competent in itself +to transact the whole of its affairs, and can have no great difficulty +to provide the requisite facilities or securities without either +disturbing its neighbours, or withdrawing the attention of Government +or the Legislature _from their proper concerns_." + +Before we come to the plans and exertions of Mr., afterwards Dr. Henry +Duncan, of Ruthwell, we ought to speak of the original foundation of +the savings bank at Bath. The idea of establishing a bank for taking +the wages of industrious domestic servants only, and granting them +interest for their money, originated with Lady Isabella Douglas in +1808. The managers consisted of four ladies and four gentlemen. No +servant could deposit more than 50_l._, and the entire amount of the +funds in the bank could never exceed 2,000_l._ A servant might deposit +up to 50_l._, withdraw the money and place it in safety, and deposit +again in the servants' bank. Interest was allowed at four per cent., +and the money could be withdrawn at will. This scheme, so far as it +proceeded, was very successful; so much so, that an endeavour was made +in 1813 to convert it into a general savings bank, which should know +no limit, either in the amount of the deposits or in the class of +people from whom the deposits could be taken. For this purpose a +committee, "highly respectable for their rank, ability, and +benevolence," met frequently at Bath; but only to find, "after much +deliberation," that these conditions "were utterly impracticable."[16] +In 1815, the Provident Institution of Bath was projected, on very +different conditions; and this time, through the exertions of Dr. +Haygarth and the Marquis of Lansdowne, who was president, the bank was +successfully floated. This bank was essentially the first of its kind +in this country, and upon its basis have been formed almost all +subsequent banks of any note. The sums deposited were invested in the +public Funds, and each man's interest at this early period varied +according to the price of the Funds on the day when the investment was +made for him. + +In November, 1815, the Provident Institution of Southampton was +established, principally through the exertions of the Right Hon. +George Rose, who was appointed president, and who soon afterwards +wrote an account of the undertaking.[17] The exertions of Mr. Rose on +behalf of savings banks will frequently require to be spoken of in +subsequent pages. The Southampton Bank was an improvement on the Bath +institution, having copied several of the details of the bank at +Edinburgh. The average rate of interest given was four per cent. +Notice had to be given for withdrawing deposits. One regulation, new +at that period, which was a suggestion of Mr. Rose, empowered the +officiating clergyman or other responsible person, in adjacent +parishes, to receive sums "on account of the institution," and remit +them to the treasurer at Southampton. It was stipulated, however--and +this had an ill effect upon the public, though the proviso was by no +means unreasonable in itself--that the institution should not be +answerable for the money until it absolutely reached the office. We +will here refer to two other original English savings banks, quite +equal in importance to those of Bath or Southampton. The Exeter +Savings Bank, since better known as the Exeter and Devon Bank, was +established in 1816, principally through the exertions of Sir John +Acland, one of the county members. The rules of this bank limited the +amount which could be deposited to 50_l._ in the first and second +years, and 25_l._ in any succeeding year. The distinguishing feature +about the Exeter bank was the application, attended with much greater +success, of the Southampton plan of rural or branch banks. In 1817, +there were sixty of these branch banks, all contributing sums to the +parent bank through village clergymen, who acted as the agents. The +plan only entailed a trifling expense for printing, postage, &c., and +even these expenses were paid out of a fund raised by voluntary +contributions. At the date of the first enactment relating to savings +banks, this bank had 946 depositors, who had paid in 14,525_l._ in +1,380 deposits. The interest given was at the rate of four per cent. +Within the two years of which we have spoken, only 984_l._, or about a +fifteenth-part of the deposits, were paid as withdrawals. + +The original Hertford Savings Bank was a charitable concern, after the +fashion of Mr. Smith's at Wendover. "The Sunday Bank," as it was +called, was established about the year 1808, by the vicar of the +place, the Rev. Thomas Lloyd. Sums of from sixpence to two shillings +were received by the benevolent pastor from his poorer parishioners +after morning service on Sundays, and in this way about 300_l._ a year +was invested between 1808 and 1816. The money did not accumulate from +year to year, but was repaid on New Year's day, with the addition of +_ten_ per cent. interest, which the vicar was able to give by the help +of some charitable funds at his disposal. + +We must now, without referring to other early banks, such as the +important institution in St. Martin's Place, London, and other +societies, turn to Dr. Duncan, whose exertions on behalf of savings +banks were much greater than those of any other person, and which +exertions, more than any original suggestions which he may have made +with regard to them, entitle him to the foremost place in any history +of savings banks. Dr. Duncan's claim to be considered the founder of +savings banks rests on the ground of his having originated and +organized the first self-sustaining bank, and in having succeeded in +so arranging his scheme as to make it applicable not to one locality +only, but to the country generally.[18] It remains to be seen whether +the bank established by Dr. Duncan in his own village answers the +description here given of the distinctive character attaching to the +banks of his proposing. It is very true that all the banks established +up to 1810 partook very much of the character of eleemosynary +institutions, supported in great part by the benevolence of the rich, +and therefore very unsuitable to some localities, where the benevolent +rich did not preponderate. Dr. Duncan's great merit--merit for which +he has received neither enough credit nor praise, but which should +entitle him to a high place in the ranks of those who have sought to +do their fellow-men good service--seems to us to lie in having deeply +studied the nature and wants of the industrial classes; in having +modified existing proposals in order to make them suitable to the +general requirements; and, finally, in having laboured with +unremitting energy to make his plans known around him, and to secure +their general adoption. A writer in the _Quarterly Review_ of October, +1816, incidentally referring to Dr. Duncan and his proposals for +parish banks, says, "It is our belief, founded on no slight +investigation, that but for this Scotch clergyman, there would at this +time have been found only a few insulated establishments for the +savings of industry, of which the intelligent and wealthy would have +had little knowledge, and from which the lower classes in general +would have derived no advantage." + +Henry Duncan, who was the son of a Dumfriesshire clergyman, was born +at Lochrutton manse, in that county, in the year 1774. At the age of +twenty-five he too was ordained a clergyman, and appointed to the +charge of the parish of Ruthwell, a remote locality in the same +county. When very young, it is said, he showed remarkable powers of +mind; and it appears he early exercised them in writing for the young, +with whom he was an especial favourite. Before he was thirty he had +made great progress in geology, and a book he published on the subject +when he was about that age gained him the friendship of Dr. Buckland +and Mr. Sedgwick. Perhaps, however, he showed most zeal during all the +periods of his life in the prosecution of schemes for the benefit of +the poor and distressed around him; and his manse in this way, lonely +as it was, and far from the busy haunts of men, soon became a place of +resort to much of the young and remarkable talent to be found in that +part of Scotland. David Brewster, and James Grahame, the Sabbath bard, +Dr. Chalmers, and Dr. Andrew Johnson, were frequent visitors beneath +his roof; Robert Owen, then an amiable enthusiast in the walks of +philanthropy; Thomas Carlyle, a young man who had not then emerged to +fame; Robert McCheyne, and many others who subsequently rose to +eminence, were friends of the village pastor, and frequently met to +talk over with him different schemes of practical benevolence. "Few, +indeed," says his biographer, "whose lot has been cast in a retired +spot like that of Ruthwell, have been more fortunate in attaching the +affection and good-will of so many of the best class of their fellow +men," and the boast is neither an idle nor a vain one. Mr. Duncan must +have been no ordinary man to have brought round him such a circle of +friends. His literary abilities were of no mean order, but gave a +charm to all he wrote. Delighting in humble usefulness, he edited, in +1809 and 1810, a number of Tracts for the instruction and moral +improvement of "the lower orders," to use the vulgar term then in +constant use. The greater part of the work seems to have been the +production of his own pen. One series of these Tracts, called "The +Cottage Fireside; or, The Parish Schoolmaster," was afterwards +published separately with Duncan's name attached, and had a very large +sale at the time. "In point of genuine humour and pathos," says a high +authority of that period,[19] "we are inclined to think it fairly +merits a place by the side of 'The Cottagers of Glenburnie;' while the +knowledge it displays of Scottish manners and character is more +correct and more profound." Whether the plans which he laid for the +benefit of the poor, and which occupied so much of his after life, +came up at any of the _réunions_ at his house, we have no means of +knowing. However it was, we have Mr. Duncan's own statements to show +that they were originated in his mind by the frequent discussion at +that time of the question of poor-rates, and the endeavours on the +part of many of his friends to prevent their introduction into +Scotland. It is also clear, that though Mr. Whitbread's name is never +mentioned, the parish minister had heard of his scheme, and had been +much struck with it. The result of Mr. Duncan's reflections on the +subject were given in the _Dumfries Courier_, with which paper he +seems to have had some literary connexion. A discussion ensued in the +columns of this paper, in the course of which some books and pamphlets +on cognate subjects were forwarded to Mr. Duncan by Mr. Erskine, +afterwards Earl of Mar. Among the pamphlets he found a very curious +and ingenious paper by John Bone, the originator of a charitable +institution in London, the plan of which was there sketched. The +Society was called by the whimsical title of "Tranquillity, or an +institution for encouraging and enabling industrious and prudent +individuals to provide for themselves, and thus effecting the gradual +abolition of the Poor's Rate." This pamphlet, which we have carefully +examined, contains, among much matter of a visionary and impractical +kind, many proposals for the safe keeping of the savings of the poor +similar to those acted upon in the case of the charitable bank at +Tottenham. These subordinate provisions attracted the notice of Mr. +Duncan, as he himself admits, and he thought that if he could in any +way reduce them to a regular scheme, the result would be beneficial to +the working classes, wherever they might be adopted. He resolved to +form some such scheme and give it a fair trial in his own parish, +when, if successful, he would endeavour to get it introduced +elsewhere. With this object he published a paper, as a sequel to the +discussion he had commenced in its pages, in the _Dumfries Courier_, +in which paper he directly proposed to the gentlemen of the county the +establishment of a Bank for Savings in all the different parishes of +the district. "The only way," said Mr. Duncan in making these +proposals, "it appears to me, by which the higher ranks can give aid +to the lower in their temporal concerns, without running the risk of +aiding them to their ruin, is by affording every possible +encouragement to industry and virtue; by inducing them to provide for +their _own_ support and comfort; by cherishing in them that spirit of +independence which is the parent of so many virtues; and by +judiciously rewarding extraordinary efforts of economy, and +extraordinary instances of good conduct. Friendly Societies, excellent +as they are in their way, do not in every respect appear to be +calculated for this intended effect; advantages are held out which +cannot always be realized, but in simple Parish Banks there can be no +objection of this sort." Mr. Duncan met with little response to his +appeals from the gentlemen of the neighbourhood, but he resolved to +make the attempt single-handed. The fact that an institution of the +kind contemplated could possibly be carried out by a single +individual, however benevolently disposed, is evidence enough of that +person's sagacity and perseverance; but the ordinary difficulties were +greatly increased by the circumstances in which this particular parish +where Mr. Duncan was located was placed. Few parishes, we are told, +presented so many and such unusual obstacles to the progress of a +scheme of this kind. Almost every adult member of the parish belonged +to some Friendly society, and many of these found it extremely +difficult to fulfil their engagements to the established societies. +Again, there were few, if any, resident heritors or proprietors of the +land to whom Mr. Duncan could look in any difficulty that might arise, +or to whom he could look for any assistance of a pecuniary kind. +Nevertheless, he resolved to commence. He had arrived at that +experience of human kind which made him understand that, in even the +poorest family, "there are odds and ends of income which are only too +likely to get frittered away in thoughtless extravagance." Could he +but induce the mass of the people to comprehend the value of the +savings which might by a reasonable economy be gathered from this +source alone, and could he succeed in supplying the means of investing +these savings securely, affording them at the same time the prospect +of a fair rate of interest, not from charity, but from the resources +of trade, he was confident the hopes he cherished would be +realized.[20] The scheme was started in May, 1810, and savings to the +amount of 151_l._ were deposited under the stipulated conditions +during the first year. In the two succeeding years they rose to +176_l._ 241_l._ and in 1814 to 922_l._ + +Mr. Duncan's work was far from completed when even his most sanguine +expectations were realized in the progress of the Ruthwell Bank. His +advice and assistance was now continually sought in aid of the +formation of similar institutions, both in Scotland and England. In +1813, "the Edinburgh Society for the Suppression of Beggars" conceived +the idea of adding to their already extensive operations a Savings +Bank on some similar principle to his. A neighbour of Mr. Duncan's, +who was also a member of the Edinburgh society, communicated a full +account of the Ruthwell Bank, and all the accounts of it which had up +to that time been published. The opening of the Edinburgh Bank, of +which we shall presently speak more at length, took place in 1814. In +1814, Mr. Duncan paid a long promised visit to Kelso, in order to +forward the proposals for a Savings Bank at that place. Mr. Duncan +relates[21] that during his journey to Kelso he passed through the +town of Hawick, and was much gratified to find that his scheme was +freely talked of there. In the shop of one of the booksellers of the +town he found a large number of copies of an account of the Ruthwell +Bank wet from the press, which had been taken from the pages of the +_Dumfries Courier_ and supplied by himself. These handbills, which +likewise gave a copy of the Rules of the Parish Bank, had been printed +by order of the magistrates of the county at their ordinary meeting. +Finding that his scheme had many favourers in Hawick, he promised to +call on his journey home and assist them in the formation of a bank. +On his arrival at Kelso an important meeting was held, with the Duke +of Roxburgh in the chair, when Mr. Duncan addressed the meeting; the +Kelso Savings Bank, one of the most important of the Scotch +institutions, being the direct result. The number of letters which Mr. +Duncan received and wrote per day is described as something enormous; +they arrived by every post, not only from his own and the sister +country, but even from Ireland. Not only did these letters contain +requests for information and advice; but they frequently were of a +controversial nature, and generally from such people, ardent friends +of the poor, as required consideration and some reply. That Duncan was +an agreeable and clever correspondent is evident from his published +letters; that this correspondence was voluminous we can well believe. +With a view of lessening the amount of his labours in this respect, he +was induced to publish a full account of his scheme, together with all +the rules and regulations for its working; and this pamphlet, which +came out in 1814, went through three editions very rapidly. Even at +this date Duncan's "Essay on the Nature and Advantages of Parish +Banks" will well repay perusal, and besides, its intrinsic worth as a +literary production is interesting as the first published pamphlet on +a subject which will always possess attractions to the philanthropist, +if to none else. We have the clearest evidence that Mr. Duncan +laboured with uncommon zeal to spread a knowledge of the plans he +proposed, and to help to their general introduction; and it is a +matter of wonder to us, that, whilst many names are familiar to the +world who did not do a tithe of the real hard work he did to benefit +the poor around him, Duncan's name should be for all essential +purposes really unknown, and that but for the filial regard of his +son, scarcely an account of his existence should have survived +him.[22] Speaking during his life time, the _Quarterly Review_ warmly +noticed his labours of love: "Justice leads us to say that we have +seldom heard of a private individual in a retired sphere, with +numerous avocations and a narrow income, who has sacrificed so much +ease, expense, and time, for an object purely disinterested, as Mr. +Duncan has done." Some years before his death, in 1846, Mr. Duncan +attained to the honorary degree of Doctor of Divinity, and he was for +one year chosen Moderator of the Assembly of the church to which he +belonged. The Duncan Institution at Dumfries, one of the few mementos +of the man who did so much for Savings Banks, serves the purposes of a +Savings Bank in the principal town of his native county, a statue of +Dr. Duncan being very appropriately placed in front of it. + +Not long after the establishment of the Edinburgh Savings Bank, there +was great contention as to whether that bank or Dr. Duncan's at +Ruthwell had the priority of merit on the score of general advantage. +Pamphlets were written on the subject, not always without bitterness, +and even the great _Reviews_ interfered. The dispute was scarcely +called for at that early period, seeing that posterity is best able to +judge of such matters, and there was nothing dependent upon an earlier +settlement. The Edinburgh bank followed the village bank by three and +a half years, so it was not a claim for priority of establishment. The +question as to which of the two possessed the materials best fitting +it to be a model for all subsequent banks would not be so easily +settled; and, in fact, this was the point in dispute. Seeing the +question was one of considerable importance for many years, and is so +still in an archaic point of view, we cannot do better than attempt to +give some idea of the difference between them, as gathered from the +two accounts now before us.[23] Unquestionably the arrangements of Mr. +Duncan suffer considerably by a comparison of points, and though we +admire the character and arduous labours of the man, there is not the +slightest need that we should abstain from hostile criticism of his +measures. For example, Mr. Duncan laid great stress on the fact of his +bank being the first self-sustaining bank, and the first not partaking +to any extent of the nature of a charity. It will be seen how far this +was absolutely true. The Ruthwell institution consisted of ordinary, +extraordinary, and honorary members. The ordinary members were the +poor who deposited their savings; the extraordinary, those who paid to +an auxiliary fund an "annuity" of 5_s._, or a single donation of +2_l._; and honorary members were those who paid to the same fund an +"annuity" of 1_l._, or a single donation of 5_l._ The general business +of the society was transacted by a Court of Directors, consisting of a +Governor, five Directors, a Treasurer, and one or more Trustees, to be +chosen from the honorary and extraordinary members. The court acted +under the superintendence and control of a Standing Committee, which +consisted of fifteen persons chosen from the self-same kind of +members. Both these bodies were subordinate again to the General +Meeting, composed of all the members of the two courts mentioned, and +all the ordinary members of six months' standing. We scarcely think +there could be any possible necessity for such elaborate machinery. In +circumstances such as the rural population of Ruthwell, were cast, one +would have supposed that rules as little stringent as possible, +hampered with conditions as few as possible, would be needed, to +induce that population to save the trifles they could spare. +Inducements were held out to encourage and reward the frugal and +attentive; and so far admirable: but the system of fines inflicted +upon those who did not deposit a certain sum each year was a +questionable proviso. Mr. Duncan put the case very plausibly in his +_Essay_, where he said the chief defect of the scheme was, originally, +the want of some strong motive for regular payments; and, "as what we +have no pressing motive to do at a particular time we are apt to delay +till it is beyond our power to do it at all," he decided to fix a +small sum as penalty, should not a certain moderate amount be +deposited each year, a decision which we think was neither proper nor +wise. The regulations acted upon in the case of a proposed new member +were, we think, equally uncalled for, and likely to scare the +well-disposed away, rather than induce them to join. Before a person's +first deposit could be received, the elaborate machinery of management +commenced to make inquiries into the age, the family affairs, and +moral conduct of the proposed contributor, and according to the report +which followed, it was considered whether his deposits would be +admitted at all, or if admitted, what rate of interest it would be +proper to allow. The society lodged its money with the British Linen +Company, and got five per cent. interest for it. Four per cent. was +the usual interest allowed to depositors; to those, however, of three +years' standing whose deposits reached 5_l._, an indulgence of the +higher rate of 5 per cent. was made, provided the depositor wanted to +get married; in case of his having arrived at the age of fifty-six; to +his friends in case of his death; or, fourthly, in case the possession +of the money _should appear to the Court of Directors_, after due +inquiry, to be advantageous to the depositor or his family.[24] To put +a climax, as it were, upon this charitable disposition of a man's own +hard-earned savings, we would merely recite the fifth statute, which +directs that "when the depositor shall have become incapable of +maintaining himself, from sickness or otherwise, a weekly allowance +may be made to him, _at the option of the Court of Directors_, out of +the money he has deposited." + +The auxiliary fund, to which the honorary and extraordinary directors +were required to contribute, was employed in awarding premiums to +those who were most regular with their deposits, especially to those +regular depositors who should have exhibited proofs of superior +industry or virtue. It may well be thought that, in such delicate +matters as were thus dealt with, differences of opinion would arise, +so it was wisely provided, that any aggrieved member should have the +power of appeal from the Court of Directors to the Standing Committee, +and from the Standing Committee to a General Meeting, whose decision +should be final. "The example set by Dr. Duncan at Ruthwell," says Mr. +Smiles,[25] "was shortly followed in many other parishes in Scotland, +and in most of the principal towns in England," and, so far, we have +seen this is true. What follows is certainly open to question: "In +every instance, the model of the Ruthwell Bank was followed, and the +vital, self-sustaining principle was adopted. The Savings Banks were +not eleemosynary institutions, nor dependent upon anybody's charity or +patronage; but their success rested entirely with the depositors." Our +readers may judge from the details of management which we have given +how far this is borne out by the facts of the case; for ourselves, we +are slow to take from the merit which undoubtedly should attach to Dr. +Duncan. There were, doubtless, many circumstances connected with the +minister's own parish which made the arrangements to which we have +referred more excusable; but there must have been many districts where +the poor would never suffer themselves to be patronized, petted, or +provoked in the same manner. Hence the inapplicability of the details +to the country generally. Real, honest, independent workmen have +always had a great dislike to be experimented upon, "raised," or +"elevated," in the sense that some men use the terms; what was felt to +be required at this early period was, that there should be afforded +some facility for the depositing, without any unnecessary trouble or +annoyance, such small sums as the poor might have to spare, and wish +to save; and that this money should not only be safe, but produce +interest according to its value in the market, and neither more nor +less. That arrangements made with this laudable object should be +accompanied with others which should have the tendency, however +remote, to disgust and repel the poor, was unfortunate, to say the +least. Any interference with, or superintendence over the family +affairs or the private conduct of members, was likely to be, it seems +to us, most irksome, and no less to the poor than to the rich. The +arrangement by which various rates of interest were given to different +classes of depositors, according to their good or indifferent +characters, was eminently arbitrary, if not unfair. + +We have already alluded to the Edinburgh Savings Bank, instituted +after the parent bank at Ruthwell, and to some extent upon its model; +the offspring, however, in many points presented a happy contrast to +the Ruthwell Bank, in the simplicity and greater fairness with which +its affairs were managed. As it is now a matter beyond doubt that many +banks formed subsequently were started on the model of the Edinburgh +institution, a few words of description of its principal new features +may not be out of place. All depositors were paid the same rate of +interest; they deposited their savings without any preliminary +investigation of any sort; and whilst the management was not left, +even in part, to the classes it was designed to benefit, contributors +had nothing to do but pay in such sums as suited them, and withdraw at +pleasure, altogether as the classes above them would deal in the +ordinary bank. From the pamphlet published in the same year as that of +Dr. Duncan's, and to which we have already alluded, we are enabled to +give some account of the plan of working in the Edinburgh Bank; and it +is very interesting at this distant period to see how nearly identical +with the modern Savings Bank this early one was, or rather, we think +we ought to say, how closely the example of the Edinburgh Bank has +been followed. The bank, we find, was open every Monday morning +between nine and ten o'clock. No less sum than one shilling could be +received. The uniform interest paid was at the rate of four per +cent.[26] The money might be paid back at any time on a mere demand +and production by the depositor of his _deposit sheet_. Each depositor +was furnished, on making his deposit, with a duplicate of the _leaf of +the ledger_ in which his account was kept; on each succeeding visit he +brought the duplicate with him, and each separate transaction was +entered in the ledger and on the duplicate at the same time. This +arrangement, as might have been expected, soon gave place to the more +convenient bank-book at present in use. It will be observed that up to +this time, and some years subsequently, the Savings Banks had no +connexion with Government, and the funds realized were accordingly +deposited with some banking company, and, as a rule, the interest +received was at a higher rate than has since obtained. One feature in +the Edinburgh Bank, as in other Scotch banks of the period, is unknown +at present. When the deposits of any one person amounted to ten pounds +(the minimum sum received by an ordinary bank), he was presented with +an interest-note upon any banking firm he chose to name for the +amount. Henceforth he held an account with the bank in question, +receiving a higher rate of interest, and a strengthened security for +his money. The Savings Bank, however,--and this is noteworthy,--was +still open to him as a bank for his small accumulations as before, and +until they again amounted to the sum of ten pounds. The Edinburgh +Bank, thus restricted to such small sums and simple operations, was +able to get through its work with little trouble and a minimum of +expense. Perhaps here the endeavour to save expense proceeded to too +great an extent, and resulted in more gratuitous service than the +depositing classes at any time have cared to see. No honest man would +object to have the legitimate expenses of a careful management +deducted from the interest of his savings. In recommending the system +to others, the penurious style in which it was thought not improper to +do the business is manifest in the language adopted. "It can scarcely +be doubted," says the author of the pamphlet, "that in every parish +and district there will be found persons benevolent enough to perform +the office of attending to this work, viz. one hour per week, +gratuitously, by turns; and it will be easy to procure a room rent +free. Thus the only expense of management will be the purchase of +stationery; and for this purpose the saving already described (a small +difference between the interest paid and the interest given) will be +amply sufficient, without lowering the rate of interest allowed to the +contributors. It may be supposed, indeed, that some expense may be +incurred for transmitting to the great house (the banking company +chosen) the money deposited in the Savings Bank." "But we are +persuaded," adds this man of cheap expedients, "that in every case a +safe and free conveyance will be furnished by the principal +proprietors or inhabitants of the parish." The growth of Savings +Banks, and the progress of banking generally, soon left out of view +all such minor considerations as these. Such was the excellent +institution at Edinburgh, and it deserved all the success it obtained. +At first it was thought that its connexion with the Society for the +Suppression of Beggars retarded its progress; and it was not at all +wonderful that this was the case. + +Perseverance, and the laborious exertions of its originators, +especially the efforts and high character of Mr. (afterwards Sir +William) Forbes, soon made up what the bank may have lost by this +connexion, and in five years from its formation was in every respect a +decided success. Without ostentation, and without trenching in any +respect on the independence of those who needed their assistance, the +originators of this bank went on, not only in Edinburgh, but in other +Scotch towns to which their influence extended, and with which the +metropolis has always some connexion, and their endeavours to cope +with the improvidence and carelessness of that period resulted, in a +few years, in a complete spread of the principle. What society owes to +the men who at this early date laboured with such zeal and devotion in +behalf of their fellows, little thought has ever been given; the names +of many of them have not even been preserved. It ought to have been +far otherwise. "It would be difficult, we fear," says Francis Jeffrey +in an early number of the _Edinburgh Review_, "to convince, either the +people or their rulers that the spread of Savings Banks is of far more +importance, and far more likely to increase the happiness, and even +the greatness of the nation, than the most brilliant success of its +arms, or the most stupendous improvements of its trade or its +agriculture. And yet we are persuaded that it is so."[27] + +Before we close this notice of original Savings Banks, we would refer +to their establishment in Ireland. The first Savings Bank in the +sister country of which record is made was one established at +Stillorgan in 1815, and was called the "Parochial Bank." The Rev. John +Reade, the parish minister of that place, was not only the founder of +this bank, but also of the second venture of the kind; for, on +removing to Clondalkin, he would seem to have taken his benevolent +disposition with him, and to have repeated the process among the poor +of his new charge. A peculiar arrangement existed in these early Irish +banks, of which no trace is found elsewhere. The deposits of each +subscriber were kept separately, and open to the inspection of the +owner when he brought any fresh deposit, on which occasion he might +count his money if he chose. So soon as the deposits of any person had +reached 1_l._ the money was invested in Stock, and produced interest, +but not till then. Both banks eventually formed the nuclei for +ordinary Savings Banks after the act relating to Irish banks was +passed in 1817. The Belfast Savings Bank, opened in 1810, was the +first formed after the ordinary model, and has always been very +successful. + + + [11] Mr. Scratchley's _Practical Treatise on Savings Banks_, 1st + edit. p. 36. + + [12] See the _Reports of the Society for Bettering the Condition + and Increasing the Comforts of the Poor_, vol. iii. which contains + a full account of this earliest Savings Bank. + + [13] "To facilitate the saving of small sums of money and to + encourage young labourers to economise their earnings with a view + to provision for marriage, it would be extremely useful to have + county banks, where the smallest sums might be received, and a + fair interest granted for them. At present, the few labourers who + have a little money are often greatly at a loss to know what to do + with it; and under such circumstances we cannot be surprised that + it should sometimes be ill-employed and last but for a short + time."--Malthus. _Essay on Population_, 1803. + + [14] _Hansard_, vol. viii. p. 887. + + [15] The most important clauses of this Bill we have given in the + Appendix (A). Besides its intrinsic importance, it is very + interesting, as viewed in the light of subsequent measures. The + similarity of Mr. Whitbread's proposals to the measures which + nearly half a century afterwards have been carried out, cannot + fail to strike the reader. + + [16] _An Explanation of the Principles and Proceedings of the + Provident Institution at Bath_. By John Haygarth, M.D., F.R.S., + one of the Managers, London, 1816. + + [17] _Observations on Banks for Savings_. By the Right Hon. George + Rose. London, 1816. + + [18] _Memoir of Dr Duncan._ By his Son, the Rev. G. J. C. Duncan. + Edinburgh, 1848. + + [19] _Quarterly Review._ October, 1816. + + [20] _Memoir_, page 98. + + [21] _Ibid_, page 105. + + [22] Strange to say, Dr. Duncan's name does not find a place even + in Mr. Robert Chambers's elaborate Dictionary of celebrated + Scotchmen, an oversight much to be regretted. + + [23] (1) _An Essay on the Nature and Advantages of Parish Banks, + together with a corrected Copy of the Rules and Regulations of the + Parent Institution at Ruthwell; and Directions for conducting the + details of business; Forms showing the methods of keeping the + Accounts, &c._ By the Rev. Henry Duncan, Minister of Ruthwell. + Edinburgh. 1815. + + (2) _A short Account of the Edinburgh Savings Bank, containing + Directions for establishing similar Banks, &c._ Second Edition. + Edinburgh. 1815. + + [24] Duncan's _Essay_ page 27. + + [25] _Workmen's Earnings, Strikes and Savings_, page 37. + + [26] One clause in the Rules states that "Interest is to be + calculated by months, as the calculation by days on such small + sums would be extremely troublesome, and without any adequate + advantage." + + [27] _Edinburgh Review_, xlix. page 146. + + + + + CHAPTER III. + + EARLY LEGISLATION ON SAVINGS BANKS--1817 TO 1844. + + "The promotion of economical habits amongst the people is + so much a matter of national concern, that we cannot + conceive any direction in which the powers of Government + would be more beneficially directed than in giving effect + to schemes calculated to produce such valuable social + results among the humbler classes of the people."--MR. + SMILES. + + +It was not till Savings Banks had been regularly organised in this +country, and not before they had achieved some considerable success, +that the Legislature interfered in any way with regard to them. That +the ruling classes, however, were not slow to encourage these +undertakings is sufficiently manifest, when it is remembered that the +first legislation on the subject dates from 1817, or only seven years +after Dr. Duncan had organised his parish bank; and further, that the +purport and effect of the bill then introduced was not to embarrass +and hamper the new institutions, as was too often the case with new +and partially-tried measures, but to offer them protection and +encouragement. Prior to 1817, Savings Banks were simply voluntary +associations, established, as we have already seen, by some benevolent +gentlemen, who took a sort of leading part in the affairs of their +respective neighbourhoods, and who were actuated in doing so by their +desire to afford to their poorer neighbours help and inducement to +save money. Up to this time the confidence entertained by the poor in +the integrity and well-meaning of the rich was the only security they +had that their money was in safe keeping; and it is only fair to add, +that, so long as Savings Banks were promoted and kept up in this +semi-paternal fashion, that confidence was seldom, if ever, misplaced. +Savings Banks were soon seen, however, to possess germs of national +good which would require greater means of development to be brought to +bear upon them; and it was quite as plainly apparent that the more +they extended, the greater the necessity became that they should be +legally recognised and protected. The first mention of the new +institution in Parliament was made by the Right Hon. George Rose, who +was at the time Treasurer of the Navy, and one of the Committee of +Council for the affairs of Trade and Foreign Plantations, and who, at +the close of the session of 1815, and again in April, 1816, asked +leave to bring in a bill, "to afford protection to Banks for Savings." +Mr. Rose, for the next two years, took a leading part in all +discussions on the subject, as indeed he did on all kindred +subjects.[28] He had written on Poor Laws and Benefit Societies; and, +on account of his having, towards the close of the last century, +carried through Parliament a bill legalizing Friendly Societies, was +generally looked upon as an authority on such subjects. The first +speech of the hon. gentleman on Savings Banks was remarkably able: he +referred to the immense good which such banks as those of Edinburgh +and Bath had done, and were capable of doing. The instances which had +come before him of persons who before the establishment of Savings +Banks had never saved a penny, but who then had made ample provision +for a rainy day, were cheering in the extreme. He proceeded to give +particulars of several instances of the kind, mentioning them, as he +put it, "to induce hon. gentlemen to exert themselves, and that they +might not sit with their hands before them, believing that nothing +could be done." The moral good to be expected from these banks was +great and obvious. He hoped and expected that they would gradually +tend to revive in the lower classes that decent spirit of +independence, now almost extinct, which shrinks from accepting +parochial relief; the poor man would learn to regard his own industry +and labour as the source whence he was to derive temporary aid in the +hour of sickness, or permanent support when the approaches of age +should unfit him for active exertions. Not that this matter was +applicable only to the poor; a consideration of the subject in all its +bearings might well be given to it by the rich on their own account; +he thoroughly believed that the poor-rates of the country would +diminish in proportion to the spread of Savings Banks among the +masses. _Mr. Thompson_, a Yorkshire member, expressed his warmest +approbation of the proposed bill. In Yorkshire, he knew there was a +great desire to establish Savings Banks of this sort, but the better +classes were afraid of doing so, on account of their apparent +complexity, and because they had not received up to this time the +sanction or countenance of the Legislature. He hoped the provisions of +the proposed bill would be as simple as possible, and afterwards that +the bill and its clauses would be made as public as possible. Hundreds +of working men, to his knowledge, might easily save ten shillings a +week, whereas they did not then save a penny; nor could they be blamed +to any great extent so long as they were without the requisite +machinery for acting differently. Establish these banks, and place +their working under proper Acts of Parliament, and he should then say +that many who were accustomed in times of scarcity to solicit +parochial relief would have no excuse for their conduct; if they did +not avail themselves of the opportunity of becoming independent he +would rather punish than assist them. Thus early were our legislators +alive to the maxim that "the only true secret of assisting the poor is +to make them agents in bettering their own condition." The _Chancellor +of the Exchequer_ (Mr. Vansittart) believed that nothing tended more +to the independence of the poor than their learning to support +themselves by their own exertions. He thought the object of the +proposed bill would be congenial to the feelings of the whole House. +On the part of the Government, he was ready to offer his best +assistance on behalf of an institution such as the Savings Bank, where +rich and poor might meet together and mutually combine in promoting, +under Divine protection, their natural rights. "There, forgetful of +those petty distinctions which temporary circumstances had created, +they met as brethren, each to do his duty to his neighbour." After an +Irish member had expressed his wish that the same bill might be +extended to Ireland, where, he truly said, such habits as these banks +inculcated were most urgently needed, even more so than in England, +this one-sided debate was closed.[29] The bill was read a first time +on the 15th of May, 1816. It provided, that any number of individuals +might enrol themselves as Trustees of a Provident Institution or +Savings Bank at the Quarter Sessions. It was not meant by this to give +any power to Justices of the Peace, but simply that the act of +enrolment might thus be made in as public a manner as possible. It was +further arranged, that the Rules proposed for the management of the +new Savings Banks should in like manner be left with the Clerk of the +Peace for the respective counties. The bill authorised the Trustees or +Managers to appoint such officers as were likely to be needed, and +required that in all cases where the persons were to be entrusted with +money, they should give reasonable security. It was only further +provided, that depositors should not be prevented from applying for +parish relief, but that, if any dispute arose on this point, the +decision in the matter should be left with the magistrates in Quarter +Sessions. The session being near its close, and several members having +expressed their sense of the importance of the subject and the +necessity of producing a well-considered bill to regulate these banks, +the bill was withdrawn till the next session. On the 15th of February, +1817, Mr. Rose again returned to the subject, and got leave to +re-introduce his bill. He did not on this occasion enter minutely into +the consideration of Savings Banks, further than to express a +conviction he had, "which daily became stronger," that these +institutions, if properly directed, would have a very direct influence +on the vexed question of Poor Law relief. He contended, that, if they +became generally introduced through the length and breadth of the +country, they would gradually mitigate, and then do away with, the +evils attending the system of the English Poor Law; and he very +reasonably urged that any measure which would tend, even remotely, to +such a desirable object, was deserving of, and ought to have, the +hearty support and countenance of the Legislature. _Mr. Curwen_, an +authority on this phase of the subject, held that there could be only +one opinion as to the utility of the banks, but he was satisfied "it +was an error to imagine they would essentially contribute to the +alleviation of the present distressing situation of affairs." Nothing +short of a measure which in its nature might have a compulsory +influence over the minds of the people, to teach the poor and the +peasantry that the means of relief, of content and happiness, were +within the reach of their own exertions and industrious application, +would be effectual. After a little further opposition, during which +another member said that the bill would do more harm than good--that +Savings Banks were going on extremely well without any Act of +Parliament, _Mr. Wilberforce_, ready at all times to forward any +measure which seemed likely to benefit the poorer and more defenceless +portions of society, congratulated his friend on his proposals, and +said that the system of Savings Banks pleased him most because it was +so eminently adapted to teach the poor how much they might do for +themselves by their own self-denying exertions. This was one of the +class of things for which he, the House, and the country ought to be +extremely indebted to all who had been instrumental in originating it +and bringing it to greater perfection. "Whatever difference of +opinion," continued Mr. Wilberforce, "there might exist as to the Poor +Laws, it was of all things desirable to countenance and foster so +sanative a principle as that on which Savings Banks were founded." The +second and principal reading of the bill took place on the 15th of +May, 1817, on which night many petitions were presented in its favour, +and only three--viz., from Norwich, Hertford, and St. Paul's, Covent +Garden--against it. All opposition, however, to the bill resolved +itself into simply contesting one or two of its clauses. An attempt +was made to throw out the clause which obliged the Trustees of Savings +Banks to vest all moneys received by them in the Public Funds, several +members contending that at any rate some of the money might be much +better employed on mortgage, to the relief of many different interests +in the immediate neighbourhood, and to the greater productiveness of +the money so lent. The arguments used on this occasion were very +similar to those occasionally used now in relation to the same +subject, and they were then as unavailing as they have been +subsequently: the preponderating opinion was that the _safety_ of the +investments was, and ought to be, the first and greatest +consideration. The clause, however, which proposed the giving of +premiums out of the parish funds to those contributors who had done +best in the way of saving money, fared worse, being rejected in +committee almost unanimously. The growth of such principles could not +be forced, and, if they grew at all, they would do better without the +crutches eleemosynary aid. At the third reading, a spirited contest +arose about the proviso that depositors in Savings Banks should not be +disqualified from receiving parochial relief. _Mr. Rose_ contended +that anything, which would have a tendency to make the poor think that +the richer classes were legislating with ulterior objects in view, +such as to get rid of poor-rates, would throw obstacles in the way of +Savings Banks. There would be no need to think of such considerations +in a few years, when Savings Banks were more firmly fixed amongst the +institutions of the country; it was highly expedient, however, that +they should now be allowed to have their weight. In a few years, +argued he, the poor will have formed habits of saving, and so they +will have become independent, and be above throwing themselves on the +parish, at any rate with impunity. Mr. Wilberforce held and expressed +the same view, which Lord Milton and others opposed; the clause was +retained, notwithstanding, by a majority of thirty-three in a House of +eighty-seven members. With this discussion the bill passed, and became +law in August, 1817. As this bill[30] is the beginning of legislation +on the subject of Savings Banks, we would here state in outline the +principal objects with which it dealt. A sort of Supplementary Act, +cap. 105, was passed to apply more particularly to Ireland, to suit +the Irish members, who, when the matter was under discussion, argued +that the same Act would not deal so well with Ireland, and who, +therefore, wished the two countries treated separately. Both the acts +required that the Rules of the proposed Bank for Savings should be +deposited with the Clerk of the Peace of the county in which the bank +should be situated, though no discretionary power was left with the +magistrates in the matter. The Trustees and Managers were prohibited +from receiving any profit from any transactions in these banks, and +were empowered to pay over the moneys they received into the Bank of +England, or Ireland (as the case might be), to the account of the +Commissioners for the Reduction of the National Debt, the latter being +instructed and empowered to invest them in Three per Cent. Bank +Annuities. Interest on money thus deposited in the hands of Government +was guaranteed to the Trustees of Savings Banks at the rate of 3_d._ +per cent. per day, or 4_l._ 11_s._ 3_d._ per annum. The Act restricted +the amount which any one depositor could place in a Savings Bank in +England to 100_l._ in the first year, and 50_l._ in any subsequent +year. In Ireland the limitation was 50_l._ in any year, though why +this distinction was agreed upon does not appear. + +It was not long before it was seen that the Act just described was +defective in many particulars, and further legislation rendered +necessary. During the year which elapsed after the passing of the +Savings Bank Act, the progress of these institutions, in so far as the +number and amount of their deposits were concerned, was great beyond +all expectation. In nine months from the date of the bill of 1817, the +large sum of 657,000_l._ had been deposited. The largest amount +received at the National Debt Office during that period from any one +bank was 32,000_l._, remitted from the flourishing Exeter bank; the +smallest was received from a new bank just then opened at St. John's, +Wapping, for the benefit of sailors living in that locality. By the +middle of the year 1818, or less than twelve months after the passing +of the first bill, there were no fewer than 227 banks established in +England and Wales, and about an equal number in Ireland and Scotland. +That the encouragement which the bill had given was real is evident +from the fact that more than half the entire number of English banks +were first opened in 1817-18. So rapid indeed had been the development +of the measure, that it was soon apparent that the increase of +deposits was in a ratio far beyond any possible increase in the amount +of wages or profit from which small savings could have been made. No +doubt that now, for the first time, many hoarded savings saw the +light, and began to bring in to their owners a return; but even this +does not account for such an increase of business. Towards the close +of 1817, 20,000_l._ was deposited in one day, in a town in the North +of England where a bank had just been opened, and it was known that +very little of this money belonged to the industrial classes. + +The interest given for the investment made, it appeared, was +attracting a much higher class of depositors than it was ever sought +to encourage, or than the Act was intended to benefit. The interest +guaranteed by Government has already been stated. In amount, it was at +least 11_s._ 3_d._ more than the interest yielded by any other +Government security, while Consols did not bring in more than 3_l._ +5_s._ per cent. Many, we believe, in the first instance put their +money into the Savings Banks to afford encouragement to their poorer +neighbours or dependents, and in order to inspire them with +confidence: and it will be well understood how necessary this was at +the outset, seeing that at that time there were few means of +inculcating sound political knowledge, or, indeed, information of any +sort, among the great mass of the people, who too often were swayed +hither and thither at the mere whim of some noisy and ignorant +demagogue. Whether or not this sufficiently accounts for the fact of +the better classes contributing to the early Savings Banks, it is +clear that all classes soon found out that it was not possible to do +better with their money, and hence allowed it to remain where it was. +Several banks were very careful to exclude by their rules all but +mechanics, servants, and persons in similar ranks of life, but the +rest either had no such rules, or were very careless about enforcing +them. One gentleman, possessed of 40,000_l._ was known to have +deposited large sums of money in one Savings Bank in the names of his +six children. On the 17th of March, 1818, the Chancellor of the +Exchequer, influenced by such abuses as these, asked leave to bring in +a bill to amend the Act passed last year. No trace of the proceedings +of Parliament with regard to this little bill remains, but it seems +only to have been meant as a temporary measure of relief till the +whole subject could be more effectually grappled with. It simply +provided for some alterations in the forms of debenture, gave power to +Justices of the Peace to reject, for a sufficient reason, any Rules +deposited with their clerks, and prohibited the arrangement by which a +person might invest in a Savings Bank by means of a ticket or number, +and without disclosing his or her name. + +Shortly after this period, in the year 1819, a question was put to the +Chancellor of the Exchequer in the House, which seems to have raised +some merriment among the members. Ridiculous as it might seem, it only +reflected the spirit in which many people spoke of the measures which +had recently been passed with regard to the compulsory investments +with Government of the money placed in the banks. In Lancashire, aided +and stimulated by Mr. Cobbett, who all along sneered at the "bubble" +of Savings Banks, the people got up an absurd cry, and long kept it +up. _Mr. Wilbraham_, a Lancashire member, asked Mr. Vansittart if +there was "any tittle of truth" in the reports that were so prevalent +"that Government was about to seize the funds of the Friendly +Societies and Savings Banks, and apply them to the payment of the +National Debt. This report," said the hon. member, "had been caught up +by persons little conversant in political matters, and had actually +caused the breaking up of Friendly Societies, to the great loss of +those who had claims upon them." He had no doubt the course of +legislation had led to this report being circulated by designing +persons, and though quite aware that it was impossible for the +Government to touch any of these funds, he would like to hear a +declaration on the subject from the authority which in that House was +alone competent to give it. _The Chancellor of the Exchequer_ said, +that even after much experience of the extent to which malignity and +absurdity could go in the propagation of reports injurious to the +Ministry, he had not been prepared for such a rumour as this. "It was +utterly groundless; there was not the smallest foundation for it, +either in fact or possibility. Under the authority of Parliament, the +money belonging to the institutions in question was kept _entirely +apart_ from the public money, and even if the Treasury were base +enough, they had not the power to misappropriate these funds."[31] +_Mr. Brougham_ observed that this was not the first time that such +reports had been circulated, and such absurd cries raised. When the +Education Committee was sitting, it was asserted that its intention +was to seize all charitable funds, and to turn the two Universities +into charity schools. In such cases as these facts or reason on such +reports were very ineffectual, but he hoped that in this particular +instance they would be of some avail. + +Before we notice the further progress of legislation in respect to +Savings Banks, it would be well to refer to their progress and +operation in Scotland. None of the Acts passed up to this time in any +way related to the Scotch banks. When Mr. Rose's bill was before +Parliament, its application to Scotland was successfully opposed; a +separate bill was introduced by Mr. Douglas, the member for the +Dumfries burghs, in 1818, but this did not pass. The failure to obtain +this act was said to be owing exclusively to the necessity for +legislative interference not being felt in Scotland; it seems now much +more likely that the failure was owing to the want of unanimity among +the Scotch promoters of Savings Banks, Mr. Duncan taking a decided +stand with the member whom he had influenced so far as to get him to +bring in a bill, and the promoters of the Edinburgh bank, on the other +hand, who kept up in this way the long-standing dispute which they had +always had with "the Father of Savings Banks."[32] There was certainly +some reason why the same legislation was unnecessary for the two +countries. There were many circumstances which rendered interference +on the part of the Legislature necessary, or at least expedient, in +the case of the English banks, and these circumstances scarcely in any +way applied to Scotland. The chief of these were the Poor Laws, and +the want of secure places of deposit for small sums to bear interest, +and be payable on demand; the English bankers did not usually allow +interest on money lodged with them, whereas in Scotland they gave a +liberal return for it. The general dispute was at its height in 1819, +when the Edinburgh Society published a report against any State +interference, and when Mr. Duncan, who, as we have already said, was a +strong advocate for parliamentary encouragement and protection, +replied in a lengthy and able letter,[33] in which he clearly showed +that difficulties and discouragements would surely be felt in the +progress of Savings Banks, if they were not arranged according to law. +The radical difference observable in the two classes of banks--and +there were at this time 182 Savings Banks in Scotland with 7,000 +depositors, and deposits to the amount of 30,000_l._--was the +difference between the Parish Bank at Ruthwell, and the Savings Bank +at Edinburgh, for on one or other of these models all the Scotch banks +were with very few variations formed. Mr. Duncan placed, or intended +to do so, the management of his bank in the hands of the whole body of +depositors; the Edinburgh bank excluded all popular interference in +its management, and left every one to deal with it or not, at their +pleasure. The Ruthwell bank confessedly, and as we have seen, partook +of the nature of a Friendly Society; the Edinburgh bank as nearly as +possible approached to the character of a commercial undertaking. The +founder of the former was thus an advocate for minute regulations, +while the patrons of the latter wished to be left at liberty to manage +their affairs in their own way, and only to call in the help of the +Legislature when real grievances needed redressing. + +With the exception of a short Act[34] passed in 1820, by which it was +provided that charitable institutions might deposit a whole or a +portion of their funds with the Commissioners, no further legislation +on Savings Banks was attempted till 1824. In this year the Chancellor +of the Exchequer (Mr. Robinson) took up the matter where Mr. +Vansittart had left it, and carried a Bill through Parliament still +further to amend the law.[35] With a view to remedy still more +completely the evil of classes, other than the industrious ones, +investing their money in Savings Banks, this Act provided that the sum +which could be deposited during the first year should be limited to +50_l._ and should stand at 30_l._ for any succeeding year. To provide +against anything like evasion of these regulations, a form of +declaration was introduced,--which we scarcely need say has existed up +to the present time,--stating that the subscriber to it had not +contributed to any other bank than the one at which he made the +declaration. The Chancellor of the Exchequer endeavoured to carry a +clause which required that this declaration should be subscribed by +the proposed depositor in his own name, "and own handwriting," in +place of a mark or initials, but this was wisely discarded. This +absurd proviso would have put an educational test in the way of those +very classes whom, to the exclusion of all others, it was desirable to +attract to Savings Banks. Another important clause succeeded better, +and was plainly proper to the object meant to be served by it. No +depositor could by this further clause invest more than 200_l._ +excluding interest, in any Savings Bank. The case of the funds of +Friendly Societies was the subject of another clause. It was only four +years since these societies, as we have seen, were allowed to deposit +their funds through the medium of Savings Banks; but the Act of 1820 +had given rise to so much abuse, or to so much that seemed like abuse, +that some alteration was necessary. The high rate of interest which +had been guaranteed by law to these banks induced, not only +individuals of rank and property, but large charities to place their +funds in them: the result was a great burthen to the public, inasmuch +as the excess over the ordinary rate of interest for public securities +was thrown in by the Legislature with the object of increasing the +provident disposition of the poor. As it was seen that, if this state +of things continued, the original object of State assistance and +countenance to Savings Banks would be defeated and the public in some +degree prejudiced, it was proposed that no friendly society or +charitable institution of any kind should deposit their funds in any +bank. If the alterations now proposed did not suffice to preserve +Savings Banks from the inroads of the rich, the Chancellor of the +Exchequer saw no other means of meeting the evil than by reducing the +interest given. He "should feel most reluctant to weaken the +confidence which the public reposed in these banks, and which rendered +them one of the greatest blessings ever conferred upon the country;" +but the evil must be met in one way or the other, or with the loss of +their normal character they would lose their efficiency. + +The Act of Amendment then went on to deal with the responsibility of +Trustees, the giant difficulty of Savings Banks from that time until +now. The same arguments were used at this early period as at different +times subsequently. Those who placed money in Savings Banks ought to +have some security that that money was not made away with by some one +through whose hands it would pass; and the Trustees, who had the sole +control over the affairs of the banks, and appointed all the +subordinate officers, were the persons who ought to give some +security. On the other hand, enforce to the full the liability of +Trustees, and the most able persons would be deterred from accepting +so much responsibility, and would give up the connexion which they had +already voluntarily assumed. It was now therefore settled that the +Trustees should deposit all the money they received with the National +Debt Commissioners, and that they should be held liable in case of +default only to a certain amount. A legally and efficiently +constituted bank should consist of twelve Trustees, each liable for +50_l._, or 600_l._ in the aggregate. This Act, it was also decided, +should refer to Ireland equally as to England. + +Early in February, 1828, _Mr. Joseph Hume_--who had not then been many +years in Parliament, but who had already commenced that course of +conduct in connexion with the public expenditure which, at first, +gained him little but ridicule and derision, and subsequently the +respect of friend and foe and the confidence of the entire +nation--took up the question of Savings Banks, or more especially that +part of it which related to the question of expense to the Government. +Mr. Hume had already asked for returns of the progress of Savings +Banks; but on the 6th of this month he required the production of an +account, showing the amount of interest that had been allowed to them +since they had become connected with the State in 1817. He tried to +disabuse the mind of the members of the House as to his having any +prejudice against Savings Banks. He told how he had been one of the +earliest friends of these institutions and heartily wished well to +them. When he found, however, that they had already cost the country +half a million sterling, and were likely to cost still more as their +numbers and efficiency increased, he thought it was high time to have +the matter inquired into, and this expenditure stopped. Mr. Hume said +that his original notion about Savings Banks,--which was likewise that +of all he knew who had endeavoured to establish them,--was that each +bank might, and therefore ought to maintain itself, and, whilst it +enabled the poor to invest safely their 10_l._ or 20_l._ as cheaply +and as profitably as the rich could their larger amounts, it should +neither be a burthen on the charity of the benevolent nor an incubus +on the State. Mr. Hume stated that he believed it would be found that +up to January, 1827, the amount paid to Trustees, over and above what +the money remitted to the National Debt Commissioners had produced, +was 452,000_l._ By the arrangement of the Act of 1817, which ordered +that a separate account should be kept of the moneys deposited with +Government on behalf of Savings Banks, he was enabled to tell exactly +how affairs stood. He found that Government had obtained interest on +the Savings Bank Fund to the extent, in round numbers, of +2,250,000_l._ and had paid to depositors for the same 2,703,000_l._ +Hence the loss[36] above given, which he had no doubt by the time the +accounts were finally made up for the financial year ending in March +would be half a million sterling. Mr. Hume went on to state that, if +honourable members thought it proper after an inquiry to pay +40,000_l._ or 50,000_l._ a year, as a means of encouraging these +banks, let them do so; perhaps he would not make any more appeals +about it; at any rate, however, in this case, and if this state of +things continued, he thought it would be only fair that Government, +and not separate directors, should have the management and control of +these banks. There was no possible uniformity among them; some paid +one rate of interest, and some another; some charged much higher for +paid assistance than others, and yet, with unvarying uniformity, he +might have said, the executive granted the same high rate of interest +to all, irrespective of how they disposed of it. The Returns were +ordered _nem. con._ The Statement which Mr. Hume more particularly +referred to is in its proper place among the "Accounts and Papers" for +that year, and is as follows:-- + + +---------+--------------------+------------------+-----------------+ + | | Dividends on Stock | Interest Paid | | + | Years. | Received by | Trustees. | Difference. | + | | Commissioners. | | | + +---------+--------------------+------------------+-----------------+ + | | £ s. d. | £ s. d. | £ s. d. | + | 1817-18 | 32,071 1 5 | 44,909 5 1 | 12,838 3 8 | + | 1819 | 92,865 13 7 | 106,963 4 9 | 14,097 11 2 | + | 1820 | 124,278 8 2 | 141,488 1 3 | 17,209 13 1 | + | 1821 | 163,631 1 1 | 182,649 13 3 | 19,018 12 2 | + | 1822 | 225,252 6 1 | 253,629 4 11 | 28,376 18 10 | + | 1823 | 298,270 10 1 | 340,757 0 2 | 42,486 10 1 | + | 1824 | 379,411 6 7 | 468,261 12 1 | 88,850 5 6 | + | 1825 | 450,027 13 0 | 562,759 0 4 | 112,731 13 4 | + | 1826 | 478,286 5 3 | 592,390 18 11 | 114,104 13 8 | + | 1827 | 480,851 13 0 | 615,516 1 7 | 134,664 8 7 | + | 1828 | 515,569 9 4 | 675,753 16 7 | 160,184 7 3 | + +---------+--------------------+------------------+-----------------+ + +A month afterwards, the Returns having been furnished, Mr. Hume +returned to the charge. The accounts had more than borne him out in +all particulars. He now again asked if the daily loss ought to be +suffered in the financial state the country was in. The Act regulating +Savings Banks ought to be repealed, and another passed in its place. +His opinion was, decidedly, that Government should just give the +interest which it realized by the Savings Bank money, and not add a +farthing to it. "At a change in the price of Stock," added the +reformer, "Government might very possibly lose three or four millions, +and yet the depositors would not suffer the loss of a penny." Much as +he wished for the progress and advancement of the poorer classes--and +few, we think, worked harder to obtain it for them,--he contended that +these classes ought to be placed precisely in the same situation as +other people who had capital to invest. Another point which Mr. Hume +dwelt upon was the _surplus money_ which managers of Savings Banks had +in their possession untouched, after paying their depositors all the +interest that was allowed them. At that time Mr. Hume stated that the +surplus in the Newcastle Savings Bank, after paying the expenses of +management, amounted to 4,810_l._ and in the Exeter and Devon Bank to +a still larger sum; and this money which had been paid by Government +and saved after the Trustees had given a liberal interest to +depositors, was now turned into an invincible argument for some change +in the law. Mr. Hume concluded with expressing a hope that Government +would bring in a bill to amend the law relating to Savings Banks, or +at any rate not throw any obstacles in the way of some private member +doing it. The Secretary of the Treasury said, in reply, that Mr. Hume +had stated the case fairly and correctly; and that the Chancellor of +the Exchequer fully intended during the present session to bring in a +bill with which he hoped _to satisfy all classes_.[37] The +vicissitudes of party prevented this high Government functionary from +carrying out his laudable, but very impossible design. In a few weeks +the Chancellor is on the other side of the House, and another occupies +his place. A bill, however, was introduced on the 5th of June, 1828, +by Mr. Pallmer, which, supported by the new Administration, was passed +through Parliament, and became law in the same year.[38] In +introducing this bill, _Mr. Pallmer_ said it was quite obvious that +the laws which affected Savings Banks ought to be as clear and as +distinct as possible. Savings Banks were now very important +institutions, and the welfare of thousands was connected with them. At +that time there were no less than five Acts of Parliament regulating +Savings Banks, and these Acts, which contained 150 clauses, involved +an enormous amount of confusion and perplexity. He would in the place +of these five Acts, propose an Act, simple and consolidated, of thirty +or forty clauses. He would endeavour to deal with all the questions of +interest allowed, surplus money, responsibility of trustees, and to +make the necessary restrictions towards carrying on the banks safely. +And leave was quickly given to proceed with the bill. Nothing +transpired in the passage of the bill through Parliament of much +moment: so little hold were questions of this nature supposed to have +on the public mind, that it is barely alluded to in the pages of +_Hansard_. It seems never to have occurred to the reporters of the +day, that posterity might wish for a detailed account of the steps by +which institutions, such as these we are considering, arrived at some +important position, and so important indeed as to make every step of +that progress interesting after the lapse of years. Two or three +little incidents have survived this neglect. _Mr. Lewis_, for example, +during the second reading of the bill, proposed a clause for +preventing the National Debt Commissioners from taking more than +20,000,000_l._ from the Savings Bank Trustees, and ordering that, when +that amount had been invested, the funds should be declared full. The +answer which Mr. Goulburn, the new Chancellor of the Exchequer, gave +to the hon. member was, that he "would take a day or two for +consideration, after which he should be able to say better whether +such a clause ought, or ought not, to be agreed to." Two or three days +before there had appeared in the _Times_ newspaper a well-written +lampoon on the new Ministry, over which, it will be remembered the +Duke of Wellington presided as Premier, and one verse ran-- + + "To rest from toil our Great Untaught, + And soothe the pangs his warlike brain + Must suffer when, _unused to thought_, + _It tries to think, and--tries in vain_." + +_Sir Joseph Yorke_ embraced the opportunity to compliment the +Chancellor, amidst great laughter, on being such a "valuable auxiliary +of the 'Great Untaught.' The right hon. gentleman evidently was not +one who spoke on the strength of two bottles of wine: his eloquence +was certainly not of a fiery description;" and more banter of the like +description. Mr. Lewis, however, withdrew his amendment, as did also +Mr. Hume, who, when the amount of interest which should be given was +discussed, had proposed that, in place of a reduction from 3_d._ to +2-1/2_d._ per diem, the interest on deposits should only be at the +rate of 2_d._ per diem. The bill was only further opposed in some +trifling particulars and, when finally carried, was ordered to come +into operation in the November of the same year. The statute was +entitled, "An Act to consolidate and amend the Laws relating to +Savings Banks," and repealed all other Acts previously in force. From +this circumstance, the clauses of the bill of 1828 are generally known +as the "Governing Statutes" relating to Savings Banks. As the great +majority of these clauses are still in force, it will suffice, when we +come to give the present Act, to simply mark those which were +originally passed in 1828, and so distinguish them from the clauses +passed in 1863. We will here give the principal items and arrangements +of the new bill. The Act provided that the rules of every Savings Bank +should be entered in a book, which book should be deposited with the +Clerk of the Peace: the Clerk of the Peace was directed to submit this +book to a barrister, who, under the terms of the Act, would be +appointed by the National Debt Commissioners.[39] The duty of the +barrister would be to certify that the Rules of the proposed bank were +strictly according to law, and this certification, after it had been +made, was to be laid before the Justices of the Peace in Quarter +Sessions, who were empowered under certain circumstances to reject the +same, or any part thereof. If admitted, as they most commonly would +be, after certification, the Rules became binding on depositors and +officers. The interest to be given to depositors, as we have already +stated, was reduced by this Act from 4_l._ 11_s._ 3_d._ per cent. per +annum, to 3_l._ 16_s._ 0-1/2_d._ per annum. It was provided that +savings of Minors might be invested, and that deposits might be made +by married Women. Charitable Societies were again authorized to invest +sums not exceeding 100_l._ per year, or 300_l._ in the whole. Friendly +Societies were also authorized to subscribe any portion of their funds +into Savings Banks, but a Friendly Society enrolled after the date of +the bill could not invest more than 300_l._ principal and interest +included. Trustees were not to receive from any one depositor more +than 30_l._ in any one year, nor more than 150_l._ in the whole and, +when the deposit and interest amounted to 200_l._ interest was to +cease. Depositors might withdraw their money and again subscribe, +providing they did not do it to a greater extent than 30_l._ in any +one year. Deposits might be withdrawn from one Savings Bank and placed +in another. Should a depositor die leaving any sum exceeding 50_l._ +the same was not to be paid without probate or letters of +administration. Administration bonds for effects under 50_l._ were +exempt from stamp duty. Section nine exacted that no Trustee or +Manager should be responsible except for his own wilful neglect or +default; and finally, and a matter of considerable importance, the +bill provided that once in each year the Trustees of every Savings +Bank should make a Return to the National Debt Office, in which a full +Financial Statement should be made of the condition of the bank; and a +minor clause enacted that depositors should be entitled, on payment of +one penny, to a printed copy of this Annual Statement. + +For several years after the thorough change which we have just +described, the institution of Savings Banks increased and prospered +wonderfully; up to the year 1833, we find that no steps were taken, +nor agitation of any sort got up, to alter the law with regard to +them. In this year, some further changes took place; but if we except +a slight modification which was made in the arrangements under which +depositors could withdraw their money,--a longer notice being thought +necessary,--nothing was done which did not place additional powers in +the hands of Trustees. + +In April, 1833, Lord Althorp, Chancellor of the Exchequer in the +Government of Earl Grey, influenced, by a suggestion of Mr. Woodrow, +introduced a bill to grant immediate and deferred annuities through +the medium of Savings Banks, and to grant them on so small a scale as +to place them within reach of the humblest classes. Something of this +sort was undoubtedly required, and the necessity became more and more +felt on account of the action of Friendly Societies. The poorer +classes, it would seem, had scarcely any means of investing in +pensions for their old age: although nearly 5,000 Friendly Societies +had up to this time proposed to make some provision of the kind, all +but thirty-nine had in 1833 entirely relinquished this class of +business. It may be said that Friendly Societies gave up this business +because so few availed themselves of the provision that was made. From +the very constitution of these societies, however, the poor had little +confidence that any one of them would last so long as to give them +those benefits in their old age for which they would have to subscribe +for a long term of years. Benefit Societies might be broken up at any +time by two-thirds of their number; this sort of thing was constantly +occurring, generally leaving the oldest members in the lurch. An +attempt, to which we have not yet alluded, was made even before +Savings Banks were established, to give the industrial classes a +chance of providing for their old age, and preventing them from being +left destitute of other support than parish pay, or a home in the +workhouse. Baron Mazeres, so early as 1773, who published a work on +Annuities, succeeded in getting a bill introduced and passed through +the House of Commons--though unfortunately it was lost in the House of +Lords--which would have made the legislation of 1833 less necessary. +_Lord Althorp_ now stated that the object he had in view was simply +and solely to benefit the working classes. The lowest sum which could +be granted as a Government Annuity was 30_l._ a-year. He would propose +to make the sum 20_l._ The annuity should not be assignable, or +transferable, except in cases of bankruptcy or insolvency; and in the +case of the purchaser, either through necessity or choice making +default in the annual payments, or dying before the annuity commenced, +the whole of the money subscribed should be paid to him or his +executors. The tables would be calculated at the rate of 3_l._ 15_s._ +per cent. and this rate being less than the ordinary Savings Bank +rate, would enable the Government to introduce the clause for +returning deposits. To no class, it was thought, would these proposals +be of more service than to members of Benefit Societies, who would +thus be enabled to secure superannuation on Government security, and +confine the objects of the society in which they might be members to +relief in cases of sickness or death. Lord Althorp calculated that a +person at the age of twenty-five, paying six shillings a month as a +deposit into the Savings Bank, would be entitled at the age of sixty +to an annuity of 20_l._ a-year. He contended, that, from the +calculations which had been made, Government could not lose by these +arrangements, and he thought the principal feature of deferred +annuities for a small amount, with money returnable in the cases above +stated, might be made,--if the working classes would only avail +themselves of the measure,--to tend greatly to their worldly comfort +and advantage. _Mr. Thomas Attwood_, the member for Birmingham, who +made some remarkable speeches in the House on matters of finance, but +especially with regard to Savings Banks, objected not only to this +proposal, but to legislation of any sort with regard to them. The +money deposited in Savings Banks might as well be put into the country +banks, for the average amount of each deposit, he was sure, was over +10_l._ and 10_l._ was the minimum sum which country banks would take. +He "did not believe in paying so much to keep up such establishments, +especially when they were not wanted." To such lengths will +intelligent men go, and to such an extent will they shut their eyes! +Mr. Attwood put his views before the House quite mildly in this +instance, as compared with subsequent speeches. _Mr. Brotherton_, a +member greatly respected in the House, who had once belonged to the +ranks of the people, and who might therefore be supposed better to +understand their requirements, felt sure that Savings Banks had been +productive of great national good, and could not be too numerous. _Mr. +Pease_, the Quaker member for South Durham, hoped that nothing would +be done to induce the working classes to try country banks in +preference to Savings Banks. In his own county 700,000_l._ or +800,000_l._ had been lost in country banks, and therefore it would be +highly dangerous to advise the poor to lodge their money there. Mr. +Pease's position, as a large employer of labour, gave his remarks +weight, when he trusted that the clause in the bill of 1828, which +provided that Accounts of Savings Banks should annually be laid before +the Government, would be carried out in its entirety; "there was +little hope of Savings Banks turning out uniformly profitable to the +industrious classes, except Government maintained a strict +superintending control over them." The Chancellor of the Exchequer +said this was done, and in two or three instances since he took +office, where the Trustees had neglected to furnish proper returns, +the Commissioners had exercised the power which the law gave them, +_and had closed the banks_ till the Accounts were sent up.[40] In May +the bill was carried through Parliament unaltered, but, as usual, +opposed by two or three fractious members. Mr. Thomas Attwood again +expressed his disapprobation of Savings Banks; and we allude to his +speech with a view solely of enlivening our pages, which may over this +ground of legislative enactments be dull to some readers. This +gentleman stated his belief on the third reading of the Savings Bank +Annuities Bill, that Savings Banks "were instituted by the late Lord +Liverpool and his Government, not for the good of the people, but for +three different purposes." The first was to draw capital to London, in +order to bolster up the Funds; the second was to give the Government +the power of putting their hands into the pockets of the people; and +the third, to enable them to scourge the people.[41] On the House +showing manifest signs of disapprobation, Mr. Attwood said, "Hon. +members might express disapprobation as much as they pleased, and the +noble lord (Althorp) might laugh, but he firmly believed that Lord +Liverpool's great object in getting up these banks was to get his claw +in the people." _Lord Althorp_ replied with the straightforward +understanding, and quiet, manly good sense which always characterized +this eminent statesman. He wondered that Mr. Attwood had not imputed +to Government another motive, that being, to realize _profit_ by +Savings Banks, which he need not say they had scarcely yet done. He +might have smiled, but it was entirely on account of the originality +of the hon. member's ideas on the subject: seriously, it was +astonishing that such arguments should be used by reasoning men. "So +far from being an injury to the people, he believed these banks +conferred on them the greatest advantages; and so far from affording +the Government the means of trampling upon them, they would have an +exactly contrary effect." And there can be no question that Lord +Althorp was right. The evident effect of Savings Banks, from their +commencement, had been to make people independent; and surely persons +of this description would be the very last that any Government would +attempt to ill-use. Another member spoke a word for Mr. Attwood: he +believed him to have the kindest intentions towards the poor; only, he +must add, that he took the strangest way of showing these good +intentions, when he strove to prejudice the poor against institutions +which were capable of rendering them independent and comfortable +sooner than any other organization whatever. _Mr. Slaney_ thought the +people showed great good sense in preferring Government security to +the allurements of country bankers. As for the member for Birmingham, +he ought to be reminded of Franklin's story about the two sacks, where +the empty sack fell to the ground, whilst the full sack stood bolt +upright. The fuller the sacks, the more likely were the people to be +independent, and the less likely were they to be trampled upon. Mr. +Slaney was glad to find, that though the crisis of last session had +had a bad effect on the deposits of Savings Banks, they were now daily +increasing. With this discussion, so far as any record is left, the +bill became law. + +An act passed in 1835[42] extended the bill for consolidating and +amending the law with respect to Savings Banks to Scotland, and of +course the bill of 1833, which we have just described, became at the +same time applicable to Scotland. + +Nothing further was done in the way of legislation for Savings Banks +till 1844, so we will close this chapter by referring to another +attempt made by Mr. Hume, in 1838, to reduce the interest given to +Savings Banks, and to introduce other changes into their organization. +And here we cannot forbear to state our belief, that, though many +thought very differently at that time, Savings Banks, the working +classes, and the country generally, had not a better friend than Mr. +Joseph Hume. He saw a lavish expenditure going on in connexion with +Savings Banks, and he endeavoured to stop it; with what success +remains to be seen. He saw that in consequence of this expenditure, or +the inducements which it gave, legislative enactments were openly set +at defiance by well-to-do people, who, besides their own deposits, +made fraudulent investments in the names of the various members of +their families, or their friends; and that the action of the +Legislature was in this way an attempt to cultivate good habits +amongst one portion of the community, at the expense of promoting bad +habits amongst another. Mr. Hume on this occasion reminded the House +that he was one of the original founders of Saving Banks, and had +always taken a deep interest in them. It was far from him to do +anything to interfere with their usefulness in the country, only the +country ought not to be put to large and increasing expense over them. +He compared the rate of interest given before and after 1828, and now +stated that on this latter rate the country lost from ten shillings to +fifteen shillings per cent. on the entire amount of deposits. The +average annual loss to the public up to the time he was speaking, and +from 1818, had been 75,000_l._ If this money went to the provident +poor he would not so much care; but if all was paid to depositors, +that might not be the case. Of the 500 Savings Banks in existence in +1837, to whom the Commissioners paid 3_l._ 16_s._ 0-1/2_d._ per cent. +interest, 412 of them paid to the depositors only 3_l._ 6_s._ 8_d._, +and 88 of them paid 3_l._ 8_s._ leaving of course a large surplus, +after every expense had been paid, in the hands of both sets of +trustees. Hon. gentlemen might say that this surplus money was +required by law to be invested in the Surplus Fund account at the +National Debt Office; but the act, in leaving it to the trustees to +say what they themselves deemed "surplus," defeated its own ends, and +without doubt had opened a door to fraud. Mr. Hume made a motion that +the House at its rising should go into committee on the 9th Geo. IV. +c. 93, which fixes the rate of interest to be given, and to permit the +Chancellor of the Exchequer to reduce that rate to an equality with +that which is received in the public funds. He thoroughly believed +that the security afforded by Savings Banks was a matter of far +greater importance than the amount of interest which was paid. Mr. +Hume then referred to a subject which was made matter for great +discussion, and which a committee of the House of Commons treated at +great length some years subsequently. This was the power which was +supposed to rest with the National Debt Commissioners, of using +Savings Bank money for the exigencies of the State; "the dangerous +power," as Mr. Hume characterized it, "to change the money they had in +charge from funded to unfunded debt." He said the Commissioners had +paid thirty-five millions sterling from 1817 to 1838, for the purchase +of Stock and Exchequer bills, and had received from the sale of Stock +and Exchequer bills seventeen millions, leaving more than a similar +amount then standing in their names. He urged, "that as the whole of +the deposits were by law payable in cash, and that as sums under +10,000_l._ could be demanded in five days, and even larger sums at +fourteen days' notice, the public might in a time of panic, such as +they had recently passed through, legally make demands of cash, and so +produce a heavy loss to the Government, and greatly inconvenience, if +not endanger, public credit." He gave a recent example, taking five +months of the year 1832, when the country was at its greatest height +of political ferment. The money transactions of the English Savings +Banks in + + Deposits. Withdrawals. + £ £ + March 1832 were 46,841 93,947 + April " 33,447 107,534 + May " 28,345 114,677 + June " 25,515 368,976 + July " 47,574 140,682[43] + +_The Chancellor of the Exchequer_, who at the time of which we are +speaking was Mr. Spring Rice (the late Lord Monteagle), was quite +unwilling to take the course recommended by Mr. Hume. He was sure it +would tend to shake the security of the deposits, to which the loss +which Mr. Hume had spoken of was a mere trifle. He admitted, however, +that if Parliament could have foreseen the extent to which Savings +Banks would so soon have arrived, wiser arrangements would undoubtedly +have been made. People certainly did not want all the inducements to +save their money which it was once thought they did require. Still, he +was not for changing the rate; Government paid more than they received +as interest, but he declined to argue the matter as a mere money +question. Mr. Hume might say that depositors cared more for security +than interest, but he (the Chancellor) said, that if they reduced that +interest, the depositors would rush to take out their money. Nor did +Mr. Rice speak without the book. He produced a paper in which was +described the effect of the various commercial and political panics on +Savings Banks, and in distinction to this the result of the reduction +of the rate of interest in 1828. So far as it went, the Return is +conclusive and instructing.[44] In the commercial panic of 1825, the +total amount withdrawn was 361,000_l._; in the political panic of +1832, 550,000_l._; in 1828, when the interest was reduced by 14_s._ +per cent., no less a sum than 1,500,000_l._ was withdrawn. The +Chancellor would not say that under no possible circumstances should a +reduction take place; a time might come when it might be done wisely +and discreetly, though he believed it would never take place without +creating some degree of uncertainty and risk. The depositors in +Savings Banks were not the class to be experimented upon, and he would +not have it said of him by persons out of doors that he had commenced +reductions in the public expenditure by cutting down the interest +payable to the poorer classes, who, after all, he believed, were the +principal investors in Savings Banks. One other little item of +statistics Mr. Rice gave before he sat down, which is very +interesting, and much more convincing than his other arguments. He +gave, from a Return which we have not been able to find, the amount of +interest which had been paid _in money_ since the establishment of +Savings Banks and, on the other hand, the interest which had been +credited to depositors _and made into principal_. In the former case +it was 286,000_l._; in the latter, or interest made principal, it was +9,271,000_l._ Finally, the Chancellor believed, that to pay depositors +interest at the rate of the value of money in the market would be a +death-blow to Savings Banks altogether! If Mr. Hume, in his pursuit of +economy, tried to enforce it by dividing the House on the subject, his +duty would be to resist. _Mr. Goulburn_, as the spokesman of the +Opposition on financial subjects, condemned the proposition as likely +to cause distrust amongst all classes connected with Savings Banks. So +far from thinking that the interest ought to be reduced, or could be +reduced, with safety--and this remark is curious, viewed in the light +of subsequent events--"it was only by great care and good management +on the part of those who superintended such banks" that expenses could +be paid. Time, however, works wonders, and among other things, brings +its revenges. The financial reformer, who from the first had the best +of the argument, had not long to live to see a change, and to find +that change brought about under the direct auspices of one who only +six years before, in the words just quoted, had strenuously opposed +his motion. We must leave Mr. Goulburn's bill of 1844 to be described +in a subsequent chapter. + + + [28] Mr. Rose's exertions in this respect were only ended by his + death, which took place in January, 1818, at the age of + seventy-four. "His whole life," says a contemporary, "was the + continued and strenuous effort of a powerful mind to promote the + welfare of the state and the happiness of his fellow creatures." + In contrast to this testimony, which cannot be called exaggerated, + we might refer to William Cobbett's bitter tirades against Mr. + Rose, which, indeed, may with some readers form the most + convincing evidence of the merits of the statesman. In Cobbett's + "New Year's Gift to Old George Rose," published in the _Register_ + of 1817, and to which choice production we shall again refer, + there is an elaborate and embittered attack upon the latter, in + the course of which Cobbett stated that the amount of the + sinecures which Mr. Rose and his sons held would furnish ample + funds for all the Savings Banks then in existence. + + [29] From a bare record of the debate in question to be found in + _Hansard_. Third Series. 1816. + + [30] Act 57 George III. c. 130. + + [31] _Hansard's Debates_, vol. xli. page 1392. + + [32] This cognomen was given to Mr. Duncan more than once in the + House of Commons about this period. + + [33] _A Letter to W. R. K. Douglas, Esq. M.P. on the Expediency of + the Bill brought by him into Parliament, occasioned by a Report of + the Edinburgh Society for the Suppression of Beggars._ By the Rev. + Henry Duncan, of Ruthwell. 1819. + + [34] 1 George IV. c. 83. + + [35] 5 George IV. c. 62. + + [36] We shall see subsequently that this loss was more than made up + in other ways. + + [37] _Times_, March 13, 1828. + + [38] 9 George IV. c. 92. + + [39] The barrister appointed, under clause 92, was Mr. John Tidd + Pratt, who still holds the office after a lapse of thirty-six + years. Under a subsequent clause of the same Act there was power + given to the Commissioners to appoint an umpire in cases of + dispute, and Mr. Pratt was likewise appointed to decide in these + cases on behalf of the Government. Mr. Pratt's name is now + properly and deservedly connected with all questions relating to + Savings Banks. From time to time this gentleman's intimate + acquaintance with the legal history and working of these and + kindred societies has gained him other appointments in connexion + with them. By the Act of 7 & 8 Victoria, c. 83, he had additional + powers conferred upon him, this Act setting forth that all cases + of dispute should be referred to him in the first instance, + without the necessity of each party appointing an arbitrator. In + 1846, under the 9 & 10 Vict., he obtained the appointment of + Registrar of Friendly Societies, an office which he still holds; + and in 1861, on the establishment of Postal Banks, he was + appointed Consulting Barrister. Mr. Pratt was born in 1798, and + called in 1824 to the bar at the Inner Temple. + + [40] _Times_, April 17, 1833. + + [41] _Hansard_, vol. XVII. Third Series. 1833. + + [42] 5 & 6 William IV. cap. 57. + + [43] _The Westminster Review_ of this period thus refers to Mr. + Hume 's motion for a reduction of interest rate for Savings Banks: + "We are ignorant of any good reason why the public should receive + these deposits on other terms than those which would be settled + between individual and individual in a common mercantile + transaction. Admitting to the full importance of giving + encouragement to economical habits, we deny that the payment of + bounties is necessary for such a purpose, or that more is + requisite than to extend to the parties that superior + accommodation and greater security for investment which it is in + the power of Government to afford. This should form an inducement + adequate to every salutary purpose. All that is given as interest + beyond the market price of money is simply a premium upon fraud." + Vol. IX. Old Series. + + [44] But it did not go far enough; the years 1826 and 1831 are the + years which ought to have been taken. + + + + + CHAPTER IV. + + ON THE PROGRESS OF SAVINGS BANKS UP TO THE YEAR 1844. + + "They to whom this subject is indifferent may censure our + minuteness; but those who, like us, regard the + establishment of Savings Banks as marking an era in + political economy, and as intimately connected with the + external comfort and moral improvement of mankind, will be + gratified to trace the rise and progress of one of the + simplest and most efficient plans which has ever been + devised for effecting these invaluable + purposes."--_Quarterly Review._ 1816. + + +Arrived at the year 1841, when Savings Banks have had a legislative +existence for a quarter of a century, it may be well to stop and pass +the period in review; to endeavour to show the progress made by these +institutions during this time; and to exhibit, so far as we are able, +their effect upon the general progress of the country. We have up to +this point dealt principally with the legislation on Savings Banks, +and have taken little account of what was said or done with respect to +them out of Parliament, after the year 1817. At this early period +there were frequent and warm discussions out of the House as to their +value and utility. When they first began to attract public attention, +"the friends of the working classes" were nearly equally divided +between their advocacy of them and the Friendly Societies. When Mr. +Rose, who had strongly advocated the formation of these societies, saw +the benefit that Saving Banks were calculated to render to the poorer +classes, he cordially took up their advocacy; and although he urged +that there was scope enough for all societies which inculcated the +duty and practice of providence and frugality, he was loudly accused +of leaving his first love, and advocating the Savings Bank plan for +some political purpose. We cannot give the reader a better idea of the +way the industrial classes were beguiled, and the kind of influence +which was only too often brought to bear upon them at this period, +than by giving some extracts from a paper to which we have previously +incidentally referred. In his "New Year's Gift to old George Rose," +Cobbett reminds Mr. Rose, that after all he had done for them, he had +at length "left Friendly Societies in the lurch, and taken to _the +bubble of Savings Banks_." Cobbett, however, said that he could see +through the change, and he shows the amount of his penetration by such +argument as the following:--In "friendly societies Mr. Rose found that +'the members got drunk and _talked_--the naughty rogues.' Yes, and +even politics too! And it might have been added," continues the writer +and proprietor of the _Register_, "that they very frequently heard one +of their number read--the _Register!_" The object of Savings Banks, or +at any rate, parliamentary interference with them, was nothing else, +Cobbett considered, "than to get the pennies of the poor together, but +to keep their owners asunder." "What a bubble!" repeats Cobbett. Then +addressing Mr. Rose in the first person, he tells him how, in his +opinion, "the company of projectors who, in the reign of George the +First, wanted a charter granted to them for the purpose of making deal +boards out of sawdust, just saves you from the imputation of having, +in the Savings Bank scheme, been the patron of the most ridiculous +project _that ever entered into the mind of man_." Another person of +Mr. Cobbett's stamp, though one who aspired to greater knowledge of +all questions connected with trade and currency, and who really paid +closer attention to such subjects, was Mr. Thomas Attwood--"Currency +Attwood," or "Little Shilling Attwood," as he was variously designated +in some parts of the country. Whenever he could get an opportunity in +Parliament to speak of Savings Banks, we have seen that he invariably +clothed his ideas in a vocabulary of prejudiced invective. And he +repeated himself outside the walls of the House whenever he had the +chance. "Savings Banks," we find him saying on one occasion, "besides +costing the nation so much, were a nuisance;" "Savings Banks were a +sort of screw in the hands of the Government to fix down the working +classes to the system." On these expressions, and others of a like +tendency, as texts, those minor demagogues who went "on stump," +preached for many a day. Considering how such men treated the +institution of Savings Banks, it is wonderful that they progressed as +they did. That they kept many from using these institutions is beyond +a doubt. Such men had a surprising power over the labouring classes, +and though that power was often used for good, too often it only +excited distrust and apprehension when distrust and fear were least +needed and most dangerous. The true friends of the poor--and there +have been many such at all times--said, in effect, "We have reason to +believe that much money now spent unnecessarily might be saved for +seasons of want and old age, if the poor had the means offered them of +putting that money by easily, safely, and profitably. We have exerted +ourselves to get such places established, we give our best exertions +to have them conducted properly, and we advise all who have money to +spare to intrust it to this safe keeping." Cobbett, on the other hand, +put his printers to work to say "What a bubble! At a time when it is +notorious that one half of the whole nation are in a state little +short of actual starvation--when it is notorious that hundreds of +thousands of families do not know when they rise where they are to +find a meal during the day--when of the far greater part of the whole +people much more than half of them are paupers; at such a time, to +bring forth a project for collecting the savings (!) of journeymen and +labourers _in order to be lent to Government_, and to form a fund for +the support of the lenders in sickness and old age!"[45] It would be +idle to show the fallacy of such reasoning, even admitting the facts +of the case to be as they are here stated. Suffice it to say, that in +this way did such men pander to the prejudices of the uneducated. Many +thousands of industrious workmen who had had no training, and who +could not discriminate between real and imaginary evils, were thus too +often flattered into believing that they had more than their share of +the truth, honesty, and manliness of the age on their side, and that +the upper classes were against them on every side and in all respects. +All this is pretty well over now.[46] Just as the sun expels the mists +of the morning, so have education and a free press opened the eyes of +the people to their true interests, and shown them which class of men +have most wished for and best worked to promote these interests. + +It was not, however, only by such men as Cobbett that Savings Banks +were misinterpreted and misrepresented. Like every other new and +untried measure, it had to run the gauntlet of an educated as well as +an ignorant opposition. It was a very usual thing to find the +discussion on the utility of Savings Banks waxing warm in the most +important organs of public opinion. For example, the _Times_ newspaper +early took a decided stand against Savings Banks, and tried to +maintain its position, as we shall see more fully subsequently, long +after the country had given them a pretty unanimous verdict of +approval. Just after the period of which we are speaking, a +correspondent in the then, as now, leading journal, thought himself +able to trace in Savings Banks, "a great source of mischief; and that +to them,"--though in what manner it is not attempted to be +proved,--"may be attributed a considerable portion of the distress +which has been so long felt, and which does not appear to diminish in +most of the manufacturing districts." "God forbid," ejaculates this +remarkable genius, "that I should desire to encourage improvidence +amongst any portion of society; but there is a wide distinction +between parsimony and extravagance, and these banks have literally +made misers, and held out a bonus for them to become so." But even +this is not all: the same spirit, says our authority, which actuates a +man in becoming a miser, will operate to prevent their making use of +their petty accumulations. "With the habit of parsimony the mind +becomes degraded, and the workhouse or an application to the +dispensers of parochial relief lose their horrors." It is almost +useless, seeing that now few could be found to advocate such views, to +reply to them. They are based on the assumption, which we take to be +utterly erroneous, that a poor man is less at liberty to lay out his +mite at interest than his richer neighbour; or that if he did so, the +step was more likely to lead to his becoming a miser than his +wealthier neighbour who had all his money in the funds. It is less +necessary to argue the point, inasmuch as the aim of this nonsense is +made quite apparent by the writer concluding with an elaborate +eulogium on Benefit Societies for working men. "They could there, +provide," says he, "at a very trifling expense, against sickness, want +of employment, and numerous other casualties; while, on the other +hand, there would be no need to deprive themselves of the common +necessaries of life in order to add to their hoard." But here again +the fallacy of the argument is clearly apparent. The allowance from a +Benefit Society, then as now, in case of sickness or distress, would +be, generally speaking, quite inadequate to the circumstances +requiring it; and how could it possibly be more likely that a person +in this situation would be more independent of parochial relief than +one who had a fund of his own to look to, or perhaps a livelihood at +his command. Such warfare as this went on uninterruptedly for several +years; the advocates of Benefit Societies running down Savings Banks, +and _vice versá_, not in all cases seeing that the two might exist +together, and that each was well calculated to supply a want which the +one or the other class of institutions did not meet. There can be no +doubt, however, which institution suffered most from these +discussions. The most decisive proof of the improvement which was seen +in the condition and the habits of the labouring classes during the +first quarter of the century was the progress of Benefit Societies +from 1802 to 1820. In the former year there were 9,622 of these +societies; in the latter year there were nearly five times that +number. The people during this period had not improved in comforts and +conveniences as they did subsequently; they progressed in the more +skilful use of the same, or even diminished means. These societies +made a deep impression upon the population, and in the same proportion +the people were recovered from the control of their appetites and +passions, and from that propensity to use without restraint those +means of immediate gratification which distinguishes all ignorant +people of whatever rank. Notwithstanding all this, the Friendly +Societies were beset with difficulties, and in the discussions to +which we have alluded their opponents made the most of them. Perhaps +the well-meaning might better have assisted the poor in instructing +them how to reform the management of these societies, and by showing +them the principles upon which they could be most safely established. +However it was, there can be no question that, either from their +inherent defects or the comparison of the benefits to be derived from +the one as against the other institution, Savings Banks soon took the +place of Benefit Societies in the public estimation, and progressed +when, comparatively speaking, the latter declined. In the evidence +given by Mr. Lloyd, the founder of the Hertford "Sunday Bank," before +the committee on the Poor Law previously referred to, he assigned as +one of the causes which had promoted the success of Savings Banks the +evils arising from Benefit Clubs or Friendly Societies, as then +constituted. "There is always," he said, "a regulation, that when +two-thirds of the members choose to assemble and agree to break up the +club, they can; the consequence is, that the other one-third, the old +members, who ought to be deriving an assistance during the last period +of their lives from these clubs, are deprived of it." He had known six +clubs which had been broken up in this way. The following extract from +a report of a committee which was appointed to investigate the rival +claims of Benefit Societies and Savings Banks so admirably sums up the +whole argument, and says so much with reference to both institutions +which is no less true now than then, that we feel confident our +readers will not object to have it reproduced here.[47] "Benefit +Societies have done much good; but they are attended with some +disadvantages. In particular, the frequent meetings of the members +occasion the loss of much time, and frequently of a good deal of money +spent in entertainments.[48] The stated payments must be regularly +made; otherwise, after a certain time, the member loses the benefit of +all that he has formerly paid. Nothing more than the stated payments +can be made, however easily the member might be able at the moment to +add a little to his store. Frequently the value of the chances on +which the societies are formed, is ill calculated; in which case, +either the contributors do not receive an equivalent for their +payments, or too large an allowance is given at first, which brings on +the bankruptcy of the institution. Frequently the sums are embezzled +by artful men, who, by imposing on the inexperience of the members, +get themselves elected into offices of trust. The benefit is distant +and contingent; each member not having benefit from his contributions +in every case, but only in the case of his falling into the situations +of distress provided for by the society. And the whole concern is so +complicated, that many have hesitation in embarking in it their +hard-earned savings. With such disadvantages who would not rather +choose the simple, secure mode of investment offered by the bank--free +(as the banks were at that time) from them all? But if they must have +the Benefit Society, with its contingent and distant benefits, working +men should not rest here. Thousands of the working classes could well +afford to pay their weekly sums to secure their sick and burial money, +and yet have enough to spare to provide against the other rainy days +of their life. A poor man's savings are continually liable, while in +his own custody, not simply to professional thieves, but also--and +there is far more danger of it--to be pilfered by himself and his +family. They are often lost by being intrusted to improper hands; they +are still oftener worse than lost in the ale-house or the gin-palace, +and the money which properly taken care of might give the means for +occasional enjoyments of a harmless kind, providing for the legitimate +wants of his children, or which might support all during the +intermissions of employment to which all are exposed, may be worse +than squandered." + +It was thus that the institution of Savings Banks lost, by being cried +down by the leaders of the people, and by the discussion which +continued as to their merits; and thus that they gained, by a close +comparison with the kindred institution of Friendly Societies. The +loss, however, was but temporary. In ten years from the date of their +legal formation the deposits in Savings Banks amounted to upwards of +sixteen millions sterling, and this sum had been contributed by no +fewer than four hundred thousand persons. A writer of the period +characterizes the progress made by institutions such as these "as one +of the most striking manifestations of virtue that ever was made by +any people;" and he seems to have had some good grounds for the +opinion. "For persons merged in poverty and totally deprived of +education, as the English population have heretofore so generally +been, it is not easy or common to have much of foresight, or much of +that self-command which is necessary to draw upon the gratifications +of the present for those of a future day." And though, as we have +previously seen, the money here deposited could not have been put +there by persons exclusively of the industrial class, yet it is clear +that many of the labouring community did possess means beyond what +were needed to procure them the necessaries of life, and that these +institutions exactly met the want which was felt in not having the +means to safely dispose of that little surplus, and to call it in when +the need arose for it. The year 1827 was the year, it will be +remembered, after one of the most terrible financial crises that this +country has ever passed through, and yet, though the average amount of +money deposited in Savings Banks in one year before this time had only +been about 1,100,000_l._, no less a sum than 859,734_l._ was deposited +in 1827, and not half of that sum was withdrawn. These facts show the +great hold which Savings Banks had already taken upon the country. Of +what service they were during such times as those witnessed in 1826 we +shall have to speak. We are far from anxious to trouble the reader +with any statistical information which might easily be withheld, but +the progress of which we are now speaking can be best traced by +presenting first, a tabular view, which gives that progress from year +to year, and which will likewise furnish material for remark.[49] + + TABLE 1. + + Showing the Amounts invested by Savings Banks with the + National Debt Commissioners from 1817 to 1841, with the + Total Capital of all the Banks at the end of each year:-- + + +-------------+-----------------------+--------------------+ + | Year ending | Total amount | Total Capital at | + | 20th Nov. | credited to Trustees, | the close of each | + | | including Interest. | year. | + +-------------+-----------------------+--------------------+ + | | | | + | | £ | £ | + | | | | + | 1817 | 231,028 | 231,028 | + | 1818 | 1,533,812 | 1,697,853 | + | 1819 | 1,233,684 | 2,813,023 | + | 1820 | 807,825 | 3,469,910 | + | 1821 | 1,312,800 | 4,740,188 | + | 1822 | 1,849,264 | 6,546,690 | + | 1823 | 2,205,272 | 8,684,662 | + | 1824 | 3,149,151 | 11,720,629 | + | 1825 | 1,769,988 | 13,257,708 | + | 1826 | 1,131,659 | 13,135,218 | + | 1827 | 1,475,250 | 14,188,708 | + | 1828 | 1,734,374 | 15,358,504 | + | 1829 | 960,142 | 14,791,495 | + | 1830 | 1,056,584 | 14,860,188 | + | 1831 | 1,037,629 | 14,698,635 | + | 1832 | 1,099,368 | 14,416,885 | + | 1833 | 1,448,751 | 15,324,794 | + | 1834 | 1,575,016 | 16,386,035 | + | 1835 | 1,654,896 | 17,469,617 | + | 1836 | 2,006,588 | 18,934,591 | + | 1837 | 1,649,691 | 19,711,797 | + | 1838 | 2,200,663 | 21,446,341 | + | 1839 | 2,137,502 | 22,486,553 | + | 1840 | 1,949,126 | 23,549,716 | + | 1841 | 1,950,751 | 24,536,971 | + +-------------+-----------------------+--------------------+ + +Remembering that this table does not give the actual business done by +Savings Banks within this period,--which, indeed, from the absence of +proper returns in the earlier years of those Banks it would be +difficult to present,--many instructive lessons may be gathered from +it as to their value and utility. In fact, however, and for all +practical purposes, the amounts remitted by the Trustees to the +National Debt Office very fully represents the progress of Savings +Banks, for they may be considered as representing so much surplus +every year, after all the claims on the banks had been met. The +variations observable in the returns are accounted for quite easily by +the state of the country at the time. When the amount falls, it may be +taken for granted that the country is passing through a period of +exceptional suffering and trial, and that the funds which have been +patiently accumulated for times of need are thus made available when +the necessity arises for it. The country was unusually prosperous, for +example, in 1823-4, and an enormous surplus was returned. In 1825, as +if to mark the coming storm, there is a heavy fall in deposits. In +1826, the tables were turned, not only in a figurative, but, so far as +we are concerned, in a literal sense. The circumstance can be only too +well explained. The _Quarterly Review_ of that time gives a glowing +account of the increased wealth of all classes, especially those of +the trading community.[50] "The increased wealth of the middle classes +is so obvious, that we can neither walk the fields, visit the shops, +nor examine the workshops and storehouses, without being deeply +impressed with the changes which a few years have produced. In the +agricultural districts we do not, indeed, see such great strides, but +we see universal advancement." Then we have the familiar record of the +exportation of gold; of the Bank of England and provincial banks +deluging the country with notes.[51] Money became so abundant that a +terrible rage for speculation set in; joint-stock companies with +unlimited liability were projected for every imaginable object. On the +reorganization of the South American republics, which had just then +been effected, all sorts of proposals for mines were started; the El +Dorado had to be found now, if ever.[52] In the session of 1825, 438 +petitions for private bills were presented, and 286 private acts were +passed. The King, even, was so deceived by the general appearance of +things, or was so purposely blind to their real state, as to +congratulate the country, in July, 1825, on "the prosperity everywhere +pervading the country." The time arrives when anxious speculators +begin to look out for some return for their money; they are told that +their capital cannot possibly realize so soon; then the bankers are +besieged, but, tempted by the abundance of money, they had discounted +bills at long dates to an enormous extent, and lent money upon +securities which were presently seen to be almost worthless. Then came +the panic,--and then the crash. Commercial houses first failed, big, +substantial firms, which were supposed to have the wealth of Croesus +at their back, came down thunderingly. "Many a firm of unimpeachable +honour and unquestionable solvency was compelled to bend before the +storm." Then came the turn of the great banks: they had advanced their +money to the merchants, and now that the security had failed, they +also must bend before the blast. On the 5th of December, the news +spread with the wings of the wind, that the banking house of Sir Peter +Cole and Co. had failed; next day, Williams and Co. stopped payment; +and from that time, without intermission, seventy country banks went +down within six weeks.[53] How things were restored to their original +condition, and how promptly the Government acted during the terrible +panic, we need not stay to tell. Savings Bank deposits fell from about +three millions in 1825, to less than half that sum in 1826. More money +was withdrawn in the year of the panic than had been withdrawn +altogether since the year 1820. It is not a little curious, as showing +that depositors in Savings Banks are less inclined to speculation than +other classes, to point out, that during the panic a sum equal to at +least fourteen millions sterling must have been safely lodged in the +different provident banks of the country; and that little money was +hazarded in the speculations of the time is evident from the fact that +only one-tenth part of the whole amount of deposits was withdrawn to +supply emergencies. In this way were those people rewarded who +preferred a safe deposit with a reasonable interest to "cent. per +cent." and unlimited risk. + +Nor can we stop to describe the result of the panic on the industrial +classes. The picture of that terrible time has often been drawn, when +thousands of hungry, infuriated men, roused by the sorest distresses, +went about robbing shops, breaking machinery, rick-burning, chased by +the constabulary, and fired upon by the soldiery. The time was a most +disastrous one, but it was full of lessons for all classes. Many of +the provident poor suffered little, and never had anything to fear, on +account of having prepared themselves for such calamities. Those of +the poor who acted less wisely, and ventured their little surplus in +some speculation or other, met with few condolences. When a portion of +them petitioned the House of Commons for relief, they were rather +roughly told that they ought to have deposited their earnings in +Savings Banks. It was on this occasion that Sir Robert Peel replied to +this taunting, and recognised the imperfections of the existing +machinery, by asking, indignantly, how the House could expect this to +be done in cases where "the Savings Bank was perhaps twenty miles from +the working man's home." + +To return again to the table. In 1827 and 1828 the accounts show a +much more healthy state of things, and it is clear that the deposits +are steadily gaining their natural ascendancy over the withdrawals, +when there is another rebound, of a greater magnitude than ever; the +withdrawals not only exceeded the deposits of 1829, but the deposits +of 1830 added thereto. There can be no question that, primarily, the +Savings Bank Act of 1828, which came into operation on the November of +that year, and under which the amount of interest allowed on deposits +was reduced by 14_s._ per cent., was the cause of this exceptional and +most important change. Like all misfortunes of this nature, it had its +bright side, and was far from being an unmixed evil. As we have +already endeavoured to show, a large number of depositors up to this +period belonged to classes much above the artisan class; and as the +former looked more to the interest given, while the industrious +classes thought most of the security offered, it is no wonder and no +calamity that the connexion which the higher classes had formed with +Savings Banks was now dissolved. Henceforth, the returns may be looked +upon as more than ever the result of habits of economy and thrift, and +as representing the surplus money of the artisan and the lower +portions of the middle classes. + +The year 1830 shows that confidence was slowly returning, when again +there is a period of great depression. Two millions of capital is +withdrawn in 1831-2, over and above the deposits of those years, to +meet demands on the banks. The political agitation of those years +sufficiently accounts for this state of things. It will require little +to be said in order to show that a time like that was likely to tell +largely against such institutions as those under consideration. The +time was one of great anxiety among all classes, and amidst the +uncertainties and anticipations which followed in rapid succession, it +would be only bold people, and those of more than average intelligence +and power of mind, that could confide, without the smallest degree of +wavering, in the stability of the country. We had a turbulent +population at home, and amidst much agitation for their undoubted +political rights, there were many clamouring for bread, many +clamouring for work, and thousands for they knew not what: and France +offered an illustration of what might possibly happen. With such +manifest agitation everywhere, with funds falling, and the entire +political sky lowering, there cannot be much wonder that many waited +patiently for some issue before they trusted to resources other than +their own. Not only were actual hardships endured during this great +crisis in our history, but the working classes brought hardships upon +themselves. Led by intemperate and impracticable men, many thousands +of the more ignorant beguiled themselves into believing that the +Reform Bill would do everything for them, and they would need to do +nothing; that every man would be forced into independence and +competence whether he would or no; that taxes would be repealed; and +that in this new state of society there would no longer be any need of +that spirit of striving which is at the bottom of all true schemes of +social progress and advancement. This period over, many illusions were +dispelled, many useful lessons learnt. Under somewhat fairer and +happier auspices, society settled down into its old ruts again, only +too thankful in many cases that the old ways were still open. After +the year 1832, the progress of Savings Banks continued to be eminently +satisfactory. There was a transitory cloud in 1837, and another in +1839, caused by exceptionally hard times, such as a bad harvest and +scarcity of food, and distress in the manufacturing districts caused +by unusual reverses in trade, when again the funds laid by came +opportunely in aid; but, with these exceptions, the Returns furnish no +further grounds for remark. We will therefore proceed to give a small +table, which, without giving the details of each year, shows in a +clear light the progress made by the banks at the expiration of three +quinquennial periods. + + TABLE 2. + + From 1825 to 1840. + + +--------------+-------------+--------------+-------------------------+ + | | Number of | Total Amount | Increase. | + | Year ended | Depositors. | of Deposits +------------+------------+ + | | | from 1817. | Depositors.| Deposits. | + +--------------+-------------+--------------+------------+------------+ + | | | £ | | | + | 20 Nov. 1825 | 358,160 | 13,769,988 | --- | --- | + | 20 Nov. 1830 | 430,166 | 15,739,907 | 72,096 | 1,969,919 | + | 20 Nov. 1835 | 587,488 | 17,705,228 | 157,322 | 1,965,321 | + | 20 Nov. 1840 | 824,162 | 22,915,940 | 236,674 | 5,200,712 | + +--------------+-------------+--------------+------------+------------+ + +Taking the year 1841, on account of the facilities for calculation +afforded by the census of that year, we find that up to the 20th of +November, 1841, the total number of Savings Banks in the United +Kingdom was 555, of which 428 were in England, 23 in Wales, 76 in +Ireland, and 28 in Scotland. The smallness of the number of Scotch +banks is accounted for by the popular character of the private banks, +and the fact that until within six years of the period we have +reached, or 1835, none of the acts relating to Savings Banks had any +reference to Scotland. The average amount of each deposit in 1841 +was--in England about 30_l._; in Ireland 29_l._; and in Scotland +12_l._ The total number of depositors in England as compared with the +population of 1841, was one to every 22 inhabitants, in Wales 1 in 58, +in Scotland 1 in 52, and in Ireland 1 in 103. + +One of the most positive proofs of the increase in the provident +habits of the people between 1828 and 1844 is to be found in the +increase of the number of small depositors. In 1828 the number of +depositors in Savings Banks who had not subscribed more than 20_l._ +was 203,604. In 1844 they had increased to 564,642, or nearly three +times the number.[54] The amount of the deposits in the first instance +was 1,473,389_l._; in 1844 it reached 3,654,799_l._ One writer, +overlooking the fact that the increase here spoken of was a gradual +one year by year, has endeavoured to trace the effect of the decrease +in the amount of large deposits and the increase of the number of +small ones to the operations of the Act for the Amendment of the Poor +Law in 1834. There can be no question that this act supplied motives +for economy, and operated in increasing the number of provident +people; but in view of the fact that the increase in the number of +depositors between 1833 and 1834 was exactly in proportion to the +increase between 1834 and 1835 or 1835 and 1836, it is quite as +proper, and we submit more so, to speak of Savings Banks operating +beneficially upon the Poor Law, as that the Poor Law Amendment Act +increased in this way the efficiency of Savings Banks.[55] + +What assistance these Savings Banks must have rendered during the +crises through which the people passed between 1817 and 1841 may be +judged by the use made of them. But we think we see more in Savings +Banks than that they enabled many in times of hardship by a wise +foresight to escape much that others suffered. We see in the progress +of these banks undoubted evidence of the increasing prosperity of the +country, in relation at any rate to the poorer classes; and they were +among the direct agents in creating that prosperity. Savings Banks +created and then fostered habits of economy and frugality, and every +man won over to the pursuit and practice of these habits increased the +sum of the prosperity manifest during the period we are considering. +Perhaps we can make the position we here take up more clear from the +following table,[56] carefully compiled from the best sources of +information on such subjects, and which we think is calculated to show +the good influence of Savings Banks in a somewhat new and striking +light. + + TABLE 3. + + Showing the Increase in the Deposits of the Savings Banks in each + English[57] county, between 1834 and 1841, and the Decrease in the + Poor Rates during the same period:-- + + +--------------+----------+----------+---------+--------+-------------------+ + | | | No. of | |Increase| Expended in | + | County. |Population|Depositors| Amounts | of |Relief of the Poor.| + | | in |in Savings| of |Deposits+---------+---------+ + | | 1841. | Banks in | Deposits| since | in | in | + | | | 1841. | in 1841.| 1834. | 1834. | 1841. | + +--------------+----------+----------+---------+--------+---------+---------+ + | | | | £ | £ | £ | £ | + |Bedfordshire | 107,937| 3,584 | 111,526| 35,016| 77,819 | 41,063 | + |Berkshire | 160,226| 12,020 | 359,676| 64,152| 100,183 | 74,708 | + |Bucks | 155,989| 4,657 | 128,025| 61,140| 124,200 | 74,007 | + |Cambridge | 164,509| 3,831 | 121,777| 24,423| 96,497 | 72,158 | + |Chester | 395,300| 15,302 | 554,400| 89,325| 92,640 | 77,698 | + |Cornwall | 341,269| 12,915 | 492,013| 101,980| 93,037 | 85,063 | + |Cumberland | 197,912| 7,538 | 211,741| 65,313| 43,067 | 36,867 | + |Derby | 272,202| 10,099 | 321,897| 84,964| 72,721 | 55,238 | + |Devon | 533,731| 49,866 |1,492,072| 289,154| 210,825 | 195,402 | + |Dorset | 174,743| 11,470 | 412,628| 110,350| 84,293 | 80,097 | + |Durham | 324,277| 7,023 | 201,354| 17,596| 79,399 | 66,639 | + |Essex | 344,995| 14,413 | 428,202| 86,941| 239,946 | 170,356 | + |Gloucester | 431,307| 25,526 | 818,157| 190,324| 161,449 | 130,321 | + |Hereford | 114,438| 8,350 | 211,251| 41,430| 56,683 | 43,512 | + |Hertford | 157,237| 3,785 | 113,425| 1,195| 85,799 | 61,250 | + |Huntingdon | 58,699| 1,765 | 52,001| 13,594| 35,884 | 25,329 | + |Kent | 548,161| 33,392 | 945,273| 219,416| 343,878 | 208,786 | + |Lancaster | 1,667,064| 65,402 |1,980,143| 369,473| 253,405 | 260,227 | + |Leicester | 215,855| 6,803 | 173,581| 31,329| 100,857 | 70,423 | + |Lincoln | 362,717| 18,451 | 497,509| 82,035| 161,074 | 103,894 | + |Middlesex | 1,576,616| 176,849 |4,521,589| 598,329| 582,412 | 435,606 | + |Monmouth | 134,349| 3,099 | 76,651| 23,416| 27,626 | 24,819 | + |Norfolk | 412,621| 18,336 | 527,300| 162,298| 306,787 | 182,229 | + |Northampton | 199,061| 8,410 | 243,600| 29,157| 140,179 | 86,148 | + |Northumberland| 250,268| 12,862 | 459,390| 69,321| 71,983 | 64,649 | + |Nottingham | 249,773| 15,763 | 420,345| 13,951| 66,030 | 57,721 | + |Oxford | 163,573| 10,246 | 285,713| 28,324| 80,616 | 76,474 | + |Rutland | 21,840| No Savings Bank. | 7,008 | 7,453 | + |Salop | 239,014| 16,452 | 557,190| 69,543| 84,493 | 57,571 | + |Somerset | 436,002| 22,019 | 679,072| 105,153| 176,286 | 157,022 | + |Southampton | 354,940| 23,942 | 687,473| 99,324| 203,466 | 142,507 | + |Stafford | 510,206| 15,368 | 452,306| 84,399| 120,512 | 95,242 | + |Suffolk | 315,129| 11,972 | 348,176| 89,939| 245,509 | 138,228 | + |Surrey | 582,613| 31,250 | 749,199| 159,068| 261,501 | 199,477 | + |Sussex | 299,770| 15,709 | 420,570| 84,190| 246,626 | 145,013 | + |Warwick | 402,121| 22,291 | 468,270| 93,168| 158,159 | 102,828 | + |Westmoreland | 56,469| 942 | 24,719| 1,920| 22,283 | 17,607 | + |Wilts | 260,007| 11,706 | 413,941| 97,140| 173,925 | 133,573 | + |Worcester | 223,484| 12,218 | 401,330| 53,978| 81,612 | 62,958 | + |Yorkshire | 1,591,584| 69,545 |2,105,866| 435,129| 418,742 | 372,166 | + +--------------+----------+----------+---------+--------+---------+---------+ + +In every county, as may be seen from this table, there is a decided +increase in the number and amount of Savings Banks deposits between +the two periods; and in every instance, except two, there is a decided +decrease in the amount spent on the relief of the poor. Not only so, +but taking the two exceptional cases, we find that in the one case, a +small county, there had not up to this time been any Savings Bank +established; and in the other instance, that of the large and populous +county of Lancaster,--which shows an increase instead of a diminution +on the two years in the amount of poor relief,--it is not less curious +that its industrial population have never patronised the Savings Banks +to the same extent, in proportion to their number and earnings, as the +same classes have done in the country generally. Further, the three +counties of Kent, Middlesex, and Norfolk, which in 1841 had the +greatest number of depositors in Savings Banks in proportion to their +population, also exhibit the pleasing fact of the greatest diminution +in the amount spent in the relief of the poor. It may be said that +many considerations ought to enter into such calculations as those we +are making, and that at best such statistics only prove that the same +causes, such as abundance of work, good harvests, &c., will contribute +to the increase of surplus funds, and the decrease in measures of +relief. But it must be borne in mind that prosperous trade does not +necessarily produce frugal people and provident habits, though it +often enough leads to unnecessary and vicious expenditure. By far the +greater part of the decrease in the sums given for relief is +unquestionably owing to the operations of the Poor Law Amendment Bill +already referred to, which Lord Althorp carried through Parliament. +Truly stigmatized before his time as "the great political gangrene of +England," the old Poor Laws of this country first made paupers, and +then promptly maintained them. It is, however, the relative proportion +in which the increase of Savings Bank deposits stood to the decrease +of the sums for relief that we wish here to impress upon the reader, +leaving him to form his own conclusions. And with all respect to those +who framed the measure of 1834, which was very beneficial to the +country and only just to the independent poor, we think the results +have been rather too much magnified. From the year 1820 we can plainly +trace a manifest improvement in the condition of the poor, and we have +not scrupled to ask for a place for the Saving Bank system among those +important agencies which have led to this improvement. Still, taking +the measures of Poor Law relief as a good criterion of their +condition, we find that the sum total paid for the ten years between +1811 and 1821 was 68,000,000_l._, giving a yearly average of +6,800,000_l._ In the ten years ending 1832, the amount of poor rates +was 62,900,000_l_., or a yearly average of about 6,200,000_l._ Thus we +have, in spite of what was considered the iniquitous system of relief, +and in spite of an increase of population amounting to 16 per cent., a +clear reduction of 5,000,000_l_. within ten years. The advancement is +still more clear, if we take the case of the large centres of +population, but this is perhaps, unnecessary. + +The Returns, however, of the Registrar General may be supplemented by +Revenue Returns for the same period, from which the improvement in the +condition of the industrial classes may be made still more palpable. +In 1814 the consumption of tobacco was 15,000,000 lbs.; in 1832 it had +increased to 20,000,000 lbs., an augmentation of 31 per cent., while +the population only showed an increase of 24 per cent. during the same +interval. The amount expended upon articles which, like tobacco and +intoxicating drinks, are not, to say the least, of the first +necessity, forms no incorrect measure of the progress of the nation, +and of the ability of the people to bear the national burdens which +must be imposed. In 1814 the consumption of sugar was 1,997,000 lbs.; +in 1832 it amounted to 3,655,000 lbs., an increase of 83 per cent. to +be set against the above rate of increase in the population. The tea +consumed in 1814 was 19,224,000 lbs.; in 1832 it had increased to +31,568,000 lbs., or an increase of 65 per cent.; and coffee increased +from 6,324,000 in 1814 to 22,952,000 lbs., or an increase of 183 per +cent., in 1832. The increased consumption of such articles, (not +forgetting reductions in price,) was an evidence of nothing, if not of +the growing prosperity of the people. Such items show that the people, +as a mass, enjoyed a greater command over the comforts of life than +formerly. The rich man, of course, added little or nothing to his +ordinary consumption of the articles that were necessary to his +comfort or convenience, but with the poor it was very different. For +example, the amount of silk imported during the period of which we +have spoken varied but little, while the imports on the article of +cotton wool, the staple fibre of the masses, increased from +152,000,000 lbs. in 1820 to 259,000,000 lbs. in 1832, or an increase +of 70 per cent.[58] + +Enough has been said, we hope, to show the gradual progress made in +these years in all that relates to the social advancement and +well-being of the people, and to what extent Savings Banks played a +part on that advancement. Because these institutions have been proved +to create frugal habits--in much the same way that the supply of +intoxicating drinks creates in many cases a demand for them--as well +as to give them direction and encouragement, we have endeavoured to +prove their right to a foremost place among the many other mighty +engines of civilization which have made Great Britain what it is. And +now we must conclude this chapter with a less pleasant task, and refer +briefly, at present, to two foes to Savings Banks, one without and one +within, both of which had a very powerful effect as hindrances on the +progress of these useful institutions. We refer to the doubts which +began to be cast on the utility of Savings Banks by portions of the +public press, and the serious frauds which now for the first time +began to engage public attention. In 1844, when Mr. Goulburn's bill +was under discussion and subsequently to that, several newspapers +began to dispute that Savings Banks were either so useful or so wise +as had been generally thought up to that period. The _Times_ +newspaper, with an hostility which Dr. Chalmers characterized as "most +glaring" and "likely to mislead every artisan from the path of his +true interests," laughed at and ridiculed the system long after it had +proved its usefulness in numerous ways. That paper, which opposed the +new Poor Law of 1834 with great bitterness, and had treated with +manifest injustice other schemes for the social amelioration of the +poor, devoted several editorial articles in 1844 to throw discredit on +the institution of Savings Banks. The articles in question were +calculated to work a mischievous practical influence on many readers, +especially on those who gave little attention to the subject of +political economy; they were meant to create a spirit of opposition to +Savings Banks, but in many cases they must have had the opposite +effect and failed to convince all who were not equally perverse. To +show the kind of argument indulged in by the leading journal at a time +when it was equally as now the greatest newspaper power in the land, +when its rebuke or praise had a weighty effect on any important +measure, and when Cabinet Councils debated whether it should be +propitiated or defied,[59] we need only give the following extracts:-- + + "A labourer sixty years of age has, by hook or crook, + saved 500_l._ We know such a case. The 500_l._ is the + plague of his life. It would be a mercy to swindle him out + of it, except that he would probably feel a good deal at + the loss. Could he forget it, he would be both a happier + and better man. To begin with, it is a guilty possession. + His father is maintained by a distant Union; his sons and + daughters are all but forbidden his cottage. He invests it + in secret.... When he dies his children will squander it, + not in dissipation, but in the mere feebleness and + incontinence of ingrained poverty." + +Another extract striking at the root of all habits of providence and +thrift:-- + + "When a labourer has saved 50_l._ or 100_l._ then the + greatest difficulty comes: what is he to do with his + money? He has caught a tartar. His usual course is a very + natural one, because it is the first course that + offers--to open a public house. He does so, and generally + and happily loses his money. A labourer with 200_l._ in + his pocket has a very fair prospect of the union workhouse + before him. He is not commercial enough to open a shop, + and small farms are obsolete. He may, to be sure, shut his + doors against all his kith and kin, _and buy a selfish + annuity with the sum_, which will just keep him while he + rots and dies. But will he, and who is to advise him to do + so?" + +Granted that things are very different now to what they were when +these remarks were penned, and that investments of any sort may now be +made with comparative ease, it seems to us that the argument of the +_Times_ was based throughout on false assumptions; that it is a +mistake to suppose that the primary or sole object of Savings Banks +was to build up capitals for investiture in business or trade, and not +for expenditure on the necessaries or comforts of life; nor to make +every labourer a capitalist, in the usual acceptation of that term, +but to enable him to end his days in some sort of independence, and in +some degree of peace and comfort. Savings Banks at their establishment +were, always have been, and still are, meant for accumulations, not to +be traded with,--though, of course, there is no prohibition,--but +always have had and still have a homelier aim. They are meant to +inculcate the habit of laying by for an evil day, for old age, the +winter of life, or as Dr. Chalmers, we believe, strikingly puts it, +"for those mishaps and sicknesses which might be termed its days of +foul weather." In such case the money will not be traded with, but in +right season spent. The answers to some of the arguments of the +_Times_ are indeed so obvious that it seems superfluous even to state +them. Money in hand is all the world over better than beggary. That +the inculcation of such a principle will tend to fill our towns with +paupers is monstrous absurdity. The object and design of Savings Banks +are, of course, primarily, to seek to get hold of the surplusage of +money in the hands of the poorer classes, to rescue it from vicious or +unnecessary expenditure at the best seasons, in order to its forming a +reserve for needful subsistence or additional comfort at another +period. "A domestic servant," says another article of the _Times_,[60] +"at the age of fifty-five or sixty, finds she is incapable of further +employment. She has saved 80_l._ Very creditable to her, of course, +and very stingy she must have been to her nephews and nieces to have +done so much. But what is she to do with her 80_l._?... Across the +Channel such a sum would be a mine of agricultural wealth. On this +side the Channel it would be a snowball in the sun." This is, by the +way, an extreme and unfortunate case, and one we would hope not often, +in all the particulars, occurring. But were it frequent, surely 80_l._ +in hand is better than nothing and an immediate resort to the parish. +To say that the 80_l._ would always remain 80_l._ and would not melt +away like snow before the sun, would be ridiculous; but if there be +any virtue in self-reliance, and in self-dependence, it surely would +_not_ be ridiculous to say that that which enabled a woman to minister +to her own wants in a greater or less degree, and in the same degree +to rescue herself from becoming a burden upon other people, was, so +far as it went, a solace and a blessing to her. Once, and only once +more, the _Times_ declared that "investing money in Savings Banks was +mere hoarding," nothing more than the creating of misers. + + "It is most melancholy to notice the few helps and + encouragements to thrift and husbandry which our present + condition allows the labourer. We tell him to save. We put + it as the most indispensable moral duty; the great + commandment of our law. We build prisons (sic) for those + whom age or calamity have proved transgressors against it; + yet, having laid this heavy burden upon the labourer, + where is the 'little finger' of help contributed by + society. We refer him to the Savings Banks and to Friendly + Societies, _i.e._ we tell him to hoard his money, or to + secure an annuity, on the chance of old age. There cannot + be two modes of investment less interesting, less social, + less suited to the condition of the mind of a labourer. + Where it is practised, we can only say that it is an act + of faith and prudence so dry, so pure, so transcendental, + as to be above humanity, especially that very form of + humanity found in the English agricultural labourer." + +Here we think both arguments and facts are at fault. There can be no +question that at this time there were many almost insuperable +obstacles to the profitable investment of small sums. These obstacles, +caused by the state of society and the tendency of legislation, +especially on the distribution of land, have since been removed, and +no longer influence the case. Why, however, the best should not be +made of existing means is at least a fair question? People must save +money--hoard it, if the term be liked better--before it can be used. +It may be uninteresting and unsocial to save money instead of spending +it, but people must do either the one thing or the other; and if they +do the former, they at least know the value of a secure place of +deposit where their money shall lie in safe and remunerative custody +till it be needed. Then as to the facts. "The acts of faith and +prudence," "so dry, so transcendental, &c.," were at that time, +as at present, more frequent where the agricultural labourer is in +strongest force than in almost any other part of the kingdom. In +Dorsetshire--"poverty-stricken Dorsetshire," as it is called by the +_Times_ itself--the Savings Banks return for 1843 averaged more than +2_l._ a head for the entire population, while in Lancashire, with its +highly-paid manufacturing population, it only averaged 1_l._ Nor is +this a solitary instance. The rural population throughout the country +are by no means the least frequent visitors to Savings Banks.[61] + +Far more important, however, in their disastrous results than those +attacks from without, were the blows levelled at Savings Banks from +within. There were now developed inside these institutions seeds of +much mischief, which materially retarded the growth of Savings Banks +in subsequent years, if not of the habits which the promoters of +Savings Banks sought to engender and foster. The subject of Savings +Bank frauds will belong to a subsequent chapter; but as one or two +cases occurred during the time treated of here, and had their +influence on subsequent legislation, we have considered it advisable +to dispose of them before proceeding to describe the legislation of +the last twenty years. + +It was seen from the commencement of Savings Bank operations that the +first and most imperative element should be complete and +unquestionable security. When Government undertook to legislate for +Savings Banks it did so with a view to their protection from those +frauds which must necessarily overtake some of a great number of +semi-private undertakings. In 1817 the Banks were rapidly increasing +in number and importance, and it was only natural to suppose and +assume that abuses would creep into the management. To meet the +probability of a misapplication of the funds, Government agreed to +take all the money deposited with the trustees of Savings Banks, and +to guarantee a certain fixed rate of interest for it, even above that +which the fund directly obtained for itself. This was at once an +encouragement to the frugal and a perfect security for such sums as +were paid to the National Debt Commissioners. In the interval, +however, between the payment of the sums by the depositors and the +second payment by the trustees, no safeguard was provided beyond the +vigilance of the same voluntary and unpaid trustees. Those trustees +were completely irresponsible after the year 1828. Before that time we +can only assume their responsibility, not from the ordinary reading of +the enactment, but from a decision which was given in a court of law. +That decision was to the effect "that deposits are made by persons, +not on the faith of the person acting as cashier or actuary, but upon +the faith of the gentlemen who act as trustees.... If, therefore, the +clerk or other person employed by them (the trustees) is guilty of +peculation, they are themselves liable for any defalcation which may +ensue." Whether this decision was right in law or not matters little +now, inasmuch as the Act of 1828 released the trustees from any such +obligation entirely, declaring as it did that "no trustee or manager +should be personally liable, except for his own acts or deeds, or for +anything done by him;" and even this was again limited "to cases where +he should be guilty of _wilful neglect or default_." The valueless +character of the safeguards granted to those who of all classes most +needed ample security for that for which they had pinched and +economized soon began to be seen. + +Having limited the period of our survey in this chapter to the year +1844, we cannot here introduce the case of the great frauds in Savings +Banks which created such painful sensations all over the country as +one by one the most monstrous iniquities practised on the most +deserving of the poor came to light. Our only reference here will +therefore be to one such case in Ireland, and the first instance of +the kind in England. + +The case of the Cuffe Street Bank in Dublin, which, so far as we can +find, was the first serious defalcation committed on Savings Banks +made public, was also one of the most ingenious instances of an +accumulation of frauds on record. The other case occurred in connexion +with the Hertford Savings Bank in 1835. The Dublin fraud brought to +light earlier than this date deserves the first place, not only on +this ground, but because it was greater in extent and deeper in +villany. No one can read of the numerous cases of fraud which have +occurred at different times in connexion with the Irish Savings Banks +without feelings of deep indignation. The influence, it is quite +clear, is felt in Ireland to this day. The Irish people are quite an +exceptional people, with whom forethought and self-control are not +indigenous. One of the most important organs of public opinion in +Ireland, in alluding to such topics, has said that "nothing can be +expected from the Irish peasant until he learns to restrain his +irregular impulses--impulses often generous, but too often impetuous +and ill-directed--until he learns to make the gratifications of the +present yield to considerations for the future." For many years the +Irish poor were left to themselves, and the result was shown in their +reckless and determined improvidence. The institution of Savings Banks +is described as having come to the Irish industrial population like a +ray of hope. Great improvement took place. The Irish labourer has +never been worth so much as the English one,--the wages of many at the +period of which we are speaking being generally sixpence, and scarcely +ever more than a shilling a day,--and yet it can be proved that this +very class had managed to contribute to the Savings Banks in Ireland, +up to the year 1841, no less a sum than 2,000,000_l._ out of the total +of 2,800,000_l._ then remaining in Irish Banks. It is impossible for +pen to describe the result of a bank failure, occasioned by the worst +possible circumstances of fraud, upon such classes as these. The +actual failures spread dismay over the entire country. The loss they +sustained was their ruin; for, so wronged, scores of them were thrown +back despairing on their former recklessness, and referred to their +treatment as full excuse for any amount of subsequent improvidence. +And men will hesitate before they blame them. + +The Cuffe Street Savings Bank at Dublin was originally established in +1818 as the St. Peter's Parish Savings Bank. It was started by several +of the most influential gentlemen in Dublin, who formed themselves +into trustees and managers. The then Archbishop of Dublin, Archdeacon +Torrens, Judge Johnson, and Serjeant (afterwards Lord Chief Justice) +Lefroy being among the most prominent. On the strength of the +well-known character and wealth of the trustees, this bank from its +commencement did a very large business; so much so, that it was +calculated to have received in deposits in one year (1831, when the +bank was at its best,) no less than 100,000_l._ The bank began on an +unpretending scale enough, to judge by the appointment and pay of its +only salaried official.[62] This person was a Mr. Dunn, who combined +in 1818 the functions of sexton to the parish with which the bank was +immediately associated, with that of actuary of the bank, at a salary +of five pounds a-year. The rector of the parish was security for Dunn; +but all such considerations troubled the trustees but little. On the +strength of this person's religious character, for "he was a very +correct man,"[63] he soon became factotum. Almost from the first a boy +of the name of Ballance, whom Dunn had taken from a charity school, +was his book-keeper. This lad was also a kind of general servant of +Dunn's, living with him in his house, and soon became his perfect +tool. Without making him his confidant--for the actuary was too +cunning, as it seems, for that--he used him exactly as if he had been +one. For eight years Dunn managed solely the affairs of the bank, +giving the most perfect satisfaction to every one, depositors as well +as trustees. In 1826, however, a Mr. Lannigan, a barrister, comes +prominently upon the scene. This gentleman was a trustee, and seems to +have been dissatisfied with being one merely in name. Mr. Lannigan +began, therefore, a little "meddling," and from the way his +interference was received, this trustee, shrewder than the rest, began +to suspect something not quite right. He then looked narrowly into the +system of keeping accounts, and was not long in finding sufficient to +awaken the strongest suspicions of Dunn's malpractices. Dunn, however, +had not been asleep all this time. He not only with great ingenuity +kept his accounts as square as possible, but operated upon the +credulity of the other working trustees, and succeeded in getting a +party among the number to form a wall round him. On Mr. Lannigan +mentioning his suspicions to his brother trustees, Dunn's machinations +stood him in good stead: they would not hear anything to the prejudice +of this "very correct man." Mr. Lannigan repeated his attempts with +the same effect; was considered a suspicious and troublesome fellow, +and got no little abuse for his pains.[64] For five years it is said +this unseemly contest went on, and although this trustee succeeded so +far as to get more than one sub-committee appointed, nothing came of +it: the committee were too prejudiced in favour of their servant to go +the right way to work in investigating the matter, or they were too +easily blindfolded by him to find anything out. Mr. Lannigan, however, +persevered in his opposition, and was rewarded by Dunn's retiring, +amidst the condolences of the whole parish, which evidently thought +him a very ill-used man. Soon the tables turned; and grief of this +cheap sort gave place to bitter indignation. Immediately after the man +had resigned a depositor applied for some money, when, on comparing +his pass-book with the ledger, the account was found to be open in the +former and closed in the latter. Hereupon the _ci-devant_ parish +sexton absconded. With eyes at length wide open, the trustees called +for the books of other depositors, and without as yet making any +noise, soon found that Dunn had appropriated 6,000_l._ to his own use. +The trustees then communicated with the National Debt Commissioners, +and asked their advice in the emergency, suggesting that some one +should be sent over to inquire into the circumstances of the bank, and +to close it, if it were found necessary to do so. Mr. Foot, one of the +trustees, a Director of the Bank of Ireland, who had been one of +Dunn's strongest friends, and who was now one of the most anxious that +the position of the bank should be retrieved, took the communication +to London, and succeeded in securing the services of Mr. Tidd Pratt. +That gentleman went to Dublin, however, not to investigate the case; +but simply to make awards, stating how far and in what cases the +trustees were liable to pay the depositors. He adjudged in 208 cases, +and to the amount of 11,864_l._ Of this sum 7,500_l._ were to be paid +by the trustees out of the funds remaining in the bank, while the rest +claimed up to that time did not consist of legal claims, as the money +had been paid to Dunn out of office hours, at his private residence, +and even in the street. + +Mr. Pratt found out in making his awards that almost every legislative +enactment relating to Savings Banks had here been systematically +violated; that the bank itself had rules founded upon the Act, but +that they had all been evaded. Depositors had placed as much as +200_l._ in the bank in one year, and had received interest upon all +they had deposited; the same individuals were also found to have had +two different accounts in the bank. In all cases of this kind where a +deficiency existed Mr. Pratt ruled that the depositors could not +legally recover, but he recommended in his private capacity, that if +the bank were carried on, such sums might be paid out of the accruing +yearly profits. Mr. Pratt is said to have recommended in the same way +that the bank might go on under a fresh management, and seems to have +appointed another set of trustees for the purpose; at the same time +informing them that the National Debt Commissioners would _receive +without remark_ the yearly statements as usual, though those +statements must of necessity for some time to come exhibit an increase +of liabilities over assets. The bank was carried on, and against Mr. +Pratt's advice the whole of the claims were at once met, "with a +view," as the trustees said, "to induce a more perfect confidence." In +1845, the Government observing that year by year the bank was getting +into a worse financial position,[65] made an attempt to close it; but +on the case being submitted to the Attorney and Solicitor General, +they found they could not do so unless the Annual Returns were _not +sent_. The Returns, worthless as they were, had been regularly sent, +and thus the Executive was powerless. After another crisis at this +period, the bank finally went down in 1848, the liabilities amounting +to the sum of 56,000_l._ and about 90_l._ to meet it. The number of +depositors who had accounts with the bank at the time was 1,900, +nine-tenths of whom were poor people. In a debate which occurred in +the House of Commons immediately after this failure, Mr. Reynolds, the +member for Dublin, commented in strong terms on the conduct of the +National Debt Commissioners, who had known the state the bank was in +for fifteen years, and had never zealously interfered.[66] This member +also stated his intention to move for a Select Committee to +investigate the whole question. The Chancellor of the Exchequer said +he saw no objection to such a committee, and it was subsequently +appointed. The proceedings of that committee, and the assistance which +was given to the defrauded depositors after much debate, will be +referred to in their proper place in the next chapter. + +The results of this fraud in Dublin and the neighbourhood was most +disastrous; not only so, but years afterwards, in remote parts of +England as well as Ireland, this case of fraud was referred to with +considerable bitterness, and urged as an excuse for prodigality and +recklessness. There was at the time a still more important Savings +Bank, with several branches, in Dublin; and so great was the effect of +the fraud, that nearly all the money deposited in this bank was +withdrawn within four weeks, and it was a considerable period before +it recovered its position. The depositors in the Cuffe Street bank +were of the poorest classes, and the effect upon them when they found +they had been robbed of all they had is described as painful in the +extreme. "Dealing with the case, and the details of it," said one +influential gentleman, "I have never seen anything more calculated to +excite painful feelings than this was; some of the depositors were on +the very verge of wretchedness and destitution, without a shilling to +support them." According to another excellent authority[67] some died +of want and distress, and many of them had to seek the shelter of the +workhouse. Before the case came on for discussion in Parliament, +several petitions were presented to the House of Commons, praying for +help, and setting the pitiable situation in which the frauds had +placed many of the depositors before the public; and one, signed by +5,076 citizens of Dublin, with the Protestant and Catholic Archbishops +of Dublin heading the names, bore out in full the facts to which we +have just alluded. + +The fraud in connexion with the Hertford Savings Bank was one of the +earliest cases that occurred in England, the particulars of which have +been made known. This bank, as will be remembered, was one of the +first formed in this country. Like many more of the original banks, +this one was conducted on the principle of making it a Head office for +the surrounding district, with branch banks radiating from it as from +a centre. Clergymen, as has already been stated, almost exclusively +acted as the Agents for these branch banks. The Rev. Mr. Small, a +clergyman at St. Albans, acted in this capacity in that town, and in +the course of a connexion with this bank, extending over a period of +several years, contrived to embezzle the money entrusted to him to the +extent of 24,000_l._ This he did in two different ways. In the one +case, he received deposits and did not remit them; and in the other, +acting with due clerical discretion, he applied to the Head bank for +sums in the names of depositors for which he had not received their +warrants. The systematic frauds of this reverend gentleman were found +out when the St. Albans Bank was detached from the parent stock under +the erroneous impression that it was strong enough to commence +business on its own account. It appears that in this way the trustees +of the principal bank were only liable for half the amount of the +defalcations; but it ought to be placed on honourable record, that +eventually, through the liberality of the trustees, who, fortunately, +were principally rich noblemen, the poor depositors were reimbursed of +their losses in full. We have gathered the above facts from statements +made in the House of Lords in 1835, and as the question of the +liability of trustees and the security of deposits was then largely +introduced, it may be interesting to follow up the story with a few +remarks to which the case gave rise. The Marquis of Salisbury, one of +the trustees, asked the premier, Lord Melbourne, if the law, as it +then stood, could not be altered. The liability of trustees, +inculpating, as it might, innocent men, rendered many gentlemen most +anxious to withdraw their names from such offices. This was one horn +of the dilemma. The other was, how depositors could be made to feel +secure. "It was no trifling matter. When Savings Banks were first +formed, but few individuals could ever have expected that the sums +subscribed would amount to what they now were."[68] It was high time +that the security of these savings, and as to who was liable for them, +should be once for all distinctly settled. Lord Salisbury was sure no +one would like to remain a trustee without knowing the amount of his +liability. He then appealed to Viscount Melbourne--who with himself +was a trustee of the Hertfordshire Bank, and would have to pay a share +of the loss--whether he would not have a bill brought in to remedy the +grievance. Lord Melbourne thought it was not necessary. Much as he +lamented, for his own sake and that of the country, what had occurred +down in Hertfordshire, he did not think that in consequence of this +one misfortune they should interfere with the general business of the +Savings Banks in the country. Let them look sharper after the +management, and then such things would not occur. Lord Brougham +believed there had been great carelessness in the case of this +particular bank, "but was happy to find that the trustees were such +undoubtedly solvent men." Lord Salisbury and the Duke of Richmond were +certain, if nothing had to be done, that many trustees would at once +withdraw their names, "and then," said the latter, "the body of +depositors would withdraw their money." Lord Denman reminded his noble +friends that, if the trustees acted so, their responsibility would, in +all probability, follow them into their retirement,--"he was by no +means sure that their withdrawal would put an end to their +responsibility." The Earl of Wicklow hoped that nothing would be said +or done which would destroy the confidence of the public in Savings +Banks. He trusted that, in this instance, "the trustees would be found +liable for the whole of the deficiency." Lord Salisbury thanked the +noble Earl for his kind wish, but explained how it was not possible +that this could occur. An alteration in the law was eventually made, +but the consideration of this change we leave till the next chapter. + + + [45] _Cobbett's Register._ January, 1817. + + [46] Nearly, but not quite. Injury is still done by false and + mischievous teachers of working men; and the latter resent what + they consider their wrongs and grievances in ways which are + equally unjustifiable, if not exactly similar to those adopted by + their fathers. Those who would do real service to the working + classes are those who take up and expose the fallacies of living + demagogues, by which the latter are misguided and led to injure + themselves by strikes, combinations, and hostility to capital and + machinery. And educational reformers will do the State good + service in endeavouring to get lessons taught in political economy + to those who will be at some future day our mechanics and + artisans, and who from continued ignorance of the inevitable laws + of supply and demand, of the value, even to them, of the security + of property, of the laws which regulate the operations of the + market, may possibly fall into the errors and the mistakes of + their predecessors. + + [47] _Report of the Committee appointed by the Highland Society of + Scotland to consider what is the best mode of forming institutions + of the nature of Savings Banks, for receiving the deposits of + labourers and others._ Edinburgh, 1815. + + [48] Nine-tenths of the existing Benefit Societies are still held + at public houses. This arrangement must always be, so long as it + exists, a theme for reprobation. There cannot be many greater + anomalies than this of the association of the club and the cup, + the bane and the antidote, saving and wasting. Speaking on this + point, the Rev. J. B. Owen justly remarks that the strange + association "together verify the old pagan fable of the tub of + Danaus full of holes, whose daughters were condemned to be + perpetually filling it, while all that was so laboriously poured + in as wastefully and hopelessly ran out." Or, as some one else has + put it who has employed the same figure more strikingly:-- + + "Like Danaus' tub + Is the public house club: + Their customers' mouths are the holes; + Ill spared is the 'chink' + That's wasted in drink, + To the bane of their bodies and souls." + + [49] See next page. + + [50] _Quarterly Review_, vol. xxxii. p. 189. + + [51] "Many a man in that year," (1825), says Miss Martineau, "set + up for a banker who would, at another time, have as soon thought + of setting up for a king."--_History of the Thirty Years' Peace._ + Lord Liverpool complained afterwards of the system "which allowed + any petty tradesman, any cobbler or cheesemonger, to usurp the + royal prerogative, and issue money without check or control." + + [52] One prospectus of this date sets forth that, in the district + proposed for a mine there was "a vein of tin ore at its bottom, as + pure and as solid as a tin flagon." Another, "Where lumps of pure + gold, weighing from ten to fifty pounds, were lying totally + neglected," the quantity of gold in the mine "being considerably + more than was necessary for the supply of the whole world." Mr. + Canning, in reference to the companies projected, said soon + afterwards, "They fixed the public gaze, and excited the public + avidity so as to cover us, in the eyes of foreign nations, if not + with disgrace, at least with ridicule. They sprang up after the + dawn of the morning, and had passed away before the dews of the + evening descended. They came over the land like a cloud; they rose + like bubbles of vapour towards the heavens, and destroyed by the + puncture of a pin, they sank to the earth and were seen no more." + + [53] _Annual Register_, 1826. + + [54] _Progress of Savings Banks._ A series of tabular views, 1829 + to 1841, by Mr. J. Tidd Pratt. London. 1845. + + [55] _Companion to the Almanac_, 1839, p. 131. + + [56] See next page. + + [57] We give the statistics as relating to England only. Scotland + is out of the question, not merely on account of the slow progress + of Savings Banks there, but more especially because of there being + nothing analogous in Scotland to our English system of Poor Law + relief. + + [58] The mortality at the commencement of the present century was + 1 in 40; in 1831 it was 1 in 58; and in 1841, 1 in 62; showing + conclusively that the masses of the people were better housed, + better clad, and, best of all, better fed. + + [59] Miss Martineau's _History of the Thirty Years' Peace_, vol. + ii. p. 88. + + [60] _Times_, September, 1844. + + [61] To make this statement more clear, we append a later Return, + which, on other grounds, is interesting, as showing which classes + of the community resort most frequently to Savings Banks. It + speaks volumes as to the culpability of the higher paid English + operative, that the agricultural labourer, with ten or twelve + shillings a week, contrives to save more, relatively, than he does. + + +----------------------+---------+--------------+----------------+ + | |Number of| No. of |Average Deposits| + | Counties. | Accounts|Depositors to | per head of | + | | open in | every 100 of | Population, | + | | 1858. | Population. | 1858. | + +----------------------+---------+--------------+-----------------+ + | AGRICULTURAL:-- | | | £ s. d. | + |Berkshire | 16,393 | 9·64 | 2 12 7 | + |Devonshire | 61,558 | 10·33 | 2 18 11 | + |Dorsetshire | 14,134 | 7·67 | 2 12 2 | + |Yorkshire, East Riding| 25,091 | 11·35 | 3 6 1 | + | | | | | + | MANUFACTURING:-- | | | | + |Lancashire | 117,927 | 5·80 | 1 12 4 | + |Yorkshire, West Riding| 63,334 | 4·77 | 1 5 6 | + +----------------------+---------+--------------+----------------+ + + Something of this result can of course be traced to the varying + facilities, such as the number of banks, which were not always + established in the most populous localities. + + [62] _Vide Report of the Select Committee appointed to Inquire + into and Report upon the circumstances connected with the failure + of the Cuffe Street Savings Bank_, 1849, from which our account is + derived. + + [63] "I am certain," said a reverend witness, "that he was a very + correct man until the temptation of such an enormous quantity and + overflow of money got into his hands."--_Report_ (36). + + [64] One of the questions asked, by the Chairman of the Committee + just quoted from, of Mr. Fox, curate of St. Peter's, Dublin, was + (32): "Do I understand you to say, that Mr. Lannigan communicated + his suspicions regarding Mr. Dunn to the Board of Trustees?" + "Yes," answered the reverend gentleman, "and we used to have + _extremely warm contests_ there on that account, because he was + not a man very capable of explaining his meaning." + + [65] The whole of Dunn's defalcations, which were found ultimately + to amount to about 40,000_l._ were not found out till this year. + + [66] Great attempts were made to show, at this time, that the + Government had grievously neglected its duties, and that the + Arbitrator exceeded his. From the anomalous and unsatisfactory + state of the law, which occasionally placed the Commissioners and + the Certifying Barrister in embarrassing positions, a colour was + often lent to these allegations. It is very clear that flagrant + mistakes were palmed upon the National Debt Office, and never + found out, and not less certain that, at this early period, Mr. + Pratt was often hampered by uncertain and incomplete powers. + + [67] Dr. Hancock, in a pamphlet entitled, _Duties of the Public + with respect to Charitable Savings Banks_. Dublin, 1856. + + [68] About sixteen millions sterling. + + + + + CHAPTER V. + + LEGISLATION ON SAVINGS BANKS FROM 1844 TO THE PRESENT TIME. + + "If there is any question why such importance should be + ascribed to measures of a purely economic character, the + reply is, that these minor matters insensibly build up the + character of the nation; insignificant, it may be in + themselves, they mark, in the aggregate, the well-being or + the suffering of the British people."--_British Quarterly + Review._ + + +It will be remembered that in the third chapter we described the +course of Parliamentary action with regard to Savings Banks down to +the year 1844, and in that chapter left Mr. Hume, after an +unsuccessful attempt to reduce still further the rate of interest to +be given to depositors. The year 1844 is remarkable in the annals of +Savings Banks for the carrying of a measure known as Mr. Goulburn's +Act. The bill which was introduced by that gentleman, who was +Chancellor of the Exchequer in Sir Robert Peel's administration, was +meant in great part to provide against the constantly recurring frauds +in Savings Banks, and still more especially to allay the consternation +among trustees of safe banks, who now loudly complained of the state +of the law with respect to their liability. The discussion in the +House of Lords to which we alluded at the close of the last chapter +may be taken as showing that Savings Bank trustees were by no means +satisfied, several years before this, with the uncertain state of the +law. The great fraud on the Dublin Bank is described as having come +upon many trustees like a thunderbolt, and, aware that they were not +spared by the judicial bench[69] in cases of the kind, they now +threatened open rebellion. Mr. Goulburn received, as he stated +subsequently before a Committee of the House of Commons, a large +number of notices from such officers that, if the law were not +modified, they would resign their trusts. Moved by such considerations +as these, which the Government seem to have felt they could only +disregard at the imminent risk of shaking the credit of the entire +Savings Bank system, Mr. Goulburn introduced his bill (7 & 8 Victoria, +chap. 83,) on the 2d of May, 1844, to amend the laws relating to +Savings Banks.[70] The principal matter with which the bill dealt was +the liability of trustees, but this was by no means the only one. + +Second only in importance was the proposal to again reduce the rate of +interest. The remarks with which he introduced his proposal to reduce +the interest rate are curious, to say the least, when viewed in the +light of the speech to which we have previously referred. He felt +confident, he said, that the country _had no right_ to pay upon these +investments a higher rate of interest than could be obtained from an +investment in other securities. The Savings Banks rate was +considerably higher than any other investment of money. Although the +Act of 1828 had tended to reduce materially the number of depositors +of the better classes, and had increased--as we have shown in the last +chapter, we think quite conclusively, so far as figures can show +it--in a still greater proportion the number of those who had +deposited only small amounts, there were still many who were attracted +to Savings Banks on account of the interest given being higher than +that obtained from the Funds. Mr. Goulburn now proposed that the bill +should contain a clause reducing the rate from 2-1/2_d._ per cent. per +day, to 2_d._ With the same object in view, namely, to restrict the +operations of Savings Banks to the class of provident poor, the +Chancellor proposed to reduce the amount which any one could put by in +one year from 30_l._ to 20_l._ and to make the total amount which +could be deposited in any Savings Bank, 120_l_ instead of 150_l._[71] + +A further proposition, which provided for another wide-spread evil in +the same direction, was one requiring that no persons should be +permitted to make deposits as trustees without stating the names of +the persons for whom they were acting, and that no payments should be +made in such cases except under a receipt signed by all the parties +interested in the funds deposited. By means of the clauses in previous +acts relating to trust accounts, the law was regularly evaded, and +many persons had considerable sums of their own in Savings Banks, +which they represented as being held in trust for other people, whose +names even they were required not to divulge.[72] This clause was +carried without any trouble, as it met such a palpable evil; provision +was made, however, that the law should not be applicable to trust +accounts opened before the passing of the act. Had it not been for +such an exception, those who had recourse to the stratagem of feigning +the character of a trustee might have lost much of their money, on +account of the difficulty or impossibility of obtaining within the +time the signature of the party apparently interested. Though the +clause was not made retrospective, as some urged it should be, as a +punishment to those who had deceived the managers of Savings Banks, it +was clearly the best thing that could be done to put an end to the +practice, which entirely depended on the powers of the so-called +trustees to draw out the money alone. + +Mr. Goulburn spoke next on the question of liability of trustees. +Though the topic was engaging great attention out of doors, little was +said upon the point on this occasion: the section of the act thus +passed so quietly, was, however, pregnant with meaning, and, as it +turned out, pregnant with results. The clause provided that no trustee +or manager of any Savings Bank shall be liable to make good any +deficiency which may hereafter arise in the funds of any of these +institutions, unless these officers shall have respectively declared, +by writing under their hands, _that they are willing to be so +answerable_; and not only so, "but it shall be lawful for each of such +persons, or for such persons collectively, to limit his or their +responsibility to such sums as shall be specified in any such +instrument." This declaration was, of course, to be lodged with the +National Debt Commissioners. On a trustee or manager making it, he +became liable to make good every deficiency that might arise in the +bank with which he was connected, whether through his own +carelessness, or the cupidity of those under him; if a declaration of +this sort were not made, he was liable for nothing.[73] + +The above were the three most important changes made in the law of +Savings Banks under Mr. Goulburn's Act, but there were several minor +clauses introduced into the bill which deserve mention, and which +were, there can be no doubt, equally with the more important sections, +the direct results of the systematic frauds already described. With +his eye direct on the Cuffe Street actuary, concerning whom the +Government knew more than was generally known in 1844, the Chancellor, +whilst studiously avoiding all mention of the Dublin case, spoke of +those who, ignorant of business, took their money to improper places, +and made deposits out of office hours. The fourth section of the Act +was, therefore, designed to meet such cases, by declaring any actuary +or cashier who should so take money out of course, and not account for +it at the very first meeting, to be guilty of a misdemeanour, and +liable to be punished for fraud. Section 5 required that deposit-books +should be produced at the bank at least once every year for purposes +of examination and check. Section 17 provided that bonds of sufficient +security shall be given by every officer of a Savings Bank trusted +with the receipt and custody of money, and that these bonds shall be +placed (not with the Clerk of the Peace as before this Act), but under +the charge of the National Debt Commissioners. The old arrangement +likewise for depositing the Rules of the bank with the Clerk of the +Peace was repealed by section 18, and in its place the next section +enacted, that when a new bank was proposed, two written or printed +copies of the Rules of such bank should be transmitted to the +Barrister for his certificate, who, on approval, was to send one copy +back to the Bank authorities, and the other forward to the National +Debt Office. It was the 7 and 8 Vict. which, in addition, conferred +extended powers on the certifying barrister, by appointing him final +Arbitrator in any disputed case. The bill, after having been modified +in one or two respects, and contested on several points,[74] received +the Royal Assent in August, 1844, and was ordered to take effect on +the 20th of November following. + +It will not be supposed that the bill, of which the above is an +outline, was passed through its different stages without a word from +Mr. Hume. That member may well be forgiven for alluding on one of +these occasions to the past, and stating, how, so far as the rate of +interest was concerned, he had been fighting for the very thing which +was likely to be brought about. This was clearly a case of patience +and obstinacy rewarded.[75] The bill, however, Mr. Hume stated, +scarcely went far enough for him, though it was in the right +direction. He still held the opinion that persons holding Government +security should be placed on the same footing, and that those who had +20_l._ in the Funds should be dealt with in exactly the same manner as +those who had 1,000_l._ In this, however, we cannot help thinking Mr. +Hume went rather too far, and argued on the assumption that there was +no difference between the shilling of the rich and the shilling of the +poor man. Mr. Goulburn in replying to Mr. Hume said, he knew this was +a favourite point with the member for Montrose; but he could not +concede it: a poor man with 20_l._ in the Funds could not and never +would be able to bear a fall in the Funds so well as the large +stockholder. + +Early in 1848 a Committee of the House of Commons, consisting of the +Chancellor of the Exchequer, Mr. Goulburn, Mr. J. A. Smith, Sir J. Y. +Bullar, Mr. Shafto Adair, Mr. Bramston, Mr. Gibson Craig, Mr. Fagan, +Mr. H. Herbert, Mr. Herries, Mr. Hume, Mr. Reynolds, Mr. Poulett +Scrope, and Mr. Ker Seymour, was appointed to inquire into the state +of the Irish banks. As already related in the last chapter, the Cuffe +Street bank soon broke up after the trustees were enabled to take +refuge under the Act of 1844. Into this inquiry, which we have before +referred to, it is unnecessary to enter much further; it presents +little else than information relating to the flagrant breaches of +faith of officers to whom were entrusted the hard earnings of hundreds +of the poorest people living around them. The scope of the inquiry was +limited to Ireland. It seems to have been purposely intended that a +full investigation into the general Savings Bank question should not +now be made. The inquiry was not extended in any sense to the English +banks, though some of the most prominent English managers offered to +give evidence. Doubtless the Government feared that a full exposure of +the frauds in Savings Banks, an inquiry into several matters connected +with the disposal of Savings Bank money already beginning to be +mooted, might have the effect of shaking the confidence of the people. +People were openly saying that Government had not done its best to +make the Savings Bank a secure repository for the people; yet, rather +than raise this issue before a Committee of the House, it submitted to +have the investigation that _was_ made designated "a perfect +star-chamber business," and the members of Government themselves +subjected to great ridicule. The Committee sat only nine days, and +made a report to the House, which Lord George Bentinck characterized +as "the most extraordinary one that ever was presented to Parliament." +"It is as remarkable for its brevity as for its vacuity--as brief as +it is worthless." The report is certainly brief, and may here be given +without curtailment: "Your Committee," it commences, "has proceeded +with the inquiry entrusted to them by the House, but owing to the late +period of the session they have found themselves unable to bring it to +a satisfactory conclusion. They are of opinion that it is advisable +that a further inquiry should take place, either during the recess or +in the next session of Parliament, regulating the liability of +trustees, and providing for the appointment of _auditors_ to Savings +Banks." + +The Government immediately set to work to introduce a bill. They saw +that a great mistake had been made four years before, in settling the +question of the liability of trustees in the way it was done, and now +the endeavour must be, if possible, quietly to re-enact the old law in +this particular, making trustees liable in the way they were before +1844. The great mistake in this instance, and that which proved fatal +to the attempt, was in legislating for English as well as Irish banks, +when the inquiry upon which the bill was taken to be founded had been +limited to Ireland, and was not allowed under any circumstances to +extend to England. The debates to which the measure of 1848 gave rise +are certainly the most animated that ever took place in the House on +this subject, and it will be interesting, as in different ways +indicating the feeling of the country, to notice the expressions of +opinion which the discussion elicited. The _Chancellor of the +Exchequer_, Sir Charles Wood, in moving the Bill to amend the Law of +1844, appears[76] to have urged that the clause requiring the trustees +to voluntarily assume responsibility had completely failed; that few +trustees would take the responsibility upon them, and that, +consequently, depositors were losing faith in the banks;[77] +irregularities were increasing; and the trustees had not even the +pretence of a sufficient inducement to make them attend to their +self-imposed duties. In place of no responsibility at all, he proposed +that each trustee should be responsible for a certain sum, which would +be large enough to ensure a reasonable amount of attention, and so +small as not to frighten them into resigning their office altogether. +This sum it was proposed to fix at a hundred pounds. Clauses in the +bill also provided for the appointment of auditors, as suggested by +the Committee of Inquiry, and for the examination of depositors' +books, "that once in each year the books of every depositor shall be +produced at the office of each Savings Bank, for the purpose of being +inspected, examined, and verified with the books of the institution by +the auditor." + +More from the way in which this bill was introduced and the +circumstances attending the Committee of Inquiry, than from any +decided opposition to the Government proposals, much agitation +prevailed among Savings Bank officials, which was ultimately made to +extend to depositors.[78] The latter were led to believe that the +proposed legislation would in some way be inimical to their interests, +and petitions were got up, praying that no further Acts should be +passed until a full inquiry was made into every part of the Savings +Bank system. _Sir Henry Willoughby_, who for some years before this +time, and till his death, took much interest in this and cognate +questions, again presided at a meeting of Savings Bank managers in +London about this time, and helped them to concert measures of +opposition. Before speaking in Parliament on the introduction of the +bill under consideration, he presented two large petitions, signed by +79,000 depositors in Savings Banks, praying that Government would +cease their interference with these institutions. This gentleman then +referred to the quietness with which Government had introduced such an +important bill, "not having given such a notice as was invariably +given even with respect to the commonest turnpike road." And the +quietness was a mistake of no ordinary moment. Had the details of the +bill now introduced been understood by the country, there might have +been opposition from managers of Savings Banks, but there could not +well have been so much dissatisfaction expressed by the Press, or by +the body of depositors, whose interest every clause of the bill was +meant to conserve. Sir Henry Willoughby also on this occasion gave +utterance to the feeling which was in many other minds, and which had +led to the opposition then manifested, by alluding to "the impression +which had got abroad and which he believed was perfectly true, that +the money of depositors was used for other purposes by the Government +than those that related to the Savings Banks." Whether the money was +used advantageously or not he would not say, for that was not the +question. _Colonel Thompson_ spoke strongly of the erroneous +impression that everybody had been in about the Savings Banks having +full Government security for their money; so strongly, indeed, that in +another place we shall make further allusion to him. The bitterest +opponent, however, which the Chancellor met with on this occasion was +the leader of the Opposition in the House. _Lord George Bentinck_ felt +sure that the bill was one which its mover (Sir Charles Wood) did not +understand. After going into the details of the measure, and +endeavouring to prove that the examination of depositors' books could +not be accomplished in the larger banks every year,[79] and that the +smaller concerns could not afford to pay for auditors out of the small +surplus of interest which went to pay expenses, Lord George added, +"Surely a Government which had proposed so much and done so little, +can refrain from doing harm, since they cannot do good; and will not +press this most discreditable bill through the House at the end of +August without necessity for it, and against the opinions of those +best calculated to form a judgment." Irish members, seeing the turn +the discussion was taking, urged that, at any rate, the bill might +apply to Ireland. It was patent to everybody that the poor depositors +in Ireland needed every protection, however secure the same classes +might feel in England. In Ireland such a bill was really required, and +was necessary, to restore confidence in Savings Banks;[80] why not +make it apply to Ireland only? After an unsuccessful attempt on the +part of Lord George Bentinck to throw out the bill altogether, it was +decided, on the motion of Mr. Wodehouse, and by a vote of thirty to +eleven, that the words "Great Britain" should be struck out of the +motion, and that the Act should simply apply to Irish Savings Banks. + +That the bill now passed was a beneficial change in the law, and a +considerable step in the right direction, no one now doubts; had not +the perverseness of Savings Bank officials prevented the Government +from making its provisions apply to England, much subsequent suffering +and grievous loss would have been saved to many of the best classes of +our industrial population. It was a safeguard such as was wanted in +Ireland, and it answered admirably. + +The bill having been made law, and new depositors secured to a +considerable extent from robbery and exaction, the attention of the +Legislature was called to those who had lost their all by past frauds; +and the records of Parliament show that one member after another +reverted to such topics until redress was obtained. On the 29th of +March, 1849, _Mr. Reynolds_, the member for Dublin, moved for the +appointment of a Committee to investigate into the case of the Cuffe +Street bank in Dublin, and to ascertain who were liable for the +extensive frauds in that bank. He alluded to the unsatisfactory result +of the previous inquiry, which was, indeed, not meant to be final. In +making his motion, Mr. Reynolds, who had access, of course, to the +best sources of information, entered into a full account of this bank, +stating, indeed, many of the facts which we have already given. He +complained most bitterly of the Government, who had accepted the +advice of a "flippant barrister," as Mr. Pratt was designated, and who +had suffered the bank to go on when it was known to be in a state of +hopeless insolvency. He described the heartrending scenes which he had +witnessed in Dublin, owing to the failure of the bank, and during the +last eighteen months, and related some of the cases to the House, +where they had ended in insanity, death, or suicide. That the +depositors were mostly poor persons he proved, by stating the average +amount due to each of the 1,664 persons who were creditors of the bank +to be but 27_l._ Mr. Reynolds added, that he had no hesitation in +saying, under the peculiar circumstances of the case, that the +Government ought to make good the loss.[81] If he had not proved that +point, he left it to a Committee of Inquiry to take up. "In the name +not only of justice, but of mercy and compassion," he besought the +House "to agree to his motion, and to save many poor persons from +utter and total ruin." The member for Dublin University (Mr. Napier) +seconded the motion for inquiry, and discussed many of the details of +the failure from a legal point of view. In one remark, he gave +expression to a very general feeling: the course of legislation on +Savings Banks had plainly been to reduce, for strong reasons +doubtless, the responsibility of trustees; in proportion, however, as +that responsibility was reduced, so he, Mr. Napier, thought the moral +responsibility of the commissioners increased. "Precisely in the same +degree as the trustees were relieved, should the vigilance of the +other body have been awakened." Nor was it less unfortunate--though +this is a matter which was not alluded to--that at a time when it was +thought most fitting that the interest on deposits should be reduced, +steps should also be taken to make them less secure as well as less +remunerative. + +_Mr. H. A. Herbert_, the member for Kerry, proposed an amendment, +extending the inquiry to this Tralee and Killarney banks, and also to +the single case of failure in Scotland, at Auchterarder. Mr. Herbert +dwelt upon the case of these frauds in an able manner, but we reserve +the consideration of them to the next chapter. The reference to the +Scotch case doubtless called up Mr. Cowen, the member for Edinburgh, +who was sorry to hear of the necessity for any such inquiry in +Scotland; he "had been accustomed to think that they were above +suspicion in Scotland with reference to their banking matters." _Mr. +Cowen_ said that he regarded all discussions on Savings Banks as most +momentous, and as involving the consideration of the most important +national questions. "It was of the greatest importance that Savings +Banks should be placed on a solid foundation, and cleared of all those +injurious anomalies which now attached to them," for he "believed that +they might be made the means of aiding in a great measure to stem that +flood of pauperism which was now overflowing the land." Much warm +discussion followed. The _Chancellor of the Exchequer_ alleged that +the proposed inquiry would be both a useless and an expensive one; and +Mr. Goulburn, the ex-Chancellor, who was equally committed to the same +course of legislation and the difficulties which that legislation had +brought upon the Government, rendered prompt assistance by saying +exactly the same thing. On a division, it was carried by a majority of +three in a House of 100 members, that a Committee should be appointed; +and by a majority of eight, that the inquiry should extend to the +three Irish and the Scotch defaulting bank.[82] + +It was one thing, however, to carry a Committee of Inquiry in the face +of both the great parties of the House, and another to nominate the +members who should compose it; and this Mr. Reynolds subsequently +found out to his evident chagrin and disappointment. The Government +had clearly not been sufficiently on the alert, and hence they had +been beaten in the first particular; they secured themselves however +against any further defeat. In the following April, Mr. Reynolds +proceeded according to usage to nominate his Committee, which he +wished should consist of eight English and seven Irish members. The +Chancellor of the Exchequer objected, and wished for the reappointment +of the Committee of the preceding session. Mr. Goulburn promptly +assisted by saying, that it would be a reflection on the Committee of +last year if it was not so reappointed. In that Committee there were +only three Irish members, though the subject then, as now, had +exclusive reference to Ireland. Mr. Reynolds, Mr. Herbert, Sir Henry +Willoughby, stoutly contested the point, which ended in the names of +two additional Irish members being proposed. The Government saw the +importance of the question, and that the inquiry would be made in this +way to turn upon the administration of Savings Banks generally, and +the responsibility of Government in regard to them, and succeeded in +resisting any change by an adverse majority of 111 to 74. The whole of +the names not having been gone through on this occasion, the Irish +members returned to the subject again a few days subsequently. "In the +names of the poor who had been rendered paupers by laws badly +administered," one member asked, "for an impartial jury." Some of the +daily papers had declared that the Government meant to pack the +Committee and so get a favourable decision, and this encouraged the +independent members to persevere. Mr. Herbert said, "the Government +all along most consistently attempted to quash inquiry." He condemned +in strong terms, and under the apparent approbation of the House, the +conduct of Mr. Pratt in relation to the Irish banks. Mr. Reynolds +declared he would divide the House upon all the remaining names +offered by Sir Charles Wood. After two divisions, however, when he was +left in a minority of 42, and 59, in a House of 202 members, he +desisted from carrying out his threat; though he had a close phalanx +of followers, he saw he had no chance against the combined hosts which +the leaders of the two principal parties in the House had brought to +bear. + +The members ultimately appointed were the Chancellor of the Exchequer, +the ex-Chancellor, Mr. Herries, Sir George Clerk, Mr. P. Scrope, Sir +G. Y. Bullar, Mr. Ker Seymour, Marquis of Kildare, Mr. Adair, Mr. G. +Craig, Mr. W. Fagan, Mr. Bramston, Mr. J. A. Smith, Mr. H. Herbert, +Mr. Reynolds. This Committee sat thirteen days, and examined nine +witnesses, including several officials connected with the Cuffe Street +bank, Mr. Tidd Pratt, Mr. Higham of the National Debt Office, and Mr. +Boodle of the St. Martin's Place Savings Bank, but came to no +conclusion, and recommended nothing to the House. + +On the 13th of May, 1850, the same gentlemen were reappointed under +the self-same conditions as in the previous year: they sat eleven +days, and examined some of the same and other witnesses, and on this +occasion made a long and exhaustive report to the House.[83] This +report, for which all the members except Mr. Reynolds and Mr. Herbert +voted (each of these gentlemen having produced a report of his own +which the Committee would not accept), went over the case of the +defaulting Savings Bank in Dublin very succinctly; exonerated National +Debt Commissioners and their officers from blame; stated that they +found the commissioners did not exercise all the powers they +possessed, but this arose "partly from a misgiving as to the effect of +an exercise of their authority, and partly from an unwillingness to +run the risk of creating a discredit of these institutions;" and that +if the trustees had taken the advice of the commissioners, when in +1845 they advised them to close the bank, the loss to the depositors +would not have exceeded five shillings in the pound. For these and +similar reasons the Committee came to the weighty conclusion, relative +to this particular case of fraud, that "while they cannot admit the +existence of any legal liability on the part of Her Majesty's +Government, they recommend the case of the depositors in the Cuffe +Street bank to the favourable consideration of the Government, with a +view to the adoption of some measure which shall at least mitigate the +extent of their loss." With regard to the other frauds into which they +were instructed to inquire, they reported that there were "no peculiar +features connected with them differing from those of other banks which +have suffered from the dishonesty of their actuaries." They concluded +by expressing their conviction of the unsatisfactory state and working +of the existing law; proper power did not reside with any authority +"to check abuses, however indisputable;" by expressing their opinion +that the provisions of the law of 1844 had worked in a manner +obviously at variance with the intentions of Parliament, and wound up +by the following important paragraph:-- + + "Your Committee have observed with much satisfaction that + the Chancellor of the Exchequer has introduced a Savings + Banks bill, which is calculated to remedy several + important defects in the existing law, and extends the + responsibility of Her Majesty's Government to the + depositors; and they therefore abstain from all + observations on this part of the subject, further than to + state the conviction, which this inquiry has forced upon + them, of the urgent necessity for further legislation, if + those institutions, which have of late years acquired an + extent and importance so little anticipated by the + original founders of Savings Banks, are to preserve their + hold on the confidence of the country, or produce the + beneficial results expected from them in encouraging and + rewarding the industry and self-denial of the working + classes." + +This report was presented to the House on the 1st of August, and at +once referred to a Committee of the whole House. Next day, the +Chancellor of the Exchequer proposed that a grant of 30,000_l._ should +be made to the defrauded depositors in the Cuffe Street bank, out of +the Consolidated Fund. _Sir James Graham_ opposed the grant. If this +money was a matter of charity, he argued, they were opening the door +to a dangerous principle; if of justice or equity, the claim ought to +be paid in full. It was unworthy of the British public to compromise +for ten shillings in the pound. Other members asserted that if Cuffe +Street depositors were paid, the poor creditors of other insolvent +banks would likewise have to be paid. Generally, however, the House +felt with the Committee; it was altogether an exceptional case, the +claims of the former being, as Sir Charles Wood expressed it, +"something between equity, sympathy, and charity." _Mr. Bright_, a +resident of Rochdale, and _Mr. Sharman Crawford_, the member for that +borough, whose ears had lately rung with the tales of heartless +deception practised there, were both for paying these depositors in +full; "there might be no legal claim, but there were the claims of +equity and morality." Mr. Bright, indeed, went so far as to say, that +if Government would bring in a bill to secure other banks in future +from these dreadful calamities, he would willingly vote that all +claims from Savings Bank failures should at once be met by the State. +The House divided on Sir Charles Wood's motion, when 118 members voted +for it, and 39 against it. We may as well say here that several +attempts were subsequently made to get the remaining 30,000_l._ from +Government, but without avail.[84] + +It will not be difficult for the reader to understand the position of +affairs up to 1850. The law was clearly unsatisfactory; it had been +pronounced so by Committees which, though composed of nearly the same +members, had sat in three successive years, and patiently examined +into the question in its every detail. The only difference of opinion +indeed in the Committees was, as to the persons who were liable, and +to what extent, for the defective state of the law, and the results to +which it had led. Nor is it at all wonderful that legislation should +have been needed. Savings Banks, as it was often pointed out about the +time, had increased enormously within a short period, and beyond all +proportion to the expectations which were originally formed with +regard to them. When they were first started, many benevolent +individuals entered heartily into the work of managing them, and asked +for no return, except the sense that they had assisted in a humane and +praiseworthy object, for the labour they underwent. Putting two +considerations together--the great increase of business, and the no +less certain decrease in the first ardour attending such +enterprises--the increase of paid officials became absolutely +necessary, and in almost a corresponding ratio did the unpaid +machinery decline. Slowly but surely the management of Savings Banks +went out of the hands of an unpaid into those of a paid staff of +officials, and every year the system of check became more nominal than +real.[85] It was apparent, not less from the proceedings of solvent +Savings Banks than from the exposures made in the case of unsound +ones, that those who had originally taken part in the establishment of +these institutions slowly became honorary in place of active members +of the board; and of those who still continued to take a share in the +work, many had got into the habit of leaving their duties to +subordinates, in some cases signing blank forms, and even cheques, to +be filled up by the acting-manager at his discretion. + +At this stage in the history of Savings Banks, the Chancellor of the +Exchequer came forward,--as the reader has already learnt from the +Report of the Committee of 1850,--with a bill to amend the law. This +bill he introduced to the House of Commons on the 29th of April, 1850, +and it forms part of our object to explain in detail the plan now +proposed, inasmuch as for many subsequent years the same measure, with +only trifling modifications, was offered over and over again to the +consideration of the House, and as often declined, through the +overpowering influence of the Savings Bank interest in the country. On +bringing forward his bill, the Chancellor said he wished to avoid all +reference to the past, except in as far as the experience of the past +was a guide to future legislation. He very briefly traced the history +and progress of Savings Banks, remarking at the time that, if he were +not to do so, few could be aware of their real nature, and how they +had grown to their present dimensions. We need not follow Sir Charles +Wood through this account, nor even repeat the reasons which actuated +the Legislature in making changes in the law from time to time up to +the year 1844. Referring to the Act of that session, he described it +as "most defective," and the bill he wished to introduce would amend +it. Speaking of the responsibility as to loss in Savings Banks, which +many persons thought should rest with the Government, he repudiated +the notion, unless Government was allowed to have some control over +the persons who might occasion the loss. On the other hand, he did not +wish to do away with "the most invaluable feature in Savings +Banks--the local management." He thought, however, that Government +might take a medium course, and fairly meet the case by making such +arrangements as "would end in the State bearing nearly the whole +responsibility as regarded the receipt and payment of money." What he +proposed was to alter the enactment that the treasurers of Savings +Banks should receive no emolument, _and to vest the appointment of +Treasurer in the hands of the Commissioners for the Reduction of the +National Debt_. The existing treasurers might in most cases be +continued, and if they wished to work for nothing, they might still +have the option; but he insisted on the Government reappointing such +officers, and upon having a control over them. To this officer, or +some one acting for him, all payments should be made over--the receipt +and payment of money by any other person to be declared illegal.[86] +He considered that this arrangement would guard against the +possibility of fraud. The treasurer and secretary, acting for +different interests, as it were, could scarcely be guilty of +collusion, and the one would in all cases act as a check upon the +other. If this plan were agreed to, the Government would of course be +responsible for every farthing paid to the treasurer. + +This was the great and distinguishing feature of the measure which the +Government was disposed to adopt; but there were other features in the +bill of considerable importance, which ought not to go unmentioned. +Thus, it proposed that the Act of 1844 should be repealed, and that +trustees should be responsible for their wilful neglect or default, as +in the Act of 1828. It was clear, however, that under the appointment +of treasurers the responsibility would be little more than nominal. +Another point which the bill provided for was an efficient audit of +the accounts, the trustees of each bank to appoint an auditor, and the +pass-book of each depositor to be annually examined, the auditor in +each case comparing the book with the ledger of the office.[87] The +bill proceeded, further, to give power to the National Debt +Commissioners to send down to any Savings Bank, should they see +occasion for it, an Inspector, to test the accuracy of the accounts of +that bank: with the other provisos already mentioned, depositors would +thus be absolutely safe. The next clause provided against any further +loss to Government. The Chancellor in introducing this subject spoke +of the different rates of interest which had been given to Savings +Banks, and said all of them were higher than could be given without +loss. But this was not all. The loss sustained in having to pay out a +large sum of money whenever called for, no matter how low the Funds +were at the time, was equal almost to the former. After explaining the +case, and giving examples of its working, he added that Government +thus suffered a loss on capital and a loss on interest. "It had been +proposed that Government should merely act as a broker, making +depositors subject to all the fluctuations of the Funds; but," said +the honourable gentleman, "from the numerous communications I have +received from all parts of the country, depositors think much of their +getting their money back as they put it in, and looked to the amount +of interest as a secondary consideration." He then gave a variety of +statistics, and proposed that the limit to the amount of deposits +should be fixed at 100_l._ and that the rate of interest should be +reduced from 3_l._ 5_s._ to 3_l._ for trustees, and 2_l._ 15_s._ +instead of 3_l._ 0_s._ 10_d._ to depositors.[88] The Chancellor of the +Exchequer concluded by expressing the wish that the bill of which he +had given the principal clauses, should be discussed fully and +temperately: it involved no party feeling, but it involved many things +intimately connected with the welfare of the classes for which Savings +Banks were established: he said he had done his best to meet the +difficulties of the case, but difficult as it was to do, the matter +ought at once to be settled, and to be settled once for all.[89] + +It, however, was not to be settled so soon. Before we refer to any +further expression of opinion on the subject in Parliament and the +ultimate decision in the case, it is only right that we should present +the other--the Savings Bank--view of the matter, as uttered by the +powerful, we had almost said corporate, body at St. Martin's Place. +The Committee of Managers of this important London institution met, as +their custom was, to pass resolutions on any matter affecting Savings +Banks. A petition to Parliament was framed on the resolutions come to +in this as in other instances, and similar petitions were got up and +presented to Parliament from other Savings Banks, who naturally looked +to the St. Martin's Place institution for advice and guidance. At a +meeting held at this representative bank on the 14th of May, 1850, +Lord Walsingham in the chair, the proposals of the Chancellor of the +Exchequer were gone through _seriatim_, and all of them, without +exception, disputed and condemned. It came to the conclusion that (1) +the proposed introduction into Savings Banks of a Government +treasurer, &c., "must lead to great confusion, and eventually to the +disruption of these valuable institutions;" (2) that "the proposed +reduction of the existing rates of interest and the limit in the +amount of deposits will, besides imposing injurious restrictions on +depositors, so diminish the means of defraying the expenses of +management as to render it extremely difficult in some, and impossible +in other cases," to engage efficient assistance; (3) that any further +reduction of the rate of interest to depositors would only tempt them +to withdraw their money from Savings Banks and place it in "more +attractive, but frequently hazardous investments;"[90] (4) that the +grand principle on which well-conducted Savings Banks have hitherto +been so efficiently managed, viz., "that of having the constant +superintendence of gentlemen unconnected with the receipt or payment +of money, will be destroyed if the new bill should be passed into a +law." We ought to add that this Committee did not object to the +abrogation of the law of 1844, which was passed "contrary to their +expressed wishes and recommendations;" that, although they urged that +frauds were comparatively rare, and far less in amount and extent than +in public or mercantile establishments, and that for such reason there +was no just ground for the introduction of an entirely new system such +as was now proposed, they had no objection to a measure adapted still +further to promote the solvency and good management of Savings Banks, +only they must insist that the necessity for such important changes +"should be considered by a Select Committee, and evidence taken from +men of long experience in Savings Bank management." The last +resolution to which this body came was, "That a petition to the House +of Commons, founded upon the foregoing resolutions, be printed and +circulated for the information of other Savings Banks." + +To return to the discussion in the House of Commons on the bill now +proposed, _Mr. Hume_ in a temperate speech supported, on the whole, +the Chancellor of the Exchequer. He held that Government ought to +undertake one of two things--either to leave Savings Banks altogether +alone, or else to ensure perfect security to the depositors, which he +saw no difficulty in doing. Of course he agreed with the proposal to +reduce the rate of interest and the limit of the total amount of +deposits, remarking on the latter subject that he had known many cases +where Savings Banks had been taken advantage of in a way that, he was +about to say, was quite unworthy of them; "but let no man say that +anything was unworthy where profit was the object, for he found in all +ranks and classes a tendency to avail themselves of the folly of the +public." Government, he thought, could not do better than try to +encourage among the labouring classes the habit of saving; "for the +moment a man had a nest-egg he desired to add to it, and thus were +habits of economy and prudence fostered among the mass of the people." +_Sir Henry Willoughby_ opposed the bill; he thought the proposal to +reduce the rate of interest would be "an extremely disagreeable +measure." He referred, however, on this occasion principally to the +management of Savings Bank funds, and expressed his opinion that what +was required was that the management of the affairs of Savings Banks +should be taken out of the hands of the Commissioners of the National +Debt, and a separate commission appointed for the purpose. + +Few members questioned the wisdom of the proposals at this time, but +many expressed themselves dissatisfied that the bill would have no +reference to the past, and that the Chancellor had not alluded in any +way to the depositors who had lost their all by the bank failures and +by the action of the bill of 1844. Mr. Crawford spoke of the Rochdale +depositors, Mr. Fagan of the Killarney depositors, and Mr. Herbert of +the Dublin and Tralee depositors. _Mr. Slaney_ thanked the Chancellor +of the Exchequer for the amount of attention which he had bestowed on +the bill, which he "deliberately thought would interest more persons +than any other measure that would be introduced this session." He +thought the security now promised would be real, though he was sorry +the Chancellor meant to make the people pay for it. His opinion (and +he had considered the subject of industrial investments very largely) +was that neither the amount of, nor the interest on, deposits should +be reduced; he would "be most willing to pay a small bonus to tempt +the savings of these poor people." We are glad, however, to say that +this view of the case did not meet with much approval. After several +more appeals from such members as Mr. Bankes and Colonel Thompson, +that Government would come to the rescue of the defrauded depositors +who had, in their ignorance it might be, looked to the country for +security, the bill was ordered to be brought in by the Chancellor and +Mr. Attorney-General. On the motion made to read the bill a second +time on the 8th of August, 1850, Mr. Hume and Sir Henry Willoughby +importuned the Chancellor of the Exchequer to defer the consideration +of the bill to the next session; the former urging that honourable +members might study the reports of the Committees of 1849-50, during +the interim, and the latter that time might be given "to allow of a +consolidation of all the statutes relating to Savings Banks, and an +inquiry into the whole subject." The Chancellor replied, that after +the agitation which had been got up among the managers of Savings +Banks, and the considerable misunderstanding which prevailed relative +to the provisions of the bill, he reluctantly consented to withdraw +it.[91] Several members took the opportunity to urge that the +Chancellor should bring the matter forward the first thing in next +session; but the Savings Bank interest proved still stronger in 1851, +and again Sir Charles Wood got nothing done, and never heartily took +up the question again. + +In 1853 an Act was passed to "Amend and Consolidate the Law relating +to the Purchase of Government Annuities." The bill was introduced and +carried through by the Chancellor of the Exchequer. This Act continued +the same powers to the Commissioners as were given in 1833, and the +clauses relating to the purchase of annuities, deferred and immediate, +were continued. It further empowered them, however, to grant deferred +annuities for a sum to be paid down at once, and not returnable, and +also to grant annuities otherwise than through Savings Banks. It was +said that the reason why the Act of 1833 had been practically +inoperative was the want of such a clause: that the fact of only being +able to buy a deferred annuity on the condition of money being +returnable, not only caused many lapses, but made the tables heavier +than they ought to be. Under the fresh clause better things were +augured; any one purchasing such an annuity, it was argued, takes the +chance of his not living to receive it, just as the member of a +benefit society takes his chance of never being ill, and therefore +never needing what he pays to secure if his health should fail. The +benefit in return for this risk is, however, proportionally increased, +inasmuch as the contributions of those who do not live to the term +when the annuities commence, go to swell the contributions of those +who may,--the purchase-money, in the case of money being returnable, +being of course much larger than in the other, where more risk is run. +We give the argument for what it is worth; but it is certainly curious +that at a more recent date, when again the law regulating the purchase +of annuities underwent alteration and amendment, a great outcry was +raised, because the tables of rates, "with money returnable," were +temporarily kept back; one respectable organ of public opinion going +so far as to say that the changes would be inoperative till these +tables were produced. An opposition was got up during the progress of +the measure in Parliament, owing to the clause empowering the +Government to grant life assurance policies to those who should +likewise buy annuities. It was said now, just as it was urged, though +much more strongly, subsequently, that there were great objections to +the Government becoming a trading community, or doing anything which +could be carried out by a private company. "The system of life +assurance," said a well-known Scotch member, "was at present carried +on so successfully and so judiciously by the ordinary life assurance +societies, that it would be most unwise to interfere with them." +Another member argued that the annuities scheme had so lacked success +that no amount of tinkering would make it applicable to the country. +The Secretary of the Treasury explained that Government were not +anxious about doing the business of insurance offices, but only +desired to give facilities, which the law did not then allow, for the +conversion of Savings Bank deposits into a satisfactory provision for +want or old age. The bill was read a third time, with a majority of 28 +in a House of 56 members, and soon afterwards passed without any +further difficulty, and received the Royal Assent. Such a measure, +whatever the poorer classes might think of it, was well calculated to +spread the spirit of independence amongst them. The State did well to +offer the opportunity of increased facilities; and if those for whose +benefit such schemes were intended did not avail themselves of them to +secure, by a very small amount of temporary sacrifice in seasons of +health and prosperity, a provision against those risks to which all +the poorer classes are liable, of falling through unexpected +contingencies into poverty and pauperism, the blame would rest +elsewhere than with the State. + +As we have already said, the session of 1851 passed without any +attempt at legislation, and in the beginning of 1852, there being +still no sign of action on the part of the Executive, the late _Mr. +Herbert_, so well known in connexion with the Irish banks, proposed a +resolution to the effect-- + + "That this House has observed with regret the continued + neglect of Her Majesty's Government to fulfil their + promise of introducing a bill for the regulation of + Savings Banks, by which those important institutions may + be enabled to preserve their hold on the confidence of the + country, and a due encouragement be thus given to the + industry and providence of the working classes." + +There was every reason to believe that this resolution would have +passed, until the Chancellor of the Exchequer rose. _Sir Charles Wood_ +admitted that the bill had been far too long delayed; but this was no +fault of his. It was thrown out in 1850; he could not get it +introduced in 1851: it was ready, however, and it should be brought +forward this session. He had not given notice of it, because he had +been engaged in consultation with several members in so preparing the +measure as to ensure its passage through the House. His firm +conviction was, that the delay in the present instance had tended not +only to improve the bill, but to diminish the chances of opposition to +it when introduced. During the last four years the greatest pains had +been taken to frame such a measure as should effectually remove the +evils that had been complained of; and within the past few months they +had had the assistance of a new Comptroller of the National Debt +Office, who had "devoted himself with great diligence to the +subject."[92] He submitted, in conclusion, that he was not deserving +of the censure of the House, especially as it had been settled to try +the measure again during the present session. _Mr. Disraeli_ agreed +with Sir Charles Wood, though the resolution before the House was +apparently justified by the circumstances, it would not be becoming in +them to divide the House after what had been promised. The question +was surrounded with difficulties, but notwithstanding these +difficulties it was the paramount duty of the Legislature to grapple +with it; and an opportunity would be soon afforded. Mr. Disraeli at +this time did not know how soon he was to be in a position to grapple +with the subject himself. Sir Charles Wood's pledge was not kept. All +such measures as those we are considering have suffered greatly from +the vicissitudes of administrations, and it was so in this instance. +Towards the end of 1852 Mr. Disraeli succeeded Sir Charles Wood as +Chancellor of the Exchequer in Lord Derby's first Ministry; but he had +scarcely time, supposing him to have had the disposition, to take up +the matter where it had been left. When the Derby Administration gave +place to the coalition Ministry of Lord Aberdeen, and Mr. Gladstone +took the place of chief financial minister, there was soon a better +prospect of some settlement. Even under his auspices, however, matters +at first went on very slowly; so multiform were the questions and +interests involved, that even Mr. Gladstone's powers were severely +tried to clear the ground of the incumbrances which time and prejudice +had reared. When Mr. Gladstone left office and was succeeded by Sir +George Lewis much had been done; the necessary preliminary measure of +a full investigation into the Savings Bank question by a Committee of +the House of Commons had been decided; the real nature of the +connexion existing between the Government and the Savings Banks was +better understood: and when after a lapse of two or three years he +returned to his old position, he took the matter up where it had been +left, and carried the subject, by his unapproachable eloquence and +energy to an easy and final solution. Mr. Gladstone's name will go +down to posterity covered with honourable trophies of his great +powers; but we question whether among the great schemes he has carried +any will be remembered longer than those meant to increase among the +lower classes the habits of prudence and frugality. + +Early in 1853, and when he had but just succeeded to the office of +Chancellor of the Exchequer, Mr. Gladstone gave notice that the +subject must be taken up, and if possible settled. A bill[93] was +allowed to pass the second reading without discussion; but when the +subject came up before Committee in July of that year, Mr. Gladstone, +compelled to succumb to the wish that Parliament should be prorogued, +asked that this and other bills might be deferred till the next +meeting of Parliament. He said he had made great progress with the +bill since it was first introduced; he had sought to get the opinion +of the different Savings Bank managers upon it, and he believed he had +acquired a pretty accurate knowledge of the state of feeling in the +country on the subject.[94] All this was favourable to the prospects +of the bill; but now, as the House had lasted since November 1852, he +feared that if it was pushed forward it might fail to pass. He should +have liked to have got the question settled, but he now thought his +object would be more speedily obtained by the delay proposed. Here the +sagacious Minister was mistaken; the old adage of no time being better +than the time present could often be well applied to proposals to +defer desirable matters of legislation to a future session. No mention +was made of the subject for nearly eighteen months; the country had +more pressing, and, for the time, much more serious matters to +consider, which it will be quite unnecessary to particularize. + +On the 20th of December, 1854, Mr. Gladstone moved for and obtained +leave to bring in two bills during the session of 1855: the one "to +create a charge on the Consolidated Fund" of the money due on behalf +of the depositors in Savings Banks, and the other, the bill for the +management of Savings Banks which was withdrawn in 1853. In the former +important proposal the Chancellor of the Exchequer desired to make the +law more perfect as to the relation between the depositor and the +State, by giving the latter a better title to the money invested with +the State. He wished, in his own language, "to reduce the obligation +and the contract of the State with the depositor to that simple form +which is adopted by every banker." He would propose, "as respects the +bulk of the funds received from Savings Bank depositors, that they +should be held in this country as they are held in other countries," +and not in the complicated form of Stock and other public securities. +Mr. Gladstone's view, more than once expressed in strong terms, with +respect to the State using the money belonging to Savings Banks, was +that it was no matter to anybody what was done with the money,[95] +providing it were ready at call and the stipulated interest were +given,--the stability of the country being surely a sufficient +guarantee for its safety. Savings Bank authorities, on the other hand, +disputed the right of the Chancellor to use the money; would prefer to +use it themselves in other investments, if the funds were applied +otherwise than under statute in the purchase of Bank Annuities; and +referred to the uncertain title in law which depositors had for the +money according to the governing statute. Mr. Gladstone's bill +proposed to give this title to every penny so deposited with the +State, by throwing the burden of any deficiency arising on the +Consolidated Fund, and so silence at any rate the last objection.[96] + +Early in the session of 1857 the then Chancellor of the Exchequer (the +late Sir George Lewis) was several times asked if the subject of +Savings Banks had not to be brought forward and concluded. These +questions led to his promising to bring in the Government measure +which, often brought forward and as often withdrawn, was still waiting +for a tide of popular favour to carry it into law. On the 27th of +February in this year he gave notice of this intention, and earnestly +trusted that the House would allow it to pass. In a short speech, the +points of which we need not recapitulate--for it dealt with the same +facts and came to the same conclusion as those speeches of previous +Chancellors already described,--he proposed the first reading. Then +came the dissolution of Parliament, and its forcible postponement for +one more session.[97] + +In a fortnight from the meeting of the new Parliament Sir G. Lewis, +true to his promise, moved that the House go into Committee on the +Savings Bank Bill, which had even then reached that stage. His motion +was, "That it is expedient to amend the laws relating to Savings +Banks, and to provide for the establishment of Savings Banks with the +security of the Government." The Chancellor said that almost everybody +was agreed as to the principles of the bill, though it was true that +the managers of many Savings Banks contested some of the details. The +greatest objection to the bill when last introduced being the +provision to limit the total amount of deposits to 100_l_., he would +now propose, as it did not affect the bill at all materially, to drop +that clause; the law to remain as it then stood. This was the only +material difference; there were minor points, but they were not worth +pointing out. He then went over the changes which the bill proposed to +make in the law; the ample security he wished to give to all who +deposited money in Savings Banks, at the same time taking no +superfluous securities and imposing no unnecessary restrictions in +order to guard the interest of the public. Should the local +authorities of Savings Banks still be found unwilling to part with +their own control, or admit any interference on the part of the +Government, there was only one course left to him--namely, "to abandon +the bill," to leave things in their present position, and continue a +system by which the depositors are left entirely to the security of +the local officers; while at the same time Government is left wholly +irresponsible, except for the amounts actually lodged in its hands. "I +trust, however, that the plan will be considered a reasonable plan," +said the Chancellor, in conclusion, "that it will be found not to +impose upon the local authorities any shackles of which they can +reasonably complain, and that no securities are demanded on behalf of +the public beyond what are absolutely necessary."[98] _Sir Henry +Willoughby_ held that the law needed consolidating before any new Act +was passed. It was not long since 200 petitions were presented to the +House for a consolidation of existing statutes, and an inquiry into +the entire system. Let the House take this step first. After speaking +warmly on the subject of the disposal of Savings Bank money, he +appealed to the Chancellor to refer the whole subject to a Select +Committee, who should recommend a clear and well-defined legislative +enactment. _Mr. Sotheron Estcourt_ and _Viscount Goderich_ took the +same view; the former gentleman, however, warmly approved of the +Government bill, which had "happily been re-introduced," and thought +that "most of the alterations made were improvements." As a trustee of +a Savings Bank he would consider his position infinitely improved by +the bill. If, however, the feeling of the House was for a committee, +this course could not prejudice the bill, though it would delay it. +_Mr. Thomas Baring_ thought the matter should go before a Select +Committee; so did Mr. Henley. The Irish members, Mr. Slaney and +others, were for passing the bill, and not deferring legislation any +longer on any pretence. The Chancellor of the Exchequer opposed any +further delay; the adoption of any other resolution would simply tend +to shelve the bill for another session. If honourable gentlemen really +wished to reject the bill, let them resort to the direct and fair +course of doing so. He also was for consolidating the laws relating to +Savings Banks; but till that could be done he thought it by far the +best plan to introduce a few more clauses into the law to remedy +grievances which could not wait to be redressed. The motion was then +agreed to. The second reading came off on the 8th of June. _Mr. +Ayrton_, in a long and animated speech, during which he said that the +greater number of Savings Banks were now most efficiently managed on a +principle which was most conducive in binding the humbler to the more +influential classes, and that he could conceive nothing more +calculated to destroy that sympathy than the present proposals--"felt +inclined to move that the bill be read a second time that day six +months." The result of the proposals would be a step in the direction +of the system which obtained on the Continent, where every function of +the community was usurped "by what was called the civil service of the +country." Amidst cries of "Divide," Mr. Ayrton said he was strenuously +opposed to any such system. _Mr. McCann_ said the whole body of the +people were unanimous in applauding the measure of the Chancellor of +the Exchequer. _Sir Harry Verney_ approved of the principle of the +bill, but said he would like to see the subject referred to a Select +Committee. _Mr. Barrow_ opposed the bill and the Select Committee +also. _Mr. Estcourt_ again, in an admirable and temperate speech, +during which he showed an excellent knowledge of the subject in all +its bearings, assisted the Government in their proposals. To give the +reader a proper idea of the ground taken by Mr. Estcourt, who, when +the committee was eventually appointed, was made chairman of it, we +need only give the concluding part of his speech on this occasion:-- + + "He earnestly wished that this session would not pass + without a Government Savings Bank bill becoming law, and + he hoped the honourable gentleman would persevere with + this bill; but even should the bill pass, he joined his + voice with that of others in entreating the Government, + after giving the poor man the guarantee which he did not + now possess, to give to the public generally more accurate + information on the whole subject, a clearer account of how + the money was applied, and how the deficit spoken of had + arisen. That information ought to be given, if only for + the purpose of showing the groundlessness of the + suspicious observations made against this bill; and + therefore, though he heartily concurred in giving his + voice for the second reading, he joined with other + gentlemen in entreating the Government to give them a + Select Committee, not in order to shelve the bill for the + session, but, next year, for the purpose of assisting the + Government, and giving the public that information which + they ought to have." + +_Mr. Glyn_ and _Mr. Maguire_ approved the bill without reference to a +Committee, one of these gentlemen submitting that the Committee could +sit on the general subject after the bill had passed into law. In +reply, Sir George Lewis took the latter view, and said he would be +glad to give every facility to the Committee in that case.[99] After +demolishing the man of straw which Mr. Ayrton had set up, the bill was +carried without a division. So far things went on prosperously, but +the opposition gathered in strength; Savings Bank managers again took +the matter up, and urged, by petition and otherwise, that nothing +should be done till a Committee inquired into the matter, and a bill +be founded on the result of their investigation. The Chancellor of the +Exchequer appointed several nights on which to proceed with the bill, +but each night there were so many notices given of motions with regard +to the subject--generally twenty or thirty--that the Government were +compelled by the pressure of other business again and again to defer +the consideration of it, and ultimately to withdraw it. In reply to +Mr. G. A. Hamilton, the Chancellor said, on the 21st of August, 1857, +that he had come to this latter conclusion mainly from the +considerable misunderstanding existing among the local administrators +of Savings Banks. He thought his proposals had not received the +approbation which he conceived their merits justified.[100] He would +offer no pledge for the future, however, further than this, that if +the House next session appeared to wish for a Select Committee, he +would agree to the appointment of one. + +The House of Commons met in the November of the same year, when the +question being again raised, Sir George Lewis gave notice that +immediately after the holidays, he would propose a Committee of +Inquiry, who should be instructed to go into the entire subject. The +Committee which was appointed on the 9th of February, 1858, "to +inquire into the Acts relating to Savings Banks and the operation +thereof," consisted of the following members:--Mr. Sotheron Estcourt +(Chairman), Mr. Bouverie, Mr. Ayrton, Viscount Goderich, Sir Henry +Willoughby, Mr. Bonham Carter, Mr. E. Egerton, Mr. Fagan, Mr. Cowan, +Mr. Grogan, Mr. J. A. Turner, Mr. Henley, Mr. Whitbread, Mr. +Bramstone, Mr. Adderley, Mr. Gregson, and Mr. Thomas Baring. They sat +twenty-one days, and examined Sir Alexander Spearman, Mr. Tidd Pratt, +Lord Monteagle, Mr. C. W. Sikes, Mr. John Craig; and the following +eminent actuaries or other officials of the principal Savings Banks in +the kingdom:--Mr. Edward Boodle, of the St. Martin's Place bank; Mr. +Shopland, Exeter; Mr. Wortley, Finsbury bank; Mr. Saintsbury, +Moorfields bank; Mr. J. Hope Nield, Manchester; Mr. Maitland, +Edinburgh; Mr. Meikle, Glasgow; Mr. Sturrock, jun., Dundee; Mr. +Jameson, Perth; Mr. D. Finney, Marylebone bank; Mr. Hatton, Brighton; +Mr. Deaker, Dublin. Mr. W. H. Grey, a Government actuary, and Mr. +Edward Taylor, of Rochdale, attended to give evidence on the subject +of Savings Bank frauds. The Committee, as might be expected, from this +imposing array of names, collected a most interesting and important +body of evidence, and presented, pretty unanimously, an extremely +exhaustive and important report to the House. + +Upon the report of this Committee we shall have to draw pretty largely +in more than one succeeding chapter, and will therefore content +ourselves with describing briefly the general nature of the evidence, +and with giving a summary of the Report presented with that evidence +to the House. Further on in the present chapter we propose to attempt +some account of the arguments used in the Committee with regard to the +investment of Savings Bank money, when, two years later, a bill +founded on the recommendation of the Committee was brought before the +House of Commons, where the subject was warmly discussed. In this way, +all the important conclusions come to by the Savings Bank Committee +will at one time or another be fairly noticed. The evidence itself may +be classified as follows. Mr. Tidd Pratt came on first, and gave +information of the course of legislation on the subject, and in other +ways the results of his long experience in such matters. Sir A. +Spearman gave a full account, in an examination lasting over four +days, of the mode in which investments were made at his office, and of +the principal financial operations connected with these investments. +Lord Monteagle, by permission of the House of Lords, attended and gave +the Committee the benefit of his long and intimate acquaintance with +such financial subjects. Mr. Boodle, who took the lead of the +actuaries, and who, while falling into several inaccuracies, showed +perhaps the greatest practical acquaintance with the subject in all +its different bearings, described not only the manner of conducting +the St. Martin's Place bank, but conveyed to the Committee the +prevailing impressions of Savings Bank officials on the subject of the +investment of their capital. Mr. Craig, of the Bank of Ireland, +explained at length his system of book-keeping, and humorously +described its introduction into the Cork Savings Bank. The other +actuaries described the peculiarities of the different banks they +represented; described frauds, and spoke of checks which had been +devised for preventing their recurrence; and gave their opinion, which +will be seen subsequently to have been anything but unanimous, on such +disputed points as the limits of deposits, the rate of interest, +making the audit, and regulating the expenditure. Few of the witnesses +left the box without offering some practical suggestion, or +recommending something of value. All the gentlemen agreed as to the +necessity of doing something. Most of them thought an independent +Commission should be appointed to manage the affairs of Savings Banks. +Every witness expressed his opinion that the one thing needful was a +Government guarantee for the absolute safety of all deposits; and +although Mr. Craig and others thought that this should be supplemented +by a staff of Government inspectors, regarded the change as +imperatively required.[101] It is impossible, however, that we can at +any greater length give the recommendations which were made on this +and other important matters of which the witnesses spoke. Nor indeed +can we do more than condense into the fewest possible words the full +and voluminous Report which the Committee made on the occasion. Seeing +that the demand for this Committee was so great, that so much pains +were taken to arrive at a just conclusion, and that the Report itself +was not without its effect on the institution of Savings Banks, we +doubt not that we shall be readily excused for giving prominence to +it, and for presenting the resolutions in which the principal points +of recommendation are embodied.[102] + + 1. That the laws relating to Savings Banks in the United + Kingdom require to be amended, and to be consolidated in + one Act. + + 2. That it is expedient to place the superintendence and + management of the general funds of the Savings Banks in a + Commission consisting of five members. + + 3. That it is desirable that this Commission be + constituted of the Chancellor of the Exchequer, the + Governor of the Bank of England, and three other persons + appointed by the Crown, all of whom shall be paid. + + 4. That all expenses of the Commission be paid out of the + moneys of Savings Banks; that the surplus fund shall be + invested in public securities, and the interest carried to + the account of the surplus fund, out of which such + expenses shall be defrayed. + + 5. That the powers and duties of the Commission shall be + defined by Act of Parliament; that provision be made for + the summoning and holding, at stated intervals, the + meetings of the Commission; that three shall be a quorum; + and the minutes of each meeting duly recorded and signed + by the Chairman. + + 6. That the Rules and Regulations relating to the receipt + and payment of all moneys, and to the purchases and sales + of stocks and all securities, be passed at meetings of the + Commission specially convened for that purpose, and shall + be subject to the approval of the Lords Commissioners of + Her Majesty's Treasury. + + 7. That the annual accounts of the Commission, containing + the receipts and payments of all moneys, and every detail + as to the sales and purchases of stocks and other + securities belonging to the Savings Banks, within the year + ending on November 20, in each year, be audited by the + Commissioners of Her Majesty's Audit. + + 8. That monthly accounts of the receipts and payments of + all moneys, and of sales and purchases of stocks and other + securities, be prepared by the Commissioners, and copies + of the monthly accounts shall be forwarded to the Lords + Commissioners of Her Majesty's Treasury, and to the + Governor of the Bank of England, within one week of the + following month. + + 9. That the annual accounts, containing the receipts and + payments of all moneys, and every detail as to the sales + and purchases of stock, and of other securities of the + Savings Banks, be laid before both Houses of Parliament in + the first week of February, if Parliament is sitting; and, + if Parliament is not sitting, then within ten days next + after the first sitting of Parliament. + + 10. That no sales, purchases, or exchanges of stocks or + securities held by the Commission shall be made, except as + required for the purposes of the Savings Banks, and that + no funding of Exchequer bills held by the Commission shall + in future be made without the special authority of an Act + of Parliament. + + 11. That the Commission should be empowered by Parliament + to invest a portion of such funds, not exceeding one-third + of the whole, in other securities than those now + authorized to be purchased with those funds; those + securities being such as are created or guaranteed under + an Act of Parliament. + + 12. That it is inexpedient that any existing deficiency of + the funds should be made the ground of reducing the + present rate of interest allowed to the banks, but the + whole subject of the estimated deficiency be referred to + the consideration of Parliament. + + 13. That any future surplus income of the Board shall be + carried to the credit of a guarantee fund, to meet any + casual charges, losses, or deficiency of income; but if + there shall be no surplus to meet such deficiency of + income, the rate of interest allowed to Savings Banks + shall be proportionately diminished. + + 14. That the Commission shall have power to frame + regulations respecting the accounts to be kept, and the + audit thereof, and respecting the receipt and payment of + deposits, on the adoption whereof by any Savings Bank such + bank shall acquire security for the deposits therein + guaranteed by Parliament, and that such Savings Bank shall + have a special title. + + 15. That the Commission may appoint such officers as may + be requisite for the proper audit and inspection of such + accounts, and for obtaining due compliance with such + regulations. + + 16. That no banking concerns should be permitted to assume + the name of Savings Banks, except such as have had their + rules duly certified. + + 17. The rules of every Savings Bank shall be in force only + after they have been certified by the Barrister, to whom + no fee shall be payable. + + 18. That the responsibility of trustees be enacted in the + same terms as in the Act 9 Geo. IV. c. 92. + + 19. That the present limits of yearly and total amounts of + deposits payable on demand be maintained. + + 20, and last. That whenever any deposit shall amount to + 150_l._, the Commissioners may, with the consent of the + depositor, invest a portion of that deposit in the + purchase for the depositor of 100_l._ stock, the interest + on which shall be received by the Commissioners and placed + to the depositor's account. + +Arrived at this point, and in order that the general reader may +properly understand the next attempt made at legislation on behalf of +Savings Banks, we ought to say something in the way of explanation as +to the disposition of the funds of Savings Banks after they reach the +hands of Government. By the 57 Geo. III. c. 105, the money paid in on +Savings Banks account was to be invested in Three-and-a-half per Cent. +Bank Annuities.[103] Subsequently, the law was altered, by which the +money might be invested in Bank Annuities or Exchequer bills. The +purchases of Stock are made upon the order of the Comptroller-General +by the Government broker; but no Exchequer bills are bought, except +under the special direction of the Chancellor of the Exchequer. The +practice is, when the balance at the bank appears to be larger than is +necessary, gradually to apply it to the purchase of Stock at the price +of the day. It appears that between 1828 and 1844 Stock was sold to +the amount of 8,166,511_l._, and purchased to the amount of +8,816,400_l._; Exchequer bills were bought to the amount of +19,888,100_l._, and sold to the extent of 13,041,500_l._ Sir Alexander +Spearman stated that he had, on his own authority, bought Stock from +time to time, as the state of the balance required it; he contended +that he had legally such authority by virtue of his office, and he did +not hold himself responsible to give any explanation of his +proceedings to the trustees or managers of banks.[104] This was just +what Savings Bank managers and trustees did not agree with, and it was +an interpretation put upon the statute which even experienced +statesmen disputed. + +Mr. Wortley told the Committee of 1858 he considered the system of +mixing up the Savings Bank funds with the Government money very +injurious to Savings Banks. Mr. Boodle strongly objected to the +practice of dealing in Stock and Exchequer bills, and of exchanging +one for the other. He said Mr. Goulburn had been induced to +discontinue the practice, and to publish an account of the different +transactions, but that the practice had been revived in 1853, had +continued ever since, and in a worse form than ever. Lord Monteagle, +who spoke very strongly on these points, stated that the present use +of Savings Bank money was entirely at variance with the original +design; that the Commissioners had no power to change the securities, +and thus become active agents in the Stock Market.[105] Lord Monteagle +expressed strong objections also to the power of funding Exchequer +bills bought for the Savings Banks at the price of the quarter at +which they were bought. Sir A. Spearman, who was somewhat unfairly +left to bear all the brunt of every attack of this kind, on account of +the Committee neglecting to call upon any of those five members of the +House who were or had been Chancellors,[106] stated that the Savings +Bank fund on the 20th of November, 1857, was 34,399,082_l._ Stock; +whereas, if there had been no investment in Exchequer bills or bonds +since 1853, the amount would only have been 34,207,371_l._ Stock.[107] +Mr. Boodle dwelt upon the reputed losses which the country had +sustained through the Savings Banks, and declared that if there had +been any loss, it had been occasioned by the State not treating the +funds exclusively as Trust Funds. In this matter, Mr. Boodle +undoubtedly had the best of it. "Whenever any bill is introduced into +Parliament on Savings Banks," said this gentleman, "this loss is +thrown in the teeth of Savings Banks, and used as an argument, +sometimes for reducing the rate of interest, at other times for +reducing the limits of deposits, either annual or in gross. Therefore, +it acts most detrimentally to the depositors; and it has gone out that +the Savings Banks are an enormous expense, whereas we are perfectly +satisfied that, if this money were properly administered, there would +be no expense whatever.[108]" + +That Savings Bank money was not only used for financial purposes, but +turned to extremely profitable use, there can be no doubt: hence +complaints of loss could only be made by persons but partially +acquainted with the facts. Mr. Hume indeed, had he been cognizant of +the profitable way the funds were used, could scarcely have complained +about the loss to the State so often as he did. Mr. Gladstone at this +time, and subsequently, never missed an opportunity of putting the +matter on the proper footing, and to set it forth that, instead of a +loss, the funds had been a source of considerable gain to the State. +In 1834, when Lord Althorp was Chancellor of the Exchequer, and Lord +Monteagle himself (as Mr. Spring Rice) Secretary of the Treasury, they +determined to reduce the interest on the Four per Cents. Those who +held money in the Funds and were dissatisfied with the reduction were +paid off out of the Savings Bank money (without which, indeed, the +reduction could not have been earned through), and a saving to the +country of 53,000_l_. a year was the result. Mr. Goulburn, using the +power he had in the same way, or with the money of Savings Banks to +fall back upon in case of need, effected a saving of 750,000_l._ a +year in reducing the rate of interest from four to three and a half, +then to three and a quarter, and eventually to three, per cent. Not +less useful were the funds of Savings Banks in the time of the Crimean +War. By means of Ways and Means bills, the Chancellor of the Exchequer +raised the necessary funds to meet the heavy demands, and thus +effected an enormous saving of money, which would have been sunk in +transacting a loan. + +We have already made the reader acquainted with Mr. Gladstone's +opinion on the right of the State to use the money entrusted to it for +safe keeping; nothing could be more vigorous than his language already +quoted. Mr. Gladstone endeavoured to carry a change in the law +relating to the investment of Savings Bank moneys in 1855. He now, in +the session of 1860, came forward and offered a bill to remedy some of +the grievances complained of in the Committee. His proposals were now +substantially the same as those of 1855. He voluntarily proposed to be +shorn of his strength as Chancellor by the House agreeing to cancel +Savings Bank Stock to the amount of thirty-one millions of pounds; and +to open a new account for this money, to be called "State Deposit +Account, No. 1," virtually giving the money the fullest security of +the State, and placing it entirely beyond the reach of his operations. +The remaining amount, then about ten millions, Mr. Gladstone proposed +should be allowed to be invested at the pleasure of the finance +minister as heretofore. One would have thought that at any rate this +bill would have been allowed to pass quietly; but it was not to be. +The bill proposed was based on two of the recommendations of the +Committee of 1858,--namely, those which suggested that the power of +funding Deficiency and other bills should be done away, and that the +dealings in the stocks should be under the review of the House; but +members complained that a bill had not been prepared to embrace _all_ +the recommendations. _Sir H. Willoughby_ and _Mr. Estcourt_ took this +view. In long speeches they both upheld the decision of the Committee, +and asked for a bill dealing with the entire subject; the latter +gentleman said that the "barren discussions in Parliament were acting +to the prejudice rather than to the support of the excellent +institutions with which they dealt. There were not above 600 of these +useful institutions in the whole kingdom, whereas they ought to ramify +through every parish and every village of the kingdom." _Mr. Malins_ +and _Colonel Sykes_ followed, and complained that Government should +have neglected to deal with the entire subject. _Mr. Gladstone_ made +up for the lack of supporters by a long and able speech. He admitted +that it was most desirable to have a bill for the management of +Savings Banks, but the general subject had no relation to the mode in +which the money of Savings Banks was invested. Better at the end of a +session carry one or two points, and put an end to grievances which +had been loudly complained about, than bring in a measure only to +withdraw it again. He had been charged with ignoring the labours of +the Committee. He had not done so, for the bill was founded on part of +their labours; he _had_ considered the report, "but consideration does +not necessarily involve adoption." He was compelled to decline many of +the suggestions of the Committee. Where, however, he agreed with them, +he had lost no time in taking action: hence the proposed bill. "From +speeches of honourable gentlemen," concluded Mr. Gladstone, "it might +be supposed that a dreadful bill had been introduced, giving +exorbitant powers to the Chancellor of the Exchequer. The fact is, +however, that there is not a power given which he does not already +possess, and in one or two respects the surrender of powers is very +large." "It is impossible that Savings Bank funds can now be used by +Government as a trust; they must be reserved for the discretion of the +House." The bill for the first time gives a positive title in law to +the deposits in Savings Banks, and it will further provide a true +account,--"for nobody has ever yet seen a true account,"--of the +National Debt; and for these reasons Mr. Gladstone hoped it would be +allowed to pass into law. _Mr. Thomas Baring_, and _Mr. Ayrton_, +unconvinced by the Chancellor's arguments, opposed the bill; and _Mr. +T. Collins_ contented himself, as usual, with dividing the House on +his motion to throw it out. The motion was negatived by a majority of +twenty-four, and there was a similar majority on a motion for +adjournment made by Sir Henry Willoughby. On the 20th of July, 1860, +the bill was considered in Committee, and the discussion was taken on +the first clause--the existing stock to be cancelled--when Mr. Hubbard +approved of the measure. By the bill the greater part of the money of +Savings Banks, viz., that treated as a book debt, would be placed +beyond the reach of jobbery. Sir Francis Baring spoke in favour of, +and Sir H. Willoughby, Mr. Hankey, and Colonel Sykes again opposed, +the clause. The opposition to the measure had gathered strength since +the last occasion;[109] and on a division, the Savings Bank managers +once more triumphed by a majority of 38, in a morning sitting and a +House of 192 members. + +A few days afterwards the _Chancellor of the Exchequer_ proposed the +fourth clause of the defeated bill, or that which gave the +Commissioners an uniform power of holding and dealing with all stocks +under Parliamentary guarantee, and stocks and securities, under +whatever name, that constituted the National Debt. At present, Mr. +Gladstone stated the Commissioners had power to hold Terminable +Annuities, but no power to sell them. There ought to be a uniformity +of power with regard to these securities, and this bill, which was +founded on the fourth clause, gave it. He had only been induced to +take the matter up again by finding an unanimous feeling in the House +for this proposition. _Mr. Estcourt_, in speaking for the clause, +hoped the Chancellor would soon bring in a measure on the general +subject. So he did, soon afterwards, but not the kind of measure Mr. +Estcourt desiderated. When this bill reached the Lords, it was rather +violently opposed by Lords Monteagle and Redesdale; and on a division +the voting was found to be equal. According to usage, the bill was +thrown out. The Government, however, re-introduced the measure, "as a +matter of urgency;" and though there was an outcry in the Lords +against it, no less than in the Commons, for interference with what +was considered a Money Bill, the clause passed, and received the Royal +Assent on the last day of Parliament. + +Mr. Gladstone, thwarted in all his attempts, except in the last +insignificant case, to bring about a better state of things in +connexion with the management of Savings Banks, determined upon +another course of action altogether. He, and other statesmen who had +preceded him in his office, had tried their best to improve the +existing banks, but they had been persistently hindered and obstructed +by the force which Savings Bank officials could bring to bear. For +some time now Mr. Gladstone must have had under his eye several +proposals which went to the very root of the matter upon which so many +difficulties had from time to time arisen, and which promised a +thorough and substantial reform. He bent his great energies in this +direction; saw his way, not only out of a dilemma, but to the +origination of a simpler and more perfect system; and may be said +henceforth to have left the friends and partisans of the old Savings +Banks to look after their own interests. With the legislation relative +to the scheme of Post Office Savings Banks, with which Mr. Gladstone's +name will always be prominently associated, we shall deal in a special +chapter, and will therefore hasten to describe the remaining steps +which the Legislature has taken with regard to Savings Banks proper up +to the present time. + +Left to themselves, the leading Savings Bank authorities in the +House--viz., Mr. Estcourt, Sir H. Willoughby, and Mr. Ayrton--obtained +leave, on the 11th of March, 1862, to bring in a bill "to Amend the +Laws relating to the Security and Management of Savings Banks."[110] +The points sought by the bill were, briefly, (1) to enforce upon all +local banks the regulations of the well-managed ones; (2) to repeal +the Act of 1844; (3) to force an auditor upon every bank and define +his duties; and, lastly, to provide for the security of the +depositors, by enacting that no transactions should take place except +at the office, during office hours, and in the presence and with the +signature of more than one person. Mr. Estcourt, who briefly explained +the drift of the bill, intimated that they were not desirous of +altering the relation in which Government stood to Savings Banks, or +of interfering in any way as to the disposition of the money. Mr. +Gladstone, after stating how completely Government had been baffled in +their attempts to alter the law regulating Savings Banks, expressed +approval of the bill, though he reserved the right of Government to +take any steps they chose at any subsequent stage.[111] On the 20th of +May this bill shared the fate of all preceding attempts to place these +institutions on a sound basis, by being withdrawn. Savings Bank +managers had again interfered, and this time they went against their +devoted friends. _Mr. Estcourt_, on withdrawing the bill, said he had +received numerous representations from managers that his measure was +"inapplicable" to them; and "only that day an influential body of +managers of great experience, and fully to be depended upon," had +waited upon him, requesting him to withdraw it; and if he would +consent to this course, _they_ would endeavour to devise some scheme +which should meet the requirements of the various establishments. Mr. +Estcourt's measure was unquestionably a good one, but it involved too +much trouble and risk to trustees: hence its defeat. _Mr. Gladstone_ +thought it was high time that those gentlemen should take their turn +in devising a scheme. If they proposed a real improvement, Government +would make no objection. Referring to the Post Office Banks, Mr. +Gladstone said: "Undoubtedly, however, the main question had been +disposed of; they were now able to say to the people of England who +were disposed to lay by their savings, with a moderate interest and +with a perfect security, the Government had provided some 3,000 places +where these savings would be received." _Mr. Henley_ was much +discouraged with the difficulties everybody found in the way of +legislation. He was "disposed to think that the well-managed banks +might go on as usual," but rather than "tinker" at the others, "the +very small banks under the old system, which would not afford the +proper machinery for perfect management, ought to be urged to hand +over their business to the Post Office Banks." _Mr. D. Griffith_ "for +once agreed with the Chancellor of the Exchequer;" he was glad to hear +the Post Office Banks were working so well, and expressed his opinion +that "they would ultimately swallow up all the old banks."[112] + +In March, 1863, Mr. Gladstone brought forward once more his +propositions relating to the investment of Savings Bank money. He +moved-- + + "That it is expedient to amend the laws relating to the + investment of the moneys of Saving Banks, and to create a + charge for such Savings Banks upon the Consolidated Fund, + in place of certain perpetual annuities now standing in + the names of the Commissioners of the National Debt; to + give the power for converting certain other amounts of + such perpetual annuities into certain other annuities, and + to provide for the due payment out of the Consolidated + Fund of any deficiency which may arise from insufficiency + of the securities to meet the legal claims of the trustees + of such Savings Banks." + +After considerable discussion, the bill (26 and 27 Vict. c. 25) was +sent up to the Lords under the charge of Lord Stanley of Alderley, and +received the Royal Assent on the 8th of June, 1863. + +We come now to the last item of legislation on the subject of Savings +Banks. On the 14th of April, 1863, Sir H. Willoughby and Mr. Ayrton +obtained leave to introduce the bill which, according to promise, had +been prepared by a convention of Savings Bank managers. To a great +extent this measure "to Consolidate and Amend the Laws relating to +Savings Banks," was identical with the one which Mr. Estcourt +introduced and withdrew during the previous session. The managers had +met during the recess, and had consolidated into one the eight Acts, +or parts of Acts, which then governed their establishments. Mr. Tidd +Pratt, on being consulted in the matter, certified that the new Act +"would constitute a fair and just measure of improvement." Mr. +Gladstone, too, it seems, had been furnished with a copy, had +suggested some trifling emendations, which had been frankly adopted +and embodied, and was therefore disposed to offer no captious +opposition to it. Not only so, but he thought it creditable to the +gentlemen who had it in charge, and, so far as it went, likely to be +effectual. Several clauses were altered, struck out, or inserted, and +the bill, known as the "Consolidation Act," received the Royal Assent +on the 28th of July, 1863. Of this Act (26 and 27 Vict. c. 87, a full +description of which will be found in the Appendix)[113] we shall +speak in a subsequent chapter, when we come to consider the law at +present regulating Savings Banks. + + + [69] In a case that arose out of the Carnarvon Bank fraud of 1824, + in the Court of Bankruptcy, both the Commissioners, Sir John Cross + and Sir George Rose, expressed very strong opinions on the point + as against trustees. The former judge, after giving a decision + against the trustees in the case, said, "The case could not be + made too public," and he "trusted that it would operate as a + warning to the trustees of Savings Banks generally." Sir George + Rose "fully concurred" in the observations of his colleague. He + thought "it should be borne in mind that deposits were made by + parties, not on the faith of the persons acting as actuary or + cashier, but upon the faith of the gentlemen who acted as + trustees; where such persons neglected the duties which were + incumbent upon them, their conduct was deeply deserving of + censure. If, therefore, the clerk, or other person employed by + them, were guilty of peculation, they were themselves liable for + any defalcation that might ensue." + + [70] Speaking of Mr. Goulburn, when he first took office, a + contemporary said, "He possesses that degree of talent which + renders him highly respectable without exciting any invidious + feeling. He is content to be useful without aspiring to the + reputation of an innovator; and, if he shall introduce nothing + new, he will at least abstain from anything that is dangerous." + Mr. Goulburn's legislation for Savings Banks scarcely bears out + this estimate. + + [71] This arrangement, which was quietly dropped before the bill + became law, owing to the pressure which managers of Savings Banks + brought to bear upon the House, was strongly urged by Mr. Tidd + Pratt. That gentleman and Mr. Higham, Comptroller of the National + Debt Office, prepared this bill. In the Committee of 1848, Mr. + Pratt gave it as his opinion (140), that no depositor should be + allowed to put in more than 10_l._ in one year, instead of 30_l._, + or it might go to 15_l._; "but I am quite sure that this latter + sum is as much as the small savings of the industrious classes can + amount to." He also proposed to limit the total amount to 100_l._ + + [72] In this same Committee, Mr. Pratt stated that in the course + of his investigations in Ireland he had found one man who had had + seventeen books out of one Savings Bank, and money to the extent + of 520_l._ lodged there, altogether his own property, but which he + represented himself as holding in trust. + + [73] Only four sets of directors of banks, and these banks of very + insignificant size, made a declaration of the kind in question + between 1844 and 1848. + + [74] It was during the passage of this bill that the managers and + trustees of the different Savings Banks in the country first + combined to influence the action of the Legislature. On this + occasion it can be shown that they made their influence felt, and + provoked several divisions in both Houses. With the House of Lords + they were most successful, owing, no doubt, to the great number of + peers who were honorary officers of Savings Banks. For example, in + the House of Commons they succeeded in dividing the House twice on + the question of the rate of interest. They wished no reduction to + be made in that rate; but, when it was decided that the rate + should be reduced, amendments making it 3_l._ 6_s._ 8_d._ to + trustees and 3_l._ 0_s._ 0_d._ to depositors, and 3_l._ 5_s._ + 0_d._ and 2_l._ 18_s._ 4_d._ were proposed against the Government + plan, eventually carried, of 3_l._ 5_s._ 0_d._ and 3_l._ 0_s._ + 10_d._ respectively. It was declared that the difference of 4_s._ + 2_d._ only would not defray the cost of management. It was + objected also, and not without reason, that the Government erred + in not naming the exact sum, instead not more than 3_l._ 0_s._ + 10_d._ per cent. which should be given to depositors; that this + was a matter which ought not to have been left in any sense to the + trustees. Much unpleasantness might have been saved if the sum had + been definitely stated, and instead of twenty or thirty different + rates of interest, all had been paid alike, and there had not been + left any doubt as to what depositors should consider their right + in the matter. Out of doors there was a regular combination; + deputations waited upon the Chancellor of the Exchequer, and + gentlemen from all the leading Savings Banks in England, Scotland, + and Ireland, met in London to concert those schemes of defence to + which we have just alluded. A meeting was held, at the important + institution in St. Martin's place, with Sir Henry Willoughby as + Chairman, when the following resolutions, among many others, were + agreed to by the deputies from banks representing 5,000,000_l._ of + deposits. Nothing could of course better show how the action of + the Legislature was regarded by the managers of the institutions + in question:-- + + 1. "That the proposed reductions in the amount of + deposits from 30_l._ to 20_l._ in each year, and + the total amount of deposits from 150_l._ to + 120_l._ will be highly injurious to the interests + of the depositors." + + 2d. "That the reduction in the rate of interest from + 2-1/2_d._ per cent. per day to 2_d._ is far too + great, out of proportion to the reduction of the + interest in the Funds, and would be extremely + prejudicial to the depositors in all Savings + Banks, but more especially to those in the + smaller banks, throughout the kingdom." + + 3d. "That clause 7, requiring the production of the + books of every depositor once a year, will cause + annoyance to depositors, is not capable of being + enforced, and is no efficient security." + + 4th. "That the proposed alteration respecting the + liability of trustees and managers of Savings + Banks seems highly objectionable. The present + provision, of no trustee responsible except for + his wilful default or neglect, is well understood + as applicable to all cases of voluntary trusts, + and should undergo no alteration." + + 5th. "That it is not expedient that trust accounts be + altogether abolished, but that provision should + be introduced to meet the case of fictitious + deposits and the abuse of trusts." + + And so on throughout almost all the clauses. + + [75] On one occasion, about this time, Mr. Hume had complained of + the "impudent conduct" of some Government official, to which Sir + Robert Peel, as Premier, replied. Sir Robert said, he "would not + quarrel with the hon. gentleman," (an experiment he had often + tried without much success,) "considering him a good judge as to + how far impudence might be carried with impunity." Mr. Hume at + once owned the soft impeachment. "If I had not had the impudence + of the devil," said he, "I should never have done any good in this + House." _The Times_, the next day, give it to Mr. Hume smartly, as + was its wont, and congratulated him "on his generous, though + rather startling, acknowledgment of the source of all his + strength." + + [76] His speech on the occasion does not seem to have been fully + reported. + + [77] The trustees of four small banks made the declaration: those + of Tonbridge, Ashby-de-la-Zouch, Fareham, and Carshalton in + Surrey. + + [78] At a meeting of the managers of the principal Savings Banks + held on the 29th of August, 1819, it was resolved: "That this + meeting has read with mingled feelings of pain and alarm the + clause in the proposed bill virtually requiring trustees and + managers of Savings Banks to give security or 100_l._ each, and + making such trustees and managers responsible to an indefinite + extent if they should neglect to limit their responsibility to + that sum, as pointed out in the Act." + + [79] Mr. Brotherton, the member for Salford, soon after stated + that the managers of the Manchester Savings Bank, with 20,000 + depositors, insisted upon every person bringing his book to the + office annually, as a precaution against fraud. + + [80] The Committee of 1848 went very fully into the changes which + were needed in Ireland, and many witnesses were asked what they + would propose. For example (1579), Mr. W. Keating Clay was asked: + "Do you believe, in consequence of the Cuffe Street bank, the + deposits will decrease in Dublin and neighbourhood if the law is + not amended?" and replied, "I should say they will be altogether + withdrawn. I don't think the other Savings Banks in Dublin, which + have conducted their business faultlessly all through, can exist + another year under the present law." Another witness, in answer to + a similar question, said (1205): "I am quite satisfied that the + Savings Bank system in Ireland will crumble to dust unless there + is legislation." A third witness said, nothing would do but + trustees fully liable, and a system of Government inspection and + regular audit of the accounts. + + [81] _The Times_ and _Morning Chronicle_ strongly advocated the + same view. + + [82] _Hansard_, vol. civ, pp. 22-54. + + [83] During the interval, Mr. Reynolds, member for Dublin, who had + obtained the Committee originally, became Lord Mayor of Dublin, + and Mr. Gibson Craig became Sir W. Gibson Craig. Mr. J. A. Smith + was appointed chairman on each occasion. + + [84] For example, in August, 1852, Mr. Reynolds again brought the + subject before the House by proposing that the remaining money due + to depositors should be paid by the State. On this occasion he + told how he had had the honour, in 1846, placing Her Majesty's + Government twice in the same night in a minority on this subject; + but, unlike other members who had done the same thing, he had not + received Her Majesty's commands to form a new ministry. This style + of banter was scarcely suited to his subject, but more serious + appeals were equally unavailing. + + [85] The following remark had already been made from the judicial + bench: "I find that country gentlemen, &c. were willing to lend + their names as trustees, in the establishment of banks for the + deposits of saving of the poor, but were negligent, in too many + instances, in giving their personal services, whereby the business + fell almost entirely under the exclusive management of the person + appointed as actuary."--_Sir John Cross._ + + [86] "Nearly all the frauds, and all the loss which had occurred + in Savings Banks," said the Chancellor, "were owing to the actuary + or secretary receiving money irregularly, sometimes at his own + house, and very often out of office hours." + + [87] Even in seaport towns this inspection of pass-books might be + accomplished without much trouble; if there was any difficulty in + getting in the books, such an inspection might be made as would be + sufficient to test the general accuracy of the accounts. Thus at + Cork, the year before (1849), 6,623 pass-books had been sent in + for examination, and only 1,164 did not come in. The accuracy of + the larger number was ample test of the accuracy of all. + + [88] The Chancellor here pointed out that the _average_ rate of + interest given to depositors at that time (1850) was but 2_l._ + 18_s._ 4_d._ and that the reduction would be scarcely felt by any + class; that reduction, however, would not only provide against the + Government losing any more money, but would meet the expense of + the proposed Government treasurers of Savings Banks. + + [89] _Hansard_, vol. cx., third series; and _Times_, 1850. + + [90] It must not be assumed that there was no difference of + opinion on these points, even among Savings Bank managers. The + following letter, read by Sir Charles Wood during his speech in + 1850, is conclusive to the contrary. The writer, who was manager + of a large provincial Savings Bank, wrote: "I have had occasion to + remark that the chief inducement to deposit money by those for + whom Savings Banks are intended, consists in having a _safe place_ + for deposit, and that the amount of interest for the most part is + but a secondary consideration; whereas those persons whose means + are greater, and who do not actually require Savings Banks, use + them to suit their convenience when the Funds are high, and take + out their money from the Savings Banks to invest in the Funds when + low, just at that very time when the withdrawal occasions loss to + the country." He then expressed an opinion almost identical with + one which Mr. Tidd Pratt has often given, that "20_l._ would be + quite sufficient to allow a person to deposit in one year," and + that, "when the deposits reach 100_l._ there is no necessity to + allow further deposits to be made." Again, the Rev. W. Rowan, + Treasurer of the Tralee Bank, when asked in the Committee of 1849, + if he thought changes were necessary in Savings Banks, answered + that, "The Savings Bank system must either become a general + failure, and the funds invested in them withdrawn, or you must + place it upon an entirely different footing with respect to + inspection and working." + + [91] A bill to continue the Act of 1848, "for Amending the Laws + relating to Savings Banks in Ireland," was carried through + Parliament in this session. + + [92] The gentleman to whom reference was here made is the present + Comptroller-General, the veteran public servant Sir Alexander + Young Spearman. This gentleman, of whom all parties speak as a man + of irreproachable character and eminent abilities, has now (1866) + been fifty-eight years in the public service. To him is no little + owing the efficiency with which his department is now managed, and + the increased facilities which have been given to the public in + all things connected with the provident habits of the people. It + may not be out of place here to state, with reference to the + office held by this gentleman, that it was formed about the + commencement of the present century, whereas the Commissioners + date from the creation of the Sinking Fund in 1786. Sir Alexander + Spearman succeeded Mr. Higham in the position. As more than one of + the witnesses at the Committee of 1858 did not know who formed the + Board of Commissioners, of whom they were constantly speaking, and + another did not know whether the Board ever met, it may be new to + some readers, if we say that the Commissioners for the Reduction + of the National Debt consist of the Speaker of the House of + Commons, the Master of the Rolls, the Chief Baron of the + Exchequer, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, the Accountant-General + of the Court of Chancery, and the Governor and Deputy-Governor of + the Bank of England. The Board held a meeting once in each + quarter. Three Commissioners form a quorum, and their powers are + defined by Act of Parliament. The Comptroller-General acts in the + capacity of Secretary to the Board, and is entrusted with the + carrying out of its orders. The expenditure of the National Debt + Office amounted, in 1856, to about 14,000_l._; but must have + increased considerably since that date. + + [93] "To amend the Laws relating to Savings Banks, and, in certain + cases, to give the guarantee of Government to the depositors for + the repayment of the sums legally deposited in such Savings + Banks." + + [94] In a long petition to the House of Commons from the Trustees + and Managers of the St. Martin's Place Savings Bank, this bill is + strongly opposed, thus showing that Mr. Gladstone had not + succeeded with the managers of that institution. Speaking of the + direct Government guarantee proposed to be given, the managers say + that they "find the proposed change fettered with such a variety + of intricate and cumbersome official regulations, as cannot fail + in practice to prove greatly annoying and vexatious to depositors, + and perplexing to the managers of the banks and their officers, + upon whom will still devolve duties and responsibilities + ill-defined under the provisions of this bill, and not capable of + being sufficiently understood or explained; subversive, as the + proposed change will also prove, in this and many other + well-regulated Savings Banks, of those systems of entry and check + under which their present accuracy of accounts is so admirably and + indisputably maintained." They objected to the reduction in the + rate of interest, treated of several other minor matters, and + again prayed that a full inquiry should be made by a committee + before any bill was passed. + + [95] "You take the money of these depositors, and you give them + the entire security of the State for their money. They cannot have + a better security; and if you give them that, they have no + interest in the employment of the money: it does not signify to + them if you fling it to the bottom of the sea. So long as the + Treasury of the country is sound, it does not matter one rush what + the Chancellor of the Exchequer does with the money. If he invests + it well, they are no richer; and if he plays all the tricks of the + mountebank, or disposes of it with the artifice of the swindler, + they are none the poorer. The depositor in Savings Banks have + nothing to do with the question, and it is only weakening and + impairing their position to make them depend upon the prudence of + the minister, instead of upon the credit of the British public." + Savings Bank managers held a strong opinion against what they + called jobbing with their funds. They said Mr. Goulburn had + promised that the practice should be stopped; and it was, in 1844; + but that Mr. Gladstone had revived the practice illegally in 1853. + These bills were not introduced in 1855. + + [96] _Hansard_, vol. cxxxvi. 1854. + + [97] _Hansard_, vol. cxliv, p. 1292. + + [98] A clause was added to the bill now introduced to prohibit the + assumption of the title of "Savings Banks," by institutions not + established under the Savings Bank Acts. + + [99] A few days after this, Sir George Lewis gave a pledge to + Viscount Goderich that, if the bill passed, the Committee should + be appointed to consider every question that Sir H. Willoughby had + raised. + + [100] The trustees of the principal Savings Banks again petitioned + against the bill. The petition from the St. Martin's Place + institution prayed "your honourable House to pause ere you pass + such an Act as would assuredly compel your petitioners, and, in + their view, all parties similarly situated, to resign the charge + which they have hitherto had so much pleasure in fulfilling, and, + as they may venture to assert, with entire satisfaction to the + parties pecuniarily interested." In their opinion "considerably + more importance has been attached to the terms 'Government + security,' and 'Government guarantee,' than the facts of the case + would require." + + [101] Mr. Sikes said (2,628), "I believe that one great essential + for the future progress and prosperity of Savings Banks would be + the guarantee of the Government for every deposit duly made in the + hours of business." Mr. Wortley said (1,570) that he thought it a + desirable thing, and also Government auditors or inspectors. Mr. + Hope Nield (1,937) thought it "desirable decidedly, if it can be + obtained without trammelling or destroying the operations of the + banks." Mr. Maitland "had no doubt whatever about it being a + desirable thing, if it can be safely given" (2,153). Sir Alexander + Spearman gave his opinion at greater length (4,368). "There will + be no satisfactory amendment of the law unless the security of + Government is given to depositors. I think it is impossible that + the present state of things should be allowed to continue. The + question has often been discussed, and depositors in many cases + have believed that they had the security of Government, and found + to their cost that they had not; complaints are constantly + arising; applications are constantly made to know whether they + have the security of Government or not. I think myself that + depositors are entitled to have the real protection of a + Government security, but I think also that it will be quite + impossible to give this security without at the same time giving + to the officers of Government a very different power of dealing + with the management of Savings Banks. It would be idle to talk of + the one without the other." So weighty are the conclusions to + which the Committee of Inquiry came on the subject of this + guarantee that we present them here _in extenso_. "A very general + impression prevails throughout the country that the Government is + bound to make good a deficiency whenever a deficiency occurs; a + claim accordingly has been made, in several instances, on + Parliament to replace the money of depositors in cases of + defalcation. This impression is not warranted by the laws which + regulate Savings Banks. It is difficult, however, to maintain that + Parliament, having released local trustees from their liability, + should not be bound to provide some other guarantee for the money + of depositors, who have no share themselves in the management of + their bank. It appears to your Committee that an alternative ought + to be given, and freely offered to the choice of trustees, either + to secure the guarantee of Parliament upon such conditions as the + commission shall prescribe, or themselves to undergo the same + liability in regard to Savings Banks as was enacted by 9 Geo. IV. + c. 92, s. 9. The able actuaries connected with various large + banks, who have attended your Committee, have detailed various + methods by which imposition and error may be rendered almost + impossible in large establishments; but in the case of the smaller + banks, where the funds are not adequate to provide a staff of paid + officers, it will be for the Commission to see what arrangements + they can make to check misconduct, and to afford to depositors, at + least once a year, a certainty that their money has been duly + lodged with the Government, for which purpose some valuable + suggestions were made by several of the witnesses experienced in + the practical management of banks. In one point all the witnesses + concur; and your Committee must record their own opinion to the + same effect, that the most effectual restraint upon malversation + is to be found in the presence of a second party in every + transaction where money is paid or received; and that a rule to + this effect ought to be imperative in all banks, under a penalty + on its infringement." + + [102] The Committee sat six days deliberating on their Report + after all the witnesses had been examined. Draft reports were + proposed by Mr. Ayrton, Sir Henry Willoughby, and the Chairman, + the report ultimately carried, after a few emendations, being that + by Mr. Estcourt. + + [103] Sir Alexander Spearman, who clearly explained the facts to + the Committee of 1858, also described the routine gone through + when Savings Banks made investments with Government. They first + certify the appointment of trustees; then, appoint an agent in + London, generally a banker, through whose hands the money passes. + When the trustees of a Savings Bank wish to invest, they send up a + notice to their agent, who presents it at the National Debt + Office, where an order is given to the Bank of England to receive + the stipulated sum and place it to the account of the fund for the + Banks for Savings. Next morning a receipt is sent from the Bank of + England to the National Debt Office, and from thence to the + trustees who remitted the money. A somewhat similar proceeding + takes place on the trustees of any Savings Bank wishing to + withdraw money. It is done through the agent, who gives the + necessary notice of withdrawal. No money is paid or received at + the National Debt Office, but at the Bank of England, the + Commissioner simply keeping the accounts. + + [104] "Suppose any bank should question the way in which their + funds had been invested?"--"My answer would be," said Sir A. + Spearman (4,029), "that this was a matter which did not in the + least concern them. I am not aware that the Act of Parliament in + any shape or in any manner makes the Commissioners or their + officers responsible in the slightest degree to the trustees of + Savings Banks." When asked if, "Supposing the money were used for + financial purposes, or not invested at all, or invested so as to + produce little interest, would Savings banks have a right to + complain?" this witness answered, he "did not think so. What the + Commissioners are responsible for is, to repay to the trustees of + Savings Banks the amount received from them, together with the + amount of interest due, whenever they call for it." "They are + responsible for that, and nothing more." + + [105] A little prior to this, Lord Monteagle had spoken at great + length and with great animation on the same subject in the House + of Lords. He then went the length of saying, that, "now the money + was coveted not so much on account of inculcating the growth of + provident habits, but that it should afford the Chancellor of the + Exchequer a large capital, which might be sold, bought, exchanged, + or invested in Exchequer bills, or in stock, at the will and + pleasure of the financial minister; and, consequently, that he + could thus be enabled, as he saw fit, to influence the + Money-market to an extent which no individual or combination of + capitalists could possibly either equal or counteract." He added, + that he could have no objection to the mere buying and selling of + securities, so far as the Savings Banks were concerned; what he + objected to was, that these transactions should be so carried on + as to affect the value of the public securities and influence the + Stock-Market--"rig the market," as a member of the House of + Commons said at the same time. + + [106] Sir Francis Baring, Sir Charles Wood, Mr. Gladstone, Mr. + Disraeli, and Sir George C. Lewis. + + [107] Exchequer-bill purchases, as we gather from the evidence + taken before the Committee of Inquiry, are made in two modes. If + the purchases are to be made in the market, the Cashier of the + bank is directed in the same manner as when he is told to purchase + Stock; pays for the bills out of the Savings Bank fund, and + carries them to the credit of the Commissioners. The other mode + is, by the issue of temporary Exchequer bills, such as Deficiency + bills, or Ways and Means bills. Deficiency bills are bills issued + under the authority of 57 George III., to enable the Government to + provide for a temporary deficiency of money in the Exchequer. + Deficiency bills are issued either to the Bank of England, or held + temporarily by the National Debt Commissioners through the bank, + the bank paying the money to the Exchequer, and paying itself the + next day out of the Savings Bank fund. Ways and Means bills are of + a pretty similar character, but chargeable to the revenue of the + next succeeding quarter, and not, as in the former case, of the + current one. Supply bills are of a still more permanent character, + and are often held on from year to year, and are exchanged from + year to year. + + [108] Mr. Boodle was for allowing part of the money to be + otherwise invested than with Government. He suggested land + drainage. Mr. Sturrock and Mr. Sikes were for keeping one-third of + the money in the hands of trustees, to be invested "in freehold + securities of unquestionable character," or in railway debentures. + Mr. Deaker, Mr. Jameson, and Mr. Finney agreed. Lord Monteagle was + "driven to the conclusion" of saying that in investing Savings + Bank deposits, "you ought to deal in State securities and nothing + else." The opinion of the Committee on the subject may of course + be gathered from the digest of their report already given. + + [109] The indefatigable bank managers of London again sent round + petitions against the proposals, and when they were presented to + the House, one member, Mr. Hubbard, remarked they "were all + apparently from one mint:" and indeed no secret was made of its + being so. + + [110] So convinced was one individual organ--accustomed to treat + largely of such subjects--that the bill now proposed would fail to + accomplish any good, that it insisted upon its being called a + "Bill to provide for the speedy extinction of all old Savings + Banks, and to give a heavy blow and great discouragement to the + trustees and managers thereof." + + [111] _Hansard_, vol. clxvi. p. 1394. + + [112] _Hansard_, vol. clxvi. p. 1974. It is not often that Mr. + Griffith speaks the sentiments of the generality of English + people, but he almost did so in this instance. No amount of + tinkering could now make the old banks as simple, secure, and + efficacious as those on the new plan. Mr. Griffith not having gone + the length of mentioning any time, his prophecy was eminently a + safe one. No one is more to blame, if indeed any one is to blame + at all for such a state of things, than the authorities of Savings + Banks themselves. Whilst they were systematically opposing with + suicidal obstructiveness every measure of amendment, the whole + ground was suddenly cut from under them by the institution of + Postal Banks. + + [113] Appendix B. + + + + + CHAPTER VI. + + A CHAPTER ON SAVINGS BANK FRAUDS. + + "There is such a powerful element of failure in all human + affairs, that a shrewd man is always saying to himself, + 'What shall I do, if that which I count upon does not come + out as I expect?' This foresight dwarfs and crushes all + but men of great resolution."--_Companions of my Solitude._ + + +In this chapter it is our intention to describe with more or less +minuteness the principal cases of frauds in Savings Banks pretty much +in the order of their occurrence, and also to speak to some extent of +the results which followed from them. How the progress of legislation +was affected by these frauds has been already shown; and with the +object of making more clear the legislation of 1844 and 1848, we have +already entered into the details of the notorious Cuffe Street Bank +failure, and one occurring in England prior to those dates. So far as +we have been able to ascertain, the first case of fraud in a Savings +Bank occurred at Carnarvon in the year 1824. In this case the actuary +received deposits to a large extent for which he in no way accounted. +Up to 1848 no less than ten cases, other than those already referred +to, occurred, in all of which the trustees promptly paid the claims. +These cases include the frauds which took place in Carmarthenshire, +Northamptonshire, and Cumberland, one at Mildenhall in Suffolk, and +another at Mitcham in the same county. In the latter case the +secretary managed to embezzle a sum amounting to near 12,000_l._, and +then made off; Mr. Hoare, the eminent brewer, paying down no less a +sum than 7,000_l._ to atone for his neglect, and the other trustees +making up the amount by subscriptions of 1,000_l._ and 500_l._ each. +Into any further particulars of the above cases it is impossible to +enter, inasmuch as they have never been allowed to transpire,--precautions +which, so long as there were no efficient remedies at hand, were both +wise and magnanimous. The catalogue, however, can be made black enough +and full enough without such cases; and it is to others which have +been exposed in all the fulness of their iniquity down to the minutest +details that we will now turn. Claiming priority in all respects was +the fraud on the County of Kerry Savings Bank at Tralee. + +The Tralee Savings Bank was established in 1823, many of the noblemen +and leading gentlemen of the neighbourhood taking part in its +formation. The secretary from the commencement was Mr. John Lynch, who +was appointed by a majority of the trustees at a salary of 60_l._ per +annum. From the commencement the bank was held at the house of the +secretary, and was open from two till four every Monday.[114] Among +the directors there were five clergymen, and the rest were highly +respectable gentlemen of Tralee. The same might be said of the twenty +managers, nearly half of whom were clergymen. The Rev. A. B. Rowan was +treasurer of the bank. In the pass-books were abstracts of the Rules +and Regulations of the bank, and these were headed by the following +motto:-- + + "For age and want save while you may, + No morning sun lasts a whole day." + +Other useful injunctions were given in sober prose, such as "Examine +your pass-book, and see that the entry is correct." "If you lose this +book, give immediate notice at the bank, otherwise you may be +defrauded."[115] With what feelings the pages of the books containing +this sage advice would be turned subsequently, we leave the reader to +judge after he has learnt more. Of course, Lynch was highly respected +in the town: one witness describes him as, from the first of his +connexion with the bank till the exposure, a man above suspicion; and +Mr. Rowan, the treasurer, told the Committee of 1848, that he believed +the public generally "had more confidence in Mr. Lynch than they had +in many, or any, of the trustees themselves." (839.) That he was +clever, as well as "correct," is manifest from the fact that he +succeeded for sixteen years in carrying on, unsuspected by anybody, a +complete system of frauds of different kinds, by which he appropriated +to his own use during that time no less than an average of 2,000_l._ a +year. He seems to have commenced his dishonest practices soon after +the formation of the bank; but until 1832 his peculations were of +small amount. From 1832 to 1847 he practised every possible +description of fraud, and though some of them might have been detected +by a rigid system of check, nearly all of them were remarkable for the +ingenuity they displayed: "The contrivance and adroitness with which +he managed these frauds," says one who subsequently went over the +accounts of the bank, "were so ingenious as almost to defy detection." +One of his practices was to account for a less sum than he received +from a depositor, and this description of fraud he managed as follows +(and this is a case which actually occurred): He received for lodgment +three sums of 30_l._, 15_l._, and 27_l._ in one day, without any +assistance or supervision from trustee or manager. These amounts he +entered in his books as 3_l._, 5_l._, and 7_l._ respectively, and +pocketed the difference. The manager at the close of the day, in +examining and certifying the business done, marked the three entries +as correct, as he found that they tallied exactly with the amount of +money received into the bank. No sooner, however, was the bank closed +and the acting manager left, than Lynch completed the case he had +commenced by securing himself against exposure in the event of the +depositor seeking to withdraw any of the sums named. The burden of the +fraud was made to fall upon the funds of the bank by the actuary now +altering the bank books to make them agree with the money actually +deposited; and this he did in the cases in question by putting an 0 +after the figure 3, the figure 1 before the 5, and 2 before the 7. In +this way Lynch netted, with little or no risk of detection, a matter +of 57_l_. in one day. This was only one mode adopted. He likewise +received money out of office hours, which he never entered in any +day-book or accounted for to the manager. To preserve himself, +however, as in the previous case, he never forgot to post the amount +in the ledger, so that whenever it might be claimed it would appear to +the debit of the bank and at once be paid. Of course, there was here +the absence of everything like check or audit.[116] Other descriptions +of fraud may be left to be given in the culprit's own words. + +Lynch held uninterrupted sway of the Tralee bank for a long series of +years, contriving to make away during the time with many thousands of +pounds; but retribution, though long in coming, arrived at last. "The +mill of God grinds late," says the Spanish proverb, "but it grinds to +powder," and the proverb meets with its exemplification here. A +trifling incident, as has often been the case before, led the way to +the full exposure. Lynch fell ill, to an extent which, though the bank +was held at his own house, precluded him from giving those precise +instructions which are eminently necessary in dealing with such +fragile machinery as that with which he had managed to work so long. +It was usual, it seems, to make weekly requisitions to the treasurer +of the bank for money to meet the demands upon its funds, and the +subordinate on the occasion in question asked for more money from that +functionary than had been credited to him altogether. The treasurer, +the Rev. A. Rowan, like the rest, had unbounded confidence in the +secretary, and had given himself little trouble over the affairs of +the bank. At a time when it must have been evident to all that several +thousand pounds sterling stood to the credit of depositors, Mr. Rowan +was satisfied to think that two or three thousand pounds formed the +capital of the bank. It is on record that he several times spoke of +the small amount of money in the bank, and innocently pointed to the +fact "as a sign of the depressed state of the country."[117] How this +illusion was at length dispelled we leave Mr. Rowan, himself to +tell.[118] "As I knew that the requisition of April 3d was for more +money than there was in the bank, I went to Mr. Lynch, and said there +must be some mistake somewhere, and told them to stop taking in any +more money till it was cleared up. The next day Mr. Lynch being ill in +bed, sent for me, and made a confession that he had committed frauds; +but he stated no amount. I then seized his books and papers and +everything I found connected with the bank, and swore information as +to the facts." The books were then subjected to a thorough +examination, and "frauds of every possible character," to the extent +of 36,000_l._, were found to have been committed. At the trial which +ensued, Lynch pleaded guilty, and was sentenced to fourteen years' +transportation. + +The other modes of enriching himself to which we have not yet referred +may be given in Lynch's own words. Soon after his apprehension he made +a confession of his malpractices, in order to exonerate a clerk of the +bank who had been arrested at the same time, and who was at first +thought to be an accomplice, and we take the man's own account of his +ingenious trafficking in forged pass-books as the most lucid one that +could possibly be given. "A depositor lodged money with me," said the +actuary; "I entered it in the pass-book, but not in the receipt-book. +He subsequently lodged more, say with Mr. Fitzgerald, and it was duly +entered in the pass-book and the receipt-book. For these depositors +there necessarily was no account to be found in the bank books, and +the party paying him upon notice given would thus be presumptively +implicated." He proceeded to give another instance of his artifice: "I +frequently took an old pass-book and tore out the _bonâ fide_ deposit +leaf; I made an entry therein in a fictitious name, and a _quasi_ +deposit, as if it were some years antecedent. During bank hours I used +to hand in those books to whoever might be in the bank, directing +notice to be given for the amount, as though the depositor had left it +with me for that purpose, as it were, some days antecedently. The +manager entering such notice was thus presumptively implicated; and as +the course of the bank unfortunately was to 'keep' and not relodge +sums 'noticed for,' the manager of the day marked it as 'kept,' which +meant, given to me to give to the _quasi_ depositor." "Kept!" What a +fund of irony there is in that one word so applied! In one or other of +the modes described, this actuary, "respected by all who knew him," +contrived to "keep," and, what is worse, to spend, 36,000_l_. of the +hard-earned savings of the poorest classes around him. His estate at +the time of his apprehension was worth something like 3,000_l_.; this +property Lynch offered to give up in full, "leaving not even a bed for +his daughter;" but on Mr. Pratt's being applied to for advice, that +gentleman recommended the treasurer not to fall in with the offer, +inasmuch as it would be "a compounding of the felony." (825.)[119] Mr. +Pratt had arrived by this time at Tralee, and was engaged in the +investigation of the affairs of the bank, and in making his awards in +the case. That investigation showed the most culpable neglect on the +part of the managers and trustees: Lynch had been engaged in his +nefarious practices for fifteen years, and yet till the day he made +his confession a breath of suspicion never reached one of them. The +confidence of the trustees in the man was so unbounded, that one +trustee would sign anything he wished; and the other, who generally +acted, signed because he saw the name of his fellow-trustee. Mr. Pratt +ascertained that here, as at Cuffe Street, the law had been +systematically violated; depositors had put in money to any extent; +they had deposited their money at all times, and under all kinds of +circumstances; charitable institutions deposited their funds without +any limitation, one fund having at one time had as much as 5,000_l_. +in the bank. Mr. Pratt, in making his awards, had to take all these +facts into consideration, giving satisfaction so far as it was in his +power to those who had made their deposits legally, and refusing it in +all other cases. In this way he made awards on the trustees of the +bank to the sum of over 16,000_l_. The trustees disputed their +liability on the strength of the Act of 1844, and when the case was +brought before the Court of Queen's Bench the decision of the +barrister was set aside. To this day, we believe, the unfortunate +depositors in the Tralee Bank have in no sense, either by private +benevolence or Government aid, been recompensed for their loss. + +When the blow first fell with all its crushing weight upon the people, +they are described as having borne it "with wonderful patience;" then +this state of things was followed by a period of stolid indifference +to all the ordinary maxims of thrift and prudence, as if their +treatment had destroyed the growth of provident habits. So much is +evident from the statements of a respectable solicitor at Tralee who +was examined before the Committee of 1848:-- + + "Can you state (Mr. Herbert to Mr. Justin Supple, 872), + from your own knowledge, what class of persons the + depositors are, generally speaking?--Generally speaking, + they are composed of servants, artisans, mechanics, and + small shopkeepers. There are a few of a higher class, but + they are very few indeed. I have pass-books with me + amounting to about 16,000_l_., and I assure the Committee + that there is not a case in which I could not point out a + more or less considerable degree of hardship." He then + stated several cases. + + (878) "Can you state from the general feeling of the + country, what evil consequence will be the result of the + failure?--Taking the failure," says the witness, "in + connexion with the years of famine, I think the + consequence will be to drive the classes which have been + hitherto industrious and economical in their habits, to + vice and wickedness, because the dissipated characters who + have saved nothing, or did not take the trouble of saving, + now look upon the poor industrious creature who has been + cheated, laugh at him, and tell him that they have spent + their own money, while the industrious man has had + somebody else to spend his for him." + +The agitation was at its height in Tralee when news came that the +neighbouring Savings Bank at Killarney had stopped payment. Mr. Pratt +had not even finished his awards in the one case before he was +required to investigate this fresh iniquity. It would seem that the +exposure of the one actuary had led to closer investigation on the +part of the trustees of the Killarney bank, and the earlier +development of the fraudulent proceedings of the other official. Here +again the frauds were found to be of an ingenious character, and might +have been continued over an indefinite period, but that the trustees +were compelled by the force of public opinion in the neighbourhood to +do the work they had taken upon themselves. As it was, the deficiency +was found to amount to 20,000_l._: the entire liabilities of the +Killarney bank were 36,000_l._, but the money in hand and the property +of the actuary, who decamped, which was calculated to realize about +5000_l._, reduced the loss to the former sum. As the average amount +due to each person was 45_l._ we may well conclude that the majority +of the depositors were of the poorer classes. Though the real loss was +less than in the case of the Tralee Bank, the bank at Killarney was +found to have been managed with greater carelessness; the trustees and +managers professed to make a yearly audit of accounts, but this to all +intents and purposes meant nothing more than taking the actuary's word +for everything. The details of this fraud have never, so far as we can +find, been made the subject of a searching public investigation, so +that little more is known than that the frauds in question were of the +usual character. Mr. Pratt, in a short report which he presented to +the Lords of the Treasury after he had visited the place, said that he +found the one case to be very similar to the other (Tralee), both as +regards the actuary and the managers. In both cases the accounts of +the treasurer were correct, and in both had the trustees grossly +neglected their duties. Here again he made awards against the bank to +a large amount, and in one respect these awards were much called in +question. This public officer received much blame, both in and out of +Parliament, for the character of his decision, whereas it seems quite +evident now that he simply endeavoured to carry out the regulations of +a most imperfect law. + +The law of 1844, there can be no doubt, was unjust in the case of one +class of depositors at Killarney. On the clauses of this Act, Mr. +Pratt was compelled to award to those depositors who had contributed +their money after 1844, only the surplus money which was left after +the depositors who had made legal deposits[120] before 1844 had been +paid their claims in full. This decision was, of course, come to on +the ground that the trustees had not assumed the responsibility +provided by Mr. Goulburn's Act. In this way the depositors before 1844 +got 20_s_. in the pound, whereas those coming after that year only got +3_s_. in the pound, and a further small instalment afterwards when +the actuary's property was realized. The decision might be right in +the eyes of the law, but the law was most unjust that rendered such a +decision possible, or proper. + +The next Savings Bank failure in the order of its occurrence, which +has been made the subject of any investigation, was that at +Auchterarder, in Scotland, in 1848. The Committee of 1849 were +appointed to inquire into the case, as well as the Irish cases already +spoken of, but we do not find that any evidence was taken on the +failure in question. It seems, however, that the Auchterarder Savings +Bank was a branch of the important institution at Perth: +notwithstanding this, it was locally managed, the local trustees, +furthermore, being held responsible for any irregularity. This small +bank was originally established in 1841, the principal landed +proprietors and ministers of various denominations taking part in its +organization. In seven years the number of depositors had reached to +2,000, and as the total amount standing to the credit of each person +was less than the average of 10_l_. they must have consisted of the +very poorest part of the population of this rural district. The number +of managers amounted in all to forty; but the ruling power was John +Findlay, cashier and parochial schoolmaster, and the sole paid officer +of the bank. In December, 1848, a trifling inaccuracy was found out in +his accounts, when he lost no time in absconding. It was then seen +that he had within seven years appropriated 1,500_l_. to his own use. +The liabilities of the bank were 4,300_l_., whilst the available +assets only realized 2,774_l_. The dividend, given out of this money, +a subscription entered into by the trustees and their friends, and the +sale of the defaulting actuary's small estate, ultimately reached to +eighteen shillings in the pound. What benefit it was to the poor +people at Auchterarder to be connected, as one of several branches, +with the flourishing concern in the neighbouring county town, we are +at a loss to understand. This connexion did not preserve the accounts +from being tampered with; it seems to have afforded no check: and when +a paltry sum of 150_l_. was needed to reimburse this deserving +population in full, the Perth institution came forward with--nothing +better than advice![121] It surely cannot be a matter of surprise that +the bank was "never re-opened," and that "no private gentlemen could +be found to undertake the trouble _or risk for the future._" + +We have hitherto been concerned almost entirely with Irish Bank +frauds; henceforth we shall have to deal exclusively with English +ones. Not only on account of the date of its occurrence, but from its +magnitude and enormity, the fraud on the Rochdale Savings Bank +deserves the first place. It is not too much to say that no Savings +Bank defalcation equalled this one in the depth of its iniquity and +cunning, and in the disastrous effects which followed, affecting as +they did the growth of provident habits not merely in that particular +locality, but throughout the entire kingdom. + +The Rochdale Savings Bank was commenced in 1818, or immediately after +those institutions were recognised by the State. It seems to have been +started in the usual way, and to have progressed with great +rapidity,--the community about Rochdale forming a very favourable +specimen of the Lancashire people. In 1822, George Haworth, a young +man of twenty-one, succeeded his father, John Haworth, who had been +actuary of the bank since its commencement. As the son remained with +the bank almost till its affairs were wound up in 1849, he may be said +to have been associated with it through its whole course of thirty +years. When very young, this man appears to have shown extraordinary +energy and talent for business, and each year he not only added to his +engagements, but seemed to accomplish all he undertook with equal +readiness. In addition to his duties at the bank, he first took an +agency for the sale of wool, then, as now, the staple trade of the +town; then he obtained an agency for the sale of porter, both from a +Dublin and a London house. Latterly, however, he had advanced himself +to the dignity of cotton spinner, and was occupier of a large factory; +was at the same time a land agent, estate agent for several gentlemen +who possessed large properties in the neighbourhood, an insurance +agent, and valuer and receiver of rents for the Lancashire and +Yorkshire Railway Company. Not less on account of his more private +character than from those multifarious matters with which he was +connected, Mr. Haworth was a man of mark in the place. He was a member +of the Society of Friends, and this of itself was a password to the +trust and confidence of many men.[122] Whenever anybody wanted a +chairman, or sought a little patronage for anything literary, +scientific, or charitable, resort was had to "Friend Haworth;" "he +always patronised such things as far as he could;" and who could do +more, especially one who was "not himself a particularly talented +man?"[123] "Talented" he might not be in the ordinary acceptation of +the term, nor indeed need he have been, to do this much; but never was +there a man more talented in the art of deception. "He deceived +everybody by an appearance of wealth." He lived handsomely, "though +scarcely with any particular extravagance;" he was above mere "gig +respectability," and rode in his carriage. "For the reputation of +honesty, probity, and wealth," said Mr. Taylor, "there was no man in +Rochdale who stood higher;" and so far did he disguise his real +character, that his most intimate friends were those who were most +deceived by him. "He was not only," says a friend of ours, who himself +suffered by his frauds, "never suspected of doing wrong, but he was +regarded as above suspicion and uncommonly safe." + +It is true that some persons now and then expressed their surprise +that George Haworth should act as actuary to a Savings Bank, and +moreover attend so closely to his duties there when his hands were +otherwise so full; but Haworth deceived even these people by putting +his connexion with the bank on the ground of charity, and an anxious +desire to promote the happiness of his poor fellow-tradesmen,--for +whom indeed he was each day laying up increased stores of untold +misery. Clever to the last, but supposed by some--of course wise after +the event--to have gradually failed in heart and strength after losing +his father-in-law, who it now seems was his confidential assistant and +accomplice, he escaped his justly-merited punishment in this world, +and by an inscrutable Providence was allowed to die unmolested on the +19th of November, 1849. Deluded to the last, his fellow-townsmen +considered his loss irreparable; it was a general feeling that this +man should have a public funeral, and it was nearly being so concluded +when the relatives of the deceased stepped in and wisely put their +veto upon it. Strange to say, but only in keeping with the unnatural +strangeness of the whole affair, suspicion never entered into the +heads of any one, high or low, in connexion with the bank, till this +man was far beyond the reach either of earthly anger or law. The +trustees and managers were called together after the funeral; and so +ignorant were they of the real state of the case and the true nature +of their late actuary, that they thought they were met simply to elect +his successor, and were actually prepared with different nominations, +and not to hear from the dead man's attorney that the "wealthy and +respected man" had been for twenty years trading on the falsest of +false pretences, and fattening on the hardly-earned scrapings of the +poor whom he had so patronized. + +Haworth's solicitor told the unwelcome story of a deficiency. Enough +was said to make the trustees at once decide to call in the +depositors' books, and in the course of a few days it was +ascertained--though it took a much longer time to credit it--that the +liabilities of the bank amounted to 100,403_l._, that the total assets +were calculated to realize 28,686_l._, and that the deficiency +amounted to the enormous sum of 71,715_l._ In the course of two or +three weeks the trustees made the announcement of the defalcations to +the public, with what result may be better imagined than described. At +first the depositors took the matter very calmly--a feeling in which +was mingled incredulity; and a disbelief that they would be allowed to +lose so much money got possession of the people's mind. The general +opinion was, till undeceived, that the Government would have to stand +to the loss.[124] Of course this made it all the more deplorable when +the real facts became known. One of the witnesses who was examined +before Mr. Slaney's Committee on the savings of the middle and working +classes (1850), gave the following evidence of the feeling in Rochdale +at the time:--"I was in Lancashire some time ago, meeting with large +bodies of working men at the time of the failure, and I shall not soon +forget some remarks that were made about the Government. One man said, +'Dr. McDowall came here, and told us that the Government was a set of +robbers, and that they did not care about the property of the working +men.' He said, 'I did not believe Mr. McDowall then; but when I see +there is no security for the savings of the working men in the Savings +Bank, and we supposed Government had them under their protection, I +believe now that Mr. McDowall was right, and that Government cares +nothing about either the poor man or his savings.'" Of course we give +this extract simply to show the effects of the fraud on the minds of +the poorer classes, for nothing could be more unfair than such +conclusions. Soon the depositors came to look the loss fairly in the +face; they elected a committee of their number to act for the rest, +and Mr. Taylor, the witness before the Committee of 1858, was +appointed chairman; they agreed to avoid litigation if possible, and +relied on private benevolence and the possibility of a grant from +Government to make up the deficiency. The sum of 17,000_l._ was +readily subscribed among the trustees and their friends; another sum +of 17,000_l._ was realized out of Haworth's estate, and ultimately the +managers were enabled to give a dividend to depositors of 12_s._ 6_d._ +in the pound. + +Thanks to Mr. Taylor's intelligent evidence, we have not only gleaned +the above particulars, but we are enabled to give some account of the +way the Rochdale frauds, which entailed so much misery and so much +loss, were accomplished. As the first question likely to arise in the +mind of the reader would be, doubtless, to ask where were the +trustees, it would be wise to dispose of it first. Haworth "was +exceedingly respected, and everybody had faith in him," says Mr. +Taylor, naïvely; "but from what we discovered, he must have been +exceedingly designing for many years." In no instance that has come +within our notice were the trustees, who ought to have been this man's +master, so completely his tools. Haworth was so much the factotum of +the bank that he really appointed the trustees; and so "designing" was +he, that when he got some one appointed who was likely to attend to +his duties, or be otherwise troublesome, he took care to keep the +knowledge of the appointment to himself. Mr. Taylor gave his own case +in corroboration. This gentleman found out afterwards, that he had +been appointed a manager in 1838, and never was aware of the +interesting fact _till the bank failed_ in 1849. "I never was at any +meeting; I never was called upon to attend any meeting; and I can name +several others in the same way." + +Of course Haworth took care to make a show of having trustees. When +the same witness was asked (qu. 3,175), if any attended, he said that +"one or two attended occasionally; one very old man indeed, who was +Haworth's tailor, really was a trustee, and he attended, I dare say, +once or twice a month, and sat in the bank; but he was a very imbecile +old man, and would do whatever George Haworth told him to do." +Sometimes Haworth had to manoeuvre a little in order to get his +returns signed, and then he would resort to the trustees whom he in a +manner kept in stock. A case in point is recorded. A gentleman named +Chadwick was passing the bank during one of Haworth's times of need, +and the actuary called him in, and asked him to be kind enough to sign +a return. Mr. Chadwick naturally hesitated, as having nothing to do +with the bank. "But thou art a manager," said Haworth, showing him his +name, for the first time, in a printed list; and Mr. Chadwick, +thinking that he had perhaps just received this mark of the actuary's +esteem, at once fell in with his request, and signed the return. + +Haworth knew better than neglect to make out and send the proper +"returns;" the expedients, however, by which he contrived to get them, +false and true, signed, were wonderful for their cunning and daring +rascality. It is impossible to spare space to describe them in detail. +"Is it your belief," said Mr. Sotheron Estcourt to the Rochdale +witness, "that the returns were always properly furnished?" "I should +say so," said Mr. Taylor; "Mr. Haworth _was exceedingly exact_!" When +asked why the managers and trustees did not look at the papers to +which they put their names, Mr. Taylor said, in justice to these men, +that "George Haworth's power of deception was very great, and they +were deceived by him." When it suited him he would deceive a gentleman +into taking office, and then constantly deceive him in the execution +of the duty allotted to him. He went to one gentleman and asked him to +become a trustee; the person excused himself on account of his +business occupations and the risk; Haworth said that the +responsibility was with Government, and showed him a draft bill which +had never been passed into law! Satisfied on this point, the person +then inquired as to his duties. The arrant rogue said he wanted his +name to act as a check on the managers, and sign orders for money +which they had audited; _for_ "_the managers manage the bank_." When +Haworth had obtained the names of gentlemen to act as trustees, &c., +on some false pretence or other, he had the audacity to trade upon +their names. If any poor person, on becoming a depositor, began to +express any doubt about security, Haworth, "who was much looked up to +in the town by the poor," made answer: "Thou seest the names of these +gentlemen; what dost thou think of them?" Having succeeded so +thoroughly in beguiling those persons who ought to have acted as a +check upon him, all the rest was comparatively easy to a clever and +shrewd person like Haworth. Him task was far easier, indeed, than that +of some of the Irish actuaries; and once the ascendency gained over +the trustees, nothing but close attention and a vigilant _confidant_ +were required. The first defalcation was traced back to 1837, and +consisted of his forging the receipt of different persons whom he +represented as having received certain sums of money. The great bulk +of the fraudulent transactions was accomplished, however, by the +actuary keeping two sets of books, one of which, marked, "H," were his +private books, and the other the public ones. In his private book were +found the accounts of nearly a thousand depositors, who, it seems, had +been carefully chosen as having the largest sums in the bank, and who +generally were bringing additions to their store, and seldom drawing +upon it: these moneys he accounted for, "for he was exceedingly +exact,"--but only in his private books; he never entered them in the +regular bank books, and they were never acknowledged by any one but +himself. Under any sort of supervision or audit from a disinterested +second party, the discrepancies must have been found out; the +trustees, however, as we have seen, did just as they were ordered, +without ever thinking of questioning anything; and the yearly audit, +which this "exact" man insisted upon--_he made himself!_ "The +following is another instance," to quote from a little pamphlet +published at the time, "of Haworth's cunning and duplicity:--A +friendly society of Ploughboys deposited on a given day 30_l._, which +was properly entered in the book, and laid before the trustees. +Shortly afterwards the actuary must have erased the word 'deposited' +and substituted 'withdrawn,' at the same time placing the figure 1 +before the 30, thus making it appear that the society, instead of +depositing 30_l._ had withdrawn 130_l._" With this last instance of +his villany in his raid on the Ploughboys' money, we leave George +Haworth to the deliberate judgment of posterity, in the hope that this +case may always be the blackest page in the catalogue of such crimes. + +The effect of this fraud, when the depositors found that no help was +coming, was most disastrous; some of those who had lost considerable +sums of money took to hard drinking, declaring that they would spend +their own money themselves: the feeling found expression in such +phrases as, "We will spend our money rather than a George Haworth +shall have it." If the moral influence associated with such habits as +those of economy and forethought were not annihilated, they seemed to +be, and the lessons as well as the savings of years lay buried in this +bad man's grave. The Rochdale bank was never re-opened; the bank at +Heywood, a small town about four miles distant, was entirely closed by +the shock which followed after Haworth's decease; and in many towns in +the North of England, but especially in Lancashire and Yorkshire, the +case exerted an evil influence for many years on the spread of +provident habits, and is still bitterly remembered. + + * * * * * + +Among the details of several cases of fraud in Savings Banks that were +presented to the Committee of 1848, we find some particulars of the +defalcations at Reading and Brighton, which we mention together, +inasmuch as the same actuary related them in brief, and in fact was +connected with both investigations to which they led.[125] In 1842 a +fraud was discovered in the Reading bank through one of the clerks +there noticing that a depositor's book did not agree with the ledger +account. The books of all the depositors were called in, and great +numbers were found not to correspond. Ultimately the frauds were found +to have extended over several years, and to amount in all to 3,000_l._ +They were easily traced to the secretary of the bank, who was also the +accountant. It seems he took sums of money from depositors, entered +them in their books, but not in the ledger of the office; and hoped by +constant attention to the work to be present whenever any of the books +that had been tampered with were brought to the office. So culpable in +this case did the trustees feel themselves to be, that the secretary +was allowed to refund the money he had taken, so long as his private +funds lasted, and was then quietly dismissed. Being before the year +1844, the trustees were liable to the whole extent of the defalcation, +and proceeded to pay off all depositors by means of a subscription +amongst themselves, one of them giving 1,000_l._ Mr. Hatton, then a +clerk in the Reading bank, was employed to investigate the fraud and +bring matters to a settlement; and this he did so ably, that he was +appointed actuary. + + * * * * * + +In seven years from this time, Mr. Hatton was engaged upon an equally +unfortunate business in connexion with the Savings Bank at Brighton. A +deficiency was found out in this bank in 1849, to the extent of nearly +4,000_l._, and was proved to have arisen from falsifications in the +accounts of Mr. Buckoll, who for many years had been actuary of the +bank. The first suspicion of anything being wrong was felt by one of +the managers, who, somewhat shrewder than the rest, went carefully +through the balance-sheet of the year 1848, under the impression that +the amount of profits ought to have been larger. He was unable to do +more, however, than confide his suspicions to the actuary of the +Reading bank, and to request his opinion. After Mr. Hatton had +examined into the amount of business done, and compared the business +with the capital and the various items presented to him, he expressed +his opinion that the profits on the year should have been at least +100_l._ more than they appeared to be. Strengthened in his opinion by +this advice from an experienced actuary, the manager in question, at +the annual meeting held immediately afterwards, got up and said that +he did not feel satisfied with the balance-sheet, and moved that the +meeting should adjourn for a short time for some investigation to be +made. A close examination of the accounts was so little to Mr. +Buckoll's mind that he "decamped," leaving a letter for the managers, +in which he stated how unworthy he had been of the position he had +filled, having committed frauds on the funds of the bank to a +considerable extent. A warrant was immediately issued for his +apprehension, with a view to criminal proceedings, but he got clear +away; and up to within a few years ago had never been heard of. Mr. +Hatton, who succeeded eventually to the situation which Buckoll +filled, was called in to pursue the investigation into the case, and +it is from his evidence before the Committee, already so often alluded +to, that we are enabled to extract some account of the way in which +the frauds were accomplished. The actuary, it seems, made false +entries in depositors' books, false entries in the ledgers, and forged +the initials of managers, who were required to certify to each entry +in the latter. If he wished to draw 100_l._ from the funds of the +bank, his plan was to get hold of a pass-book,--a new one, if he could +not find an old one readily,--forge entries in that book as well as +corresponding entries in the ledger; this book he would present to the +managers in attendance, who readily paid the amount. In some cases the +money was left with Buckoll to pay over to the _quasi_ depositor, as +was then too much the custom all over the country. Afraid, however, to +do too much of this sort of work himself, he arranged in several cases +to have the money paid on what is known as a power of attorney, or an +order for payment to a second party. Thus he went among his friends, +and represented that some poor person or other had applied to him to +withdraw a sum of money standing to his credit; but as he could not +act as his agent in the matter, and the party could not himself attend +at the bank, would Mr. So-and-so oblige him by simply going and +receiving the money? These persons, who in all cases were proved to +have been innocent agents in the transaction, relied on the character +of Buckoll, who of course was highly respected in the town, and would +then hand the money over to him according to agreement. Another mode +by which, towards the end of his course as actuary, he contrived to +appropriate to his own use several large sums of money, was by taking +deposits out of course (as in the case of the Dublin actuary, even in +the street), and never in any way accounting for them to the bank. +What the trustees were doing during all the years these frauds lasted, +how the accounts were made to square, and where the system of check +was, does not appear. Mr. Hatton, in justice to the trustees, said +they "were as efficient as trustees and managers are found to be;" but +this kind of evidence is simply a reflection on the general body of +such officers, and scarcely any exculpation of the individuals in +question. The system of check was clearly inefficient. + +It is pleasing to add, that in this case the depositors suffered +nothing from the frauds. The bank had money in the "separate surplus +fund" to the extent of 3,000_l._, and this, with 600_l._ which an +unfortunate Guarantee Company had to pay for the defaulting actuary, +paid nearly all claims. + + * * * * * + +From 1851 to 1861 there were numerous instances of frauds in Savings +Banks, all which cases will he found included in a list at the end of +this chapter, though not described at any length. It is the less +necessary to do so, as nearly all of them are fully described in +reports made by Mr. W. H. Grey, a professional actuary, who had long +been experienced in Savings Bank matters, and who had been sent down +by the National Debt Commissioners to investigate such cases as they +arose. It would appear from his reports that most of them were +imitations on a small scale of the gigantic frauds already described +in detail. The common feature of almost every case was extreme laxity +of book-keeping;[126] nothing like a proper audit; and signatures +given by responsible persons without even a cursory examination. Thus +in the Isle of Wight Savings Bank at Newport, Mr. Grey's testimony is, +that he found that "fictitious documents, purporting to be signed by +depositors, giving notice of their intention to withdraw a part or the +whole of their deposits, have been produced by the secretary, on the +faith of which cheques have been signed by the attending manager +without seeing the pass-book, and without ascertaining whether such +sums were really standing in the ledger or not. These cheques have +been entrusted to the secretary for delivery to the depositors at any +time they might call for them, instead of insisting on personal +attendance during bank hours." The actuary of the Rugby bank committed +his frauds in the same way. Again: "In some cases, fictitious accounts +had been raised in the ledgers, and closed again immediately +fraudulent repayments had been made; and in other cases in which the +amounts had been previously withdrawn, the dates of the real +withdrawals had been altered into those of the fraudulent ones." No +comparison, it seems, was ever instituted between the cash-book and +the ledger, and the system pursued had practically left the whole +control of the receipt and payment of about 30,000_l._ a-year to one +individual. The secretary, indeed, William Wheeler Yelf, "was +generally much respected in the island," was distributor of stamps, +did a large business on week days, and was employed as a Wesleyan +preacher on Sundays; but we have seen how much all this, and more, +avails where the man is thrown amongst overwhelming temptations and +has no principles to guide him. We have already spoken of many of the +results of the Rochdale fraud; the case of the Isle of Wight bank +shows that that fraud affected other banks. It was suggested after the +failure of the Rochdale bank that the trustees of every other +institution should at once set about a rigid comparison of the +depositors' books with the books of their respective banks. The +Newport trustees at once acted upon the suggestion of the National +Debt Commissioners. They established the practice of having the +balance-book containing a list of the balances due to depositors +always on the table when the bank was open, and of comparing this with +the depositors' books brought to the bank. Had not Yelf been a clever +swindler, or had the trustees carried the plan to a fair conclusion, +he would now have been found out. Mr. Grey thus explains the new +deception adopted to conceal the deficiency: "At the annual +examination both ledger and balance-book were duly placed in the hands +of the managers; but when they had satisfied themselves that all the +balances had been correctly transferred, they shrank from the +laborious task of adding together two or three thousand accounts, +trusting to the secretary's addition." This labour was just what Yelf +wanted. "In point of fact," continues Mr. Grey, "the addition of each +page was correct, but the total of each page was brought into a +summary page at the end; and in doing so, 1,000_l._ was dropped in one +place, 1,000_l._ in another, in the capital column, and 20_l._ here +and 30_l._ there in the interest column, with some odd money to make +up the required deficiency." Well might the Government actuary add, +"From these practices it will be perceived how imperfect a system has +been pursued, and how little it was calculated to prevent or discover +fraud!" + +We come now to a comparatively recent date, and to two frauds in +Savings Banks which must be fresh in the memory of every reader. We +refer, of course, to the aggravated case at Bilston, and the late case +at Canterbury. A witness before the Committee of 1858 expressed his +opinion that from that time henceforth the country had done with +extensive fraudulent proceedings in any large Savings Bank. It +unhappily comes, however, within the province of history to chronicle +one such case occurring so late as 1862, and another the facts of +which transpired even after the passing of the Consolidation Act of +1863. + +The Bilston Savings Bank was established in 1838. Nothing unusual +marks its early history, except the fact that the man who ultimately +managed all its affairs and so largely embezzled its funds was +prominently active in its establishment, and was one of the original +trustees. To show the estimation in which the Rev. Horatio S. Fletcher +was held by his fellow townsmen in 1838, we need only state that in +that year, being before simply perpetual curate of the parish, he was +presented by them with the incumbency of St. Leonard's, Bilston, worth +700_l._ a year. That he should take a large share of honorary +employment after this was only what might have been expected. Whether +expected or not, he did undertake many offices. In 1839, Mr. Fletcher, +in addition to being a trustee, was made secretary to the Bilston +bank. In 1849, he also became treasurer. Not content with this +monopoly of offices, he soon afterwards took upon himself--for there +is no record of his having been appointed to the office--the work of +actuary. The whole of these offices, and the entire system of check +which they are properly supposed to give to each other, Mr. Fletcher +held till 1861. And why not? The man was universally known for his +charity and benevolence: as the principal clergyman of the place, did +he not teach mercy and charity; and, as a magistrate, did he not +uphold the majesty and dignity of the law? Since the way in which +trust is reposed in individuals can never be fully explained nor made +the subject of rigid rule, who could better be relied on than the Rev. +H. S. Fletcher, Incumbent of the parish, and Justice of the Peace? +Nothing can be more easy than to say _now_, that it was consummate +folly to allow one man to hold the important offices he did; but who +would think of saying so much _then_? Suffice it to say, that this +man, like so many more of whom we have had to speak, contrived to +ingratiate himself into the good will of all around him, and had that +peculiar kind of cleverness which succeeds in getting his application +and zeal laid to the credit of his disinterestedness and charitable +disposition. Since the subsequent facts make it impossible to put a +kinder construction upon them, all the rest follows in this case +simply as a matter of course. + +On the 3d of January, 1862, the announcement was made in the _Times_ +newspaper that the Bilston bank had come to a sad end, and that +defalcations to the amount of 8,840_l._ had been found out in the +accounts of the treasurer of that bank. How these frauds, which +extended over several years, were accomplished, and how they were +found out, remains to be seen. We will reverse this order, and speak +of the exposure first. In the spring of 1861, Mr. Tidd Pratt, the +energetic Registrar of Friendly Societies--whose name indeed seems +almost synonymous with such subjects--visited Bilston, and delivered a +lecture on "Benefit Societies." In the course of that lecture Mr. +Pratt alluded to the cognate topic of Savings Banks, and spoke of the +necessity for regular accounts and regular returns in connexion with +them. He then took the opportunity to refer to the "very irregular +manner" in which the accounts of the bank in their own town were kept. +Now, it must not be supposed that Mr. Fletcher had forgotten his +returns; he was far too careful for that; he knew the penalties +attaching to such neglect. It seems that both weekly and annual +returns, although they were habitually and carefully "cooked," were +regularly forwarded to the National Debt Office. The "Returns" to +which Mr. Pratt appears to have pointed, were those called for +annually by the House of Commons, with the object of improving the law +of Savings Banks; and these returns, from 1855 to 1861 the factotum of +the Bilston bank had constantly neglected to send. Mr. Pratt, in +continuation of his statement afterwards, confessed he knew nothing of +the circumstances of the bank, further "than that his suspicions were +always aroused in cases where he found any accounts were not properly +rendered." There can be no doubt about it, that this reference roused +the "reverend defaulter" to a sense of his danger; for it subsequently +transpired that not a penny was abstracted unlawfully from the bank +after the week of Mr. Pratt's visit and lecture. Furthermore, not only +was the culprit aroused, but the trustees were awakened to some sense +of their responsibility, and very soon afterwards there was a movement +amongst them for a change in the management and an overhauling of the +books of the bank. In a very few weeks after Mr. Pratt's visit a new +set of managers and trustees were proposed, and Mr. Fletcher was +deputed to see them, and endeavour to get them to act. In July the +appointments were legally made, including that of Mr. Hawkesford to +the post of actuary. Then quickly followed the disclosure which +indeed, sooner or later, was now inevitable. The new actuary got the +books from the parsonage--the bank being held in the school-room of +the church--and was not long in finding out some of the discrepancies +with which they abounded. On first discovering the frauds the actuary +spoke to the treasurer, who promised to confer with him about them; on +finding out the magnitude of the defalcations, he again mentioned the +matter, choosing an extraordinary time, not however without its +significance--of a Sunday after the usual service. The clerical +delinquent acknowledged his guilt, and said, "He was very sorry, but +never intended to defraud the depositors of a shilling." It will be +seen, however, that the fraudulent transactions were of such a nature +as not to admit of any extenuation, and to render condonation of any +sort impossible. The feeling produced by the disclosure was painful in +the extreme, and the country spoke out with vigour on this +extraordinary and merciless breach of trust. The local magnates, +indeed, and the body of trustees who had allowed these frauds to run +on, spoke with bated breath of the "deficiencies" of the Bilston +treasurer; the _Times_, on the other hand, spoke far more in accord +the with the general feeling of the country, when it characterised +"this man Fletcher" as "the meanest, the most cowardly, and the most +cruel of swindlers."[127] Under his manipulations, the Bilston bank +was a Savings Bank in nothing but the name; there were trustees, but +they were tools; rules, properly certified, but never obeyed; accounts +made out and "cooked," but never checked or audited. The trustees did +just what they were bid, and the real operator at the bank did just +what he chose. This clergyman and magistrate was a swindler, his books +a heap of lies, his balance-sheets pure fiction. + +Mr. Pratt was sent for to examine into the state of the bank +immediately after its condition became known, and it is to the account +which he himself subsequently gave to the depositors that we are +indebted for most of the particulars which elucidate Mr. Fletcher's +mode of operation, when in the thick of his guilt. Mr. Pratt stated, +that from 1848 to January, 1861, there did not appear to have been any +meeting either of the trustees or managers, for the purpose, according +to the rules, of auditing or settling the weekly accounts. The Rev. R. +J. Heafield, a trustee and manager of the bank, confessed at the trial +of Mr. Fletcher, at the Staffordshire Lent Assizes, 1862, his own +culpable negligence in the following words:--"The weekly returns +signed by me were prepared by Mr. Fletcher. _When I signed them, I +never in any way compared them with the books._ They were presented to +me either by Mr. or Mrs. Fletcher, _and I took no measures to verify +their accuracy._"[128] What might not a designing man do with such a +tool as this? Having subdued his trustees in this way, the rest was, +as we shall see, quite easy. The books at the bank were, it is only +fair to say, kept quite correctly; so were the depositors' books. +According to the evidence of Mr. Pratt: "In the day-book everything +was entered with scrupulous correctness; and 1200 depositors out of +1400 had brought in their books, and he did not believe an error had +been discovered." Mr. Fletcher chose a somewhat simpler course of +action, which we will describe. His duty as actuary of the bank +required that he should furnish weekly returns of the transactions to +the National Debt Commissioners: the correctness of these returns were +to be checked by the treasurer, which office he of course filled +_himself_. All that was necessary to the perpetration of fraud was +that this actuary-treasurer should be on easy terms with his +conscience, and this unfortunately was the sad state of the case. +Deceive the Commissioners by falsified returns, and any amount of +money, under the peculiar arrangements of this bank, might be pocketed +without fear. In order to help himself to a full solution of the case, +Mr. Pratt brought these returns down from London, and compared them +with the bank accounts, with the following result:[129]--"The whole of +the Returns he held in his hand were signed by Mr. Fletcher, as +actuary and manager. In the statement dated January 1, 1859, the +amount received was returned at 234_l._ On looking at the books for +that day, he found it should have been 334_l._, therefore 100_l._ had +been abstracted on that day [cries of 'Shame,' and sensation]. On the +8th of January, he found the payments were set down at 174_l._, +whereas they had only been 74_l._, thus showing that the treasurer had +put another 100_l._ in his pocket that week. In the return dated +January 29, the receipts were set down at 183_l._, and the payments at +148_l._, whereas the former ought to have been 283_l._, and the latter +48_l._, thus taking to himself 200_l._ [renewed sensation]." So on +through almost all the weekly accounts of three or four years. There +seems to have been no other fraudulent transactions than those of this +simple but abominable kind; the whole defalcation had taken place in +this way, and it was made manifest that no one but the treasurer had +participated in it. It is fortunate for the depositors that the frauds +were found out when they were; but for the negligence in sending the +required returns ordered by the House they might have been continued +for an indefinite period. As it was, the assets of the bank realized +in the first instance ten shillings in the pound; towards the close of +1862, another dividend of half-a-crown in the pound was paid, and +since that time a third small amount has accrued to the depositors, +who are never likely to be completely reimbursed of their loss. In +1862, Mr. Fletcher was tried before Baron Channell, and found guilty +of "appropriating money with intent to defraud." His counsel, however, +having made an able defence, characterised by the judge as being as +subtle as it was ingenious, the point as to whether the prisoner was a +"trustee" at the time of appropriating the money--this being one of +the facts upon which the indictment was based--was reserved, and he +was released on heavy bail. Into the further history of this man, the +sequestration of his living by the Bishop of Lichfield for the behoof +of the depositors, the repeated failures of justice in his case, his +eventual imprisonment for two years, it is not befitting that we +should enter, these being items of almost current police intelligence. + +We can only spare a few words to tell how similar results followed in +this as in previous frauds. Men declared they would put it out of the +power of mortal man to deceive them in this way again. In many cases a +degree of recklessness was induced in those who had been cruelly +wronged, which could only have been considered excusable if they had +lost their all. It is not at all unnatural, that, from what cannot but +be considered a defective education, men should so act, and be so ill +prepared and disinclined to look evil consequences fairly in the face: +still such facts only prove the truth of what we have before urged, +that the extent of money loss, through such dishonest transactions as +Savings Bank frauds, is but a trifling part of the aggregate +misfortune they entail upon the country. Other depositors, it is but +fair to say, acted far more wisely. Induced by the counsel and +persuasion of those whom they could trust in a time of need, many +depositors in other banks withdrew their money, and placed it where +alone they could get that security which they so much needed, and +several of the Bilston depositors did the same with the sums they +obtained. It was represented to them truly, that not only would +Government suffer by a run upon the old banks, but, what was of far +more importance, they would themselves suffer, and their second period +of suffering be worse than their first. Nothing can be so palpably +true as that money, completely withdrawn at such times, is oftener +wasted than kept, and frugal habits rewarded after this fashion far +oftener discontinued than resumed. + +And here, it seems to us,--and we mention it, though we are somewhat +anticipating the subject--the country is greatly advantaged in having +the new system of Savings Banks to point to. What was much wanted in +previous cases was some safe place, where timid depositors might +resort with their savings, and defrauded depositors go with what they +had saved from the wreck.[130] In the Bilston case this privilege was +largely used. The Post Office Banks broke many a fall, and they set +many on their feet again who otherwise would have been hopelessly +overcome by the shock. Two years before it would have been sheer +mockery to have told depositors, under such circumstances as those to +which we are alluding, not to make a run upon Savings Banks; they had +no alternative till, in 1861, that alternative was provided. It would +seem, from a memorandum before us, that the authorities of the Postal +Banks, without in any way seeking to prejudice the interests of the +old banks, did all that was fairly possible towards reducing the +disasters which have invariably and inevitably followed previous cases +of Savings Bank failures. They instructed their agents, in all cases +where, owing to the depredations at Bilston, Savings Bank depositors +applied for advice about withdrawing their money, to recommend +continued confidence in these institutions; if, however, such +depositors were bent upon withdrawing their money, then to advise that +it should not be asked for in cash, but by means of a transfer +certificate, which would make them depositors under the Crown. The +strict fairness of these instructions may be judged by the closing +injunction: "Although you may fairly inform those depositors who are +alarmed at this failure, that the depositors in Post Office Savings +Banks have absolute and direct Government security for their money, +you must on no account do or say anything to weaken their trust in the +old Savings Banks." + +The last case[131] in the catalogue of this peculiar description of +crimes is that which occurred at Canterbury during the year 1865. This +case is indeed so recent that any lengthy description of it would +scarcely be tolerated. We may well spare ourselves the trouble, for +the Canterbury fraud was little else than a repetition, on a smaller +scale, of the one perpetrated at Rochdale, to which we have given so +much space. Nor is it a little singular that the actuary in the +Rochdale case was in many respects the prototype of the Canterbury +actuary: in the estimation in which both were held in their respective +spheres, in their character and occupation, there are several points +of close resemblance between them. In the Canterbury case we have the +old story of misplaced confidence, want of check, and a constant +embezzlement of considerable sums of money extending over a long +series of years. The actuary and secretary of the Canterbury bank, Mr. +Samuel Greaves, was for many years almost the sole responsible +official; of course "he bore the highest possible character for +probity and honesty": nor will it surprise any of our readers to be +told that it came afterwards to be said of this man, "from his many +professions he was thought incapable of such conduct as that which was +proved against him." The Canterbury bank was established in 1816. +Greaves's connexion with the institution dates from 1830, when he was +appointed actuary at a salary of 40_l._ per annum. The salary, +however, was increased from year to year, up to the time of the +exposure, when it stood at the respectable figure of 200_l._ +Originally a "hoyman," the actuary of course, and necessarily, engaged +in other pursuits than those connected with the bank; and this +circumstance, in the same way that it occurred in almost every other +fraud of the kind, led to the malappropriation of the money of the +bank. It was another case of partial service and partial pay, and an +almost unlimited command of money, when among many other business +engagements it was always possible that money might be urgently +needed. Like Haworth of Rochdale, Mr. Greaves undertook several +agencies, among them those for the sale of coal and porter. In 1840, +it seemed, from the statements of his counsel, he began to lose money +in his business, and was then, to put it in the mild form chosen at +his trial, "induced to abstract some of the funds of the bank to meet +his pressing difficulties." Once on the downward road, he never turned +back; it was impossible to manage it. It was the old story, told with +plainness by his own advocate. He took the money, with the full +intention of repaying it on an early date; difficulties gathered fast +around him, and still the man went on, foolishly trusting to some turn +of fortune's wheel to replace him in his old position. He tried +speculation, but he lost still more irretrievably; his lucky day never +arrived: and at length the weight of anxiety under which the man must +have laboured for twenty-five years brought him down, and with the +lack of his usual vigilance came detection and exposure. + +This detection was effected by a Mr. Abrams, the clerk of the bank, +and it is from his evidence at the trial of his superior officer that +we learn the actuary's mode of operation. All the cases of fraud, it +seems, were identical in character, and were effected by means of +claims for withdrawals only. Every deposit reaching the bank was +properly received and properly accounted for. Like Haworth at +Rochdale, the Canterbury actuary carefully noted those who were +generally putting money into the bank, and seldom taking any out. In +the case of many of these depositors he had provided himself with +forged pass-books, with the deposit column always correct, but the +withdrawal side manipulated according as he himself wanted money. +Suppose any of the depositors came to the bank, to deposit or withdraw +a sum of money; they presented themselves to the actuary, who entered +in their proper bock the proper sum, but immediately substituted a +forged pass-book for the purposes of the bank. The ledger clerk +received a book from the actuary to copy into the ledger, and in this +way the books of the bank came to tally with the forged depositors' +books. All that was necessary to carry on the frauds was that the +actuary should keep a strict eye on the real pass-books of the +depositors, for the discrepancies would be patent, as it eventually +transpired, the moment the true books were seen. Sometimes the money +was obtained with less trouble. Greaves would occasionally give +himself notice that a depositor wished to withdraw a certain sum of +money (and this occurred several times in connexion with a person who +had deposited considerably, but never withdrawn any sum), and +represented that the money was entrusted to him "to keep." After the +_quasi_ notice had been acted upon, he would draw a cheque for the +money, and the amount would be entered in a false pass-book and copied +into the ledger; the luckless depositor, with her book safely by her, +being in entire ignorance of the whole transaction. The utter absence +of any control on the part of the managers and trustees, as +exemplified in such a mode of procedure, especially considering that +it came after the case of Bilston, the agitation of the last few +years, and the passing of the Act of 1863, reflected the greatest +discredit upon the honorary officials of the bank, though their +conduct subsequently went far to atone for their past neglect. + +The case is described as having excited the most painful interest in +the city of Canterbury. The actuary, an old man of seventy, was tried +at the city quarter sessions in October, 1865; the trustees of the +bank prosecuting him on the charge of felony. The transactions were +again described, but only in brief, inasmuch as the prisoner pleaded +guilty. A strong memorial was presented, signed by many clergymen and +tradesmen, which, instead of asking for a mitigation of sentence +solely on account of his age and infirmity, put forward the following +extraordinary motive for interference: "The memorialists wish so far +to relieve his character from any undue opprobrium that may attach to +it, by declaring that the various business transactions they +individually have had with him, have always been conducted in an +honourable and satisfactory manner." At any rate, this questionable +memorial may at least serve to show the estimation in which he was +held by his fellow-townsmen. The prisoner was sentenced to six years' +penal servitude,--six years for each of the two indictments; but, on +account of his age, the years to run concurrently together. + +The entire deficiency, when at length the whole of the accounts of the +bank were made up, was found to be 9,300_l._ Happily the depositors, +whom, so far as he knew, the actuary was mercilessly robbing, were +ultimately secured against loss. The surplus fund of the bank, +amounting to 3,500_l._, was applied to meet the case; the actuary gave +up property to the value of 1,700_l._; a gentleman who was his surety +for 400_l._ was called upon to pay that sum, and the remainder, about +3,000_l._, was subscribed by the trustees and their friends. The bank +was of course stopped on the defalcations coming to light, the books +were called in, and the trustees sought the advice of the Government +officials, as to transferring the business to the Post Office. The +stipulation in this case was, we believe, that the trustees should +make good the deficiency, and that then the business of the bank, +which was a large one, the deposits amounting to 150,000_l._, should +be handed over to the new establishment. Every effort was made by the +Post Office, in the way we have shown in the Bilston case, to stem the +tide of improvidence which generally sets in at such a time, and in +this case with great success. + +The frauds above described have, of course, formed the principal +cases,--cases which from their flagrancy and extent have either been +made the subject of parliamentary investigation, or have so occupied +the attention of the press as to have become grave subjects of public +discussion. Besides those leading cases, there have been, as we have +before hinted, a certain number that have been concealed from the +public from motives which, though they may have been open to question, +we cannot characterise as wholly bad or unwise. From two Returns +issued at different times on motions made in the House of Commons, we +are enabled to compile a complete list of those frauds that have been +officially reported to the National Debt Office. The first Return +embraces the period between 1844 and 1852, and the second, 1852 to +1857. The numerous frauds of which we have already spoken, or to which +we have referred, occurring before 1844, and the important ones +perpetrated since 1857, are not included in the following list. The +gross amount of loss would have been considerably swelled had a +perfect list been possible. As it is, the following table gives the +name of the Bank, the amount of the Fraud, and the amount of the Loss +to depositors, so far as it can be correctly ascertained:-- + + +----------------------+--------------+----------------+------------+ + | Name of Bank. | Total | Defaulters. | Depositors | + | | Defalcations.| | Loss. | + +----------------------+--------------+----------------+------------+ + | _England._ | £ | | £ | + |Bradford, Wilts | 400 | Actuary | -- | + |Bromley | 932 | Actuary | -- | + |Dunmow | 16 | -- | -- | + |Highgate | 700 | Secretary | -- | + |Newport, Isle of Wight| 8,156 | Secretary | 7,850 | + |Leicester | 689 |{Clerk employed}| -- | + | | |{ by Secretary.}| | + |Mitcham | 10,000 | Actuary | -- | + |Newtown | 180 | -- | 180 | + |Ongar | 497 | Actuary | -- | + |Poole | 6,221 | Secretary | 5,663 | + |Reeth | 230 | -- | 147 | + |Rochdale | 71,715 | Actuary | 37,433 | + |Rugby | 1,438 | Secretary | -- | + |Runcorn | 98 | Actuary | -- | + |St. Helen's | 12,932 | Secretary | 6,680 | + |Southport | 200 | Actuary | -- | + |Spilsby | 3,213 | Actuary | 2,436 | + |Upper Albany Street | 250 | -- | -- | + |West London | 1,106 | Actuary | -- | + |Yoxall and Barton | 200 | Secretary | -- | + | | | | | + | _Scotland._ | | | | + |Auchterarder | 1,400 | Actuary | 430 | + |Monquhitter | 336 | -- | -- | + | | | | | + | _Ireland._ | | | | + |Kilkeel | 976 | Actuary | 976 | + |Tralee | 36,000 | Actuary | 36,000 | + |Killarney | 20,370 | Actuary | 19,105 | + |Nenagh | 832 | -- | 832 | + |Mallow | No returns. | + |Castle Townsend | No returns. | + +----------------------+--------------------------------------------+ + +The frauds at Hertford, Brighton, Reading, Cuffe Street, Bilston, and +Canterbury, where the amounts of the defalcations are known, are left +out of consideration. Thus the total amount of the frauds enumerated +in the Returns, extending over thirteen years, was 179,280_l._; or if +we include the Cuffe Street bank fraud, to make up for those Irish +banks which sent no returns, and errors of computation, and spread the +total over all the thirteen years, the average amount of defalcation +was at the rate of 17,600_l._ a year; or, taking the banks mentioned +in the Returns, upwards of 7,900_l._ for each involved. Doing the same +with the total loss to depositors, or 117,732_l._, we find the average +loss for each bank to be nearly 5,000_l._ + +The reader who may have followed us through this chapter, and +remembers the classes to which the cheated depositors generally +belonged,[132] will have some idea how much pain and suffering the +amount of money so treacherously wrested out of their hands really +represents. "But the evil," Mr. Gladstone well said several years ago +when speaking on this very point, "that is done, is, unfortunately, +not to be measured by the actual amount of money loss; there is an +amount of evil such as figures can convey no idea of; and it is +impossible that the public confidence in these institutions can be +that which it ought to be, while these losses are liable to occur at +all." This was a deficiency which Mr. Gladstone set himself to remedy +immediately afterwards, and, though unable to do so at the time +through the opposition of Savings Bank managers, it was not long +before another system was provided which struck for ever at the root +of this grievance; and for all practical purposes, and so far as it +was now possible, repaired the injury which the industrious classes +had suffered through the action of defective legislation, and the +moral obliquity of those who had been trusted with their +earnings.[133] After entering still more fully in the next chapter +into the defects of the Savings Bank institution, considered purely +_as a system_, and the attempts made from time to time to remedy its +deficiencies, it will be time to describe how the above beneficial +result was brought about. + + + [114] "In the case of a fraudulent actuary, especially if the bank + is carried on at the man's own house, there is no limit to the + fraud which he may commit."--_Evidence of Mr. Tidd Pratt before + the Committee of 1848._ + + [115] That Lynch, was no ordinary man there is abundant evidence. + The following address to the inhabitants of Tralee--which from + anybody else would be considered well meant and well expressed + advice, simply completes the burlesque in his case:-- + + 1. "Money, as the means of procuring the necessaries + and comforts of life, is a blessing; and to be + careful of it is a duty incumbent on all." + + 2. "To lay by in the time of youth, and whilst we + enjoy good health, a portion of the fruits of + industry in store for future wants, is a mark of + wisdom; and considering that all are liable to + infirmities, a provision to alleviate them is of the + greatest importance." + + 3. "Some men by hard labour, and others by superior + skill, earn high wages; yet for want of proper + management they have nothing to reserve. Many might + be disposed to save a part of their earnings if they + knew how to set about it, _or where to place it with + safety_; whilst others who have occasionally + practiced saving, have lost what they had laid up, + _by trusting it in unsafe hands_." + + 4. "The promoters of this institution are aware that + several of their neighbours, from various causes, are + unable to procure many of the comforts, if not the + necessaries of life; they are, nevertheless, fully + persuaded that many others who have the advantage of + constant employment, and are favoured with the + enjoyment of health and strength, might, by + practising laudable economy, reserve a portion of + their earnings to meet the demands which a future + pressure of bad times, sickness, old age, or an + increase of family, may bring upon them, and thereby + avoid the calamities under which so many of them + suffer." + + 5. "It is a great mistake to suppose that small sums + are not worth saving. By the habit of saving in + little matters, riches are acquired; farthings saved + would soon accumulate to shillings, and those to + pounds," &c. &c. &c. + + [116] A Mr. Fitzgerald was the manager who generally attended and + did the current work of his office. His statement after the frauds + had come to light was, that he made the best inspection he could + of the ledgers of the bank. When asked why he never compared the + ledgers with the daily cash books, he confessed he never thought + of it, "there was the omission," "that was where the link of + investigation broke," "that was the omission which concealed the + fraud so long," and other similarly shiftless remarks. + + [117] _Report of the Select Committee of 1848_. + + [118] _Ibid._ (Qu. 674). + + [119] Mr. Pratt's idea was to make the trustees liable in a great + measure for the deficiency, as guilty of wilful neglect or + default. The advice given as to Lynch's property was of very + questionable propriety, and very questionable, as it afterwards + appeared, in law. The money, however, was lost to the depositors + completely, and went to Lynch's relations. + + [120] As usual, many persons had been allowed to deposit illegal + sums on which they had no claim. One man was shown to have taken + out 420_l_. from the Provincial Bank of Ireland, and to deposit it + all in the Killarney bank in one day. + + [121] _Vide Select Committee on Savings Banks_, 1858. Evidence of + Mr. Jameson, actuary of the Perth Bank. (Qu. 2,906.) + + [122] An estimable sect of Christians, they are not better known + for the zeal with which they contrive to amass and keep in their + immediate circle vast stores of wealth, than for the uprightness + and conscientiousness they generally display in the conduct of + their business. The transactions of Haworth, and another of their + black sheep who about the same time committed, or attempted to + commit murder, whilst assuming their character, is described to us + as having spread consternation and dismay through their ranks. The + way in which the Society of Friends has, as a body, taken up the + management of Savings Banks is most commendable. + + [123] A great part of our information relative to the Rochdale + bank fraud is gathered from the evidence of Mr. Edward Taylor, a + worthy and intelligent tradesman of Rochdale, who was examined + before the Committee of 1858 in reference to the transactions in + question; and no one is better able to speak of them. + + [124] So prevalent was this impression, that for several weeks + 17_s._ 6_d._ in the pound was freely offered for Savings Bank + books in Rochdale. + + [125] Evidence of Mr. Hatton, actuary of the Brighton Savings + Bank. + + [126] It almost passes the bounds of credibility, and yet it + cannot be denied, that in two separate banks, where the accounts + were thus overhauled, items of money to a large amount were + repeatedly found entered in the books with nothing but a pencil! + + [127] _Times_, January 17, 1862. + + [128] _Midland Counties Express_, March 16, 1862. + + [129] Report of the depositors' meeting, _Birmingham Daily Post_, + January 16, 1862. + + [130] Or, as it was far better illustrated at the time, "It is not + enough to bring a man who has been tossed about in an unseaworthy + bark within sight of _terra firma_. We must heave him a rope, or, + if possible, run out a plank between the quay and his crazy ship's + side, on which he may safely walk across." + + [131] No attempt is here made to catalogue and describe frauds not + occurring in Savings Banks proper: a chapter itself might be + written on banks for the people established and carried on under a + system of complete deception and villany. Nor have we entered into + the case of frauds in Penny Banks, such as the unfortunate case at + Birmingham. + + [132] Of the Rochdale depositors, for example, 1,245 were women, + 722 unmarried factory operatives, 292 married, and 231 young + girls; there were besides, 953 miners, 539 labourers, and 191 + members of sick clubs. + + [133] Since the above pages were in type, a deficiency has been + made public in the accounts of the Worcester Savings Bank, the + cashier, Benjamin B. Wilkins, having committed frauds to the + extent of between 4,000_l._ and 5,000_l._ On the frauds coming to + light last August the cashier decamped, and, as it now appears, + found his way to America. The trustees, having heard of him + through some channel, put the matter into the hands of the police, + who have succeeded in apprehending him, and bringing him back to + this country, and he will shortly be brought to justice. + + + + + CHAPTER VII. + + ON THE DEFICIENCIES OF THE EXISTING SYSTEM, AND THE + ESTABLISHMENT OF SUPPLEMENTARY SAVINGS BANKS. + + "Were greater facilities provided for saving, and greater + encouragement given by the intelligent classes to the + formation of provident habits, we believe the habit of + economy would spring up in many quarters where at present + it is altogether unknown. The working man, though he may + not like to be patronised, likes to be helped; and those + who help to provide him with convenient places in which to + deposit his spare earnings, will not fail to be regarded + by him as among his best friends."--MR. S. SMILES. + + +In the fourth chapter we endeavoured to trace the progress of Savings +Banks up to the year 1841, or after they had had a legalized existence +of twenty-five years. We there tried to show that, for some years +prior to that period, a manifest improvement had set in, and was +rapidly proceeding, in all that related to the social condition of +those classes for whose benefit such institutions as Savings Banks are +mainly intended; and we think we succeeded in proving that the +progress of these banks was commensurate with the gradual national +advancement. Except in the years marked by financial or political +embarrassment, the number of Savings Banks increased in a fair and +regular proportion each year; and not only so, but the first table we +gave (page 91) showed conclusively that the amounts deposited +increased in the different years in the same proportion. We would now +take up the statistics where we left them, and present the reader with +a continuation of the same, in a slightly different form. + + TABLE 4.[134] + + Showing the amount of Deposits and Withdrawals, and the Capital, + of Savings Banks, at the end of each year from 1841 to 1861 + inclusive. + + +-------------+-----------+-------------+--------------------+ + | | | | Capital of Savings | + | Year ending | Deposits. | Withdrawals.| Banks in the | + | 20th Nov. | | | United Kingdom. | + --------------+-----------+-------------+--------------------+ + | | £ | £ | £ | + | 1841 | 5,694,908 | 5,487,723 | 24,536,971 | + | 1842 | 5,789,203 | 5,656,160 | 25,406,642 | + | 1843 | 6,327,125 | 5,333,015 | 27,244,266 | + | 1844 | 7,166,465 | 5,716,275 | 29,653,180 | + | 1845 | 7,153,176 | 6,697,042 | 30,950,983 | + | 1846 | 7,300,367 | 7,255,654 | 31,851,238 | + | 1847 | 6,649,008 | 9,060,075 | 30,236,632 | + | 1848 | 5,862,742 | 8,653,108 | 28,114,136 | + | 1849 | 6,196,883 | 6,522,760 | 28,537,010 | + | 1850 | 6,363,690 | 6,760,328 | 28,930,982 | + | 1851 | 6,782,059 | 6,305,566 | 30,277,654 | + | 1852 | 7,281,177 | 6,684,906 | 31,754,261 | + | 1853 | 7,653,520 | 7,116,330 | 33,362,260 | + | 1854 | 7,400,141 | 7,956,347 | 33,736,080 | + | 1855 | 7,188,211 | 7,654,133 | 34,263,135 | + | 1856 | 7,741,453 | 8,023,583 | 34,946,012 | + | 1857 | 7,581,415 | 8,375,095 | 35,145,567 | + | 1858 | 7,901,925 | 7,839,903 | 36,220,362 | + | 1859 | 9,021,907 | 7,335,349 | 38,995,876 | + | 1860 | 9,478,585 | 8,258,421 | 41,258,368 | + | 1861 | 8,764,870 | 9,621,539 | 41,546,475 | + +-------------+-----------+-------------+--------------------+ + +From the above table, many important facts may be gathered. Speaking +of the yearly proceeds, in 1847, 1848, 1849, and 1850, the withdrawals +of money exceeded the deposits by amounts respectively of +2,411,067_l._, 2,790,366_l._, 325,877_l._, and 396,638_l._ This +extraordinary state of things is partly accounted for by the panic +which set in about this time among Savings Bank depositors, owing to +the discovery of numerous frauds, and, as a matter of course, the +knowledge of the divided and defective responsibility under which the +system was worked; but more especially was it owing to the commercial +crisis of 1847-8. In the three following years, 1851-2-3, the crisis +quite over, and a general examination of Savings Bank accounts tending +to reassure the public mind, the deposits again gained their natural +ascendency, when, in 1854-5-6-7, the excess paid was at least equal to +the excess received in the three previous years. There can be little +doubt but that this result again was owing in some measure to the +Crimean war, and the scarcity of money during the period, but +principally to the agitation which generally prevailed among +depositors at the constant failures in the Legislature when attempts +were made to place Savings Banks on a proper footing; these failures +leading to repeated petitions for a Select Committee to go over the +whole subject. In 1858 there was a slight improvement; in 1859 a +considerable increase in the deposits, clearly the result of the +investigations of the Select Committee of the previous year, which +Committee, though it had done little towards a final settlement, had +certainly dispelled a cloud of misapprehensions that had gathered +round the concerns of Savings Banks. That improvement continued, +though in a less degree, in 1860; when the Returns for 1861 show +another large decrease of deposits and an increase of withdrawals, +which we would not be wrong were we to attribute to the frequent +discussions in Parliament, and in the country, relative to a new +system of Government Banks. + +Having to some extent accounted for the variations observable in the +above table, let us proceed to compare the progress made during the +period of twenty years now under consideration with that shown during +the previous quarter of a century and described in a previous chapter. +Between the years 1825 and 1835 the increase in the aggregate amount +of deposits in the Savings Banks of the United Kingdom was at the rate +of exactly fifty per cent. Between the years 1835 and 1845, the +returns show an increase in deposits in this decennial period of +ninety-eight per cent. Comparing the returns for 1845 and 1855, the +progress made, if indeed progress is the right word to use here, was +at the rate of _only five per cent._ + +Were we to take the first five years of this last decennial period, we +should find that there had absolutely been a _decrease_ in the +business of Savings Banks to the extent of _twelve per cent._, but +this unsatisfactory result admits, as we have just shown, of partial +explanation. To continue our survey, however, up to the latest period, +viz. including the Returns for 1864, we find that the deposits for +1854 amounted to 7,400,141_l._, and the deposits for 1864 to +8,174,679_l._, showing an increase during ten of the most prosperous +years this country has known since the establishment of Savings Banks +at the rate of only about eight per cent. + +It is almost unnecessary to say that as regards all the material +elements of prosperity the progress of the country between 1841 and +1861 was most marked. Taking England and Wales only, we find the +amount deposited in Savings Banks in 1841 was 4,440,379_l._; in 1861, +the amount deposited was 7,188,034_l._ Now the population of England +and Wales was in 1841 15,929,000; in 1861 it was 20,119,496. The +declared value of our exports was in 1841, 51,545,116_l._; in 1861 it +had increased to the enormous sum of 125,102,814_l._, and last year +(1865) it stood at over 165 millions sterling. What the increase in +the amount paid as _wages_ was likely to be, we leave our readers to +estimate from these sums. In nothing is the national prosperity more +manifest than in the relative number of paupers in receipt of relief. +Though the population increased during the twenty-two years in +question several millions, the total number receiving in and out-door +relief, was, in 1849 (this being the first year the return was made) +934,419; in 1861, the number was 890,423, or an actual decrease of +forty-four thousand persons. Such statistics as the above might be +multiplied indefinitely, especially those relating to the wonderful +progress of the Money Order Office at the Post-Office, but it may +suffice just to make a reference to the increase of wages during the +period.[135] Mr. David Chadwick, an eminent authority in Lancashire, +states that between 1840 and 1860 the wages of the operatives employed +in the different departments of the cotton trade had increased from 12 +to 28 per cent.; in the silk trade the increase had been 10 per cent. +In the building trade the increase throughout the country had averaged +from 10 to 30 per cent.; in the iron trade from 8 to 20 per cent. It +would scarcely, therefore, be too much to say that within the period, +_and up to_ 1861, while the price of most kinds of food had decreased, +the wage for almost every description of labour had increased in at +least an equal proportion. + +In view of such facts, and before we attempt to describe the different +plans which were produced in order to make these useful institutions +once more progressive ones, let us try to ascertain why more of the +money thus gained did not reach the Savings Bank. A careful +examination of the Returns of Savings Banks will show beyond the +possibility of doubt that the first and greatest check received by +these institutions was when it became apparent that they did not +possess within themselves that absolute security which they were +thought almost universally to offer. We could not well exaggerate the +result; this is the fountain from which all the ills have proceeded. +The evil did not confine itself to the banks where the depredations +had been carried on; it was not confined to the banks already +established; but it extended to quarters where before there had been a +manifest disposition to increase the facilities and to meet the wants +of an advancing population, and this feeling was destroyed. The first +effect of the frauds was, of course, to stop the deposit of money; in +a smaller degree and among less educated people they even tended, as +we have seen, to destroy the habit of laying by any money at all; but +among all they produced a decided conviction that the financial +arrangements of the system, especially with reference to the anomalous +connexion between Savings Banks and the Government, were unsound. + +We have several times referred to the state of the law as to the exact +nature of this connexion, but it is necessary to return to it again as +entering very largely into the consideration of the slow progress of +Savings Banks. There can be no question that the great bulk of the +British people, and not simply the lower and middle classes, +imagined--up at least to the time of the great frauds of 1845-48--that +Government was fully responsible for all the money placed in Savings +Banks. In 1851 we find Mr. Bright saying in Parliament: "Nine out of +every ten depositors believed that they had the security of Government +for whatever money they invested, and that in placing that money in +the local Savings Bank they were securing it better than if they +lodged it in the hands of the wealthiest private banks in the +country."[136] Mr. Hume said the same on several occasions. Mr. H. A. +Herbert, an Irish member, whose name deserves to be associated very +intimately with legislative attempts to put Savings Banks on a proper +footing, testified over and over again to this impression being the +prevailing and universal belief. General Thompson told the House in +1848 that he "was struck with profound astonishment to learn that +Savings Banks were not what in common parlance was called 'as good as +the bank.'" He had advised servants on numerous occasions to put their +money into such banks in the belief that they had complete Government +security for their money. Such expressions of opinion from men who, +though they had never penetrated into the mysteries of official life, +could scarcely be thought ignorant in financial questions of this +kind, show how wide-spread must have been the misapprehension, and are +of themselves almost a sufficient justification of the ignorance of +the bulk of the poorer classes. + +Nor were there wanting excellent and numerous authorities who must +have contributed to this improper impression. Mr. Scratchley, in his +_Practical Treatise on Savings Banks_, pp. 72-4, has taken great +pains[137] to string together a formidable list of those whom he finds +inculcating the same view as that already expressed by prominent +members of Parliament during debate. Suffice it to say, that when such +books as McCulloch's _Commercial Dictionary_, Porter's _Progress of +the Nation_, _The Quarterly Review_, _Chambers's Information for the +People_, _Chambers's Magazine_, _The Penny Magazine_, and the Irish +school books, laid it down that depositors had perfect security from +Government for the money paid into Savings Banks, those of the class +which relies to such a great extent on the intelligence of those above +them may well be excused for falling into error, and may well be +pitied when called upon to bear loss. Government took up the subject +of Savings Banks at an early stage in their history, with the object +of "protecting" them,[138] and to that end they made it an imperative +duty on the part of the trustees of these banks to deposit their money +with the State; unfortunately, however, no steps were taken to enforce +this provision. Here lay the fatal mistake, and the source of all the +trouble. "The whole success of Savings Banks," says Mr. McCulloch in +his _Statistics of the British Empire_, "depends upon the security the +depositors have for their money. No one was accustomed to speak of +Savings Banks without commenting on the increase in the stability of +the country by giving the poorer classes a direct interest in the +preservation of public credit; but it requires no great amount of +penetration to see that so much entirely depends upon the fact that +faith is kept with such depositors." To all intents and purposes +proper faith was _not_ kept by the banks, and a proper knowledge of +the real amount of risk the poor were running was wrongly withheld +from them: hence the undoing of a great part of the good work +accomplished in the first quarter of the present century by the +establishment of Savings Banks. "What was the use," indignantly asked +a member of the House of Commons of the Government in 1851, "of +preaching to the poor the duty of being honest, industrious, and +self-dependent, if the fruits of their hard earnings were thus to be +swept away?" + +Ten years afterwards a more powerful voice than Mr. Herbert's asked +the same question, and appealed to the country for a reply. "If ever," +said the _Times_ newspaper, speaking of Savings Bank money in a +leading article, 17th January, 1862, "there was a sacred fund, this is +one; if ever there was a class and a fund which deserved the +protection of wise laws and stringent responsibilities, surely this is +the class and this the fund." Says an objector: "Irregularities will +creep into the management of the best of funds, and frauds are as old +as the world." Says the _Times_: "How can people treat such cases as a +matter of course! How can we look on while the poor commit their all +to such institutions as these! It is useless to tell us that nine out +of ten, or ninety-nine out of a hundred of these Savings Banks, are +conducted with scrupulous care and constant supervision." Referring, +then, to the recent case at Bilston, it continued, "How can the +depositors of a few hoarded shillings know where the Fletchers hold +sway, and where the managers do their duty? The only sound advice to +give the working classes under such circumstances is, to have nothing +to do with institutions _where such things can occur_." The argument +was irrefutable; nor was the advice given hastily. The Postal Banks +had then been introduced to the country, and the article thus winds +up: "This advice would have been difficult to give some years ago; it +is not so now. The Post Office Savings Banks offer an escape from +danger, and at the same time remove the necessity of taxing the time +and attention of philanthropic men in offices where negligence may +occasion such wide-spread ruin. We confess that, in the face of such +occurrences as those of Bilston, we hope the day will speedily arrive +when these 531 fallible Savings Banks will all cease to exist."[139] + +We have said that the frauds in some of the Savings Banks led not only +to their stoppage, but to the closing of others in the neighbourhood. +Nothing can be clearer on this point than a reference to Ireland. In +1846, there were 74 Savings Banks in Ireland; in 1851, no fewer than +21 of them had ceased to exist. In 1846 there were eight in county +Down; in 1851 only two remained. In county Kerry there were almost an +equal number; in 1851 not one remained. Doubtless other causes besides +the breaking of faith with the people led to this, partly and +indirectly,--such, for example, as the failure of crops,--though still +there was the fact, significant enough, that in the districts least +visited by famine, and where the people were most industrious and +frugal, there had been the greatest diminution of these banks. Bearing +in mind such facts, and also that it can be proved that the frauds to +which Savings Banks have been so liable have led directly or +indirectly to the breaking up of no less than fifty of these +institutions in the United Kingdom, let us proceed to some inquiries +as to how far the banks, uncertain and insecure as they were in 1861, +met the requirements of the country in other respects. + +Before 1861 there were in the United Kingdom 638 Savings Banks; of +which 498 were in England, 33 in Wales, 51 in Scotland, 54 in Ireland, +and 2 in the Channel Islands. Computing from the census of that year, +there was one Savings Bank to every 43,000 inhabitants. In England, +though the 498 banks were distributed through every county except one, +there were many populous districts and numbers of large towns not +supplied with them. Rutlandshire with its 22,983 inhabitants was the +exceptional county in England: but in Scotland there were nine, and in +Ireland four counties, entirely without Savings Bank accommodation. +The following is a list of those thirteen counties:-- + + SCOTLAND. + + Ayr, with a population of 189,858 + Clackmannan " " " 22,951 + Haddington " " " 36,386 + Kinross " " " 8,924 + Linlithgow " " " 30,135 + Orkney & Shetland " " " 62,533 + Peebles " " " 10,738 + Sutherland " " " 25,793 + Wigtown " " " 43,389 + + IRELAND. + + Carlow, with a population of 68,078 + Kerry " " " 238,254 + Leitrim " " " 111,897 + Longford " " " 82,348 + +One of the Channel Islands, Alderney, and the Isle of Man with its +three or four market towns, had likewise no Savings Bank. Thus +fourteen counties and the above islands, containing an aggregate +population of at least a million persons, could not count upon a +single Savings Bank to assist those of that great number who were +inclined to provident habits, or those who might have become so had +these facilities been within reach. + +So much for the counties in the length and breadth of which no bank +for savings could be found. Applying the same test to towns and +villages already applied to counties, we find that of places above the +position of hamlets there were, in 1861, no less than 3,500 without +banks; and not only so, but 150 of this number were towns of more than +10,000 inhabitants, and 500 of the places which had no Savings Bank +accommodation had each one or more private or joint-stock banks. + +But we have another consideration to urge here; and that is, the +insufficiency in the number of Savings Banks in many counties where +their extent and population required them. No one will say that +Berkshire, Dorsetshire, and Cheshire required as many banks as did +Middlesex, Lancashire, and Yorkshire--the vast centres of population +and the busy hives of industry--and yet the facilities of which we are +speaking happened to a great extent to be so arranged. In 1861 we find +the relative number of the population and the depositors in Savings +Banks in our English counties to vary very considerably--a difference +ranging from one in eight to one in thirty-six. In the county of +Berks, there was one Savings Bank for every 17,000 persons; in +Dorsetshire one for 18,500 of the population. On the other hand, to +take the rich and thriving county of Lancashire, which had the lowest +relative number of banks, we find there was only one to every 68,000 +persons, and in the West Riding of Yorkshire only one to every 66,000 +persons. From a careful calculation which we have made from these and +similar facts, it would appear that of the two and a half millions of +persons for whom Savings Banks were specially designed, and who in +1861 were not depositors, at least half of them were the breadth of an +English county distant from any place where they could place their +money had they been desirous to save it, and the rest were distant +from six to twenty miles from any such repository. + +Nor were those who were much nearer these banks, _i.e._ the denizens +of our large towns, much better circumstanced. Of the existing +establishments in 1861 there was a large proportion of them open for +so short a time, and at such inconvenient hours, as practically to +make them closed banks to our working population. That they did little +business is not to be wondered at; though we think our readers must be +astonished to know that of the entire number of Savings Banks much +more than half of them only received, on the average, a dozen deposits +a week! Astonishing as this is, all wonder may well cease when it is +found that of the whole 638 Savings Banks of the United Kingdom only +twenty were open daily, while 355 were open once a week, and +fifty-four but _once a fortnight_, and ten but _once a month_! Of the +remainder a considerable number were open two and three times a week, +and the rest did business at various periods. Investigating the matter +a little more closely still, we find that, in 1861, fifty Savings +Banks were open but _four hours monthly_; 124 were open only _one hour +each week_; and 150 open _but two hours per week_. In England the 498 +banks were open in the aggregate 1,988 hours a week, giving an average +of about four hours per week for each bank, or, if we leave the +metropolitan banks out of the consideration, an average of about two +hours and a half per week. Further, taking three English counties, +solely chosen on account of their alphabetical order, Bedfordshire, +with five Savings Banks, had seventeen and a half hours per week of +Saving Bank accommodation; Berkshire, with _ten banks_, had only +twenty-one hours; and Buckinghamshire, with six banks, but an +aggregate of eight hours each week, during which its population could +resort to the banks with their savings. After these facts, let no one +wonder that the odd savings of the poor burnt holes in their pockets, +and led them to resort to the "house of call" open within a +stone's-throw almost at all hours. + +A statement was made before the Committee of 1858, that twenty-five +out of every hundred persons properly designated as of the industrial +classes were debarred from saving their money, even if inclined to do +so, from the want of convenient places of deposit; and the reader may, +we think, with the help of the above statistics, judge whether that +statement was at all an exaggerated one. "Is nothing to be said of the +inherent disposition of so many of the poorer classes to spend their +money, and the utter repugnance they feel to habits of frugality?" +says a doubting reader. Certainly. But how do the facts bear on this +matter? Let us take the returns of the four different counties already +alluded to as containing relatively the largest and the smallest +number of Savings Banks. In Berkshire, for every thousand persons an +amount equal to 2,479_l._ was accumulated in 1856; in Dorsetshire the +amount was 2,550_l._: on the other hand, in Lancashire, which we +described as most insufficiently served with banks, the amount per +thousand persons was only 1,562_l._, and in the West Riding of +Yorkshire but 1,266_l._ But we will take the case of a single bank to +show that the want of facilities was a most important element in the +want of progress; and to make the fact still plainer, we will go to +Lancashire itself. The Manchester Savings Bank has for long been one +of the best managed institutions in the kingdom, whilst elsewhere +there had been, as we have seen, the slowest growth, if not complete +stagnation in Savings Banks generally. The depositors in the +Manchester bank were nearly quadrupled in the twenty years now under +consideration, and no better test is required that these depositors +were of the right sort than the fact that, in 1860, 200,000_l._ lodged +at Manchester belonged to persons who could not even sign their +names.[140] These facts did not fail to strike the members of the +Committee of 1858, and Mr. J. Hope Nield, the eminent actuary of the +Manchester Savings Bank, was asked how he accounted for the fact of +this bank advancing so much more rapidly than any other. Mr. Nield +succinctly replied, "Only from the constantly increasing facilities +which it has been our constant endeavour to give." Mr. Nield +afterwards explained the facilities to which he referred. In many +banks, depositors had only a very short time for business, and then +perhaps they were restricted to one kind of business for one day, +another kind of business for another day. In the Manchester bank +depositors could go and do any kind of business whenever it was open. +There lay the distinction between "free" banks, and what were known as +banks on the "restrictive principle." In a restrictive principle bank, +of which there were an enormous number, withdrawals were made on one +day, deposits on another; new accounts could only be opened on a +certain day, additions could only be made to accounts on another +certain day. Then there was the notice to be given for withdrawing +money. The more "free" the bank, the less notice: generally a week was +required; more often a fortnight was wanted; in many cases a month's +notice had to be given. "Whenever," said Mr. Nield, "a free bank could +be pitted against one on the restrictive principle, the increase in +the number of depositors in the former case would be found to be four +or five times as much as in the latter." This was shown in a clear +light by a striking illustration--also a somewhat amusing one: "Up to +1847," said Mr. Nield, "the late Venerable Archdeacon Brooks, of +Liverpool, would insist to the day of his death upon paying everything +himself in the Liverpool Savings Bank, and, as a consequence, the bank +was only open two days a month for the repayment of money. Deposits +were completely stationary there for many years, and cases were known +where persons went to the Manchester bank to open an account there, +and remitted money by post." + +Whilst speaking of the Committee of 1858, we may here give the opinion +on this point of another gentleman, of whose career as an ardent and +laborious Savings Bank reformer we shall presently speak. Referring to +the absence of what he considered reasonable facilities in Savings +Banks, Mr. Charles William Sikes, of Huddersfield, expressed his +decided conviction that the present system "was inadequate to meet the +wants and wishes of the working classes of this country." When asked +(2,715) if he had made any calculation as to the extent to which the +savings of the working classes might reasonably be expected to amount +if the Savings Banks were thoroughly popular with them and were felt +to be perfectly safe, Mr. Sikes answered: "I think that if a knowledge +of Savings Banks becomes widely diffused (and the process is going +on), and if the reorganization of them receives the confidence of the +country, the average annual deposit, which now amounts to seven +millions, is so small a proportion of the aggregate income of the +working classes of this country, that instead of being, as it had +been, stationary, _with scarcely a fluctuation of two per cent. for +twenty years_, there will be a probable increase in the course of +three or four years, or perhaps a longer time than that, of two, +three, or five millions of money;--in other words, that the annual +deposit, instead of being seven millions, will get to eight, nine, or +eleven millions, in ten years. The income of the working classes is +fully 200 millions a year, and, with anything like provident and +sensible habits, thirty millions a year might be deposited in Savings +Banks." + + * * * * * + +And now that we have at considerable length described the defects and +inequalities of the Savings Bank system, we cannot perhaps do better +than offer some account, first, of different banks of a supplemental +character which have been started within recent years, and afterwards +speak of some of the various proposals made, out of Parliament, to +render the general system more efficient. + +For many years prior to their actual establishment it was felt by +those best conversant with the habits and feelings of our British +soldiers, that the Savings Bank institution did not meet their wants +and requirements, and that supplementary banks were needed. This +project was frequently urged,[141] and in 1842 Lord Hill gave his +consent to the plan of Military Savings Banks proposed by Sir James +McGregor and approved by Lord Howick, the then Secretary-at-War. An +Act of Parliament was obtained (5 and 6 Vict. c. 71), and immediately +afterwards the authorities at the different barracks commenced +operations, under regulations made by the Secretary for War. In 1847 +this Act was amended. In 1849 the Regimental Benefit Societies were +dissolved, and incorporated with the Military Savings Banks by a new +Act; and in 1859 the whole of the Acts relating to the Savings Banks +of the soldiers were consolidated into one (22 and 23 Vict. c. 20). +The amount which any one in the service can deposit is unlimited, +though interest is not allowed on any excess over 30_l._ in one year, +except in the case of gratuities given for good conduct. When the sum +of 200_l._ is reached, no further interest is paid. The interest +allowed must not exceed 3_l._ 15_s._ per cent. The whole of the money +raised in Regimental Savings Banks is remitted to the War Secretary, +who holds an account with the National Debt Commissioners, which is +kept separately from other Savings Bank accounts, being entitled "The +Fund for the Military Savings Banks." Returns of all transactions made +in these banks are laid annually before Parliament. The Returns almost +from their commencement have been most satisfactory, and produce +sufficient evidence that these supplementary banks were required. The +total amount up to this time (1865), standing to the credit of our +soldiers in Military Banks alone, exceeds the sum of a quarter of a +million sterling, and amounts on the average to nearly 20_l._ for each +depositor. This sum, however, though large and eminently satisfactory, +as indicative of providence and forethought among a class which cannot +be called highly paid, does not represent the whole of their savings. +It is well known that many go beyond their barracks to deposit such +sums as they can spare, acting on the feeling, which may be well +understood, that it is not always advisable that the authorities +_should know the extent_ of their savings. + + * * * * * + +What was done for soldiers in 1842 was accomplished for seamen, +another class whose interests everybody cares for, in 1854. The Act 19 +and 20 Vict. c. 41, regulates Seamen's Savings Banks, established at +all our principal seaports under the direction of the Board of Trade. +According to this Act the Board of Trade has power to constitute any +shipping office established under the Merchants' Shipping Act (1854) a +branch bank under its control, and to require any shipping master +belonging to that office to act as agent. The money invested in these +banks is paid through the Board of Trade to the National Debt Office; +and interest similar to that given by the ordinary Savings Banks is +paid to those who so invest their money. As in ordinary Savings Bank +management, the expenses incurred in carrying on the business through +the Board of Trade (a department of which is constituted as a sort of +central bank) and the shipping offices are paid by the surplus +interest obtained from Government, with whom the funds are invested. +As in the case of Military Banks, an annual account must be rendered +to both Houses of Parliament of all transactions; but we are sorry to +say that these transactions have never been large. Some forty thousand +pounds represent the entire capital of the Supplementary Seamen's +Banks.[142] All who know what Jack is ashore--and who does not?--will +wonder little at this result; he is universally pointed to as an +embodiment of Improvidence itself: but when it is known that the +machinery in question is applicable to married sailors, their wives +and families, the picture of want of thrift and inclination to save +presents several deplorable aspects. + + * * * * * + +Still more useful and interesting has been the Penny Bank movement, +and some account, which must necessarily be brief, will not be out of +place here. Before the year 1850, there seem to have been at least +four Penny Banks established with a view to attract a poorer class of +depositors, or it might be a _younger_ class, than the existing +Savings Banks had reached; and, as "stepping-stones to greater +things," Penny Banks succeeded admirably from the very first. The +first bank was started, with this very laudable object, in Greenock, +in 1857, by a Mr. Scott of that town. The Greenock Savings Bank +having, like all the other Savings Banks, restricted the amount which +could be received to a shilling, and very few of them receiving that +amount pleasantly, Mr. Scott thought that the very poor had no safe +place in which to deposit their little surplus earnings. Poor people +were often enough urged to "take care of the pence, and the pounds +would take care of themselves;" but little had been done to help them +to care for their pennies, which proverbially and very quickly burnt +holes in their pockets when they were compelled to keep them in their +own possession. A bank for such sums was started in this town; and to +show how much it was needed, and how ready the poor were to avail +themselves of advantages when they were placed within their reach, we +have only to state that 5,000 depositors in the first year of the +existence of the Greenock Penny Bank, placed the sum of 1,580_l._ in +it. + +The success of this bank soon began to tell all around; many private +establishments and charitable institutions were not long in following +the example that had here been set. In the following year Mr. +Queckett, a benevolent and painstaking clergyman, in the east of +London, established a Penny Bank in connexion with Christ's Church, +St. George's in the East, and the success attending the venture was +still more encouraging and remarkable; nearly 15,000 deposits +were made in this parish Penny Bank in the first year of its +existence. It seems that the number of depositors, for some reason +or other--probably because that number was enough for one person to +control; the whole of the repayments, at any rate, passed through Mr. +Queckett's own hands--was limited to 2,000; and so great was the +demand, that there were always several applicants for any vacancy that +might occur among the favoured two thousand. Two "Penny Banks" were +next established about the same period--one at Hull, in August, 1849, +and the other at Selby, in the East Riding of Yorkshire, in July of +the same year. The clergymen and gentry of both towns joined together +to form an institution, "which should create and foster habits of +regularity and frugal economy among the poorest people, and which +should afford an opportunity for the deposit and safe keeping of the +smallest sums of money, repayable with interest when required." The +Birmingham Penny Bank was established in 1851, and in six years from +its commencement had received the enormous sum of 52,354_l._ in +amounts from one penny to one pound. Many of our readers will be aware +of the unfortunate end of this bank, under circumstances which, deeply +to be regretted, have had a prejudicial effect on the usefulness of +other banks of the same description. Were it not that a new class of +banks, since established, offers considerable inducements to the +poorest classes, and thus supersedes, though only to a limited extent, +the necessity even for Penny Banks, such an effect could not but have +been considered irremediable, as well as most deplorable. Of the +remaining Penny Banks, the principal ones in England are those of +York,[143] established in 1854, and excellently managed throughout, +and very successful in attracting depositors; the Halifax bank, +commenced in 1856, and equally successful; the Derby bank, established +in 1857, under the auspices of the Rev. J. E. Clarke, one of the most +earnest of the promoters of the principles of Penny Banks; and the +Southampton and Plymouth banks, established in 1858. There are no +means of obtaining statistics as to the number of Penny Banks in +existence, but there cannot be less than eighty or ninety in English +towns alone. Over and above the regular public Penny Banks, however, +there are an enormous number connected with and doing an incalculable +amount of good in private establishments, ragged and other schools, +and different religious bodies. + +In Scotland the movement has progressed even more rapidly than in +England. Dr. Chalmers always held, and often urged during his +lifetime, that far too little was done to tempt the poor, and +especially the families of working people, to save their little +surplus cash: in commencing his "Territorial Savings Banks," as he +called them, in Edinburgh, he was actuated by exactly the same view +and the same spirit which afterwards influenced the promoters of Penny +Banks. The Penny Bank system flourishes in Glasgow to an extent +unknown in any other neighbourhood. In and around that city there +were, at the close of 1864, no fewer than sixty-eight Penny Banks in +active operation, all of which deposited with the Savings Bank of that +place. The total amount of deposits in these sixty-eight banks during +the year 1864 was 9,386_l._, and withdrawals to about half that +amount. The number of depositors exceeds, at the present time, 24,000. + +That these auxiliary banks are effecting a great amount of good can +well be believed. "The saving of pence," says the report from which +these extremely interesting facts are taken, "proves a training to +habits whereby ultimately larger sums are saved, and the virtues of +industry and providence are cultivated and confirmed," and there +cannot exist a doubt on the matter. The principles upon which they and +all other banks of the kind were started, and have been throughout +conducted, make them peculiarly institutions of a preliminary +character for the poorer class of workmen; emphatically they are, as +they have been called, "the poor man's purse." In their operations +they are so simple, that few could possibly get perplexed in dealing +with them; and they are best adapted to working populations, because +they are open at such hours, generally on Saturday nights, as are +known to suit these classes. As the most salutary change is made in a +man's habit, perhaps in his character, when he _begins_ to save, the +Penny Bank deserves every countenance and encouragement.[144] + +It only remains to add, that the Legislature took the matter up in +August, 1859, when it passed the Act 22 and 23 Vict. c. 53, +legalizing, as it were, these institutions, by enabling them to invest +the whole of their proceeds in Savings Banks. + + * * * * * + +Much that remains to be told of Savings Bank reforms, and of other +proposals to supplement the system by fresh provisions, may be told in +connexion with the life of a gentleman to whom reference has already +been made. Amongst those who have devoted much time and immense labour +to bring about a better state of things in Savings Banks, the foremost +place is undoubtedly due to Mr. Charles William Sikes, of +Huddersfield. Mr. Sikes, the son of a private banker of that town, was +born in 1818. We will pass over his early years, only remarking that +he received a commercial education, and, in 1833, entered the employ +of the Huddersfield Banking Company, the third or fourth joint stock +bank established in this country. Subsequently cashier, Mr. Sikes now +holds the position of deputy manager of the bank in question. We +mention this, because it has an immediate bearing on the subject: it +was while Mr. Sikes was cashier of this bank,--which, like other +private banks, received deposits above 10_l._, and allowed interest at +the current rate,--that his attention was arrested to the question of +banks for the people. He witnessed a considerable number of instances +of workmen, who, beginning with a few pounds, had silently amassed +what was to them a little fortune, of one, two, and even three hundred +pounds; and he became deeply impressed, as he himself informs us, not +only with the idea that the number of these provident working people +was far less than it ought to be, or might be, but that the social and +domestic results for good that would ensue would be absolutely +incalculable, if bank depositors among the working classes became the +rule, instead of the rare exception. About this time--the era of the +Free Trade agitation--there was great distress in the manufacturing +districts, and Huddersfield, like the rest of the West Riding towns, +was heavily visited. In the neighbourhood where Mr. Sikes resided, the +population was chiefly engaged in the weaving of fancy waistcoatings, +and that trade was almost suspended. "Privation and suffering," says +Mr. Sikes, "prevailed on every hand, and was frequently borne with +silent and noble heroism." He seems to have entered freely into +discussion with working men as to the various remedies for such a +state of things, and in this practical way to have penetrated into +their thoughts, and to have got at their wants, wishes, and feelings. +And for such objects as Mr. Sikes had in view, the end amply justified +the means. There seemed to him only one remedy, to which they might +possibly be assisted, but which they themselves must adopt; whatever +was suggested, Mr. Sikes's thoughts would always recur to the +comparative comfort of those who had to some extent lived for the +future--who had had the wisdom in their better times to remember that +rainy days must come at some time or other; that + + "Into each life some rain must fall, + Some days must be dark and dreary;" + +and that the difference between those who had a little store laid by +and those who had none, was the difference between hopeful expectancy +and comfort, and helpless misery and want. + +Mr. Sikes tells us that he had already begun to feel, that though much +might be done for the working classes by kindly and temperate advice, +the greatest share of the work of their social elevation would have to +be achieved by their own individual efforts; this feeling, moreover, +was strongly confirmed by reading a passage in the late Bishop of +Chester's (Archbishop Sumner's) _Records of Creation_: "The only true +secret of assisting the poor is to make them agents in bettering their +own condition;" and on this maxim, as a principle, he resolved solely +to act. Mr. Sikes came to the conclusion that his work might well lay +in endeavouring to stimulate the poor to more provident habits; and +that, if there was anything in the constitution of such societies as +were formed expressly to foster these habits which stood in the way of +the poor man, the obstacles ought either to be quickly removed, or +some new organization must be planned to effect this purpose. Though +Mr. Sikes never seems to have had anything to do with the Huddersfield +Savings Bank--having abstained, through motives of delicacy, owing to +his connexion with an ordinary bank in the same town--he was +thoroughly conversant with the system, and therefore fully appreciated +the difficulties in the way. He was not long in finding out how +utterly impossible it was to adapt the system, as it then stood, to +the well-known wants and requirements of the workman; and he early +turned his attention to some auxiliary machinery which he thought +would meet the case of the younger people, if of no other. He truly +held, that if he could do anything to inculcate the growth of +frugality in young people, their habits would increase with their +years and grow, in spite of the many inconveniences, amounting as +they did to absolute discouragements, which they might meet with +afterwards in their connexion with the majority of the old class of +Savings Banks. + +With this end in view, Mr. Sikes addressed a long letter to the editor +of the _Leeds Mercury_, in 1850, which was subsequently republished in +the form of a pamphlet, and widely circulated, recommending the +formation of what he called "Preliminary Savings Banks." There was +nothing particularly new in the character of the banks proposed; the +novelty was in their adaptation to the machinery of Mechanics' +Institutions. Mr. Sikes took up the Penny Bank movement, and showed, +with an energy and devotion to the subject which made his exertions +quite impressive, how, by the already existing institute, that useful +scheme for saving small sums might be propagated far and wide. His +proposal, to give it in brief, was, that a few leading members of each +Mechanics' Institute should form themselves into a "Savings Bank +Committee," attending, say, an evening weekly, in one of the +class-rooms, to receive the trifling deposits of any member who should +choose to "transact a little business" with them. They would only have +to appoint a treasurer, provide a few inexpensive books, and with the +exercise of just a little patience and self-denial they might succeed +in bringing many round to saving habits. The excellent organisation, +especially in Lancashire and Yorkshire, of Mechanics' Institutes, +would thus wonderfully augment the number of agencies for receiving +the savings of the people, and they would thus augment the number most +where more facilities were most needed. The "Preliminary" banks were +meant to be merely feeders to the larger banks: so soon as the money +of any one depositor reached a guinea, or two guineas, the sum was to +be paid into the nearest Government bank, as often as necessary. "If +the committee of each institution," concluded Mr. Sikes, in his very +interesting letter, "were to adopt this course, taking an interest in +their humble circumstances, and in a sympathising and friendly spirit, +suggest, invite, nay win them over, not only to reading the lesson, +but forming the habit of true economy and self-reliance, how cheering +would be the result! Once established in better habits, their feet +firmly set in the path of self-reliance, how generally would young men +grow up with the practical conviction that to their own advancing +intelligence and virtues must they mainly look to work out their own +social welfare!" It is very satisfactory to find that this advice and +such considerations had their proper weight with the committees of +many of these institutions: Penny Banks were added to their other +educational and social schemes; and Mr. Sikes was further encouraged +by the Committee of the Yorkshire Union of Mechanics' Institutes, who +more than once alluded to his proposals, and expressed their cordial +approval of his plan, and their pleasure that it had been adopted in +several places included in their sphere of operations. In the country +generally the proposals attracted for some time considerable +attention, and led to Mr. Sikes being largely consulted by gentlemen +who were desirous of establishing "feeders" to the existing Savings +Banks, either in the form of the Penny Bank, or the Mechanics' +Institute "Preliminary" bank. He soon came to be regarded as an +authority on the subject, and justly so; many different banks were at +this early stage formed as the results of his advice and assistance, +and Mr. Sikes seems to have had many gratifying assurances that his +labours have been far from fruitless, a result in which the +philanthropist finds his best reward.[145] + +Mr. Sikes's next exertion on behalf of the working population around +him was to help them to a proper estimate of the value of provident +habits, by the publication, in 1854, of a pamphlet entitled _Good +Times; or, the Savings Bank and the Fireside_;[146] an admirable +little manual for the class for which it was written, and which +deservedly obtained a large sale. Mr. Sikes himself described how he +was led to write his pamphlet by hearing, in an extensive intercourse +with working men, the most crude ideas as to the utility and virtue of +habits of economy and frugality; and we know no better corrective than +a perusal of this little "compendium of practical wisdom" now before +us. + +Up to this time we find that Mr. Sikes laboured very earnestly to +spread the knowledge of Savings Banks among the people, and to obtain +more appreciation for these institutions. He also, as we have seen, +proposed his "Preliminary Banks" on the principle that, as the +existing institution did not sufficiently recognise the small attempts +at saving habits, this supplementary class of banks would supply the +deficiency. He seems, however, to have carefully abstained from saying +anything that would tend to lessen the influence or usefulness of the +existing Savings Banks; but in 1855, the time would appear to have +arrived when it became necessary to attempt some reforms in their +constitution and management. It is not at all difficult to comprehend +the steps by which Mr. Sikes, with his practical knowledge of Savings +Bank business, would arrive at the conclusion that if these banks were +to continue to be in any sense the depositories of the money of the +poor, they must undergo almost a transformation, and further, that +reform must come from within. That this was the conclusion to which he +came is evident from the able and exhaustive letter which Mr. Sikes +addressed, in 1856, to the Chancellor of the Exchequer, the late Sir +G. Cornewall Lewis, on "Savings Bank Reforms." + +Mr. Sikes first sought an interview with Sir George C. Lewis, and +obtained one, in company with Mr. Wickham, M.P.; and the letter which +followed was the result of a request on the part of the Chancellor of +the Exchequer, that the different points should be fully and clearly +set before him. So far as we have been able to find, Mr. Sikes +deserves the credit of having been the first to point out the inherent +defects in all parts of the Savings Bank system, and the first to +suggest an entirely fresh form of management.[147] Almost all the +previous _brochures_ relating to Savings Banks had exclusive reference +to the matter of the frauds which had occurred, and the security which +depositors possessed in such cases. On this subject, Dr. Hancock, of +Dublin, had published two very able pamphlets, which had originally +been read as papers before the Dublin Statistical Society, of which +Dr. Hancock was secretary. Mr. Edward Taylor of Rochdale had, at a +still prior period, written a pamphlet on the same subject. Mr. Sikes, +in the _Letter_ we are now considering, adverted at length to the same +point, but by no means confined his attention to it. He, on the +contrary, dwelt on the dormant state into which many of the banks had +sunk; the extremely unequal way in which they were furnished to the +people; the limited time for which the majority of banks were open; +the various rates of interest allowed; the inequalities in the +contributions to the "separate surplus fund;" the non-establishment, +for many years, of new Savings Banks; and generally, the +unsatisfactory state of the law with regard to them. + +Mr. Sikes, after thus recapitulating in his able pamphlet the +imperfections in the organization and management of Savings Banks, +advocated the following improvements, viz.:--That the State should +give a perfect guarantee; that there should be a central bank in +London to control the whole system, in the same way that the central +Money Order Office controlled all money-order operations at the Post +Office; that there should be a vigilant and general audit of all +accounts; that there should be a great extension of the hours during +which Savings Banks were open; a great increase in the number of such +banks--the services of private and joint-stock banks to be called into +requisition in cases where such arrangement was likely to prove +economical and advantageous; that there should be an increase in the +facilities for the deposit and withdrawal of money; that one-fourth of +the capital of Savings Banks should be employed in first-class landed +securities and railway mortgage bonds, yielding four per cent. Mr. +Sikes further proposed that the rate of interest on sums up to 100_l._ +should be three per cent., and two and a half per cent. on all sums +beyond. Mr. Sikes felt the difficulty of providing that essential +Government guarantee for every deposit, without which any reform in +Savings Banks was scarcely worth the name; but he strongly insisted on +the point that if a Savings Bank department was established in London, +which should, on its part, insist upon weekly returns, a good and +uniform system of book-keeping, and a liability to unapprised visits +by inspectors from the London office, the entire staff of Savings Bank +officials in the country might, to a great extent, be kept honest. +Bearing in mind, however, that errors and losses would occur to the +best regulated department, he further proposed that the treasury might +be made safe by the establishment of a "General Guarantee Fund,"[148] +to which contributions should be made from the "Separate Surplus +Fund." These suggestions, if carried out, Mr. Sikes believed would +help to form the basis of a system that would restore Savings Banks to +the estimation in which they were held during the first twenty years +of their existence; and there can be no doubt of it. The difficulty +was, however, in getting such recommendations adopted--either because +the then Chancellor of the Exchequer (Sir G. C. Lewis) did not bring +his extraordinary powers to bear upon the subject, or else there was +still something lacking to give a more practical turn to the questions +at issue. As subsequent events have proved, it is more likely to have +been for the latter reason that the matter was not persevered in. + +Everything that an ingenious marshalling of figures, an array of +argument, and even eloquence could do, Mr. Sikes did; but all appears +to have been equally unavailing. The Chancellor of the Exchequer made +attempts, as we have before seen, in the House of Commons, to improve +the organization of Savings Banks, but without success. + +When the Committee on Savings Banks was appointed, in 1858, Mr. Sikes +was called as a witness. He again described the plans which he had +suggested in 1856, and which had undergone little or no modification +since that time, and urged the adoption of some of them,--with what +success is already known. And here it will be best to dispose of the +Committee of 1858, and to show how little it effected, and how little +it was calculated to effect. So far as the providing of additional and +much required facilities was concerned, it is necessary to describe +with minuteness the Committee's deliberations. The Report itself, to +which the Committee put their names, has been given. It provided, as +our readers will remember, for a new Government management of Savings +Banks, advised that increased power should be given to the Commission, +and provided actual security for the deposits. This Report was not +acted upon; but even had it been, the reform would only have been +partial. So far as relates to the increase of facilities, it left the +question almost untouched. Indeed, with the conflicting evidence +given, the Committee acted wisely in confining their labours to the +rectification of existing abuses, and in making as perfect as +possible, without increasing, the existing accommodation. The +witnesses examined before the Committee were by far the most prominent +authorities on Savings Bank management in the kingdom, and yet on no +single point could they all agree. This is, we think, no unimportant +phase of the subject; on the contrary, it is highly important, as +showing how very little could be effected for the body of Savings +Banks in the absence of any thing like unanimity amongst those who +best understood the subject. On the question of Government security +and Government supervision, we have already spoken. With regard to the +necessity for a uniform system of management, and of course a uniform +system of accounts, there was certainly an appearance of general +agreement; but little attempt to bring it about. _Mr. Hope Nield_ +"thought it would be very advisable to assimilate the practice of the +different banks more than at present exists (1,895)." _Mr. Maitland_ +and _Mr. Wortley_ would like uniformity, and would give the +Commissioners power to enforce it; "nothing less would remedy the +loose system of so many of the banks." "The system of keeping the +books," said _Mr. Craig_, of Cork, "in some of the country banks, is +most abominable. I speak of the vast majority of banks; some are +exceedingly well managed; but I say, that from the way they make out +their accounts for the National Debt Office, not one in ten is +honestly or fairly made out (3,759)." Had the Committee deliberated +upon a uniform system, which they did not, for all the banks, and had +they decided--(a very difficult matter, seeing that each of the seven +largest banks in the kingdom had different systems of book-keeping)--to +recommend some one system, the difficulty would only be half over. +Each Savings Bank was independent, and completely irresponsible to any +one in such matters as these; but supposing, which was very unlikely, +that the trustees could be got to look upon the matter with favour, +all would not yet be smooth sailing. The difficulty of introducing +real improvements into Saving Bank management was more than once +spoken of and illustrated. Thus, _Mr. Boodle_ told how he encountered +great opposition from his own subordinates, in introducing something +new into the excellent establishment at St. Martin's Lane. For six +months after he started a new system of book-keeping, a conspiracy +lasted among the clerks to prevent any change; wilful mistakes were +constantly made, to show that the work under any new system could not +be done; and this continued till a great number of clerks were +dismissed, and new officials appointed in their place. Much to the +same point was the evidence of _Mr. Craig_, who described in a +vigorous and amusing way, which must have done much to relieve the +tedium and heaviness of the investigation, the introduction of his +system into the Cork bank, and the necessity for it:-- + + "I saw at once," said he, "that there was nothing for it + but sweeping every book out of the bank, and I did so. + They (the trustees) gave me authority to do what I liked, + and I did. It was all done by me without any interference; + and I managed it in such a way that if the clerks stuck in + the middle of it they would have lost their salaries; they + had either to go on with it, or stick fast. I went there + myself, with a Mr. Ballard on the opposite side of me, and + a manager with each, determined to start them fairly. I + remained there for a month. I saw that the clerks were + very anxious that it should miscarry. I immediately saw + what they were about; I observed that all the books were + coming to my side, and few to the other; they thought to + smother me with books. The moment I saw this, I said to + little Mr. Abel (who is now dead), 'Do not chatter; work + away; they are playing a trick upon us.' We dashed through + the work; and, one of the book-keepers coming down after + he thought he had well supplied us with a wheelbarrowful + of books, expecting to find them all in arrear, I said to + him: 'Why the deuce don't you send us books!' When they + found they were all done, that stopped all further + opposition; and thus I taught them to do it, just as you + would teach a puppy to swim--if you tumble him into the + water, never fear that he will get out." + +Granting that Savings Bank clerks may be subdued after Mr. Craig's or +some other fashion, it would still appear that the indispensable +requisites to a complete uniformity of accounts must be something like +uniformity in the distinctive principles and practices of Savings +Banks. We refer to such matters as the limitation in the amount of +deposits, the rate of interest, notices of withdrawal, &c. The +question of the limit of deposits was discussed before the Committee. +_Mr. Meikle_ and _Mr. Sturrock_ objected to any alteration in the +limit of deposits which for many years had stood at 30_l._ for any one +year, and 150_l._ in all. _Mr. Boodle_ thought the annual limit should +be increased to 50_l._, and the total deposits to 250_l._ _Mr. Finney_ +wished it to be at 50_l._ and 200_l._ respectively. _Mr. Saintsbury_ +and _Mr. Maitland_ agreed with Mr. Boodle, provided the rate of +interest were reduced, and there were ready access to the public +funds. Then as to the rate of interest itself, _Mr. Maitland_ said +that the highest rate of interest that can safely be offered should be +given for small savings, "though," he said, "_lowering_ the rate would +bring Savings Banks back more to what they were intended to be." He +also thought the rate should vary according to the market rate of +interest. _Mr. Boodle_ objected to a fluctuating rate. _Mr. Meikle_ +was of opinion that a fixed rate of three per cent. should be given. +_Mr. Craig_ said a rate of 2_l._ 17_s._ or 2_l._ 18_s._ was +satisfactory to depositors. _Mr. Wortley_ thought three per cent. a +fair rate of interest. _Mr. C. W. Sikes_ suggested that the interest +to depositors should be three per cent. on sums up to 100_l._, and two +per cent. over that sum. He thought a low rate of interest would not +deter the working man from Savings Banks. If we turn from this +theorizing to what was the practice of different Savings Banks in this +and other particulars, we shall find diversities of operation which +not only account for so much difference of opinion, but which rendered +unanimity of action almost impossible. It was then, and is still, a +very popular notion, that the Savings Banks proper pay a uniform rate +of interest of three per cent. per annum; nothing can be more +mistaken. When the enactment was passed establishing the still +existing rate, it was generally considered in Parliament that five +shillings per cent. was ample enough to pay all expenses of +management; but the fact is, double that amount has not sufficed in +some cases. In 1857 there were, according to a Parliamentary Return, +no less than thirty-two different rates of interest paid by Savings +Banks managers, and had the Return embraced a much more recent period +the same diversity would have been shown. Thus, in that year-- + + banks £ s. d. + 31 paid interest to depositors at the maxm rate of 3 0 10 per cent. + 107 " at the rate of 3 0 0 " + 215 " " 2 18 4 " + 11 " " 2 13 6 " + 24 " " 2 17 1 " + 12 " " 2 16 8 " + 78 " " 2 15 6-1/2 " + 35 " " 2 15 0 " + 2 " " 2 10 0 " + +added to which smaller numbers paid other rates, making thirty-two +separate rates.[149] In accordance with the above table the average +cost of management per cent. was, in 1857,--in Scotland 7_s._ 8_d._, +in Ireland 9_s._, and in England 6_s._ 7_d._; in Middlesex, however, +it was as much as 9_s._ 2_d._ Confining ourselves to individual banks, +we find that the Manchester Savings Bank cost at the same period, in +expenses, an average sum of 1_s._ 3-3/4_d._ per account, the +Bloomfield bank 1_s._ 9_d._, the St. Martin's Place 2_s._ 0-1/2_d._, +the Liverpool bank 2_s._ 5-1/4_d._, and the Cork bank 3_s._ 2_d._ per +account. + +The greatest expense was shown to be incurred in those banks which +dealt largely in small accounts; hence some of the actuaries openly +sought to discourage the taking of small sums. _Mr. Meikle_ thought it +was the interest of the banks rather to discourage small depositors +and encourage large ones. _Mr. Finney_ showed that they _were_ +discouraged at the Marylebone bank, where a less interest was given to +small amounts. _Mr. Craig_, however, went to great lengths on this +point, and grounded his opinions on such facts as the following +(3,752):--"The average cost of a transaction that enters a bank is +more than a shilling; there is not a transaction entered in any +Savings Bank that does not cost a shilling and a fraction. Now, if you +allow a man to deposit a shilling, which costs the bank a shilling, it +comes to this, that the manager might as well say to him, 'There is a +shilling for you; pray do not come here again.' The Committee are +about seeing whether Government can or not safely undertake to make +itself responsible for the transactions of 600 Savings Banks scattered +all over the country. If so, they must only take such sums and in such +ways as will be safe for the public. It will not do to allow people's +sympathies to run away with them by the mere clap-trap of saying, 'We +will take a shilling.' I say that to take these small sums, instead of +being a benefit to the people, is merely encouraging them to waste +their time." We need not here go out of our way to expose the fallacy +of such an argument, further than to point out how entirely Mr. Craig +overlooked the fact that he had previously advocated a system of +uniformity of accounts, which would have made this and other reforms +practicable. What was required of the Committee before which he gave +evidence, was, the suggestion of such a change in the nature of the +institution as that this shilling's worth of thrift should not be sent +about its business in the very summary manner so graphically described +by this gentleman. That the Savings Banks should give such rude +discouragements to the budding of provident habits was nothing short +of a defect; that it was perfectly possible as well as expedient to +offer encouragements to the poorest classes has since been abundantly +proved, as we shall soon have to show. + +We have referred to the varying notices for the withdrawal of money +required by different banks; some required a week, some a month, while +in the great majority of banks a fortnight was required. _Mr. Meikle_ +expressed himself strongly opposed to the English system of giving +notice: he said, the Scotch banks required no notice at all, though +they held a discretionary power in certain instances. _Mr. Saintsbury_ +urged "a reasonable period." _Mr. Wortley_ thought the notice was a +protection against Savings Banks being used for other purposes than +for accumulating savings. _Mr. Sikes_ strongly recommended that +deposits should not be repayable "except after sufficient notice," the +extent of which neither he nor Mr. Saintsbury ventured to state. + +Once more the attention of the Committee was called to the necessity +of opening out new banks in localities not well supplied with them. No +one, however, was prepared with any scheme for giving extra facilities +of this kind, and those hints which were thrown out by members of the +Committee themselves were either not taken up, or if noticed, only in +such a way as to attest the difficulty, rather than the ease or +expediency with which any movement towards this end would be attended. +_Mr. Wortley_ said small banks were exceedingly unsafe; branch banks +under the cognizance of a head office _might_ answer. _Mr. Meikle_ +agreed, and said that at first new banks were seldom self-supporting. +_Mr. Nield_ said it would be impossible that the agency system of +Exeter (the only scheme recommended) could be introduced into +Lancashire; the branch banks under the Manchester Savings Bank could +not support themselves except they had gratuitous service. + +Finally, we think the difference of opinion and the diversities of +operation in the larger and best managed banks[150] of the kingdom +could not be better shown than by the following Return.[151] If +anything could demonstrate the want of some uniform and inexpensive +system of Savings Banks, we think a careful examination of the +inequalities of every sort shown there might have that effect. + +Thus we have, we hope, succeeded in showing that at the stage to which +we have arrived (and, indeed, much later,) the existing Savings Bank +system, as a system, laboured under three or four essential and almost +incurable and irremoveable defects: 1, They professed and were +expected to give a Government guarantee for all the money deposited +with them, and yet they did not. The real distinction in the matter, +to which we need only allude, was and is well enough understood by +educated people; but it was not, we may almost say cannot, be mastered +by the poor who were depositors. A depositor paying in his money to +the Savings Bank had no means of knowing what was done with it. 2, The +country was most inadequately and most disproportionately supplied +with banks, and the facilities given by existing banks were also most +inadequate and disproportionate. Farther, and most important, the +number could not be increased on the same footing, and no attempt was +made to increase the number. Such increase presupposed a certain +amount of local philanthropy and even assuming that this sort of +philanthropy is an unmixed good, an adequate provision of Savings +Banks presupposes an equal amount of philanthropic zeal in every +quarter of the country. And 3, Savings Banks were a serious loss to +the country. "Taking the average price," said Sir A. Spearman, "of +Government Securities for each year since 1817, the only years in +which prices appear to have been such as to produce a rate of interest +equal to that paid were 1847 and 1848." Government, in relation to +Savings Bank money, had necessarily to invest when money was most +plentiful, and therefore when securities were dear, and to sell out +when they were cheap. To make up for such loss, it is true, Government +took to using Savings Bank money to aid it in its own financial +operations, to save borrowing or to postpone borrowing; but though +care was always had to keep a sufficient banking reserve in an +available shape, this set-off was not allowed, as we have already +seen, without many complaints on the part of the managers of Savings +Banks. + +RETURN relating to the Ten principal Savings Banks of the Country. (1861.) + + +-------------------+------------+-----------+------------+------------+ + | | | | | | + | | | + | Rate of | + | Name of Bank |Total Amount| Number of | Average | Interest | + | | owing to |Depositors.| Amount of | paid to | + | | Depositors.| | Deposit. | Depositor. | + | | | | | | + +-------------------+------------+-----------+------------+------------+ + | | £ | | £ _s._ _d._| £ _s._ _d._| + |St. Martin's Place | 1,780,725 | 61,736 | 6 2 1 | 2 18 1 | + |Manchester | 1,306,329 | 50,231 | 4 5 5 | 3 0 0 | + |Exeter | 1,087,773 | 40,776 | 5 1 9 | 3 0 0 | + |Bishopsgate | 1,032,513 | 53,737 | 4 3 8 | 2 17 6 | + |Glasgow | 927,427 | 42,122 | 3 3 1 | 3 0 0 | + |Liverpool | 872,253 | 29,123 | 9 4 7 | 3 0 0 | + |Bloomsbury | 583,453 | 23,524 | 4 6 9 | 2 18 4 | + |Edinburgh | 566,076 | 30,426 | 3 5 5 | 2 17 9 | + |Birmingham | 563,870 | 31,238 | 4 0 3 | 3 0 0 | + |Marylebone | 395,561 | 23,024 | 4 0 3 |{2 17 4 | + | | | | |{2 15 0 | + +-------------------+------------+-----------+------------+------------+ + + +-------------------+---------------------------------+ + | | ANNUAL EXPENSES. | + | |------------+------------+-------+ + | Name of Bank | | | | + | |Per Account.|Per Cent. of| TOTAL.| + | | | Capital. | | + | | | | | + +-------------------+------------+------------+-------+ + | | _s._ _d._ | _s._ _d._ | £ | + |St. Martin's Place | 1 5-1/2| 5 11 | 5,380 | + |Manchester | 1 3 | 5 3 | 3,206 | + |Exeter | 1 6 | 4 11 | 2,702 | + |Bishopsgate | 1 6 | 7 4 | 3,830 | + |Glasgow | 1 2 | 5 6 | 2,595 | + |Liverpool | 2 2 | 5 3 | 2,359 | + |Bloomsbury | 1 11 | 7 9 | 2,283 | + |Edinburgh | 1 8 | 9 0 | 2,558 | + |Birmingham | 1 3 | 6 8 | 1,908 | + |Marylebone | 1 9 | 11 1 | 2,212 | + | | | | | + +-------------------+------------+------------+-------+ + + + [134] Compiled from Returns presented by the Statistical + Department of the Board of Trade. + + [135] It is very difficult to obtain correct and complete + statistics on this subject. It is to be regretted that a valuable + suggestion which Dr. Farr made before the last Census was not + acted upon. He recommended that facts connected with the rate of + wages should be collected during the Census. Had it been attended + to, much might have been stated here with precision which will + only admit of approximation. + + [136] Subsequently Mr. Bright went the length of saying, that + Savings Banks were "nothing less than traps for the people who + subscribed to them. There was a universal belief that Government + was responsible." + + [137] Since writing the above, it is only fair to say, that we + find this writer has taken no pains at all over the matter, but + has simply benefited by the industry of another, without in any + way acknowledging his obligations. Mr. Edward Taylor of Rochdale, + in a pamphlet now before us, published several years before Mr. + Scratchley's book, entitled "Savings Bank: ought Government to + make good past losses in Savings Banks?" supplies the whole of the + quotations given, and even the setting for them. + + [138] The preamble of the first Act (Act 57 George III. c. 130, + 1817) runs thus: "Whereas certain Provident Institutions or Banks + for Savings have been established in England, for the safe custody + and increase of small savings belonging to the industrious + classes; and it is expedient _to give protection to such + institutions, and the funds established thereby_," &c. &c. The + preamble of the Act of 1828 runs exactly to the same effect. + + [139] Much to the same purpose a well-known writer in the _London + Review_ says: "As long as Savings Banks are Savings Banks, based, + on the one hand, on the confidence of the poor, and, on the other, + on the benevolence of the local clergy and gentry, acting as + trustees and managers without fee and reward, and therefore + without such bounden obligations as men can be called to account + upon, so long will frauds periodically arise, opening up great + gulfs of deficits, strewing thorns upon the pillows of the poor, + and driving sharp pangs of despair into their hearts." Dr. + Hancock, in one of his admirable pamphlets, alluding to the system + of checks relied on by the managers of many banks, says: "It is + impossible, in the nature of things, to devise a perfect system of + checks. So long as the work has to be done by human agency there + must always be some risk. To secure the performance of actions by + human agents, three forces commonly operate: 1, A morel sense of + duty; 2, A fear of large pecuniary loss from liability, in case of + the non-performance of duty; and 3, A fear of judicial punishment, + if non-performance be made a penal offence. The limit placed on + the liability of the managers effectually took away or reduced to + a minimum the fear of loss and of punishment, and the divided + responsibility there has always been between Government and the + trustees, by weakening the sense of duty, did the rest." + + [140] The case of the Edinburgh Savings Bank, another excellently + managed institution, is still more to the point, where unusual + facilities produced an unusual amount of depositors and deposits. + + [141] According to an excellent authority, Mr. Smiles, to whose + admirable article in the _Quarterly Review_ (Oct. 1859) we are + indebted for some of our particulars of the history of this + movement, it would appear that the first proposal for Regimental + Savings Banks was made in 1816 by Paymaster Fairfowl, but allowed + to drop; it was taken up again in 1827, when Colonel Oglander, + commanding a regiment of Cameronians, brought the project under + the notice of the Duke of Wellington. The Duke could not see any + benefit to be derived from the proposal, and wrote the following + characteristic memorandum upon the papers: "There is nothing that + I know of to prevent a soldier, equally with others of his + Majesty's subjects, from investing his money in Savings Banks. If + there be any impediment, it should be taken away; but I doubt the + expediency of going further." He added something further, however, + which, also eminently characteristic, opened up a new feature in + the case, and closed the door to such proposals till after the + Duke had left the service. "Has a soldier," continued he, "more + pay than he requires? If he has, it should be lowered, not to + those now in the service, but to those enlisted hereafter." + Colonel Oglander had no idea that the soldier should have less + than his "thirteen pence a day, and a penny beer money," and + therefore suffered his proposals to be simply negatived. + + [142] The deposits in Seamen's Savings Banks-- + In 1861 were £17,112, and withdrawals £12,681 + 1862 " 17,089 " " 15,343 + 1863 " 17,098 " " 14,090 + + [143] To the Honorary Secretary of this bank, Mr. W. W. Morrell, + we are greatly indebted for much information on the Penny Bank + movement; and, as an ardent Savings Bank reformer, for much + information on our subject generally. + + [144] Any of our readers who may desire fuller information on the + subject of Penny Banks, or particulars as to their + management--information which we should have been glad to have + furnished, had our space permitted--could not do better than get + an admirable little pamphlet on "Penny Banks," by the Rev. J. E. + Clarke, of Derby. (Bell and Daldy, 1859.) Mr. Smiles, in his + _Workmen's Earnings, Strikes, and Savings_, also devotes a short + chapter to describing, in his usually effective way, their results + on the provident poor. + + [145] The first Preliminary Savings Bank in Scotland was started + at Annan, in Dumfriesshire, and Mr. Sikes was consulted about it. + A correspondent writing to Mr. Sikes a few years ago, says: "It + may gratify you to know that I some time since met with the Rev. + James Mackenzie of Dunfermline, formerly of Annan, who told me + that he had ten Penny Banks at work at Dunfermline! I believe the + Annan one was father to them all, and you to the Annan one, so + that your family is spreading rapidly, and becoming a great + multitude throughout the entire kingdom!" + + [146] Groombridge & Co. London. + + [147] Reference is due to another gentleman, Mr. Maitland, actuary + and subsequently treasurer of the Edinburgh Savings Bank, who now + seems to have urged, even before Mr. Sikes did so, English Savings + Bank managers to give to depositors more of the facilities granted + by Savings Banks in Scotland. Speaking of 1843-5, Mr. Maitland + says, "I met with no sympathy when I urged the duty of cultivating + the small deposits of the _really_ labouring classes. I was + bitterly opposed in my advocacy of giving more hours weekly to the + public, and was deemed almost _mad_ when I insisted that we should + all pay on demand, _at all events_ sums under 10_l._"--_Letter + from Mr. Maitland to Mr. Sikes_, February, 1857. + + [148] This proposition was revised in 1862 by Mr. Scratchley in + the last edition of his _Practical Treatise_, but without in any + way mentioning the name of Mr. Sikes as the original suggestor of + the plan. + + [149] The Marylebone bank up to 1860 only allowed two per cent. on + sums below 30_l._, but this arrangement has since been modified. + + [150] So well managed indeed, that we hope it may be long before + they are superseded, however desirable it may be that bulk of the + existing Savings Banks should become merged in a better system. + + [151] See next page. + + + + + CHAPTER VIII. + + ON PROPOSALS FOR GOVERNMENT SAVINGS BANKS. + + "I do not imagine that there can be any more important end + and object of a State than to encourage frugality, and the + investment of the savings of the poor, and nothing in + which I should be more tempted to step out of my way to + encourage, if I were a legislator; but I think the great + test and object of whatever investment I provide specially + for them, must be extreme and perfect certainty, and great + facility of conversion.... Increase in amount of interest + or profit, is as nothing compared to security."--MR. H. + BELLENDEN KER. + + +For reasons which we have adduced at great length in the last chapter, +the feeling grew that a sweeping change would require to be made in +the institution of Savings Banks. Supplementary banks of different +kinds were established, and they met in great part the object for +which they were designed; meanwhile, the great majority of Savings +Banks took no steps to provide more conveniences for the public, or +they were powerless to effect them.[152] When reasonable changes were +resisted between 1850 and 1860, it occurred to several that agencies +might be contrived to do the same work after a different fashion, and +that this project should be carried out, even were the ultimate result +to diminish the usefulness of most of the older banks, or gradually to +set them aside. It is to proposals having the former object in view +that we must now turn. + +It is not a little curious that long before Savings Banks were +legalized by Act of Parliament, and even before Dr. Duncan began his +earnest and self-denying efforts to establish them on a safe footing, +at least two different efforts were made to promote the growth of +provident habits by a system of Savings Banks which should extend +throughout the entire country. We refer to Jeremy Bentham's scheme of +"Frugality Banks," and Mr. Whitbread's "Poor Fund and Assurance +Office." + +The plan of the former is detailed in Bentham's works; the latter +scheme, partly described in an earlier portion of this volume (pages +23-4) was submitted to Parliament in 1807, and a bill,--a full +Abstract of which will be found in the _Appendix_,--founded upon it, +actually passed the House in some of its earlier stages. Some of the +provisions of this bill were admirable; and some, owing to the state +of the Post Office of that time, would not have been so easily worked +through that department as was intended. As it was, the country +preferred the class of banks just then rising into notice; and in 1817 +the Legislature forgetting Mr. Whitbread's scheme, gave its sanction +and countenance to the banks which had been established on purely +benevolent principles, and which were totally independent of each +other. In the course of years, that system having been tried in every +possible way without producing the safety and convenience so much +desired in institutions of this sort, the principle of a uniform plan +of banks in connexion with the Post Office advocated by Mr. Whitbread +again came up, the story of the proposals for and the introduction of +which we are about to tell. + +Previously, however, we ought not to omit, for several reasons, to +give the outline of the scheme proposed by Bentham even before Mr. +Whitbread's proposals. The reader will perceive how thoroughly +conversant the philosopher was with the every-day habits of the poor, +and how completely he understood their wants and requirements, and +sought to provide for them. It is only necessary to add that Bentham +advocated this plan as one of many measures of pauper management; that +the scheme was to be generally applied throughout the country, and to +be taken up and worked by means of a company; the place where the +banks should be held to be called "'Industry Houses,' in +contradistinction to the 'Public Houses' of friendly Societies." +"Should this not be enough," says Bentham, "the vestry room of each +place of worship presents an office as near, and the clerk an officer +or sub-agent as suitable, as can be desired."[153] After fully going +into the hindrances to the spread of saving habits among the poor +around him, and the difficulties incident to the laying up and +improvement of their surplus moneys,--hindrances and difficulties +which had not yet all been surmounted,--he gives the following +comprehensive and exhaustive list, which shows how thoroughly he would +have mastered the obstacles of a more recent period:-- + + "Properties to be wished for in a system of Frugality + Banks, commensurate to the whole population of the + self-maintaining poor: viz. + + "1. _Fund_, solid and secure:--proof against the + several causes of failure. + + "2. _Plan of Provision_, all _comprehensive_: + comprehensive, as far as may be, of all sorts of + exigencies, and at all time, as well as of all + persons, in the character of customers: thence the + amount of the deposits transferable from exigency + to exigency, at the will of the customer, at any + time. + + "3. _Scale of Dealing_, commensurate to the peculiar + faculties of each customer: _i.e._ on each + occasion as large as or as small as his + convenience can require. + + "4. _Terms of Dealing_ sufficiently advantageous to + the customer: (the more so, of course the better), + regard being had, in the necessary degree to + solidity. + + "5. _Places_ of transacting business _suitable_: + adapted in point of _vicinity_, as well as in + other respect, to the conveniency of the customer. + + "6. _Mode_ of transacting business _accommodating_: + suited to the circumstances of the customer in + respect of times of receipt and payment, and + _quantam_ of receipt and payment at each time. + + "7. _Mode of operation, prompt_, consuming as little + of the customer's time in attendance as may be. + + "8. Mode of book-keeping, clear and satisfactory." + +There can be little doubt from the above extract, that if Bentham did +not make a very practical proposal, he had an excellent idea of the +description of agency required. + +Another proposal which shared the same fate as did those of Bentham +and Whitbread was ventilated in the _Quarterly Review_ for 1827, in an +article on "The Substitution of Savings Banks for Poor Laws." This was +no new scheme, though the agency by which the scheme was sought to be +carried out certainly was original. During the eighteenth century the +plan of masters compulsorily deducting payments from the wages they +were expected to pay to their servants, in order that the money might +form a fund for a time of need, was frequently recommended, and even +proposed to Parliament. De Foe, in his "Giving Alms no Charity," tells +us how at his own period attempts were made to effect a legislative +substitution of savings for poors' rates, and to pass Acts of +Parliament which "shall make drunkards take care of wife and children; +spendthrifts lay up for a wet day; lazy fellows diligent; and +thoughtless, sottish men careful and provident." But all the plans, as +might be expected, came to nothing. In 1827, however, the Savings Bank +principle having become recognised, and the Post Office machinery +tolerably efficient it was said that the scheme might be made to work. +The writer advocated the establishment of a National Savings Bank, to +which the Savings Banks in the country might contribute; "and +perhaps," said the _Quarterly Reviewer_, as if recognising the fact of +the insufficient distribution of banks, "the remittances to be made +might, especially in rural districts, be allowed to be paid into the +nearest Post Office, and remitted with its own money to the General +Post Office, by whom it might be paid over to the Commissioners of the +National Debt." This scheme attracted little or no attention at the +time, and nothing came of it. In more than one respect, however, it +contained the germ of a plan subsequently carried out, and it is not +impossible that some of the numerous claimants for the honour of +having originally proposed Savings Banks in connexion with the Post +Office may have carefully studied the details. + +And this brings us to the early history of Post Office Savings Banks, +and to the numerous suggestions which at one time or another seem to +have been made with regard to them. No less in respect to the place +which these banks are designed to occupy as important public +institutions--the people's principal purse--(and that their position +in the country will at no distant period be a commanding one there +cannot be a reasonable doubt) than for their present attained position +and intrinsic value, the question of their early history is a matter +for most careful investigation, and one which must not be lightly +passed over. The matter of the authorship of the scheme was the +subject of considerable discussion at an early stage in its history; +and that discussion was not without its value in elucidating some +points of considerable importance, and as affording materials for more +deliberately investigating many claims which have been put forward. It +naturally forms part of our plan, not only to offer a description of +the working of the new class of banks--as will be done in a subsequent +chapter--but to show, as we propose to do here, in a strictly +impartial manner, to whom the country is indebted for the agency now +in operation.[154] + +Confining ourselves at present to the origination of the _principle_ +of Post Office Banks, without reference to the wonderfully simple and +efficacious scheme afterwards organized, we find that several +different gentlemen had between the years 1850 and 1860, and acting +entirely unknown to each other, matured plans, and in one way or +another actually proposed them, to remedy the deficiencies of the +existing banks, on some such principle as that eventually adopted. To +Mr. Sikes, of Huddersfield, however,--of whose previous labours in the +cause of Savings Bank reform we have already spoken,--belongs the +undoubted merit and honour of having independently originated and +matured a plan of operation more or less equal to the object in view; +of having persevered in the object of bringing the matter prominently +before the public; and of being so fortunate as to have proposed his +scheme at a period when the country possessed in Mr. Gladstone a +statesman of extraordinary versatility and power at the head of its +financial operations, and who has given abundant evidence of his +willingness to grapple with uncommon difficulties where a need is +proved and the principles of a measure are shown to be sound. As we +shall show presently, the same propositions, only differing as to +details, were submitted once, if not twice, to Sir Charles Wood when +Chancellor of the Exchequer, and once more, by a totally different +individual, to Sir George C. Lewis when he held that office. How much, +therefore, the measures subsequently carried are primarily due to Mr. +Gladstone's sharp-sightedness and energy the reader may judge. + +Returning to an account of those who have been represented as +suggesting the principle of Postal Banks, we think the number may be +fairly reduced by several names. And in that number we would class Dr. +W. Neilson Hancock, of Dublin. Of Dr. Hancock's exertions in connexion +with the frauds in Savings Banks, and his description of the feeling +of insecurity which they engendered, we have already spoken; those +exertions related exclusively, so far as we can gather from his +pamphlets, to a remedy for this grievance. In a paper[155] read by Dr. +Hancock before the Dublin Statistical Society in 1852, and republished +in a pamphlet form four years afterwards, we find him saying, that +private enterprise had not had a fair trial,--if it had, and failed, +then Government should undertake the work, _as it did Money Order +business_:-- + + "That part of the natural business of bankers which + consists in receiving deposits from the poor might be + undertaken by some public officers appointed for the + purpose, _just as_ the granting of Money Orders, another + part of the same business, is carried on by the officers + of the Post Office. Such an institution would be called a + Savings Bank; and in it the Government would be + responsible to the depositors for the acts of the clerks. + So that the entire responsibility of management would rest + with the members of Government in charge of that + department, and the depositors would have perfect security + for any money actually paid to a clerk.... My own + impression is, that if our laws were framed with a view to + allow of small deposits and small investments, private + enterprise is quite adequate to supply a complete system + of safe investments for the poor. But whether that opinion + be sound or not, a Government institution _like the Money + Order Office_, with Government officers and Government + security for those officers, would be infinitely better + than the present system of divided responsibility and + absence of security." + +In a further paper, read and published in a pamphlet form in +1855,[156] Dr. Hancock made no further proposal towards the object +immediately in our view, although he said-- + + "The Money Order Office of the Post Office shows that a + large part of the business of banking for the poor can be + cheaply and efficiently conducted by the officers of a + public department. The first step towards the adoption of + such measures is to produce in the public mind a + conviction of the utter instability of banks as now + constituted, and that conviction I have endeavoured to + create." + +We believe Dr. Hancock went somewhat further than this, by calling the +attention of the Post Office authorities to the matter though, as he +presented no distinct scheme to their consideration, it is not very +wonderful that the question should rest where he left it. Though Dr. +Hancock does not seem ever to have gone so far as to propose "the +opening of banks for the poor in connexion with the Money Order +Office," much less to develop a plan which should have that end in +view--a construction which has been put upon his references to the +Post Office machinery,[157]--it is only fair to that gentleman to say +that he was one of the first to recognise the merits of such a measure +when it was proposed, and to urge its full adoption. + +Another name, which has in our opinion been very unnecessarily and +erroneously connected with the early history of Post Office Banks, is +that of Mr. Ayrton, the member for the Tower Hamlets. To all who +remember the strong opposition which Mr. Ayrton offered, not only to +the project when before Parliament, but previously to other reasonable +reforms in the Savings Bank institution, this association of his name +with the origination of the present plan must be very amusing; and yet +this is an error into which several have fallen, though traceable, +perhaps, to one source.[158] Mr. Ayrton certainly seems to have had a +notion, though not till 1858, that the Post Office might be more +useful to Savings Banks than it was; and in the Committee of that +year, of which he was a member, he asked one of the witnesses--who was +actuary to a bank that had several branches in country places--a +series of questions, with the object of eliciting the opinion that it +would be an advantage to Savings Banks if money orders could be +procured in country places at a cheaper rate than 3_d._ and 6_d._, +when any person desired to send a Savings Bank deposit to an adjacent +town.[159] In the draft report proposed by Mr. Ayrton after the close +of the investigation (which was not carried), the following clause +appeared:--"That the Committee recommend the Postmaster-General to +afford every facility practicable for the remittance of money to +Savings Banks, but they do not deem legislation in this respect +expedient;" and in our humble view it would have been exceedingly cool +if they had! There can be no question that this simple incident has +given rise to the misapprehension to which we have just alluded. + +We can now come to veritable proposals. Though it is due to Mr. Sikes +to say that the fact of prior proposals, with the same object in view, +were either forgotten or only came to light for the first time after +he had publicly made and urged his plans on the country, it seems not +to admit of question that two gentlemen had been, quite unknown to him +or the public generally, over the same ground before him, and, whether +wisely or not we will not attempt to decide, had desisted from +pressing their plans after obtaining an adverse decision with regard +to them. So far as the Post Office is concerned, it is only fair to +say that the authorities up to quite a recent period have had their +hands sufficiently full in completing the plan of Penny Postage Reform +which, for several years after the passing of the Act of 1839, was +almost held in abeyance; and that, inundated with crude and +undeveloped schemes, it was requisite that a plan in which so much was +involved should be well matured, and go weighted with the stamp of +public approval. Whether, however, the Post Office system was prepared +so early as 1851,--the date of the earliest proposal,--to undertake +Savings Bank business, is a question which, considering the transition +state in which it then was, admits of some doubt. + +In 1852, the Rev. George Hans Hamilton, the Vicar of +Berwick-upon-Tweed, and now Archdeacon of Lindisfarne, proposed +through his relative, Mr. G. A. Hamilton of the Treasury, a national +system of Savings Banks to be worked by means of the Post Office,[160] +which it is but justice to say presents many, if not most, of the +features of the plan eventually produced. Mr. Hamilton met with +varying success; his proposals were not taken up warmly, but were +understood by him to present difficulties which might ultimately be +overcome. Had this gentleman persevered in the advocacy of the scheme +which he propounded, or had he had the good fortune, to have fallen on +more favourable times, with Mr. Gladstone as Chancellor of the +Exchequer, there can be little doubt that his plan would have been +cordially taken up and his name ever associated with it. As it was, +his exertions were recognised by Mr. Gladstone when he came to deal +with the matter, that gentleman referring on one occasion to the +valuable suggestions he had made. It should be added, that Mr. +Hamilton has, since the plans came into operation, urged a +modification of one of its features (to be referred to hereafter), and +it is little to say, considering the value and the shrewdness of his +original suggestions, that he is well entitled to be heard on the +point. + +The other gentleman who somewhat later than Mr. Hamilton, and quite +unknown to him, made proposals to the same effect, was Mr. John +Bullar, the eminent counsel, of the Temple. Mr. Bullar himself informs +us that his attention was attracted to the subject by observing the +working of a Penny Bank at Putney, which was established in the year +1850. Being a member of the Committee of this bank, he was led to +think much over "the then existing system of Savings Banks, and how +some of the defects of the system could be remedied." After thinking +the matter well over, he drew up the memorandum which we give +_verbatim_:-- + + It is admitted that the present system of Savings Banks is + defective, and that a new system is much wanted. + + Among the defects of the present system are:--Want of + perfect security to depositors: risk of loss to trustees + by defaulting clerks, and want of opportunities for the + labouring classes to make deposits as soon as they have + anything to deposit. + + Many of the present Savings Banks are only opened for two + or three hours once a week; so that those who would + deposit in them are forced to be their own bankers during + the rest of the week, and are exposed to the constant + temptation of spending what they have in their pockets; + the particular temptation from which Savings Banks were + intended to relieve them. + + In order to give perfect security to depositors, they + ought to have the security of the nation. + + The establishment of Savings Banks for the whole of the + labouring classes being a matter of national importance, + they ought to be a national, and not merely a + philanthropic institution. + + In order that they may confer the greatest amount of + benefit on the labouring classes, they ought to be open + during the whole of every working day. + + The principle of a National Savings Bank as a National + institution is already admitted in the Savings Banks for + the Army, the Navy, and the Mercantile Marine. + + The principle of Government acting as Banker for the + Nation is already admitted in the Money Order department + of the Post Office. + + That department is, in fact, a National Bank. It receives + money from all comers; it retains the money for divers + periods, from four-and-twenty hours to several weeks; and + it pays the money to those who are entitled to demand it. + + It would be a mere extension in point of detail if that + department received more money from more comers, retained + the money for longer periods, and paid it out with the + addition of interest upon it. + + It is therefore suggested that the Money Order department + of the Post Office should be made a National Savings Bank, + investing the deposits in Government securities, paying a + moderate rate of interest (say two and a half per cent.) + and paying interest only on round pounds deposited for not + less than a quarter of a year. + + The trustees of existing Savings Banks should be + authorized (except so far as any depositors might object) + to transfer their deposits to the department. + + In all probability the deposits with the department would + amount to at least thirty millions in the course of a year + or so; and at the present price of Consols, this would + give to the Post Office about 200,000_l._ beyond the + interest which they would have to pay to the depositors. + + If this would not meet the expenses, the rate of interest + might be 2_l._ per cent., giving to the department an + additional 150,000_l._ a year. + + The principle being admitted, there would be no + insuperable difficulty in arranging the details. + + JOHN BULLAR. + + _Temple, November 8, 1856._ + +This memorandum was written in November, 1856. Mr. Bullar describes +that at that period he was too much occupied to enter into the matter +so fully as was necessary, or to agitate by means of the press for +some such scheme; but Mr. Bullar's friend, Mr. Joseph Burnley Hume +(eldest son of the late Mr. Joseph Hume, M.P.), who had some leisure +at command, and perhaps some of his father's desire to achieve an +amendment of the Savings Bank system, undertook to bring the matter +forward in the proper official quarters. He early saw Mr. Frederic +Hill, who was in charge of the Money Order department of the Post +Office, and learned from him that the same scheme had already been +suggested to the Post Office, and rejected after full consideration. A +month afterwards Mr. Hume saw the Duke of Argyll, who was then +Postmaster-General, and received a courteous hearing from him. The +Duke also said that the Post Office had had the question, or something +like it, before them, and that he thought the Chancellor of the +Exchequer still had something of the kind under consideration; but +gave no definite reply. Subsequently he saw Sir Alexander Spearman, +the Comptroller of the National Debt Office, and Mr. Tidd Pratt. "He +gathered from them," to use Mr. Bullar's own words, "that they were +with him in principle, but regarded the proposed Money Order +department as visionary, and that the Government had under +consideration a different scheme, which they preferred."[161] Having +in this way met with enough discouragement to hinder them--or any +other person who might be cognizant of the proceedings that had been +taken--from going further, they dropped any further steps to bring +about this desirable change. + +Happily, however,--for happy, in one sense, it was,--these schemes and +the hitherto abortive attempts to carry them into execution, did not +reach the public ear, or others might have desisted from entertaining +similar plans. As it was, it was still open to any one else to take up +the matter _de novo_; and this is what actually did happen. We can +well believe, without the assurance with which he has favoured us, +that the next adventurer in these apparently difficult seas had no +notion that they had been previously navigated. This circumstance does +not take from his merit; but it certainly increased his difficulties. +How the matter was eventually brought about in the face of the adverse +decisions which we have just given, though somewhat better known, is +within our province to tell. + +In the hands of Mr. Sikes, of Huddersfield, any matter once taken up +was not likely to fail for want of thorough ventilation and earnest +advocacy. This gentleman had for years interested himself in the +extension of Savings Banks. We have already spoken of the fruits of +his industrious pen; and now he was once more to propose in a similar +manner, and with his accustomed eagerness, another new scheme which he +had carefully thought over and developed in his own mind. Once sure of +it himself, he resolved to devote himself to its advocacy; to bring it +not only before the proper authorities, "but before the public, at the +proper time." Mr. Sikes evidently did not dally with the matter. As he +made no sort of mention of the Post Office in his evidence before the +Savings Bank Committee of 1858, we may fairly assume that at that time +the idea of using the Post Office had not occurred to him. He himself +states, that, occupied with a favourite idea which he had long +cherished, of bringing a Savings Bank "within less than an hour's walk +of the fireside of every working man in the kingdom," the organization +of the Post Office suddenly occurred to him, and he dwelt upon it till +he had struck upon some scheme for applying the one to the other. + +As in the case of the other proposals, the leading principle of Mr. +Sikes's plan was to employ the machinery of the Money Order Office to +collect and forward deposits to a central bank which he proposed +should be established in London. Among the principal details of the +plan were--the opening in every town, not previously supplied with a +Savings Bank, of a Money Order Office, for the reception of Savings +Bank deposits; that the money should be remitted to London in the form +of Money Orders; that the deposits should be in sums of not less than +a pound; and that in return for these deposits or remittances, Savings +Bank "Interest Notes" should be issued in London; and that the +interest on these notes should be at the rate of 2-1/2 per cent. per +annum. That Mr. Sikes did not proceed boldly enough, and that there +were some defects and omissions in his scheme, we shall have to show +further on; here it is sufficient to indicate in what his plan +consisted. + +On the reasons for a large and comprehensive reform of this kind, Mr. +Sikes was most full and explicit; as, however, we have already been +over this ground, and also said much in connexion with the name of +this energetic Savings Bank reformer, it is quite unnecessary to +repeat here his well-arranged statistics and his generally conclusive +observations as they are given in the pamphlet before us.[162] Suffice +it to say, that he adduced abundant evidence to show that additional +facilities were required, and that if they were given, a proportionate +increase of business would be the result; that the existing banks were +totally inadequate to meet the requirements of the provident poor, +much less to stimulate and increase the number of provident people; +and that if his plan, or something like it, were carried out, both +objects would be gained. Mr. Sikes argued that in a case of this sort, +as in many others, increased facilities would bring increased +business, and, in support, he adduced as an instance the Money Order +Office itself. Quoting from the Postmaster-General's report for 1856, +he gave an extract accounting for the increase of business in that +office by the fact of the large additions that had been made to the +number of Offices, and to further relaxations in the regulations +regarding the issue and payment of Money Orders. "The establishment of +a Post Office," said Mr. Sikes, with very great truth, "has unfailing +influence in developing the correspondence; and of the Money Order +Office, the remittances of a district." Mr. Sikes then instituted a +comparison which, though not always to the point (for reasons quite +obvious), was scarcely an unfair one, of the relative progress of +Savings Banks with their small improvement as to facilities, and the +Money Order Offices, with their increased facilities. Within the years +1846 and 1858, the former had progressed at the rate of seven and a +half per cent.; the business of the latter had increased at the rate +of seventy-nine per cent. He then asked if the stagnation in the +business of Savings Banks was not to be traced to the non-increase of +their number, their absence in many very populous localities, the +slight accommodation given, and the arbitrary routine, and +restrictions imposed. If Savings Banks were worth anything, were they +not worth improving? And would not those supplementary banks do much +themselves, and very probably cause an improvement in existing ones? + +Having matured his plan in June, 1859, Mr. Sikes communicated it to +Mr. Edward Baines, the member for Leeds, in the form of a printed +Letter; and this gentleman, well known for his wide sympathy with the +industrious classes, after studying its details, expressed his warm +approval of the project, and engaged to bring it under the notice of +Sir (then Mr.) Rowland Hill, the Secretary of the Post Office. That +there was now no indisposition--if ever there was--on the part of the +authorities to such a measure is evident from the reception it met +with at their hands, as shown by the letter below.[163] Encouraged to +persevere, Mr. Baines and Mr. Sikes had an interview with the +Secretary and some of the principal heads of departments at the Post +Office, when the draft of a plan was read to them for working such a +measure, the official gentlemen concerned assuring them that this +might be done "with great ease and simplicity." + +The next step which Mr. Sikes took was to place himself in +communication with the Chancellor of the Exchequer; and as a +preparatory step, he printed his scheme afresh, extending it somewhat, +in the form of a Letter to Mr. Gladstone. The communication was met by +a cordial acknowledgment, in which that right hon. gentleman promised +his best attention in examining the scheme, not only on account of the +interest attaching to the subject, but "of the authority with which it +was invested," in proceeding from the quarter whence it did. The +letter was then given to the public, and immediately attracted general +attention, and warm expressions of approval. It was read before the +Social Science Association which met in Bradford in the autumn of that +year, Lord Brougham having also mentioned the matter in his inaugural +address. For a few weeks it was a common subject of discussion, public +opinion being somewhat divided as to its advisability as well as +practicability. Several Liberal newspapers, however, went warmly into +an advocacy of the principles of the measure, if not of the measure +itself; and in the early part of November, 1859, the members of the +Huddersfield Chamber of Commerce strengthened the hands of their +townsman, by passing an unanimous sentence of commendation upon it; +and not only so, but they resolved to send Mr. Sikes's tract to all +the Chambers of Commerce in the kingdom, recommending them to support +the plan, which several of them eventually did. + +During the interval, when the ball was kept rolling in this manner, +Mr. Gladstone had amply fulfilled his promise to give the subject his +best attention, as sufficiently appears from a letter which, belonging +now to the history of Post Office Savings Banks, we append below.[164] +Expressions of opinion on the advantage of some such scheme still +continued to be sent to Mr. Gladstone and Mr. Sikes, which must have +encouraged them both to persevere, and which made it very apparent +that the public had made up its mind not to allow the matter to +drop--at any rate, quietly. + +The most important petitions sent to the Chancellor of the Exchequer +emanated from Liverpool, Leeds, and York; but a resolution passed by +the Dublin Statistical Society, presided over by Dr. Whately, the late +Archbishop of Dublin, and signed by Dr. W. Neilson Hancock as +secretary, deserves special notice, were it only for the weight +attaching to Dr. Hancock's own name.[165] In answer to these and +similar memorials, Mr. Gladstone seems to have generally replied that +the matter was under his most careful consideration; "that he received +with cordial satisfaction this expression of opinion, proceeding from +persons well qualified to judge, and that he earnestly hoped it may be +practicable to frame a plan by which the objects in view may be +extensively attained." + +And now the curtain may be said to have fallen upon the scheme, and +for fully twelve months it is beyond the public gaze, and entirely +beyond public criticism. We find that now and then Mr. Sikes was busy +during the period in answering objections to his plan, with as much +energy and good sense as he had previously displayed in his advocacy +of it, before he had the good fortune to enlist the services of Mr. +Gladstone in its behalf. Now, however, it may be said to have passed +out of his hands, and to have fallen into those of others, who, no way +averse or unfriendly to his project, saw that it would be necessary +largely to remodel it, in order to make it fit into the machinery, (of +the working of which Mr. Sikes was necessarily ignorant,) upon which +it would have to be engrafted. Furthermore, among much approving +criticism of the scheme, there had been not a little feeling exhibited +among influential organs of the public press, that Mr. Sikes had not +gone far enough in his proposals, and that on some points the details +were not nearly so liberal as they ought to be made. As an ardent +friend to the Savings Bank system, Mr. Sikes had doubtless well +considered the objections which Savings Bank managers were likely to +urge; and, to stave off opposition on the part of many of his friends, +had apparently sacrificed a detail here and there in a matter where +boldness of action was most essential to success. If one thing is more +clear than another in the history of our great reforms, it is that the +projector who plunged right into the stream was always surer of +ultimate success than he who paddled about in the shallows, or kept as +close as possible to the brink. In this way, therefore, it seems to +have come about that not only must modifications be made, but steps +must be taken to perfect the plan, and present it in such a shape as a +measure of reform as should silence cavil and complaint. Twelve months +for such a work might seem long--might, indeed, be unnecessary; but +few will say that the scheme,--so much remodelled as fairly to be +considered a new one, did not amply atone for the delay. + +The task of adopting Mr. Sikes's proposals just as they originally +stood, and which proposals the Post Office authorities had generally +acquiesced in, seems to have been abandoned on account of the +practical difficulties which stood in the way; one of which Mr. +Gladstone indicated in the letter we have already given. The object +now, therefore, was to originate a mode of working altogether +independent of Mr. Sikes's plan, in which the desirable modifications +to be made in Mr. Sikes's scheme should also be introduced. Before, +however, we show how this was eventually accomplished, it is necessary +to say in what these important modifications consisted. + + 1. Mr. Sikes's scheme was proposed to be worked by a + Commission who should preside over a central bank and + employ the agency of the Post Office. Such a division of + authority would have been unprecedented, and must have led + to confusion and great expense, if even it could have been + so arranged. + + 2. The Commissioners were to have been empowered to + receive Money Orders as deposits and acknowledge them in + the form of an expensive description of "Interest Notes." + The Money Orders and the "Notes" themselves would have + required all the surplus interest to have been expended + upon them, and there would have been little chance of the + scheme turning out self-supporting. + + 3. Mr. Sikes proposed to open only 1,527 Money Order + Offices as Savings Banks. He proved at great length that + the system he proposed was not only the best, but the + cheapest; yet at the solicitation, we believe, of several + Savings Bank actuaries, he did not go the length of + including any town where provision had been made for + provident people. This, of course, restricted the + inhabitants of 600 towns to the dearer mode of operation, + though the cheaper one was shown to hold out anticipations + of producing by far the best article. Such considerations + could not, we should imagine, weigh with the Post Office + when once the matter was taken in hand, and no arbitrary + test of the above nature could ever have been entertained. + + 4. Most unsatisfactory, however, was the proposal to make + 1_l._ the minimum sum that could be received. There were + thousands of depositors in the ordinary banks whose + average deposits were not half that sum. Moreover, the + plan was designed to meet the wants of the poorest; to + encourage and foster the habit of small savings among + those who had not yet begun to save. No provision, + therefore, could have been more unfortunate; and it is + well that Mr. Sikes's fears--such as, that if a less sum + were taken the measure would not pay--were soon shown to + be groundless. + +It is not our intention to trouble the reader with much detail as to +what passed during the preparation, or, we may call it, the +organization of this interesting and beneficent measure. It is, +perhaps, sufficient to say, that differences of opinion rose upon +it--that some of the authorities of the Post Office thought Mr. +Sikes's scheme, with many important modifications, might be worked; +while others of them held that no amount of alteration would enable +the department to work it by means of Money Orders. In this way +several months passed in discussion, and it is scarcely too much to +say, that but for the unceasing vigilance of Mr. Gladstone, who +continued to urge further efforts to overcome the natural obstacles +that presented themselves, the temporary fate of many a good measure +might have been the fate of this. + +It was when matters were in this state of abeyance, and when the +difficulties in the way fairly threatened to overwhelm the scheme +altogether, that a gentleman, since prominently connected with all +that relates to Post Office Banks, was induced to turn his attention +to the subject. Mr. Chetwynd, one of the staff officers of the Money +Order Office, took up the matter of applying the Post Office machinery +to Savings Banks; and, discarding all the other plans for working then +in dispute, addressed the Postmaster-General in November, 1860, and +proposed a plan which he thought would, notwithstanding all the +difficulties that had been experienced, meet all the reasonable +requirements of the case. Mr. Chetwynd's scheme was based on the +principle that Savings Bank business might be done "through the +various Money Order Offices in a much more economical manner than by +the issue and payment of Money Orders;" and that the plan should be so +comprehensive as not to need the restriction which had been previously +put upon it that sums under 1_l._ could not be received,--that sum, as +Mr. Chetwynd truly said, being "so large as seriously to reduce the +value of the benefit proposed to be conferred on the provident portion +of the public." + +The following outline, necessarily brief, gives all the material +points of the plan proposed, and which has in its integrity been since +carried out, and forms the basis of existing arrangements:-- + + 1. That every holder of a Money Order Office shall act as + an agent of a Central Savings Bank, and shall receive + deposits of any amount within the limit fixed by statute. + + 2. That he shall enter each deposit in a numbered + depositor's book, to be kept by the depositor, and in an + account to be forwarded to London daily with his Money + Order account. That on the occasion of a first payment, + the depositor shall make the declaration prescribed by + statute, and also sign his name in his depositor's book. + + 3. That the holder of the Money Order Office shall charge + himself in his Money Order account with the total of the + deposits thus received. + + 4. That this account should, on arrival in London, be + regularly examined by the examiner of the Money Order + accounts; and that when this has been done the daily + schedule shall be forwarded to the Central Savings Bank. + + 5. That the Central Savings Bank shall immediately send an + acknowledgment for every deposit direct to the depositor + through the Post Office. + + 6. That a depositor who may wish to withdraw money, shall + give notice in writing[166] to the Central Savings Bank, + and shall receive therefrom a warrant for the required + amount, payable at the nearest Money Order Office. + + 7. That in presenting this warrant for payment, the + depositor must also present his depositor's book. + + 8. That the holder of the Money Order Office shall enter + withdrawals in the depositor's book, and shall account for + the money he shall pay, in the same manner as already + described in the case of deposits, and shall be credited + with the sums daily. + + 9. That the depositors' books shall be forwarded to London + annually, in order that they may be compared with the + ledgers in the Central Savings Bank, and in order that the + interest due may be inserted in them. + +The first step which appears to have been taken in regard to the +scheme of Mr. Chetwynd was to refer it to Mr. Scudamore, who then +filled the office of Receiver and Accountant-General,--an office the +holder of which is at the head of the financial operations of the Post +Office. After going carefully over the plan which had been submitted +to him, he came to the conclusion that it was the best of those which +had as yet been framed; "that it will be productive of very great +advantages to the working classes, and that it will be self-supporting." +He also characterised it as exceedingly simple, and thought, that if +the execution of the plan were difficult, that difficulty would be due +to the amount rather than to the nature of the business to be +transacted. In conjunction with the projector, Mr. Scudamore then +proposed some important modifications and additions to the plan,[167] +and proceeded to enter fully into arguments and calculations to show +that it would offer the largest amount of convenience to the public, +and be at the same time the least expensive mode of operations so far +as the State was concerned. Into these and other purely technical +matters there is no need that we should further enter, beyond saying +that, so recommended, the scheme was warmly approved by the +Postmaster-General; and in a month from the date of Mr. Scudamore's +report, it fell into the hands of Mr. Gladstone, and became, as it +were, the property of the nation. How the Legislature dealt with it +will fittingly bring this chapter to a close. + +On the 9th of February, 1861, _Mr. Gladstone_ took the first step +towards bringing the subject forward in Parliament, by moving a +resolution in the House, of which he had previously given +notice:--"That it is expedient to charge upon the Consolidated Fund of +the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland the deficiency, if any +such should arise, in the sums which may be held on account of Post +Office Savings Banks, to meet the lawful demand of depositors in such +banks, in the event of their being established by law." This, which +was according to the usage of the House the first necessary +preliminary, provided that the burden of the measure should be thrown +upon the State. Mr. Gladstone stated[168] that in submitting this +resolution he did not wish to pledge members either to the principle +or the details of the bill which he intended to found upon it. His +sole object was to afford new facilities for the deposit of small +savings to those who did not possess them, or possessed them +imperfectly. He would not only like to do this, but also to improve +materially the existing facilities, so as to enable many more to take +advantage of them; but this was a more difficult problem,--an object +often attempted, yet little accomplished. The main difficulty, the +responsibility of trustees, had baffled all attempts to deal with it. +How true this was, the reader who has followed us in our account of +the legislation on the subject will readily believe. In this +difficulty he had been led to see if they could not avail themselves +of another description of machinery altogether, "recommended by its +incomparable convenience," for the purpose of carrying out the same +objects for which Savings Banks were originally set on foot. He then +went fully into such statistics of the number and conveniences of +existing banks as those which we have already furnished, and compared +that machinery with the Money Order system at the Post Office and its +ramifications all over the country. Not only were the Money Order +Offices open every day for a considerable number of hours, but the +Postmasters were open and adequate to the transaction of increased +business. Mr. Gladstone then dwelt on the want of facilities, which, +he said, exercised an important influence on the amount of the savings +of the poor; "the experience of this winter, 1860-61, must have +demonstrated to anybody who thought upon the subject, that the +resources of this class had not of late years increased in proportion +to the rate of wages and the improvement in their standard of living." +A smaller portion of their gross income was, he thought, laid by at +that moment than was laid by twenty years before. He was sanguine +enough to expect that, if readier means were afforded than of laying +by in a season of prosperity, their ability to cope with the distress +of the future must be largely increased. Now, the banks which he +intended to propose would afford these means; and not only so, but +under the arrangements of the measure, he would answer for it that the +Post Office machinery should be applied carefully and gradually--the +most neglected districts to be supplied first. Mr. Gladstone then went +into the object and details of the measure. His proposal was that the +Post Office should receive and return deposits, with interest, in the +same way as Money Orders were dealt with, charging merely a fair +remunerative price for the work performed. In one respect the +principle upon which the new banks would be founded would be +essentially different from that of the old ones. The latter had been +established with the notion that the State might very fairly offer to +the labouring classes a certain premium by way of inducing them to +make deposits; but while he was far from desiring to cast any censure +upon the principle, he did not deem it right in the present case to +hold out to depositors the expectation of obtaining any high rate of +interest. He proposed to give a rate of interest 10_s._ less than that +given by the ordinary banks, with a proviso that it might be increased +to that rate, if found necessary, "and within certain limits." + +Mr. Gladstone provided an ample set-off against a less remunerative +return for the money, in the security which he now proposed to give +for its safe custody. The responsibility of the State, on account of +Savings Bank money had always been a subject of the greatest +difficulty; he argued on this occasion with perfect reasonableness, as +many of his predecessors in office had argued before, that the State +could only be responsible for the acts of its own officers; and as up +to this time no plan had been devised by which the State could +participate in all the proceedings of Savings Banks, it was impossible +to carry out the principle of a perfect Government guarantee. What, +however, could not be done with the old banks, might and should be +done with the new. In his proposals there was something so essentially +different from anything they had been accustomed to, that a Government +guarantee was an easy and a possible thing. The money would be +received by Government officials: it would be invested by these +servants in Government securities; and it would be inexcusable to +refuse a Government guarantee for the full amount. Hence the motion +which he had made. The only effective form which this guarantee could +take was the technical one, to pass a resolution providing that if any +difficulty arose in the means of meeting the lawful demands of lawful +depositors, that difficulty might be met by a charge on the +Consolidated Fund. Mr. Gladstone, in concluding, hoped honourable +gentlemen would not be alarmed at his resolution, as he would +expressly state then that the great basis of this new arrangement was +that it should be self-supporting.[169] + +_Mr. Francis Crossley_ (now Sir Francis) went over the ground of the +very deficient means of investment for the surplus cash of the poor, +producing statistics of a kind with which our readers are now +sufficiently familiar, and stated that it was impossible to +over-estimate the advantages which must accrue to certain classes in +the country from the carrying out of the proposals which had been +submitted to them. "A great deal of fault," said Mr. Crossley, "had +been found with the improvidence of the working people in not saving +money, but let them first see what the Government had done to help +them. The State provided beer-shops in every street for working men to +spend their money in as fast as they earned it; but hitherto he did +not think it had been sufficiently forward in giving them facilities +for saving their money." He then alluded to the fear which working men +had of the ordinary banks, from their masters being connected with +them, and who from that connexion would be able to see what they were +able to save. "Under the Postmasters, this would, or should be, +different." The country was indebted to Mr. Gladstone for the amount +of attention he had bestowed on the proposals of Mr. Sikes. Mr. +Crossley concluded: He "did not think Government ought to seek to make +a profit on the new business; nor did he think they ought to lose by +it. The working classes of the country did not want charity, they only +wanted a fair field and no favour, and it seemed that at length they +were about to get it. If at any time the rate of interest could be +raised without loss or inconvenience, he hoped it would be done." +_Colonel Sykes_ said that no praise could be too high for anything of +this sort, which tended to induce the working classes to lay by +against a bad time. He contented himself with referring to two or +three subjects connected with the mode of working the scheme. _Mr. +Arthur Kinnaird_ thought the scheme simple and practical. He "heartily +congratulated the Chancellor of the Exchequer on having at last +succeeded in one of the fondest hopes of his heart--that of creating a +two and a half per cent. stock." Mr. Gladstone at once demurred to +this, and stated that he had no notion of establishing a national +bank. The money which came into the hands of Government by means of +the bill would simply be applied as under the existing Savings Bank +law. Mr. Gladstone, in closing the debate, took the opportunity of +referring to Mr. Sikes, "who had devoted a great amount of labour to +the subject. He felt greatly indebted to him. At the same time, the +bill was not intended to embody altogether Mr. Sikes's plan, though +this was a matter of detail into which he would not then enter." + +Three days after this discussion the Post Office Savings Banks bill +was introduced into the House of Commons _pro formá_ by Mr. Massey, +the Chancellor of the Exchequer, and Mr. F. Peel. Mr. Sotheron +Estcourt on this occasion commented on the importance of the bill, and +objected to a first reading without an explanation of its provisions; +all that was known of it being that the Government were about to frame +on its provisions banks of deposit on a gigantic scale, and thus by a +merely formal proceeding were about to lay the foundation for very +important consequences. + +The Chancellor of the Exchequer moved the second and principal reading +of the bill on the 18th of March, 1861. _Mr. Estcourt_, whose intimate +acquaintance with such subjects made his remarks carry considerable +weight, made a long speech. He first expressed his doubts whether the +persons employed by the Post Office would ever be able to perform the +additional and important duties which would be assigned to them. +Government were undertaking a great risk. "No doubt the plan would +become popular, for several reasons; the Post Office Banks would +absorb not only all future deposits, but also a great part, if not +all, of those which had been made in the existing banks +themselves."[170] It would be for the House to decide whether this +result would be good or bad, or what could be done that the two kinds +of banks need not come into collision. Mr. Estcourt threw out several +hints as to how this might be done. They might, for example, limit the +sum to be received at post offices, so that the new might not come +into competition with the old class; or they might dovetail the new +system into the old, by making the Post Office Banks auxiliary and +subsidiary to the existing banks. Much had been done in the way of +trying to amend the constitution of the old class of banks, without +effect; and he thought that, looking to the probable result of the new +arrangement, it would be far better to look the evil fairly in the +face, and supersede at once the old by the new kind of banks, or at +least say which of the two ought to be retained. This speaker further +apprehended that the Post Office Banks would not take root in the +villages, where they were most wanted, and would be almost exclusively +confined to the towns where they were least needed, and where they +would overthrow the existing Savings Banks by drawing away their +deposits. Though Mr. Estcourt seemed to feel strongly on the different +points touched upon by him, he concluded by stating that he should not +oppose the second reading of the bill. _Mr. W. E. Forster_ said, in +his opinion the scheme would provide good Savings Banks where none now +existed, and, a very desirable matter, _safe_ banks where they did +exist. He thought it was not possible that the one class of banks +could dovetail into the other; and if it was, it was not desirable. +Where Government took the responsibility, it ought to have the +control. _Mr. Thompson Hankey_ hoped that the proposed scheme, if +found practicable, would entirely supersede the existing banks, and +the sooner the better. _Mr. Baines_ followed in the same strain; he +would not regret if the new banks superseded the old, inasmuch as that +result could only be brought about by the proved superiority of the +new system. The member for Leeds said, "he had been assured by Sir +Rowland Hill, and all the gentlemen whose departments at the Post +Office would be charged with the carrying out of the plan, that it +would work exceedingly well;" and he could state that, though it +differed materially from his plan, Mr. Sikes of Huddersfield was a +"hearty supporter" of the scheme which the Post Office had +adopted.[171] + +_Mr. Gladstone_ could not say whether the old would suffer from the +new banks; if they did, it would only be because the latter were the +safest and the best. Whether or no, the object of the bill was not +competition with the old banks. He wanted to supply facilities which +at present did not exist, and the first duty of the Postmaster-General +would be to look to the establishment of Savings Banks in those places +where no banks existed, or where the accommodation was very narrow. As +to their application to the Money Order Offices of the country, it +would be gradual and slow, and so as not in any way to endanger the +machinery of the Post Office; the Postmaster-General would select at +first a moderate number to be opened, and extend them in proportion as +he found occasion, the test and index of the occasion being the demand +for such banks by the public. Mr. Gladstone then referred to the rate +of interest which would be allowed, and said that in this respect the +Post Office Banks would have somewhat less attraction; "the present +banks were established on the principle of giving a bonus; the new +system must be strictly self-supporting." He would not feed them at +the expense of the Post Office, or any other revenue, and in that case +the rate of interest must be such as can be safely paid. With regard +to the forebodings of Mr. Estcourt relating to the risks which +Government would run, Mr. Gladstone stated that the system of Savings +Banks had been established for forty-five years, during which time +they had had every description of speculation, the severity of a +commercial crisis, the pressure of a dreadful famine, and almost every +trial that could befal a new system; and although the Government was +always holding a great amount of money at call, there had been but a +small pecuniary loss, in comparison with which loss the establishment +and progress of such a system was immeasurably of greater value. After +stating that he thought "the Post Office machinery admirably suited +for the purposes of the new measure," the bill passed the second +reading. + +The bill was introduced into Committee on the 8th of April, 1861,[172] +where trifling alterations were made in several of its clauses. _Mr. +Slaney_, who had paid great attention to subjects of this nature, +hoped that the deposits would not be restrained, as under the old +system, he thought no limit should be placed upon the providence of +the labouring classes. _Mr. Vance_, an Irish member, alluded, as he +did on subsequent occasions, to what he considered the centralizing +tendencies of the scheme. He thought Dublin ought to be the centre of +operations for Ireland as under the Money Order system. The principal +opponent of the measure on this occasion was _Mr. Ayrton_, the member +for the Tower Hamlets, who in some quarters has been credited with the +advocacy of the scheme before this period. In a long speech, Mr. +Ayrton took exception to most of the details of the measure as they +were now proposed, and to the principles of the measure as a whole. +Mr. Ayrton held that data enough had not been presented to enable +members to form an opinion as to whether the scheme would pay or not. +"It was all very well to talk of subjects being self-sustaining, and +even economical, but under such statements our expenses had gone on +continually increasing." He adduced at length the case of the County +Courts bill, and the Government Superannuation Allowances bill, which +he said were introduced and passed under some such pretences. It would +be the same with the Savings Banks; the Government would never be able +to keep to the two and a half per cent., but would have to be guided +by the rate allowed to other bankers. "The scheme of a national bank," +continued the honourable member, "_however plausible_ it might look at +the outset, would lead to the most serious consequences." The +Committee which sat on the subject, and of which he, the speaker, was +a member, came to the decided and unanimous conclusion that it was +desirable to separate the operation of banking for the people from the +National Treasury. It was thought that these national banks would act +as a powerful inducement to the working men to entrust their money to +the Government rather than to their own Benefit Societies, which were +regarded as too much associated with Trade Societies. In his opinion +Benefit Societies and Trade Societies had been the means of +regenerating the people, and were eminently conservative; and it was +not expedient to discourage these societies by means of the proposed +banks. Nor was this all. It was desirable that the country gentlemen +should take an interest in the welfare of the working people +surrounding them; and to supersede their exertions by mere +stipendiaries of the State would weaken that social system on which +the liberties of the people were mainly founded. _Mr. Alderman +Sidney_, "as one conversant with figures," ventured to say, that if +the scheme were carried out, our national establishment must be +greatly augmented; and if it proved successful, "the establishment +that would be required would be of the same gigantic proportions as +the Bank of England!" It was absurd to think that depositors would be +satisfied with less interest than the national creditor. The scheme, +he believed, was founded upon error; it would interfere with the +self-working of existing establishments, and would entail a large +expense upon the country at large. _The Chancellor of the Exchequer_ +replied, especially aiming his powerful shafts at Mr. Ayrton. He said +he would not follow that gentleman through his speech, as that was a +task beyond his powers. Mr. Ayrton often gave the House notable +examples of his discursive powers; but he (Mr. Gladstone) never knew +an occasion on which the honourable gentleman had more signally +distinguished himself than on the present occasion. "When he rose into +the air on eagle wing, he passed over the limits of time and space, +and was not subject to any of the conditions that bound the efforts of +ordinary mortals." However, to confine himself to just that which bore +on the subject before the Committee, he was strongly opposed to the +principle of making the working classes pensioners on the Exchequer; +he would do his best to provide against such a result. He did not +know, and could not tell, what amount of business the banks would +attract; he expected it would be gradual, and the development of the +agency would be gradual. The extension of the system would be in +precise proportion to the demand; and the expense would be throughout +proportionate to the extension. The opinion of the Post Office +authorities was, generally, that the work would be done much cheaper +than in the ordinary banks; _for sixpence or sevenpence against one +shilling for each transaction_. Some even thought that the work might +be done cheaper than the work in the Money Order Office. Once started, +any tendency to excess would, of course, be corrected; but it was +impossible to argue on any assumed number of deposits. He had a +sanguine hope that every statement he had made would be verified, and +that the measure would entail no charge upon the public. + +Again and again the question was asked and argued, whether it was +meant that the new banks should be subversive or auxiliary to the old. +To this question, which was asked on this occasion, Mr. Gladstone gave +it as his opinion that the one class of depositors who preferred +perfect security would patronize the new banks; whilst another class +who wished to act under the immediate view of their local superiors, +would prefer the existing banks. In reply to Mr. Briscoe, he said he +would not limit the establishment of the new banks to those places +where no other sort of banks existed,--though, of course, the Post +Office would commence operations there first. Such an arrangement +would exclude the great centres of trade and population,--our large +towns--which were not sufficiently served with banks. An important +discussion took place on the 10th clause of the Act relating to the +investment of the fund deposited in the Post Office Banks. _Sir H. +Willoughby_, as he so often did before, condemned the system of +operating on the Stock-market with this money. Mr. Gladstone replied, +that the loss which was so often dwelt upon in connexion with the old +banks was nothing like loss; "the money so deposited with Government +had enabled successive administrations to effect an economy in the +management of the public money transcending ten times over the charge +the State had been put to." He saw no reason whatever to alter the +arrangements in this particular. The amendment which Sir H. Willoughby +proposed was then negatived without a division. Three days afterwards +the bill passed the third reading and was sent up to the Lords. + +No time was lost in bringing the bill forward in the House of Lords. +It was read a first time on the 15th of April, and a second time on +that day week. The conduct of the bill in the Lords was naturally +committed to the Postmaster-General, Lord Stanley of Alderley. On this +occasion his lordship went over[173] the ground covered by the +bill--the insufficiency in number, and the inadequacy of accommodation +of existing banks, and the insecurity as regards repayment until the +money had actually reached the hands of the National Debt +Commissioners. Lord Stanley added that Savings Banks had by no means +increased in number in proportion to the population, or to the +increase of the money circulating among the working classes. He +adduced several facts and a quantity of statistics on this head +similar to those which we have already given to the reader. From these +facts it was obvious, that when a working man formed a good intention +to invest his small savings, there was a great danger that he would +spend his money, if there were no means of his depositing it, or if he +could not do it comparatively easily. He then spoke of the losses +caused by the failures of Savings Banks. Referring to Mr. Whitbread's +proposals in 1807, Lord Stanley stated that this measure was very like +the scheme then proposed, which actually passed through the House of +Commons in that year; that Mr. Sikes had originally proposed something +similar in an admirable letter to Mr. Gladstone; and that the +Government, with the assistance of two able gentlemen in the Post +Office department, had matured the present plan, which he proceeded +very clearly to describe. Lord Stanley, in concluding, said it was +somewhat remarkable that nine-tenths of the depositors in Savings +Banks were domestic servants and clerks, and that only one-tenth +belonged to what are usually known as the "working classes;" yet large +numbers of these latter are in receipt of wages far exceeding the +incomes of many who possessed Savings Bank accounts.[174] He hoped +that working men, when they received their wages, would be induced, +before going home, to invest a portion of them at the receiving houses +they would pass; if so, the result to them and the country could not +but be highly beneficial. The banks must be looked upon as an +experiment. If an extension should be demanded, it could only be by +reason of the greater security and greater facilities they would +offer. + +Lord Colchester, an ex-Postmaster-General, admitted the merits of the +plan, but doubted the ability of the Post Office officials to carry on +the work in every town. Among the Lords, however, the strongest and +bitterest opponent of the measure was Lord Monteagle of Brandon (once +Chancellor of the Exchequer as Mr. Spring Rice).[175] He made a long +speech on this occasion. He thought it was wrong to establish new +banks, or to make them rest on the deficiencies of the old ones, +inasmuch as it was easy to improve the latter. He went into the +history of Savings Banks, and endeavoured to show that their progress +up to 1850, (a fact which no one disputed,) had been far from slow. +As, however, it was the period principally between 1850 and 1860 when +they were most stationary, this was the time with which he should have +dealt. He expressed an opinion that the Post Office would not be equal +to the work. He strongly urged the inexpediency of giving increased +funds to the Chancellor of the Exchequer, with which to speculate. And +this measure would tend to destroy the healthy feeling which was +growing up between the higher and the lower classes, through the +medium of Savings Banks. Not only did the higher classes give their +time and energy to the work of Savings Banks, but they gave their +money too; and Lord Monteagle was unlucky enough to cite the case of +several noble lords who paid a thousand pounds each to atone for their +neglect in connexion with a Hertfordshire Savings Bank, and the fraud +there, which we have previously described at length. "Such was the +spirit," triumphantly exclaimed the noble lord, "which this bill +proposed to crush." Not less unfortunate was Lord Monteagle, as the +result has proved, in his endeavour to be amusing and prophetic. "The +only comfort," said he, "which I have derived from the speech of the +noble lord who moved the second reading, was his assurance that the +measure was to be of an _experimental_ character." Under such +circumstances he would not trouble the House with a division, as he +would await without much anxiety the result of the "experiment!" Next +year, they would see whether the working of the new system would +compare with that "which for nearly half a century had been the glory +of England, and had served as a model for all Europe." Lord Redesdale +also strongly opposed the bill, but he did not bring to its +consideration much of the practical knowledge of the preceding +speaker. He "frankly owned" that, from what he understood "would be +the manner of keeping the accounts, they would soon get into a state +of confusion, out of which extrication would be almost impossible." +From the confusion of the above sentence, it is not impossible that +the attempt to understand the mode of keeping the accounts had +confused the speaker. Curiously, too, the same speaker objected to one +of the most convenient clauses of the bill. He called the proposed +mode of transfer of deposits from one bank to another, an unnecessary +arrangement, saying it would be _much better_ that the parties +themselves should take it out of the one, and put it into the other +bank. Acquaintance with the habits and wants of the poorer classes +would have convinced Lord Redesdale to the contrary. Lord Redesdale +said, in concluding, that "he was afraid the scheme would produce much +disappointment to the public, and a great loss to the nation." _The +Marquis of Clanricarde_ gave a very qualified and hesitating adhesion +to the bill. Lord Stanley of Alderley satisfactorily replied to the +arguments that had been adduced, and the bill was then referred to a +Committee of the whole House. + +On the 25th of April the bill passed the Committee. Four days +afterwards, Lord Monteagle again opposed it, saying that he saw, "with +great alarm and regret," what seemed to him to be meant to produce a +break-up of existing Savings Banks, and the substitution of the action +of a salaried Government department for what he might call a great +public charity, directed by benevolent persons acting gratuitously in +their own neighbourhood. He went over the ground he had taken only a +few days before, but in a spirit very much more subdued and less +confident; and when the bill passed, he entered a long and laboured +"protest" against it (_vide_ _Hansard_, vol. clxii. page 1213, where +many more of Lord Monteagle's "protests" may be found). The Post +Office Savings Bank Act, which we give _in extenso_,[176] received the +Royal Assent on the 17th of May, 1861. + + + [152] From this statement the ten or twelve principal banks in the + country, many of which are open every day, and all in a + flourishing financial condition, are of course excepted. + + [153] _Tracts on Poor Laws and Pauper Management_, included in the + _Works of Jeremy Bentham_, edited by Sir John Bowring, vol. viii. + edit. 1843, page 408. The punctuation and the italics of the above + extract are Bentham's own. + + [154] A little _Handy Book_ on the subject, published in 1861, by + Mr. H. Riseborough Sharman, one of the Editors of the _Insurance + Gazette_, and which deservedly had a large sale, went over very + ably, though in a way which produced considerable acrimony from + some portion of the public press, some of this ground. Though it + is open to question whether at so early a date it was not + premature, and, whether in the peculiar form of a manual for + intending depositors, it was wise to enter upon a discussion of + these points, it is certain that by means of this pamphlet and + other advocacy, Mr. Sharman laboured very hard and very zealously + to prepare the public mind for the adoption of the scheme of + Postal Banks, and to spread a knowledge of their benefits after + the measure had become law. + + [155] _Duties of the Public with respect to Charitable Savings + Banks._ Dublin 1852. + + [156] _On the present State of the Savings Bank Question._ Dublin, + 1855. + + [157] Mr. Sharman's _Handy Book_, p. 10, 2d edit. + + [158] Mr. Sharman's _Handy Book_, p. 11, 2d edit. + + [159] It is pretty generally known, that no profit whatever + accrues to the Post Office on orders for which threepence only is + charged; yet in spite, as it were, of this fact, we find that Mr. + Scratchley, in his _Practical Treatise_, takes up Mr. Ayrton's + proposals, and "recommends" that "Money Order officials receive + deposits on behalf of the nearest Savings Bank," and "that this + should be done at a cost to the depositor of one penny for any sum + not exceeding 5_l._" "It is also," adds Mr. Scratchley, "very + desirable that the valuable privilege of freedom from postage + recommended by Mr. Whitbread should be granted for the books and + documents required to be transmitted on behalf of Savings Banks." + Mr. Whitbread, it will remembered, made this one of the conditions + of his scheme of National Banks; and it is quite evident that none + but National institutions could obtain such a provision. "The + valuable privilege of freedom from postage," would, we should + think, be considered very desirable by a variety of different + societies and interests, if only they could obtain it! + + [160] The following were the details of the reverend gentleman's + scheme, of the authenticity of which we have fully convinced + ourselves:-- + + 1. That deposits from 1_s._ to 10_l._ be received + daily at every Post Office in the United Kingdom + at which Post Office Orders are now issued, and + the amount forwarded _daily_ to the National + Savings Bank, London. + + 2. That the Postmaster, upon receiving a deposit, do + issue a document of acknowledgment to the + depositor, with printed instructions attached + thereto, directing the depositor to write to the + London office, if a receipt be not received by + him through the Post from the London office + within ---- days. + + The following advantages would follow:-- + + 1. _Universality of operation_, by which the Savings + Bank system would be forthwith placed within the + reach of every member of the community. + + 2. _Cheapness of management._--All rents for offices, + and annual salaries to clerks, avoided. + Postmasters who are now enabled to issue Post + Office Orders, are already admitted to have + character sufficient to be entrusted with the + receipt of money, which by this system would + never exceed one day's deposits. + + 3. The only expenses of management would be, (1) the + London office, which ought to be as near the + General Post Office as possible; and (2) some + small payment to Postmasters upon each deposit. In + large towns, it may in time be necessary to employ + an additional clerk in the Post Office, but in + these cases the payment on each deposit would + suffice to enable the Postmaster to keep such + clerk. + + 4. It would not interfere with the existing Savings + Banks,--leaving it to the public to adopt either + the old or the new system as they please. By this + means the old system would probably be superseded + by slow degrees, and without hardship or + inconvenience to any one. + GEO. HANS HAMILTON. + + [161] Like Mr. Hamilton, Mr. Bullar has subsequently proposed a + plan for giving increased facilities in one direction to + depositors, which will be referred to at the proper place. + + [162] _Letter to the Chancellor of the Exchequer_, 1859. + + [163] Mr. Rowland Hill to Mr. Baines, M.P., 2d August, 1859. + + "MY DEAR SIR,--With modifications which could readily be + introduced, Mr. Sikes's plan is, in my opinion, practicable + so far as the Post Office is concerned. + + "The plan also appears to me to be practicable in its other + parts; but on these I would suggest the expediency of taking + the opinion of some one thoroughly conversant with ordinary + banking business, and who is acquainted also with Savings + Banks. + + "I need not add, that if carried into effect, the plan would + in my opinion prove highly useful to the public, and in some + degree advantageous to the revenue. + + "I shall be most happy, when the time arrives for doing so, + to submit it for the approval of the Postmaster-General. + + "Faithfully yours, + "ROWLAND HILL." + + [164] Mr. Gladstone to Mr. Sikes, 30th November, 1859. + + "DEAR SIR,--I have read with much interest your tract on Post + Office Savings Banks, and have discussed the subject with Sir + A. Spearman, who has also had some communication with the + Post Office authorities. + + "The difficulties are very serious, chiefly in connexion with + the question of interest and the mode of account for it. + + "At the same time there is so much of promise in the plan on + the face of it, that we are unwilling to let it drop without + a most careful examination. + + "If you are likely to be in London, or were disposed to come + hither, personal communication on details might be of + advantage. Sir A. Spearman would be most ready to see you for + the purpose of entering into them fully, and I should be very + desirous myself to give any aid in my power at the proper + time." + + [165] "The Council of the Statistical Society of Dublin having had + under their consideration the plan of Post Office Savings Banks + proposed by Mr. C. W. Sikes of Huddersfield, desire to record + their entire approval of the principles of his plan, and consider + it to be specially applicable to Ireland, where a well-founded + feeling of distrust in Savings Banks as now constituted has been + produced by its being demonstrated that the depositors have not + Government security for their money. That the Council believe that + Post Office Savings Banks with perfect Government security would + be very successful in Ireland, and could be readily managed with a + central Savings Bank in Dublin, as Government Stock is + transferable in the Bank of Ireland. That the Council direct the + Secretary to bring these resolutions under the consideration of + the Chief Secretary for Ireland, with a view to their being + transmitted by him to the Chancellor of the Exchequer. By order, + + "W. NEILSON HANCOCK." + + At the same meeting the Council elected Mr. Sikes a Corresponding + Member of the Society. + + [166] Forms for doing so were immediately afterwards provided. + + [167] Such, for example, as the extraordinary facilities now + enjoyed for the depositing and withdrawal of money--of which we + shall speak in the proper place. Suffice it to say here, that + these facilities had never been dreamt of for a moment outside the + Post Office; that they were such facilities as no agency but the + post-office ever attempted to give, and, more than that, could not + possibly have given. + + [168] His speech on the occasion has not been reported _verbatim_, + or we would never have ventured to have given it in the third + person. + + [169] _Hansard_, vol. clxi. p. 262; and _Times_ newspaper, 1861. + + [170] _Hansard_, vol. clxi. p. 2190; and _Times_, 1861. + + [171] That this was the case appears further from the circular + which Mr. Sikes addressed to every member of the House before the + second reading, in which he expressed his cordial approval of the + bill, and craved the support of members in carrying it through + Parliament. + + [172] _Hansard_, vol. clxii. 1861. + + [173] _Hansard_, vol. clxii. p. 880; and _Times_, April 23, 1861. + + [174] The phrase "working classes," applied to the industrial + population, seems as inaccurate as the phrase "lower orders," + applied generally fifty years ago, is obnoxious. The distinction + does not lie in this class being "working" while others are "idle" + people. Something very different indeed is the fact. The tendency + of late years has been that professional people should work + harder, and "working" people less, and very few men who live by + their profession work fewer hours than the handicraftsmen of our + towns. Lord Stanley might have gone even further in his comments + on the earnings of the industrial classes. Even putting aside the + important consideration of how much the professional man spends of + time and money in preparing himself to work at all, a great and + ever increasing number of the wage-receiving class have now as + good incomes as many hundreds of the less successful classes above + them, while their expected or necessary expenditure is in almost + all cases very much smaller. + + [175] News of this able nobleman's death has just reached us; but, + though bearing in mind the spirit of the well-known maxim, we see + no reason to alter our text. + + [176] See Appendix (F.) + + + + + CHAPTER IX. + + ON THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE POST OFFICE SAVINGS BANK SYSTEM. + + "Should the Post Office Savings Bank bill become law, and + should it also answer, we shall then possess an + institution the convenience and value of which it will be + impossible to over-estimate, and this author will deserve + the thanks of the country. The country will recognise at + once the universal boon of a bank maintained at the public + expense, secured by the public responsibility, with the + whole empire for its capital, with a branch in every town, + open at almost all hours, and, more than all, giving a + fair amount of interest."--_Times_, March 20, 1861. + + "I have been asked," says Mr. Edwin Chadwick, "by several + M.P.'s and others, what I thought of Post Office Savings + Banks. I have answered them, that I know no measure of + late years affecting the condition of the working and the + lower middle classes which appeared to me so excellent in + principle. I am disposed to say, as Sir Robert Peel said + with reference to the Encumbered Estates Act, that it is + 'so thoroughly good a measure, he wondered how ever it + passed.'" + + +We have already seen that the Post Office Savings Bank bill was +rapidly and successfully passed through Parliament, and _did_ become +the law of the land. The Act "to grant additional facilities for the +depositing small savings at interest with the security of Government +for the due repayment thereof," received the Royal Assent on the 17th +of May, 1861. The author of the bill has the best claims on the thanks +and gratitude of the country. The press and the people of this land +have, almost with one accord, been loud in their praise; and the +three-quarters of a million of depositors, most of them attracted to +saving habits by the facilities he then for the first time offered +them, joined in silent thanks. The scheme for working this measure, +organized in the Post Office after repeated requests from Mr. +Gladstone, accomplished to a great extent under his oversight, and +then carried through Parliament by his administrative ability and +convincing eloquence, will ever cause his name to be most prominently +associated with the new system; and among the many triumphs of his +skill, this one will stand out with distinct prominence on the page of +history. + +The Post Office Savings Banks have not only "answered," to use the +phraseology of the "leading journal," but they have attained a marked +position, and have been, in every respect, an eminent success. Not +nearly so much, however, with regard to their present condition, as to +their manifest and inevitable destiny in the future, the Postal Banks +are entitled to a high place amongst the social institutions of the +country. In every department of labour, the new banks have become, and +must yet become to a far greater extent, most effective agents in the +social and moral improvement of the people, and will give tenfold +effect to the endeavours which have been made, in so many directions, +to better the condition of the masses. Next, perhaps, to the repeal of +the Corn Laws, this is the greatest boon ever conferred on the working +classes of this country; and next to the scheme of Penny Postage +itself, the scheme of Post Office Banks is the greatest and most +important work ever undertaken by the Government for the benefit of +the nation. Whatever differences of opinion may exist as to the claims +of the present Ministry to public gratitude, there can, we should +imagine, be but one opinion now as to the vast advantages conferred +upon the bulk of the people by the measure of 1861. + +The success of the Post Office Banks has been of the most complete +kind. Whether we consider, as we shall now proceed to do in proper +order, the amount of the business done; the nature of the business +done; the influence of these banks on the provident habits of the +community; the results upon those small banks which more especially +have partaken of the character of eleemosynary institutions; and the +manner in which the business of the Postal Banks has been organized +and performed, the scheme has far more than realized the anticipations +under which it came into existence. + +_As to the Amount of Business done._ The interval between the passing +of the Act and the 16th of September, 1861, was occupied, it appears, +in completing the arrangements for the conduct of the measure, +including the appointment of Mr. Chetwynd to control the scheme he had +originated, and a staff of superior and subordinate officers with +which to begin the business; and on that date operations were +commenced by the opening, in England and Wales, of 301 Money Order +Offices as Savings Banks. The grounds upon which the first places were +chosen were unquestionably the best that could have been adopted to +test the feeling of the country with regard to the scheme itself. They +were, (1) Avoidance of all collision with existing banks which +supplied a fair amount of accommodation; (2) The selection of +important and thickly-populated districts, making that selection +embrace the widest possible area, and leaving no inconsiderable tract +of country without the required accommodation; (3) To meet the wishes +of the public, so far as these wishes were indicated by memorials or +requisitions to the authorities; and (4) To take care that the +postmasters of selected places were trustworthy, and capable of +transacting the business efficiently. Had the scheme failed under such +conditions as thus seem to have been imposed, little hope could have +been held out that it would ever have been successful: as it happened, +however, the banks were found at once to supply a great public want. +The authorities seem to have been so far encouraged, that in six weeks +an enormous addition was made to the number of banks. 254 were opened +in the month of October following, 338 in November, and 784 in +December, making the entire number of 1,629 new banks open to the +public at the end of the year. + +On the 3rd of February, 1862, the benefits of the measure were +extended to Ireland, by the opening of 300 banks; on the 17th of the +same month, 299 banks were opened in Scotland; and by the end of six +months from the original commencement of the plan, there were in the +United Kingdom no fewer than 2,532 Post Office Banks in existence. 400 +additional banks were opened in 1863; and at the end of 1864 the total +number of banks was increased to 3,219. Up to the present time (March, +1866), the number of Post Office Banks is 3,369, of which, + + 2,469 are in England and Wales, + 525 are in Ireland, and + 375 are in Scotland. + +There is now a Government Savings Bank not only in every town in the +United Kingdom, but in every large village;[177] and over and above +this already ubiquitous and comprehensive arrangement, the large towns +of the country have each a number of new depositories for savings +proportionate to their size and population. Thus, in the metropolis, +at the present moment of writing (April, 1866), there have been +provided the extraordinary number of 452 Post Office Banks; in +Manchester, there are 26; in Liverpool, 25; in Birmingham, 22; in +Edinburgh, 18; in Glasgow, 18; in Dublin, 15. + +In the three months of 1861 during which the 1,600 banks were in +operation for portions of the period, 25,729 persons opened accounts +with them, and deposited money to the extent of 167,530_l._ in +deposits of the average amount of 3_l._ 11_s._ 10_d._ At the end of +the next year (1862) 180,199 persons had opened accounts in these +banks, depositing 1,947,139_l._, and withdrawing less than a quarter +of that sum. Year by year, up to the present time, as appears by the +accompanying table, the increase of deposits, and the increasing +number of new accounts, are far more than proportionate to the +increase of facilities; and, as showing the firmer hold that these +banks have taken on the community, this fact is most satisfactory and +gratifying. Equally so, and a most convincing proof of their success, +is the account of the total amount of business shown to have been +transacted up to the 31st of December last. Up to that date these +banks have received from no less than 857,701 depositors, in 3,895,135 +deposits, a sum of money amounting to 11,834,896_l._;[178] the +withdrawals during the same period of four years numbering 1,011,379, +and amounting to 5,619,251_l._ There were in December last, 611,819 +open accounts, the amount standing to the credit of these accounts +being 6,526,400_l._ + + TABLE showing the Amount and Nature of the Business done in the POST + OFFICE SAVINGS BANKS from their opening in September, 1861, to + December, 1865. + + Table column headings: + Col. A: Date. + Col. B: Number of Deposits. + Col. C: Amount of Deposits. + Col. D: Average amount of each Deposit during the period. + Col. E: Number of Withdrawals. + Col. F: Amount of Withdrawal. + Col. G: Average amount standing to the credit of each Account. + + +---------+---------+----------+--------+---------+---------+---------+ + | A | B | C | D | E | F | G | + +---------+---------+----------+--------+---------+---------+---------+ + | | £ | £ |£ s. d. | | £ | £ s. d. | + |From 16 }| | | | | | | + |Sept. to}| 46,643| 167,530|3 11 10 | 1,702| 6,759| 6 9 9 | + |31 Dec. }| | | | | | | + |1861. }| | | | | | | + |Year 1862| 592,573| 1,947,139|3 5 9 | 95,592| 431,878| 9 10 3 | + |Year 1863| 842,848| 2,651,209|3 2 11 | 197,431|1,027,154|10 11 4 | + |Year 1864|1,110,762| 3,350,000|3 0 3 | 309,242|1,834,849|10 12 1 | + |Year 1865|1,302,309| 3,719,018|2 17 1 | 407,412|2,318,611|10 13 4 | + +---------+---------+----------+--------+---------+---------+---------+ + |Total |3,895,135|11,834,896|3 0 9 |1,011,379|5,619,251| 9 11 4 | + +---------+---------+----------+--------+---------+---------+---------+ + +In the ten years ending November, 1861, the annual average increase in +the total number of Savings Bank depositors was at the rate of 3-4/5 +per cent. In one year from this date the increase in the number of +depositors--taking the depositors of the old banks and the Post Office +Banks together--was at the rate of 6-3/4 per cent. That this increase +was altogether owing to the introduction of the new system, scarcely +requires proof: a few of the old Savings Banks, Edinburgh, Glasgow, +Liverpool, and Birmingham for example, increased their business during +1862; but the aggregate of the old Savings Banks lost more business +than the few gained. Again, in all cases, the gain of the Post Office +Banks was far greater than the loss of the old banks.[179] Throughout +the entire kingdom the old banks lost 55,000, and the Post Office +Banks gained 160,000 depositors. + +The rate of increase shown in the first year has been continued with +inconsiderable variations up to the present time, and, in his last +_Report_, the Postmaster-General, in view of all the facts of the +case, states: "On the whole, it seems reasonable to expect that the +annual increase in the business of the Post Office Banks will for some +time be from 130,000 to 140,000 in the number of depositors, and from +1,400,000_l._ to 1,500,000_l._ in the capital of depositors."[180] The +correctness of these calculations will not depend to any appreciable +extent on the increase of facilities, such as the opening of new +banks: the Post Office Banks have already been so widely established +that little additional accommodation will be required for some time to +come. It is made to depend, we should imagine, on the principles of +Post Office Banks becoming more and more widely known, and their +facilities more and more appreciated. This has clearly been the +experience of the last two years. In 1864, 161 new banks were opened, +and the increase of depositors was at the rate of 42 per cent.; in +1865, only 73 new banks were opened, and yet the increase in the +number of depositors was at the rate of 40 per cent. + +_As to the Nature of the business done._ Some idea of the nature of +the increased business done may be gathered in several ways. First and +foremost the number of Post Office Savings Bank depositors represents +an enormous number of accessions to the list of frugal people who have +perhaps for the first time begun to save, and of those who, more +prudent and less confiding in their fellows, seek the security of the +State for the safe custody and prompt repayment of their savings. It +is a somewhat remarkable fact, that of the total amount which had up +to the end of last year been deposited in Post Office Banks, not much +more than a million and a half (allowing for money transferred +otherwise than by means of the regular transfer certificate) had been +withdrawn from the old Savings Banks. Moreover, out of this large sum +more than half seems to have come to the Post Office Banks through the +voluntary closing of Savings Banks on the old principle,--the +Birmingham Savings Bank contributing a third of the whole amount. + +From these facts, it seems quite clear that the business acquired by +the Post Office Banks, at any rate up to this time, is almost entirely +newly-created business, and that the older Savings Banks have only +been interfered with to a trifling extent. Besides the amount already +referred to, other sums might undoubtedly have been placed with the +older institutions, had there been no competition; but by far the +greatest proportion is plainly derived from sources hitherto +unreached, and consists of money which no amount of persuasion could +divert from the hundred forms of indulgence to the older channels of +economic hoarding. + +The Post Office Banks, further, seem not only to have attracted a +public of their own, but to have created, as it were, a fresh race of +provident people. All kinds of Savings Banks have been established to +give, in some form or other, facilities for the deposit of _small_ +savings. When the new banks commenced, the average amount of a single +deposit in the existing banks was, and had been for some time, 4_l._ +6_s._ 5_d._; during the first year of the existence of the Post Office +Banks, the average amount was only 3_l._ 1_s._ 9_d._ But this average +has been still further reduced. The Post Office authorities, +describing more recent operations,[181] state, that as the nature and +advantages of these banks became known to the poorer classes, and as +new banks were opened from time to time in rural districts, and +densely populated portions of our large towns inhabited by those +classes, a gradual reduction in the average amount of each deposit has +taken place, and that that amount has for some time ranged between +2_l._ and 3_l._, whilst the average amount of each sum deposited in +the old Savings Banks has not undergone any marked alteration. The +conclusion which has been arrived at is the only one possible, viz., +either that the Post Office Banks have reached a poorer class of +depositors than the old banks have been able to attract, or that in +increasing so many fold, as we shall have to describe, the facilities +for the more frequent deposit of small sums, they have at the same +time, and proportionately, increased the inducements to frugality, and +removed the temptations to wastefulness. + +Still dealing with the peculiar nature of the new business, it is very +important that one fact should not be lost sight of. In our opinion, +it completes the evidence as to further accommodation being urgently +required by the poorer classes. In those towns and districts which +before 1861 were considered to be well supplied with sufficient and +well-managed institutions, the success of the Post Office Banks has +been most marked. Thus in Edinburgh, the rate of increase in the +number of depositors rose in one year from 3-1/2 to 5-3/4 per cent.; +in Dublin, from 4-1/2 to 7 per cent.; whilst in the county of +Middlesex, where, before the Post Office Banks were established, there +were "forty-one prosperous and excellently managed banks, which seemed +to hold out all needful inducements to prudence and frugality," no +less than 30,000 persons were added to the roll of Savings Bank +depositors in the year following the introduction of the new banks +into that county. The rate of increase before 1861 was 2-1/2 per +cent.; in 1861 and 1862, it was at the rate of 10 per cent. + +The average amount standing to the credit of each depositor in the +Post Office Banks has for some time ranged between 10_l._ and 11_l._, +and is not expected to exceed that sum for some time to come. Of the +whole number of depositors, about four per cent. have balances due to +them of 50_l._ and upwards. A general idea of the mass of depositors +may be gathered from the above facts, and they may be supplemented by +the following table, which, though only the result of an estimate, is +near enough for our purpose. In March, 1865, a certain proportion of +the open accounts in the Post Office Banks was examined, in order that +some idea might be obtained of the occupation of the entire +number,--from which it seemed probable that the 524,340 depositors +were made up pretty much as follows:-- + + Females, Male Minors, and Trustees 285,769 + Mechanics and Artisans, Domestic and Farm + Servants, Porters, Policemen, Labourers, + Boatmen, Fishermen and Seamen 140,518 + Tradesmen and their Male Assistants, Farmers + and Clerks of all kinds except those + mentioned below 53,756 + Males of no stated occupation, Professional Men + and their Clerks or Assistants 31,353 + Males engaged in education 5,692 + Persons in the Army and Navy 4,682 + Persons employed in the Revenue Departments 2,570 + ------- + Total 524,340 + ------- + +Of the entire number of Post Office Savings Banks, ninety-one out of +the 3,369 have failed to obtain depositors. Of this number, + + 23 are in England and Wales, + 5 are in Scotland, and + 63 are in Ireland. + +It is impossible satisfactorily to account for the failure in so many +cases, or, in the absence of information as to the particular +localities to which facilities have been offered in vain, to say +whether there may not be some special reasons, other than +indisposition to save, which may have operated against the transaction +of business. Among the great number of banks established in England, +there must unquestionably be some poor and sparsely populated +districts to which they have penetrated; whilst in Ireland, which +contributes nearly three-fourths of the non-effective banks, these +districts must be still more numerous, and the population still less +able to save. Add to this, the fact that in more than one large +district in the sister country the grievous frauds in the old class of +banks have left an indelible impression on the minds of the +people,--if they have not, as one authority states, destroyed all +thoughts of provident habits,--and that this impression is not likely +to be effaced in the chronic agitation which has for so long prevailed +in Ireland, and the only wonder is, that more of its 525 Post Office +Banks are not non-effective. + + * * * * * + +_As to the Results of the New Banks on the Old ones._ Before the Post +Office Banks were established, 638 ordinary Savings Banks were open in +the United Kingdom for the receipt of small savings. Of their +distribution throughout the country and the accommodation which they +gave, including the number of hours the bulk of them were open, we +have already spoken in a previous chapter. The Post Office Banks were +no sooner established and business fairly commenced than two very +important results followed in banks on the old establishment. The +first was, that some of the more important Savings Banks increased +their accommodation to the public,--the duration and frequency of the +time allowed for doing business being extended: the second was, that +the trustees of many of the old banks came to the resolution to close +their institutions, on the ground that their time and benevolence were +misspent in competing with the new banks, which enormously increased +the accommodation they had been powerless to afford. + +The best possible test, not only of the influence of the new banks, +but of their marked superiority and adaptability to the wants of the +country, is found in the fact, that since 1861, no Savings Bank on the +old principle has been established. If it be not desirable to +establish new banks, it cannot be a matter of much concern to the +country how soon the _bulk_ of the existing banks on that principle +give up their charitable business. We say bulk advisedly, for many of +these banks do not partake, in the ordinary sense of the word, of the +character of charitable institutions. From a careful and impartial +view of the whole subject, it seems to us, that no measure short of +the abolition of the Post Office Banks can keep alive those of the old +Savings Banks which cannot compete with the former in the quality and +the amount of their accommodation. On the other hand, no one who has +at heart the interests of those classes which Savings Banks seek to +benefit would wish to see the existence of any institution shortened, +which, while profitably ministering to a great public want, is neither +subsidized by the State, nor conducted so as to leave an impression on +the depositor's mind that it is charitably ministering to his +necessities. Those which cannot give the necessary facilities, must +succumb sooner or later; those which answer to the latter +requirements, may still have a long course of honour and usefulness +before them. Before 1861, there might be no option or alternative to +the existing order of things; the institution of Post Office Banks has +supplied both. + +Twelve months after the organization of the Post Office Banks the +trustees of thirty-five of the old Savings Banks had closed their +banks. Up to the present period (March, 1866), sixty additional banks +have followed the example thus set them; this making a total +of--exclusive of Penny Banks--ninety-five banks which have transferred +their business to the Post Office. The least important of these +institutions was that of Dumbarton, established in 1846, and which had +but 83_l._ of capital. The most important bank on the list is +Birmingham, originally established in 1827, and which had, on the 20th +of November preceding the date of closing, a capital of 583,461_l._ +The fact of the Birmingham Savings Bank coming over, formed the one +necessary assurance that the new system had obtained, not only the +confidence of the country, but the tacit acquiescence of those who +managed large businesses of the same nature. It was very properly +argued at the time, that if a majority of such trustees as those of +Birmingham could come to the conclusion to hand over their +well-managed and flourishing bank to the Government, any bank might do +so.[182] + +The following Return, which has been carefully compiled, is of +sufficient interest and importance to occupy the prominent place we +assign it.[183] + + RETURN containing the Names of SAVINGS BANKS CLOSED during + the years 1861 to 1865 inclusive, together with the Date + of Establishment, the Number of Hours open per Week, and + the Capital on the 20th November preceding the date of + closing of each Bank. + + +------------------+----------+-------------+-----------+-----------------+ + | | | Number | Capital on| | + | | Date of | of Hours | 20th Nov. | | + | Name of Bank. |Establish-| open per | preceding | Remarks. | + | | ment. | Week. |the date of| | + | | | | closing. | | + +------------------+----------+-------------+-----------+-----------------+ + | _England._ | | | £ | | + |Ambleside | 1857 | 1 | 2,503 | | + |Andover | 1827 | 2 | 4,121 | | + |Baldock | 1816 | 4 | 17,573 | | + |Bermondsey | 1856 | 1 | 3,131 | | + |Biggleswade | 1816 | 7 | 10,496 | | + |Billericay | 1860 | 1 | 2,290 | | + |Birmingham | 1827 | 12 | 583,461 |This Bank ranked | + |Bishop's Castle | 1861 | 1 | 1,988 | fifth or sixth | + |Blackpool | 1859 | 1 | 2,197 | in the Empire. | + |Bodmin | 1839 | 2-1/2 | 54,638 | | + |Bowdon/Altrincham | 1823 | 4 | 49,183 | | + |Braintree | 1859 | 1 | 7,510 | | + |Brixton | 1860 | 1-1/2 | 2,300 | | + |Bromley | 1816 | 2 to 3 | 22,496 | | + |Buntingford | 1845 | 2 monthly | 5,127 | | + |Burford | 1826 | 1 | 11,100 | | + |Canterbury | 1816 | 8 | 149,572 |Closed on account| + |Carshalton | 1817 | 1-1/2 | 11,198 | of the fraud | + |Chesham | 1854 | 1 | 3,379 | previously | + |Cheshunt | 1850 | 2 | 1,535 | spoken of. | + |Chipping Norton | 1860 | 5 | 5,694 |20 Nov. 1863. | + |Chipping Ongar | 1858 |2 fortnightly| 3,476 | | + |Clapham | 1816 | 1 to 2 | 28,411 | | + |Clayton West | 1861 | 1 | 494 | | + |Cleobury Mortimer | 1859 | 1 | 2,580 | | + |Coddenham | 1818 | 4 | 15,729 | | + |Covent Garden | 1816 | 2 | 18,125 | | + |Cuckfield | 1836 | 1 | 7,191 | | + |Dartford | 1816 | 2 | 26,549 | | + |Deptford | 1816 | 2 | 30,712 | | + |East Dereham | 1854 | 1 | 8,840 | | + |Enfield | 1839 | 1 | 132 | | + |Epping | 1817 | 3 monthly | 16,023 | | + |Evesham | 1839 | 2 | 24,516 | | + |Finchley | 1859 | 3 | 1,428 | | + |Fleetwood | 1852 | 1 | 5,033 | | + |Halstead | 1816 | 1 | 20,742 | | + |Hartlepool | 1844 | 2 | 6,617 | | + |Holloway | 1856 | 1-1/2 | 10,632 | | + |Holt | 1861 | 1 | 1,448 | | + |Hornsey | 1819 | 1 | 101 | | + |Hoxton | 1843 | 8 | 494 |This was the | + | [184] | | | | first Bank | + |Kirby Stephen | 1846 | 1 | 6,957 | which | + |Leatherhead | 1860 | 1 | 592 | transferred its| + |Lechlade | 1844 | 1 | 4,636 | business to the| + |Lutterworth | 1822 | 6 | 36,332 | Post Office. | + |Lymington | 1818 | 2 | 1,394 | | + |Mansfield | 1818 | 5 | 64,671 | | + |Market Harboro' | 1838 | 1 | 24,659 | | + |Melbourne | 1855 | 1 | 2,552 | | + |Old Kent Road | 1859 | 2 | 3,538 | | + |Over Darwen | 1860 | 2 | 1,071 | | + |Pimlico | 1860 | 5 | 1,900 | | + |Poulton-le-Fylde | 1822 | 1 | 30,822 | | + |Rawtenstall | 1836 | 2 | 240 | | + |Rochford | 1818 | 2 | 9,887 | | + |Romsey, New Hall | 1859 | 1 | 408 | | + |Rugby | 1818 | 2 | 46,839 | | + |Saddleworth | 1824 | 4 | 6,601 | | + |St. Alban's | 1859 | 1 | 4,140 | | + |Sedbergh | 1859 | 3 monthly | 856 | | + |Sheerness | 1818 | 1 | 4,128 | | + |Shiffnal | 1819 | 11 monthly | 15,851 | | + |Southwold | 1858 | 2 monthly | 1,248 | | + |Stavely | 1854 | 1 | 1,457 | | + |Tredegar | 1855 | 2 | 1,726 | | + |Wallasey | 1843 | 1 | 3,229 | | + |Walsall | 1825 | 2 | 48,492 | | + |Wandsworth | 1816 | 1 | 1,269 | | + |Watford | 1817 |4 fortnightly| 38,968 | | + |West Bromwich | 1846 | 7 | 27,491 | | + |West Ham | 1819 | 2 | 17,739 | | + |Weston-super-Mare | 1830 | 3-1/2 | 3,644 | | + | | | | | | + | _Wales._ | | | | | + |Bala | 1849 | 1 | 14,386 | | + |Carnarvon | 1854 | 2 | 159 | | + |Dolgelley | 1819 | 36 to 48 | 30,291 | | + |Llangollen | 1852 | 6 monthly | 3,841 | | + |Machynlleth | 1834 | 36 | 10,166 | | + |Merthyr Tydvil | 1853 | 2 | 3,745 | | + |Narberth | 1857 | 2 | 2,242 | | + |Newtown | 1856 | 1 | 2,960 | | + |Portmadoc | 1846 | 11 | 2,732 | | + | | | | | | + | _Scotland._ | | | | | + |Dumbarton | 1846 | 10 | 83 | | + |Fort William | 1859 | 6 | 2,023 | | + |Glencoe | 1859 | 2 | 396 | | + |Leith | | | 195 |Date and hours | + |Oban | 1840 | 12 | 106 | not given in | + |Stranraer | 1860 | 4 | 1,533 | Return for | + | | | | | 1861. | + | _Ireland._ | | | | | + |Ballymena | 1860 | 2 | 1,455 | | + |Bray | 1819 | 2 | 4,512 | | + |Carndonagh | 1860 | 4 | 906 | | + |Gorey | 1822 | 1 | 2,550 | | + |Lisburn | 1838 | 2 | 2,674 | | + |Strabane | 1821 | 2 | 16,081 | | + +------------------+----------+-------------+-----------+-----------------+ + +It ought to be stated that the Act of 1863, for amending the Post +Office Savings Bank bill, offered considerable inducements to the +winding up of the then existing banks. Its principal objects were to +relieve those trustees who were desirous to close, from liability with +regard to the accounts of depositors who had not applied for repayment +of their money, or for certificates to enable them to transfer their +deposits to Post Office Banks, and also to make the transfer of the +accounts of minors compulsory on the authorities of either class of +banks on the application of the proper parties concerned. More +important than either, however, was an addition made to the bill +before it was allowed to pass. This addition consisted of a clause +empowering the trustees of any old Savings Bank who should desire to +close their bank, to compensate their paid officers out of the +Separate Surplus Fund. This was a welcome and very proper addition to +the bill, and tended materially to mitigate the inconveniences likely +to arise from the officials, perhaps of many years' standing, being +thrown out of employment. The Birmingham Bank, when it transferred its +business, took advantage of this clause to compensate its officers +accordingly; and this course has subsequently been followed by other +banks. + + * * * * * + +We have left ourselves little space to describe what remains to be +told of _the manner in which the business has been organized and +performed_. Happily, however, those parts of the system with which the +public have more especially to do, have not wanted numerous and +faithful exponents; by means of the newspaper press, shoals of +official and non-official tractates, handy-books, magazine articles, +and public lectures, the public have been made fully aware of all the +practical details of a scheme which is at once so simple and so +satisfactory in its working, and which is at the same time as capable +of indefinite expansion as it is of infinite power for good. It is +indispensable, notwithstanding that these details are now so well +known,[185] that we should rapidly glance at _some_ of them, prior to +speaking of the special advantages which these arrangements have made +possible. + +_With regard to Depositing Money._ By the Post Office Savings Bank +bill any person who will subscribe the requisite declaration that he +is not a depositor in any other Savings Bank may now, on every working +day of from six to ten hours' duration, deposit any sum not less than +one shilling, and not more than 30_l._ in one year, in any of the +3,300 places in the United Kingdom where the Post Office has been +opened as a Savings Bank; also, that for every pound so deposited for +a month or more, interest at the rate of 2_l._ 10_s._ per cent. per +annum shall be paid, and that while the money remains in the hands of +the Post Office the credit of the British Government shall be staked +for its due repayment when asked for. + +Any person wishing to become a depositor in a Post Office Bank has +only to go to that Money Order Office which is most convenient to him, +subscribe the statutory declaration, and pay in to the postmaster or +receiver the amount he wishes to deposit, and a bank book will be +handed to him, properly numbered, and on which his name, address, and +occupation will be written. The amount handed to the postmaster will +be found entered as a first deposit in the proper column of the book, +and this entry will be attested by the signature of the postmaster, +and stamped with the official stamp of his office. From the moment the +depositor gets his book handed to him he possesses, for all practical +purposes, a sufficient guarantee for the absolute safety of his money. + +This is, however, not the only security he has; and to explain the +further process it is necessary to follow the money after it leaves +the depositor's hands. The postmaster before giving up the book is +required to enter the full particulars of the transaction in a single +line on a Form of daily Savings Bank account supplied to him for the +purpose. At the close of each day the local postmaster adds up the +total amount received by him during that day on Savings Bank account, +and, adding that sum to the account of Money Orders issued during the +same day, sends the entire account to the chief Money Order Office in +London. On its arrival at this office the account undergoes a primary +check, and is then sent to the Savings Bank department, where it is +thoroughly examined in all its details. In the first place, an +acknowledgment is filled up and addressed[186] to every depositor +named in the account. The account is then sent to the ledger branch, +where its particulars are copied into the books of the department; and +subsequently, but on the same day, to ensure accuracy and afford a +check, each acknowledgment is compared by different officers with the +entries made in the ledgers, and then despatched by the same night's +post to the address furnished by the depositor.[187] + +The receipt of this acknowledgment completes the depositor's +parliamentary title to repayment in full of principal and interest. +Should the depositor not receive his acknowledgment within _ten_ days +of making the deposit, application must be made (and it may always be +made free of postage) to the Postmaster-General for it. Experience has +shown that no depositor has been put to the trouble to write _twice_ +for an acknowledgment, and but a very small modicum indeed have +written at all. Practically three days would suffice for the +operations required in England, and four for the greater part of +Ireland and Scotland; but in some few cases the longer period of ten +days is necessary. Were it not for the check, moreover, which the +department thus obtains upon its own officials, and the confidence +which the arrangement gives to depositors, the acknowledgment might +perhaps be dispensed with, inasmuch as the postmaster's entry in the +depositor's book is not bad evidence that the money has reached the +hands of a Government official,--a fact which, if it could not be +disputed, would not, we should imagine, be set aside. + +In every subsequent case where a person adds to his first deposit, +exactly the same routine is followed. He may, however, if he desires +it, or requires it, continue his deposits in another bank from that in +which he originally opened his account; nay, if he chooses, he need +not make two deposits in any one bank, but may take a tour throughout +the country, or, if he lives in London, may go all round the +metropolis to the 450 banks there, and see which he likes best, and no +one will interfere with his freedom of choice. And though a depositor +of this curious description would give additional trouble, the routine +of the work is so simple that he would not embarrass the department in +any way.[188] + +_With regard to Withdrawing Money._ A person having once run up a +score in the Post Office Banks, may withdraw it with great readiness +and with extraordinary and unexampled facilities. A depositor who +requires some, or all, of his money, has only to go to whichever Post +Office Bank he likes best, in whatever part of the country he may +happen to be at the time, and ask for the usual printed Form. He must +fill up this Form with the number of his deposit-book, the name of the +office where he commenced to make his deposits, the amount he wants, +and the place where he wants it paid, and adding his name, address, +and occupation, send the Form (which needs not to be post-paid, is +addressed on the back, and provided with an adhesive seal,) to the +Postmaster-General and wait the result. + +Following the fortunes of this notice, we find that it arrives in +proper course at the chief Savings Bank. The signature attached to it +is there compared with the signature of the original declaration, and +if, on comparison, there be no grounds for suspecting anything amiss, +the notice is sent to the ledger keeper in charge of the account of +the particular depositor. If it be found that he has a proper balance +in the bank to meet his claim upon it, a warrant for payment is at +once prepared. This warrant is an order to the postmaster named to pay +the amount wanted; and after the amount of the warrant has been +entered in the ledger, and checked by a superior officer, who +certifies its correctness, it is at once sent off by post to the +address furnished by the person withdrawing. At the same time, and by +an admirable system of manifold writing,--suggested by Mr. West of the +Mail Office for the use of other branches of the Post Office, and +which has been with great advantage applied to Savings Bank +operations,--the postmaster himself is furnished in fac-simile with a +copy of the warrant sent to him in the nature of an advice. + +When the postmaster is applied to for the money in question he +carefully compares the warrant with the advice to pay, in the same way +as he deals with the familiar money order; he also compares the +signature to the receipt on the warrant with the signature in the +depositor's book; and if he be satisfied with the scrutiny, he pays +the money, entering the transaction in the withdrawal part of the +depositor's book, and signing and stamping the book accordingly.[189] +When the paid warrants are returned to the chief office, and when the +postmaster sends up an account of the day's transactions, the accounts +and entries are checked in the chief Money Order Office and the chief +Savings Bank, in much the same way as described in the case of +deposits; the whole being arranged to provide an admirable system of +check in which two branches of the Post Office,--viz., the chief Money +Order Office and the Receiver and Accountant-General's Office,--as +well as the chief Savings Bank, are immediately concerned.[190] + +When the Post Office Savings Bank bill was introduced into the House +of Commons, the proviso that the scheme to be founded upon it should +be self-supporting, formed an important consideration in the +statements of the Chancellor of the Exchequer, and was strongly urged +by other members. It appears that from the first the operations have +not only been self-supporting, but exhibit each year an additional +amount of assets over liabilities, as the balance-sheet for last year +(given in the Appendix) will show. According to the Parliamentary +Paper No. 523, it was estimated that the cost of each transaction in +the Post Office Banks would be 7_d._; the actual average cost of each +transaction up to the present time has been 6-7/8_d._ We have no +doubt, as bearing on the point of the cost of the Postal Banks, the +following estimate (which, as proved by the actual result, has been so +accurate) will possess an interest to the general reader. It is an +estimate of the cost of One Hundred Thousand transactions under the +Post Office Savings Bank bill, assuming the proportion of deposits to +withdrawals and of transactions to accounts to be the same in the Post +Office Banks as in the existing Savings Banks, when the former shall +be in full operation:-- + + £ s. d. + Estimated cost of receipts and payments by Postmasters 210 0 0 + + Estimated cost of transmission to central office, including + check on receipts and payments, &c. 690 0 0 + + Estimated cost of keeping accounts with depositors, + including calculation and entry of interest, periodical + comparison of depositors' books, check on withdrawals, + preparation of general accounts, stationery, + and other miscellaneous items and general management 1,750 0 0 + ------------ + 2,650 0 0 + To which may be added, 10 per cent. as a margin for + omissions or errors of computation 265 0 0 + ------------- + Total cost of 100,000 transactions £2,915 0 0 + ------------- + +We will now conclude this chapter with a rapid survey of the peculiar +advantages of the system of Post Office Banks, with some remarks on +what may be called the deficiencies of the system. + +The system of Government banks seems exactly to meet the points most +required by those whom the older kind of banks had no power to +attract, as well as of that considerable class who, rather than not +save at all, would save under inconveniences which they were powerless +to remove. For years it was impossible to provide the conditions and +meet the wants of the poor in these respects, but there can be no +doubt that they have now been met. These conditions, these wants, were +absolute and unquestioned security for their money; despatch, both as +to depositing and withdrawing money; and secrecy in the transactions +in which they should engage. + +With regard to _Security_. The Post Office Banks being part of the +machinery of Government itself, offer the highest possible +security,--the whole credit and solvency of the British Government +being guarantee for the perfect safety of the deposits.[191] + +As to _Despatch_. To the poorer classes, as much, and perhaps more +than to any others, time is money. Their time is not their own, and +now a few minutes may be stolen from the dinner-hour, or an +opportunity may be snatched as the labourer passes to and from his +work, to do that which before was no ordinary or agreeable task to +him. The unparalleled convenience which attends the transaction of his +business contributes to this despatch and this saving of his time. +Should misfortune overtake him, he may withdraw the whole of his +deposits within two or three days; should his occupation compel him, +or his tastes incline him, to move frequently about from place to +place, he has only to carry his bank-book about with him, and he may +withdraw sums at his convenience at any Money Order Office in the +kingdom; and thus, though he may have originally deposited his money +at the Land's End, he may draw it out when at John o'Groat's, or in +some remote nook of Ireland. This arrangement is, we understand, taken +advantage of to a large extent. The advantages offered in the quick +withdrawal of money is also a most important feature. Enormous sums of +money are wasted by the poor in borrowing for an emergency; there can +be no doubt that much money has been and is wasted even in waiting +till the time arrives to get the money out of the ordinary Savings +Bank. "If a poor person," says an intelligent writer, "wants 4_l._ +immediately, he would give 25 per cent. for it." Few could lose in +having to wait a couple of days for their money.[192] + +Then as to _secrecy_. None are more jealous of their little savings +being known than the poorer classes: a large number of operatives have +cogent reasons for secrecy, or, at any rate, privacy. Indeed, it seems +to have been agreed upon that, if these classes cannot keep their +savings quiet, many will not save at all. The wage-receiving class are +naturally and properly averse to bringing their savings under the +notice of their masters or their masters' friends. Savings Bank +managers, even when not masters of workmen themselves, are generally +local dignitaries well known to such.[193] In the Postal Banks there +is, or need be, no occasion for particular observation; the officials +are required to conciliate confidence; to observe the strictest +secrecy; and it is our conviction, gathered after no inconsiderable +experience, that nowhere so much as in Government offices is the work +conducted without distinctions of class. + +Next to the advantages of which we have just spoken, is that secured +by the arrangement to undertake the receipt and accumulation of _small +sums_. A working man may now take his shilling to the Savings Bank as +readily as his master may take his pounds, and the former will have no +occasion to feel that he is made the object of a charitable clause. In +seeking to bring a working man to put by a shilling in its bank, the +Government hopes to induce a habit of saving, and may fairly expect to +take his larger sums when saving habits have been induced. Mr. +Gladstone's decision to take sums as low as a shilling was almost +universally accepted as a wise one. Mr. Gladstone had long interested +himself in the condition of the workman, and no one knew better than +he that the labouring classes are not suddenly masters of whole +pounds, and that, when they are in the act of accumulating it, the +temptations to break in upon the little stock laid by are ever +present, and are often too strong to resist. + +So far the principles of this important measure are admirable ones, +scarcely admitting of question, almost beyond criticism: they have +rendered the action of the banks simple, facile, all-comprehensive, +and ubiquitous. The _rate of interest_ given is, however, perhaps on +the border-land, as it were, between unquestionable and questionable +policy. The interest given to depositors in Post Office Banks is at +the rate of two pounds ten shillings per cent. per annum, or one +halfpenny per pound per month. That this rate is satisfactory to a +large section of the people of this country, or that the other +attractions of the Post Office Banks amply counterbalance the +disadvantage of the low rate, is evident from the enormous sum--twelve +millions sterling--deposited in those banks in little more than four +years; at a time, too, when the old Savings Banks, which are enabled +to pay ten shillings per cent. more than the others, have put forth +their best efforts to keep the business in their hands, when all kinds +of allurements have been held out to those who have surplus funds to +dispose of, and when the rate of interest ruling in the Money-market +has been, as it still is, exceptionally high. These facts ought +perhaps to close the case, and make the interest rate, if not one of +the recommendations of the measure, at any rate a part of the scheme +which does not detract from its merits as a whole. As, however, this +is a point upon which some little soreness is felt and expressed in +different quarters, we may be excused for here urging a consideration +or two. + +This soreness has originated, to no little extent, from the +consideration of the inequality of the rate allowed in the ordinary +Savings Banks and the Post Office Banks; this feeling is kept up by +the consideration of the fact, that that inequality still exists and +is likely to exist. The old Savings Banks deposit their funds with +Government, and are allowed interest on their money at the rate of +3_l._ 5_s._ per cent.; the Post Office Banks, of course, deposit their +money with Government, and are allowed interest at the rate of 2_l._ +10_s._ per cent. Out of the fifteen shillings per cent. difference +between the two rates, an average of half of it is given by the old +banks to their depositors. Now it is well known that the average cost +of each transaction in the Post Office Banks is little more than half +the average cost of a transaction in the ordinary Savings Banks. If +Government can still afford to pay the old Savings Banks the higher +rate of interest, it might afford, at the lowest computation, to give +ten shillings per cent. more to depositors in the Post Office Banks. +If Government _cannot_ afford to pay the higher rate, it ought to +discontinue its charity, which, like all other charitable doles, +excites discontent amongst those who think they have, _and really +have_, the right _de facto_, if not _de jure_, to share it. That the +rate should be equalized in one way or the other admits, we think, of +little question; but that the Government should pay no more than it +can pay without loss admits of less. + +Reverting to the consideration of the actual Post Office Bank rate, it +is perhaps unlikely that the small tradesmen class--except where such +persons lodge their money at the Post Office merely for +security--feels satisfied with it. Happily, however, this is a class +which does not need to be considered, and which scarcely will be +considered. The Government offers no factitious allurements or +inducements to any class of the population; and if it did, would be +certain to confine the inducements to those portions of the poorer +classes who stand most in need of encouragement. And as for the rest, +the Post Office Banks do not in any way interfere, as Mr. Gladstone +has recently said, "with the labouring man's liberty of choice, or the +liberty of choice enjoyed by anybody else; if he thinks he can do +better with his money than by carrying it to the Government Savings +Bank, by all means let him do better with it." A low rate of interest +is given for the principal deposited; but then that principal is +guarded with uncommon security, and can be moved, added to, or +withdrawn from, with the greatest possible convenience. And these +terms, theoretically and practically, suit the industrious classes, +whoever else they do not suit. Practically they meet the wants and +satisfy the demands of a large section of depositors, or the banks +would not have shown such an extraordinary amount of success. Nor are +we in want of authorities who assumed, theoretically, that this would +be so. "If Government give security," said a shrewd witness before the +Savings Bank Committee of 1858, "they should pay less interest, on the +principle that Chubb's locks cost more than the ordinary ones." + +Dr. Chalmers took great interest, as our readers must already know, in +Savings Banks. His argument was, that the ready receipt and payment of +small sums together with safe custody was everything, and the rate of +interest quite unimportant; he more than once said, that "the result +of high interest had been to swamp our Savings Banks as a national +system." This question of interest was largely discussed in Mr. +Slaney's Committee of 1850. In that Committee Mr. John Stuart Mill was +asked whether perfect security or a high rate of profit was most +sought after by the industrious classes; to which he replied: "In the +case of the working classes no doubt security is the main object, and +it is so in the case of all whose savings are small." In the same +Committee, Mr. J. M. Ludlow, an eminent barrister, gave it as his +opinion that "the poorer a man is, the more important to him is the +safety of his investment, independently of the question of profits;" +and in answer to a similar question addressed to him, the secretary of +a working man's building society said, that "the certainty of security +is the most powerful inducement to investments among the working +population." + +Thus, while it doubtless admits of question more than the other +details, no serious fault need be found with that clause which +provides the rate of interest to be given. Equalization in the rate of +interest of all Savings Banks connected with the Government is far +more necessary than that the standard of the one should be raised to +the standard of the other. The days have gone by when any dole of +charity should be held out to working men as an inducement to save: it +is more than questionable whether those days should ever have arrived. +The working classes do not want charity at the hands of the public; +they long wanted security and reasonable facilities: and when these +were provided, as they have been, they were willing that the rest +should be left to themselves. All interest given more than the money +actually produces or may fairly earn, is repugnant to them; or if it +is not, it ought to be _made_ repugnant to them. + +The deficiencies, if we may so call them, of the Post Office Savings +Bank system, to which we promised to allude in closing this chapter, +are those features which have been inherited from the parent system, +and consist, of restrictions which, we think, are now as unnecessary +and undesirable as they are hampering and vexatious. By section 14 of +the Post Office Savings Bank bill it was ordered that "All the +provisions of the Acts now in force relating to Savings Banks as to +matters for which no other provision is made by this Act, shall be +deemed applicable to this Act so far as the same are not repugnant +thereto." Under this legislation all the restrictions which were +thought--especially during the earlier history of Savings Banks--to be +necessary to confine these institutions to the poorer classes, have +been continued down to the present time. The principal regulations to +which we refer are, the _Declaration_ which is required from any one +opening an account, and the _limitation of deposits_ to 30_l._ in any +one year, and 150_l._ in all; and that when deposit and interest +together reach 200_l._ all further interest shall cease. The reader +who may have followed us through our account will be aware of the +reasons which actuated the Legislature in making these arrangements.[194] +These reasons do not now obtain. No steps are taken (and we have never +heard that it is intended ever to take such steps) to confine the +benefits of the Post Office Banks to the labouring classes. Why, +therefore, these classes, or any other class allowed to deposit in +these banks, should be restricted to any amount--or, at any rate, such +a small one--it is difficult to understand. To the poor this +restriction forms a barrier to saving habits; with regard to any other +class, the amount might be as unlimited as it is in the Funds. As a +set-off against the unremunerative character, to say the least, of +small deposits, no limit should be placed on large ones. It is +obvious, that the larger the sums invested the greater will be the +success and the profits of the scheme, the more remote will be any +prospect of loss, and the more certain will be the creation of a +permanent marketable stock of Two and a Half Per Cents. + +We are glad to find that this restriction has not escaped the notice +of many who are entitled to be heard on the subject. + +The Rev. G. H. Hamilton, who made, perhaps, the earliest modern +proposals for Post Office Banks, suggested that the limit should be +"from one shilling to ten pounds per day;" and since the passing of +the Act he has made exertions, hitherto without success, to get the +limitation extended to include those sums. Mr. Bullar, also equally +entitled to respectful attention, has likewise made subsequent +proposals having in view, to some extent, the granting of facilities +for investing larger sums. + +It is interesting to find that the Post Office Savings Bank system has +just been introduced into our Australian colonies and not a little +curious and instructive to find that some of the provisions go much +further than we have yet ventured at home. The main feature of the +"Post Office Statute, 1865," is an echo of the English Act, but in +several of its provisions its scope far exceeds the latter in +liberality. No declaration is needed; instead of 30_l._ in any one +year, the colonial depositor in Victoria is only debarred from +exceeding 50_l._ in a fortnight, and the interest given, which is at +the rate of four per cent., is not withheld to any deposited amount +under 1,000_l._ Liberal as are the colonial authorities in Victoria, +those at Queensland far surpass them. In the Post Office Banks at +Queensland there is no limit whatever to the amount which may be +deposited; interest is allowed at the rate of five per cent.; and this +rate of interest is paid on all deposits without limitation of any +sort. Making all due allowances with respect to the relative position +of our colonial possessions at the antipodes and the mother country, +it seems clear that the former have advantages over us in the matter +of their Government Banks, and we commend the example of the Victorian +Legislature to our own, and trust that the only marked defect in our +Act may soon be remedied. + + + [177] Whenever the Post Office of a village or hamlet is advanced + to the dignity of a Money Order Office, it will also be opened for + Savings Bank business. + + [178] Up to the end of February last the total sum reached + exceeded twelve millions sterling,--a sum which it took the + original old banks, with no competition, eight years to realize. + + [179] Thus, as we learn from an authentic account, in Bristol the + old Savings Banks lost 700 and the Post Office Banks gained 2000 + depositors; in Dublin the same relative proportions were 400 loss + and 1,400 gain; in the county of Kent there was a loss on the one + hand of 3,500, and a gain on the other of 9,300 depositors; in + Middlesex, the old banks lost 12,000, and the Post Office Banks + gained 42,000 depositors. + + [180] _Report on the Post Office_, 1864. + + [181] _Report on the Post Office_, 1864, p. 13. + + [182] This Transfer was settled in November, 1863. The trustees + and managers at a special meeting deliberated whether or not to + carry on the Bank "under the increased responsibility imposed on + trustee by the 11th clause of the Consolidation Act (1863), or to + empower the managers to transfer the deposits to the Post Office + Savings Banks." They resolved by a majority of two to take the + latter step, and the transfer was made immediately afterwards. + + [183] Since this Return was completed, the trustees of two other + banks have given notice to close. The one, a small bank at Castle + Wellan, in Ireland, and the other, the Leighton Buzzard Savings + Bank, make, with the Huntingdon Bank, a total of ninety-eight + transfers. + + [184] The Huntingdon Savings Bank has given notice to close. The + capital of the Hunts Saving Bank amounts to £60,000. + + [185] The fullest information on these matters may be gathered, in + cases where the reader is not thoroughly familiar with them, from + many sources. In addition to the Act, and the Regulations for the + Post Office Banks, three little manuals may be specially mentioned + to which reference may profitably be made. (1) _Handy Book on Post + Office Savings Banks._ London: Stevenson, 1861. (2) _Post Office + Savings Banks: a few Plain Words concerning them._ London: + Faithfull and Co. (3) _My Account with Her Majesty._ Reprinted + from _All Year Round_ and the _British Workman_. + + [186] The well-known Form itself which in one piece of paper gives + the acknowledgment, and folded, leaves room for the address, was + designed and registered by Mr. Walshe, of the Post Office. + + [187] Acknowledgments are received in most parts of England by + return of post, or within thirty-six hours; in some parts of + Cornwall and Wales two days, and in some parts of Ireland and + Scotland three days, are required. + + [188] The departmental arrangements for these cases, technically + spoken of as "cross entries," need not be further explained. + + [189] The depositor's book must, of course, be invariably + presented in every transaction, and when the depositor has + obtained repayment of all his balance the book must be given up in + order that the account may be closed. + + [190] We regret that we cannot find space to describe more + minutely the system adopted, as also so much of the internal + arrangements of the chief Savings Banks as have been permitted to + be made public. We may say, briefly, however, that the Chief + Savings Bank commenced operations in a part of the building at St. + Martin's-le-Grand, but was soon driven to seek more accommodation. + Its location is now in St. Paul's Churchyard, where, in spite of + large premises, we believe, it once more became restricted as + regards room, and has since acquired additional space. The office + is presided over by a Controller, who is aided by an Assistant + Controller and two principal clerks. The staff comprises a large + number of permanent clerks of different grades, and an enormous + number of temporary clerks employed upon the more routine work. + The office itself is divided into four branches,--the Deposit + Branch, the Withdrawal Branch, the Account Branch, and the + Correspondence Branch. For the benefit of all those who are + interested in Savings Bank management, we hope that an interesting + paper, read by authority, by Mr. Chetwynd, the first Controller, + before the Congrès International de Bienfaisance, in June, 1862, + may soon be reprinted. It gives every detail which it is desirable + to know. + + [191] The operations have not been carried on altogether without + fraud. The cases, however, only serve to show how secure the + depositors really are from loss. In 1863 the then Postmaster of + Beverley embezzled Savings Bank money, when the authorities at + once announced to the depositors that it should be made good. This + instance, and another in which a clerk was concerned, are, we + believe, the only cases of the kind; but if they were constantly + occurring,--which it is now next to impossible they should be--it + would not matter a pin-head to depositors, who, the moment they + pay in their money into the Post Office, and obtain a deposit + book, stake that money on the National credit. + + [192] The facilities existing for withdrawing accounts from one + class of banks and placing them in the other tend also to despatch + and convenience. By means of transfer certificates, to be had at + any Savings Bank, a depositor may transfer his account without + ever seeing his money. + + [193] The Secretary of a Workmen's Building Society was examined + before Mr. Slaney's Committee (1850) on the _Investments for the + Savings of the Middle and Lower Classes_, when the following + evidence was elicited:-- + + "I think that one reason why the labouring man does not invest in + the Savings Bank is, that the fact of his being able to save money + is used as a pretence why his wages should be reduced, and he + carefully excludes from the knowledge of his employer that he is + able to save. I have found that the workmen of one district go to a + distance to find a Savings Bank, and will not go to their own. + Their names are called loudly and officially, and it becomes + whispered about that so-and-so is a saving man, and may therefore + work for less wages."--_Vide Evidence of Mr. W. Cooper._ + + [194] _Vide_ p. 59. + + + + + CHAPTER X. + + ON GOVERNMENT INSURANCE AND GOVERNMENT LIFE ANNUITIES. + + "It is difficult to estimate too highly the importance of + the tendency of the people to save their earnings, or the + duty of removing every obstacle and affording every + facility to its operation. It is a matter of deep interest + to the State; for the man who has invested a portion of + his earnings in securities,--to the permanence and safety + of which the peace and good order of society are + essential,--must be a tranquil and conservative + citizen."--W. RATHBONE GREG. + + "Ah! who can tell how many a soul sublime + Has felt the influence of malignant star, + And waged with fortune an eternal war! + Checked by the scoff of pride and envy's frown, + Or poverty's unconquerable bar, + In life's low vale remote, has pined alone + And dropt into the grave unpitied and unknown."--BEATTIE. + + +Proposals for a Government Insurance Office, like those for National +Savings Banks, are not, as many have been led to think, the product of +the thought of the last few years. In 1807, for example, Mr. +Whitbread, in bringing forward his Bill for Poor Law Reform, earnestly +advocated, that, together with his plan for the investing of their +savings, some means should be provided for the poorer classes by which +they might insure their lives under the responsibility of Government. +Both as regards his plan of Savings Banks and his plan for Government +Insurance, Mr. Whitbread was fully half a century before his age. The +different schemes for the purchase of Government Annuities and the +Acts under which they were carried out are already familiar to the +reader. The Act of 1834 we may repeat, however, was the beginning of +legislation on the subject. The principal emendation[195] in the Act +16 and 17 Victoria, c. 45, passed in 1853, was supposed to be in the +introduction of a clause providing that a person buying a Government +Annuity could also insure the payment of a sum of money at death. +Notwithstanding this amendment, the Act was not nearly so productive +of good as might have been expected. In the matter of Insurances +effected under the arrangements of 1853, the Act has been for all +practical purposes quite inoperative; and from 1834 to 1864 the whole +of the annual payments in respect to Annuities did not reach +200,000_l._ In the latter year 6,500 annuities were in force, the +amount represented by this number being 140,000_l._ This is, in brief, +an account of how matters stood in 1864; and it is little wonder that +it should now begin to be felt that some fresh steps were required; +that there should be an entirely new organization for the work; and +the abolition of all unnecessary restrictions, especially that which +required that a person must deal perforce both in insurances and +annuities. The institution of Post Office Banks, which had been +rendered possible by the superior organization consequent on the +introduction of postage reform, had already demonstrated how the Post +Office machinery could reach every part of the country, and how well +it could bear the additional weight put upon it. Nor was this all. +From the experience of two or three years, those who were best able to +judge of the burden this machinery could bear without difficulty were +those who now proposed to add fresh wheels and contrivances to be +worked by the already existing motive power. + +A few words will suffice to show how the further proposals which we +have to describe in this chapter were originated. Government Annuities +at this time were, under the authority of an Act spoken of in a +previous chapter, allowed to be granted either directly through the +National Debt Office or through the medium of the ordinary Savings +Banks. To a certain extent many of the Savings Banks had availed +themselves of this Act, and granted both Immediate and Deferred +Annuities. Among the banks which, as we have already shown, +transferred their business to the Post Office Savings Banks soon after +the establishment of the latter, were some which had done a little of +this business; the question thereupon arose whether the Post Office +Banks should not take up the duty which devolved on the old banks, and +receive the payments for the Annuities as they fell due. The result of +this was, that the gentlemen who in the Post Office had organized and +so far directed the machinery of the Postal Banks not only proposed to +carry on the business which others had in this way begun, but they +advised that the operations themselves should be extended, and that +this extension would be a legitimate offshoot of their original +scheme. Mr. Scudamore and Mr. Chetwynd, the gentlemen in question, +held that if the Post Office Banks were to become agencies for the +purchase and payment of Annuities, there would be a considerable +increase in the number purchased. They then proceeded to sketch the +outline of a plan on which it would be possible to undertake the work, +and showed how the course of the business in respect to the Annuities +would be easy, simple, and comparatively inexpensive. The most +important feature of the plan was, that the purchase and payment on +account of Government Annuities should have no immediate connexion +with the Post Office Savings Banks; and that the purchasers of the +former should not necessarily be depositors in the latter. + +With regard to Insurances, the following sentence occurs in a report +which, referring to Mr. Whitbread's proposals, the same gentlemen +presented. "We believe that the time may come when the propriety of +attaching to the Post Office Savings Banks a scheme of Life Assurance +will again be seriously considered by the Legislature. The frequent +appearance and disappearance of bubble insurance companies, which have +been productive of very disastrous consequences during the last few +years, may probably induce a serious consideration of the subject at +no very distant date." + +When the Commissioners of the National Debt came to speak of the +former of these proposals, they reported "that in their judgment, the +greater the extent to which the system of annuities can be carried, +the greater will be the amount of benefit conferred on that class of +the community on whose behalf and for whose security it was the +pleasure of Parliament to authorize the grant of such Annuities +through Savings Banks and by this department. The machinery of the +Post Office will give the opportunity to Lord Stanley largely to +extend these benefits, and the Commissioners will gladly unite with +him in doing so." + +On the 11th of February, 1864, Mr. Gladstone took up this further +scheme--the matter of Insurances and Annuities having been combined in +the plan of operations prepared, during the interval. He then moved +for leave to bring in a "Bill to amend the laws relating to the +purchase of Government Annuities through the medium of Savings Banks." +The Chancellor of the Exchequer briefly explained his object in +bringing about the new measure. He wished, without any unnecessary +interference with private establishments, to assist in offering +increased facilities for the extension of frugal habits among the +industrial population. This had been the principle upon which Postal +Banks had been founded, and now this new scheme might be regarded as +an extension of the principle. Mr. Gladstone wished, "under the +altered circumstances of the times and the improved machinery at +command, to further other measures intimately connected in their +ultimate object with the Savings Banks themselves." Sums, he +explained, could at present be received both for the purchase of +annuities, and even for the granting of life insurance policies, but +the arrangements were hampered by restrictions so as to render the law +almost inoperative. Thus, Deferred Annuities could only be purchased +in large amounts, and Insurances could only be effected where the +persons had previously purchased these Annuities. He thought it quite +possible to alter the system so that _small_ sums at frequent +intervals might be received; and not only so, but the restriction as +to effecting an Insurance, which was not only inconvenient, but +unreasonable in itself, might be done away with. The person who wanted +an Insurance was not the most likely person to want an Annuity also; +they were, indeed, generally people of different classes, or at any +rate different habits of mind. The Chancellor of the Exchequer, after +stating that he would give these increased facilities and remove this +unnecessary restriction, obtained leave to proceed with the +measure.[196] + +His simple statement of the scheme was not long in securing ample +criticism; some of it was friendly, much more of it adverse. Then a +certain class of Insurance Offices and the principal Friendly Society +organizations believing their institutions menaced, set to work to get +up an agitation. The measure was represented by one class of persons +as embodying the very questionable principle of Government +interference with private enterprise, and taking as it were the bread +out of the mouth of institutions specially got up for such purposes. +Others pretended to criticize the proposals disinterestedly; they +dwelt on the difficulty the Post Office would find in attempting to do +the work, and that, if officers of higher attainments were obtained, +they would require proportionately higher remuneration. Savings Bank +deposits _might_ be managed, though that was not thought likely three +years before; but how all the details of Life Insurance proposals and +the intricate calculations necessary to the Annuities business could +be got through, was above comprehension! It was represented by leading +articles in influential papers that there would be but a poor security +against fraud; little supervision, and probably that little would not +be exerted; and everybody would conspire to defraud the Government. +"As it is intended," said one respectable organ, "to assure the lives +of the poorer classes chiefly, all payers of poor-rates and officers +of the Poor Law Unions would have a bias, _to say the least_, in +getting those persons assured who would otherwise be likely to leave +their families a burden upon the parochial funds." "It cannot be +denied that a few isolated instances of bad faith have occurred among +insurance companies, yet as a class there is none to excel them for +high and honourable dealing, and there is no pretence for interfering +with their operations or invading their privileges. Why should not +Government open a drapery or a dry-goods store?" This latter effusion, +which appeared in a letter to the _Times_, was prominently printed, +and headed, "A New Instance of Proposed Paternal Legislation."[197] A +more organized opposition soon, however, showed its face. The +actuaries of some of the Insurance Companies met and discussed the +measure, and came to the conclusion that, as it might only be the thin +end of the wedge, the measure ought to be opposed. The smaller +Insurance Companies eagerly fell in with this conclusion. During March +petitions were got up in great numbers from Insurance Companies and +Benefit Societies, and when they were presented to the House of +Commons several voices were raised in support of their prayer. + +On the 4th of March, Mr. Gladstone moved the committal of the bill. +Mr. Turner, Mr. Powell, Mr. T. Hankey, Sir Minto Farquhar, and several +other members, protested against going on with the bill without an +opportunity for full discussion, and most of them expressing great +dissatisfaction with the Government proposals relating to Life +Insurance, the Chancellor endeavoured to separate the bill into two +parts, to pass that having reference to Annuities, and to defer the +consideration of the clauses relating to Insurances to a subsequent +period. The debate was adjourned. + +Three days afterwards Mr. Gladstone made a long and elaborate speech +in defence of his proposals, and addressed himself with great +earnestness and power to the task of disabusing the public mind of the +many erroneous impressions which within a very short time had taken +possession of it. The history of his proposals was a short and simple +one. In the autumn of the previous year the Registrar of Friendly +Societies, in his Report for 1862, had recorded an unusual number of +very gross abuses and violations of trust on the part of those +Societies. The Report was in fact full of a multitude of complaints +from persons in all parts of the country, who called for redress. So +important had the facts been regarded that at least two important +journals[198] had published several articles calling attention to the +scandalous condition of these institutions. It had been suggested to +him (Mr. Gladstone) that the subject of small life assurances, having +already received in principle the sanction of Parliament, ought, under +these circumstances, and the fact of an excellent machinery in +connexion with the Post Office being ready for use, to be again +considered by the Government. He agreed with this view of the case, +and had now proposed to take action upon it. It is almost impossible +to give an account in detail of the speech which followed; next to the +Budget speech, it was the longest which Mr. Gladstone made in the +session of 1864. We can, however, and ought to describe its principal +points. Mr. Gladstone observed that no one considered Savings Banks, +Annuities, or Insurances to be, abstractedly, matters desirable for +the Government to deal with. But the Post Office Savings Banks which +that House had legalized, though interfering distinctly with other +interests, had produced great and lasting results; so likewise had the +Factory Acts, though they likewise had greatly interfered with the +liberty of private action. This bill, however, prohibited nothing +whatever. "I do not deny that it is Government interference, or that +it requires justification or apology; but I do deny that we are to be +frightened and terrified by clamours respecting centralization, or +respecting undue assumptions of power by the Executive." "All that is +requisite in such a case is to show that what the Government proposes +it can do safely, and likewise that what it proposes it can do +justly." Well, this bill, which was represented as entirely novel in +principle, simply offered to such members of the community as chose to +avail themselves thereof, certain facilities for self-help. It had not +grown out of any consideration of the case of Assurance Societies, but +from a consideration of Friendly Societies, and of the wholesale +deception, fraud, and swindling perpetrated upon a helpless and +defenceless portion of the community. + +Mr. Gladstone then referred to some deputations of the largest +Friendly Societies that had waited upon him, and begged him not to +interfere "with private trade and private enterprise;" and answered +that these very societies were virtually and substantially subsidized +by the Government. After showing that they were exempted from +different duties, and received, like Savings Banks, more interest from +the money invested with Government than the money realized, Mr. +Gladstone held that nothing could be more plain than that Parliament +was justified in looking to their circumstances. The country was +overrun with them, and it was necessary to inquire if they were safe. +Instead of finding them safe, he found them promising to pay amounts +of interest which it was impossible to pay under fair and honest +management. Such were the reasons which had induced him to interfere. +He had, however, chosen a very mild form of intervention, and, he +thought, a proper time for the remedy. The remedy, indeed, in this +case was precisely analogous to that adopted in the case of the Post +Office Banks. + + "In the case of the Post Office Savings Banks," said the + right hon. gentleman, "we had to deal with Loan Societies + offering the most attractive terms to the public, + promising them a rate of interest which could not possibly + be paid under any sound and honest management, and then + ending in disappointment or ruin. We did not attempt the + foolish task of prescribing laws by which all Loan + Societies should be regulated, and under which alone the + poorer classes of the community should be permitted to + lend their money. That was utterly impossible. You could + not possibly defend the poor man against the abuses and + dangers into which he might choose to run head foremost + with his eyes open; but what you did was this:--you said, + 'It is but just to them, and it is expedient and politic + in the highest sense, in discharge of the most sacred duty + of the Legislature, that we should give to the poor man, + to the owner of small savings, the advantage of a scheme + which will possess no meretricious attractions, which will + not promise a high rate of interest--on the contrary, the + rate will be a low one--but which will offer an absolutely + certain security.' That is precisely the basis of the + scheme now before the House." + +After describing the success of the Postal Banks, and speaking of +those who had taken the principal part in carrying the measure into +practical operation, and arguing from their success, their ability, +and their judgment, that the same persons were entitled to the +confidence of Parliament, Mr. Gladstone went on to rebut many of the +objections and arguments which had been advanced against the plan. He +showed that the Post Office could, equally with the great majority of +existing Insurance Societies, attend to the selection of good lives; +that the attitude of the leading Societies in regard to his proposals +was either that of neutrality or favour. He said that the smaller +Societies had protested loud enough; but, he asked, what cause had +they to be afraid of Government competition? "We cannot possibly offer +such terms as they can; on the contrary, we must exact such conditions +as few private Societies ask." He offered, however, perfect security; +and if that was a thing valued by the people, there was no reason why +it should be withheld. Besides, however, this perfect security, Mr. +Gladstone pointed to two other considerable advantages which the +Government would offer, viz., more favourable terms on the dropping in +of policies, and facilities for the migratory portion of the +population, similar to those we have seen depositors possess in the +case of the Post Office Banks. + +After speaking of the steps which would have to be taken to guard the +Government against loss, and to make the measure entirely +self-supporting; after referring to what he called the "fugitive +character" of many insurance companies, and eloquently denouncing +their proceedings; to the failure of numerous Friendly Societies,[199] +and the ruin and disappointment entailed on thousands thereby, Mr. +Gladstone brought his long and remarkable speech to a conclusion by +summing up as follows:[200]-- + + "I have endeavoured to prove that Parliament by + legislation is seriously compromised and responsible for + the present state of things, and is bound to do what it + believes to be best to mitigate the evils of that state of + things. I have endeavoured to show that the plan which I + propose, if it does compete with sound institutions, must + so compete with them at a disadvantage from the essential + conditions under which it is right and proper we must + work. I have endeavoured to show that the wide field of + the labouring classes is not occupied by sound + institutions--nay, that it is not fully occupied even by + sound and unsound institutions, such is the enormous + breadth of the subject. I have shown, I think, that the + present condition of many of these Friendly + Societies--indeed, I might go further, and, speaking + generally, might say that the present condition of these + Societies is more or less unsatisfactory. Some of them we + cannot call merely unsatisfactory, but must term them + either rotten or fraudulent. It is impossible for the + State to assume the direction and regulation of these + Societies so as to secure in the management of their + affairs a safe method of assurance; and what we propose + is, I believe, the most prudent, the safest, and the most + satisfactory mode of proceeding that can be adopted. I + make my appeal not to any one class, or to any party. I + forget that I am a member of the Government, except so far + as regards my responsibility as such. I recollect the + sacred trust we have in hand, and I entreat honourable + members to keep in view the serious nature of that trust, + the importance of the object, and the consequences + involved; and I am certain they will not be prevented by + any sentiment of political or party feeling, or of + hostility to the Government, from giving their careful + consideration to this question, and from determining in + their own minds and hearts how the British Legislature can + best acquit itself of this important part of its + obligations to the mass of the British people." + +_Mr. Sheridan_, after replying vehemently to what he called a personal +attack on himself on the part of the Chancellor of the Exchequer when +dealing with unsound societies, disputed the need for the measure no +less than the principle upon which it was founded. As the spokesman of +Insurance Offices and Friendly Societies, Mr. Sheridan further +contended that the Post Office would never be able to manage all the +details of the business, and that, even if it did, the Government must +eventually be losers. "They might shut their eyes for a time," said +the member for Dudley, "but Government would ultimately have to come +to that House with shame, and with something like humiliation, to +confess that their experiment in commerce had failed, and that the +result had been to saddle the shareholders with a loss--those +shareholders being the already overburdened taxpayers of the country." + +_Lord Stanley_ avowed his approval of the principles of the bill. He +thought it a great experiment, but an experiment which might very +possibly result in a reduction of pauperism. He urged the fullest +discussion; said it would do the bill no harm, but might on the +contrary tend to perfect its provisions. The speech of Mr. Gladstone +too, he thought, was a reason why the matter should not be hurried. +Mr. Gladstone had made statements which, however true they might +be--"and I am afraid that there is a good deal of truth in them--I +wish I did not think so,"--might require to be answered, and to give +an opportunity to answer them would only be fair play. After pointing +out one or two defects in the provisions, Lord Stanley promised his +valuable aid by saying, that he should be prepared to go into +Committee on the bill with a very sincere hope that it would pass, and +that they might find it, or make it, a workable scheme. _Mr. Hibbert_ +and _Mr. Roebuck_ both warned the House against suffering a +"Constitutional Government" to be converted into what was termed a +"Paternal Government." In a characteristic speech, the latter +gentleman held that whatever concerned the individual was best left to +be done by the individual himself; that the Government was sure to +fail, as it had failed before, in interfering in matters of this kind; +and that the effect of such measures would be to make the people a set +of helpless imbeciles totally incapable of attending to their own +interests. _Mr. Newdegate_ and _Mr. W. E. Forster_ approved the +measure, but urged full consideration of it. _Mr. Bovill_ spoke very +strongly in favour. He believed, from the facts which had come within +his own knowledge and had been elicited in courts of law, that Mr. +Gladstone had rather understated than overstated the delinquencies of +Friendly Societies and Insurances Companies. One of the effects of the +Chancellor's speech, he thought, would be that a cloud of error and +prejudice which had been raised against the bill would be dispelled. +On the other hand, Sir Minto Farquhar, Mr. Ayrton, Mr. Urquhart, Mr. +Henley, Mr. Baines and others, either expressed strong objections to +the bill as a whole, or else took exceptions to some of its +provisions. The debate was then adjourned. + +During the interval, and when the bill was under discussion in the +House, a great meeting of the working classes was called in London, +and held in Exeter Hall, Mr. Ayrton presiding. The object of the +gathering was to petition against the measure; but independent working +men--by which is meant those who had no interested motives in opposing +the scheme--mustered so strongly on the other side, that the Chairman +could not decide on which side the majority lay. There were other +public meetings held, some in favour, others in opposition; and +although hundreds of petitions were presented from members of Friendly +Societies, most of which were got up on one form, there were many +others of a far more important character emanating from Corporations +and Boards of Guardians, who expressed a hope that the House would not +withhold so great a boon to the working classes. + +On the 17th of March, _Sir Minto Farquhar_, in a long speech, moved +that the bill should be referred to a Select Committee. _Mr. Horsfall_ +seconded the motion. Both members replied to Mr. Gladstone's attack on +Friendly Societies, though with little effect. Several members warmly +supported Mr. Gladstone, and thought no cause had been shown for +delay. _Mr. Estcourt_, while approving the principles of the measure, +saw great difficulties about it, and thought it ought to be referred +to a Committee. _Mr. Göschen_, in an able speech, which showed that he +had mastered the subject in all its bearings, answered the objections +which had been raised to the bill, and said that though he represented +in that House more insurance managers and directors than any other +member, he was not afraid to say that the opposition to the bill was +entirely owing to the efforts of those who fancied it would deal a +blow at their private interests. He was convinced of the wisdom and +policy of the measure, which was well worthy of the character of the +right honourable gentleman who had proposed it, and which would +without doubt leave a mark on the history of the session. The debate +was again adjourned. + +A month afterwards the debate was resumed by _Mr. Ayrton_ in a very +long speech, during which he attacked the Post Office Savings Bank +system; stated that just when they were most prosperous, 1859 and +1860, Government had brought out their scheme, which was working and +would continue to work with telling effect upon the old banks. So with +the present proposals; they would interfere with safe private +agencies. "The Government would pursue a much better plan," continued +Mr. Ayrton, "if they were to encourage the establishment of +associations among the people themselves; for it was through the +exercise of local administration that a nation became most fitted for +the enjoyment of political rights." In place of this, "they proposed +to place a stipendiary of the Crown in every parish and hamlet to +institute an examination into the private affairs of individuals." +_Mr. Hubbard_ thought the proposed measure one which they ought and +might very well entertain. He looked upon it simply as an extension of +the principle of the Post Office Savings Banks, which had now received +the sanction of the entire country. + +_Mr. Gladstone_ then replied. After referring to some of the +objections that had been made to the measure itself, he said he would +not object to submit it to a Select Committee; but he could not +consent to refer the whole subject-matter to a Committee, as that +would indefinitely postpone legislation on it. He believed that the +public were growing more and more in favour of the plan, and that this +feeling would be increased as its objects and provisions became better +understood. He also stated that, during his long public life, he +himself had never received so many letters as he had upon this measure +from all classes of the community, and all expressing approval and +gratitude for it. A few days afterwards a Committee was appointed, to +consist of Mr. Gladstone, Mr. S. Estcourt, Mr. M. Gibson, Mr. Henley, +Sir M. Farquhar, Sir S. Northcote, Mr. Horsfall, Mr. Göschen, Mr. +Charles Turner, Mr. H. Herbert, Mr. Hubbard, Mr. Sheridan, Mr. Ayrton, +Mr. Hodgkinson, and Mr. Paget.[201] After an ineffectual attempt to +enlarge the scope of the inquiry, which partook of the nature almost +of a party struggle,--104 members voting with Sir M. Farquhar, and 127 +with the Government--the Committee commenced its sittings. + +The bill as amended by the Committee was passed on the 20th of June. +On this occasion many of its members described the benefit which the +bill had received from the inquiry, and none now complained of the +limited nature of that inquiry. It originally consisted of three +clauses; it came out with seventeen, sixteen of which were new. It +provided that no policy of Life Assurance should be granted for more +than 100_l._; and, not to interfere unnecessarily with Friendly +Societies, that none should be granted for less than 20_l._ _Mr. +Estcourt_, especially, warmly espoused the measure. "No one now more +desired to see it passed than he did. If a master or employer wished +to make a provision by way of annuity for a faithful servant in his +old age, he could do so with perfect security under the bill." He also +thought, "that if the working classes of this country did not derive +great advantage from the measure, it would be their own fault." _Sir +M. Farquhar_ was equally hearty in his praise of the scheme, and +speaking of Mr. Gladstone said, "The country had every reason to thank +him." Mr. Gladstone observed, that it was a matter of great +satisfaction to him that as the bill entered the House in peace and +quietness, so it was likely to quit it with general expressions of +good will. + +The bill was carried through the Lords under the charge of Lord +Stanley of Alderley, and, passing through its several stages without +discussion, received the Royal Assent July 14, 1864, and arrangements +were ordered to be made to carry its various clauses into practical +operation. + +During the long recess the Tables were prepared under the eye of the +Commissioners for the Reduction of the National Debt; and, working in +harmony with the Commissioners and with a common purpose, the Post +Office authorities at the same time arranged the Regulations under +which, and the organization by means of which, the whole of the plans +should be carried out. The Regulations themselves were, we understand, +arranged under the immediate superintendence of Mr. Scudamore, one of +the two gentlemen who organized the Post Office Banks; the machinery +chosen for the purpose was that of the Receiver and Accountant-General's +department. At the commencement of the session of 1865 both the Tables +and the Regulations were laid before Parliament and received the +proper sanction. The Tables, like all ordinary Insurance Tables, show +the various kinds of benefit which Government can now offer to the +community, and the price at which these benefits may be purchased. The +Regulations, on the other hand, describe the means to be used to +obtain these benefits, and give in full the conditions under which any +kind of purchase may be made.[202] + +The principal features of the new measures taken together may be +stated, simply, to consist in a person now being able to insure his +life for any sum between 20_l._ and 100_l._; that he does this on +Government security; that he may do it without buying an annuity; that +he may pay his premiums of insurance in almost any amount, and at +almost any period that will best suit his convenience; and lastly, +that, attended with the same facilities and advantages which only an +institution like the Post Office can offer, a person may now purchase +a Government Annuity, either immediate or deferred, of not more than +50_l._ a year, either with or without the proviso of "money being +returnable" in the event of death before the annuity falls due. + + * * * * * + +It only remains for us to seek to draw the attention of our readers to +the special inducements which the Government now holds out to the +practice of a wise economy and frugality, prefacing our account with +the remark that a careful study of the "Regulations" from which we +glean it, will well repay any time or thought which the masters of +workmen, as well as working men themselves, may give to them. + +And first as to _Insurances_. In the course of a short period,--for +the offices for the transaction of both kinds of business are being +opened rapidly,--every one of the three thousand and odd money-order +offices of the United Kingdom, embracing, as is well known, every +large village as well as the numerous receiving offices of our large +towns, will be formed into an Insurance Agency. When this is the +case,--and to a great extent it is so already,--any person, whether +male or female, and _both_ if man and wife, of not less than sixteen +years of age and not more than sixty, will be able to propose for an +insurance on his or her life in a sum of not less than 20_l._ and not +more than 100_l._ The steps which a person proposing to insure must +take in those places already on the list, and the steps which must +universally be taken when the whole of the agencies are arranged, may +be easily comprehended, and need but few words. If he wants to insure +on the security of Government, he must go to the nearest Post Office +and apply for the proper printed form. With this form, to which is +attached every necessary instruction for his guidance, almost all his +trouble begins and ends. It is true that the questions propounded are +many, and that they are most minute, and may be thought by the poorer +classes who are unused to this sort of thing unnecessarily precise and +tantalizing. Any one, however, familiar with the routine of the +ordinary Insurance Societies, will not fail to see that the Government +are scarcely more rigid than they are, and that, if there are more +questions to be answered, it is simply because of the varied modes and +unique facilities now first offered to the choice of the insurer. The +insurer must fill up this form, and must further produce certificates +of age or baptism, and furnish the names and addresses of two +householders who know him and can speak as to his identity. What +follows, and indeed a great part of the foregoing, is simply the +course followed by all well-managed Insurance Offices in the kingdom. +The proposal is forwarded to London, the referees are corresponded +with, and, if all seems right and straightforward, the person seeking +an insurance policy is desired to present himself before the appointed +medical referee in order to go through the indispensable examination. +The doctor examines the proposer, questions him to the extent he +thinks proper, takes down his answers, and then gets the person to +sign his name to what may be called his deposition. If nothing +unsatisfactory occurs, the policy is made out in the way the proposer +originally desired. + +The contract being duly drawn up, the insurer may pay his recurring +premiums at any of the Offices which have been opened, or which may be +opened, as shall at any time be most convenient to him. As in the case +of Savings Bank depositors, the life insurer will be furnished with a +"Premium Receipt-book," and whenever he makes a payment he must +produce this book, when the clerk or postmaster will enter the amount, +sign his name in the way of receipt for the payment, and stamp the +date of the transaction and the place of payment with the ordinary +official dated stamp. With regard to the time at which the insured +must pay his premiums as agreed upon, whether yearly, quarterly, +monthly, or fortnightly, the arrangements are necessarily strict; but +every means will be, or at least ought to be taken, to make him +understand his agreement. If he should fail, say through +forgetfulness, to make his payment, he will not be hardly dealt with; +for, on an application that the contract may be renewed and the +production of evidence of good health, the Postmaster-General will +renew the contract, only fining the person in the sum of four +shillings if he is insured for 60_l._, and eight shillings if he is +insured for more than that sum. + +Once more: should the insured wish to surrender his policy, he will be +allowed to do so after the expiration of five years from the date of +it, and will receive at least one-third of all the sums he may have +paid during the time he has held it. The authorities have not as yet, +we believe, stated exactly how much they will be able to offer for +surrender policies; but this is scarcely a matter which can be +considered pressing, as no policy will acquire a surrender value till +1870. + +Then there are the _kinds_ of payment under which a person may now +purchase the benefits of Life Insurance through the medium of the Post +Office. And certainly the most important arrangement, associated as it +is with several novel features, is that of paying down the premium in +one sum. Not that this need be the whole transaction of a proposed +insurer. He may make his policy, if we may employ such a term, +_cumulative_. Thus, if a person doubts whether he will be able to pay +regular premiums for a number of years, he may perhaps be able to +effect a small insurance, say of the lowest sum allowable, 20_l._, by +the payment of a single premium. He may afterwards find himself able +at subsequent periods to effect another small insurance,--and this he +will be allowed to do, even if it only be to the extent of five +pounds,--and may thus, whenever he has the money to spare, at regular +or irregular intervals, go on increasing the original amount in +transactions which, while complete in themselves, continually augment +the sum to be received at death.[203] We are not informed in _Plain +Rules_ whether the insurer will in each case have to pass a medical +examination, or produce certificates of health; but there can scarcely +be a doubt that he will be required to do one or the other. The proof +of age, however, and other particulars which the insurer furnished in +the first instance, will doubtless suffice for all subsequent +negotiations. + +The principal objection to insurance effected by a single payment, at +any rate among the poorer classes, is apparent. It is not that they +can make better use of their money; as a security against an early +death or reduced circumstances no better investment could be found for +a working man who is in possession of a sufficient sum with no +pressing need for it. The real difficulty is the one of keeping his +savings until they amount to a sum sufficient for any object of this +kind. Here, however, the institution of Post Office Savings Banks may +be of service; and this has not been lost sight of by the authorities, +who offer them as a medium for the collection and keeping of such +fugitive sums as may be most easily spared with a view to taking a +Life Insurance premium. Thus, all a workman has to do is to put his +savings into the Post Office Banks in such amounts and at such times +as will best suit him; and when he has saved a sufficient sum for the +purpose, the Postmaster-General will direct that the transfer of the +amount shall be made from the Bank to the Insurance Office without the +necessity of the depositor seeing the money. Of the general plan of +paying the premium in one sum we cannot speak too highly. Those whose +wages or salaries are not fixed and regular, or those who are liable +to be thrown out of work--and few are not--could not do better than +employ their savings in securing such a provision; and the younger the +better, seeing how young and old are alike taken in the grip of the +Destroyer. Not the least of the advantages following from this kind of +insurance are the absolute freedom from all risk of lapses, from +either carelessness or more serious causes, and the fact that the +policies on this principle will have the highest surrender value. + +Should the person wishing to insure not like, or liking not be able, +to take out a policy after this fashion, he may choose one of several +other methods. If he thinks he can more conveniently pay a small +premium every year, he is at liberty to do this in different ways. If +at thirty years of age he will pay a pound a year, he may secure for +his friends forty-three pounds at his death; if he prefers to pay two +shillings a month, he will secure forty-six pounds; and for an annual +payment of two pounds six and sevenpence, he may secure payment of +100_l._ to his nearest relatives, _immediately on proof of death_. +Again, if a person thinks, as many do think, that his payments should +cease at a certain age, he may insure on that principle. Commencing at +thirty years of age, and paying two pounds thirteen and tenpence a +year till he is sixty, he may secure 100_l._; by paying two shillings +a month, between the ages of thirty and sixty, he may effect an +insurance of forty pounds at death. It will be understood that these +are only a few specimens of the working of these Tables, given more +especially to show the characteristic features of the plan. By +consulting the Tables themselves, any person may plainly see how it +will affect him to insure by any of the above methods; and he may +calculate his payments either at the times we have given, or at other +times, such as half-yearly, quarterly, fortnightly, or weekly, with +great nicety. + +We will only refer at any length to another very important provision +made for the carrying out of this useful and important public measure. +It has to do, as indeed almost all the provisions have, to a great +extent, with the wants and necessities of working men, especially such +as must pay their premiums by small and frequent instalments. Seeing +that working men are proverbially slow to look the distant future in +the face, we urge, in the strongest terms, the claims of the provision +in question on the attention and study of all large employers of +labour. In no way could masters better fulfil the heavy moral +responsibilities under which they lie to the less educated portions of +society whose energies they employ, than by co-operating with them in +the way of advice and assistance, in such a plan as that which remains +to be described. The arrangement in question has doubtless been +suggested by a scheme which, for several years, has been in full and +excellent working order in the Post Office itself. We think it was in +1859 that Mr. Scudamore of the Post Office devised a plan, which was +approved by the then Postmaster-General, by means of which and the +concurrence of a large number of first-class Insurance Companies a +considerable number of Post Office _employés_ were enabled to make +suitable provision for their families. In connexion with this plan, +substantial assistance was given, to those who took this rational and +necessary step, out of the Void Money-order Account. Under the +arrangements then made, the Insurance Companies give the required +policies to any officer of the Post Office, without any _direct_ or +preliminary payment, looking to the Post Office authorities entirely +for the collection of the premiums as they become due; the latter, on +their part, deducting the payments at such times as are agreed upon +from the regular salary or wages of the assured persons. Thousands of +Post Office officials, from the highest to the lowest grades, have +insured their lives on this principle; they are not only assisted to +do so, but secured from all risk of default, while the deductions are +so small as to be scarcely perceptible.[204] The success of the plan +has led to its partial adoption by the proprietors of large private +mercantile establishments, where it works well; and this again has +doubtless led to the extension of the plan, by means of the Act and +the machinery we are considering. + +It is now perfectly easy for any of the other Government departments, +for railway companies, merchants, manufacturers, and other large +employers of labour, to make arrangements under the 32d clause of the +Regulations, to do for their workmen (and we are at a loss to +understand why this has not been done before) what the Post Office +authorities have done for their servants. The clause to which we have +alluded provides, that if boards of management or masters of workmen +will undertake to collect the sums by means of deductions from the +wages of their officers or servants, with a view to paying the +premiums over to the officers of the Postmaster-General, then the +latter shall, "if he think fit, make arrangements with the said +employers for such purpose, and shall constitute the departments, +offices, or places of business of such employers, offices for the +receipt of proposals, and for the receipt of premiums and instalments; +and shall pay to such employers such remuneration for the work done by +them, or their officers or servants, as shall be agreed upon between +him and them." + +Surely, with all such facilities, and with such inducements to the +workman to make provision for those who are nearest and dearest to +him,--this provision to be payable at once, on the security of the +nation, when he is no longer able to contribute to their +support,--little persuasion should be needed to make him do that which +is now one of the first duties of a man who has a wife or family +dependent upon his exertions. It is only too true that workmen and the +less educated portions of the lower middle classes may be blinded and +cajoled into believing that those institutions will serve their +interests best which, depending upon all kinds of meretricious +attractions, promise immediate benefits for little payment, but only +end in disappointing, if not in swindling them. It seems to us, +however, that those who, like the majority of large employers, have +both the capacity and the opportunity for directing these classes +aright, are not only warranted, but, in all fairness, are expected to +attempt to do so. + +We must now speak of the Regulations for the purchase of _Government +Annuities_. It is well to make provision for our families after we +have left them; it is no less wise to make some provision for old age, +or for the misfortunes of life. Many a working man, taking the +expression in its widest significance, sees little before him in the +future but a life of hard, unyielding work. There is a time, however, +after which bodily strength must rapidly fail, even supposing that +nothing has occurred during his years of toil to break him down +prematurely: many a hard worker lives on long after the grasshopper +has become a burden, and is little cared for, it may be, if he has +never cared for himself. Let philosophers inveigh as they will on the +selfishness of such conduct, that man has acted wisely who, under some +such circumstances, has taken care to relieve himself of thought and +much anxiety by having something in the shape of an Annuity to look +forward to in his declining years. "Most men, as old age comes on, +find themselves every year less and less able to procure by their +labour those comforts which every year become more and more necessary +to them. A man, by paying small sums out of his earnings while he is +strong and active and in full work, may purchase an Annuity to +commence as old age comes on him, and which will take the place of his +salary or wages when he can no longer earn a livelihood." In these +words the Postmaster-General introduces his new Annuities' scheme, and +offers to sell these Annuities through his department to any one who +will comply with the Regulations. + +The commencement of an Annuity transaction must be exactly similar to +that described in connexion with an Insurance. After obtaining a form +of application, the person must reply to the questions which it is +deemed necessary to ask, and then return the paper to the Post Office +for transmission to the Postmaster-General. For obvious reasons, he +will not be required to say anything about his health, nor to pass any +medical examination. The Government must take care, in insuring a +person, that he is in good health; on buying an Annuity, the person +himself should take care that he is not in bad health, or otherwise he +might rush into a bad bargain. Almost the only preliminaries gone +through in the case of Annuities are, a satisfactory proof of age, and +answers necessary to identification. If the authorities in London are +satisfied with the answers and the references given, a policy or +contract is entered into by the Post Office on behalf of the +Commissioners of the National Debt, setting forth, that, in +consideration of certain payments made at certain periods, the payment +of a certain sum is guaranteed to him as an Annuity on the security of +Government. + +As in the case of Insurances, the person seeking to purchase an +Annuity has the choice of several kinds of annuity, and of annuities +of any amount up to 50_l._ a year. He may purchase an _Immediate_ +Annuity, though in this case the purchase-money must always be paid in +one sum. Thus, if he be twenty years of age and will pay down the sum +of 198_l._ 3_s._ 4_d._, he can begin to receive an Annuity of ten +pounds a year for life, however long that life may extend. Women, we +must add, seeing that they are usually longer livers than men, must +pay more than men. He may purchase also a _Deferred_ Annuity; that is, +an annuity payable after a given term of years from the commencement +of the purchase. This Deferred Annuity may either be purchased in one +sum, or by a yearly payment over that given term. If the former, it +may be for any amount between one pound and fifty pounds per annum, to +begin at a certain period; in the latter case, the amount may range +between four pounds and fifty pounds, to begin immediately after he +has completed his payments. Deferred Annuities may also be purchased +gradually, or on the same cumulative principle spoken of in connexion +with Assurances, and just according as a person finds himself able to +spare the money; or they may be purchased by annual payments in the +same manner, beginning on a small annuity, and increasing it from time +to time as he finds himself able to increase his annual payments. Once +more, by making payments half-yearly, quarterly, monthly, fortnightly, +or weekly, during a certain number of years, he may purchase a monthly +allowance of any amount from four shillings to four pounds a month, +immediately after that term of years. + +The first Tables which were ready in time for the operations for the +purchase of Deferred Annuities were those known as the "Non-returnable +Tables," under which money paid was not returnable in the event of +premature death, but "altogether sunk and lost." Soon afterwards, +however, the "Returnable Tables," which had been under preparation +from the first, were brought out. Now, therefore, if the annuitant +chooses, he may purchase a Deferred Annuity with the proviso, that if +death occurs before he should have reaped any benefit all the premiums +shall be returned to his representatives; and also, that, at any time +during his life before his Annuity is due, he may have his payments +returned to him, subject of course to some deductions should he choose +to close his account. + +In all the above cases it is difficult to explain the method of +working without giving examples; but the interested reader may +receive, as he will doubtless seek, every information from the popular +Abstract which will be presented to him free, on application, and from +the Official Tables which may be seen at any Post Office. It only +remains to add, as regards the payment of Annuities or Monthly +Allowances, that they will be made half-yearly or monthly, as the case +may be, at any of the offices opened for this business, _i.e._ +eventually every Money Order Office; and that if a person be prevented +by age, infirmity, or illness, from going to a Post Office to receive +this allowance, it will be taken to him by an officer of the +department. + +As the operations of the Government Insurance and Annuity Office have +only extended over a few months, and as the scheme is only in process +of introduction into many localities, it is manifestly impossible to +get exact information respecting the amount of business done, or tell +how far the prediction, freely hazarded soon after the measure became +law, as to its importance and utility, is likely to be realized. In +the Report of the Post Office recently issued, the Postmaster-General +states that this information will be supplied, in proper course, in +his Report for 1865. Meanwhile, the following facts, which have been +ascertained by the examination of some hundreds of proposals, will +probably interest some of our readers. + +The average age of the persons who make Life Insurance proposals to +the Government is thirty-five years; the sum for which they propose to +insure is, on the average, 76_l._ Out of the whole number of persons,-- + + 40 per cent. propose to pay their premiums annually. + 25 " " " " monthly. + 22 " " " " quarterly. + 6 " " " " half-yearly. + 6 " " " " weekly. + +One proposer in each hundred proposes to pay his premium in one sum; +and twenty-three per cent. wish the payment of their premiums to cease +on their attaining the age of sixty. + +The proposals come from all classes of the community; thus-- + + per cent + Clerks in public and private offices contribute 32 + Porters, messengers, letter-carriers, and labourers 22 + Mechanics, artisans, and skilled labourers 18 + Tradesmen 17 + Clergymen, and professional men generally 6 + Women 6 + +Of those who make proposals for the purchase of Annuities, 56 per +cent. are men, and 44 per cent. are women; and the amount of Annuity +which they propose to purchase is, on the average, 26_l._ The average +age of the proposers for the purchase of Annuities is fifty-eight +years.[205] + +A longer time will doubtless be necessary to develop this further +measure into the same successful operation which has followed the +adoption of the scheme out of which it sprang. It is more elaborate +than the Post Office Bank scheme; it will appeal, as has been properly +said, to a higher class of men, to a higher quality of prudence. Time, +perhaps, more than anything else, must mature it into success. It +rests entirely with the public,--especially with employers of labour, +and the more intelligent portions of the working and small tradesmen +class,--whether or not the unique and comprehensive facilities which +we have been engaged in discussing shall have been framed and offered +in vain, or whether or not a new era has dawned on those who are +desirous of making small, sure, and safe investments for their own old +age, or provision for those they may leave behind. We wait, as it were +pen in hand, to chronicle the result. Meanwhile, those who have the +interests of the humbler and more defenceless portions of the +community at heart could not do better than endeavour, at any rate, to +spread a knowledge of a scheme which, while benefiting the people +individually, must also, by giving to each a stake and an interest in +the prosperity of the country, tend to increase the stability of +existing institutions. + +In justice to Mr. Gladstone and the Legislature, it ought to be widely +known and remembered that these measures have not been originated to +be a source of profit to the revenue of the country; that, however +successful they may eventually be, they will bring no gain to the +National Exchequer. The Tables of working, and the mode of working, +have been prepared with great care; the former by eminent actuaries, +and the latter by equally eminent official men: and although some of +this care and attention have had for their object the security of the +Government against loss, the premiums are intended to cover the +liabilities and working expenses, and no more. If, therefore, those +classes who _can_ do it will not now secure themselves against +misfortune and disaster, it is plainly no one's fault but their own. + + + [195] We have not space to go over the ground of the change; nor + is it necessary, seeing how imperfect was the amendment introduced + in 1853. Mr. McCulloch, however, in his _Statistical Account of + the British Empire_, vol. ii. p. 712, may be said to have summed + up in the following sentence the reason which sufficed to induce + the Legislature to amend the Act of 1834:--"The influence of the + Act (1834), so far as it extends, is subversive of accumulation, + and goes to encourage the selfish and unsocial propensities by + tempting individuals to consume their whole property during their + lifetime, without caring anything for those who might come after + them. Had Government given facilities to the middle and lower + classes for insuring sums for their wives and children in the + event of their death, it might have been highly advantageous. But + the system they have set on foot does not encourage providence, + but extravagance; and if extensively acted upon, would be so very + hostile to the public interests, that it would have to be put down + by legislative interference." We should think that there could not + be much chance of successful legislation if it were based upon + such arguments as the foregoing; and successful it was not. + + [196] _Hansard_, vol. clxxv. p. 479. + + [197] "Seriously speaking," said another writer, who signed, "One + well behind the Scenes," in the _Times_ of 18th February, and had + been indulging in all kinds of pleasantry on the impossibility of + the Government undertaking Life Insurance, "if Mr. Gladstone must + go into business, he had better take an easy business first, and + have Government ginshops at one corner of the street, and + Government tobacco-shops at the other, and leave the delicate + matters of Assurance for the present." + + [198] The _Times_ and the _Daily Telegraph_. + + [199] Between 8,000 and 9,000 of these Societies have failed since + the passing of the Friendly Societies Act. It has been calculated + that about 100 Societies fail in each year. + + [200] _Hansard_, vol. clxxii. p. 1581. + + [201] _Hansard_, vol. clxxiv, p. 1474. + + [202] Both Tables and Regulations may be obtained quite easily at + any Post Office opened for the transaction of this business, and + an Abstract of the Regulations, entitled _Plain Rules for the + guidance of Persons desiring to Insure their Lives or to purchase + Government Annuities_, has been and still is distributed widely, + and may be had gratis from any postmaster or letter receiver. + + [203] Thus, at the age of thirty, a person with 8_l._ 14_s._ 9_d._ + to spare may buy an assurance of 20_l._ to be paid at death. Two + or three years afterwards, and after a prosperous interval, he may + be disposed to increase that amount to 25_l._, 40_l._, or 50_l._ + Suppose the latter sum, and he has attained the age of + thirty-three, he pays down another sum of 13_l._ 13_s._ 10_d._, + and then finds himself insured by these two single payments in the + sum of 50_l._ whenever death may occur. Of course he may stop + here; but he may also, if he thinks fit, go on adding, at such + intervals and in such amounts as may best suit his convenience, to + his original policy, till at last it acquires the value of 100_l._ + + [204] Many postmen and rural letter-carriers are insured in this + way for a sum of 100_l._ + + [205] It will be remembered that under the Act 16 and 17 Vict., c. + 45, a person could only insure his life on condition that he + purchased an annuity. It is not so generally known that in the + course of eleven years not one proposal for this twofold contract + was ever received. It is not a little remarkable that now, this + arrangement being no longer compulsory, one in every hundred + proposers for Life Insurance also proposes for the purchase of an + Annuity. + + + + + CHAPTER XI. + + CONCLUDING CHAPTER. + + "And when I shall go to my account, and the great + Questioner whose judgments err not, shall say to me, 'What + didst thou with the lent talent?' I can truly answer, + 'Lord, it is here; and with it all that I could add to + it--doing my best to make little much.'"--EBENEZER ELLIOTT. + + +The above words of the brave Corn Law Rhymer refer of course to far +higher duties than any with which we have dealt in this volume. That +application may be made of them even to our present subject is +nevertheless clear, and we leave the thoughtful reader to make it. +Real economy and frugality are virtues, and as such are inculcated in +the Christian code; neglect of them is condemned both by the moral and +the religious code. Christ expressed the very spirit of economy, care +of little things, a prudent thrift, and avoidance of all waste, when +after miraculously feeding the multitude in the desert He instructed +His disciples to "gather up the fragments that remain, that nothing be +lost:" and it is at least noteworthy, that this injunction immediately +followed another, wherein He warned the same men against the greed of +life, telling them that a man's riches did not consist in the +abundance of his possessions. + +This may be perhaps a very fitting opportunity to say that a great +deal depends upon the motive and the object for which such virtues are +cultivated; that it is very possible to attach far too great an +importance to mere habits of saving: the motive for saving may at +times be vicious, and the purpose for which and the manner how the +hoards once scraped together may be applied, more vicious still. This +is so palpable that we need not dwell upon the subject. Not less so is +the wise medium course to be followed. The difference between those +who cultivate and those who neglect frugal and economical habits may +be expressed simply in the former having bread enough and to spare, +and the latter having bread for to-day--and not always that--but none +for to-morrow. It is by the capacity of looking forward in the present +moment to the possibilities of to-morrow that the civilized man is +distinguished from the savage; it is by the readiness with which +provision is made for possible emergencies that the wise man is +distinguished from the fool. Real economy, aided by prudence, is a +virtue. Cicero says that "the best source of wealth is economy;" but +it is also the best source of comfort, self-respect, and independence. +Prudence thinks of an adverse season amidst the prosperity of a good +one; and Economy arranges for the bad time. Prudence thinks of two +very possible and one certain contingency in the life of every human +being; and Economy weighs the chances well and provides for the +worst--it provides for the incidence of failing health, and for the +chances of losing, through one of the many eventualities of life, +worldly position, or the means of breadwinning; and it also does +something to provide for that time when the anxieties, the joys, and +the sorrows of life shall be hushed in death. + +It is well, therefore, and it is almost indispensable, that these +habits should be cultivated; it is well also, and quite indispensable, +that means and provisions should be used to this end. The first stone +which the learned Wotton refers to in the motto on the first page of +this volume, is without doubt the first act in the habit of economy; +and we have been endeavouring throughout the course of this history to +point out with some approach to accuracy the exact spot where a person +may lay this indispensable "first stone," where he may probably best +lay the second or third, and how possibly he may commence with the +superstructure. + +Savings Banks and the other provident measures of which we have spoken +are principally to be regarded as preliminary means, the first or +stepping-stones to higher things. When a man has become, for example, +a depositor in any of the numerous kinds of Savings Banks, he has only +taken, as it were, the first step on the road to competence; but one +step leads to another.[206] A very slight knowledge of human nature +will show that when once a man gets his foot upon the round of the +social ladder, and keeps it there till he is secure of his footing, he +is soon ambitious of taking the next step. So true is this regarded, +that in common parlance many kinds of journeymen are said to have made +their fortune when they have saved their first pound. When George +Stephenson's wages were raised to twelve shillings a week, he declared +"he was now a made man for life;" when he had saved his first guinea, +he proudly said to one of his mates, that he "was now a rich man." And +in one sense he was right; he had taken the first step; and further, +"The man who," says Mr. Smiles, "after satisfying his wants, has +something to spare, is no longer poor." + +We have said that Savings Banks are preliminary means. We think, +however, that they are the _safest_ initiatory steps that could be +taken by those of the labouring classes who wish to rise from small +beginnings to those higher things spoken of.[207] Thousands of people +of small means are content with them; with the Savings Bank they +begin, continue, and end, and many of them have had reason to +congratulate themselves upon having taken such a course: they have +been saved endless trouble and disaster, have in the great majority of +instances felt that their earnings were safe, that the profits were +not going up and down like those of their neighbours, but were always +steady, always to be relied upon, and always calculable to a penny. +That these returns are really not so insignificant as many suppose, +and that if small earnings are allowed to accumulate at compound +interest they must make a decent provision against the winter of life, +the following case will demonstrate.[208] The late Mr. Thomas Allen of +Gledholt, Huddersfield, on the 28th of March, 1818, gave to each of +his seven servants a sovereign to become depositors on the opening of +the Huddersfield Savings Bank. On that day Esther Sykes became a +depositor to the extent of 1_l._ + + She continued to deposit the Savings from her wages £ s. d. + from that time to the 21st of July, 1828, amounting to 119 11 0 + Interest accruing from 1818 to 1828 30 9 0 + --------- + 150 0 0 + ========= + This sum of £150 being allowed to accumulate by interest + until 1836 became 200 0 0 + --------- + From 1836 interest on this sum had to be withdrawn + half-yearly, which from 1836 to 1863 amounted to 160 9 8 + --------- + Esther Sykes died March, 1863, aged 78, and her + executors received from the Bank the sum of 200 0 0 + ========= + +Thus in this interesting case the cash deposited at different times +amounted to 119_l._ and the total amount of interest on that sum was +240_l._, of which 160_l._ was paid to the depositor herself during her +lifetime, and 200_l._ to her executors. It is not a little curious, +nor is it surprising, that five of the relatives and legatees of this +Esther Sykes should have gone to the Huddersfield Savings Bank to +deposit the money left to them. + +Of the other promising provident measures adapted to the requirements +of the industrious classes, the most important, but at the same time a +somewhat hazardous one, is that of co-operative societies. These +societies, though beset with difficulties, are doing a good work in +many localities. The stronghold of the system, be it remembered, is in +a town where, owing to the cupidity of the manager of the Savings +Bank, the savings of years were swallowed up, and, in consequence, +habits of accumulation in this form were rooted out from among the +people. The co-operative principle can be directly traced to the +wide-spread distrust created by this gigantic and far-reaching fraud. +It remains now to be seen whether a higher intelligence and a greater +power of self-government than is generally found in large associations +of working men will not be indispensable to the progress of these +societies. Personally, we have little hesitation in affirming that the +real progress of these classes will be safer, and not only safer but +quicker, if the bulk of them will leave combined enterprises of this +nature to those of their fellows who have already saved money enough +to enable them not only to enter into such business, but to lose in +the venture. Once a man has run up an account in any of the people's +banks--whether the old or the new banks does not make much +difference--he might, and perhaps ought to risk a proportion in such +societies, which, where properly and prudently managed, are very +beneficial to all connected with them.[209] + +The same remarks apply to Building Societies to a great extent; though +here perhaps there is little of the risk which besets all kinds of +large and small joint-stock companies. Unfortunately, however, the +working-class element, which was prominent at the origination of +building clubs, is being rapidly eliminated from them in most +localities, and almost everywhere the tradesman class predominates.[210] +The working classes, if they have not been saving their earnings for +years, cannot command and pay, with that regularity necessary in such +enterprises, the instalments due; and hence they either do not venture +to join at all (except where the club is on a very small scale), or if +they do, they ultimately withdraw from them.[211] + +Fifty other different objects might be mentioned for which the working +classes require the means of accumulating the trifles they can save +with the object of employing some of the money on higher kinds of +investments when it has amounted to a good round sum; the purchase of +a cottage, of an annuity, of a life insurance policy, are only a few +of them. In this way the Savings Bank not only assists the industrious +classes by offering machinery expressly fitted for their present +advantage, but does an equally beneficial work in leading them on +safely to higher and more important investments. + +Let it be granted that Savings Banks fulfil all, or most, of the +conditions which we have assigned them and ask for them, what then +remains to be done to make their advantages better known, and to bring +them still more within the reach of those classes for which they are +specially designed, and to which they are specially applicable? It may +indeed be questioned whether, having provided the facilities, society +should not now leave the matter where it is, to the operation of +advancing intelligence, to the growth of economical knowledge, and to +the increase in the experience of the poorer classes. Working men are +tired, and to our own knowledge have long been, of hearing of +societies and organizations for their elevation;[212] they know +perfectly well that their "elevation"--for which no doubt too few of +them care--must begin, continue, and end in themselves. The better +class of workmen laugh at many schemes designed for their benefit; and +although there may be odd instances of men who seem not to be above +being turned into an "object," it is simply repellant to the great +bulk of them.[213] + +A working man, though he may not like to be "raised," may like to be +advised how he can best help himself: and such advice is quite +necessary and legitimate under certain conditions and in certain +circumstances. It altogether depends, it appears to us, upon the +person who does it and the manner in which it is done. First and +foremost it seems to be not only necessary but right that masters of +workmen should endeavour to influence those under them; that they +should-- + + "Relinquishing their several 'vantage posts + Of wealthy ease and honourable toil"-- + +do something to direct aright those energies from which they have +benefited, and which if rightly developed may also in time lead their +possessors to comfort, to reputation, even to wealth. A master's duty +to his workmen, as we remember to have seen it expressed somewhere, +scarcely ends when he pays them their wages. The men may be thoroughly +independent, and after accomplishing their stipulated work may be, and +feel that they are, their own masters: but there are nevertheless +divers opportunities for masters, without claiming or assuming +superiority, to benefit those employed under them. The master is +pretty generally under the pressing responsibility of superior +knowledge and greater experience; and he who sees how the worldly +position of his men can be _safely_ improved, and does not at least +attempt to suggest or help to this improvement, can scarcely be said +to fulfil the duties of his position. An employer may, indeed, be too +conscious of his dignity, and, standing on the lofty pedestal reared +for him or which he has reared for himself, throw down with a lavish +hand bounties upon his men; and they will not be accepted, and perhaps +ought not to be: but let him show a personal interest in them, +prudently advise them, "show a wisdom that shall bridge the gulf" that +separates the two, and he will not only do much to destroy the +feeling, which has become almost instinctive among workmen, that the +master is somehow selfishly acting for his own ultimate benefit, but +he will awaken a confidence, become the object of the men's esteem, +and wield an enormous influence over them. + +Let so much as this be granted, or even let part of it be granted, +employers of labour may not only turn their thoughts to such schemes +for savings as we have been engaged upon, but they may easily arrange, +in conjunction with the proper authorities, branch schemes such as +described in the last two chapters, to be suited to the varying +circumstances of the case. If they are convinced of the benefits of +the one, let them advise; if they wish to give reasonable help, let +them act. + +Without reference, however, to the Government schemes just referred +to, the State sets an admirable example to all large employers in the +provident arrangements which have been made for public officers; and +we think there must be much in the provisions in question which might +be turned to good account in, and be made applicable to, large private +concerns. Few Government _employés_ should ever come to beggary; if +they have not been prematurely cast aside, either by wilful misconduct +or gross carelessness on their own part, they cannot come to the +parish: further, great numbers of them are assisted to make provision +for their families at their death. Nearly all Government servants may +be said to have bargained with their masters at the time they entered +the service, not only for a fair day's wage for a fair day's work, but +for nearly all the provisions of a Friendly Society during sickness; +for a Deferred Annuity when they are past work, or after a certain +age; and in some instances--it ought to be in all--for assistance +towards insuring their lives for the benefit of their family. It were +idle to say that none of these considerations enter into the original +contract, and have had no influence on the scale of remuneration paid +for actual work; it were far more to the point to say that departments +of Government compel their servants to be provident and to prepare; +for sickness, old age, and death, and make it involuntary in the case +of sickness and old age, by taking the necessary payments upon +themselves. + +Of the scheme of Life Insurance at present in force in the Post +Office, for example, we spoke in the previous chapter. With regard to +sickness, a certain time is allowed for full pay; another definite +period for half-pay. In respect to Superannuation Allowances, which we +have termed the Deferred Annuities, it is true that at one time civil +servants were required to pay towards it out of their salaries; but +this has been discontinued by Act of Parliament, and the present +arrangement may simply be considered as a small rise in the rate of +wages--the deduction being compulsory on all classes alike. + +Why should not a similar plan, or at any rate the principle of it, be +urged upon private employers? Spite of some of the difficulties which +would at once present themselves, we believe that there is little +impracticable about it, and little that might not be surmounted. Even +if it should be found impossible to apply such arrangements to many +concerns, there is still the admirable machinery designed in connexion +with the Annuities Act of 1864; and we again commend the plan to the +attention and candour of large employers. + +We think that to a very large extent the influence which masters must +exercise over their workmen, or which they could not fail to exercise +if they were to show a proper degree of interest in their +subordinates, has never yet been exercised. If reason, persuasion, +entreaty of a certain kind, alike fail--as they may often have +done--to induce saving habits and due provident provision for +themselves and families, we confess a difficult problem presents +itself. This difficulty has been felt for years. Forty years ago the +_Quarterly Review_, in an able article, said that Savings Banks ought +to have formed a sinking fund before that time for the abolition of +poor rates: "If the present state of things continues," says the +writer, "it should become a question whether the master ought not to +deposit in the Savings Bank at least a shilling in the pound of all +wages paid by him, to be placed to the account of the individuals whom +he employs." Several times since this was written, the _Quarterly +Review_ has returned to the charge. For many years our system of Poor +Laws has rigidly assessed property for the relief of poverty, and +secured the necessaries of life for all the destitute, no matter how +largely they themselves may have been answerable for their destitute +condition. With some beneficial changes the law stands the same, and +is scrupulously enforced. + +It is very clear that many men's wages are so high in good times, +that, if they worked steadily and lived with moderation, they might +easily reserve out of them a fund of supply against times of want, +which would carry them through till their trade revived. The immense +power in the hands of the working classes to promote their own +self-dependence is illustrated by the enormous sums spent by these +classes alone in mere indulgence; and it is shown again, in the +immense funds raised amongst them to support combinations and strikes. +That thousands will not use the means they have is proved by their +excesses, their prodigality, the recklessness of their expenditure, +the division of the days of the week into days of work and days of +gross and obstinate idleness; and in much of this--regarding the +result which follows to themselves, their wives and families, if they +have the misfortune to have them--there is perhaps more real +delinquency than in many of the crimes for which penal statutes have +been framed. + +The question is at any rate admissible, whether the same power which +can order a compulsory payment of rates to support the poor, might +not, and ought not, to restrict the means by which men are made and +kept in poverty; or whether the same laws which make the frugal +support the improvident should not also compel the improvident to do +something to support themselves. This _principle_ is indeed recognised +by Government, as we have already shown, in the arrangements made for +its own servants; it is therefore not a question so much of principle +as of _degree_, and whether the Government should insist on a measure +of coercive contribution applying to others beyond their control. "I +have often thought," said the late Mr. J. Silk Buckingham, in a letter +now before us, "it would be perfectly wise and just to pass a law +compelling all employers of labour of every class, age, and sex, to +deduct five per cent. from the wages or salaries of all in their +employ, to be invested in the Government funds for a Deferred Annuity +after sixty years of age, giving power to the labourers themselves to +make further additions as they saw fit on the voluntary principle. If +it should be said that no Government has a right to make people +provide for themselves by force of law, I am sure they have as great a +right to do this as to make the honest, sober, and industrious part of +the people pay in poor rates and taxes for maintaining paupers and +criminals, who have become so chiefly through want of prudential +conduct in youth."[214] + +Finally, it is upon those who will not, and cannot by any available +means, be brought to apply the remedy of provident investments during +the heyday of life for themselves, that we think some such arrangement +as that upon which the Government insists on employing civil servants, +should be brought to bear, and that, only as a _dernier ressort_, our +Legislature should consider whether it were not possible, and within +its province, to apply a more complete and direct remedy by force of +law. Formidable obstacles, we repeat, may be imagined, and actually +would be experienced, in either case; but they could easily be +smoothed by the fifty years' experience which the country has had of +Savings Bank management and the conduct of provident schemes +generally, and they may very possibly be entirely removed by the +far-reaching, simple, ancillary measures of the last four years. + + + [206] "To save money," says Mr. Greg, "and to have invested it + securely, is to have become a capitalist. To have become a + capitalist is for the poor man to have overleaped a great gulf; to + have opened a path for himself into a new world; to have started + on a career which may lead him, as it has led so many originally + not more favoured by fortune than himself, to comfort, to + reputation, to wealth, to power." + + [207] "I have studied the matter to the core, and it has resulted + in a firm conviction, that were all the many valuable schemes + which have been devised for ameliorating the condition of the + masses conjoined, for safely, surely, and reasonably meeting the + exigencies of every-day life, the Savings Bank single-handed would + outvie them all."--Mr. James Frame's _Tracts on Savings Banks_. + + [208] We are indebted to Mr. Sikes of Huddersfield for the + particulars of this case. + + [209] Mr. W. B. Chorley, author of a _Handbook of Social + Intercourse_, &c. &c. was asked his opinion on co-operative + societies, that opinion to be inserted in the _Co-operator_, the + Society's organ. Mr. Chorley gives it very candidly, the Editor + with equal candour giving it insertion. "The working man's + earnings should be absolutely safe. Post Office Savings Banks are + the only means of deposit which I am warranted in unconditionally + recommending under all circumstances. I am far from saying that in + peculiar cases and districts the workman may not act judiciously + in joining co-operative stores; but it cannot be extended beyond a + certain point with success, and I fear that any attempts to push + or rapidly extend the plan over a large area will prove a mistake + ending in failure and loss." ... Mr. Smiles in his _Workmen's + Earnings, Strikes, and Savings_, a reprint of articles from the + _Quarterly Review_, and Mr. Greg in his _Provident Investments_, a + reprint of an article in the _Edinburgh Review_, express similar + views on the co-operative principle as applied exclusively to the + working classes as those we have quoted from Mr. Chorley. + + [210] The first Benefit Building Society which can be traced was + founded in 1815 under the auspices of the Earl of Selkirk. It was + a village club composed of some working men in Kirkcudbright, in + Scotland. Other institutions of a similar kind followed, and were + called "Menages," and soon afterwards the principle was introduced + into England. In 1836 the first Act was passed with regard to + them. + + [211] "A Building Society of which I am a trustee started some + five years ago with a considerable majority of working men; but in + the course of its operations (on looking over the list to-day) I + find there are very few who can be strictly called working men + left. The punctuality of the payments, the fines, and those + arrangements which are essential to the proper working of a + society, acting upon men who are occasionally thrown out of + employment, and without means altogether, have compelled them to + withdraw themselves."--_Evidence of Mr. W. Cooper. Committee on + Provident Investments._ 1850. + + [212] A large volume might be compiled which should simply give a + bare indication of the aims of such schemes and societies, + including one set forth in a MS. volume which we have seen in the + British Museum, entitled, _Greevous Grones for the Poore, done by + a Wellwisher_, down to the latest benevolent scheme, and its list + of patrons beginning with an Archbishop and ending with the + Squire. + + [213] Savings Banks are not free from an amount of patronizing, + which is only very rarely appreciated by the workman, though it + may delight the very small shopkeeper class. Mr. Boodle, in his + examination before a Savings Bank Committee, in 1849, thought fit + to relate a very ludicrous instance of this, which, though told to + show the amount of confidence reposed in the names of some + trustees, really proves something very different. "At one time," + says Mr. Boodle, "the late Lord Spencer was attending as manager, + and a depositor put in a sum of money; he looked at his book when + it was returned to him, and finding the name of 'Spencer,' asked + the actuary who it was. The actuary replied 'Lord Spencer.' The + man said, 'You do not mean that this is Lord Spencer?' When + reassured, he said, 'Then I will give another sovereign,' and + actually did put in another sovereign." This must have been a + red-letter day in this person's history, though it reasonably + admits of doubt whether the incident would be matter of personal + gratification to Lord Spencer, the wise and excellent Lord Althorp + of the Lower House. + + [214] "For the last twelve years," says a living practical + philanthropist, "I have been considerably engaged in the + administration of Poor Law Relief. I could not disguise from my + reluctant notice the painful fact of how large and overwhelming a + percentage of applicants for relief had been, for long periods of + their life, in the habit of earning wages, the surplus of which + remaining over and above the cost of their maintenance, would, if + properly invested, have secured them an honourable independent + subsistence for the unproductive residue of their lives. Their + frugal contemporaries, whom they scandalized by their example (and + it might have been said, derided for what they considered their + meanness), they further tax with the burden of their subsistence. + They commit a constructive injustice upon their more provident + fellow-citizens; and when society inveighs against the gratuitous + pauper, not because he is poor, but because he has viciously made + himself so, society is not unjust in such a retaliation upon its + trespassers. The gracious law of England, which makes the Poor Law + compulsory, would deal with scarcely more than even-handed justice + were it to compel some kind of club payment too. And if it were an + infringement of the liberty of the subject to compel my neighbour + to support a club, it is an infringement of my liberty to compel + me to support my neighbour."--MELIORA, _edited by Viscount + Ingestre_, vol. ii. + + + + + APPENDIX. + + (A.) + + _An Abstract of the Provisions of Mr. Whitbread's Bill, as amended + by Committee_, "_for establishing a Fund and Assurance Office for + Investing the Savings of the Poor_." (1807.)[215] + + +This Bill provided that the _Office of the Poor's Fund_ should be +under the management and direction of so many Commissioners as his +Majesty should see fit to appoint under his royal sign manual; that +they should subscribe an oath to execute their powers and trusts +faithfully and honestly; that any two of them might together execute +the duties of the Office; and further, that the said Commissioners +might, with the approbation of the Lords of the Treasury, appoint some +person properly qualified to conduct the business, under the title of +Accountant, and also such cashiers, clerks, and servants as they +should find necessary. + +It provided, that any person who should subsist wholly or principally +by the wages of his or her labours should be entitled to the benefits +and advantages of this Office, under and subject to the following + + _Rules and Regulations of the Office of the Poor's Fund._ + +1. That any proper person may so pay to the Accountant, or remit +through the Post Office, any sum not exceeding five pounds. + +2. That no person remit or pay more than 20_l._ in any one year, nor +more than 200_l._ in the whole. + +3. That when any sum is remitted through the Post Office, the +Postmaster of the place from which the money is sent shall keep a +proper record of each transaction, and adopt such measures as the +Postmaster-General shall from time to time direct; and that each +Postmaster shall receive for his trouble, from the person paying in +the money, one penny in the pound upon the value thereof. + +4. That cash accounts with each person shall be opened in the +principal office in London, and that the money which may be paid or +remitted shall be laid out each week in the purchase of perpetual +annuities, the annuities so purchased to stand in the name of the +Commissioners of the Poor's Fund. + +5. That, after such purchase, the proportion of each person, from the +amount contributed, shall be credited in a stock account, he or she +being debited in the cash account for the sum expended. + +6. That the dividends as they become due be likewise carried to the +credit of the said persons; and on the sums amounting to ten +shillings, the same shall be payable to him or her. + +7. That the dividends may be allowed to accumulate, but principal and +dividends must not exceed 20_l._ in any one year, nor 200_l._ in all. + +8. That any person entitled to the annuities purchased in this manner +who may wish to sell the whole or part, will be allowed to do so on +signifying the desire personally, or in writing. In either case the +person shall be furnished with a form of request for the purpose, and, +when properly filled up and attested, the annuities shall be sold. + +9. That the sale of all annuities desired in one week shall be made on +some one day in the next. + +10. That after the sale the proportion due to each person shall be +carried to his or her cash account, and the money be payable +forthwith. + +11. That the Accountant shall make out and sign a warrant for the sums +called for, the person giving a receipt on the warrant when it is +paid. + +12. That persons entitled to the money may authorize in writing any +other person to receive the warrant, and after signing the warrant the +money may be paid to such other person. + +13. That any person residing beyond the limits of the two-penny post +(London) may have such warrant transmitted through the Post Office. + +14. That when a sum is paid to the cashier or other officer for the +purchase of annuities, a proper receipt shall be given; that when a +sum is transmitted through the post, the receipt shall be at once sent +through the post; and that when the money has been laid out in such +purchases as were ordered to be made, the certificates of such +purchases, with their amount and denomination, shall be sent to the +purchasers, or such other persons as they shall appoint. + +15. Provides for the investment of small surpluses, and the payment of +the dividends upon them. + +16. Provides that no payment, gratuity, or reward shall be allowed to +be made to any person employed in the Office of the Poor's Fund over +and above the regular salaries determined upon. + + * * * * * + +Other clauses of the Act provided that the expenses of the Office +should be defrayed by such sums as were secured by the dividend, +interest, and accumulations of the surplus arising from unclaimed +dividends, the remainder of the expenses being borne on the +Consolidated Fund. + + * * * * * + +With regard to _The Poor's Assurance Office_, the Bill provided for +the appointment of the principal conductor, who should be called "the +Actuary," in the same manner in which "the office of Accountant" was +to be created for the former business. + +It provided for the calculation of Tables, which Tables should produce +"sufficient funds to answer the payments to be assured, as well as the +charges and expenses of the establishment and management of such +Assurance Office;" that these Tables should be varied; that they +should be approved by the Lords of the Treasury, who should make them +public in such manner as they saw fit. + +The persons who were entitled to the benefits of the Poor's Fund +should also be entitled to the benefits of Assurance Office under the +following + + _Rules and Regulations of the Poor's Assurance Office._ + +1. That any person desirous of insuring his life shall deliver or send +the usual particulars to the Assurance Office. + +2. That in every case proof of age and proof of sound health should be +produced; the affidavits in each case to be sworn to before a Justice +of the Peace. + +3. That, in the case of any misrepresentation being proved in the +original proposals, the sums paid shall be forfeited. + +4. That the Actuary may require any persons proposing to insure to +attend personally at the Assurance Office, providing they live within +the limits of the London two-penny post. + +5. That no payment for any assurance, whether annually, half-yearly or +quarterly, shall be less than ten shillings. + +6. That no annual payment, nor the entire yearly amount of payments, +shall exceed five pounds; that no assurance shall be made for more +than 200_l._; or if a gross sum and an annuity shall both be assured +to the same person, the whole shall not exceed the value of 200_l._ + +7. Provides for fines for arrears according to the time which has +elapsed, and for renewing a policy which may have become void. + +8. That all money received shall be vested in transferable annuities, +as in the case of the Poor's Fund. + +9. Provides for payment on proof of death--the affidavit to be sworn +to before a Justice of the Peace. + +10. That the rules for the management of the Assurance Office, and the +remuneration to be paid to its officers, shall be settled on the same +basis as those for the Poor's Fund. + + * * * * * + +The Act then goes on to provide that the Commissioners shall be +empowered to frame rules for the guidance of the officers of each +Office; that the Commissioners to be appointed shall deliver to the +Governor and Company of the Bank of England a true and attested copy +of their commission of appointment; that this shall be their authority +for transacting business with the Bank, and shall be received and +admitted as evidence in all courts of law and equity, and before all +judges and magistrates, of the due and legal appointment of the +Commissioners, and authorizing them to exercise all the powers and +authorities granted to them under the Act. + +The Act then further provides that all dividends, &c., shall be +exempted from the tax on property, and from the stamp duty on probates +and letters of administration. + +That the policies and other instruments shall be exempt from stamp +duties. + +That all letters and packets shall be sent by or through the Post +Office, to or from either of the two departments, exempt from the +payment of all postage. + +The Act concludes by making provision for the punishment of forgery +and perjury. + + + [215] Referred to at some length at page 23, and other portions of + this work, where the preamble of the bill is given. + + + + + (B.) + + _An Abstract of the Provisions of the Consolidated Act of + 1863, entitled_ "_An Act to Consolidate and Amend the Laws + relating to Savings Banks_." (26 & 27 Vict. cap. 87.--28th + July 1863.) + + +_Sec. 1._ Provides for the Repeal of previous Acts and parts of Acts, +as set forth in the following Schedule:-- + + +------------+-------------------------------------+------------------+ + |Date of Act.| Title. | Extent of Repeal.| + +------------+-------------------------------------+------------------+ + |9 Geo. IV. | An Act to consolidate and amend | The whole. | + | c. 92. | the Laws relating to Savings | | + | | Banks. | | + | | | | + |3 Will. IV. | An Act to enable Depositors in | Sections 21, 22, | + | c. 14. | Savings Banks and others to | 25, 28, 29, 30,| + | | purchase Government Annuities | 31, 32, 33, 34,| + | | through the medium of Savings | and 35. | + | | Banks, and to amend an Act of | | + | | the Ninth Year of His late | | + | | Majesty to consolidate and | | + | | amend the Laws relating to | | + | | Savings Banks. | | + | | | | + |5 & 6 | An Act to extend to Scotland | The whole. | + | Will. IV. | certain Provisions of an Act | | + | c. 57. | of the Ninth Year of His late | | + | | Majesty to consolidate and | | + | | amend the Laws relating to | | + | | Savings Banks, and to consolidate | | + | | and amend the Laws relating to | | + | | Savings Banks in Scotland. | | + | | | | + |7 & 8 Vict. | An Act to amend the Laws relating | The whole. | + | c. 83. | to Savings Banks, and to the | | + | | Purchase of Government Annuities | | + | | through the medium of Savings | | + | | Banks. | | + | | | | + |11 & 12 | An Act to amend the Laws relating | The whole. | + | Vict. | to Savings Banks in Ireland. | | + | c. 133. | | | + | | | | + |17 & 18 | An Act to continue an Act of the | Section 2. | + | Vict. | Twelfth Year of Her present | | + | c. 50. | Majesty for amending the Laws | | + | | relating to Savings Banks in | | + | | Ireland, and to authorize Friendly| | + | | Societies to invest the whole of | | + | | their Funds in Savings Banks. | | + | | | | + |22 & 23 | An Act to enable Charitable and | The whole. | + | Vict. | Provident Societies and Penny | | + | c. 53. | Savings Banks to invest all their | | + | | Proceeds in Savings Banks. | | + | | | | + |23 & 24 | An Act to make further Provision | The whole. | + | Vict. | with respect to Moneys received | | + | c. 137. | from Savings Banks and Friendly | | + | | Societies. | | + +------------+-------------------------------------+------------------+ + +_Sec.[216] 2._ Provides that persons who may have formed or shall form +any society or institution of the nature of a bank to receive deposits +of money for the benefit of persons depositing the same, accumulating +at compound interest, and repayable when required, but, after the +necessary expenses have been met, deriving no benefit from such money, +shall have the benefit of this Act if they wish it. The conditions +annexed are, that such persons shall cause the rules and regulations +for the conduct of the business to be entered, deposited, and filed, +as shall be afterwards directed. + +Further, that no bank, the rules of which shall not be sanctioned and +approved by the National Debt Commissioners, shall be entitled to the +provisions of this Act. (_a_) + +_Sec. 3._ Savings Banks under the Act shall keep a book in which shall +be entered the rules of each bank, and these books shall be open at +all reasonable times to the inspection of depositors. When any of the +rules are altered, such alterations to be entered in the book. The +rules not to be in force till such alteration is made. (_a_) + +_Sec. 4._ Two written or printed copies of rules shall be sent by +Savings Bank trustees to the certifying barrister, who must certify +that they are according to law; the certificate of the barrister to be +paid for by a fee not to exceed one guinea; and the barrister, after +certifying the rules, to return one copy to the trustees and transmit +the other copy to the National Debt Commissioners. (_a_) + +_Sec. 5._ Every Savings Bank certified under the provisions of this +Act to bear the title of "Savings Bank certified under the Act of +1863;" any other bank, company, or person adopting this title, to be +declared guilty of a misdemeanour, and punishable accordingly. + +_Sec. 6._ Requires that the following regulations shall be adopted and +enrolled among the rules of all Savings Banks:-- + + (1) The treasurer, trustees, or managers shall not derive + any benefit from deposits, nor directly or indirectly have + any salary, allowance, profit, or benefit whatsoever + beyond their actual expenses for the purposes of the bank. + The expenses of management, including the remuneration to + paid officers, does not come within the meaning of this + clause. (_a_) + + (2) That not less than two persons, being trustees, + managers, or paid officers employed for this specific + purpose, shall be present on all occasions of public + business, and be parties to every transaction of deposit + and repayment, so as to form a double check of every such + transaction. + + (3) The depositor's pass book to be compared with the + ledger on every transaction of repayment and on its first + production after the 20th of November in each year. + + (4) The depositor to produce his book at least once in + each year for this examination. + + (5) No receipt to be taken or money paid except at the + bank and during the hours of public business. + + (6) A public accountant or auditor, not of their own body, + to examine the books of the bank, and to report the + result, not less than once in every half-year, and to + report to the committee of management the correct amount + of the liabilities and assets of the bank. + + (7) That a book containing an extracted list of each + depositor's balance, omitting the name, but giving the + distinctive number and separate amount of each, checked + and audited as above, be open during the hours of public + business for the inspection of any depositor. + + (8) The trustees or committee of management to hold + meetings at least every half-year, and keep minutes of + their proceedings in a book to be provided for the + purpose. + + (9) In the case of banks having branch agencies, the rules + to provide for the due receipt and accounting of all + moneys received; for the presence of a second party to + every transaction; and for a periodical examination of the + depositor's book. + +_Sec. 7._ Provides that the trustees of every Savings Bank shall +transmit weekly returns to the National Debt Office, giving such +particulars as the Commissioners shall direct, showing the week's +transactions and the cash balances remaining in the treasurer's hands. + +_Sec. 8._ The treasurer, actuary, or cashier, and every paid officer +of a Savings Bank entrusted with the receipt of money, to give +security by means of bond or bonds, with one or more sureties, to the +Comptroller-General of the National Debt Office. (_c_) + +_Sec. 9._ Provides that any officer receiving deposits and not paying +them over to the managers shall be guilty of a misdemeanour. (_c_) + +_Sec. 10._ The moneys, goods, chattels, and effects of all Savings +Banks to be invested in the trustees for the time being. (_a_) + +_Sec. 11._ No trustee or manager of Savings Banks in Great Britain +shall be personally liable except-- + + (1) For moneys actually received by him on account of said + banks and not paid over in the usual manner. + + (2) For neglect or omission to comply with the above + recited regulations as to the maintenance of checks, the + audit of accounts, the holding of meetings and the keeping + of the minutes of the same; + + (3) Or for neglect in taking security from his subordinate + officers. + +_Sec. 12._ Trustees or managers in Ireland may limit the amount of +their responsibility by declaring in writing that they are willing to +be answerable for a specific amount only, which shall not be less, +however, than 100_l._ At the same time Irish trustees, &c., to be +liable for amounts actually received by them and not accounted for. +(_d_) and (_e_) + +_Sec. 13._ Provides that the treasurer or any trustee may be required, +on a demand from not less than two trustees and three managers, or +from a meeting of trustee and managers, to pay over all the moneys +remaining in his or their hands, and assign and transfer or deliver +all securities and effects, books, papers or other property, to such +persons as may be appointed to receive them; proceedings to be taken +in case of any neglect or refusal to comply with the demand. (_a_) + +_Sec. 14._ Provides that executors, &c., of officers of Savings Banks +shall pay money due to Savings Banks, in case of death, bankruptcy or +insolvency, before any other debts whatsoever. (_b_) + +_See. 15._ The trustees of Savings Banks shall invest all the money +received by them in the Banks of England or Ireland; and no sum or +sums shall be paid or laid out by trustees in any other manner or upon +any other security whatever, except only such sums of money as from +time to time must remain in the hands of the treasurers of such banks +to answer the exigencies thereof. This provision not to prevent any +depositor withdrawing his money from a Savings Bank and investing the +same in any other securities. (_a_) + +_Sec. 16._ Provides that trustees of Savings Banks may receive money +from depositors and apply it for their benefit in any other manner +agreed upon. (_a_) + +_Sec. 17._ Provides that central banks may invest the money of branch +banks in the manner already described. (_a_) + +_Sec. 18._ Provides penalties for false declarations for the purpose +of paying money into the Banks of England or Ireland. (_a_) + +_Sec. 19._ The Commissioners of the National Debt to invest the money +paid into the bank in the purchase of bank annuities, Exchequer-bills, +or parliamentary securities of whatsoever kind created or issued, or +any stock or debenture guaranteed by authority of Parliament; the +interest arising from the money so invested to be in like manner +invested as above. (_a_) + +_Sec. 20._ Makes it lawful for any three or more National Debt +Commissioners to execute and to do all matters and things required by +the operations of this Act. (_b_) + +_Sec. 21._ Money invested with the Commissioners to be allowed +interest at the rate of three pounds five shillings per cent. per +annum. (_c_) + +_Sec. 22._ Interest due from the Commissioners to be calculated +half-yearly up to Nov. 20 and May 20, and carried to the account of +Savings Bank additional principal. No interest to be allowed on any +fractional part of a pound. (_a_) + +_Sec. 23._ Interest arising to depositors may be calculated yearly, or +twice a year, and carried to the principal. Interest to depositors not +to exceed three pounds and tenpence per cent. per annum. (_c_) + +_Sec. 24._ Trustees of Saving Banks to appoint an agent who shall be +authorized to receive money from the Commissioners for repayment to +depositors. The agreement for the appointment of this agent, signed by +two trustees, shall be deposited with the Commissioners; but it may be +revoked and another appointment made. + +_Sec. 25._ Trustees may draw for the whole or any part of the sum +placed in the hands of Government by drafts on Commissioners; interest +to be added by the cashiers of the bank. (_a_) + +_Sec. 26._ Drafts exceeding 5,000_l._ must be signed by four trustees, +and their signature must be attested by separate witnesses, who may be +managers or other creditable persons. Drafts for 10,000_l._ not to be +paid before fourteen days after the receipt of such drafts. (_a_) + +_Sec. 27._ Repayment of more than one draft of 10,000_l._ to any one +bank not to be made in any one day. (_a_) + +_Sec. 28._ Trustees may receive in person, instead of through the +usual agent, payment of drafts properly executed. (_a_) + +_Sec. 29._ The surplus after paying necessary expenses of banks to be +paid over to the Commissioners for investment in a separate account; +and trustees may draw upon such surplus fund for the purposes of the +Savings Bank by certificate. (_a_) + +_Sec. 30._ Deposits of minors may be taken, and repayment may be made +before the person has attained the age of twenty-one. (_a_) + +_Sec. 31._ Repayment to be made to a married woman who may have +deposited money, unless the husband of such woman shall give notice in +writing that he requires payment to be made to him. (_c_) + +_Sec. 32._ The funds of charitable societies, penny banks, &c., may be +deposited in Savings Banks; if with the approval of the Commissioners, +without any restriction as to the amount; and without that approval, +to the extent of 100_l._ per annum, or 300_l._ in this whole. (_e_) + +_Sec. 33._ The funds of any friendly society, legally enrolled and +certified, may be invested without any restriction as to amount, +provided a copy of the rules of such society is deposited with the +Savings Bank. (_d_) + +_Sec. 34._ The receipt of the treasurer, trustee, or other officer of +any such charitable institution, penny bank, or friendly society, +shall be deemed a sufficient discharge for any money deposited and +withdrawn from the Saving Bank. (_a_) + +_Sec. 35._ Members of friendly societies, penny banks, &c., may also +subscribe to any Savings Bank. (_a_) + +_Sec. 36._ No sum to be taken in a Savings Bank without the depositor +discloses his name, profession, business, and residence; these +particulars to be entered in the books of the office. (_a_) + +_Sec. 37._ Persons allowed to deposit as trustees on behalf of others; +but repayment can only be made with the receipt of the trustee and +also the person or persons for whom the trust account has been held. + +_Sec. 38._ Provides that it shall not be lawful for depositors in any +one Savings Bank to deposit in any other Savings Bank. A declaration +to this effect must be made at the time of the first deposit. The +penalty on a false declaration to be forfeiture to the sinking fund of +all deposits. The declarations to be filed, and a copy with the +penalty attached thereto to be annexed to, or printed in, the deposit +book. (_a_) and (_c_) + +_Sec. 39._ Deposits of more than 30_l._ cannot be received in any one +year, nor more than 150_l._ in the whole; and when principal and +interest together amount to 200_l._, interest shall cease till it is +brought below that sum. (_a_) This prohibition not to extend to +accounts opened before July 1828. A depositor may close his account +and make further deposits as a new depositor. + +_Sec. 40._ Depositors may transfer their accounts to any other Savings +Bank by means of transfer certificates, the form of which is presented +in _Appendix_ (C). + +_Sec. 41._ In the case of a depositor dying and leaving any sum +exceeding 50_l._ the money must not be paid except upon the probate of +the will of the deceased depositor, or letters of administration of +his or her estate and effects. No duty to be paid on probate when the +estate is under 50_l._, provided the person claiming such probate or +letters of administration produce a certificate of the amount of the +depositor's interest in the bank at the time of his death. _(a)_ + +_Sec. 42._ Administration bonds, &c., for effects not exceeding 50_l._ +sterling shall be exempted from stamp duty. _(a)_ + +_Secs. 43_, _44_, _45_. Make provision for payment when depositors die +without a will, to those who appear to be next of kin, &c. _(a)_ + +_Sec. 46._ Makes provision for payment on the death of an illegitimate +depositor according to the statute of limitations. + +_Sec. 47._ Adapts the provisions of the Act as to intestate depositors +to the law of Scotland. _(b)_ + +_Sec. 48._ Provides that any dispute arising between the trustees of +Savings Banks and any individual depositor or his representatives, the +matter in question shall be referred to the barrister appointed by the +Act, and "whatever award, order, or determination shall be made by the +barrister shall be binding and conclusive on all parties, and shall be +final to all intents and purposes without any appeal." _(c)_ + +_Sec. 49._ On being referred to, the barrister may inspect any book or +books belonging to the bank in question, and may administer oaths to +witnesses; false evidence to be perjury, and the offender prosecuted +and punished accordingly. _(c)_ + +_Sec. 50._ No powers of attorney given by trustees or depositors, no +drafts or orders, no instrument of appointment or instrument for the +revocation of any appointment, no determination or order of the +revising barrister, nor any other instrument whatever required to be +given, issued, signed, made, or produced in pursuance of this Act, to +be subject to or charged with any stamp duty or duties whatsoever. +(_a_) + +_Sec. 51._ Provides for the appointment of auditors in Ireland, whose +names shall be sent up to the National Debt Office without delay. +(_d_) + +_Sec. 52._ Every depositor in Ireland to be furnished with a +deposit-book which shall contain the rules of the bank printed at +length. A duplicate copy of the rules, and also of every annual +statement, shall also be exhibited from time to time in each Irish +bank, and shall be open to the inspection of every depositor. (_d_) + +_Sec. 53._ Provides for the regular inspection of the books of Irish +depositors, not less than twice every year. (_d_) + +_Sec. 54._ Commissioners may close accounts with Savings Banks in +Ireland which do not comply with their instructions, and re-open them +if they think fit. (_c_) In each case the Commissioners shall +forthwith publish a notification of the account being closed, or of +the account being re-opened, in the _Dublin Gazette_, and also in some +newspaper published in the county in which the said bank is +established. (_d_) + +_Sec. 55._ For the more effectually ascertaining from time to time the +actual and progressive state of all Savings Banks enrolled under this +Act, the trustees of every bank shall annually cause a general +statement of the funds of their bank to be prepared up to the 20th +November in each year, showing the balance or principal sum due to all +the depositors, a statement of the expenses incurred, stating in whose +hands such balance is then remaining. Such annual statement shall be +attested by two managers or trustees, or one manager and one trustee, +and countersigned by the secretary or actuary of such bank, and shall +be transmitted to the National Debt Office in London or Dublin (as the +case may be) _within nine weeks_ from the date above given. If +trustees neglect to transmit this account, or refuse to obey the other +orders or directions of the Commissioners, then it shall be lawful for +the Commissioners to close the accounts of such trustees who thus +transgress, and also lawful to re-open them if they see occasion. +(_a_) + +_Sec. 56._ If the accounts are not prepared and transmitted within the +prescribed time, it shall be lawful for the Commissioners to forthwith +publish in the _London Gazette_, and a newspaper published in the +county where the bank is situated, the name of such defaulting bank. +(_b_) + +_Sec. 57._ The Commissioners are empowered to call for a detailed +statement of all the expenses incurred in the management of any +Savings Bank. (_b_) + +_Sec. 58._ The treasurer of a Savings Bank must sign the annual +statement, where it is shown by that statement that any sum of money +belonging to the bank is in his hands. (_b_) + +_Sec. 59._ A duplicate of every such annual statement, accompanied by +a list of the trustees and managers for the time being, shall be +publicly affixed and exhibited in some conspicuous part of each +Savings Bank for the information of all depositing therein; and every +depositor shall be entitled to receive from the Savings Bank a private +copy of the annual statement on payment of one penny. (_a_) + +_Sec. 60._ The National Debt Commissioners shall, once in each year, +render the fullest account of all their dealings with Savings Banks to +the Lords of the Treasury, and copies of all such accounts shall be +laid before both Houses of Parliament. + +_Sec. 61._ A distinct account to be rendered in the same way, showing +the aggregate amount of the Separate Surplus Fund. + +_Sec. 62._ Savings Banks to compute interest on the 20th of May and +the 20th of November in each year. (_a_) + +_Sec. 63._ The Commissioners may keep a balance in the Bank of Ireland +under the title of "The Fund for the Banks for Savings," to meet the +drafts which may be drawn on account of Savings Banks in Ireland. +(_a_) + +_Sec. 64._ All receipts, orders, certificates, endorsements, accounts, +and returns required for carrying out this Act, shall be made in such +manner as shall be approved by the Commissioners. + +_Sec. 65._ This Act shall be a full and sufficient indemnity and +discharge to the Commissioners, and to the Governor of the Bank, &c. +for all things to be done or required to be done in pursuance of this +Act. (_a_) + +_Sec. 66._ Commissioners may employ a barrister and such officers as +may be necessary to the carrying out of the provisions of this Act, +and the Treasury shall pay them their remuneration, and meet +incidental expenses. (_a_) + +_Sec. 67._ This Act to apply to all Savings Banks (except those +mentioned in the next section) established or hereafter to be +established in England, Scotland, Ireland, or Wales; Berwick-on-Tweed, +the Islands of Guernsey and Jersey, and the Isle of Man. + +_Sec. 68._ This Act must not be held to repeal Acts relating to Post +Office Savings Banks, or any of the powers granted to the +Commissioners for the Reduction of the National Debt.[217] + + + [216] Many of the clauses of the Consolidation Act having been + taken entire from previous Acts, and only part of the provisions + being new, we propose to distinguish those clauses originally + passed in 1828 (9 George IV. c. 92) with the letter (_a_); those + passed 3 William IV. c. 14, by (_b_); in 1844 (7 and 8 Victoria, + c. 82) by (_c_); in 1848 (11 and 12 Victoria, c. 133) by (_d_); + and under 25 and 26 Victoria, c. 75, by (_e_). All the other + sections of this Act not so marked are new provisions introduced + in 1863. + + [217] We find from _The Clauses relating to the Establishment of + the proposed Bradford Corporation Savings Bank_, kindly forwarded + to us by Mr. Rayner, with whom the scheme originates, that + sections 3, 4, 6, 8, 9, 11, 14, 30 to 39 inclusive, 41 to 46 + inclusive, 48 to 50 inclusive, of the Consolidation Act are + proposed to be incorporated in the new Bill about to be introduced + into the House of Commons. The new clauses provide that the + Corporation may establish a Savings Bank, make regulations for its + conduct, appoint a Committee of the Council to manage the + undertaking, and a treasurer and other officers to work it; that + the aggregate amount of deposits shall not exceed a quarter of a + million sterling; that interest should be given at the rate of + three farthings per pound per month (or three pounds fifteen per + cent. per annum) that debentures shall be issued to depositors for + the amounts invested; and that when a person's deposits amount to + 50_l._, he may require a mortgage for that sum to bear interest at + four per cent. Other sections provide that the Corporation may + raise money by annuities, for the transfer of annuities, for the + exemption of deposits and annuities from property and income tax, + and for the remedies for depositors, mortgages, and annuitants, by + applying the Acts of 1855, 1858, and 1862, to them. We regret our + want of space to enter more fully into the details of this + important and promising scheme. + + + + + (C.) + + _Form of Certificate for Transfer from one Savings Bank to another, + or to any other description of Savings Bank._ + + +Savings Bank at_____________, in the county of__________. + +Whereas_____________of______________, a depositor in the above-named +Savings Bank, is desirous of closing his [or her] account with the +said bank for the purpose of transferring his [or her] deposits to the +Savings Bank at___________, in the county of_____________; and to +enable him [or her] so to do, the said depositor has applied for a +certificate of the whole amount due to him [or her], pursuant to the +Act (26 and 27 Vict. c. 87): we hereby certify that the sum due to the +said depositor for money deposited by him [or her] in this Savings +Bank, inclusive of all interest due to him [or her] at this date, +amounts to the sum of [_state the amount in words_], of which the sum +of [_state the amount, if any, in words_] has been deposited since the +twentieth of November last; and we further certify, that his [or her] +account with this Savings Bank has been closed by the issue of this +certificate. + +Witness our hands this_________ day of_________, 18____. + + _____________ } Two of the Trustees or Managers [appointed + } for this object, by the Trustees] of the + _____________ } above-named Savings Bank. + + Examined __________________________________ + + the Actuary or Secretary of the above-named + Savings Bank. + + + + + (D.) + + _An Abstract of the Act_ "_To make further provision for + the Establishment of Savings Banks for Seamen_." (19 and + 20 Vict. c. 41.--7th July, 1856.) + + +_Preamble._ Whereas by the Merchant Shipping Act, 1854, certain powers +were given to the Commissioners for the Reduction of the National Debt +for the purpose of establishing Savings Banks for Seamen; and whereas +it has since been found to be expedient that the immediate management +and control of such Savings Banks should be placed in the hands of the +Board of Trade. Be it enacted, &c. + +_Sec. 1._ That the Board of Trade may establish in London a central +Savings Bank for seamen, and branch banks at such ports or places as +they may deem expedient; and that they may receive deposits from or on +account of seamen, or their wives and children; and that the total +amount standing in the name of any one depositor shall not exceed +200_l._ + +_Sec. 2._ The Board of Trade may appoint shipping offices branch +Savings Banks under this Act, and shipping masters agents of the said +board to conduct this business. + +_Sec. 3._ The Commissioners of the National Debt shall receive the +moneys deposited in these banks on the request of the Board of Trade; +shall invest these moneys in the same way as they do the moneys of +other banks; and shall pay, together with interest, the sums received +on a request signified in the like manner. + +_Sec. 4._ Provides that the Board of Trade may make any alterations +which they think fit with respect to the persons entitled to become +depositors, the making and withdrawal of deposits, the rate and +payment of interest, or any other matter connected with these banks; +such regulations to be binding upon all. + +_Sec. 5._ Provides that all sums of money due to any deceased +depositor, shall be paid and applied subject to the conditions of the +provisions of the Merchant Shipping Act. + +_Sec. 6._ Provides that any person forging a document, or making false +representations in order to obtain deposits or interest, shall be +punishable with penal servitude or imprisonment. + +_Sec. 7._ The Board of Trade to pay all expenses in carrying out this +Act out of the interest received from the National Debt Commissioners. + +_Sec. 8._ An annual account of all deposits and repayments shall be +laid before both Houses of Parliament, as also a copy of all +regulations made for carrying out this Act. + +_Sec. 9._ All criminal proceedings under this Act to be carried on as +under the Merchant Shipping Act of 1854.[218] + + + [218] An Act for the establishment of Savings Banks in connexion + with the Admiralty, for the benefit of the seaman and marines of + the Royal Navy, has just been introduced into the House of + Commons, and will, doubtless, be quickly passed into law. + + + + + (E.) + + _An Abstract of the Act_ "_To Amend and Consolidate the + Laws relating to Military Savings Banks_." (22 and 23 + Vict. c. 20.--13th August, 1859.) + + +_Sec. 1._ Repeals the 5 and 6 Vict. c. 71, and the 8 and 9 Vict. c. +27, amending it, and the 12 and 13 Vict. c. 71, and amends and +consolidates the said Acts. It also provides that deposits made under +these Acts shall not be affected by their repealment. + +_Sec. 2._ Makes it lawful for her Majesty to establish or continue +military or regimental Savings Banks, for the purpose of receiving +sums of money from non-commissioned officers and soldiers employed in +her service in the United Kingdom and foreign stations (India alone +excepted), and for the purpose of receiving moneys or funds raised or +paid for objects or purpose connected with these officers and soldiers +which her Majesty may think fit to authorize to be deposited in these +banks. + +_Sec. 3._ Provides that the Secretary at War, with the concurrence of +the Commander-in-Chief and the Lords of the Treasury, may make +regulations for the conduct of these banks; and that when these +regulations shall be signed by her Majesty and laid before Parliament +they shall be binding on all concerned. + +_Sec. 4._ These regulations shall determine the rate of interest +(which must not exceed three pounds fifteen shillings per cent. per +annum), and all the minor points connected therewith; the +circumstances under which deposits shall be forfeited to the public; +the payment of the money of deceased depositors: may make provision +for the deposit of money created for charitable purposes, and may make +it obligatory on commanding officers to so deposit such funds; shall +make provision for the withdrawal of money; and shall provide for the +keeping of proper accounts, and generally for all such matters as +relate to Savings Banks. + +_Sec. 5._ The receipt of infants and married women shall be a sufficient +discharge for what shall be deemed a valid payment made to them. + +_Sec. 6._ The moneys received in these banks may be applied by the +persons receiving them to the payment of such ordinary army services +as it may be their duty to pay; and sums payable to depositors shall +be paid out of the grants by Parliament for these services. + +_Sec. 7._ Provides that the Secretary at War may direct payment out of +the moneys so granted to be made to the account of the National Debt +Commissioners, and carried to the account of the Fund for the Military +Savings Banks. + +_Sec. 8._ The Commissioners of the National Debt to invest the surplus +money in the purchase of bank annuities; the interest arising also to +be so applied; and such interest or dividends shall not be subject to +any taxes, charges, or impositions whatever. + +_Sec. 9._ The Secretary at War may direct, at fourteen days' notice, +the moneys invested in annuities to be transferred to the account of +the Paymaster-General at the Bank of England. + +_Sec. 10._ Empowers the National Debt Commissioners to sell the +annuities. + +_Sec. 11._ The money arising from the dissolution of certain +Regimental Benefit Societies, which was placed in the Savings Banks in +the name of each member to accumulate until his discharge, by the Act +(12 and 13 Vict. c. 71) may be withdrawn under certain conditions. + +_Sec. 12._ The officers of Regimental Savings Banks shall not be +personally liable except for their own wilful neglect or default. + +_Sec. 13._ Provides that full accounts of all transactions in these +banks shall be laid before both Houses of Parliament before the 1st of +April in each year. + +_Sec. 14._ Military Savings Banks not to be within the provisions of +the Acts relating to Savings Banks proper. + +_Sec. 15._ Refers to the construction of the word "India." + +_Sec. 16._ Provides that the Act shall take effect immediately after +the regulations have been framed. + + + + + (F.) + + "_An Act[219] to grant Additional Facilities for depositing + Small Savings at Interest, with the Security of the Government + for due repayment thereof._" (24 Vict. c. 14.--17th May, 1861.) + + + _Postmaster-General may direct Officers in Post Office + to receive Deposits._ + +1. It shall be lawful for the Postmaster-General, with the consent of +the Commissioners of Her Majesty's Treasury, to authorize and direct +such of his officers as he shall think fit, to receive deposits for +remittance to the principal office, and to repay the same, under such +regulations as he, with the concurrence of the Commissioners of Her +Majesty's Treasury, may prescribe in that respect. + + + _Legal Title of Depositor to Repayment._ + +2. Every deposit received by any officer of the Postmaster-General +appointed for that purpose shall be entered by him at the time in the +depositor's book, and the entry shall be attested by him and by the +dated stamp of his office; and the amount of such deposit shall, upon +the day of such receipt, be reported by such officer to the +Postmaster-General, and the acknowledgment of the Postmaster-General, +signified by the officer whom he shall appoint for the purpose, shall +be forthwith transmitted to the depositor; and the said acknowledgment +shall be conclusive evidence of his claim to the repayment thereof, +with the interest thereon, upon demand made by him on the +Postmaster-General; and, in order to allow a reasonable time for the +receipt of the said acknowledgment, the entry by the proper officer in +the depositor's book shall also be conclusive evidence of title for +ten days from the lodgment of the deposit; and if the said +acknowledgment shall not have been received by the depositor through +the post within ten days, and he shall, before or upon the expiry +thereof, demand the said acknowledgment from the Postmaster-General, +then the entry in his book shall be conclusive evidence of title +during another term of ten days, and _toties quoties_; provided always +that such deposits shall not be of less amount than one shilling, nor +of any sum not a multiple thereof. + + + _Depositors entitled to Repayments not later than Ten Days + after Demand made._ + +3. On demand of the depositor, or party legally authorized to claim on +account of a depositor, made in such form as shall be prescribed in +that behalf, for repayment of any deposit, or any part thereof, the +authority of the Postmaster-General for such repayment shall be +transmitted to the depositor forthwith; and the depositor shall be +absolutely entitled to repayment of any sum or sums that may be due to +him within ten days at farthest after his demand shall be made at any +Post Office where deposits are received or paid. + + + _Names of Depositors, &c., not to be disclosed._ + +4. The officers of the Postmaster-General engaged in the receipt or +payment of deposits shall not disclose the name of any depositor, nor +the amount deposited or withdrawn, except to the Postmaster-General, +or to such of his officers as may be appointed to assist in carrying +this Act into operation. + + + _Money to be paid to Commissioners for the Reduction of the + National Debt, and repaid to Depositors through Post Office._ + +5. All moneys so deposited with the Postmaster-General shall forthwith +be paid over to the Commissioners for the Reduction of the National +Debt; and all sums withdrawn by depositors, or by parties legally +authorized to claim on account of depositors, shall be repaid to them +out of the said moneys, through the office of Her Majesty's +Postmaster-General. + + + _Additional Security to Depositor._ + +6. If at any time the fund to be created under the authority of this +Act by the investment of the deposits shall be insufficient to meet +the lawful claims of all depositors, it shall be lawful for the +Commissioners of Her Majesty's Treasury, upon being duly informed +thereof by the Commissioners for the Reduction of the National Debt, +to issue the amount of such deficiency out of the Consolidated Fund of +the United Kingdom, or out of the growing produce thereof; and the +said Commissioners of Her Majesty's Treasury shall certify such +deficiency to Parliament. + + + _Rate of Interest payable to Depositors._ + +7. The interest payable to the parties making such deposits shall be +at the rate of two pounds ten shillings per centum per annum; but such +interest shall not be calculated on any amount less than one pound, or +some multiple thereof, and not commence until the first day of the +calendar month next following the day of deposit, and shall cease on +the first day of the calendar month in which such deposit is withdrawn. + + + _Interest, how calculated._ + +8. Interest on deposits shall be calculated to the thirty-first day of +December in every year, and shall be added to and become part of the +principal money. + + + _Investment of Funds received under this Act._ + +9. The moneys remitted to the Commissioners for the Reduction of the +National Debt, under the authority of this Act, shall be invested in +some or in all of the securities in which the funds of Savings Banks +established under the existing laws may be invested; and a separate +and distinct account shall be kept by the said Commissioners of all +receipts, investments, sales, and repayments; and a balance sheet of +such account, from the first of January to the thirty-first of +December in every year, shall be laid before both Houses of Parliament +not later than the thirty-first of March in every year. + + + _Depositors desiring to Transfer their Deposits._ + +10. If any depositor making deposit under this Act shall desire to +transfer the amount of such deposit to a Savings Bank established +under the Acts relating to Savings Banks, he shall, upon application +to the chief office of the Postmaster-General, be furnished with a +certificate stating the whole amount which may be due to him, with +interest, and thereupon his account under this Act shall be closed; +and, upon delivery of such certificate to the trustees or managers of +the Savings Bank to which it is proposed by the depositor to transfer +such deposit, they shall, if they think fit, open an account for the +amount stated in such certificate for such depositor, who shall +thereupon be subject to the rules of such Savings Bank; and the amount +so transferred shall, upon such certificate being forwarded to the +Commissioners for the Reduction of the National Debt, be written off +in the books of the said Commissioners from the amount of moneys +received under the authority of this Act, and shall be carried to the +account of the Savings Bank to which such transfer shall have been +made; and, in like manner, if any depositor in a Savings Bank, +established under the Savings Bank Acts, shall desire to transfer the +amount due to him, with interest, from such Savings Bank to the +Postmaster-General, for deposit under the provisions of this Act, the +trustees or managers of such Savings Bank shall, upon his request, +furnish such depositor with a certificate, in a form to be approved by +the Commissioners for the Reduction of the National Debt, signed by +two trustees of such Savings Bank, and thereupon his account with such +Savings Bank shall be closed, which certificate the depositor may +deliver to any officer of the Postmaster-General authorized to receive +deposits under this Act, and such certificate shall for the amount +therein set forth be considered to be a deposit made under the +authority of this Act, and being forwarded to the said Commissioners, +the said amount shall then be transferred in the books of the said +Commissioners from the account of the said Savings Bank to the credit +of the account of moneys deposited under the authority of this Act. +Provided always, that nothing contained in this Act respecting Savings +Banks shall render it necessary to have the rules and regulations of +any Savings Bank again certified if the same have been before +certified according to law. + + + _Postmaster-General, with consent of Treasury, to make + Regulations, copies of which to be laid before Parliament._ + +11. The Postmaster-General, with the consent of the Commissioners of +Her Majesty's Treasury, may make, and from time to time, as he shall +see occasion, alter regulations for superintending, inspecting, and +regulating, the mode of keeping and examining the accounts of +depositors, and with respect to the making of deposits and to the +withdrawal of deposits and interest, and all other matters incidental +to the carrying this Act into execution, in his department; and all +regulations so made shall be binding on the parties interested in the +subject-matter thereof, to the same extent as if such regulations +formed part of this Act; and copies of all regulations issued under +the authority of this Act shall be laid before both Houses of +Parliament within fourteen days from the date thereof, if Parliament +shall be then sitting, and, if not, then within fourteen days from the +next re-assembling of Parliament. + + + _Accounts to be laid before Parliament._ + +12. An annual account of all deposits received and paid under the +authority of this Act, and of the expenses incurred during the year +ended the thirty-first of December, together with a statement of the +total amount due at the close of the year to all depositors, shall be +laid by the Postmaster-General before both Houses of Parliament not +later than the thirty-first of March in every year. + + + _Accounts to be examined by Commissioners of Audit._ + +13. The annual accounts of the Postmaster General, and of the +Commissioners for the Reduction of the National Debt, to the +thirty-first of December in each year, in respect to all moneys +deposited or invested under the authority of this Act, shall annually, +prior to the thirty-first of March, in each year, be submitted for +examination and audit to the Commissioners for auditing public +accounts. + + + _Provisions of Savings Banks Acts applicable to this Act._ + +14. All the provisions of the Acts now in force relating to Savings +Banks, as to matters for which no other provision is made by this Act, +shall be deemed applicable to this Act, so far as the same are not +repugnant thereto. + + + _Expenses of Act._ + +15. All expenses incurred in the execution of this Act shall be paid +out of the moneys received under the authority of this Act. + + + [219] This Act is so short in proportion to its importance, that + it is here given entire. Many of the provisions of the + Consolidated Act (1863) apply to the banks established under this + Act. + + + + + (G.) + + ABSTRACTS OF MINOR ACTS OF PARLIAMENT RELATING TO + SAVINGS BANKS. + + + 26 _Victoria, c. 14, entitled_ "_An Act to Amend the Laws + relating to Post Office Savings Banks_," (4th May, 1863,) + provides:-- + +_Sec. 1._ For the transfer of the accounts of minors. + +_Sec. 2._ For the funds of a Savings Bank closing its business to be +paid over to the National Debt Commissioners, the money arising from +the sale of property to be carried to the separate surplus fund; the +receipt of the trustees on the sale of property to be a sufficient +discharge to the purchaser. The trustees of Savings Banks about to +close to have power to compensate their officers out of the separate +surplus fund. + +_Sec. 3._ The information necessary as to the steps to be taken when +the trustees of any bank have determined to close. + +_Sec. 4._ For the conversion of perpetual Government annuities at +three per cent. into capital stock at two pounds ten shillings per +cent. + +_Sec. 5._ Power to trustees to appoint managers to sign transfer +certificates. + +_Sec. 6._ That the warrants for converting annuities into capital +stock shall be laid before Parliament. + + + 26 _Victoria, c. 25, entitled_ "_An Act to make further + Provision for the Investment of the Moneys received by the + Commissioners for the Reduction of the National Debt from + the Trustees of Savings Banks established under the Act 9 + Geo. IV. c. 92_," (8th June, 1863,) provides:-- + +_Sec. 1._ For the cancelling of 24,000,000_l._ of capital stock of +annuities, and the creation of a charge on the Consolidated Fund for +that amount. + +_Sec. 2._ That the Treasury may cancel an additional amount of stock +not exceeding 5,000,000_l._ creating equivalent terminable annuities +chargeable upon the Consolidated Fund. + +_Sec. 3._ That the Commissioners may invest the interest payable on +the securities created under this Act, and other moneys remitted to +them, in the purchase of parliamentary securities, or in any stock or +debentures or other securities the interest for which is guaranteed by +Parliament. + +_Sec. 4._ That issues in money may be made out of the Consolidated +Fund on Savings Bank account on certificate from the National Debt +Commissioners. + +_Sec. 5._ That at least one half of the whole amount of securities +held for Savings Banks, exclusive of the amount of the charge on the +Consolidated Fund (Section 1), shall be parliamentary securities. + +_Sec. 6._ That every year the National Debt Commissioners shall +prepare a balance sheet giving the assets and liabilities in respect +to Savings Banks, to the credit of which shall be placed the amount of +the charge upon the Consolidated Fund for twenty-four millions and all +other moneys and securities of every kind; and that a copy of this +balance sheet be laid before Parliament each year. + +_Sec. 7._ That the deficiency shown shall be a charge upon the +Consolidated Fund. + +_Sec. 8._ That the powers of investment granted to the Commissioners +by other Acts, in so far as they are not varied by this Act, shall +continue in force. + + * * * * * + +"_The Savings Bank Investment Act_," which has just received the Royal +Assent (20th March, 1866), empowers the Treasury to substitute +terminable annuities for capital stock standing to the account of +Savings Banks and Post Office Savings Banks, and empowers the Treasury +to make rules as to payments to the National Debt Commissioners. The +Treasury is likewise empowered to cancel capital stocks of annuities, +and to substitute terminable annuities. The warrants issued by the +Treasury to the Bank of England to be a sufficient authority for the +cancelling of the stock. + + + + + (H.) + + FINANCIAL RETURNS, _giving the most recent information relating to + Savings Banks, Post Office Savings Banks, and Military Banks, + including the entire Amount of Deposits placed in each + kind of Bank from their commencement_. + + + SAVINGS BANKS AND FRIENDLY SOCIETIES. + + AN ACCOUNT of the Gross Amount of all Sums Received and Paid by the + National Debt Commissioners on account of Savings Banks and Friendly + Societies in Great Britain and Ireland from their commencement + (August, 1817) to the 20th of November, 1865, inclusive. + + ----------------------+---------------------+---------------------- + From August, 1817, to | Gross Amount of all | Gross Amount of all + 20th November 1865. | Sums received |Sums paid to Trustees, + | from Trustees, | including Interest. + | including Interest | + |up to 20th Nov. 1865.| + ----------------------+---------------------+---------------------- + | £ _s._ _d._| £ _s._ _d._ + _Savings Banks._ }| | + Great Britain }|90,179,614 18 9 |51,142,506 15 0 + & Ireland. }| | + | | + _Friendly Societies._}| | + Great Britain }| 5,509,975 4 3 | 3,594,271 4 11 + & Ireland. }| | + ----------------------+---------------------+---------------------- + TOTAL. }| | + Savings Banks and }|95,689,590 3 0 |54,736,777 19 11 + Friendly Societies.}| | + ----------------------+---------------------+---------------------- + + ----------------------+----------------------+--------------------- + From August 1817, to | Amount of Money, | Value of the + 20th November 1865. | Principal and | Securities held by + | Interest, due to | the Commissioners + | the Trustees | (Nov. 1865), + | (Nov. 1865), |at the Prices of that + | including | day, to provide for + | £302,030 8_s._5_d._ | the Money due + |due on account of the | to Trustees. + |separate Surplus Fund.| + ----------------------+----------------------+--------------------- + | £ _s._ _d._ | £ _s._ _d._ + _Savings Banks._ }| | + Great Britain }|39,037,108 3 9 |36,010,477 4 7 + & Ireland. }| | + | | + _Friendly Societies._}| | + Great Britain }| 1,915,703 19 4 | 1,071,198 3 6 + & Ireland. | | + ----------------------+----------------------+--------------------- + TOTAL. }| | + Savings Banks and }|40,952,812 3 1 |37,081,675 8 1 + Friendly Societies.}| | + ----------------------+----------------------+ + + Balance Deficient 3,871,136 15 0 + --------------------- + £40,952,812 3 1 + ===================== + + + POST OFFICE SAVINGS BANKS. + + AN ACCOUNT of the Sums due to all Depositors in Post Office Savings + Banks throughout the United Kingdom on the 31st March, 1865; of + the Expenses of Management of the Post Office Savings Banks to the + same date; of the Amount standing to the Credit of the Post Office + Savings Banks, on the same date, in the books of the Commissioners + for the Reduction of the National Debt; of the Balance in the + hands of the Postmaster-General at the same date; and of the + Amount of any Loss sustained by the Post Office Savings Banks from + the Frauds committed in the Transmission of Deposits, or otherwise. + + --------------------------------------------------------------------------- + LIABILITIES. + -------------------------------------------+---------------+--------------- + | £ s. d.| £ s. d. + Total amount of deposits, from 16th | | + September, 1861, to 31st March, 1865, | | + of the interest allowed and added to | | + principal on 31st December, 1861, | | + 31st December, 1862, 31st December, 1863,| | + and 31st December, 1864, and of the | | + interest allowed and paid on closed | | + accounts up to 31st March, 1865 |9,217,809 8 7| + | | + Deduct-- | | + Repayments to depositors, from 16th| | + September, 1861, to 31st March, 1866 |3,851,889 14 6| + +---------------+ + Total sum due to all depositors in the Post Office Savings | + Bank in the Savings Banks in the United Kingdom on the | + 31st March, 1865 |5,365,925 14 1 + Surplus of assets over liabilities | 41,000 2 1 + +--------------- + |5,406,925 16 2 + ===========================================================+=============== + ASSETS. + ------------------------------+------------+---------------+--------------- + | £ s. d.| £ s. d.| £ s. d. + Total amount of the sums paid | | | + by the Postmaster-General to| | | + the National Debt Commis- | | | + sioners for investment, and | | | + of the interest received on | | | + such investments, from 16th | | | + September, 1861, to | | | + 31st March, 1865 | |5,487,728 6 10| + | | | + Deduct-- | | | + Amount which has been repaid | | | + by the Commissioners for | | | + the Reduction of the | | | + National Debt, on account of| | | + 108,506_l._ 12_s_ 11_d_,[220]| | | + being the amount paid for | | | + the expenses of management | | | + of the Post Office Savings | | | + Banks from 16th September, | | | + 1861, to 31st March, 1865 |91,848 7 4| | + Amount of sums transferred | | | + from Post Office Savings | | | + Banks to Savings Banks | 5,255 19 5| | + +------------+ 97,104 6 9| + | +---------------+5,390,624 0 + Balance remaining in the | | | + hands of the Postmaster- | | | + General to be paid over for | | | + investment | | 29,147 15 9| + | | | + Deduct-- | | | + Amount of loss through the | | | + defalcations of a former | | | + postmaster of Beverley | 1,093 14 1| | + Amount of loss by the frauds | | | + committed by J. W. Thorne | 94 0 0| | + Amount of expenses of | | | + management paid by the | | | + Postmaster-General during | | | + the quarter ended 31st | | | + March, 1865; not recovered | | | + from the Post Office Savings| | | + Bank Fund at that date |11,658 5 7| | + +------------+ 12,845 19 8| + | +---------------+ 16,301 16 1 + | | +--------------- + | | |5,406,925 16 2 + ==============================+============+===============+=============== + + [220] According to the Parliamentary Paper No 523, 1861, it was + estimated that the cost of each transaction would be 7_d._ The + actual average cost of each transaction has been 6-7/8_d._ + + + MILITARY SAVINGS BANKS. + + AN ACCOUNT of the GROSS AMOUNT of all MONEYS Received and + Paid by the COMMISSIONERS for the REDUCTION of the + NATIONAL DEBT, and of the GROSS AMOUNT of STOCK BOUGHT and + SOLD by and Transferred To the Said COMMISSIONERS on + account of "The FUND for the MILITARY SAVINGS BANKS," + Pursuant To Act 8 & 9 Vict. C. 27, S 5, From the 19th + September, 1845, To the 5th January, 1866. + + --------------------+-------------+-------------+-------------+------------- + |Consolidated | Reduced | New | TOTAL + |£3 per Cents.|£3 per Cents.|£3 per Cents.| STOCK. + +-------------+-------------+-------------+------------- + | £ s. d.| £ s. d. | £ s. d.| £ s. d. + Transferred to | | | | + the Commissioners | | | | + by the | | | | + Paymaster-General | 15,062 18 8| | | 15,062 18 8 + | | | | + Purchased with | | | | + Money received | | | | + from the | | | | + Paymaster-General,| | | | + and with the | | | | + Amount of | | | | + accumulated Div- | | | | + idends received |104,394 17 7|91,979 8 11 |237,877 10 4|434,251 16 10 + +-------------+-------------+-------------+------------- + TOTAL STOCK | | | | + bought and | | | | + transferred |119,457 16 3|91,979 8 11 |237,877 10 4|449,314 15 6 + | | | | + TOTAL STOCK | | | | + sold by order | | | | + of Secretary | | | | + of State for | | | | + War | 78,118 5 10| | 16,118 0 8| 94,236 6 6 + +-------------+-------------+-------------+------------- + TOTAL STOCK at | | | | + the Account | | | | + of "The Fund | | | | + for the | | | | + Military | | | | + Savings Banks"| | | | + at 5th | | | | + January, 1866 | 41,339 10 5|91,979 8 11 |221,759 9 8|355,078 9 0 + +=============+=============+=============+============= + +---------------- + | CASH RECEIVED. + +---------------- + | £ s. d. + Total Sum received and applied by the Commissioners | + to the Purchase of 434,251_l._ 16_s._ 10_d._ £3 | + per Cent. Stock, as above |407,511 14 10 + | + Deduct the Value received for 94,236_l._ 6_s._ 6_d._ | + £3 per Cent. Stock, sold by order of Secretary of | + State for War | 88,458 8 5 + +---------------- + |319,053 6 5 + +================ + + W. E. GLADSTONE, C. of E.} + H. L. HOLLAND, Gov. } Commissioners. + THOS. N. HUNT, Dep. Gov. } + + National Debt Office,} A. Y. SPEARMAN, + 15 February, 1866. } _Comptroller-General_. + + + + POST OFFICE SAVINGS BANKS. + + AN ACCOUNT of all DEPOSITS Received and Paid under the + Authority of the Act 24 Vict. c. 14, during the Year ended + 31st December, 1865, and of the EXPENSES incurred from the + Commencement of Business, on 16th September, 1861, to 31st + December, 1865, together with a STATEMENT of the TOTAL + AMOUNT due at the Close of the year 1865 to all Depositors. + + + (_a._) + + ACCOUNT of all Deposits Received and Paid from + 1st January to 31st December, 1865. + + ---------------------------------+------------------------------------------- + £ s. d.| £ s. d. + Balance brought |By Repayments from 1st + forward 4,993,123 11 7| January to 31st December, + | 1865, viz.-- + To Cash received | + from Depositors | + from 1st | £ s. d. + Jan. to 31st | Cash paid 2,303,525 2 10 + December, 1865 3,719,017 13 4| Warrants + ---------------| issued, + 8,712,141 4 11| but not + To Interest | cashed + thereon up to | at date 15,085 11 7 + 31st December, | ---------------- + 1865, computed | 2,318,610 14 5 + according to | + 7th and 8th | + sections of the | + above-cited Act, |Balance due at the close of + and added to the | the year 1865 to all + Principal Money | Depositors, inclusive of + of the said | interest to 31st + Depositors 132,869 13 7| December, 1865 6,526,400 4 1 + ---------------| --------------- + 8,845,010 18 6| 8,845,010 18 6 + ===============| =============== + + + (_b._) + + EXPLANATION OF BALANCE. + + ----------------------------------------------------------------------- + £ s. d. + Balance due at the close of the year to all + Depositors 6,526,400 4 1 + =============== + Moneys remitted to the Commissioners + for the Reduction of the National + Debt, from 16th September, 1861, £ s. d. + to 31st December, 1864 4,800,900 11 8 + Ditto ditto from 1st January to 31st + December, 1865 1,402,789 16 2 + --------------- + 6,203,690 7 10 + Deduct:-- + Amount transferred from Post + Office Savings Banks, and + which has been written off + the account of Post Office + Savings Banks, at the + National Debt Office, + during the period from + 16th September, 1861, £ s. d. + to 31st December, 1864 4,210 1 4 + Ditto ditto during the + year ended 31st + December, 1865 2,698 17 11 + ------------ + 6,908 19 3 + --------------- + Net Amount lodged with the + Commissioners for the + Reduction of the National + Debt for investment 6,196,781 8 7 + + Add:-- + Interest accruing to Depositors up to + 31st December, 1865, including the + Interest which accrued up to + 31st December, 1864 310,755 16 9 + + Amount advanced on account of + Charges of Management, not + recovered until after + 31st December, 1865 14,535 10 11 + Balance remaining on 31st + December, 1865, to be + paid over for + investment 4,327 7 10 + -------------- + 18,862 18 9 + ------------ + 6,526,400 4 1 + =============== + + + (_c._) + + ACCOUNT of CHARGES of MANAGEMENT and of EXPENSES incurred for + POST OFFICE SAVINGS BANKS, from their Establishment + on the 16th September, 1861, to the 31st December, 1865. + + ------------------------------------------------------------------- + £ s. d. + Charges and Expenses for the period from + 16th September, 1861, to the + 31st December, 1864 91,848 7 4 + Charges and Expenses for the year ended + 31st December, 1865 49,526 13 10 + -------------- + 141,375 1 2[221] + ============== + + £ s. d. + The sum standing to the credit of the Post Office + Savings Banks Fund on the 31st Dec. 1865, at + the National Debt Office, was 6,582,329 11 7 + + And on the same day there was in the hands of + the Postmaster-General a balance of 4,327 7 10 + ---------------- + Making in all 6,586,656 19 5 + ================ + To meet a liability of £6,526,400 4 0 + ================ + + + [221] Of this sum, which includes the Allowances to Postmasters, + Letter Receivers, and others, for conducting Savings Bank + business, 126,839_l._ 10_s._ 3_d._ was recovered from the + Commissioners for the Reduction of the National Debt prior to 31st + December, 1865, and 14,535_l._ 10_s._ 11_d._ has since been + recovered from the Commissioners. + + General Post Office,} STANLEY OF ALDERLEY, + March, 1866. } _Postmaster-General_. + + GEORGE CHETWIND, + _Receiver and Accountant General_. + + A. C. THOMSON, + _Assistant-Controller of Post Office Savings + Banks_. + + + + + (I.) + + +As the last sheet of this work was passing through the press, the +Postmaster-General's Report for 1865, to which reference has already +been made, has been printed. The information therein given respecting +the progress of some of the measures which we have had under +consideration is so important in itself, as well as illustrative and +corroborative of our text, as to justify us in making the following +extracts. These extracts, which are here given in his Lordship's own +words, plainly show the deep interest he takes in those schemes, which +have all been commenced during his term of office, and carried out +under his immediate oversight and direction. + + + _Post Office Savings Banks._ + +The depositors in Post Office Savings Banks increased in number during +1865 at the rate of 29 per cent.; the total sum deposited increased at +the rate of 30 per cent. During the first part of the present year the +business has increased in a still greater proportion. In the first +nine weeks of 1865, the number of deposits was 258,917, and 48,777 new +accounts were opened; in the first nine weeks of 1866, 331,027 +deposits were made, and 58,472 new accounts were opened. "It is +evident, therefore," says Lord Stanley of Alderley, "that great as had +been the progress of the Post Office Banks up to the close of last +year, there are good grounds for expecting a greater progress +hereafter. And I am happy in being able to state, that the Scheme +which was framed for the conduct of the Post Office Savings Banks, +before any one of them was established, has been found to work well in +each and all of its parts, and to admit of any expansion of business, +no matter how great or how sudden that expansion of business may be. +The officers by whom this Scheme was framed calculated, as a matter of +course, upon a large and constant growth of business; but sudden +augmentations, arising from causes which could not be foreseen, have +been by no means unfrequent. In the first week of the present year, +for instance, no less than 10,000 new depositors entered the banks; +but even under such sudden and unexpected augmentations of business +the scheme of operations has been found to work well." + + +The following is a comprehensive Statement of the Business of POST +OFFICE SAVINGS BANKS from their commencement to the close of the Year +1865, of the Cost of that Business, and of the Funds in hand at the +close of each Year. + + +------------------------+--------------------------------------------------+ + | | PERIOD. | + | +--------------------------------------------------+ + | |From |From |From |From |From | + | |16th Sept|31st Dec.|31st Dec.|31st Dec.|31st Sept.| + | |1861, to |1862, to |1863, to |1864, to |1861, to | + | |31st Dec.|31st Dec.|31st Dec.|31st Dec.|31st Dec. | + | |1862. |1863. |1864. |1865. |1865. | + | | | | | | | + +--+---------------------+---------+---------+---------+---------+----------+ + | 1|Number of Post Office| | | | | | + | | Savings Banks at | 2,535| 2,991| 3,081| 3,321| 3,321| + | | close of Period. | | | | | | + +--+---------------------+---------+---------+---------+---------+----------+ + | 2|Number of Deposits | | | | | | + | | received during | 639,216| 842,848|1,110,762|1,302,309| 3,895,135| + | | Period. | | | | | | + +--+---------------------+---------+---------+---------+---------+----------+ + | 3|Total Amount of | £ | £ | £ | £ | £ | + | | Deposits received |2,114,669|2,651,209|3,350,084|3,719,017|11,834,979| + | | during Period. | | | | | | + +--+---------------------+---------+---------+---------+---------+----------+ + | 4|Average Amount of | | | | | | + | | each Deposit | £ s. d. | £ s. d.| £ s. d.| £ s. d.| £ s. d. | + | | received during | 3 6 2 | 8 2 11| 3 0 3| 2 17 1| 3 0 9 | + | | Period. | | | | | | + +--+---------------------+---------+---------+---------+---------+----------+ + | 5|Number of Withdrawals| | | | | | + | | during Period. | 97,294| 197,431| 309,242| 407,412| 1,011,379| + +--+---------------------+---------+---------+---------+---------+----------+ + | 6|Total Amount of | £ | £ | £ | £ | £ | + | | Withdrawals during | 438,637|1,027,154|1,834,849|2,318,610| 5,619,250| + | | Period. | | | | | | + +--+---------------------+---------+---------+---------+---------+----------+ + | 7|Average Amount of | £ s. d. | £ s. d.| £ s. d.| £ s. d.| £ s. d. | + | | each Withdrawal | 10 2 | 5 4 0| 5 18 8| 5 13 9| 5 11 1 | + | | during Period. | | | | | | + +--+---------------------+---------+---------+---------+---------+----------+ + | 8|Charges of Management| £ | £ | £ | £ | £ | + | | during Period. | 20,591| 25,401| 45,856| 49,627| 141,375| + +--+---------------------+---------+---------+---------+---------+----------+ + | 9|Average Cost of each | d._ | d. | d. | d. | d. | + | | Transaction, viz. | 6-7/10| 5-8/10| 7-7/10| 6-9/10| 6-9/10| + | | of each Deposit or | | [223]| [223]| | | + | | Withdrawal. | | | | | | + +--+---------------------+---------+---------+---------+---------+----------+ + |10|Number of Accounts | | | | | | + | | opened during | 205,928| 185,934| 226,153| 239,686| 857,701| + | | Period. | | | | | | + +--+---------------------+---------+---------+---------+---------+----------+ + |11|Number of Accounts | | | | | | + | | closed during | 27,433| 44,760| 74,964| 98,725| 245,882| + | | Period. | | | | | | + +--+---------------------+---------+---------+---------+---------+----------+ + |12|Number of Accounts | | | | | | + | | remaining open at | 178,496| 319,669| 470,858| 611,819| 611,819| + | | close of Period. | | | | | | + +--+---------------------+---------+---------+---------+---------+----------+ + |13|Total Amount standing| £ | £ | £ | £ | £ | + | | to credit of all |1,698,221|3,377,481|4,993,163|6,526,400| 6,526,400| + | | open Accounts, | | | | | | + | | inclusive of | | | | | | + | | Interest, to close | | | | | | + | | of Period. | | | | | | + +--+---------------------+---------+---------+---------+---------+----------+ + |14|Average Amount | | | | | | + | | standing to credit,| £ s. d. | £ s. d.| £ s. d.| £ s. d.| £ s. d. | + | | of each open | 9 10 3 | 10 11 4 | 10 12 1 | 10 13 4 | 10 13 4 | + | | Account at close | | | | | | + | | of Period. | | | | | | + +--+---------------------+---------+---------+---------+---------+----------+ + |15|Total Sum standing to| £ | £ | £ | £ | £ | + | | credit of Post |1,659,032|3,328,182|4,995,663|6,582,329| 6,582,329| + | | Office Savings | [222]| [222]| [222]| [222]| | + | | Banks on Books of | | | | | | + | | National Debt | | | | | | + | | Commisioners at | | | | | | + | | close of Period. | | | | | | + +--+---------------------+---------+---------+---------+---------+----------+ + |16|Balance in hands of | £ | £ | £ | £ | £ | + | | Postmaster-General | 35,692 | 44,413 | 5,522 | 4,327 | 4,327 | + | | after allowing for | | | | | | + | | Charges of | | | | | | + | | Management, at | | | | | | + | | close of Period. | | | | | | + +--+---------------------+---------+---------+---------+---------+----------+ + |17|Total Balance in | £ | £ | £ | £ | £ | + | | hand, applicable |1,694,724|3,372,595|5,001,185|6,586,656| 6,586,656| + | | to payment of | [222]| [222]| [222]| [222]| | + | | Depositors, at | | | | | | + | | close of Period. | | | | | | + +--+---------------------+---------+---------+---------+---------+----------+ + |18|Number of Old Savings| | | | | | + | | Banks and Post | 3,157| 3,594| 3,659| 3,822| 3,822| + | | Office Banks | | | | | | + | | combined, at close | | | | | | + | | of Period. | | | | | | + +--+---------------------+---------+---------+---------+---------+----------+ + |19|Number of Depositors | | | | | | + | | in Old Savings |1,732,556|1,876,389|1,967,663|2,078,346| 2,078,346| + | | Banks and Post | | | | | | + | | Office Banks | | | | | | + | | combined, at | | | | | | + | | close of Period. | | | | | | + +--+---------------------+---------+---------+---------+---------+----------+ + + + [222] These sums do not include the dividends accruing to the Post + Office Savings Bank on the 5th January; that is, five days after + the close of the account in each year. + + [223] The falling off in the cost per transaction during 1863 and + the increase in that cost during 1864 are attributable to one and + the same cause, viz., to the payment during 1864 of various + charges properly belonging to 1863. + + + _Insurances_ + +"Of the whole number of persons whose proposals have been accepted:-- + + 501 decided to pay their premiums - annually. + 20 " " - half-yearly. + 81 " " - quarterly. + 5 " " - six times a year. + 181 " " - monthly. + 3 " " - fortnightly. + and + 18 have paid their premiums in one sum + +"Of the whole number of persons who have commenced to pay premiums, 8 +have allowed their policies to lapse by default, and 14, having +defaulted, have on application been re-admitted. In no case, however, +have I found it necessary to impose the prescribed fine for default. + +"The total sum insured at the present time is 60,874_l._, and the +gross annual premium income, exclusive of the sums received in single +payments, is 1,924_l._ + +"Of the whole number of proposers, 866 have been males, and 68 +females. In a very few cases it has been necessary to charge an extra +premium for extra risk, arising out of somewhat defective health; and +in the case of a few married women, who were pregnant at the date of +the insurance, it has been thought right to add to the first premium, +but only to the first premium, a special premium of 10_s._ per 100_l._ +to cover the risk attendant on confinements. + +"_No deaths have occurred up to the present time amongst the persons +insured._" + + + _Annuities._ + +"Since the commencement of business, 238 proposals for the purchase of +Annuities have been received; of these, 4 have been dropped, 4 are +under consideration, and 230 have been accepted. Of the proposals +which have been accepted, 150 have been for the purchase of Immediate +Annuities, the amount of annuity purchased being 3,430_l._, and the +purchase money being 39,774_l._ Of the remainder, 15 were for the +purchase, by immediate payments, of Deferred Annuities, the amount of +deferred annuity purchased being 232_l._, and the amount of purchase +money paid down being 1,543_l._ The remainder, 65, were for the +purchase of Deferred Annuities by annual or more frequent payments, +the amount in course of purchase being 1,368_l._, and the amount of +purchase money annually payable being 759_l._ Of the 238 intending +annuitants, 103 were males and 129 were females. The remaining six +proposals were for insurances on joint male and female lives. + +"While the Government Insurance and Annuity Act was under +consideration by the Legislature, an opinion was expressed that +Friendly Societies which had undertaken to provide, in return for a +single subscription, sick pay, old age pay, and death pay, would do +well to make arrangements for the transfer of their old age and death +risks to the Government, by payment, of course, of a proper +consideration, and to confine themselves to dealing with the +liabilities contingent on sickness. I have recently received a +proposal from a large Friendly Society for the transfer of its old age +risks to the Government, and the terms of the arrangement are now +under consideration. I am informed, moreover, that other proposals of +this kind are likely shortly to be made. + +"On the whole, I am able to conclude my observations on this subject +by stating, that the Scheme framed for the conduct of Insurance and +Annuity business has worked smoothly and well; that the checks +established for the protection of the Government have hitherto proved +sufficient for their purpose; that the advantages of the measure are +gradually becoming known to the classes for whose benefit it was +devised, and that, looking to all the circumstances of the case, and +the steady and continued growth of the business, the success of the +measure may be regarded as established." + + + + + GOVERNMENT ANNUITIES AND INSURANCES GRANTED UNDER ACT + 27 & 28 VICT. CAP. 43. + + An Account showing the Number and Amount of Sums received + and paid, and the Number and Amount of Contracts granted + by Her Majesty's Postmaster-General, under authority of + the Act 27 & 28 Vict. c. 43, from the Commencement of + Business on the 17th April, 1865, to the 31st December, + 1865, together with the Number and Amount of Contracts in + existence on the 31st December, 1865, and the Amount paid + for Charges of Management. + + + (I.) + + An Account showing the Number and Amount of Sums received + and paid on Account of Government Annuity and Insurance + Contracts from the Commencement of Business on the 17th + April, 1865, to the 31st December, 1865. + + + ------------------------------+------------------++ + | RECEIPTS || + -- +-----+------------++ + | No. | Amount || + ------------------------------+-----+------------++ + To Cash received for the | | £ s d || + purchase of Annuities, | | || + viz.:-- | | || + | | || + +---+------------+ | || + |No.| Amount | | || + +---+------------+ | || + For Immediate| | £ s d| | || + Annuities | 87|22,738 9 9| | || + For Deferred | | | | || + Annuities, | | | | || + Money not | | | | || + returnable | 27| 845 7 10| | || + Ditto, Money | | | | || + returnable | | | | || + | 40| 497 7 6| 154|24,081 5 1|| + +---+------------+ | || + To Cash received for Fees on | | || + Annuity Contracts | | 139 14 0|| + | | || + To Cash received from the | | || + Commissioners for the | | || + Reduction of the National | | || + Debt for payment to | | || + Annuitants:-- | | || + +------------+ | || + | £ s d| | || + Gross | 430 5 0| | || + Less Income Tax | 0 16 8| | 429 8 4|| + +------------+ | || + | | || + To Cash received on account of| | || + Contracts for the payment of| | || + Sums at Death |1,076| 1,165 13 1|| + | | || + | | || + | | || + | | || + | £|25,816 8 6|| + ------------------------------+------------------++ + + ++------------------------------+------------------ + || | PAYMENTS + ++ -- +-----+------------ + || | No. | Amount + ++------------------------------+-----+------------ + ||By Cash paid to the | | £ s d + || Commissioners for the | | + || Reduction of the National | | + || Debt for Investment on | | + || Account of Sums received for| | + || the purchase of Annuities. | |23,046 8 9 + ||By Cash paid to Annuitants, | | + || viz:-- | | + || +------------+ | + || | £ s d| | + ||Cash paid | 423 13 4| | + ||Warrants issued, | | | + || but not cashed | | | + || at date | 5 10 0| 33| 429 8 4 + || +------------+ | + ||By Cash paid to the | | + || Commissioners | | + || for the Reduction of the | | + || National Debt for Investment| | + || on account of Premiums | | + || received on Contracts for | | + || Sums payable at Death | | 984 0 0 + || | | + ||By Balance remaining to be | | + || paid to the Commissioners | | + || for the Reduction of the | | + || National Debt on the 31st | | + || December, 1865, viz.:-- | | + || +------------+ | + ||On account of | £ s d| | + || Annuity | | | + || Contracts, | | | + || including Fees | 1,174 10 4| | + ||On Account of | | | + || Contracts for | | | + || Sums payable | | | + || at Death | 181 13 1| | 1,356 3 5 + || +------------+ +------------ + || | £|25,816 0 6 + ++------------------------------+------------------ + + + (II.) + + An Account showing the Number and Amount of Contracts + entered into by Her Majesty's Postmaster-General from the + Commencement of Business on the 17th April, 1865, to the + 31st December, 1865, and the Number and Amount of + Contracts in existence on the 31st December, 1865. + + +------------------------------------------------------+-----------------+ + | | CONTRACTS. | + | -- +---+-------------+ + | |No.| Amount. | + +------------------------------------------------------+---+-------------+ + |Contracts for Annuities granted from the commencement | | £ s. d.| + | of business on the 17th April, 1865, to the 31st of | | | + | December, 1865, viz.:-- | | | + | +--+------------+ | | + | | | £ s. d.| | | + |Immediate Annuities |87|2,100 0 0| | | + |Deferred Annuities, | | | | | + | Money not returnable |20| 438 4 0| | | + |Deferred Annuities, | | | | | + | Money returnable |25| 511 10 0|132| 3,049 14 0 | + | +--+------------+ | | + | | | | + |Contracts for Sums payable at Death granted from the | | | + | commencement of business on the 17th April, 1865, | | | + | to the 31st December, 1865 |547| 40,649 2 4 | + | | | | + |Contracts for Annuities in existence on the 31st | | | + | December, 1865, viz.:-- | | | + | +--+------------+ | | + | | | £ s. d.| | | + |Immediate Annuities |87|2,100 0 0| | | + |Deferred Annuities, | | | | | + | Money not returnable |20| 436 4 0| | | + |Deferred Annuities, | | | | | + | Money returnable |25| 511 10 0|132| 3,049 14 0 | + | +--+------------+ | | + | | | | + |Contracts for Sums payable at Death in existence on | | | + | the 31st December, 1865 |544| 40,349 2 4 | + +------------------------------------------------------+---+-------------+ + + + (III.) + + An Account showing the Amount paid for the Charges of Management + from the Commencement of Business on the 17th April, 1865 to the + 31st December, 1865. + + +------------------------------------------------+-----------+ + | | £ s. d.| + | Salaries of Officers | 159 0 10 | + | Stamps on Policies | 32 10 0 | + | Fees to Medical Officers | 13 7 6 | + | Incidental disbursements, including Travelling | | + | Charges | 7 3 8 | + | Postage | 123 4 5 | + | +-----------+ + | £| 335 6 6 | + +------------------------------------------------+-----------+ + + + + + INDEX. + + + A. + + Acknowledgement of deposits in Post Office Banks, 329-331. + + Acts of Parliament relating to Savings Banks, Post Office Banks, + Government Annuities, &c. See _Appendix_. + + Althorp, Lord, moves for a bill to grant Annuities through the medium + of Saving Banks, 69; + replies to Mr. Attwood, 73. + + Annuities, Government: first proposals for, 69; 347; + alteration of the law relating to, 152; + a new scheme is proposed in 1864, 348 _et seq_; + Mr. Gladstone introduces a bill into Parliament concerning, 350; + is discussed and carried, 353-362; + regulations for working the measure, 362; + how to purchase, 372-4; + progress of the new measure of, 375-7. + + Attwood, Mr. Thomas, M.P. opposes legislation for Savings Banks, 71; + speaks against Savings Banks, 72; 82. + + Auchterarder Savings Bank, failure of the, 137; + particulars of this fraud, 193. + + Auditors, Government proposals for, 146. + + Australian Government Banks, 344. + + Ayrton, Mr., M.P. on Savings Banks, 162; + assists in bringing in a bill to regulate Savings Banks, 179; + assists in bringing in the Consolidation Act, 182; + respecting his connexion with Government banks, 277; + strongly opposes the Post Office Bank Bill in Committee, 303; + presides at a working man's meeting in London in opposition to the + Government Annuities Bill, 359; + opposes it in the House, 360. + + + B. + + Baines, Mr. E., M.P. advocates Mr. Sikes's proposals for Post Office + Banks, 286; + again, 301. + + Bath, the Provident Institution of, origin of, 25. + + Benefit Societies: compared with Savings Banks, 85; 86; + disadvantages of, 37; + unsound character of many of them, 353-5; + oppose the Government Annuities Bill, 354, 356; + on compulsory payment to, 391 _note_. + + Bentham, Jeremy, proposes "Frugality Banks," 271; + provisions of his scheme, 271-2. + + Bentinck, Lord George, speaks on Savings Banks, 134. + + Bilston Savings Bank, frauds in, 208 _et seq_; + the _Times_ on this fraud, 235. + + Birmingham Savings Bank, 324. + + Boodle, Mr., represents Savings Bank managers, 166; + again, 173; + gives evidence before the Committee of 1858, 173 _note_; + on systems of book-keeping, 261; + on confidence in trustee's names, 385 _note_. + + Book-keeping, different systems of, 260; + difficulty of effecting changes in systems of, 261. + + Branch Banks, not in favour with Savings Bank managers, 286. + + Bright, Mr., M.P. in favor of Government paying defrauded depositors, + 142; + on Government security, 232. + + Brighton Bank fraud, 204 _et seq_. + + Buckingham, Mr. J. Silk, on compulsory savings, 390-1. + + Building Societies compared with Savings Banks, 382-3. + + Bullar, Mr. John, proposes Postal Banks, 280 _et seq_; 343. + + Business done in Post Office Banks, amount of, 313 _et seq_; + nature of, 318 _et seq_. + + + C. + + Canterbury Bank fraud, 218 _et seq_. + + Chadwick, Mr. Edwin, on Post Office Banks, 311. + + Chalmers, Dr., on Savings Banks, 105; + on the Interest Rate, 341. + + Chetwynd, Mr., proposes a scheme for applying Savings Banks to the Post + Office machinery, 292; + the scheme is recommended by Mr. Scudamore, 293; + adopted in full, 294; + is appointed Controller of the Post Office Banks, 313; + on the Government Annuities scheme, 349. + + Clubs at Public Houses, 37. + + Cobbett, William, M.P. on Mr. Rose, 46, 81; + speaks of the bubble of Savings Banks, 81. + + Committees on Savings Banks: one is appointed on Irish Banks in 1849, + 130; + reappointed in 1850, 135; + one is appointed to go over the whole subject in 1858, 164; + report of proceedings of Committee on 1858, 165 _et seq_; + recommendations of the same, 169-170; + one is appointed on the Annuities scheme, 361. + + Compensation to Savings Bank officials, 328. + + Compulsory enactments to secure frugality, 50, 389 _et seq_. + + Consolidation Act of 1863, 182; + clauses of the Act, _Appendix_ (B) 400 _et seq._ + + Co-operative Societies and Savings Banks, 382-3. + + Corporation Savings Banks, _Appendix_, 410. + + Cost of transactions in Post Office Banks, 305; 334-5. + + Craig, Mr., of Cork, on systems of book-keeping, 260-1; + objects to the taking of small deposits, 264. + + Crossley, Sir Francis, advocates Mr. Sikes's plan, 298. + + Cuffe Street Bank fraud: early history of this bank, 133; + discovery of the actuary's defalcations, 115; + subsequent management of the bank, 116; + closing and its results, 118; + a Committee is appointed concerning, 129-30; + reappointed, 135; + depositors are compensated by Government, 142. + + + D. + + Declaration, origin of the subscribing of the Savings Banks, 59; + is an unnecessary limitation, 342. + + Defects of Savings Bank system, 266-8; + of the Post Office Bank system, 342-4. + + Deposits: limit of the amount of, 53; + altered in 1824, 59; + average amount of, in Post Office Banks, 320; + acknowledgment of, in Post Office Banks, 330-1; + limit of the total amount of, in Post Office Banks unnecessary, 342-3; + may be made available for paying premiums on Government Life + Insurances, 367. + + Depositors: defrauded, several members speak in behalf of, 150; + number of, in Post Office Banks, 315; + character of, in the same, 319; + analysis of, in the same, 321; + increase of, in the same, 320; + number of Post Office Banks failing to obtain, 321; + how they must proceed in Post Office Banks, 329 _et seq._ + + Disraeli, Mr. M.P. speaks of Savings Bank legislation, 155. + + Distribution of Savings Banks, the irregular, 236. + + Douglas, Mr. M.P. introduces a bill to regulate Scotch Savings Banks, 57. + + Duncan, Dr. Henry, of Ruthwell: Founder of Savings Banks, 28; + early life, 29; + literary pursuits, 30; + proposes Parish Banks, 32; + establishes the Ruthwell Bank, 33; + assists in the establishment of other banks, 33-4; + writes an Essay on Savings Banks, 34; + his death, 57; + advises Government encouragement and protection, 57; + corresponds with Mr. Douglas on the subject, 58. + + + E. + + "Edinburgh Review," 1807, on Mr. Whitbread's proposals, 24; + on Savings Banks, 28, 380. + + Edinburgh Savings Bank, the original 40-43; many banks are formed + on its model, 41. + + Education, improvement in systems of, 6. + + Employers of labour: recommended to consider a scheme of Life + Insurance at work at the Post Office, 369; + how they may assist their workmen in the same way, 370-1; + their duty to their workmen, 386; + their influence, 389-90. + + Equalization of interest in different banks, 339-40. + + Estcourt, Mr. Sotheron, and Savings Banks, 162-3; + is appointed Chairman of Committee of 1858, 164; + speaks on failures in legislation, 176; + assists in bringing in a bill, 179; + opposes Post Office Banks, 300; + on Government Annuities scheme, 359; 361-2. + + Exeter Savings Bank, establishment of, 26. + + Expenses of different banks, 264. + + + F. + + Facilities, absence of, in Savings Banks, 239; + not proportioned according to population, 240; + increase of, 371. + + Farquhar, Sir Minto, on the Government Annuities Bill, 359; 362. + + Financial crisis of 1826: description of, 92; + consequences of the, 93, 94. + + Fletcher, Rev. H. S. and his frauds at Bilston, 208 _et seq_. + + Frauds in Savings Banks: Cuffe Street, 111 _et seq_; + Hertford Bank, 118; + Tralee Bank, 184 _et seq_; + Killarney Bank, 191 _et seq_; + Auchterarder Bank, 193-4; + Rochdale Bank, 203-4; + Brighton Bank, 204 _et seq_; + Mr. W. H. Grey on, 207-8; + at Newport, Isle of Wight, 208; + Bilston Bank, 208 _et seq_; + Canterbury Bank, 218 _et seq_; + return of, 223; + Worcester Savings Bank, 225 _note_; + the remedy for, 225; + the result of, 231. + + Friendly Societies: benefits of, compared with those from Savings + Banks, 69; 85-6; + disputes between, 80; + oppose the Government Insurance measures, 351; + unsound societies, 353; + Mr. Gladstone on, 354-5; + failure of, 356; + defended by Mr. Sheridan, 357. + + Frugality Banks proposed by Bentham, 271-2. + + + G. + + Gladstone, Mr., his connexion with the subject, 156; + introduces a bill into Parliament in 1853, 157; + withdraws it, 158; + obtains leave to introduce further measures in the session of 1855, + 158; + speaks on the Government use of Savings Bank money, 159; + introduces a bill relating to the investment of the same, 175; + the bill is lost, 177; + re-introduced and carried, 181; + his connexion with Post Office Savings Banks, 179-80; + considers Mr. Sikes's proposals, 288; + urges the preparation of some such plan on the Post Office + authorities, 291-2; + brings in a bill to establish Post Office Banks, 294 _et seq_; + speaks on the second reading, 301; + again, in Committee, 304; + answers objections to and questions concerning the bill, 305-6; + as author of the bill, 312; + on the interest given in Post Office Banks, 340; + introduces his Annuities and Insurance scheme, 350; + defends his plans in a long speech, 353-7; + consents to the appointment of a Select Committee, 361; + carries his measure through the House, 362. + + Göschen, Mr., M.P., on the Government Annuities Bill, 360, 361. + + Goulburn, Mr., incident in connexion with his official life, 66; + opposes the reduction of the interest rate, 78; + brings in a bill to amend the law, in 1844, 122; + proposes a reduction of the interest rate, 124; + assists the whigs in evading a full inquiry, 137; + on Savings Bank money, 172. + + Government Banks, proposals for, chap. VIII. 269 _et seq_. + + Government and Savings Banks--its loss from Savings Banks, 74, 146; + its gain from the use of Savings Bank money, 174; 268; + makes good the loss from fraud, in one case, 141. + + Government employés and provident habits, 387-8. + + Greaves, Samuel, and the Canterbury Bank fraud, 218 _et seq_. + + Guarantee Fund, first proposed by Mr. Sikes, 258. + + + H. + + Habits of workmen, improvements in, 10; 385; + still need improvement, 390. + + Hamburg, Savings Banks in, 18. + + Hamilton, Rev. G. H. proposes Postal Banks, in 1852, 278; + proposes that the Limitation clause be extended, 343. + + Hancock, Dr., writes on Savings Banks, 235; + referred to in connexion with, 256-7; + his connexion with Postal Banks, 275-6; + approves Mr. Sikes' plan, 288. + + Hatton, Mr., a witness before the Committee of 1858, 165; + investigates the Reading and Brighton frauds, 204; 206. + + Haworth, George, and the Rochdale frauds, 195 _et seq_. + + Herbert, Mr. H. A., M.P., speaks upon Irish Bank frauds, 157-9; + moves a resolution disapproving the conduct of the Government in + relation to Savings Banks, 154. + + Hertford Savings Bank: origin of the, 27; + defalcations in, 118; + account of the fraud, 119; + discussion in the House of Lords concerning the fraud, 120; + again, 310. + + Hill, Sir Rowland, on Mr. Sikes's plan, 286; 301. + + Hindrances to the usefulness of Savings Banks, 105; + frauds in Savings Banks, chap. VI. p. 183 _et seq_. + + Hume, Mr. Joseph: his first speech on Savings Banks, 61; + calls for a return, 63; + speaks of the Government loss from Savings Banks, 62, 76; + on the Surplus Fund, 64; + speaks on the rate of interest, 74; 129; + anecdote of, in connexion with Sir R. Peel, 129; + speaks in favour of Sir Charles Wood's bill of 1850, 149-50. + + + I. J. K. + + Improvement in the social habits of the working classes, 10; 385. + + Improvidence of many classes, 13; 390. + + Increase of Savings Bank business, 1825 to 1840, 97; + of depositors and deposits in Post Office Banks, 315-7. + + Inspection of depositors' books, 146. + + Insurance, Government: early objections to the plan of, 153; + later objections to, 351; + bill to regulate, 349 _et seq_; + carried, 362; + features of, and details of the measure, 362; + special advantages of, 363 _et seq_. + + Interest given by Savings Banks: first rate of, 53; + attracts the richer classes, 54; + proposals to reduce the rate, 60; 75-6; + the _Westminster Review_ on, 76; + Mr. Spring Rice on, 77; + the consequences of the reduction of 1828, 95; + fresh proposals to reduce the rate, 147; + Savings Bank managers, differ on the question, 262; + in Post Office Banks, 338 _et seq._; + Dr. Chalmers on, 341; + Mr. Mill on, 341; + shown by an interesting example, 381-2; + interest given by Post Office Banks, 338-340. + + Investment of Savings Bank money: an early dispute concerning the, 53; + the mode of, is explained to the Committee of 1858, 170-1; + Savings Bank managers object to the mode, 173; + benefits to the Government of present arrangements, 174. + + Irish Savings Banks: early banks, 44; + at first beneficial to the country, 112; + disastrous effects of the frauds in, 112; 118; + Committees of Inquiry respecting, 130; 136; + a bill is passed to amend the law relating to, 151; + the frauds cause a breaking up of Irish banks, 236; + number of Post Office Banks failing to obtain depositors in Ireland, + 322. + + Killarney Bank fraud, 191 _et seq_. + + + L. + + Legislation on Savings Banks: early measures of, 45 _et seq_; + Savings Bank Acts are consolidated, in 1828, 65; + Mr. Goulburn's bill, 123; + amendment is proposed, in 1848, 133-4; + Act is made to apply to Ireland only, 135; + Sir Charles Wood introduces the Amendment Act of 1850, 139-40; + shown to be much required, 141; + is withdrawn, 151; + an Act is passed to amend the law on Government Annuities, 153; + Sir G. Lewis introduces the Government bill, 160; + withdraws it, 164; + a Committee of Inquiry is appointed, in 1858, 164-5; + finding of the Committee, 168-9; + Mr. Gladstone introduces a bill to provide for the investment of + Savings Bank money, 175; + withdrawn, 177; + re-introduced and carried, 182; + the Consolidation Act is introduced and carried, 182; + Mr. Gladstone brings in and carries his bill to establish Post + Office Banks, 294 _et seq_. + + Lewis, Sir G. C., re-introduces the Government bill, 159; + replies to objections, 163; + withdraws it, 164; + sees Mr. Sikes on Savings Bank reforms, 256. + + Limit of Deposits: is altered, 53; + again altered, 59; + proposals to alter, 124; + fresh proposals to alter, 147; + in Post Office Banks, 342-3. + + + M. + + Maitland, Mr., of Edinburgh, 258 _note_. + + Managers of Savings Bank: combine to oppose Mr. Goulburn's Act, 128; + meet in London to oppose Sir C. Wood's scheme, 147-9; + are examined before the Committee of 1858, 165; + object to Government using their money, 173; + differences of opinion amongst, 260-2; + many object to take small deposits, 264; + differ as to notices of withdrawal &c., 265. + + Manchester Savings Bank, 240-1; + compared with the Liverpool Savings Bank, 242. + + Masters of Workmen: deducting part of the wages of their operatives + for investment in Savings Banks, 272; + their attention directed to the regulations for Government Annuities + and Insurance, 363; + their duties, 385; + how they may assist their workmen, 387-8. + + Mechanics' Institutes, and Savings Banks, 253. + + Military Savings Banks, 243 _et seq._; + Acts regulation, 414 _et seq._ + + Money Order Office: great progress of the, 285; + assists in the business of Post Office Banks, 330; 333; + all the offices to be Post Office Banks and agencies for the + Annuities and Insurance business, 313; 375. + + Money of Savings Banks: security of, 56; + Mr. Gladstone speaks of the Government use of, 158; + benefits derived from the use of, 174. + + Monteagle, Lord, of Brandon examined before the Committee of 1858, 167; + opposes the Post Office Bank bill, 303; + makes a "protest" against it, 310. + + + N. + + National Debt Office, 155; + mode of proceeding in, with reference to Savings Bank matters, 170. + + Naval Savings Banks: proposals for, _Appendix_, 413. + + Neild, Mr. J. H., of Manchester, examined before the Committee of 1858, 165; + speaks as to increased facilities causing increased business, 241; + instances the Liverpool Savings Bank, 242. + + Newport, Isle of Wight, fraud in Savings Bank, 208-9. + + Nineteenth Century, the century of the working man, 23. + + Number of Savings Banks inadequate, 238; + of hours during which they were open in 1861, 239; + of Post Office Banks, 314; + of old banks which have transferred their business to the new banks, + 325 _et seq_. + + + O. + + Officials of Savings Banks, the change from paid to unpaid, and + results, 143; + compensation to, on the breaking up of institutions, 328. + + Opposition to Government measures by Savings Bank managers, 128; + 141-9; 163-4; 177-80; + by Insurance Societies and Benefit Societies, 352; 360. + + + P. Q. + + Pallmer, Mr., M.P., proposes the first Savings Bank Consolidation Act, 65. + + Parochial relief to Savings Bank depositors, 52; + depositors compared with the number of persons in receipt of, 230. + + Pease, Mr. Joseph, M.P., on Savings Banks, 71. + + Penny Savings Banks, 246 _et seq._; + advantages of, 249. + + Poor Laws and Savings Banks, 49-50; + the result of Savings Banks on, 98; + shown by Table, 100-1; + the Amendment Act of 1834, 102; 389. + + Post Office and Life Insurance, 369-70; + employés of, provided for by other provident measures, 387-8. + + Post Office Savings Banks: in relation to the frauds in ordinary + Savings Banks, 216-17; 222; + their present and future position, 273; + _Handy Book_ on, 274 _note_; + origination of the principle of, 274; + persons wrongly credited with the origination of, 275-7; + banks in connexion with the Money Order Office first proposed by + Rev. G. H. Hamilton in 1852, 278; + next by Mr. Bullar of the Temple, 280 _et seq._; + Mr. Sikes, of Huddersfield, proposes Post Office Banks, 284; + the nature of his proposals, 284-5; + addresses Mr. Gladstone in a printed letter, 287; + Mr. Gladstone's reply, 288; + the proposals are referred to the Post Office, 289; + important objections to them, 291; + Mr. Chetwynd proposes an entirely new scheme, 292; + is recommended by Mr. Scudamore, 293; + adopted by Lord Stanley of Alderley, 294; + Mr. Gladstone carries a bill through the House of Commons to + establish the banks, 294 _et seq._; + Lord Stanley of Alderley carries it through the Lords, 306 _et seq._; + receives the Royal Assent, 310; + the benefit of the banks to the country, 312; + their success, 313; + their introduction into the country, 313; + the amount of business done in, 313 _et seq._; + nature of the business done in, 318 _et seq._; + number of, at different times, 314-15; + statistics relating to, 315 _et seq._; + increase in the number of depositors in, 317; + have a special public, 319; + their progress where they were not supposed to be wanted, 320; + character of the new depositors in, 321; + result of, on old banks, 322 _et seq._; + return of old banks which have transferred their business to, 325 + _et seq._; + mode of transacting business in, 328 _et seq._; + information on the subject of, where obtainable, 329 _note_; + as to depositing money in, 329-32; + as to withdrawing money out of, 333; + internal arrangements of chief Savings Bank, 333-4 _note_; + cost of transactions in, 334-5; + the peculiar advantages of, 335 _et seq._; + how affected by frauds, 336; + security, 335; + despatch, 336; + secrecy, 337; + engage to take small sums, 338; + rate of interest in, 338 _et seq._; + Government Annuities scheme, an offshoot of, 350; 360; + assist depositors in the matter of Government Annuities and + Insurance, 367; + Act regulating, _Appendix_ 416 _et seq._; + further progress of, _Appendix_ 430. + + Pratt, Mr. John Tidd: appointed certifying barrister, &c. of Savings + Banks, 67; + his connexion with the Cuffe Street bank, 117; + urges the reduction in the limit of deposits, 124; + his powers are enlarged, 125; + is blamed on account of Irish banks, 136; 139; + exonerated by a Committee of Inquiry, 140; + gives evidence before the Committee of 1858, 165; + is consulted as to the Consolidation Act, 182; + makes awards in the Tralee bank frauds, 191; + in the Killarney case, 193; + attends at Bilston on account of the frauds there, and explains + them, 213-15. + + Preliminary Savings Banks, 253-4. + + Progress of Savings Banks: in their earlier stages, 89; + shown by Table, 91; + shown by Table, 97; + shown by Table, 227; + rate of, at different periods, 229; + of Post Office Banks, 313 _et seq._; + progress of the additional measures, 375-7. + + Progress of the country, between 1824 and 1840, shown by statistics, 103; + shown again by statistics, 230-1. + + Provident habits, increase of, 99; + importance of cultivating, 378-80; + masters of workmen should help to cultivate, 386-7; + want of among large numbers, 390. + + Provisions of the first legislative enactment on Saving Banks, 52-3; + of the first Consolidation Act, 67-8; + of the first bill to grant Annuities, 70; + of Mr. Goulburn's Act of 1844, 127; + of Sir Charles Wood's bill of 1850, 145 _et seq._; + of the Government Annuities and Insurance scheme, 364, _et seq._; + of the Acts at present in force with regard to Savings Banks, Post + Office Banks, Annuities, and Government Insurance, _Appendix_. + + _Quarterly Review_, on Dr. Duncan, 30-31; + on the prosperity of the country in 1826, 92; + on the progress of Savings Banks, 80; + makes proposals for a system of banks, 273-4; + on compulsory investment of workmen's earnings, 389; + on Co-operative Societies, 383 _note_. + + + R. + + Rates of Interest: proposals to reduce the, 60; 75-6; 147; + difference of opinion on the question, 262; + different in different banks, 263; + in Post Office Banks, 338 _et seq_; equalization of, 340. + + Reading Bank fraud, 203-4. + + Reform, agitation of 1831 & 2, 96; + its consequences on Savings Banks, 98. + + Reynolds, Mr., M.P., speaks on the Dublin Bank fraud, 136; + proposes and carries a Committee of Investigation in 1849, 138. + + Rice, Mr. Spring, defends the rate of interest given, 77; + opposes Mr. Hume, 78; + gives some interesting statistics on the matter of Savings Banks, + 78. (_See_ Lord Monteagle). + + Rochdale bank fraud, 195, _et seq_. + + Roebuck, Mr., M.P., on the Government Annuities bill, 385. + + Rose, Right Hon. George, establishes the Southampton Savings Bank, 26; + Cobbett's attack upon him, 46-7; + introduces the first Savings Bank bill, 47; + re-introduces it the year after, 49. + + Rural districts, Savings Banks in, 109. + + Ruthwell Bank: established by Dr. Duncan, 31 _et seq._; + rules, &c. of the, 37-40; + character of the, 58. + + + S. + + Savings Banks: not an object of controversy, 16; + the founder of, 28; + the first bill for regulating, 65; + compared with Friendly Societies, 85-6; + their results on the general progress of the country, 1824 to 1840, + 104; + their merits disputed, 106-7; + frauds in, Chapter VI. p. 183 _et seq._; + progress of, 227; + list of counties without, 237; + number of, in 1860, 236; + absence of facilities in, 239; + number of hours they were open in 1860, 239-40; + return relating to the ten principal, 267; + the principal defects of the Savings Bank system, 266-8; + results of Post Office Banks on, 322 _et seq._; + list of those transferred to Post Office system, 325 _et seq_; + and Government Annuities, 348; + are preliminary means, 380; + are safe and productive, 381-2; + Abstracts of Acts relating to, _Appendix,_ 400 _et seq_. + + Scotch Savings Banks: early Acts relating to, 57-8; + the Consolidation Act of 1828 extended to, 74. + + Scudamore, Mr., reports on Mr. Chetwynd's plan of Post Office Banks, + 293; + on a scheme for working Government Annuities, 349; + superintends the arrangements for introducing the measure, 362; + devises a plan for assisting Post Office employés to insure their + lives, 369. + + Seamen's Savings Banks, 245-6; + Act regulating, 412-13. + + Secrecy in connexion with Post Office Banks, 337. + + Security of Savings, the most important consideration, 51; + erroneous impression as to Government security, 133; + in Post Office Banks, 335. + + Sharman, Mr., _Handy Book_, 274; 276; 329 _note_. + + Sheridan, Mr., M.P., on Friendly Societies, 357. + + Sikes, Mr. C. W., of Huddersfield; + is a witness before the Committee of 1858, 164; + his evidence, 167 _note_; 174 _note_; + on the increase of facilities, 242; + some particulars of his life, 250 _et seq._; + proposes Preliminary Banks, 253; + writes a pamphlet called "Good Times," 255; + addresses Sir G. C. Lewis on Savings Bank reforms, 256; + his recommendations, 257-8; + Government Banks, 274; + proposes Post Office Savings Banks, 283 _et seq._; + addresses Mr. Gladstone on the subject, 287; + defects of Mr. Sikes's plan, 291; + supports the Government scheme, 301. + + Slaney, Mr., M.P., on Savings Banks, 73; 151. + + Smith, Rev. Thomas, of Wendover, establishes on of the first Savings + Banks, 20-21. + + Southampton Savings Bank, origin of, 26. + + Spearman, Sir Alexander Y., 155; + gives evidence before the Committee of 1858, 166-7; + explains the mode of investing Savings Bank money, 170-71; + on the Government loss, 268. + + Stanley, Lord, of Alderley, takes charge of the Savings Bank Money + bill in the House of Lords, 181; + introduces and carries through the House the Post Office Savings Bank + bill, 306 _et seq._; + carries the Government Annuities bill through the Lords, 362; 431. + + Statistics, relating to Savings Banks, 91; 227; + to Post Office Savings Banks, 315 _et seq._; + to Savings Banks, Post Office Banks, Government Annuities, &c. + _Appendix_, 424 _et seq._ + + Stillorgan Bank, the first Savings Bank in Ireland, 44. + + Sunday Bank, the, at Hertford, 27. + + Surplus Fund of Savings Banks, 64; + Mr. Hume on, 75; + can be applied to compensate Savings Bank officials, 328. + + + T. U. V. + + Taxation, removal of, 4. + + Taylor, Mr. E. of Rochdale, is examined before the Committee of 1858, + 196; 199; + writes a pamphlet arising out of the Rochdale frauds, 233; + on Government security, 257. + + _Times_, The: on early Savings Banks, 84; + commences hostile criticism on Savings Banks, 105-8; + on frauds on Savings Banks, 235; + on Post Office Banks, 311; + on Government insurance, 352. + + Tottenham, an early Savings Bank at, 20. + + Tralee Bank fraud, 184 _et seq._ + + Transfer certificates, copy of, &c. _Appendix_ 417. + + Treasurers, Government proposals for, 145. + + Trust accounts, legislation on, 125. + + Trustees, Liability of: 60-61; + unsatisfactory state of the law regarding, 111; + mentioned in connexion with the Hertford Bank fraud, 120; + legal decision on, 123; + Sir C. Wood attempts to regulate the, 132. + + Vansittart, Mr., M.P., on Savings Banks, 48; + speaks of the safety of Savings Bank money, 56. + + + W. + + Wages, increase in the rate of, 230. + + Wakefield, Mrs. Priscilla, establishes a bank in 1799, 19. + + Wellington, Duke of, on military banks, 243 _note_. + + Wendover, and early bank at, 20. + + Whitbread, Mr., M.P., introduces his Poor Law bill, 21; + proposes a Poor's Fund and Poor's Insurance Office, 23; + further reference to his proposals, 270; 346; + provisions of his measures. (See _Appendix_ A). + + Wilberforce, Mr., on Savings Banks, 50. + + Willoughby, Sir Henry: opposes Sir C. Wood's bill of 1850, 150; 177; + is a member of the Committee of 1858, 164; + speaks in the House on the subject, 176; + assists in bringing in a bill to remedy the defects of the law, 179; + 182; + opposes the Post Office Bank bill, 306. + + Withdrawals, notices of: a subject of dispute, 265; + concerning, in Post Office Banks, 232-3. + + Wood, Sir Charles: proposes to amend the law of Savings Banks, in + 1848, 131; + opposes the motion for a Committee on Irish Banks, 137; + proposes compensation to the Cuffe Street depositors, 141; + brings in an important measure in 1850, 144; + explains its provisions, 145-7; + withdraws it, 151; + replies to a vote of censure moved by Mr. H. A. Herbert, 155. + + Worcester Savings Bank fraud, 225 _note_. + + Working classes, improvements in the condition of, 10; + do not need charity, 324; 385; + like to be advised, 386; + duty of employers to, 386-8. diff --git a/ss2013/1_Web Mining/Uebungen/1_Uebung/abgabe/txt/A Little Girl in Old San Francisco by Amanda Minnie Douglas.txt b/ss2013/1_Web Mining/Uebungen/1_Uebung/abgabe/txt/A Little Girl in Old San Francisco by Amanda Minnie Douglas.txt new file mode 100755 index 00000000..2cc0596f --- /dev/null +++ b/ss2013/1_Web Mining/Uebungen/1_Uebung/abgabe/txt/A Little Girl in Old San Francisco by Amanda Minnie Douglas.txt @@ -0,0 +1,10108 @@ +CHAPTER I + +FROM MAINE TO CALIFORNIA + + +It was a long journey for a little girl, so long indeed that the old +life had almost faded from her mind, and seemed like something done in +another existence. When she was younger still she had once surprised +her mother by saying, "Mother, where did I live before I came here?" +The pale, care-worn woman had glanced at her in vague surprise and +answered rather fretfully, "Why, nowhere, child." + +"Oh, but I remember things," said the little girl with a confident +air, looking out of eyes that seemed to take an added shade from her +present emotions. + +"Nonsense! You can't remember things that never happened. That's +imagining them, and it isn't true. If you told them they would be +falsehoods. There, go out and get me a basket of chips." + +She was afraid of telling falsehoods, most of those rigid people +called them by their plain name, "lies," and whipped their children. +So the little girl kept them to herself; she was a very good and +upright child as a general thing and knew very little about her tricky +father. But she went on imagining. Especially when she studied +geography, which she was extravagantly fond of, yet she could never +quite decide which country she had lived in. + +Through those months of journeying in the big vessel over strange +waters, for she had been born in an inland hamlet with a great woods +of hemlock, spruce, and fir behind the little cottage, and two or +three small creeks wandering about, she had many strange thoughts. +Though at first she was quite ill, but Uncle Jason was the best nurse +in the world, and presently she began to run about and get acquainted. +There were only a few women passengers. One middle-aged, with a son +sixteen, who was working his way; a few wives emigrating with their +husbands, three women friends who were in the hope of finding an +easier life and perhaps husbands, though they hardly admitted that to +each other. + +She often sat in Uncle Jason's lap, hugged up to his breast. Of +course, her mother had been his sister, they had settled upon that, +and he did not contradict. She was lulled by the motion of the vessel +and often fell asleep, but in her waking moments these were the +memories that were growing more vague and getting tangled up with +various things. + +Her father had taught school at South Berwick the winter she could +recall most readily, and came home on Saturday morning, spending most +of the time at the store. Woodville was only a sort of hamlet, though +it had a church, a school, and a general store. Sometimes he would go +back on Sunday, but oftener early Monday morning. Then late in the +summer he was home for a while, and went away after talks with her +mother that did not always seem pleasant. He took very little notice +of her, in her secret heart she felt afraid of him, though he was +seldom really cross to her. And then he went away and did not appear +again until the winter, when there seemed a great deal of talking and +business, and he brought a boxful of clothes for them, and seemed in +excellent spirits. He was in business in Boston, and would move them +all there at once, if grandmother would consent, but she was old, and +had had a stroke, and could not get about without a cane. The old +house was hers and she would finish out her days there. Of course, +then, her mother could not go. She had a new, warm woollen frock and a +cloak that was the envy of the other children, and absolute city shoes +that she could only wear on Sunday, and, of course, were presently +outgrown. + +She studied up everything she could concerning Boston, but her mother +would not talk about it. In the summer, grandmother had another stroke +and then was bedridden. It was a poor little village, and everybody +had hard work to live, summers were especially busy, and winters were +long and hard. Grandmother was fretful, and wandered a little in her +mind. Now and then a neighbor came in to spell Mrs. Westbury, and +there was always some mysterious talking that her mother did not care +for her to hear. Grandmother lived more than a year and was a helpless +burden at the last. After she had gone the poor mother sank down, +overwhelmed with trouble. David Westbury had persuaded the old lady to +sign over the house for a business venture he was to make in Boston +that would put him on the road to fortune. And now it was found that +he had decamped, that there had been no business but speculating, and +she no longer had a home for herself and her child. + +They were very poor. People bore straits bravely in those days and +suffered in silence. The poor mother grew paler and thinner and had a +hard cough. In the spring they would be homeless. By spring she would +be--and what would happen to the child! A little bound-out girl, +perhaps. + +Laverne was not taken into these sorrowful confidences. She did not go +to school, her mother needed to be waited upon. One bright afternoon +she went out to skate on the creek. The school children joined her, +and it was almost dark when they started for home. The little girl's +heart upbraided her, but she had carried in the last armful of wood, +and had not told her mother. What would they do to-morrow! + +She went in hesitatingly. Oh, how good and warm the room felt and two +candles were burning. A man sat beside the stove with a sort of frank, +bright, yet weather-beaten face, a mop of chestnut-colored hair, a +beard growing up to his very mouth, but with the brightest blue eyes +she had ever seen, merry blue eyes, too, that looked as if there was +just a twinkle back of the lashes. + +"This is my little girl, Laverne," said her mother. "We have always +called her Verne, seeing there were three of the same name. And this +is"--the mother's tone had a curious tremble in it, as if she caught +her breath--"this is Uncle Jason." + +The first glance made them friends. They both smiled. She was like her +mother in the young days, and had the same dimple in her cheek, and +the one in her chin where the children used to hold a buttercup. She +put out both hands. They had been so lonely, so poor, and she was +glad all over with a strange feeling, just as if they had come to +better times. + +What a supper they had! She was very hungry. She had been quite used +to eating bread and molasses, or a little moist brown sugar. And here +was a great chunk of butter on the edge of her plate, and the room was +fragrant with the smell of broiled ham. + +If she had known anything about fairies she would have believed in +enchantment at once. And there was part of a splendid cake, and orange +jam, and she could hardly make it real. No neighbor had known all +their straits, and the little girl had borne them as bravely as her +mother. Then, so many people had pinches in the winter, for crops were +often poor. + +She helped her mother with the dishes and then she sat down on a stool +beside Uncle Jason. Presently, her head sank on his knee and she went +fast asleep. She never heard a word of what her mother and Uncle Jason +were saying. + +At nine o'clock he carried her into the bedroom and laid her on the +bed, and she never woke up while her mother undressed her. He went +over to the store where he had bargained for a room. The storekeeper, +Mr. Lane, had been as much surprised to see Mr. Chadsey as Mrs. +Westbury. He had been born in the old town and his romance had +blossomed and blighted here. + +"Now, I tell you," Seth Lane said to his wife, when the store was shut +and they were preparing for bed, "if that scalawag Westbury was dead +there'd be a weddin' in this town straight away. My, how Chadsey was +cut up over hearin' his mean villainy an' gettin' hold of the house! +I never b'lieved the old woman knew what she was about. And Chadsey's +come back in the nick o' time, for I don't b'lieve she'll go through +March." + +Jason Chadsey planned for their comfort, and went to Boston the next +day, but could find no trace of David Westbury, dead or alive. + +As for the little girl, when she woke up in the morning she thought +she had had the loveliest dream that could ever haunt one. But when +she saw the bountiful breakfast she was amazed to the last degree. + +"Was Uncle Jason really here?" she asked timidly. She was quite sure +her mother had been crying. + +"Yes, dear. He has gone to Boston and will be back in a few days. Oh, +Laverne, I hope you will learn to love him. Some day, when you are +older, you will understand why he came back, and he will be your best +friend when"--when I am gone, she was about to say, but checked +herself, and substituted "all your life. When I was a little girl he +was a kind and generous big boy. Then he went to sea, and was back +only a few times. For years I had heard nothing from him--he has been +round the world, everywhere. And he has a big, tender heart----" + +"Oh, I am sure I shall be glad to love him. Why, you seem to go right +to his heart;" and the child's face glowed with enthusiasm. + +"Yes, yes." She began to cough and sat down suddenly, putting her +handkerchief to her mouth. + +"The salt, quick, Verne," she gasped. + +She lay on the old wooden settee and stuffed her mouth full of salt. + +"Oh, what can I do?" cried the child, in mild alarm. + +"Run for Aunt Cynthy Beers. Tell her to come quick." + +The neighbor, who was the village nurse, came back with the child. +Then she was despatched for the doctor. He shook his head gravely. + +"Doctor, you must keep me alive a little while longer," she pleaded. + +"Oh, you are good for some time yet, only you must not make the +slightest exertion. Cynthy, how long can you stay?" + +"Ten days or so. Then I have to go over on the Creek," she answered +laconically. + +"That will do." Then he gave sundry charges to Miss Beers, and left +the remedies she was to use, but that lady knew what was meant. + +Mrs. Westbury beckoned the nurse to her when he had gone. + +"Don't tell Laverne," she said. "Don't say anything about----" + +"That's cruel. Why, she ought to know and be prepared." + +"No, no; I will not have a word said. I cannot explain, no one can. +And if she took it hard, don't you see, it would drive me wild and +shorten my days. I'm all worn out. And she will be provided for." + +Everybody was kind and solicitous, sending in cooked food, offering to +sit up at night, but Miss Beers was equal to all demands. The sick +woman really did improve. Laverne hovered about her mother, read to +her out of her geography and Peter Parley's history, as well as the +sweetest hymns out of the hymn book. Jimmy Cox came over and did the +chores, provided the wood, took Verne out on his sled, and the days +passed along. Jason Chadsey returned. Miss Beers had to go her way, +and a neighbor came in to do what was needed. One day, before the +minister and the Squire, she gave her child to Jason Chadsey, who +promised to care for her and educate her, and keep her from all harm. + +"You both know that I loved her mother and would gladly have married +her in the old days, but untoward fate intervened. I could find no +trace of the child's father. She has no near relatives to care for +her, so I shall be father to her, and Heaven may judge me at the +last." + +He was holding the child on his knee that evening, "You are to be my +little girl always," he said, with tender solemnity. "You shall be +made happy as a little bird. And if you will only love me----" + +"Oh, I shall, I do. And will you stay here? Mother will be so glad. +She was longing so to have you come back. You will never go away +again?" + +"Never from you, my little girl;" and he kissed the child's trust into +perfect belief. + +There were two more alarms, then the frail life went out peacefully. +The child was stunned. It had seemed right for grandmother to leave a +world that she was forgetting about, but Laverne could not understand +all the mystery. Her mother had always been quiet and reserved, it was +the fashion in those days, and the child could not miss the things she +had never had. And neither could she ever have understood her sorrow +over the great mistake in giving her such a father. But Heaven had +helped her to make amends, for the child was the embodiment of her own +youth. It was all she had and she gave it to the man who had loved her +sincerely, glad and thankful that she was not to be left to the +uncertain charity of the world. + +The frightened child clung very closely to him. The worn furniture and +bedding were distributed among the neighbors, a few keepsakes +collected, a few good-bys said, and good wishes given, and they went +first to Boston and then to New York. Then they were to go to the +wonderful land of gold and sunshine, California. They found it on the +map. And there was the long, long sail, and the little girl was going +far away from the only sorrow of her life, that was so strangely +mingled with the only dear love. For while the other had been hedged +about with the severe training of the times, afraid of sinfulness in +indulging in what was called carnal affections, even in loving a +child, now she had the utmost tenderness lavished upon her. She had no +one but him, and that was a continual joy and kept his heart at high +tide. She was all his. + +Later she was to know about the young love between them, and how when +her mother was just fifteen he had shipped for three years aboard a +merchantman. They had sailed about the Eastern seas, bought and sold, +and at last started for home, to be wrecked, and nearly all had +perished. Of the few saved there were no tidings of Jason Chadsey. +Laverne waited and hoped and came to her twentieth birthday. David +Westbury was considered a smart young man. He had been a clerk in a +store, he had worked on a newspaper, and taught school, and could +turn his hand to a good many things. He had a smooth tongue, too, and +a certain polish in his manner above the country youths. Grandmother +espoused his cause at once. Jason Chadsey was dead, lovers were not so +plentiful in these small places, where the enterprising young men went +away. It was hard to stand out against one's own mother, and all the +years to come to be taunted as an old maid. And so Laverne married +David Westbury, and when her little girl was a month old he came back +not altogether penniless, but it was too late. + +He had roamed about the world a good deal. He had made money, and +spent it freely, lost some of it, helped friends in distress. Now, he +was going out to that wonderful land that had been the dream of the +Spaniard, and another nation had brought the dream true. He would +visit the little old village once more, and see how it had fared with +his early love and his old friends, and then say good-bye forever. And +knowing she was near to death, Laverne Westbury told him her sad +story, and he read between the broken sentences that he had been her +early love, her only love. + +So they whiled the time away, the man's dreams growing more vivid, the +child's fading. They passed strange countries, there were seas of +peerless blue, seas of emerald green, then strange colors commingled. +There were cloudless skies and broad sheets of sunshine that seemed to +envelop the whole world in a blaze; there were nights of such glowing +stars as one seldom sees on land, there were gray days with sullen +winds, and storms that sent a thrill to the stoutest hearts, when the +vessel groaned and creaked and the women cried in terror. But Laverne +only crept closer in Uncle Jason's arms and felt safe. + +They stopped here and there at a port, places they hunted up on the +map, cities that seemed marvels to the little girl, shores with waving +blooming forests and almost steaming fragrance. Strange birds, strange +many-hued fish, darting hither and thither, seaweed that in the +sunshine looked like masses of bloom, or living things swimming about. +Curious people, too, speaking languages no little girl could +understand, then leaving the warmth, and shivering with blasts of cold +air, wonderful islands and capes jutting out--some bleak and bare and +rocky, others shining in verdure and waving smiles of welcome, it +seemed; going safely round the Horn with half their journey done and +finding more wonders, great mountain ranges, shores thickly studded +with islands, natives swimming about like fishes, queer, half ruinous +old Spanish towns, and when they stopped at a port, such a clatter of +tongues, such a screaming of voices, such a confusion, one was glad to +get out of it to lovely, enchanting peace once more. + +Warmer grew the air with a languorous, permeating fragrance. Moonlight +silvering the water that leaped softly up and down as if playing hide +and seek with the next wave. All the boundless space lighted with it, +going round the world, swelling, decreasing, a golden crescent, then a +pale gibbous thing and afterward darkness when the ship crept softly +along. + +If one came in near the shore it was like the blast of a furnace. +Then, passing the equator with the queer ceremony among the sailors, +and looking across at the little neck of land joining the two +countries, past Central America, which the little girl insisted made +three Americas. She had listened to the tales of the early explorers +and their cruel lust for gold until she had shuddered. + +"Uncle Jason, are you going for gold in California, and will the +people murder whole nations and rob them? I would rather not have the +gold." + +"No, my little girl; and the country that has the gold belongs to us. +But it has many other delightful things as well. It is not like bleak +Maine." + +"What a strange journey it has been, and oh, how beautiful most of the +time. I do not believe I shall ever be afraid of storms again." + +"You have made a most excellent sailor. It will seem queer to be on +land again. You will keep your sea legs for some time to come." + +"Sea legs?" She laughed inquiringly. + +"The faculty one acquires of walking with the roll of the ship. +Sailors always do it on land. And you will see that you have an +inclination to go from side to side as if the street was hardly wide +enough;" and he looked at her out of humorous eyes. + +He had a way of nearly shutting one eye, which gave an absolutely +funny expression to his face. He had buffeted so many storms and +narrow escapes that he looked fully ten years beyond his age, which +was but thirty-five. He had a tall, vigorous frame, with a little +stoop in the shoulders and a way of sitting down all in a heap. The +little girl told him he made a cave for her to sit in. Every day she +loved him more dearly, and to him she was the one thing that +brightened his way and gave him new aims. He had been going to +California simply to see a strange and new land. He had not been won +by the wonderful tales of gold, he had cared very little for wealth. +But now he would make a fortune for her and have it so safely invested +that she should not come to want if she lived to be old. He could +never forget the afternoon he had come to Laverne Westbury's home, +that she had been warned to leave in the spring, and found her almost +on the verge of starvation, too proud to keep asking charity, worn out +and disheartened, with only the county house looming before her. +Little Verne should never know this, never suffer as her mother had +done. + +And this was one reason he led her thoughts away from the old life. +She was too young to know that he had loved her mother, she took the +relationship for granted. And even on the long voyage there had been +so much to entertain her. The only child on board, and a winsome one +at that, she had been a universal favorite; and Jason Chadsey hardly +less so. The trio, as the three single women had been dubbed, though +the married ones often said "the old maids," after a little, +established very friendly relations with Mr. Chadsey. Miss Holmes was +past thirty, and had worn herself almost out teaching school. A sea +voyage had been prescribed to avoid consumption, that scourge of the +eastern towns. She had gained in health and strength, and certainly in +looks. When she found the little girl and her uncle poring over their +old map, she brought out some of her school books, to Laverne's great +delight. Among them was the story of the Argonauts that caught the +young imagination, and even Dick Folsom became interested in the +various explorers who had dreamed of gold and of the straight route to +China. Miss Gaines had been a dressmaker until a troublesome pain in +her side warned her to seek a different occupation, and Miss Alwood +had kept house, done nursing, and they had planned to make better +fortunes in the new country, where there were fewer women. Mrs. Dawson +was going out to meet her husband, who had been among the +"Forty-miners," and now kept a sort of lodging ranch, that with her +help could be transformed into a regular hotel, much in demand at that +time. + +And so they had made quite a little colony on shipboard. Slowly they +came up the Pacific Coast, past the long peninsula of Southern +California, and there, fairly in sight, was the Golden Gate. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +OLD SAN FRANCISCO + + +Was it any wonder the old explorers missed the narrow outlet from the +great bay when the hills from the farther shore cast a great gloomy +shadow, and dreary rocks flanked the shore, inhabited by cormorants +and auks and gulls, screaming out their discordant music? What if the +tide did run out sweeping like a torrent--were they going to breast +the danger back of it? Was the great rocky point worth their +consideration? In the islands off the shore seals and sea lions had it +all their own way and basked and frolicked in the sunshine. + +It had changed then, in the early fifties, but half a century has +almost forgotten the bareness of it then. And yet it was magnificent +in the October sunset as the old ship made its way, puffing from the +strains of its long journey. They had nearly all huddled on deck to +view their land of promise. There are few enthusiastic emigrants now, +everything is viewed with commercial eyes. Afar to the westward +stretched the magnificent ocean, a sheet of billowy ranges tipped with +molten gold, changing to a hundred iridescent tints and throwing up +the gold again in prodigal fashion, sweeping it over to foreign seas. +And, on the other hand, the mile-wide gap, the gateway to the +wonderful land, tranquil enough now, with frowning rocks like the +cave of Scylla on the one hand, that was to be transformed into a +wonderful city. They are piloted through to the great magnificent bay +that seems endless at the first glance of its seventy miles. Northward +long lines of rolling hills, purple and blue and black, with glints of +the setting sun fighting the shadows like some strange old gods with +their fire-tipped arrows. At the south it fades into misty dreamland. +Red Rock stands up defiant. And so they look at their new country and +then at each other. There is shipping at the rude wharves, and they +find a place to anchor, but it is too late to look for a home and so +they make themselves content. But if they thought they were coming to +great space, and semi-loneliness they were mistaken and confused by +the noise and tumult, the crowds, the bustle of business, the people +of all countries it seemed. + +"Why, I had no idea," the women said to one another. "The place must +be overcrowded." + +What chance was there then for women who had come to seek their +fortunes? + +They soon found that San Francisco was the stopping place of nearly +every nation, and yet there was room for more, and work for those +willing to do it. + +Mr. Dawson came down to meet his wife the next morning, and was made +acquainted with the little party that had become such friends in their +long journey. + +"We can take some of you in if you will accept the accommodations," he +said cordially. "They might be worse," with a shrug of the shoulders. +"Luckily, I escaped being burnt out. Will you come and take a view of +our town?" + +What an odd place it was, built on the hills like Rome. On the ocean +side great frowning rocks that suggested fortresses. At the extreme +end, the highest of hills, the city began, and it spread out over +little valleys and other hills, sloping to the busy, beautiful bay. +And it seemed right in the heart of it lay devastation, débris and +ashes. Hundreds of men were clearing, laying foundations again, +rearing new structures. + +"It was an awful fire," explained their guide. "We had thought +fireproof bricks and iron-bound structures would at least stay the +devastating hand of destruction, and even that proved useless. But for +the loss one might have enjoyed the magnificent spectacle of the +immense fiery field. The fierce roar of the flames, the shouts and +shrieks of the flying people, the glowing crackling mass sending +spires up to the very sky, it seemed, was something we shall never +forget. It was said to have been visible a hundred miles away." + +The ruins were startling even now. Then the party turned, crossed +Market Street and came into Spear Street. Here there was a rambling +frame building that had been added to several times, two stories for +the most part, but a long ell of only one story. The main end bore the +name of "Dawson House." It was not a hotel, and had no bar, that usual +accompaniment. Round in the next street, Mr. Dawson had a clubhouse +that supplied this want, and all games of chance, but this place was +of the better sort. + +The Farnsworths had gone to friends only a few squares from the wharf. +Mr. Dawson made friends at once with young Folsom and offered him a +position. + +"I'm in for the gold fields," he declared with boyish eagerness. + +"You'd better consider a day or two," suggested his mother. + +"And I'll take the mother, too, if she is as good a housekeeper as she +looks to be," Mr. Dawson subjoined laughingly. "If I don't, young +fellow, some man will snap your mother up before you'll have a chance +to see the color of his eyes." + +"Well, here are four husbandless women," she retorted gayly. "He could +have a choice." + +They were ushered into a spacious room with a painted floor and +nondescript furnishing. In one corner was a large desk at which sat a +clerk. This opened into a dining room, in which the long table was +seldom without a guest. Several were seated there now. On the other +side were two smaller rooms tolerably well furnished, one a sleeping +chamber. + +"You'll find we're suffering from the want of woman's hands and +woman's wit. I could hardly believe my wife had consented to come. You +see those who are worth anything are soon offered homes of their own, +and the others----" He made a peculiar little gesture, that elicited a +shrewd smile from Jason Chadsey. + +It was comforting to find a place of refuge so soon, they all thought. +On the second floor were lodging rooms for the better class. The ell +was fitted up with rows of bunks, and there was seldom a vacancy by +midnight. + +Laverne kept tight hold of Uncle Jason's hand, and when Mr. Dawson +smiled over to her, half hid her face on Uncle Jason's ample frame. + +"Are we all going to live here?" she asked in a low tone. + +"For a little while, I think. We would not want to go away alone. And +there must be some one to keep the house when I get one." + +"But you know that I helped mother, oh, for a long while. Sometimes I +chopped up the wood. And in the autumn I dug the potatoes and husked +the corn, but we had to kill the poor hens, after all," and she +sighed. "I swept up the house, too. Oh, I can do a great many things." + +He took the slim little hand in his and tried to smile over her +eagerness, but his heart ached as he thought of her mother, and the +hardships he could not save. + +"Will it be winter soon?" she inquired. + +"Not a Maine winter, my child. I believe there is no real winter." + +"Everything looks queer and dried up, yet it isn't cold. And what a +great city, it is almost as large as New York." + +He laughed at that, then he was grave a moment. "It may be as great, +some day. The Pacific will be a big rival to the Atlantic." + +"To think we are clear over here! Why don't they build a +railroad--just so?" and she made a mark with her small finger. + +"No doubt that will come also." + +They made arrangements about staying for the present. It seemed queer +to the child that the friend she had known so long should be Mr. +Dawson's wife. Already she was giving some orders and telling what +she wanted done, and did not seem a bit afraid of the portly man who +could speak so sharply to the Chinese servants. + +Laverne thought them very odd. She had only seen pictures of them +before. They walked so softly in their pointed slippers, and looked a +little like women in their loose blue shirts with hanging sleeves. The +long queue twisted around their heads, and their slanting eyes seemed +weird enough. + +She saw many other queer people in their walk back to the boat. Uncle +Jason thought it too long, but she pleaded so to go. There were other +curious dark-eyed and dark-skinned men, small and bright Japanese she +came to know, and tall Spaniards in picturesque attire with handsome +sashes about their waists; Indians, too, and a group of squaws girt +about with blankets, two carrying their babies on their backs, and +these made her think of the Maine clear across the continent, for you +occasionally saw them there. + +The old vessel seemed almost like home to her. They gathered up their +luggage and that belonging to the ladies and ordered it sent to the +Dawson House. Then they went up on Telegraph Hill, and half the world +seemed spread out before them. The sun was shining in well-nigh +blinding brilliancy. There was the narrow passageway that hardly +looked its real width, there was the northern peninsula, Mount +Tamalpais, Belvidere, Sausalito, and all the places she was to come to +know so well. And there over the bay were the low spurs of the Coast +Range, at whose feet were to spring up towns and cities. The bay +looked to her like a smaller ocean. But boats were plying back and +forth. And they could see the other hills about, and the town +spreading here and there outside of the burned district. + +Suddenly she said she was very tired, and her steps lagged a little. +Uncle Jason would have been glad to carry her, he had occasionally +carried greater burdens in times of peril, but that would be hardly +admissible, they were going downhill too, which was easier. She had +not seen all the strange people yet, for they met a group of +Portuguese sailors with big hoop earrings, who were gesticulating +fiercely, and some Russians with high caps and black, bushy beards. +She was glad she had studied so much geography on shipboard, and she +began to feel quite wise about different countries. + +When she reached their present home she begged that she might go to +bed. She did not want to eat even a tempting bit of cake. Mrs. Dawson +took her into her room and put a pillow on the lounge, and while the +others talked and planned she slept soundly. + +"What a pretty child she is," Mr. Dawson said. "You will have to watch +her closely that no one steals her." + +"Oh!" Uncle Jason said thoughtfully. But in this wild, bustling life +few would want to be burdened with a child not belonging to them. + +When Laverne woke there was a queer, rushing, rustling sound, and it +was dark like twilight. Where was she? What was happening? Then she +sprang up and remembered. The ladies were talking in the next room. +Oh, it rained and the wind seemed blowing a gale. + +"Oh, what a nice sleep you have had!" exclaimed Mrs. Dawson. "And now +you must be hungry, though we shall have dinner in a very short time. +You look rested," and she smiled cheerfully. + +"Yes, I am. I don't know what made me so tired." She had not climbed a +hill in a long while. + +"We didn't have any hills to climb on shipboard, and in all these +months we did get out of practice," said Miss Holmes. "I was tired as +well. And now the rainy season has begun, and Mr. Dawson has been +saying that in a week or two the country will look like spring." + +"And won't there be any winter? Though I don't like winter very much," +she added naïvely. "Only the sledding and skating." + +"I shouldn't care to live in Maine," and Miss Gaines gave a little +shiver. "All my life I have longed for a warm winter climate. And if +this doesn't suit, I shall go further south." + +"You women without husbands are very independent," laughed Mrs. +Dawson. + +"You certainly can go where you like if you have money enough to take +you there," was the reply. "Verne, come sit here and tell me if you +like San Francisco as well as the ship and the voyage." + +"It's queer and such lots of queer people, and how they can understand +each other I can't see, for they all seem to talk different. I'd +rather not live on a ship all my life." + +"Then do not marry a sea captain. But your uncle may take a fancy to +go to China or Japan. It is not so far from here. Grace, have you +written any letters this afternoon?" + +"No," replied Miss Alwood. "I think my friends will not be immediately +alarmed." + +"And this little girl has left no relatives behind, I heard her uncle +say. Haven't you any cousins?" + +"My mother had no brothers or sisters." Then she remembered how little +she had ever heard about her father. + +Mrs. Dawson brushed her hair and they were summoned to dinner. They +had the upper end of the table. Two other women came in with their +husbands. There were some Spaniards among the men, and a few very +dark, peculiar-looking people. There was a great deal of talking in +tongues unknown to the little girl, but some of the voices had a soft, +musical sound. + +The little girl was really hungry and enjoyed her dinner. Afterward +most of the party played cards. The other lodgers were of the commoner +sort, had a dining room to themselves, and generally sallied out in +the evening. Fights were not infrequent and the harmless phases of +games degenerated into gambling. + +Miss Holmes had not mastered the art even on the long voyage. She took +Laverne under her wing now. + +"You and I will have to learn Spanish," she said. "Once Spain owned +all this country." + +"And will we have to learn all the other talk? I know some Indian +words, there were two old Indian women in our town, and in the summer +some of the tribes would come down. But Chinese--that funny reading +that comes on tea chests----" and a knot gathered in her forehead. + +"We will not take Chinese the first. I have a friend who went out as a +missionary and who can talk it fluently. But all down along the coast +it is settled by Spaniards, and they were in South America, you know, +and it seems as if half the people here were talking it. Then it is a +stately and beautiful language. You know you learned some French on +shipboard." + +"And there are so many things to learn. There were so few in our +little place. They spun and knit and sewed, and you made bed quilts in +case you were married. Mother had two she had never used, and a great +counterpane grandmother had knit." + +"Yes. It is a pity they couldn't have been saved for you. I have a +chest of heirlooms stored in the house of a cousin at Dorchester, and +some Revolutionary relics. My grandfather fought in the war. And I +have left them all behind." + +Miss Holmes gave a little sighing laugh. She could not tell whether +she was glad or sorry that she had taken this long journey to a +strange land. + +"What did Spain want of America?" queried the little girl. + +"Oh, don't you remember how they came to Mexico for the gold. There +was Pizarro and Cortez----" + +"And poor Montezuma in South America. Are there any real gold mines +here?" + +"Not just in the town." + +"Then no one will come and fight us and take the gold away," she said +with a sigh of relief. + +Uncle Jason gave a dry smile. There was fighting enough, he had found +already. + +"Would you care for the gold?" The child raised soft, inquiring eyes. + +"Why, yes; I should like to have a share of it. But I do not think I +shall go and work in the mines." + +"Did they fight very much at the fort. And who did they drive away?" +she asked in a rather awe-stricken voice. + +"Oh, my child, they did not fight at all. The country belonged to us. +The gold was free for any one willing to mine. We shall see the men +coming in with their bags of gold dust and nuggets, and though they +may talk fiercely and quarrel, they need not disturb us," and Miss +Holmes smiled reassuringly. + +"Uncle Jason will not go," she said confidently, after quite a pause. +Then she glanced over to him and smiled, and was answered in return. + +He lost that trick and the next and Mrs. Dawson won his money. It did +well enough to play for fun on shipboard, the captain had strictly +forbidden gambling, but here one would not dream of such a thing. The +stakes were not high, however. + +He was thinking of his little girl and whether he had done wisely to +bring her here. He had planned this journey before he knew whether the +little girl was dead or alive; at any rate he had supposed she would +be in the keeping of her own father. And the pitiful story of the +woman he had loved, and would have slaved for had she been his, had +roused all the chivalrous feelings of his nature. And that she should +give him the child who had her smile and her soft, appealing voice, +and the pretty eagerness that had cropped out now and then, though it +was the fashion to repress it, seemed so wonderful and so sacred to +him, and occupied so much of his thoughts that he never dreamed of +altering his plans, or whether they would be best for her. Everything +was so different, such a hurly-burly, that he wondered if a little +girl could be brought up clean and wholesome and happy. A touch of +uncertainty was creeping through every nerve. A man's life was so +different. And there must be some one to guard her since he had to +make the fortune for her. Would Miss Holmes do? They had become great +friends. Then Miss Holmes had the Eastern refinement and uprightness. + +He had not counted on sharing her with any one, his ideas had been +vague and impractical and he would have to remodel them. + +"Upon my word, I never knew you to play so poorly," laughed Mrs. +Dawson teasingly; "I believe you are half asleep." + +"I think that must be it. I am a landlubber to-night, so I beg you to +excuse me," and he rose. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +MAKING A NEW HOME + + +It rained three days, not quite like sullen Eastern storms, but in +gusts and showers. At times the wind drove it along like a trampling +army, then the fog came up and you could hardly see anything but the +vaguest outlines. The rainy season had set in. + +"Will it rain all the time?" asked Laverne. "And I have no rubbers." + +"That is a sad oversight. I don't believe you will find any small ones +here," answered Mrs. Dawson. "But I have interviewed some of the old +residents, and they say it only rains by spells, but that the spells +are rather frequent. I suppose we shall get used to it." + +It was mid-forenoon. Laverne had asked questions about everything she +could imagine, and heard many wonderful stories. The convent tales +interested her deeply. They had found an old volume of the early days, +and she had rejoiced in the legend of Father Francis, who had been +left out of the list of missions that were to be named after the +Saints. + +"And no St. Francis!" cried the good missionary, surprised at such +neglect. "Is not our own dear Father Francis to have a mission +assigned to him?" + +The visitador replied loftily, "If St. Francis wishes a mission let +him show you a good port and it shall bear his name." + +They had been discouraged at the rough shores and rocky heights. But +they went on and suddenly the gateway opened before them, and the bay +came in view. So they entered it, and while they were waiting for the +storeship, they cut down timber and began to make a settlement on a +fertile plain surrounded by vine-clad hills. When the storeship +arrived with cattle, provisions, and some more emigrants, they built +some plain houses, and the mission, and on the day of St. Francis it +was blessed and consecrated with a Mass, and for music they had a +continual discharge of firearms, while the smoke answered for incense. +Then they set about converting the natives who were poor, wandering +clans with no religion, but a great fear of sorcerers, and were very +easily managed. And now the Mission de los Dolores was but a crumbling +ruin, while the good St. Francis lives in the noble name of bay and +city. + +Then there was the pathetic story of Doña Conceptione, daughter of the +Commandant of Presidio. A Russian official visited it, and fell deeply +in love with the beautiful girl. But he not only had to return with +business matters, but had to lay before the Czar his earnest wish to +espouse his sweetheart. Doña Conceptione waited at first in great joy +and hope, but no word and no lover came. When her father tried to win +her from her love by various devices, she would not be comforted with +them. Many a time she looked longingly over the ocean, straining her +eyes to see the vague outline of his ship that never came, and so her +sweet youth passed, her beauty began to fade, but she would not give +up her faith. He was dead, or he would have come. He could not prove +false. She went into a convent and prayed for his soul's rest. Long +afterward she heard he had been killed on his way home, and her sad +heart was comforted by the thought that she had never doubted his +love. + +And then another beautiful girl, whose lover had gone to battle with a +fierce tribe of Indians who had attacked one of the lower missions. +His horse had found its way back unharmed, and some one who had seen +him fall brought back his bloody scarf and his jewelled dagger, picked +up from the ground, but the Indians had mutilated his body horribly +and cast it away in fragments. When Doña Eustacia recovered from her +long illness she would take the veil in spite of her mother's +protests, for there was another lover the elder had preferred. And so +two years passed away when a poor, dishevelled, footsore man came +back, who had not been killed but wounded and taken prisoner, and at +last managed to escape. And when the Señor Roldan learned Eustacia's +sorrowful mistake he begged that she be released from her vows, and +proffered his estate to the mission for her. But the Padre was +obdurate and would not listen. Did some bird carry messages to her? +There was no need to pray for his soul, and his faithful love was too +sweet to give up. So the little bird comforted her, and though she +knew she was perilling her soul's salvation she slipped out of the +convent one night, and her lover lifted her on his horse and they went +away in the storm and the darkness, whither no one ever knew, but the +Padre took his estate, and they were both laid under the ban of the +Church. + +"But did it really hurt them?" queried the young listener. + +"I should like to think they were very happy," declared Miss Holmes, +closing the book, "and we will end it that way." + +"Do see!" cried Laverne, running to the window. "Why, it is yellow and +purple, and rolling up----" + +"The fog is lifting. And the sun is coming out," was the reply. + +"The cobwebs being swept from the sky," laughed the child. "But there +is no old woman with a broom." + +Yes, there was the sun out in all its glory, driving the fog into the +ocean, tearing it into tatters, and suddenly everything was glorified. +The evergreens had been washed free from dust and were in their +metallic tints, other foliage that had seemed brown a few days ago, +glowed and shimmered in the crystal-clear air. The change was +marvellous. The newcomers glanced at each other in surprise, with no +words to express their exhilaration. + +"And now we can go out!" cried Laverne. "I want to climb a hill." + +Uncle Jason laughed. "Come and see," he replied. + +Alas! Rivulets were running down the slopes and the wind was +appalling. Some of the streets were simply seas meandering along. + +"Never mind, to-morrow it will be nice and you will see it dry up by +magic." + +Laverne went back to the book of legends and stories. The others had +been considering plans. Mrs. Folsom had accepted Mr. Dawson's proposal +and was installed as housekeeper to his wife's great satisfaction. + +"It would be folly for a young fellow like you to go out to the +mines," Mr. Dawson said to Richard. "There's gold enough to last ten +years or I'll miss my guess. It's no place for a boy. And there is +plenty to do right here. I'll take you as a clerk." + +"We certainly have fallen in a clover bed," exclaimed his mother; "I +don't know how to thank you." + +"I guess I need you as much as you need me. And if the boy keeps +honest and upright and doesn't take to gambling his fortune is made." + +"But I shall go to the gold fields in the end," Dick said to his +mother. She was satisfied to have it put off a while. + +The rain had not kept Jason Chadsey in the house. He had gone on +several inspecting tours. There was work to be had everywhere. +Building up the burned district, draying around the bay in every +conceivable branch. Every week dozens of men threw up a job and +started for the gold fields. Three or four shipping houses almost +fought for him when they learned he was a Maine man, and had been half +over the world, was indeed full of shrewd knowledge that had been +discriminated by a wide experience, and neither drank nor gambled, the +besetting sins of those early days. + +Then there was the home. Miss Alwood had found a position. The other +two had been friends for years. A needlewoman would readily gain +employment, and no doubt teachers would be in demand. + +Jason Chadsey ruminated over the matter. Women had hardly begun to +make homes for themselves in that chaotic region. What if he made a +home for them both and Miss Holmes took care of Laverne? The child was +very fond of her. + +He went about the matter in a straightforward fashion. Miss Holmes +accepted at once. She had begun to wonder a little at her temerity in +seeking her fortune in this new land. In the older cities it was +different. And she had a motherly heart for Laverne. Indeed, if Jason +Chadsey had offered her marriage she would have accepted it readily, +though it would have been based on respect and friendship. + +"You will be head of the interior," he said, in a rather humorous +tone. "We may find some one to do the rough part. And if Miss Gaines +would like to make her home with you we shall be a cheerful and +comfortable family, I fancy." + +It was not so easy to find a domicile ready made. Too many of the +houses, even among those offered for sale, were flimsy things and held +at exorbitant prices. But he struck one presently. The man's wife had +died and he wanted to go to the mines, but did not really care to +sell. He would rent furniture and all for six months. + +The Dawsons were sorry to have them leave. To be sure, their places +could be filled easily enough, but they had all been so friendly. + +Meanwhile the weather would have been amusing if it had not been so +trying. It had come off very hot, and the north wind seemed to be +bringing gusts from the desert that scorched the green things with its +withering fury. The stars shone out pitiless like lesser suns. Then +splendid revivifying showers, and air as balmy as spring, laden with +wafts of curious fragrance, touching the hillsides with magic, +clothing them with daintiest verdure. Was this winter? Were not the +seasons absolutely lost? + +The little girl was as much interested in the house as if she had been +a decade older. It was rather out of the business region, and built on +a side hill. Downstairs, even with the street in front, which had a +narrow plank sidewalk, there were two rooms; on the next floor four, +and you stepped out on the level again at the back. There was a flat +rock, then another declivity, but not so steep. Up here there was a +magnificent prospect. A little shrubbery grew about, but it was mostly +a tangle of vines, where flowers were to run riot in the spring. + +It was quite as plain as the little cottage in the Maine town though +much less substantial. Sometimes in a strong west wind it seemed as if +it might slide to the street below. But houses seldom blew about that +way. + +Outside a series of rude steps had been laid. Now and then they washed +out in a heavy rain, but they could be relaid without much trouble, +and sometimes the sticky clay hardened like stone and they remained +for a long while. She liked to run up and down them, flying like a +gull, stretching out her small arms, to the terror of Miss Holmes. + +"You will slip some day and break your neck or some of your limbs, and +your uncle will think I was careless about you," she said anxiously. + +"Oh, I will tell him that you were always cautioning me. And I do not +believe I shall break easily," laughing with a child's glee. + +Every day changed her it seemed. Her eyes glowed with quivering lights +like the bay, her cheeks rounded out, the dimple grew deeper and held +a pink tint like the heart of a rose. Uncle Jason put uncounted kisses +in it. She would be prettier than her mother, and that gave him a +jealous pang. Her father had been esteemed good-looking, but really +she was not like him. The coloring and hair resembled her mother's. +Ah, if she could be here amid the splendor, and he shuddered, thinking +of the bleak little town. + +The housekeeping was not arduous. Even in those early days fruits were +abundant and vegetables enough to surprise one. Then Jason Chadsey +went away in the morning and oftener took his lunch at the Dawsons', +not coming home until night. Everything in a business way rushed. + +There were schools already, for the American plants his schoolhouse if +there are a dozen children. They could see the one down on the Plaza. +There were churches, too. Even in 1848 there had been Sunday worship +established on the Plaza, and a year later, in spite of all the +hubbub, churches were really organized. Then they erected a +substantial tent on Dupont Street, until one of their members ordered +a church ready to be put together, from New York. There was beside a +Congregational Society and this attracted Miss Holmes, for she had +always been "orthodox" in Boston. But the long sea voyage and the +lawless life all about her were rather demoralizing. + +Men and women broadened out, sharp corners of creeds were rubbed off. +There was a very earnest endeavor among the better classes for the +extension of higher moral purposes, and a purer rule, and all of that +mind worked heartily together. + +Marian Holmes was much interested in her friend's welfare. Miss +Gaines, with true Yankee faculty, was meaning to make a place for +herself and some money. Her heart yearned for the intelligence and +order of her native city. + +"I shall not spend all my life in this riotous, disorderly place where +you cannot tell what will happen to you next. Like the men, I want to +make some money. It doesn't take so very much to be comfortable in +Boston, and there are all the appliances and enjoyments of +civilization. I was talking to that Mrs. Latham who has come to the +Dawsons for a few weeks while their house is being finished. And she +recommends that I shall start an establishment at once, while I am new +to the town." + +Miss Gaines studied her compeer. She had been talking so rapidly she +was out of breath. + +"Well?" as Miss Holmes was silent. + +"Why, it might be an excellent thing. Only could you get girls to sew? +I do not think the young women are of that type. They flock to the +restaurants." + +"There are two Catholic women Mrs. Latham spoke of--you know their +priests keep stricter watch over them. They are of the old Spanish +Californian stock. They have sewed for her and are neat as new pins, +but have no style. They rent out the lower floor of their house, being +in straitened circumstances. Their tenant is to go next week, I +believe I shall take the two rooms, and open a shop, emporium, +establishment, whatever it is best to call it. They will work for me. +And the more bizarre clothes are made the better. I think they will +suit these people, who do not care how they spend their money if it is +so their neighbors can see it. Then we will all be provided for. +Though I think I could have had an offer of marriage last night. A man +had just come in from the mines with a pile of gold. He was a Boston +man, but sadly demoralized by drink. I felt sorry for him at first, +then disgusted." + +Miss Holmes laughed. "And thereby missed a chance that it is supposed +no woman lets slip." + +"I certainly shall not take a chance like that. Come with me to see +the rooms." + +"I must find Laverne. The child grows wild as the wildest thing in +town, and yet she is sweet as a rose. There's something in the air +that sets all your blood astir. I have not danced for years. I should +like to dance. I feel curiously young." + +"Marian Holmes! You are in love! But I can't imagine Jason Chadsey +dancing. Though you are not compelled to dance with your husband in +this lawless place." + +"I am afraid it would be love's labor lost if that were the case. He +like you has his heart set on making money, but for the child." + +She ran out and looked at Table Rock, as they called a large, flattish +boulder. Laverne was not there. Then she glanced around. Some distance +down the street was a group of little girls, but Laverne's light hair +made her distinctive. She walked a short distance and then called. + +The child hesitated, and the call was repeated. Laverne came with the +rush of a wild deer. + +"Oh, can't I stay a little longer? I'm telling them about Maine, and +the snows and coasting. And it doesn't snow here, at least only a +little bit. They are such nice girls, and I am so lonely with only big +folks. They talk Spanish and very broken English." + +"I want to take you out. Your uncle wouldn't like me to leave you +among strangers." + +"Oh, but we're not strangers now. We know each other's names. +Carmencita,--isn't that pretty,--and Juana, and Anesta, and their +voices are so soft, and such black eyes as they have!" + +"But you must come with me, dear," and there was a firmness in Miss +Holmes' tone. + +The child looked irresolute. "Well, I must tell them," and she was off +again. These walks about the city always interested her. She made +amends by promising to come in the afternoon. + +There was not much regularity in the streets save in the business +section. Some were little better than alleyways, others wound about, +and like most new places, houses had been set anywhere, but there were +a few pretty spots belonging to some of the older settlers before the +irruption of the horde. And already the Chinese had congregated +together, the Germans had a settlement, and the American was +everywhere. + +This was really a pretty nook, with some wild olive trees about and +almonds, while grape vines clambered over the rocks. It had been quite +a fine estate, but its day was past. At one end was the adobe cottage +of two stories, with a flat roof and small deep-set windows, that +made it look like the spur of a mission. At the southern end was a +great open porch, the adobe floor stained a dullish red, and vines +were climbing over the columns. The little garden in front had some +vegetables growing in it. + +The Señora Vanegas came down the outside stairs, she had seen the +guests from her window. She spoke quite brokenly, falling into Spanish +when she was at loss for a word. Then she called her daughter +Jacintha, who had mastered English, but spoke it with a charming +accent, and translated into Spanish that her mother more readily +understood the desire of the visitors. Mrs. Latham had sent them. Yes, +they knew Mrs. Latham very well. Oh, it would be charming to have some +one to take the lead, they did not profess to understand all the art +of costuming. But Jacintha brought down some exquisite embroidery and +drawn work, and the mother made cushion lace for some of the big +ladies. Her brother, it seemed, had owned the whole estate, which had +come from their father, and drank and gambled it away, keeping racing +horses. Only this little spot was left to them, and they were very +poor. The mother would gladly retire to a convent, but the +daughters---- + +"I could not like the life," Jacintha protested. "Perhaps, when I am +old and have had no lovers, I might be willing. But while I can work, +and the world is so bright," smiling with youth and hope. + +"All three of you----" inquired the mother. + +"Only Miss Gaines," explained Jacintha. "The others have a home, and +Miss Gaines will go there on Sunday. Oh, Señorita, you will find +plenty of work, and we will be glad to help. And it will be a great +interest." + +The mother brought in a plate of crispy spiced cakes, and some sweet +wine of berries that she always prepared. For berries grew almost +everywhere, even if they were not of the choicest kind. A little +cultivation worked wonders. + +So that was settled. They all went to Dawson House and had luncheon. +Mrs. Dawson was really in her glory. + +"I was a fool that I didn't come out before," she said, with her +heartsome laugh. "Several of my cousins went West and suffered +everything, and I had no taste for emigrating. So I said to Dawson +when he was smitten with the gold craze, 'Go out and make some money, +and get a home to keep me in, and a servant to wait upon me, and then +I will come.' But I might as well have been here a year ago. There is +money to be paid for everything, no one haggles over the price. So, +Miss Gaines, we will wish you success and a fortune." + +"Thank you for your hand in it;" and Miss Gaines nodded merrily. + +"Hillo!" cried a bright voice, as Laverne stood talking to the +beautiful big dog in the hall. "Why, I've not seen you for ever so +long. Where have you been?" + +"Home--I suppose that's home over there," and she nodded her head, +while the dimple in her cheek deepened. "But it is all so queer. Well, +when you are over on the other side of the world,--turned upside +down"----and she looked half funny, half perplexed. + +"Are you homesick? Do you want to go back to Maine?" + +"But there isn't any one to care for me there," she said a little +sadly. "Uncle Jason's all I have. It's so queer for winter, though. No +snow, no sliding, no skating, no fun at snowballing. And between the +rains things spring up and grow. I've tamed two funny little +squirrels, so one of them will eat out of my hand. And the birds come +to be fed." + +"You can see snow enough up on the mountain-tops. It never melts away. +I like the fun and stir and strange people. It makes you believe in +Sir Francis Drake and the pirates and everything. But my! how they +spend money and gamble it away! I hope your uncle will have a level +head and hold on to what he gets." + +"I've found three Spanish girls that are just lovely. There are so few +little girls about," in a rather melancholy tone. "And Miss Holmes +teaches me at home. I'd rather go to school, but it's too far, and +uncle says wait until I get older." + +"I guess that's best," returned the experienced youth. "Sometimes it +is hardly safe for a little girl in the street. There are so many +drunken rowdies." + +"Oh, I never do go out alone, except over at the cedars. They are sort +of scrubby and look like Maine. The little girls live there. I don't +quite like their mother; she has such sharp black eyes. Why do you +suppose so many people have black eyes?" + +Dick considered a moment. "Why, the tropical nations are darker, and +the Mexicans, and those queer people from Hawaii and all the islands +over yonder. Your uncle will know all about them. When I am a few +years older I mean to travel. I'll go up to the gold fields and make a +pile, and you bet I won't come in town and gamble it away in a single +night, the way some of them do. I'll go over to Australia and China." + +Laverne drew a long breath. What a wonderful world it was! If she +could be suddenly dropped down into the small district school and tell +them all she had seen! + +Some one called Dick. She sauntered back into the room, but the women +were still talking business and clothes. There was a beautiful big +hound who looked at her with wistful eyes, and she spoke to him. He +nodded and looked gravely wise. + +"You've a most uncompromising name," Mrs. Latham was saying. "You +can't seem to Frenchify the beginning nor end. You must put a card in +the paper." For the newspaper had been a necessity from the very +first, and the _Alta Californian_ was eagerly scanned. + +"Yes," Miss Gaines returned, "Calista Gaines. It has a sound of the +old Bay State. Well, I'm not ashamed of it," almost defiantly. + +"And we shall have to get most of our fashions from the States for +some time to come. We are not in the direct line from Paris. And I +really don't see why we shouldn't have fashions of our own. Here are +the picturesque Spanish garments that can be adapted. Oh, you will do, +and we shall be glad enough to have you," giving a most hearty and +encouraging laugh. + +"Fortune-making is in the very air," declared Miss Gaines on the +homeward way. "Well, I think I like a new, energetic country. And what +a delicious voice that Jacintha has! I wonder if voices do not get +toned down in this air. Our east wind is considered bad for them. And +it is said a foggy air is good for the complexion. We may end by being +rich and beautiful, who knows!" + +Laverne ran out to look after her squirrels, and chattered with them. +Then something bright caught her eye up among the tangles of vines and +shrubs. Why, flowers, absolutely in bloom in December! She gathered a +handful of them and hurried back overjoyed. + +"Oh, see, see!" she cried, out of breath. "They are up here on the +hill, and everything is growing. Isn't it queer! Do you suppose the +real winter will come in July?" + +"If stories are true we will hardly have any winter at all," was the +reply. + +"And they are all snowed up in Maine. Oh, I wish there was some one to +write me a letter." + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +A QUEER WINTER + + +Christmas and New Year's brought a mad whirl. All that could, came in +from the mines. The streets were thronged. Banjo and guitar were +thrummed to the songs and choruses of the day, and even the accordion +notes floated out on the air, now soft and pathetic with "Annie +Laurie", "Home, Sweet Home," and "There's Nae Luck About the House," +"The Girl I Left Behind Me," or a jolly song from fine male voices. +Then there were balls, and a great masquerade, until it seemed as if +there was nothing to life but pleasure. + +Miss Gaines came in with some of the stories. But the most delightful +were those of the three little Estenega girls about the Christmas eve +at the church and the little child Jesus in the cradle, the wise men +bringing their gifts, the small plain chapel dressed with greens and +flowers in Vallejo Street. Laverne had not been brought up to +Christmas services and at first was quite shocked. But the child's +heart warmed to the thought, and Miss Holmes read the simple story of +Bethlehem in Judea, that touched her immeasurably. + +And then there seemed a curious awakening of spring. Flowers sprang up +and bloomed as if the rain had a magic that it scattered with every +drop. The atmosphere had a startling transparency. There were the +blue slopes of Tamalpais, and far away in the San Matteo Range the +redwood trees stood up in their magnificence. Out through the Golden +Gate one could discern the Farallones forty miles away. The very air +was full of exhilarating balm, and the wild oats sprang up in the +night, it seemed, and nodded their lucent green heads on slender +stems. And the wild poppies in gorgeous colors, though great patches +were of an intense yellow like a field of the cloth of gold. + +Sometimes Jason Chadsey of a Sunday, the only leisure time he could +find to devote to her, took his little girl out oceanward. There were +the seals disporting themselves, there were flocks of ducks and +grebes, gulls innumerable, and everything that could float or fly. +Ships afar off, with masts and sails visible as if indeed they were +being submerged. What stores they brought from the Orient! Spices and +silks, and all manner of queer things. And the others coming up from +the Pacific Coast, where there were old towns dotted all along. + +Or they took the bayside with its circle of hills, its far-off +mountains, its dots of cities yet to be. Angel Island and Yerba Buena +where the first settlement was made, growing so slowly that in ten +years not more than twenty or thirty houses lined the beach. Or they +boarded the various small steamers, plying across or up and down the +bay. Miss Holmes did object somewhat to this form of Sunday +entertainment. There was always a motley assemblage, and often rough +language. Men who had come from decent homes and proper training +seemed to lay it aside in the rush and excitement. Yet that there +were many fine, earnest, strong men among those early emigrants was +most true; men who saw the grand possibilities of this western coast +as no eastern stay-at-home could. + +Was the old legend true that some mighty cataclysm had rent the rocks +apart and the rivers that had flowed into the bay found an outlet to +the sea? Up at the northern end was San Pablo Bay into which emptied +the Sacramento and its tributaries, and a beautiful fertile country +spreading out in a series of brilliant pictures, which was to be the +home of thousands later on. + +And from here one had a fine view of the city, fast rising into +prominence on its many hills as it lay basking in the brilliant +sunshine. Irregular and full of small green glens which now had burst +into luxuriant herbage and were glowing with gayest bloom, and +diversified with low shrubbery; then from the middle down great belts +of timber at intervals, but that portion of the city best known now +was from Yerba Buena Cove, from North Beach to Mission Cove. Already +it was thriving, and buildings sprang up every day as if by magic, and +the busy people breathed an enchanted air that incited them to +purposes that would have been called wildest dreams at the sober East. + +The little girl looked out on the changeful picture and held tight to +her uncle's hand as the throngs from all parts of the world, and in +strange attire, passed and repassed her, giving now and then a sharp +glance which brought the bright color to her face. For the Spanish +families kept their little girls under close supervision, as they +went decorously to and from church on Sunday; the dirty, forlorn +Indian and half-breed children hardly attracted a moment's notice, +except to be kicked or cuffed out of the way. More than one man +glanced at Jason Chadsey with envious eyes, and remembered a little +girl at home for whom he was striving to make a fortune. + +Jason Chadsey did not enjoy the crowd, though the sails to and fro had +been so delightful. Miss Holmes was shocked at the enormity of +Sabbath-breaking. + +"There is no other day," he said, in apology. "I shouldn't like you to +go alone on a week-day, the rabble would be quite as bad." + +She sighed, thinking of orderly Boston and its church-going people. +Not but what churches flourished here, new as the place was, and the +ready giving of the people was a great surprise to one who had been +interested, even taken part in providing money for various religious +wants. It was a great mystery to her that there should be so many +sides to human nature. + +"I wonder if you would like a pony?" he asked of the little girl, as +they were picking their way up the irregularities of the pavement or +where there was no pavement at all. + +"A pony?" There was a dubious expression in the child's face, and a +rather amazed look in her eyes. "But--I don't know how to ride," +hesitatingly. + +"You could learn," and he smiled. + +"But a horse is so large, and looks at you so--so curiously--I think I +do feel a little bit afraid," she admitted, with a flush. + +"Oh, I mean just a nice little pony that you could hug if you wanted +to. And I guess I could teach you to ride. Then we could have nice +long journeys about. There are so many beautiful places and such +fields and fields of wild flowers. You cannot walk everywhere. And I +have not money enough to buy a boat of my own," with a humorous smile. + +"I suppose a boat does cost a good deal," she returned thoughtfully. +"I love to be on the water. Though at first I was afraid, and when +that dreadful storm came. A ship is a queer thing, isn't it? One would +think with all the people and all the cargo it must sink. I don't see +_how_ it keeps up," and her face settled into lines of perplexity, +even her sweet mouth betraying it. + +"That is in the building. You couldn't understand now." + +"Do you know who made the first ship?" + +He laughed then. He had such a hearty, jolly laugh, though he had been +tossed about the world so much. + +She had a mind to be a little offended. "It isn't in the geography," +she said, with dignity. "And Columbus knew all about ships. + +"Yes, we can go back of Columbus. The first one I ever really heard +about was Noah's Ark." + +"Oh, Noah's Ark! I never thought of that!" She laughed then, and the +lines went out of her face. "I'm glad we didn't have a deluge on our +long journey. And think of all the animals on board! Was the whole +world drowned out?" + +"I believe that has never been satisfactorily settled. And long +before the time of Christ there were maritime nations----" + +"Maritime?" she interrupted. + +"Sailors, vessels, traders. The old Phoenicians and the nations +bordering on the Mediterranean Sea. Though they went outside the +pillars of Hercules, and there were seamen on the Asian side of the +world." + +"Oh, dear, how much there is for me to learn," and she drew a long +breath. "And they thought I was real smart in our little old school. +But I could spell almost everything." + +"There are years in which you can learn it," he said encouragingly. + +"And you have been almost everywhere." There was a note of admiration +in her voice. "The stories were so wonderful when you told them on +shipboard. I didn't half understand them then because I didn't think +the world could be such a great place, so you must tell them over to +me." + +"Yes. And some day you may go the rest of the way round the world. +You've been nearly half round it and you are still in America." + +They paused at the little cottage. Bruno, the great dog, lay on the +doorstep, but he rose and shook himself, and put his nose in the +little girl's hand. + +She had been rather afraid of him at first. Even now when he gave a +low growl at some tramp prowling round it sent a shiver down her +spine. But he was a very peaceable fellow and now devoted to his new +mistress. + +Miss Holmes prepared the supper. She had a fondness for housekeeping, +and this life seemed idyllic to her. The old weariness of heart and +brain had vanished. Miss Gaines told her she looked five years younger +and that it would not take her long to go back to twenty. Miss Gaines +had made some charming new friends and did not always spend Sunday +with them. + +Laverne wiped the dishes for Miss Holmes. Jason Chadsey lighted his +pipe, and strolled uptown. + +"I wish you would read all about Noah's ark to me," Laverne said, and +Miss Holmes sat down by the lamp. + +The child had many new thoughts about it at this time. + +"People must have been very wicked then if there were not ten good +ones. There are more than that now," confidently. + +"But the world will never be drowned again. We have that promise." + +"Only it is to be burned up. And that will be dreadful, too. Do you +suppose--the people will be--burned?" hesitating awesomely. + +"Oh, no, no! Don't think of that, child." + +"I wonder why they saved so many horrid animals? Did you ever see a +tiger and a lion?" + +"Oh, yes, at a menagerie." + +"Tell me about it." + +She had an insatiable desire for stories, this little girl, and picked +up much knowledge that way. Miss Holmes taught her, for there was no +nearby school. + +She made friends with the Estenega girls, though at first their +mother, with true Spanish reticence and pride held aloof, but interest +in her children's welfare and a half fear of the Americanos, beside +the frankness of the little girl induced her to walk in their +direction one day, and in a shaded nook she found Miss Holmes and her +charge. Perhaps the truth was that Señora Estenega had many lonely +hours. Friends and relatives were dead or had gone away, for there had +been no little friction when California was added to the grasping +"States." When she could sell her old homestead she meant to remove to +Monterey, which at this period was not quite so overrun with +Americanos. But she had been born here, and her happy childhood was +connected with so many favorite haunts. Here she had been wedded, her +children born, in the closed room where there was a little altar her +husband had died, and she kept commemorative services on +anniversaries. And then no one had offered to buy the place--it was +out of the business part, and though the town might stretch down +there, it had shown no symptoms as yet. + +Miss Holmes was reading and Laverne sewing. She had taken a decided +fancy to this feminine branch of learning, and was hemming ruffles for +a white apron. Her mother had taught her long ago, when it had been a +very tiresome process. But the Estenega girls made lace and +embroidered. + +Laverne sprang up. "It is Carmen's mother," she said. Then she glanced +up at the visitor, with her lace mantilla thrown over her high comb, +her black hair in precise little curls, each side of her face, and her +eyes rather severe but not really unpleasant. + +"I do not know how you say it," and she flushed with embarrassment. +"It is not Madame or Mrs.----" + +"Señora," answered the Spanish woman, her face softening under the +appealing eyes of the child. + +Then Laverne performed the introduction with an ease hardly expected +in a child. Miss Holmes rose. + +"I am very glad to meet you. I was deciding to come to ask about the +children. Laverne is often lonely and would like playmates. And she is +picking up many Spanish words. You understand English." + +"Somewhat. It is of necessity. These new people have possessed our +country and you cannot always trust servants to interpret. Yes, the +children. I have a little fear. They are Catholics. Carmencita will go +to the convent next year for her education. And I should not want +their faith tampered with." + +"Oh, no," Miss Holmes responded cheerfully. "You know we have +different kinds of faith and yet agree as friends." And glancing at +Laverne she almost smiled. These Spanish children would be much more +likely to convert her to their faith. Would her uncle mind, she +wondered? He seemed to think they all stood on the same foundation. + +"You have not been here long?" and there was more assertion than +inquiry in the tone. + +"No," returned the younger woman. And then she told a part of her +story, how she had come from the east, the Atlantic coast, and that +she was governess to the child, and housekeeper. "Did the Señora know +a family by the name of Vanegas?" + +"Ah, yes, they were old friends. Two daughters, admirable girls, +devoted to their mother, who had suffered much and whose husband had +made away with most of the estates. There was an American lady in her +house, she rented two rooms." + +"A friend of mine. She came from the same place, and we have known +each other from girlhood." + +Then the ice was broken, and Miss Holmes in a certain manner was +vouched for, which rather amused her, yet she accepted the Spanish +woman's pride. Many of them felt as if they had been banished from +their own land by these usurpers. Others accepted the new order of +things, and joined heart and soul in the advancement of the place, the +advancement of their own fortunes also. But these were mostly men. The +prejudice of the women died harder. + +The children were in a group at one of the little hillocks, much +amused it would seem by their laughter. And the two women patched up a +bit of friendship which they both needed, seeing they were near +neighbors, and interested in the education of young people, Miss +Holmes listened to what the elder woman said and did not contradict or +call the ideas old-fashioned. After all it was very like some of her +old grandmother's strictures, and she was a staunch Puritan. What +would she have said to women who had not yet reached middle life, and +had planned to go to a strange land to seek their fortunes! + +The Señora was so well satisfied that she asked Miss Holmes to come +and take coffee and sweetmeats with her the next afternoon. + +Oh, how lovely the hills and vales were as they wandered homeward. For +now it was the time of growth and bloom and such sweetness in the air +that Marian Holmes thought of the gales of Araby the blest. Truly it +was an enchanted land. The birds were filling the air with melody, +here and there a farmer or gardener, for there was fine cultivated +lands about the foothills, and even higher up there were great patches +of green where some one would reap a harvest, garden stuff waving or +running about rich with melon blooms, here the blue of the wild +forget-me-nots and the lupines. And further on flocks of sheep +nibbling the tufts of grass or alfalfa. Some one was singing a song, a +rich, young voice: + + "Oh, Susanna, don't you cry for me, + I'm goin' to California with my banjo on my knee." + +Here and there in a clump of trees was a dark shadow, and the long +slant rays betokened the coming of evening. It gave one a luxurious +emotion, as if here was the true flavor of life. + +Miss Holmes was feeling a little sorry for those swept off of their +own land, as it were. + +"What have they been doing with it these hundreds of years?" asked +Jason Chadsey. "Even the Indians they have pretended to educate are +little better off for their civilization. And think how the gold lay +untouched in the hills! Spain still has the Philippines with all her +treasures." + +It rained the next morning with a musical patter on everything, and +little rivulets ran down the steps. Then it suddenly lighted up and +all San Francisco was glorified. Pablo, an old Mexican, came to work +in the little garden patch. Laverne said her lessons, then went out to +find her squirrels and talk to her birds who came to enjoy the repast +of crumbs, and then went hunting bugs and worms for their importunate +babies. And at last they were making ready for their walk. + +"It is nice to go out visiting," Laverne said, as she danced along, +for the sunshine and the magnetic air had gotten into the child's +feet. "We have been nowhere but at Mrs. Dawson's." + +"And Miss Gaines." + +"Oh, that isn't really visiting. Just a little cake and fruit on a +plate. And now she is so busy she can hardly look at you. I wish we +lived farther up in the town. Don't you think Uncle Jason would move +if you said you did not like it here?" + +"But I do like it. And there are so many dreadful things happening all +about the town. And we might be burned out." + +"Well, I am glad of the Estenegas, anyhow." + +The old place was like some of the other old homes going to decay now, +but it was so embowered with vines that one hardly noted it. The +chimney had partly fallen in, the end of the porch roof was propped up +by a pile of stones. But the great veranda was a room in itself, with +its adobe floor washed clean, and the big jars of bloom disposed +around, the wicker chairs, the piles of cushions, and the low seats +for the children. Little tables stood about with work, many of the +women were very industrious, the mothers thinking of possible +trousseaus, when laces and fine drawn work would be needed. Carmencita +had her cushion on her knees, and her slim fingers carried the thread +over the pins in and out, in a fashion that mystified Laverne. + +"It's like the labyrinth," she said. + +"What was that?" glancing up. + +"Why, a place that was full of all kinds of queer passages and you did +not know how to get out unless you took a bit of thread and wound it +up when you came back." + +"But I know where I am going. Now, this is round the edge of a leaf. I +leave that little place for a loop, and then I come back so. The +Señorita Felicia makes beautiful lace for customers. But mine will be +for myself when I am married." + +"But I thought--you were going to a convent," said Laverne, wide-eyed. + +"So I am. But that will be for education, accomplishments. And there +are more Spanish men there," lowering her voice, "more lovers. Pepito +Martinez, who lived in the other end of the old place, down there," +nodding her head southward, "found a splendid lover and was married in +the chapel. Her mother went on to live with her. They had no +troublesome house to sell," and she sighed. + +"Juana," exclaimed the mother, "get thy guitar. The guests may like +some music." + +Juana rose obediently. She, too, was older than Laverne, but Anesta +younger. She seated herself on one of the low stools, and passed a +broad scarlet ribbon about her neck, which made her look very +picturesque. And she played well, indeed, for such a child. Then she +sang several little songs in a soft, extremely youthful voice. Miss +Holmes was much interested. + +The children were sent to play. There was a little pond with several +tame herons, there were two great cages of mocking birds that sang and +whistled to the discomfiture of the brilliant green and scarlet +parrot. The children ran races in the walk bordered with wild olive +trees on the one side, and on the other a great tangle of flowers, +with the most beautiful roses Laverne had ever seen, and hundreds of +them. + +"Oh, I should like to live here," declared Laverne. + +"Then ask thy uncle to buy. The Americanos have money in plenty. And +see here. It is my tame stork. His leg was broken so he could not fly. +Diego bound it up and he staid here. But when he sees a gun he dashes +away and hides." + +He had a number of amusing tricks, but he eyed the strange little girl +suspiciously and would not let her come too near. + +They went back to the house and swung in the hammock, talking broken +English and Spanish and laughing merrily over the blunders. Carmencita +put away her lace and began to prepare two of the small tables, +spreading over each a beautiful cloth. + +Miss Holmes had been taken through the apartments. There were three on +the lower floor, the kitchen being detached. The walls were a dark +faded red, the windows small, with odd little panes of glass. There +was some fine old furniture, and a rug soft as velvet on the floor +that long ago had crossed the ocean. Family portraits were hung high +on the wall, and looked down frowningly, the brilliancy of their +garments faded and tarnished, but Miss Holmes noted that they were +mostly all military men. In the next room were several portraits of +the priests of the family, and hideous copies of the old Madonnas. In +this room a high cabinet of wonderful carving, filled with curios and +one shelf of books. The third was evidently a sitting and sleeping +chamber, with a spindle-post bedstead and canopy of faded yellow silk, +edged with old lace; while the bedspread in its marvellous handiwork +would have filled a connoisseur with envy. For two hundred years or +more there had been Estenegas here, and then the old part, now fallen +down, had its ballroom and its long dining room where banquets and +wedding feasts had been given. + +"There is another branch of the family at Santa Margarita who have not +fallen into decay as we have, and as many old families do. I dare say +they would be glad to have some of the heirlooms. They have young men, +and it would be but right that they should propose to marry one of my +daughters." + +Carmen summoned her mother and the guest. The tables were daintily +arranged with fruit and custards, some sweet fried cakes and bread +covered with a sort of jelly compound that was very appetizing, with +some shredded cold chicken highly spiced. For drink, tea for the +elders, but fruit juice made of orange and berries for the young +people. Carmencita was at the table with her mother, the three others +together, and they had a merry time. + +The Señora and the children walked part of the way with them. Miss +Holmes had proposed that they should come up in the morning for +lessons with Laverne. The distance to the Sisters' school was too +great, and now one dreaded to send young girls through the new part of +the town. + +"It was very nice," declared Laverne, "only I think I like the little +Maine girls better. They understand more quickly, and they have so +many thoughts about everything, while you have to explain continually +as you talk to these children." + +"Perhaps it is because they do not understand the language," said Miss +Holmes. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +PELAJO + + +Laverne was about to reply, with the feeling of superior knowledge, +"It's because they are not Americans," when she caught sight of Uncle +Jason, Pablo, and a pile of rough timber, an excavation made in the +side hill, a slope over which she had been training some blossoming +vines. + +"Oh, Uncle Jason," she cried, with eager forbiddance. "That's my +garden. What are you going to do?" + +"Build a house for a pony. This seemed most convenient, though he is +such a cunning little fellow I think we could have trained him to go +up the steps." + +His shrewd, humorous smile and her own curiosity disarmed her. + +"The pony? Have you really----" + +"Well, I had to take him or see him go to some one else. I was afraid +he would get a hard master. And he is such a pretty intelligent +fellow. He talks, his fashion. And he laughs, too." + +"Oh, now you are making fun." + +"Well, if you won't have him I can sell him again. He's just fit for a +little girl, or some one hardly grown up." + +"But who had him before?" + +"A young lady. A delicate little body. I've had my eye on him some +time." + +"If she loved him why did she want to sell him?" and Laverne glanced +up with a kind of incredulity. + +"She was going away." He had not the courage to say that she was dead, +that she had made a vain struggle for recovery, and failed. + +"I suppose horses are not quite like people," she returned +thoughtfully. "They like those who are good to them." + +"Well--they're grateful, and as a general thing appreciate kind +treatment. Humans don't always do that." + +She had not gone very far in the philosophy of ingratitude, but she +was wondering if the pony had been very fond of his mistress. + +"This place was the handiest. Then he can go cropping the tufts of +grass about here, and we shall not have to lug the feed up on the next +round," viewing the sort of natural terraces with a squint in one eye. +"I'm sorry about the posies." + +"Oh, well--they grow so easily. And here was the spruce tree, and, oh, +we ought to have a big veranda to the house, where we could sit and +sew and I could study lessons and we could have supper." + +"But the place isn't really mine, you know. And I shouldn't want to +spend a great deal of money. Some day we may have a house in which we +can truly settle ourselves." + +Miss Holmes, who had been looking on, smiled now. "The Señora Estenega +is very anxious to sell," she said. + +"And it is so splendid all around. There are trees and trees and they +are full of birds. Oh, you never heard such singing. And the flowers! +Why, I wanted to dance all around the paths for very gladness. But it +was dull and dark inside, and full of ugly portraits and Virgins and +hideous babies." + +"They wouldn't want to sell the pictures, they are old family relics," +appended Miss Holmes. + +"And she asks a fortune for the estate. These old Spanish people have +caught on to values mighty quick. But a house for the pony is as much +as we can compass now. In a few years you shall have a home to your +liking." + +Miss Holmes went within, and soon there was a savory smell of fish +frying and cakes baking on a bed of coals. + +"That will do for to-night, Pablo," Jason Chadsey said. "Come early +to-morrow morning and I will show you about the posts." + +The Mexican nodded slowly, and walked to the kitchen door, where Miss +Holmes gave him a chunk of bread and a fish, and he went his way. + +Uncle Jason washed hands and face in true Yankee fashion, with a great +splurge. He had enlarged the rude cistern and led a rivulet of clear +water down to it. In many of the outlying districts there were but few +conveniences, and yet San Francisco had flashed into existence as if a +new Kubla Khan had decreed it. Perhaps no city in the world could +boast such rapid advances, or gain in population. Those early years +will always sound like a fairy tale. But it had some of the best and +most energetic brain and brawn from the East, whose forefathers had +settled other wildernesses much less promising. + +The pony shared interest with the visit and the promise of the +Estenega girls coming up every morning. She was a very happy little +girl to-night; Uncle Jason thought she had not been quite so bright of +late, but now her eyes flashed with an eager light, and her pretty +lips melted from one curve to another, while her voice had a bird-like +gayety. The day had been so full and taken so much energy, that she +laid her head in Miss Holmes' lap and went fast asleep. Jason Chadsey +read his paper by the light of the smoky lamp, and Miss Holmes dreamed +of clean, orderly Boston even if its streets did run crooked. + +The Estenegas were certainly not bright scholars. But the Yankee +schoolma'am had seen obtuse children before. They were extremely +narrow and incurious as to real knowledge, but anxious to get on with +English. Laverne flashed up and down the walk. Pablo set up the frame, +put on a rude roof, then filled in the chinks with a common kind of +adobe. The pony would not live much indoors, to be sure, but he needed +some shelter. + +"Do you know what his name is, Pablo?" the child asked. + +Pablo shook his head. He was a dried-up specimen, with a skin like +leather and small deep-set eyes, quite bowed in the shoulders, which +made him no taller than some boys of a dozen years. He had a little +hut of his own down in the wilds, and he often lay on the sand when +the sun was too hot, and drowsed from pure laziness. + +Uncle Jason led the pony home at night. He had been well kept, for his +coat was smooth, just far enough off of black to be a rich brown. +Shapely, with slender legs, a head not too large for his body, a +flowing mane, now braided up in tails, flexible nostrils that quivered +with every breath, and the most beautiful large, dark eyes that looked +as if they could laugh and understand many things. + +She had been somewhat dubious all along. She had really felt afraid of +Bruno at first, but as she looked at the merry eyes she laughed. + +"Yes, I _do_ like you," she said. "I'm glad you are not any larger. +And his tail almost sweeps the ground," watching her uncle, who was +patting his neck and smoothing down to his nose, and talking in a +persuasive voice. + +"Maybe you won't like his name. He comes of good stock, it seems, and +if he was ten years younger would be worth a pile of money." + +"Why, he doesn't look old. And his name--" + +"Is Pelajo." + +She repeated it, and he came a step nearer. She ventured to pat him, +and then she reached up and put her arm over his neck. Uncle Jason +handed her a lump of sugar, but she drew back as his soft nose touched +her hand. + +"You must learn to give him tidbits, even a handful of grass or wild +oats." + +"Oh, I shall like you very much, I know," she declared, in a glad +voice, and he seemed to understand, for he rubbed against her +shoulder, and this time she did not shrink away. He was used to being +caressed. Perhaps he dumbly questioned what had become of his sweet +young mistress who had petted him the last year. + +It was so warm they tethered him and set Bruno to keep watch, for +there were many prowlers and thieves about; not quite as many down +here perhaps, since horses and money were the only desirable things in +their estimation. He was all right in the morning. The first thing +Laverne did was to rush out and greet him, and he seemed quite as glad +to see her. + +She did shake a little when she was perched up on his back, but Uncle +Jason walked beside her up and down the gravelly path, and after a +little it was really exhilarating. When she had taken two or three +lessons she felt quite safe and began to enjoy it. Uncle Jason taught +her to ride astride as well; it might be useful, he declared, and +certainly was a common-sense view of the matter. So Pelajo grew into +the little girl's heart. + +On Sunday morning she always went to church with Miss Holmes, and the +churches were really well filled if the rest of the day was devoted to +pleasure. The lovely spring was now over, though fruit trees were +still blooming and laden with fruit. But there had been a few days +that seemed to scorch up everything and dry up the small streams and +cisterns. + +The church bells were ringing in a leisurely, devoted fashion. "Come +to church for rest and refreshment," they said, when suddenly there +was a wild clangor and each one looked at his neighbor with frightened +eyes, or stood motionless, not knowing which way to turn. Then +something shot up in the air, scarlet against the sunshine, and the +cry of terror rang out, "Fire! Fire!" + +There had been a fear lest the gang of lawless desperadoes who had +half threatened and half laughed about keeping the anniversary of the +great fire the year before would make some endeavor. But June 14th had +passed, though there had been unusual watchfulness. After a week the +orderly part of the city breathed more freely. And this day seemed +almost like a special thanksgiving for safety. Before they had time to +voice it the red terror began. Crowds with hymn and prayer books in +their hands paused paralyzed before the church they had made such +efforts to gain and enjoyed so thoroughly, the brief five months they +had worshipped in it. And now they fled up and down the streets, while +the fire swept this way and that with a tremendous roar. From Pacific +over to Jackson Street, Washington, Stockton, Dupont. Goods and +invalids were hurried out to the Plaza, and then the wind swept the +fire this way and that, and they had to fly again and save nothing. +Buildings were blown up with a horrid din like war. And so for four +mortal hours of frantic endeavor with no reservoirs near. And when it +had ceased to spread it lay a great mass of charred and smouldering +ruins, and several lives had gone with it. That it was the work of +incendiaries there could be no doubt. Ruined men invoked the arm of +speedy justice if they could not have law. + +In one way it was not so disastrous as the fire of the year before, +which had taken the business part and immense stocks of goods. This +was more of a residential section, but homeless people were running to +and fro, wild with the agony of loss of all they had. Parents and +children separated, elderly people wandering about in a dazed +condition, the scene one of the wildest confusion. + +Miss Holmes had decided to go over to hear Mr. Williams, instead of +the church nearer by, which she usually attended. Then they would go +to Mr. Dawson's for lunch, and meet Miss Gaines and bring her home +with them. At first she thought she could find a way through, but the +fire spread so rapidly over to Montgomery Street, that she did not +dare venture. It might go down to the very edge of the bay and on its +march take in the Dawsons. She held tight to Laverne, and used +strenuous efforts to force her way through, but throngs were coming +up, drawn by a weird fascination such as a fire always exercises. The +child began to cry. Her hat was torn off. Oh, if anything _should_ +happen to her! + +After a while the way began to grow clearer, but it seemed as if she +was in a new place. + +"Oh, I'm so tired," cried Laverne. "And my foot hurts. Let us sit +down." + +They were out of the well-built part. A tall old pine offered shelter. +She sat down on the dry earth and took the child in her lap. + +"Oh, do you think Uncle Jason will be burned up?" she moaned. "If we +could only find him. And will our house go, too?" + +"Oh, no, dear. It is in a different direction. That will be safe." + +"If we could only get there. Do you think Pelajo will be frightened? +And everything looks so strange here. Are you not afraid of all these +wild men?" + +They seemed, indeed, inhabitants of every clime. And though they +looked sharply at the woman and child, no one molested them. + +"Are you rested now? Shall we go home?" + +"Oh, I do hope Uncle Jason is there. What if he had come to the fire +and was killed!" + +"Hush, dear! Don't think of such a thing." + +What would she do alone with the child if any untoward accident +happened to him? She shuddered! + +They picked their way over strange places, but they still saw the +black smoke of the holocaust going skyward. Miss Holmes kept one or +two objective points in mind. True, streets had been laid out, but +they were overgrown with brush and the rampant cactus, with tangles of +vines. In some places they had begun to wither. Rabbits scurried +hither and thither, amazed at the steps. Birds were still carolling as +if there was naught but joy in the world. + +"And I am so hungry! Oh, when will we get home? Suppose we are lost?" +complained the child wearily. + +"I think we have been lost, but now I see where we are," the elder +exclaimed, in a hopeful tone. "It is not far. And then we will have a +nice supper. Poor, tired little girl, I wish I could carry you." + +"Oh, you couldn't," and there was a sound in her voice as if she had +smiled. "But if it isn't much farther--my legs feel as if they would +drop off." + +"We have come ever so much out of our way. I could not see in the +crowd, and it pushed one about so. I never want to see another fire." + +"Oh, now I know." Laverne let go of the elder's hand, and in spite of +fatigue gave two or three skips. "Could I make Bruno hear, I wonder? +Bruno! Bru--no!" + +Either she made him hear or he had a presentiment. He came bounding +through the brush with short, sharp barks of joy, and lunged so +against Laverne that she nearly lost her balance. + +"Oh, good doggie, good Bruno!" she cried, in joy. "What if there were +dogs burned up in the fire, and maybe horses?" + +Miss Holmes shuddered. She had seen some men carrying a mattress with +a human body, when a fierce blazing brand had fallen in it, and though +she turned her head then, she almost screamed now. + +They dropped down on the small porch steps and sat there a few +moments. + +"I must go and see Pelajo," Laverne said, weary as she was. + +He whinnied with joy, and rubbed his nose on her small hand. + +"Oh, Pelajo, I am so glad you were not in the fire," and she could +have kissed him for very thankfulness. + +Uncle Jason was nowhere to be seen. When Miss Holmes was a little +rested she built a fire and put on the kettle. There was part of the +leg of lamb they had had yesterday, and the pie she had baked early +this morning. For in spite of all his wanderings, Jason Chadsey had +preserved his New England fondness for such pies as a New England +woman could make. And there was a great bowl of delicious berries. + +They had their meal, being puzzled just what to call it, since it was +a little too early for supper. Then they swung in the hammocks while +old Pablo came to look after Pelajo, and talk about the fire, which +he insisted was still burning. They waited and waited until the poor +little girl begged to go to bed. + +"It hasn't seemed a bit like Sunday," she murmured sleepily. + +Then Marian Holmes swung drowsily in the hammock again. Through the +opening between two trees she could see the great glowing stars that +seemed as gorgeous again as in the eastern skies. There were screams +of night birds, the long note of the owl, the tree frog beseeching +stridently for rain. Now and then Bruno would flip his ears or +straighten them, and at last he gave a sudden rush down the street, +and returned with his master, but the clock had struck ten. + +He dropped on the step as they had done. + +"Were you alarmed when you came from church? Of course you knew about +the fire." + +"We were really in it," and Miss Holmes detailed her day, leaving out +some of the most trying incidents. + +"Thank God you came back safely," he returned, with deep feeling. "It +was a most awful catastrophe. There has been an indignation meeting +held, and some of the miscreants will be brought to justice. Then, +there must be better arrangements for fighting fires. It was a +terrific sight, and there are hundreds of homeless people. The best +provision that could be, was made for them. Generous-hearted people +took them in, supplied them with food. Accidents were plentiful. Yet +it has been a terrible day, but if I had thought of you and the child +being there--" + +"Oh, you couldn't, you see. And we came safely out of it all, so +don't feel distressed. Will you have some supper?" + +"Yes. Though I was at the Dawsons' and had a meal. They came mighty +near going once or twice, if a dangerous gust of wind had lasted +longer. And the crowds that poured in upon them! The courage of these +people seems superhuman, but it has been severely tried now. I do not +believe any city ever suffered so much by fire and had the pluck to go +on again." + +She began to busy herself about the meal. He leaned against the flat +post and went sound asleep, though he wakened easily. Then leaving her +dishes, an unusual thing for her, she retired herself. + +For days the fire was the uppermost subject. They had always planned +rebuilding before with tremendous energy, but now courage seemed to +wane in this direction. But it was taken up energetically in others. +The great want of water in the fire department had to be remedied +speedily, and at any cost. Money was offered freely. + +The other was a more strenuous effort for the punishment of criminals, +and a rigorous observance of law. + +Among the immigrants had been convicts from different lands, lawless +men who formed themselves into bands for plunder and maliciousness. +Clark's Point, Broadway, and one end of Pacific Street was called +Sydney Town from its great number of convicts and ticket-of-leave men +from the Colonies; and to them were added the criminally inclined from +the States, who had left their own cities for the city's good. And +out of the earnest endeavor to put a stop to the lawlessness and crime +the Vigilance Committee was formed. Then an old Mexican law was +exhumed that forbade the emigration to California of criminals +convicted of crime elsewhere. Notices were served upon many vicious +persons and they were compelled to leave the city. And with it all +grew a greater regard for law and order. + +Energy and perseverance did not fail, it is true, and the confidence +born of the geographical knowledge that this must eventually be the +great highway of trade, and the idea of a glorious future destiny, +inspired the really solid portion of the community to continue their +efforts to make it the city of the world. Still, many of the middle +classes, discouraged by misfortunes, returned to their native cities. +Others went further south in the more equable climate and became +farmers. Still others wooed by the endless forests further north, and +the many advantages for starting new cities on a better industrial +foundation, went to seek better fortunes. The city never could recover +from all the evils it was said. But the splendid bay and the +magnificent harbor were left, the gold fields were not exhausted. And +now arose the demand for a railroad across the Continent, which had a +hard fight for many years, but succeeded at length. + +At Clark's Point a huge rock was quarried, and removed, and the hill +excavated to make room for new streets. Sansome and Battery Streets +were carried out and filled up with the débris. The wharves were +pushed further out, great warehouses built, and though it was a fact +that fewer people came to seek their fortunes, more brought with them +the idea of settling. Wherever any tiny stream ran among the sand +hills numerous vegetable gardens were laid out, and the fertility was +remarkable. Markets opened here and there, the New World Market, +enlarged and improved, where it seemed as if one might buy all the +luxuries of the world. San Francisco began to lose the characteristics +of a Spanish or Mexican town, how could such drowsy ways be tolerated +among the adventurous, hard-working people! + +There came to be an admixture of foreign races--musical Germans; +light-hearted, theatre and dance-loving French; some from different +Mongolian countries, who looked on with grave faces, seldom +affiliating, and the Chinese, who made a settlement of their own, many +of them content to be hewers of wood and drawers of water, laundrymen +and servants, but others aspiring to the rank of merchants, even +bringing their wives later on. + +On the opposite side of the bay, settlements were changing into towns, +and business seemed to run riot everywhere. There was no lack of +employment for those willing to work. + +All these things were far away from the little girl's life. She +studied because she loved to know about everything, that was a New +England heritage. She acquired Spanish rapidly, while the Estenega +girls were stumbling over English. The Señora came up one afternoon +and they had a sort of high tea, with game of several kinds, a bird +pie, and a pudding that would have rejoiced the heart of a far +Easterner. It was a wonderful feast for the children, but the Señora +shook her head gravely over the superabundance of luxuries. + +"Was not the little girl going to learn lace-making and drawn-work +that she would want presently for her trousseau? And were not the +catechism and the prayers, confirmation, music, and languages enough +for any girl? And these new Americanos, who dressed in silks and +velvets, and trailed up and down the streets nodding and laughing to +men!" and the Señora shuddered. + +It was very true that stylishly attired women promenaded the two +shopping streets where the windows were full of rich goods. For the +early settlers had not to spin and weave in this golden country. +Vessels were coming in frequently laden with goods from almost +everywhere. India and China sent treasures, France and England did not +lag behind. So the women went gorgeously arrayed, leaned out of +handsome private equipages, as if they were queens. For gold was found +in most unexpected places, and miners came in only to waste and gamble +it away. + +The old Spanish residents shook their heads over this wild +extravagance, and clung more closely to their Church and the old ways. +Even the natives were often amazed. There were not a few who had +Spanish blood, and proud enough they were of it. The emigration of the +French began to exercise an influence upon the heterogeneous society. +The skilled workman gave a finer air to shops and buildings; the +higher classes, lured by the wonderful reports, added their ease and +refinement to the society, gradually crystallizing into settled +classes. + +"It is not all the Americans," Miss Holmes said, in answer to the +Señora's strictures. "All the Eastern cities I have seen are quite +unlike this. They grew slowly, and each from its own peculiar +industry. We had no gold mines on the Eastern coast, and you are +likely to prize more highly the fortunes you have to struggle for. +Here we have every nation, it seems to me, and often the very liberty +of choice degenerates into license. But it is hardly fair to blame it +all on our people." + +"They have invaded us and taken away our land, our rights. Years ago +we were happy and content, and now it is all excitement, and if you do +not join you are pushed to the wall, driven out. The gold in the hills +was all ours." + +"But you let it lie there. Yes, you could have discovered it. It was +the wild dream of more than one explorer, and yet he never tapped the +great secrets the land held." + +Now that the hitherto placid Spanish woman was roused she went over +the ground with great bitterness, the war, the ceding of the country, +the influx of the nations for greed. Half her talk lapsed into her +native tongue. Miss Holmes pitied her in a certain way, but was it not +the old, old story since De Soto had crossed the Continent and Tonti +came down the Mississippi? The weaker nation was always distanced by +the stronger. And was supine content a virtue? + +Meanwhile, the children had a merry time. Carmen gained courage to +mount Pelajo and rode around in fine style. The younger ones wanted +their turn. When they were called in to tea their cheeks glowed, +their eyes were bright with excitement, and they chattered like a +flock of birds. + +The Señora looked on in surprise. + +"Do you always allow so much wildness?" she asked, in a rather +disapproving tone. + +If they had a little frolic their walk home always sobered them. + +"Oh, no," returned Miss Holmes, with a smile. "They have lessons. This +is a holiday. And I am glad for Laverne to have companions. We +sometimes think she gets too grave." + +"Girls," and their mother rapped on the table. What with their +laughing, the broken English, and the Spanish they were in quite a +whirl. Laverne looked on more calmly. Indeed, the Señora was a little +angry that she seemed rather to shame her girls. + +"Oh, please, Señora, do not scold them. We were so merry riding the +pony. He is almost human. And he understood Spanish. I did not know +that before." + +Laverne's face was a study, in its sweet pleading. The girls quieted +down, and their mother looked less severe, but she was considering a +proper penance. + +The moon came up early. How magnificently the soft light silvered all +the open spaces, until one forgot the drought. Each twig that swayed +to and fro in the translucent air seemed alive. + +Miss Holmes and Laverne walked some distance with their guests, +leaving Bruno to keep watch. They parted with the utmost cordiality. + +"We have had such a splendid time," whispered Carmencita. "I wish I +was an American girl and had a good indulgent uncle such as thou +hast, little one. Then I would not care to go to the convent." + +Laverne was astonished at the outburst, for Carmen had heretofore +rather cavilled at Americans. They walked back in silence until they +met Bruno's greeting. + +"Didn't you have a nice time with the girls?" Miss Holmes asked. + +"Oh, yes! Carmen was--well, I think I have been not exactly afraid of +her, but she seemed so much older, and this afternoon she was +splendid. And she wished--what do you think--that she was an American +girl! And I wish I knew some American girls." + +"You will go to school presently. Your uncle was talking of it." + +The thought startled the little girl. She was not quite sure she liked +it. + +"Oh, there he is now," and she ran to meet him. The moon was up higher +and it was lighter. Her hands were outstretched, but he caught her +under the arms and, lifting her up, gave her several kisses. It was so +gratifying to have her always glad to see him. + +Then he put her down and she caught his hand in both of hers and went +a hop and a skip, giving short, soft laughs. + +"I'm late. Did you eat up all the supper?" + +"Oh, we had ours early. The Estenegas were here, the mother and all. +We had a good, good time," with emphasis. "They all rode Pelajo. +Anesta fell off twice, but it didn't hurt any, she asked us not to +tell. And oh, how hungry they were!" + +"Little girls ought always to be hungry. That makes them grow." + +"And Carmen wished she had an uncle like you." + +"Why--she has scarcely seen me." + +"But then I talk about you," the child added, naïvely. + +"Well--do you want to give me away?" + +"Oh no, no." + +"Or shall we adopt her?" + +A positive unwillingness sprang up in the child's heart. + +"I think her mother would not let her come," she replied evasively. + +"But you would like her? You are tired of being alone." + +"No, I don't want any one but you for all time," she admitted, a +little jealously. + +He laughed. He was fond of this confession. + +Miss Holmes' supper was satisfactory to the hungry man as well. +Afterward they went out and sat on the flat stone step. That always +made him think of his boyhood. + +"Little one," he began, "how would you like to move? Or are the +Estenegas too dear to give up?" + +"Move!" in a tone of surprise. + +"Yes. We haven't much worldly goods, as these traps do not belong to +us. But we can take ourselves, Bruno, and Pelajo." + +"Where would we go?" + +"Quite far from here. Up on Telegraph Hill." + +"Oh, that would be splendid! We could always see the bay, and over the +strait to all the mountains beyond. Yes, I should like to go." + +"Well, I am glad. It will be more convenient for me, but we would +have to go, anyhow. This place has been sold." + +"Is there a stable? And I think I would like a garden. And at least +_one_ tree." + +He laughed. + +"They have been taking down part of the hill. No doubt some day they +will take it all down. That is the fashion of cities. But our end not +being so high will not be disturbed for some time to come." + +"This has been nice," she said retrospectively. "But I shall like the +new place, and the bay, and--and----" + +"And the change," he laughed. Then he called Miss Holmes, who had put +away the last of her dishes. + +He had talked this over with her before, but he had not made his +bargain until to-day. Then they settled a few of the most important +points. There were to be some repairs made, but they could go the next +week. And to-morrow he would take them up to see it. + +"Will you like to go?" Laverne asked of Miss Holmes as they were +preparing for bed. + +"Yes, I think I shall. We shall be so much nearer everything. We can +often walk down among the stores. And we shall be nearer Miss Gaines. +You will miss the Estenega girls." + +"But there may be other girls. I'd like to know some new ones," and +there was a sound of delightful expectation in her voice. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +A DIFFERENT OUTLOOK + + +It was almost being in a new town, Laverne thought. They had trotted +all over this bluff, to be sure; they had looked over to Sausalito, up +and down the bay, and to the wonderful ocean that reached to China. +But before they had been rather hidden away in a valley between the +ridges, and from the windows you could see very little. She was quite +wild at first, running from window to window, and calling on Miss +Holmes to see this or that. + +Then they had a Chinaman to come in and help them settle, and that +amused her very much. He understood, but could not speak much English, +and she did wonder why he should tack another syllable to the short +words by adding the double e. But he was very handy and obedient, +quick to see, and the soft shoes that made no clatter allowed him to +go about so quietly that he often surprised one. His name was Ah Ling. + +"I think I like Pablo better," she said gravely. "Then he knows so +many things about the country and the missions and the priests, and +the races of the Spaniards, and they did have bull fights, you know, +they have some now. Uncle Jason said he must not tell me about them, +they were too cruel. Do you suppose Pablo will come?" + +Jason Chadsey had made the old Mexican an offer to come and live with +them, but he was loath to leave his little hut and his independence. +He knew Pablo could be trusted anywhere with the little girl, and that +he was a good gardener. He had even offered him a new hut, and Pablo +was taking matters into consideration as he lolled in the sun and +smoked his pipe. He did not want to be too hard worked, what good did +so much money do these Americanos; they went on working and working +and hustling the life out of one. + +Here was the old Franciscan Mission where the first settlement was +made by the Fathers. It might have had the semi-solitude in those +early years, for all about was poetic enough. When it became a Mexican +province early in the century it had been stripped of its treasures, +and was even now a poor unsightly ruin with its few padres eking out +their subsistence and saying prayers for the living and the dead in +the little Campo Santo. Presently a modern cathedral was to overshadow +it, but that had not come yet, with the shops and dwellings that were +to crowd it still closer. But now there were outlying fields, tangles +of shrubbery and vines run wild. Not so many trees as farther down, +but still some that withstood the ocean blasts. And there was Alcatras +and Buena Yerba; almost within a stone's throw, it seemed, in the +clear air that often foreshortened space. Laverne never wearied +studying the marvellous pictures, and when her thoughts went back to +the dreary little Maine village she always gave a shiver. + +The house was a newer one, its first story of adobe, as so many were +in the early days. It was not nearly so small, to begin with, and +there was so much entertainment buying furniture and supplying +household needs. Jason Chadsey had picked up a number of curious +articles from the ships coming in from foreign ports, some that would +have been the envy of a connoisseur. + +But the early spring was rushing on again and every leaf and spear and +weed grew as if by magic. + +One morning they had a visitor who came in a carriage, and Miss Holmes +glanced out in some surprise. + +"Why, it's my friend Miss Alwood--you remember Miss Grace, Laverne. I +haven't seen her this long while," and the next instant she was +welcoming her warmly. + +"We thought you had dropped out of existence. Why, even the Dawsons +have heard nothing from you--let me see--you went down to Santa Cruz +with an invalid lady----" + +"Yes." Miss Alwood gave a short amused sound that was hardly a laugh, +and continued: "Well, there was plenty of money, but she was about as +queer as they make them. She had come from Baltimore, but she had some +of the worst New England features, though I think they do not belong +altogether to the Puritan birthright. But it kept one on the alert +attending to her whims. When she had been there a month her brother +came to see her. He thought she had better go on farther south--I +think she had consumption, the sort of wasting away without a cough. +While we were making preparations she was taken down to her bed. Mr. +Personette had to return here on urgent business matters. Four weeks +later she died. So he came back and there was the burial and all----" + +Miss Alwood paused and a flush with an amused expression passed over +her face. + +"And so you were released from bondage," suggested Miss Holmes; and +she, somehow, smiled, too. + +"And accepted another. Mr. Personette, being a widower, made me an +offer of marriage. We are to be a not very far-away neighbor, as he +owns a house on Mason Street, and is really well-to-do, as we say at +home. There is a son of seventeen, a daughter two years younger, and +one of twelve. I went to hunt you up, but found the place deserted, +then looked up Miss Gaines and have been spending a week over wedding +gowns, though it is to be just a quiet marriage in church. He has had +housekeepers that were unsatisfactory, indeed, he was afraid the last +one would marry him out of hand," and this time she did laugh +heartily. "So you see I have made my fortune the first of the trio." + +"Let me congratulate you on your good fortune. I suppose it _is_ +that." + +"Why, yes, as far as one can see. I'm not a romantic young girl, and +he is just forty, has made one fortune and lost it, and now is--well, +he spends money as if there would be no end to it. Do you remember the +old story of the bees that were taken to a place where the flowers +bloomed all the year round, and ceased laying up honey? That seems the +way with so many here. There were people who lost everything in the +great fire and in no time were on their feet again. It is in the air, +I think, or perhaps the fusion of so many people from everywhere. And +now Mr. Personette is prospering, and I am to share the prosperity and +have a home of my own, and like the bees, I'm not going to worry about +the future. You see I am already a recreant Yankee. Where is your +little girl?" + +The little girl had been sitting on the window ledge of the next room, +and remembering the long journey round the Horn, often cheered by the +brightness of Miss Alwood. She sprang down now and came forward. + +"What a little dot she keeps! Laverne, I am going to be your neighbor, +and I am to have a little girl who will be a playmate for you. I can't +answer about the other, girls begin to put on airs so soon. Do you go +to school?" + +"No, I have taught her thus far. But it is rather lonely for a child. +There was no one about where we lived, but some distance below a +Spanish family which hardly knew whether to affiliate or not." + +"They are very brilliant farther down the coast. Monterey is the place +to see them in their glory. I wish we had gone there, but Miss +Personette hated the strumming of a guitar and the click-clack of the +language, as she termed it. And now, can't you leave household cares +and come for a drive?" + +"I have a splendid pony," said Laverne. + +"Why, that is quite delightful. But you will not disdain my carriage, +I hope." + +Miss Holmes rather hesitated, but Miss Alwood overruled all the +objections. And she remembered that Mr. Chadsey said they need not +expect him home to dinner. Now that he was so much nearer he came +back to an old-fashioned love for a midday dinner. + +First they went down to Mason Street. There was quite a fine finished +block of houses, detached, with gardens on both sides. Down below it +was unfinished but the street had been straightened, the low places +were being filled up, the hillocks levelled. + +"Oh," Miss Holmes began, with a depth of feeling that touched her +friend, "you can't think how glad I am this has happened to you. We +have had some hard things in our lives, and now we have really gone +into a new world." + +"And I wish you the same good luck. I did not quite like your being +buried down in that out-of-the-way place." + +"There were so few houses to be had when we came." + +"Yes; there were people living in tents. There are a few of them now +on the outskirts. And building is going on everywhere. Oh, what do you +suppose it will be in twenty years?" + +That really brought a stretch to the imagination and they looked +blankly at each other. + +Improvements were going on everywhere with a rush startling to these +New England women. + +There were new stores opened in the past two months. They passed Russ +Garden, one of the public places near the Mission Road, devoted to +amusements of various kinds, and thronged on Saturday afternoons. Down +by the Plaza the "steam paddys" were levelling the numerous sand hills +that lay between that and Happy Valley. Even the burned district of +less than a year ago was rising rapidly from its ashes. + +"I've never had quite such a fine view of the town," Miss Holmes said. +"Heretofore we have only taken it in parts. What it will be when +finished----" + +"Only New England cities get finished. I think I have heard of some +places that were fenced in and whitewashed, but they must have been +mere country towns," declared Miss Alwood laughingly. + +They made a call on Miss Gaines, who now had a workroom full of girls +and piles of dazzling material. Nothing was too rich or too expensive +for these California dames, whose husbands made fortunes in a month or +cleared thousands of dollars in a day. Those early years were an +Arabian Nights' tale. + +The three friends had a genial time together, and then Miss Holmes and +the little girl were set down at their own door. She was very quiet. + +"What are you thinking of?" Miss Holmes asked at length. + +"Of the little girl Miss Alwood is to have, and whether I shall like +her. Of course, she will not be like the Estenegas. And it seems queer +to have a new mother who isn't a real mother." + +"You will understand that better by and by." + +Laverne nodded. She could never have a new mother. She wondered a +little about her father. Uncle Jason never spoke of him. Of course he +was dead also. + +Mrs. Dawson was very anxious to give Miss Alwood a wedding feast, and +indeed was fain to have her married in the parlor, but she preferred +the church. Mr. Personette was well known, and the church was +crowded. The two daughters walked in front and strewed flowers in +their path, there were congratulations and good wishes, and a luncheon +at the Dawson House, when the new husband and wife took a short +journey, and ended the festivities by a reception at their own home. + +Laverne thought it was very fine to have a new white frock, +lace-trimmed, and a knot of blue ribbons on one shoulder, with long +streamers. Isabel Personette was tall of her age, and quite a young +lady, rather pretty. Olive had large, dark eyes, and shining chestnut +hair, was round, plump, and merry-looking. + +"Our new mother has been telling us about you," she began, grasping +Laverne's hand. "And that you came from Maine with her. What a long, +long journey. Weren't you awfully afraid? I looked up Maine on the +map. But you had to go round the Horn. What did it look like?" + +"It's a cape, you know." + +"But--I supposed there was something," in a surprised tone. "Perhaps +they blew a horn?" + +"They didn't do anything as I remember," and Laverne smiled a little. + +"I've never been farther than Monterey. But father went up to British +Columbia once. It is desperately cold up there. And there is a Russian +country where it is colder still. And you have snows in Maine." + +"Oh, dreadful snows that do not go off all winter, and it seems so +queer not to have any here. It was such fun to snowball and have +sled-rides and build snowhouses." + +"You didn't live in them?" in surprise. + +"Oh, no! But sometimes we brought in dry hemlock branches and brush, +and had a fire. It looks so pretty." + +"Didn't it melt the house?" + +"Oh, yes, a little. But you see it froze again." + +"Which do you like best--there or here?" + +"Oh, this is the most beautiful, for there are so many flowers and +lovely places. And--I think I like the pleasant weather best." + +"How many cousins have you?" + +"None," answered Laverne rather regretfully. + +"Oh, isn't that queer? I have four over to Oaklands. And two in +London. And one of father's sisters married a Mexican, and lives way +down to Santa Barbara. They have ever so many children with queer +names. Aunt Amy died a little while ago, and as she hadn't any +children, she left some money to us and the Oakland cousins. But not +to have any----" + +Olive Personette looked very sympathetic. Presently she said, "How +many little girls do you know?" + +"Only three, and they are Spanish. There were none where we lived +before. It was a kind of wild place. I like this ever so much better." + +"Did you love them?" + +Laverne considered, while her eyes wandered off into space. + +"I think I didn't really _love_ them. I liked them. They came up to +learn English, and Miss Holmes and I studied Spanish. And we played +about. They had a queer old house and a lovely garden, with fruit and +flowers, and tame birds, and everything. And I had a squirrel I tamed. +We brought him up here, and I kept him two weeks in a little pen, but +when I let him out he ran away." + +"I'll tell you what I'll do. We'll make believe to ourselves that we +are cousins. Mother said she hoped I would like you a good deal. You +see, Isabel begins to go with big girls, and they just push you out +when they tell secrets, and they have so many to tell. Do you know any +secrets?" + +Laverne shook her head gravely. + +"But sometimes you do bad things and you don't want to tell anybody." + +"Why, I tell Uncle Jason everything. And----" + +Did she ever do anything very bad? She didn't always study when Miss +Holmes told her to, and she sometimes tore her frocks scrambling up or +down the hills. She had been brought up to be truthful and obedient, +and now these traits were part of her nature. + +"Well, it's this way--you must not tell your uncle the things I tell +you, and you must find something to tell me--when Miss Holmes is cross +to you." + +"But she isn't ever cross." + +"Oh, yes, everybody has a cross streak in her, or him. I'm cross +often. And I do hope our new mother won't scold. Father said she was +so good to Aunt Amy, and Aunt Amy was dreadful at times. Then the Mrs. +Barr we had for housekeeper was just awful. She said naughty words, +too, like the men. No one is good always. You can't be. And when I get +in a taking I'm a terror at school. Miss Carson once wrote a note to +father, but I begged so she tore it up. I wanted a watch for Christmas +and I was afraid he would not give it to me if he knew. That was a +secret I've kept until now, but he gave me the watch. I let it fall +and it had to go away to be repaired. And I have three rings. See, are +they not pretty? That garnet is getting tight. I'll have to give it +away," and she laughed. + +Her new mother came around to them. + +"Are you making friends?" she asked. "That is right. Laverne, are you +having a nice time? Come and see the dancing." + +They were waltzing up and down the spacious hall. There had been +dancing on shipboard among the men, but this was something that +fascinated the little girl. The beautiful dresses and sparkling +jewels, the delicate laces that floated like clouds, and among the men +were two or three young Spaniards. One of them wore a beautiful +fringed sash about his waist. + +"Do you go to dancing school? + +"No," replied Laverne. + +"But you will. I began last winter. Isabel dances. See, some one has +taken her out. Oh, dear, I wish I could grow up in a night, just three +years. Wouldn't it be funny to have it happen in your sleep?" + +Jason Chadsey had been looking about for his little girl. He had +insisted at first that he could not come, that he was too old, and +such a plain fellow, that he would look queer among the fine people. +But Mrs. Personette had written him a special invitation, and he had +compromised with Miss Holmes by promising to come for them. He knew +Mr. Personette a little in a business way, and he was really +gratified at Miss Alwood's good fortune. So he had gone to the +tailor's and treated himself to a new suit of clothes, and looked +fully five years younger. + +Laverne stared at him a moment, then a lovely smile illumined her face +as she slipped her hand in his and rather bashfully introduced her new +friend. + +"I have been making the acquaintance of your brother and your sister," +he said. "I hope you and my little girl will be friends." + +"Oh, we have promised to," declared Olive. "I am coming to see her +pony, and I am very glad to know her." + +He nodded and escorted the children about, or rather followed Olive, +who gracefully made herself mistress of the occasion and chatted with +an ease that amused him. But it was getting late, and as he had +performed his round of duties, he proposed now that they should return +home. Olive kissed her new friend with much fervor. + +"Parties are just splendid," Laverne said, as she danced alongside of +Uncle Jason. "Can't you have a party unless you are married?" + +"Oh, yes, there are birthday parties and Christmas parties and parties +just for fun." + +"But you have to know a good many people, don't you?" + +"I think I have seen three or four little girls have a party." + +"I know four now." + +"And perhaps by Christmas you will know four more," returned Uncle +Jason. + +She was very tired and sleepy when she reached home, and they all +retired. And it so happened she slept late the next morning and had +her breakfast alone. Pablo had found it very lonely without them and +had decided to accept Mr. Chadsey's offer. So she ran out now to say +good-morning to him and Pelajo. + +Something scampered along at her feet, and then made a sudden dash +among the vines. Two bright eyes peeped out and there was a peculiar +little chatter. + +"Why, if it isn't Snippy," she cried. "Snip, Snip!" and she knelt down +in the gravelly path. "Snip!" + +There was a sudden rush, and the squirrel ran up her arm, across her +shoulders, and fairly nestled in the little curve below her ear. And +then he began to chatter as if he was telling over his journey and his +tribulations and expressing his joy. Surely no squirrel was ever more +eloquent to his mate in love-making time. Laverne laughed until the +tears came into her eyes, and she had a vague suspicion that she was +crying as well, but it was for very joy. + +Snippy wriggled out of the warm embrace presently and questioned her +with his bright beady eyes, as if the voice might have led him into a +mistake. But no, this was his little mistress sure enough. + +She gathered him up and ran into the kitchen where Miss Holmes was +making a pie. + +"Oh," she cried, "Snippy has come back, my dear, darling Snippy." + +He had come by his name in a rather unexpected fashion. When Laverne +first had him tame enough to come into the house, throw his beautiful +bushy tail up his back, and let the feathery end droop over his ears +like a bit of Spanish lace, a trick of the Señoras, and eat a fragment +of cracker, Miss Holmes said one day, "He looks so pert and snippy one +has to smile at his daintiness." + +They had tried on several names that did not seem to fit. It was easy +enough to get something for a dog or a horse. + +"Oh, that will just do, Snippy," and Laverne danced around in delight. +"Then we can call him Snip when we are in a hurry--he is such a dear +little dot, too. His tail is as big as his body; Snippy, Snippy!" + +Perhaps there was something in the sound that attracted him, for he +glanced up out of brightest eyes and winked as if he approved it. + +He did soon come to know his name. Perhaps it was because it became +connected with some tidbit, for when the little girl called him she +always had a dainty morsel for him. + +He glanced about the room now, and then thrust his head under +Laverne's arm. Miss Holmes spoke and he peered out. Yes, he knew that +voice surely, but the place was strange. + +"Oh, Snippy, you can't imagine how glad I am to have you. I've been +homesick for you, though I like this place better, and we're nearer +the grand ocean, and can look over into the Golden Gate, and golden it +is in the sunset. Oh, why did you run away?" + +Snippy said something in his own language and struggled to get free. +She let him run down her skirt and leap to the floor. He glanced round +with sharp, inquiring eyes, then ran to one corner where, in the old +place, he used to find nuts and perhaps a crust. Oh, it wasn't the +same place. He fairly scolded, up went his tail, and he scampered out +of the door. Laverne ran, calling him. Over the path, the rockery +Uncle Jason had built for her, plunging into the great ferns that grew +as high as her head, and shook off an odorous fragrance at being +disturbed. + +"Oh, Snippy! Snippy!" in a beseeching tone. + +The little girl sat down on a stone and cried. Sorrow had followed so +on the heels of delight. Bruno came and put his nose in her hand and +looked comfort out of great wistful eyes. + +Miss Holmes came out presently. + +"I think he will come back," she said hopefully. "You see he found the +way once and he can again. And now come in and study a lesson. There +is nothing like work to lighten sorrow." + +"If he only would come back! Bruno, if you see him, come and tell me +at once." + +Bruno nodded sagaciously. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +A TASTE OF GAYETY + + +May was beautiful enough to make the heart leap for joy. Rose-bushes +sent up spikes of pink and blood-red blossoms or clambered over +hillocks, lilies stood up among the ferns and bushes, and the poppies +that grew everywhere seemed to dance with joy, as they flung out their +silken leaves in a dazzle, wooed by the wind. Bees were busy enough +with their bustle and humming, birds were singing everywhere. +Squirrels and rabbits scudded about, little harmless lizards came out +and sunned themselves on the stones, and great flying iridescent bugs +that shot across the air with golden and green rays. Oh, how +enchanting it all was. It stirred the little girl with unutterable +thoughts. + +"Laverne," Miss Holmes called. Oh, was it lesson time! + +"Come, dear, Mrs. Personette has the carriage here, and we are going +to take a look at the great German Mayday festival. Come quick, and +slip in another frock." + +For what with building dams for waterfalls, making paths and rockeries +and flower beds, the little girl was not always in company trim. + +"Oh, Uncle Jason was talking about that, and he was so sorry he could +not get away, but some vessels were coming in. Oh, yes, I'll hurry." + +There were baths and sundry conveniences in many of the houses in this +new city. Perhaps no place in the world had ever worked such marvels +in five years. But Jason Chadsey had not come to luxuries yet. +However, the little girl did very well without them. She washed and +dressed in a trice. + +Mrs. Personette and Olive were in the big carriage. Isabel and Howard +had taken the buggy. She greeted them cordially. Olive made room for +Laverne, or rather beckoned her to her own seat. + +The Germans were holding a grand festival at Russ's Garden. There was +a big flag flying from the great marquee, and numerous lesser ones. +There were the park of shade trees, the houses of refreshment, the +arches wreathed with flowers, and German flags vying with the Stars +and Stripes. Gay beds of flowers were interspersed that lent richest +coloring. The broad driveway was thronged with carriages already, but +none were allowed inside. + +The _Turner Gesang Verein_ was really the leader of the festivities. +The members were dressed in brown linen, loose and baggy, and marched +from their headquarters with banners flying and the band playing +inspiriting airs from Vaterland. And when they all assembled before +the marquee, "_Das Deutsche Vaterland_" swelled out on the balmy air +in a most rapturous manner. They were in their home atmosphere again, +they hardly remembered the land giving them shelter. The grand +choruses went up in a shout. The instruments seemed fairly to beat +waves of music on the air. + +It appeared, indeed, as if all the Germans in the city had gathered +there, and even at this time there were about two thousand. And then +the games began. They leaped and balanced, they performed various +athletic feats, the victor being crowned with shouts, as well as +winning a prize. They danced, the boys and men with each other, many +of them in native garments of the provinces from which they had +emigrated, and some were amusing in motley array. + +Outside there were booths with tables for refreshments, where wives +and children congregated, and the place was patrolled by policemen to +keep roughs away. The onlookers drove around or were on horseback; +among them were the old Californians in leggings, sash, and sombrero, +and a few Spaniards, who looked on haughtily at these people who were +fast superseding the old stock. + +There were not many places of amusement really proper for women and +children of the better class. The circus had been the pioneer +entertainment, then the theatre. Even at a concert of vocal music +given by the favorite, Stephen C. Massett, where front seats were +reserved for ladies, only four were present. A neat little theatre had +been destroyed by fire; the Jenny Lind had shared the same fate, until +a Mr. Maguire erected a large stone theatre destined for first-class +amusements and that had been taken for the city hall. But the year +before Mr. and Mrs. Baker, fine actors, had succeeded in establishing +a new era in the Californian drama, and given it a style and +excellence, and catered to the best class of people, who had begun to +give tone to society. + +Laverne hardly heeded Olive's chatter, she was so interested in the +gay scene. There had never been anything like it to her. And the music +stirred her wonderfully. They drove slowly round and round, watched +the athletes and held their breath at some of the daring feats. + +"Oh, you should hear Howard talk of the circus performers and what +they do," exclaimed Olive. "There's a flying leap when a man comes +over the head of the audience, and catches a big hoop on the stage, +and hangs suspended while the audience applauds, and a woman that +rides on two horses, changing about, and sometimes stands up. She's a +foreigner of some sort." + +"I should think they would be afraid;" and Laverne shuddered. + +"Oh, no; they're trained, you see. And the races are splendid. We can +go to them. And they used to have bull-baits at the Mission, but they +don't allow it now." + +"Bull-baits?" echoed Laverne. + +"Oh, bull-fights," laughed Olive. "That's real Spanish, you know. Why, +it seems all right to them, of course. And there are dog-fights and +cock-fights here--I don't see much difference, only the bulls are +bigger and stronger." + +Then a Turk halted at the carriage which had been stopped in the +press. He had a great clapper, which made a hideous noise, and a voice +that went through your ears. A tray was suspended from a leathern +strap that passed around his neck. He wore a gay fez, and a jacket +embroidered with gold thread much tarnished, and full Turkish trousers +of red silk so soiled one could hardly tell the color. His swarthy +skin and long, waxed mustache gave him a fierce look. + +"Oh, mother, get some candy," cried Olive, "I'm just dying for some." + +Fortunately it was done up in a kind of soft Chinese paper, and so +kept from the dust. Then in a jar he had some curious shredded stuff +that looked like creamy ravellings. + +"Oh, we will drive around and get some at Winn's," said her mother. + +"Oh, Laverne, don't you want some real Turkish candy?" + +Laverne looked undecided. + +"Oh, do, do," pleaded Olive, and Mrs. Personette yielded. + +The ravelly stuff was very funny and melted in your mouth, and the +candy seemed saturated with all flavors. + +"Of course, Winn's is much better," declared Olive, with an air. "Oh, +mother, can't we go to Winn's and have some lunch!" + +"I've been considering that," returned her mother. + +The two friends had so much to talk about that the children's chatter +had not really reached them. Old times and beliefs that seemed of some +bygone century rather than a decade or two, so utterly had this +Western coast outgrown them. + +"Have you seen Howard anywhere?" asked Mrs. Personette. + +"No," returned Olive. Then in a lower tone--"They're off, having a +good time, I know. Let Isabel alone for that; mother needn't think +she'll know everything," and the girl laughed. + +They drove around once more. Now a good many were seated at the +refreshment tables, smoking, drinking beer, and laughing over jokes of +the old fatherland. Of course, before night they would be rather +uproarious. They had seen the best part of the celebration. + +"I do wish we could find the children," said Mrs. Personette. "We +might have lunch together." + +At Washington and Montgomery Streets was the new establishment of Mr. +Winn, who had been twice burned out and had not lost his courage. It +seemed the fate of nearly all of the old settlers, and would have +ruined and discouraged a community with less pluck. For, after all, +while there were no end of toughs and roughs and adventurers, there +was still some of the best blood of the Eastern cities, full of +knowledge and perseverance. + +Winn's was a large refectory of the highest order. It was furnished in +the most elegant and tasteful manner, and the service was admirable. +Indeed, it had come to be quite a calling place for the real society +people, where they could meet a friend and sit over their tea or +coffee and exchange the news of the day, which meant more really than +in any other city. For every twenty-four hours something stirring was +happening. Every fortnight now a steamship came in. New people, new +goods, letters from the States, messages to this one and that from +friends thousands of miles away. + +The large rooms were connected by arches with costly draperies. Tables +here and there for guests, sofas, easy-chairs, a stand for flowers, +the papers of the day and magazines that had to be old before they +reached these Western readers. Silks and satins rustled, skirts were +beginning to be voluminous, bonnets had wreaths of flowers under the +brim, and it was the day of shawls, India, cashmere, and lace. Now and +then a dark-eyed Señorita wore hers in some graceful folds that made a +point over the curls on her forehead. But women mostly had their hair +banded Madonna-wise that gave some faces a very serene and placid +look. Long ringlets were another style. Demi-trains were also in +vogue, and at Winn's at luncheon time, it had the appearance of a +fashionable reception. Children wore stiffly starched skirts and gypsy +hats with wreaths of flowers. Laverne's were forget-me-nots, with +streamers of blue ribbon, and her soft light hair was braided in two +tails, tied with a blue ribbon about halfway, the rest floating loose. + +They had a dainty luncheon. Mrs. Personette received nods from this +one and that one, for already she was becoming quite well known. + +"Oh," she said presently, "do you know the school children are to have +their walk on Monday, a Mayday walk, quite an institution, I believe. +And Laverne ought to go to school, do you not think so? And this is to +be quite an event. She must see it, and you as well." + +"Alice Payne is to be Queen of the May, and seven maids of honor from +the different schools," said Olive. "Why, I could take Laverne with +me. You'd have to wear your white frock, that's all." + +Laverne glanced up eagerly, with a dainty flush. Could she really take +part in it? + +It was true Jason Chadsey had not been very anxious to push his +little girl forward. They had lived too far from schools before, and +she was too much of a stranger to go around alone. + +"It will be just splendid! And you will see so many girls. Of course, +we have lived here a long while and know almost everybody." + +"Of all the thousands," appended her mother, rather humorously. "Then +you must be a 'Forty-niner.'" + +Olive colored. "We're older than that," she answered, with some pride. +"Father is a real Californian." + +"And you children will belong to the old aristocracy when birth begins +to count. I suppose that will come in presently." + +"It always does," returned Miss Holmes. "Think of the pride of Boston +over her early immigrants." + +They drove around the garden and then took the two guests home. Miss +Holmes expressed her pleasure warmly. + +"Oh," laughed Mrs. Personette, "when we were on our long journey, +coming to a strange land, who could have imagined that in so short a +time I should be riding round in my carriage! And I seemed to have no +special gift or attraction. Truly it is a Golden State." + +Laverne had a great deal to tell Uncle Jason. She was so bright and +happy, and had seen so much. And then there was the procession for +Monday. Could she go? + +Certainly, it was not possible to deny the eager, appealing face and +pleading voice. + +After supper, when she was in bed and Uncle Jason reading his papers, +Miss Holmes broached the subject of school. + +The first schools, as happens in most new places, were private +enterprises. The earliest of all had been among the old residents +before the great influx, and in 1847 the old plain little schoolhouse +was erected on Portsmouth Square. It was used for many purposes. +Religious bodies held their first meetings here, and the early public +amusements were given, even political and benevolent assemblies. It +was dignified as a Court House under Judge Almond, and at length +turned into a station house until it went the way of transitory +things. To this effort for education succeeded a real public school, +with a board of trustees of prominent men, there being sixty children +of school age in a population of a little over eight hundred, +including Indians. Then suddenly the gold fever swept the town like +wildfire, the public-school project was dropped, and the Rev. Albert +Williams collected twenty-five pupils into a pay-school. In the spring +of 1850, Mr. and Mrs. Pelton, who had succeeded the clergyman, and +gathered in a large number of pupils, applied to the city for adequate +recompense, and it was virtually made a public school. In January, a +beautiful lot at Spring Valley, on the Presidio Road, was purchased, +and a school was built in a delightful road of evergreens. + +Soon after this the city started again and in time had seven schools, +though several private schools were in a very flourishing condition. +But many children were sent East to finishing academies, or to +Monterey and other Southern towns to convent schools. Still the cause +of education began to demand more attention, as the necessity for +good citizenship became more strenuous. + +Uncle Jason glanced up from his paper when Miss Holmes spoke of the +school. + +"Not that I find it at all troublesome to teach her, and she is the +most tractable child I ever saw. Then she is so eager to get to the +very foundation of things. Why, you would hardly believe how much she +knows about botany. I found an old book--but the flowers here are so +different. And I really love to teach now that I am well and strong. I +could almost go in school again." + +"Oh, don't think of such a thing. We couldn't do without you," he +exclaimed earnestly. "But you think--a school----" and he paused, his +eyes fixed on the floor as if he was ruminating. + +"Laverne needs the companionship of children, comparing thoughts with +them, playing, the harmless rivalry of studying together. When it +comes to that, I could have a small school. You see she will be +growing older all the time." + +"Frankly, which would be best? You are more capable of deciding, since +you have had a wider experience in this matter." + +"Oh, the school. You see she must take a place with other people. She +has no relatives, and friends must stand in their stead." + +He turned back to his paper, but he was not reading. The little girl +was all his. He had a feeling when they left Maine that nothing and no +one should come between them. Every thought, every desire should +cluster about her. He would make a fortune for her. His first plan in +going to California was to start to the gold fields for the sake of +adventures. He would cut loose from all old recollections. He would +leave Laverne Westbury a comfortable and satisfied wife and mother. He +had no bitterness against his rival now. It had all been so different. +Many a night on shipboard he lived over those few sad weeks and hugged +to his heart the consolation that she had loved him, and that fate had +been cruel to both. And then, conscious of the finer strain of +fatherhood that had so long lain fallow in his soul, the child slipped +into the place, and aims were changed for him. There would be enough +for him to do in the new town where everything was needed, and he +could turn his hand to almost anything. But he must keep to her, she +was the apple of his eye, and he would go groping in sorrowful +darkness without her. + +He had a curious feeling at first that he must hide her away lest her +father should start up from somewhere and claim her, and was glad to +light on that out-of-the-way place. The long voyage had been like +living in the same village with these people. The New England +reticence of Miss Holmes appealed to him in a peculiar manner, he was +reticent himself. Then the child took the greatest fancy to her. She +was rather timid about this new world while the others were ready for +adventures. And when he offered her a home for the care of the child +she was very willing to accept it for the present. Her belief was that +when she was rested and in her usual health she should teach school +again. + +Her two friends had teased her a little about finding a possible +lover in Jason Chadsey. She had the fine feminine delicacy that shrank +from the faintest suspicion of putting herself in the way of such a +possibility. He was a sturdy, upright, plain-spoken fellow, not at all +her ideal, and she still had the romance of girlhood. She came to know +presently by her womanly intuition that marriage had no place in his +thoughts, that were centred in the little girl. Perhaps, her mother +was his only sister, a deserted wife, she gathered from childish +prattle of Laverne's. She knew so little about her past. Uncle Jason +had come when they were in great want, and her mother had died. And +now, Jason Chadsey knew it would be best for this idea to gain +credence. He would always be her uncle. + +But he had some duties toward her. She could not always remain a +child, a plaything. That was the sorrow of it. There must be a rich, +delightful life before her. She must have the joys her mother had +missed, the prosperity that had not come to her. + +He looked up from the paper presently. + +"About the school," he began. "Yes, I have been considering it. And +you will have quite enough to do to keep the house and have the +oversight of her; I will make it an object for you to stay. We get +along comfortably together, though sometimes I feel I am a queer +unsocial Dick, much occupied now with business. But it is all for her. +She is the only thing out of a life that has been all ups and downs, +but, please God, there'll be some clear sailing now. I like San +Francisco. I like the rush and bustle and newness, the effort for a +finer civilization that has strength and purpose in it. Heaven knows +there is enough of the other sort, but the dross does get sifted out +and the gold is left. It will be so here, and these earnest men ten +years hence will be proud of the city they are rearing." + +He glanced at her steadily, forgetting he had wandered from the main +question. + +"You will not leave us----" + +"I? Oh, no;" yet she colored a little. + +"There will be enough to do if the child does go to school. And you +can walk down for her in the afternoon, wherever it is, and have +little outings. I am glad you are so fond of her, and she loves you. +She isn't the kind to strew her love broadcast." + +"Yes, I am very fond of her," was the reply. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +GIRLS AND GIRLS + + +They rambled over the hills on Sunday, for Miss Holmes had given her +ankle a little wrench and was applying hot fomentations. Up there was +the Presidio, and over here the beautiful ocean, blue as the sky +to-day, except where the swells drove up on the rocks and, catching +the sun, made spray of all colors. The ground squirrels ran about, +scudding at the slightest sound of human beings, which they seemed to +distinguish from the rustling and whispering of the trees, or the +tinkle of a little stream over the stones. It ran under a crevice in +the rock that was splitting apart now by some of Nature's handiwork +and came out over west of their house where it dropped into a little +basin. Here was a blasted pine that had been struck by some freak of +rare lightning, then piles of sand over which cactus crept. And here +was a deer-trail, though civilization had pretty well scared them +away. + +But the birds! Here was the jay with his scolding tongue, the swallows +darting to and fro in a swift dazzle, the martins in bluish purple, +the tanager in his brilliant red, the robin, thrush, meadowlark, the +oriole, and the mocking birds that filled the air with melody this May +Sunday. And nearly every foot of ground was covered with bloom. Now +and then the little girl hopped over a tuft that she might not crush +the beautiful things. Great clouds of syringas and clusters of white +lilies filled the air with a delicious fragrance. And the wild lilac +with its spikes of bloom nodding to the faintest breeze. Wild barley +and wild oats, and a curious kind of clover, and further down the +coarse salt grass with its spear-like blades. + +They sat down on some stones and glanced over the ocean. There were +two vessels coming up the coast and some seamews were screaming. It +was all wild and strange, almost weird, and no little girl could have +dreamed that in a few years streets would be stretching out here. As +for trolleys going to and fro, even grown people would have laughed at +such a thing. + +They talked of the great procession that was to be the next day. And +then Uncle Jason wondered how she would like going to school +regularly. + +"I shall like girls," she said. "There are no boys where Olive goes. +She thinks boys are more fun." + +"But you don't go to school for the mere fun." + +"They make so much noise in the street. And some times they sing such +funny songs. But they were nice about sledding back home, only there's +no snow here." + +"Are you ever homesick?" + +"You know I was sick sometimes on the ship." + +"But to go back, I mean." + +"There wouldn't be any one--I've almost forgotten who were there. +Mother, you know----" with a pitiful sort of retrospection. + +"Yes, yes," hurriedly. + +"Would you want to go?" + +"Oh, no, no!" with some vehemence. + +She came and leaned against his knee, put her arms about his neck, and +her soft cheek against his weather-beaten one. + +"I should never want to go anywhere without you," she replied, with +grave sweetness. + +"You are all I have, my little darling." + +"And I haven't any one else. Olive has such a lot of cousins. She goes +over to Oaklands to see them." + +There was a long pause and the wind rushed by laden with perfumes. +They heard the lapping of the surf against the rocks. The strange +beauty penetrated both souls that were not so far apart after all. + +"Uncle Jason, did you ever have a wife?" she asked, with a child's +innocence. + +"No, dear." Sometime he would tell her the story of his love for her +mother. + +"Then you won't want to marry any one?" + +"Marry! I?" Had that Personette girl put some nonsense into her head +about Miss Holmes? He colored under the weather-browned skin. + +"You see, Mr. Personette's wife had died, and I suppose he had to +marry some one again to look after the children." + +"Would you like me to marry some one to look after you?" in a half +humorous tone. + +"Why, Miss Holmes can do that," she returned, in surprise. + +"She seems to do it very well." There was a lurking smile about the +corners of his mouth. + +"I like her. No, I shouldn't like any one else coming in. Perhaps she +would not stay. No, Uncle Jason, I don't want you to marry any one," +she said, simply. "And when I get old I shall not marry, though Carmen +means to. And we will live together always. Oh," with a bright little +laugh, "let's promise. Put your little finger--so." She hooked hers in +it. "Now, you must say: Honest and true, I love but you!" + +He uttered it solemnly. He had said it to one other little girl when +he was a big boy. + +Then she repeated it, looking out of clear, earnest eyes. + +After that she gathered a great armful of flowers and they rambled off +home. + +"Who do you think has been here?" inquired Miss Holmes, with a laugh +in her very voice. + +"Who--Olive, perhaps. Or, maybe, Dick Folsom." + +"No. Guess again." + +She cudgelled her wits. "Not Snippy?" + +"Yes, Snippy. He actually came into the house and looked so sharply at +me that I told him you would be home about noon. Then I gave him a bit +of cracker, and when he had eaten a little he scampered off with the +rest. I think he has been planning a house near us." + +"Oh, wouldn't that be splendid! I'm just going to scatter a path of +cracker bits as Hop o' my Thumb did." + +"But if he eats them up how much wiser will you be?" + +Laverne looked nonplussed. "Well, he will have them at any rate," and +she nodded her head with satisfaction. + +Pablo had built a stone fireplace and was roasting some ducks out of +doors. He was sure he couldn't do it any other way. + +"I must go and view the camping process," and Uncle Jason laughed. +"How is your ankle?" + +"Oh, quite on the mend," she answered. + +Pablo had built a stone fireplace and was roasting the ducks over a +great bed of coals that he was burning at one side. It might be +wasteful, as when the Chinaman first roasted his pig, but it was +filling the air with a savory smell, and they were browned to a turn. + +"They look just delicious," announced Laverne. She took the platter +out and Pablo carried them in with a proud air. + +And delicious they certainly were. The little girl was hungry, and +Uncle Jason said he had not enjoyed anything so much in a long while. +She insisted she should wash up the dishes while Uncle Jason took his +usual nap. Then she went out and dropped some cracker crumbs and +strictly forbade Bruno to touch them. + +"If you would like to go down to the Estenegas I will get one of the +horses," Uncle Jason said. His Sundays were always devoted to her. + +So she went out and talked to Pelajo while Pablo harnessed him. He +said very plainly that she had quite neglected him of late and he did +not like it. He did not want to be thrown over for new friends. + +All along the road the beauty of the May met them, and it stirred both +riders, making them respond to the joy of motion and the sweetness of +all blooming things, the merriment of the birds, the touch of the wind +in the trees as a voice playing on a flute. He thought it was all the +delight of owning the little girl who would always be his. How he +would care for her in old age, and he quite forgot that he would be +there decades and decades first. But he suddenly felt so young, with +all these signs of youth about him, the magnetism of the air in this +wondrous land. + +Here was the old house. They were straightening the road, digging away +hills, filling up hollows, and a corner of it had tumbled down. There +seemed a damp, marshy smell of the newly turned earth, and two trees +had fallen and begun to wither up. The wood doves were calling +plaintively. + +"Oh, I wouldn't come back for anything!" cried Laverne. "Did we have +nice times here, and did we really like it?" + +"This is the hand of improvement. Sometime, when we are trotting over +a nice level road, with pretty houses and grounds, we shall admire it +again." + +But it was lovely enough at the Estenegas, out of doors. The children +were wild with delight. It seemed as if Carmencita had suddenly shot +up into a tall girl. And in the autumn she was to go to Monterey, to +the old convent, where Doña Conceptione de Arguello had gone after her +Russian lover had been killed, and where she had finally become Mother +Superior and lived to old age, always praying for his soul. + +"But I am going only for accomplishments. And it seems the distant +cousin of the Estenegas wishes a wife who will grace the great house +and carry on the honors. Mamacita is very proud that he made the +offer. And the children will go up to the Mission to stay all the week +at the Sisters' School." + +"And they must visit me sometimes. The new home is so much pleasanter. +I am going to school also, and I have some new friends. It is splendid +to be in the heart of the city." Then she told them about the day at +Russ's garden, and that on to-morrow, Monday, she was going out to +walk with hundreds of children. + +The Spanish girl's eyes grew larger and larger at all the wonders. +They walked up and down with their arms about each other and were full +of childish happiness. Then Señora Estenega summoned them to +refreshments on the balcony, now a wilderness of roses. Uncle Jason +did not care much for the Spanish sweetmeats and candied fruits, the +freshly ripened ones were more to his taste and he had been quite +spoiled again by New England living. But he knew how to be polite. + +It was quite dusk when they reached home. Olive Personette had been +over. They would call for her to-morrow, and she was to be dressed in +white, sure. It would be a greater thing than the German Festival. + +And great it surely was! There had never been such an event in San +Francisco. There were over a thousand children, and each one carried a +bouquet of flowers. Miss Holmes had found some white ribbon and +trimmed her gypsy hat, and the little girl with her fair hair looked +like a lily. There were crowds of people in the streets to see them, +proud mothers and aunts. Each school had a distinctive banner, and +there was a band of music. The Queen of May wore a wreath, and so did +her maids of honor. + +When they had gone through the principal thoroughfares and been +cheered enthusiastically, they moved to the schoolhouse on Broadway, +where they had a little sort of play dialogue, and sang some beautiful +songs. A few brief addresses were made, and San Francisco declared +itself proud of its children that day, the children who were to be the +future men and women of the city. + +Then there was quite a feast, which the young people enjoyed mightily. +How they laughed and talked and declared they would not have missed it +for anything. + +Afterward they dispersed. The Personette carriage was waiting, with +instructions to take home all it would hold, so they crowded in. And +at the gate stood Uncle Jason. + +"Oh," the little girl exclaimed, with a tired sigh, "it was just +splendid. If you had only been there!" + +"Do you think I would have missed it? I came up to see the procession +and I picked you out, walking with Olive. Why, I was as proud of you +as if you had been the Queen." + +"But the Queen was lovely. And the play! I couldn't hear all of it, +there was such a crowd, and I had to stand up to see. Wasn't it good +of Olive to ask me! And she wanted to take me home to dinner." + +"I couldn't have eaten dinner without you." He kissed her over and +over again. He was so glad to see her happy. Not that she was ever a +sad little girl. + +Miss Holmes was very much improved and regretted she could not have +gone out to see the procession. Snippy had called, and all the cracker +bits were gone, but she had seen the wood doves carrying off some of +the crumbs. + +"I guess Snippy has moved for good," said Uncle Jason. "It's rather +funny, too. You must have charmed him." + +She gave a pleased laugh. + +Nearly midnight of that happy day the bells rang out with their +dreadful alarm. Uncle Jason sprang up, and before he was dressed he +saw the blaze. Citizens turned out _en masse_. The Rassete House on +Sansome Street was in a sheet of flame. A fine five-story hotel, full +of lodgers, who had to flee for their lives. The firemen were quite +well organized now and made great efforts to keep it from spreading, +remembering the former big fires. In this they were quite successful. +Other generous people were taking in the four hundred homeless ones, +and it was found the next day that no lives had been lost, which was a +source of thanksgiving. + +A little later there were some imposing ceremonies near the Presidio, +just at the foot of the hill. This was the commencement of the +Mountain Lake Water Works, a much-needed project. There were various +artesian wells, and water was brought in tanks from Sausalito, but the +supply was inadequate in case of fires and the city was growing so +rapidly. The rather curious Mountain Lake was not large, but a short +distance from its northern margin a stream of water gushed through the +ground, which was a great spring or a subterranean river from the +opposite shores. It was begun with great rejoicing, but like all large +undertakings it had progressed slowly. + +Indeed, San Francisco had so many things on its hands. There were +plans for the State Marine Hospital and other benevolent institutions. +Churches too were urging demands on a generous people who felt they +must make an effort to redeem the standing of the city. The toughs had +been somewhat restrained, but the continual influx of miners with +their pouches of gold, ready for any orgies after having been deprived +of the amenities of social life, and the emigration from nearly all +quarters of the globe constituted a class very difficult to govern, +who drank, gambled, frequented dance houses, quarrelled, and scrupled +not at murder. + +But of this side the little girl was to hear nothing, though Uncle +Jason was often shocked in spite of all his experiences. He was having +a warehouse down on the bay, fitting out vessels, disposing of +cargoes, and keeping the peace with one of those imperturbable +temperaments, grown wise by training of various sorts, and the deep +settled endeavor to make a fortune for the Little Girl. It did not +matter so much now, but when she grew up she should be a lady and have +everything heart could desire. + +In a short street that came to be called Pine afterward, and was at +the head of the streets that were to be named after trees, there stood +quite a substantial brick building with some fine grounds. Here a Mrs. +Goddart and her sister, Miss Bain, kept a school for young girls and +smaller children, and had a few boarding scholars. The Personette +girls had gone there because it was near by, and out of the range of +the noisier part of the city. Howard was at the San Francisco Academy, +kept by a Mr. Prevaux, in quite a different direction. There was a +plan for a new public school on Telegraph Hill, but these were more +largely filled with boys, as is often the case in the youth of towns. + +So the little girl went to Mrs. Goddart's and quite surprised her +teachers by her acquirements and her love of study. Perhaps, if she +had not lived so much alone she would have been more interested in +play and childish gossip. And her walks with Uncle Jason had brought +her into companionship not only with trees and flowers, but with +different countries of the world, and their products. Uncle Jason had +grafted upon a boy's common education the intelligence that travel and +business give, and though a quiet man he had taken a keen interest not +only in the resources of countries, but their governments as well, and +these things were the little girl's fairy stories. She would find the +places on the map, the Orient, the northern coast of Africa, the +country of the Turks, Arabia, India. A trading vessel goes from port +to port. + +She liked her school very much, though she was rather shy of the +girls. Some of them called her a little prig because she would not +talk and was correct in her deportment. She found in the course of a +few days that Olive "squirmed" out of some things and did not always +tell the truth. Back in Maine children had been soundly whipped for +telling falsehoods and it was considered shameful; Miss Holmes was a +very upright person, of the old Puritan strain. + +She was not finding fault, but she did want to know if a prig was +something rather disgraceful. + +"It is never disgraceful to be honest in word and deed, to obey +whatever rules are set before you, to study honestly and not shirk. I +think the prig would set himself above his neighbors for this, but you +see he would only be doing his duty, he would have no extra claim. +But when he set himself up to be better than his neighbors and +triumphed over them, he would be a prig." + +Her delicately pencilled brows worked a little. + +"Some of them are ever so much prettier than I am," she said +innocently, "and they say such funny things, and their clothes are +very nice. Well, I like them. We have such fun playing at recess." + +He remembered about the clothes and spoke to Miss Holmes. + +"I do not think it best to dress a child so much for school. What will +she have afterward? And it does fill their heads with vanity." + +He had given her a pretty ring for a birthday, and she had her +grandmother's string of gold beads that had come over from London with +some great, great-grandmother. + +Snippy had settled himself quite comfortably, just where they could +not tell, and he had evidently coaxed his wife to emigrate. She was +not quite as handsome as he. Dick Folsom, who ran up every now and +then, said he was what was called a hare squirrel, on account of his +splendid feathery tail, though why, he couldn't see, as hares had +scarcely any tail at all. Snippy was so tame now, or else he was so +glad to be near the little girl, that he was not much afraid of +strangers if they did not offer to touch him. He would run around +Uncle Jason, and nose in his pockets until he found nuts or crumbs. +But he didn't like tobacco a bit and scolded in his funny way when he +came across that. + +Pelajo was not forgotten, though he sometimes complained a little. +Uncle Jason said Miss Holmes must learn to ride. The big dray horse +was not fit for a lady, and though the Mexican and Indian women rode +mules and were very expert, they were not considered quite the thing. + +There was a stream coming out in a sort of split rock up above the +place, and it made a kind of pool just below. In the autumn rains it +ran along down the slope of the ground, tumbling over the stones that +were in its way. Pablo and the little girl had made quite a pretty +waterfall and a new pond where the ducks could swim about. The upper +one they covered over and had for family use. Springs were not very +plentiful, and Uncle Jason believed this a little underground spur of +the Mountain Lake, as it never quite dried up. + +And one Saturday, when Laverne was working at her stream, meaning to +make it more extensive when the rainy season set in, a great white +something fell at her very feet and gave such a screech that she +started and ran. It lay on the ground and fluttered and cried, so she +knew it was some kind of a bird and came nearer. It looked up at her +out of frightened black eyes, rose on one foot, flapped one wing, and +fell over again. Was it really a gull? + +She called Pablo. + +"Yes, Señorita, it is a gull. I never could get nearby one unless it +was shot. They are the wildest things. This have a leg broke," and he +picked up the limp member. + +"Oh, the poor thing," softly stroking it. + +"And wing too, see? Better kill it." + +"Oh, no, no! Poor thing," she cried, full of sympathy. + +"What then? He must die. He starve." + +"No, we can feed him." + +"But he eat fish." + +"So do we. There is plenty of fish. And you catch so many. Can't you +do anything for him?" + +Pablo lifted the leg again, and examined it. + +"No--shot!" he exclaimed, shaking his head. + +"Why couldn't you do it up in splints?" + +"Not worth it," and he shook his head decisively. "And the wing too. +Yes, that's shot." + +Laverne patted the poor thing, who screeched and tried to rise. How +soft the feathers were and snowy white, except about the neck that had +the faintest shade of blue. Then, suddenly, she picked it up in her +skirt, though it struggled. How light it was for such a large thing. +She had taken off her shoes and stockings while she was paddling in +the stream, and she ran down to the house not minding the rough path. + +"Oh, see this poor gull!" she cried. "It just dropped down--out of the +clouds, I guess. There were no others around." + +She laid it down on the patch of grass Miss Holmes took great pains +with for a bleachery. + +"Poor thing!" said the lady pityingly. + +"Better end him," and Pablo took hold of his neck. + +"No, no, no! You shall not kill him. Poor fellow!" she cried. + +He was gasping now, and then he lay quite still, exhausted. + +"You could splint up his leg," said Miss Holmes. "You did the duck, +you know." + +"That good for something. He squak and squak." + +"Yes, you must splint it up," Laverne said, with decision. "I can find +some cord, and--what will you have?" + +Pablo shrugged his shoulders and said something just under his breath +in pure Mexican, not quite the thing for a little girl to hear. + +"And when Uncle Jason comes home we will see about the wing. Won't +this old basket make splints?" + +Pablo went about his job unwillingly. Laverne wrapped him up so that +he could not kick with the other leg, and presently they had the +wounded member bandaged. The gull lay quite still, but Laverne saw the +frightened heart beat through the feathers. + +Pablo raised the wing and shook his head dubiously. + +"Uncle Jason is coming home early with the horses, you know," she said +to Miss Holmes. "Oh, my shoes and stockings!" and off she ran to the +spot where they had been at work. "Pablo can go on clearing this out," +she said to herself. "It will be all ready when the rainy season sets +in. Oh, the poor flowers! Sun, why do you scorch them up so! And in +Maine the summer is so delightful. But the winter, oh!" and she made a +half wry, half amused face. + +She was all ready when Uncle Jason came up the street on one horse and +leading the other; and all eagerness, she was telling her story while +he dismounted and fastened them both. + +"That's funny," he said. "Next a black bear will come knocking at your +door. Or you might snare a silver-gray fox and have a tippet made of +his skin." + +"As if I could be so cruel!" + +The gull had hardly moved. Now, it seemed frightened at the strange +face and struggled. Uncle Jason spoke softly, and lifted the wounded +wing which was considerably shattered. + +"I suppose it _could_ be mended, but there are hundreds of gulls." + +"This one came straight to me. Why, he fairly asked me to take pity on +him;" and she drew an eager breath. + +She was a very sympathetic little girl, and he smiled. + +Some shot had better be taken out. He opened the small blade of his +knife. It was not a really fresh wound, for the blood was dry. He +picked out the shot, scraped the pieces of bone a trifle, and studied +how they were to go together, Pablo holding the body tight. He pulled +out some of the downy feathers, pinched the skin together, wound it +with threads of soft silk and then bound it up with splints. + +"Poor thing," he said. + +"Don't you believe he will get over it? Oh, what if he never could fly +again." + +"Then he will have to live with you." + +"Oh, I should like that if he would only be content." + +Then they put him in a tub so he could not flounder around much, and +laid some bits of meat near him. Pablo was to keep watch so that no +evil would happen. + +Miss Holmes had hardly mounted a horse since girlhood. She did feel a +little timid. + +"She's a lady's mount and very gentle. Old knowledge soon comes back +to one," Uncle Jason said, with an encouraging smile. + +They took their way up on the cliff, where there was a pretence of a +road that long afterward was to be magnificent. From here the town +was a succession of terraces to the bay. The houses were in many +instances hidden, but here and there a high one, or a church, loomed +up. + +On the ocean side it was simply magnificent. The wave-washed rocks +glinting in the brilliant sunlight, the seals diving, swimming about +as if they were at play, then coming up to sun themselves, the flocks +of gulls, the terns, the murres, and the fulmars, who expertly catch +fish from the gulls, the auks, diving and swimming about. To-day +almost every variety seemed out. + +The air was like the wine of a new life and made the blood tingle in +the veins. The midday heat was over, the west wind bore the tang of +the broad ocean. Miss Holmes wondered if she had ever known before +this just what life was, and the joy of living. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +A PARTY AND AN ADMIRER + + +When the sun dropped into the ocean the world for a time seemed +ablaze. Certainly, here was the place for sunsets. And as they went on +they crushed the dying ferns and foot-high evergreens into penetrating +fragrance. Down below the Estenegas they turned around and took a +lower road that had little in it except the whispering trees and +plaintive bird songs, until houses came into view, and human figures +moving about. They did not go down in the city, there was always more +or less carousing on Saturday night. A strong young voice was shouting +out a favorite song: + + "Oh, Sally, dearest Sally; oh, Sally, for your sake, + I'll go to California and try to make a shake; + Says she to me, 'Joe Bowers, you are the man to win, + Here's a kiss to bind the bargain,' and she hove a dozen in." + +There were musical voices, too. A square below them a wagon load were +singing to the accompaniment of an accordion. Lights were flashing +out, throngs began to gather in the streets, and they were glad to +canter away to quiet. + +"It is the most splendid thing of my life," Miss Holmes said. + +"And you have done exceptionally well. You and Laverne can take many +an hour's enjoyment when I am busy." + +Pablo took the horses down while Miss Holmes spread the supper, and +the two went to look after the gull, who seemed very well content, and +allowed his neck to be stroked without demur. + +"And we saw a great bird snatch a fish from one of your kind," Laverne +told him. "And such lots of your relations!" + +Bruno looked on curiously. + +"Don't you touch him. And don't you let any wild cat or fox come after +him. Mind, now." + +Bruno beat his tail on the dry grass. + +If there were nations from almost every corner of the globe, they all +joined in celebrating Fourth of July. This year there was a fine +military parade, and Sutter's Rifles from Sacramento City came up and +passed in review before the old true-hearted pioneer, Major-General +John H. Sutter, rapturously applauded by the crowd. Then they marched +to the Russ Garden, where they were presented with a set of colors. +Irish and German were alike patriotic. There were singing and +speeches; booths on corners dispensed simple refreshments to the weary +and the children. Carriages were ornamented with small flags, and +filled with the better class, who cheered as heartily. It was really a +gala day. They had been invited to the Personettes, where tea was set +out on the lawn, and as there was no moon it was hung with Chinese +lanterns. There were some schoolgirls, and they had a table to +themselves, and some dancing. Several of the young people gave the +fancy dances they had learned at the classes the winter before. + +Vacations had generally commenced. There were picnics to San José and +mountain climbs; there were excursions up and down the bay and to the +towns opposite up to San Pablo and Mare's Island, over to Sausalito. +And on Sunday, the road to the old Mission Dolores was always thronged +with pleasure-seekers, elegant open carriages filled with +finely-dressed ladies, equestrians of all kinds, and the Spanish +señors often disported themselves in all their bravery. Miss Holmes +was rather startled at first, and to her it was Sabbath-breaking, but +Jason Chadsey was so used to the cosmopolitan order of the day, and +she met the people who had been to church in the morning. + +The hot sun and lack of rain had not dried up everything. There were +fogs on the coast that dripped like fine rain, and fairly drenched +bush and faded grass. There were fine green hills and fields of +flowers, and the new crop of wild oats and barley. + +And then autumn came in again, schools opened, business stirred up, +there were blessed rains, and it was like a later summer. + +The little girl had been much interested in her gull and he had grown +very fond of her, eating out of her hand, and hiding his head under +her arms as the squirrel did. She had traced Snippy to his home, and +sure enough he had a companion. There was an old scrubby dead pine in +which there was a hollow, or they had gnawed it, and thither they +carried nuts and crusts of bread that Laverne pretended to lose. + +"Uncle Jason," she said one day, "did you ever see an albatross?" + +"Yes. Not very often. They are in the Northern Pacific." + +"They are not like gulls." + +"Oh, much larger." + +"There is a story about one. Miss Bain has it in a beautiful book. One +day she read it." + +"Oh, 'The Ancient Mariner.'" + +"Do you know about it?" Her face was alight with pleasure. "And is it +true? Did he kill the bird: + + "'Who, every day for food or play, + Came to the Mariner's hollo.'" + +"It's a queer story. No, I don't suppose it was really true. But it is +always considered bad luck to kill one. I must get the book for you." + +"Oh, if you would," in her pretty, coaxing way. "Pablo wanted to kill +the gull. Then we might have had bad luck. And now we can't find any +name for him." + +"That's bad, too." + +His leg had mended nicely and the splints were off, though it must be +confessed he had tugged a great deal at them, and could not be brought +to understand their benefit, though it was explained over and over +again. But his wing did not seem to be just right, and his efforts to +fly were not successful. + +"But I wish he could. He would look so lovely sailing about." + +"And fly away!" + +"Oh, I don't really believe he would." + +Uncle Jason brought home a fine illustrated copy of the "Ancient +Mariner" from an English press. In the early fifties, even in vaunted +New York, Boston, and Philadelphia illustrating had not reached the +high point of art it was destined to later on. + +She was delighted and in a little while knew it all by heart. She grew +very fond of poetry. She used to read to the gull until he seemed +hypnotized, and presently would nod, sometimes put his head under his +wing. + +In September, there was another great celebration on the opening of +the first electric telegraph. This was between San Francisco and Point +Lobos, and was erected by Messrs. Sweeny and Baugh to give early +information of shipping arrivals. They had a station on Telegraph Hill +in which they used various signals, but this was of immeasurably +greater service. + +Early in November, there was the anniversary of the founding of the +Mission of Dolores. There were a number of Catholic children in the +school, and a holiday was given. + +"Oh, come, go," Olive coaxed. "Eulogia Garfias and her mother are +going, and we are great friends. You've never been in a Catholic +Church?" + +"No; but I know some Catholic girls, and one has gone to a convent to +be educated. Oh, and the two little ones were to come up to the +Sisters' School." + +"Why, maybe they will be there." + +She had not been to the Estenegas in a long, long time; since the day +she and Uncle Jason had ridden down there. + +Miss Holmes made no objection. People grew broader in this grand air. +There were many points in which all denominations worked together for +the city's welfare. + +It was constructed of adobe, partly whitewashed. It had been very +grand in its day, and had a capacious interior. The walls and roof +roughly painted still held saints and angels and sacred subjects much +faded by the seventy-five years. The damp earthen floor struck a chill +to one. Some of the ornaments of the great altar had been carried +away, and those left were of no great value. But on this occasion +every year there was a large accession of worshippers, even Spanish +and Mexican men as well as women, kneeling reverently on the floor, +and that seemed strange to Laverne, who glanced up with great awe to +the figure of the Christ on the cross between the two oriel windows. +At the side was a female figure with hands clasped, the Virgin. Tall +candles were burning on each side of the altar. + +The service was mostly in Latin. The congregation went out reverently, +some to walk in the small graveyard. Yes, there were Juana and Anesta +and several other girls, attended by a sister. They were delighted to +meet Laverne, and were full of confidences as they walked out to the +street. The house was shut up, their mother had gone to Monterey, and +they were staying at school all the time. They liked it so much. And, +if they were allowed, they would be so glad to visit Laverne. Eulogia +Garfias knew the sister and introduced her schoolmates; that made the +sister soften somewhat to them, and listen to their plea. + +So Laverne had quite an eventful morning. + +"But the little girls look sad, I think," she commented. "And the old +church isn't a bit pretty, it looks faded. And no seats to sit on. It +didn't seem at all like church." + +What with lessons, her pets, and her rides, the days were all too +short. Her gull still remained and now could fly a short distance. It +really seemed to love the shelter of the house, and this amused Uncle +Jason very much. Then it never flapped its wings, but seemed to rise +slowly and float about with a serene air. It enjoyed the stream and +the new lake Pablo and Laverne had made. For now the frequent rains +swelled all the streams, and the bright bracing northwest winds +brought the fragrance of spring. Everything grew by bounds. The little +girl could hardly believe it was winter. The bluest skies, the golden +sunshine that flashed in streams of brilliance, the bay a sea of +silver bearing on its bosom treasures of every land. + +And so came in a Merry Christmas, with pleasure in every home; a +children's festival, with not so much religious significance as now. +They went to a grand dinner at Mrs. Personette's, Miss Gaines with +them, who looked splendid in her satin gown, and who was coining money +rapidly. Lines were not very closely drawn; the aristocrat of to-day +riding round in his carriage was the workman of last year. The poor +mechanic lucky enough to find a nugget of gold brought his wife in the +front rank and dressed her in velvet, loaded her with jewels. The +keeper of an ordinary restaurant branched out presently in a very +respectable hotel. It was difficult to keep up with all the changes. +Then, it must be admitted, that many of these people were from the +East and had good educations, had, indeed, been accustomed to the +refinements of civilized life, but the thought of making a fortune in +a few years had given them courage to breast the vulgarity and rough +life until they could advance themselves to the old standard. + +The children had a party in the evening. Howard had gone to a +preparatory school in the East, as his keen-eyed stepmother found he +was in a rather dangerous circle of young men--girls, too, for that +matter--who were likely to lead one astray, and this had also +influenced Isabel and was bringing her forward much more rapidly than +was judicious. So they were principally schoolgirls, with the cousin +from Oaklands and the young sons of a few friends and neighbors. At +first Isabel was rather stiff and important, but she thawed presently. +Mrs. Personette remembered her own youth and how much these pleasures +had been to her, and really exerted herself in a delightful manner to +keep them well entertained. + +Victor Savedra, one of the cousins from Oaklands, took a great fancy +to the shy little girl, and asked her to dance. + +"I don't know how," she said, flushing and drawing back. + +"Why--don't you dance?" in surprise. + +"Just a little, with the girls at school. But--I am afraid----" + +"Why, I'll take you through. This is just the plainest quadrille. Oh, +Aunt Grace, don't you think this--" little girl, he was about to +say--"your name is Laverne, isn't it--can't she dance? She looks as if +she could--she's as light as a feather." + +"Oh, you can never learn younger. All the children dance here. I think +it comes natural. But you are too late for that. And, Victor, you +might be explaining the figures to her and be ready for the next one." + +Victor led her a little to one side. "Aunt Grace is just a trump," he +said. "We thought at first we shouldn't like her, some of the Yankees +are so queer, and talk so outlandish and all that, through their +noses, you know, but she is just a lady all through, and full of fun. +Now, look at this--it's an easy figure--balancing to corners, turning +your partner and a galop down the middle----" + +"Why, it's like the fairy rings you read about--I have a splendid +fairy book uncle brought me, and on moonlight nights the little people +go out and dance on the green. The Irish stories are just enchanting. +They love the little people." + +Her eyes had been following the dances and she moved her head faintly +as if she was keeping time. Then the fiddles gave a sharp staccato and +stopped. + +"Oh," she exclaimed, in bewilderment. + +He laughed at the startled look. + +"They'll tune up and begin again." Oh, what eager eyes she had. Why, +she was really very pretty, with that soft rose flush and fair hair. +Olive had called her "a plain little thing." + +Sure enough that was long ago, remember, before we heard of Strauss +and Sousa. Many a quadrille has begun with "Life let us cherish." +Victor took her hand and fairly impelled her out on the floor. "Now, +I'll tell you everything, and you just mind and don't feel afraid." + +She never knew whether she minded or not. She was thinking of Nora of +the Mill when she stepped in the magic ring, and Laudeen, with the +blue coat and a firefly for each button all the way down, just whisked +her around until the air was full of fireflies. It was splendid. + +"Oh, you've done very well," Victor said, in a delighted tone. "You +didn't mind the mistakes at all, but just kept on, and that's the way +to do. But you must learn to dance regularly. And I hope we shall +dance together often. You are just like a fairy. That Larkin girl trod +on my foot about every other step. Oh, that is the Cheat. That's rare +fun. Now, see--when it is 'All hands round,' and your partner turns +the other girls, come straight back to him, to _me_, will you? The +fellows left out get laughed at. Now, you'll see." + +When the Cheat came he told her again. She turned away from the +outstretched arms and looked for Victor, whose face was flushed. For +he felt he had been really rude to one of the best dancers in the +room. And in the next Cheat some one picked up Laverne, almost lifting +her off her feet, while Esta Collins paid him back with interest and a +triumphant smile. + +"I didn't do it right," Laverne said ruefully. "He was so big and +strong, and I never saw him----" + +"Oh, that's a good deal of the fun when you know all about it. The +girls flirt awfully, but now and then one gets left in the lurch. The +next is the Spanish Galop, and then the refreshments. Who is going to +take you in?" + +"Why--I don't know----" hesitatingly. + +"Then I will, and we will have this galop." + +"Victor," Isabel said, rather sharply, in the pause. "You take Miss +Payne in for refreshments." + +"Can't, my dear cousin. I wouldn't dare poach on Leon Sturges' manor." + +"Victor!" But he had gone. + +"Just see how that little thing holds on to Victor! Olive, you put a +stop to it as soon as supper is over. I didn't think Victor would make +such a fool of himself. He's danced three times with her. And she's +just crazy over it. She's making a sight of herself." + +Olive nodded. She had had all the attention she wanted, and had never +once thought of Laverne, or Victor either. + +Victor was asking if Laverne didn't most blow away up on the hill +where she lived, and if she didn't get lost in the dreadful fogs. And +she told him about her squirrel and the gull. + +"Why, I thought they were the shyest, wildest things, and that you +couldn't touch them while they were alive. And he really stays with +you?" in amaze. + +"He can't fly very far. You see, his wing isn't quite right, though he +can raise it, but it doesn't seem strong. Still he flies so +beautifully a short distance it is a pleasure to see him. Sometimes I +make believe he is an albatross. And I tell him about the 'Ancient +Mariner.'" + +"Oh, do you know that queer old thing! And do you love verses? We're +reading the Iliad at school. It isn't verse exactly, but it's poetry +all the same. There are some splendid heroes in it." + +She didn't know exactly what it was, but she liked reading about +heroes and her eyes kindled. + +"Do you think I might come to visit you and the gull? Are there any +more pets?" + +"Oh, yes, a splendid big dog; and I never feel afraid with him. And +the loveliest Mexican pony. Then the birds are very tame. There is the +sauciest mocking bird, and we whistle to each other. He will come for +crumbs, and when the weather is very dry we put out a pan of water and +it is fun to see them bathe. And the jays chatter and scold so." + +"How much you must love everything!" + +"Well--there are no children near by. Though now I go to school." + +"And you came from Maine, Aunt Grace said, all the way round the Horn. +Do you know they are talking of a railroad across the Continent? Oh, +what lots of things we would have to talk about. I'll ask father to +let me come over here and then I'll come up and see you--some +Saturday." + +"Oh, I shall be just delighted." The little face was all rosy +eagerness. + +"You're not eating anything. Oh, here are the mottoes. Now, we'll have +some fun." + +They were prizes to children in those days. A candy in a pretty +colored fringed paper, with two or four printed rhymes, sometimes very +funny, at others sentimental. Victor had numbers sent to him by +different girls, who were beginning to think the little Maine damsel +was getting more than her share of him. + +Olive stood ready to pounce upon him. But Miss Holmes was there at the +doorway. + +"Uncle Jason has come," she said, in a low tone. "Are you not tired +and almost ready to go home?" + +Laverne took the outstretched hand. + +"Remember," Victor said, "I shall come before long." + +"Really," began Olive tauntingly, "you seem very fond of small fry." + +"Why--she is your friend. You have told us ever so much about her. And +she's a nice little thing." + +"Oh, a mere child! A flower of the field sort of thing," rather +disdainfully. + +He thought her very ungracious when she had been quite eloquent over +Laverne at Oaklands. + +She leaned against Miss Holmes' shoulder and talked of the dancing, +while two or three men discussed the prospect of a road across the +continent. The hardships of the overland journey were almost +incredible. Congress could hardly be roused on the subject. Daniel +Webster, broad statesman as he was, opposed it with energy. The Great +American Desert was a formidable thing. And there were the Rocky +Mountains. The gold fields might give out--it was not an agricultural +region--how could manufactures ever be established so remote from +every centre! Spain and Mexico had tried their hands. There was enough +to do nearer home. + +The little girl listened with a curious interest. It was a wonderful +country to her. Maine had nothing to compare with it. And though she +began to feel sleepy now that she was quiet, she winked her eyes hard +so as not to lose a word. + +"We must go," Miss Holmes said at length; so they rose and wished +their host good-night. + +What a glorious night it was! There was no moon, but the wide blue +vault was studded so thick with stars, great golden, twinkling globes, +that seemed to keep Christmas as truly as when they sang to the +shepherds on the plains of Judea. All the air was spicily fragrant, +for there was just enough fog over on the ocean side to make a dew and +distil sweetness. Some of the newly whitewashed houses glistened like +marble, and the brick ones threw a weird kind of shade. There were +clumps of trees, and the little girl half suspected Indians or wolves +lurking behind them. + +"Did you have a nice time, little one?" asked her uncle, in a fond +tone. + +The cool, fresh, inspiriting air had wakened her. + +"Oh, it was splendid! And I danced. Don't you think I might go to +dancing school? All the children do. Olive's cousin was so nice to me, +and he wants to come and see the gull. And he has a pony, too. He is +going to ride over some day. He's nicer than Dick Folsom; that is--he +is polite and gentle, and has such a sweet voice. Oh, I liked him so +much. And there were so many pretty and finely dressed girls--maybe it +was because I didn't have any brother or cousin that he was so good to +me." + +Jason Chadsey gave a soft little sigh. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +ETHICS AND ETIQUETTE + + +It was midnight, and the bells rang out for 1854. The streets were +full of people. Banjos were being strummed, accordions lent their +music. Singers really made bedlam, but above all you heard every +little while the refrain from a chorus of voices: + + "The days of old, the days of gold, + The days of forty-nine." + +Was San Francisco getting old in its scarcely more than childhood? For +in August of that year, John W. Geary, who had been the last alcalde +of the town, was elected its first mayor, and the city had her charter +in due American form. It had stretched up and down the bay, the +wharves were crowded with shipping. Had ever any other city such a +marvellous story! + +Yet in 1854, the world was still a little old-fashioned and friendly. +Never was there a more peerless day. Over the hilltops came streams of +brilliance with the rising sun that drove the fog before it into the +ocean. The lowlands were alive with the slant rays that wavered and +wandered about like seas of gold. Flowers seemed to have sprung up in +the night. Flags were flying. The streets were full of men and boys; +one would have thought it a grand procession. For New Year's calls +were then the great fashion. The day was given over to the renewals of +friendships. Men put on their Sunday best, and went from house to +house with joyous greetings. And within doors were groups of women to +welcome them, and rooms presented a gala aspect. Lovers found an +opportunity to say sweet things, friends clasped hands, business was +laid aside. + +No doubt there were orgies here and there, quarrels over cups, and +fights, but even among the lower ranks there was a great deal of +jollity. + +Then everybody went back to business. The great Express Building was +opened, having been more than a year under way, and a big banquet +given in the evening. + +The weather underwent a sudden change. Ice froze in the pools about +the streets. Icicles hung from the roofs of the houses and children +thrashed them down, and went about eating them like sticks of candy. +There was veritable snow on some of the hills, and those at Contra +Costa were white and glittering in the sun. The old Californians, who +were fond of lazing about in the sun, and smoking a pipe, laid it to +those Yankee devils who had turned everything upside down. There would +be no more good times in "Californy." Even the miners came in and +grumbled. The rains in the fall and winter had been slight, then a +sort of freshet had swollen the rivers, which were too full for "wet +diggings," as the hill sides had been too dry for "dry diggings." + +It seemed as if a series of misfortunes happened. The fine new +clipper ship _San Francisco_ missed her bearings and struck on the +rocks on the north side of the channel. Some lives were lost, and a +storm coming up, scattered much of the cargo. Added to this was a very +general depression in business, but in all new cities there are lean +years as well as fat ones. + +The little girl had said nothing more about dancing school, although +there was a very nice class that met twice a week not far from the +school. She and Olive had a little "tiff," and now hardly spoke. She +would have liked to consult some one, but Miss Holmes and Mrs. +Personette were now very cordial friends, and she was not sure that +she had been exactly right herself. She could not quite make up her +mind to be blamed. She had said to Uncle Jason that she had changed +her mind, she did not want to go to dancing school just yet. + +"There's plenty of time for that," he responded cheerfully. "And I +guess dancing comes kind of natural to little girls. You can put on +the fancy touches by and by." + +Then he gave her such a hug that she knew he was pleased with her +decision, though down in the depths of her heart she really would have +liked it. Sometimes she danced around out of doors, going through +whatever figures she could recall. + +This was what had happened: She had spoken cordially to Olive the +first morning school had begun again, and Olive had given her head a +toss, and mumbled something. Then at recess she had joined some of the +larger girls. The Personette girls went home to luncheon; Laverne +brought hers. There were several smaller children that she liked very +much, and they had a nice play together. Olive generally claimed her, +but for several days she took very little notice of her. She had a +feeling that Laverne would feel hurt and want to know the reason. But +the latter was too much afraid of a rebuff to advert to it. + +"I suppose you think it's queer that I'm acting this way," Olive +began, when her indifference seemed to pass unnoticed. "But, really, +you were so forward at my party----" + +"Forward!" Laverne gasped. "Why, I--I was almost frightened at first. +I had never been to a real party before." + +"Well, you made yourself very conspicuous. Esta Collins thought you +bold enough." + +Laverne's face was scarlet. "What did I do?" she asked in a tremulous +tone, trying to keep down a great throb that wanted to rise in her +throat. + +"What did you do, Miss Innocence? Well, I declare! You didn't dance +three times with my cousin, and then march in to supper with him, and +talk and laugh just as if you didn't mean to let him look at another +girl. And you had never met him before! It was shameful!" + +"But--he asked me!" + +The tears did come now. She tried very hard to wink them away. + +"Oh, yes! But he never supposed you were going to hang on him that +way. And there were girls who had known him long before, just waiting +to be asked. You see, as he was _my_ cousin, he was--well, almost like +the host, and should have gone around. You're a regular flirt, +Laverne Chadsey, and you will never get asked to any party of mine +again." + +"You didn't ask me this time," said Laverne, with spirit. "It was your +mother. And it wasn't altogether your party." + +"Well, it was _my_ cousin." + +"She is Isabel's cousin also." + +"Well, she did not like it, either." + +Laverne wanted to say she was sorry. No one had ever quarrelled with +her before. But was she really at fault? There came a sudden flash of +spirit. + +"It was mean in your cousin to ask me to dance so many times when he +knew it wasn't quite proper. He was used to parties, I wasn't. I shall +never want to go to parties again; I just hate them." + +With that Laverne turned away, holding her head very high. She missed +in one lesson that afternoon, and asked Miss Bain if she might not +stay in and go over it; she knew it then, but she was confused by +something else. Her uncle was always so proud of her marks that she +did not want to disappoint him. + +"Why, yes," returned Miss Bain smilingly. "I wish all little girls +were as careful." + +She was rather grave at home that afternoon. She told Bruno about it +and he gave her a world of sympathy out of large, loving eyes. + +Then there were several smaller girls that she found very +companionable. One of them discovered a way to walk together for some +distance by making the circuit just a little longer. Her mother was +French and had been born in New Orleans. There were five children; +she, Lucie, was the oldest. Her father was one of the old California +residents, and had fought in the war. Last summer they had gone down +to Santa Cruz and had a lovely time. She had only one little sister, +the baby. So they made quite a friendship. + +After the cold snap it seemed as if spring had come in earnest. +Everything took to growing. Miss Holmes and Laverne had delightful +rides about on Saturdays. And one morning the child watched a lad +coming up the somewhat crooked road. He waved his hand--yes, he +smiled, too. Why, it couldn't be Victor Savedra! + +But it was, though. Laverne hardly knew whether to be glad or sorry. +But she was glad down in the bottom of her heart, and ran a few steps +to meet him, then paused in pure bashfulness. + +"Are you glad to see me? Don't you remember that I told you I would +come? I was at uncle's a fortnight ago and meant to beg Olive to come +up with me, but behold!" and he laughed. + +It was such a gay, infectious sort of laugh, and he slid down from his +pony and threw the rein over his neck, then took both of her hands, +while she colored scarlet, and her eyes had merry lights in them. + +"I dragged it all out of Olive. Did you have much of a fuss with her? +Girls are so queer! It was because I danced two or three times with +you. Why, I thought you were such a dainty little thing. I liked you. +Some of the girls are so--well, so sentimental--silly. Olive has a +temper, though. And now--_are_ you glad. Father knows your uncle a +little. And he said I might come over; father, I mean. I always tell +him where I go on Saturdays." + +"Yes, I am glad," Laverne replied. "Oh, we were going out to ride." + +"We? Who?" and the bright young face fell a little. + +"Why, Miss Holmes--who takes care of us." + +"Oh, yes, that's all right. Girls always do have some one, you know. +And I remember her. She is Aunt Grace's friend." + +"Yes, Pablo is bringing the horses." She led the way with a springing +step and smiled without knowing just what made her happy. + +"And the gull! Father thinks it really odd, that you should tame him +and he should want to stay." + +"And he can fly quite well. Just a bit of the wing droops down. Oh, +here he is! We had such a time to find a name for him. And once Uncle +Jason was up the coast of Norway and learned about the gods, and I +liked the story of Balder so much, Balder the beautiful, and then I +called him that. But Uncle Jason calls him Jim." + +"Did your uncle come for the Golden Fleece?" + +"I think they find it here, if anywhere," she returned, smiling. +"Here, Balder," and she held out her hand. + +He was not exactly graceful in his walk. But he came and put his head +in his little mistress's hand. + +She stroked his neck, "Pretty Balder," she said. "Did Pablo get you +some fish?" + +Balder glanced rather suspiciously at the newcomer. And just then Miss +Holmes came down. After the first glance she remembered the young +fellow, who explained a certain amount of curiosity had drawn him +hither, and since they were ready for a ride he begged to accompany +them. + +"Oh," she said, "why didn't you bring the girls and we should have had +quite a party." + +"I am afraid if I had gone there first I should have missed you, they +would have had so many plans. And this excursion has been in my mind +some time. I wanted to see these remarkable pets." + +"Snippy seems quite busy in these days providing for his family; I +think, too, he is rather jealous of Jim." + +"There are some such cunning little squirrels, but Snippy keeps them +closely at home, down in the hollow of the tree." + +"If you would like to walk about a little--the rains have given us +quite a picturesque aspect, and the weather has brought us into +spring." + +"Will Miss Laverne be my guide?" + +"That sounds just like school. When you get in the highest class, +where your cousin Isabel is, you are called Miss--whatever your last +name happens to be. I don't like it so well." + +"But you will when you get to be a young lady." + +"I like girls the best," she said simply. + +He thought they would be quite charming if they all resembled her. + +They took the winding path up to the spring, if it were that; Pablo, +under Uncle Jason's direction, had made quite a basin of it. Then it +trickled down to the next level, and this was Balder's pool. It was +arranged so that it irrigated quite a little garden. There were some +orange trees, but they had been nipped by the frosts. + +"They are rather bitter and sour and full of seeds," said Laverne, +"only they are beautiful with their glossy leaves, and the blossoms +are sweet. Everything is wonderful here." + +"It truly is." He was glancing about. "Father ought to see this. But +you know we think Oaklands the garden spot of all as you go on down +the Bay. It's much wilder going up, and here it doesn't seem a bit +promising, but you have made it so. I wonder what about it charmed +your uncle?" + +She remembered the old home in Maine was rather rocky and wild. She +rarely thought of it now. + +"Here is where Snippy lives. Though there are plenty of squirrels +about and rabbits and everything, it seems to me. Snippy," she called, +"Snippy." + +A sharp nose and two bright eyes appeared above the hollow and dropped +down at once. "Snippy! Oh! you needn't be afraid." She threw some bits +of hardtack down. Then there was a sudden gray flash, and he was out +on the ground, caught on her frock and ran up to her shoulder. He +looked saucily over to Victor Savedra as if he questioned what +business he had there. + +The boy laughed. "We have some fine birds, and beautiful tame deer. I +suppose I could tame a squirrel. But the funny thing is that he should +have decided to move up here." + +"We brought him first, you know. I didn't think about his having any +folks then. And there is getting to be quite a colony of them. Uncle +Jason will not have them shot. Though Pablo shot a wildcat not long +ago. And the birds do not seem afraid any more. I know where there are +several quails' nests." + +"I expect you understand bird language." + +They turned to go down. Pablo had given Victor's pony a drink. Miss +Holmes stood patting her horse's neck. + +"I've done up a little lunch," she announced. "Are you quite sure you +have time to devote to our picnic?" + +"Oh, yes! I have a whole day to spend. And I am delighted that you +permit me to accompany you. I hope you will come to Oaklands and allow +me to be the host." + +They went down on the westerly path. Part of the way it was a rather +rough road, and they had the ocean at their side. Here was a kind of +depression in the rocky barricade, and down by the shore a herd of +deer were sniffing the ocean breezes. How pretty and graceful they +looked, startled, too, as the wind wafted the sound of voices to them. +Then they suddenly vanished as if the ocean had swallowed them up, and +the three looked at each other with surprised and laughing eyes. + +Miss Holmes found young Savedra a very entertaining companion. He +expected presently to go to England for his education. There was a +rather delicate girl next in age to him, who had not been strong +enough to come over to the Christmas party. Then a rollicking hoyden, +and last of all a second son. It was evident he cared a great deal for +his mother. His sister had one of the nervous musical temperaments, +and was fond of solitude. The Personette girls were very different, +more like their father. + +He was really entertaining for so young a person. He knew many of the +older stories of the country, the Missions, the Indians, and the +lower-class Mexicans. They turned into quite a new road for them, that +seemed hidden away by an edge of woods, and presently came to a +charming spot where he tethered the horses, and they ate their lunch. +Little did they dream that one day even this solitude would be invaded +by the resistless hand of improvement. Shy, wild things were running +about, birds sang in every sort of key. Gulls swooped down for fish, a +great cormorant went sailing slowly along, and seals frolicked almost +like children. + +"I suppose we could go across here and come up to the eastward," Miss +Holmes said. "This has been delightful. We keep to the beaten paths +when we are alone, but on Sunday, with Mr. Chadsey, we make farther +ventures. We must bring him here, Laverne, if we can remember the +way." + +"I'll make a diagram for you," he laughed. "I might have 'blazed a +trail,'--isn't that what you Yankees call it? But there are so many +beautiful roads. And farther down everything is lovelier still. I +suppose the eastern world is quite different, with its long, cold +winters." + +"But to the southward we have pleasant lands, where there is not much +winter, and where vegetation is almost as wonderful as here, where +roses bloom and tropical fruit ripens. Oh, the Atlantic has many fine +points and great cities." + +"I should like to see them. I hope some day to travel round the whole +world. Miss Laverne, don't you want to go to India?" + +"I don't know," and she made a little gesture of aversion. "Uncle +Jason has been to many of the seaport towns. And he did not like the +natives over well. He thinks them indolent and cruel and all that. And +there are tigers and poisonous snakes--no, I do not think I want to +go." + +"I should like to talk with your uncle. You know we larger boys are +studying up curious vestiges of the old civilizations and races. There +were people here before the Indians, and it is supposed they came +across Behring Strait from Asia." + +She opened her eyes wide. + +"Why, I thought the Indians were the first race." + +"They must have driven out some other people, or driven them down to +Mexico, perhaps. But I suppose girls don't need to know all this;" and +he laughed. "Oh, look at this picture before we go." + +The curve of the path down toward the rocky shore made a striking +perspective. There was no wind, but the far-off waves had a golden +crest that came nearer and nearer, as if bearing the treasures of the +Orient; the air was full of spice and sweetness; wild grape, fern, +cedar, and pine, fluttering butterflies, almost like small birds, made +swift dazzles, or seemed to hang poised in the still air as if +considering which way to take. The sea was marvellously blue, so was +the sky overhead, but round the edges where it touched the sea there +was a soft gray mistiness, here whitening, there taking on an azure +tint. + +He was mysteriously touched by beauty, though he was a whole-hearted +boy, and occasionally dipped into fun of the unorthodox sort. Who +could help it in such a wild country? + +Miss Holmes nodded, she, too, was deeply moved. They turned about, the +road was narrow and carpeted, one might say, with countless wild +roses, flaming lilies, others as yellow as the palest sulphur color; +little juniper trees, with their pale green shoots that had never yet +seen sunshine; blackberry vines, that were in bloom at least six +months of the year, with their starry crowns, and berries of all +ripening colors. The horses kicked them aside, they were meet food for +the birds. + +They came farther inland through tall woods, great stretches of wild +oats and barley, meadows that would presently be brown with burnt +roots of vanished things. Here and there an adobe house, small +children playing about in cotton shirts, and shouting with the same +riotous glee that informed the bird's song. + +Pelajo gave a whinny as they came in sight of the house that looked as +if set among the rocks. Bruno rushed out. Balder gave a cry of +welcome. They had all missed the little girl, who talked to them in a +language they understood and loved. + +"I hardly know how to thank you for such a delightful day," Victor +Savedra said, in his refined manner that was hearty as well. "I had +not thought of so much pleasure when I came. And I do hope to return +it. You see, I haven't felt quite like a stranger, Aunt Grace has +talked of you so often. We all like her so much. And at first we felt +quite startled at the thought of uncle marrying a Yankee woman," and +he smiled, with a sort of gay retrospection. "Yet, she had been so +good to the aunt that died. But it is largely in the cultivation, +don't you think? Many of those first Eastern people were of good +birth, and they were fine pioneers, we can't deny that. And we shall +plan for you to come over on some Saturday with her and the girls, for +I want you to see mother." + +Miss Holmes thanked him cordially, and the little girl said the same +thing with her eyes and her smile. + +Yet, after she had made the round of her pets, had a splendid drink of +water, and seen Pelajo munching his wisps of alfalfa--Pablo would not +give him too much at a time--she came in and sat down in her favorite +low chair, while Miss Holmes was making some supper preparations, +beating-up an old-fashioned cake of which Uncle Jason was very fond, +and that suggested to him the weekly bakings in the old ovens back in +Maine. + +The little girl was quiet so long that Miss Holmes said presently: +"Are you very tired?" + +"Oh, no; I was thinking," and for an instant the rosy lips were +compressed. "Is it--do you think it wrong to have secrets?" + +Miss Holmes was alarmed and studied her anxiously. + +"It depends on what they are, and with whom," she answered gravely. + +"Long ago, when we first knew her, Olive Personette said girls always +had secrets. They were mostly about other girls. And I only knew the +Estenegas, and there wasn't anything about them except the queer old +house and Carmen going to a convent. She didn't care about that. Then +there was the party." + +"Yes," encouragingly. + +"Olive was very angry because--because her cousin was so nice to me." + +Then the whole story came out, how Olive had scarcely taken any notice +of her, and had her seat changed and played with the larger girls. +But, after awhile, it had blown over, and now they were good friends +again. + +Miss Holmes had remarked an estrangement, but she was not in love with +Olive herself, and had made no comment. + +"I didn't want to tell Uncle Jason----" + +"Oh, no, no," interrupted Miss Holmes quickly. + +"And--I should have liked to know whether it was quite right to dance +so much with Victor, but you see it was all done, and--and----" + +"On the whole, you were a very discreet little girl. You did not know, +of course. Olive should have been more attentive to her guests. That +wasn't a very harmful secret, but I think your uncle would have been +quite vexed with Olive." + +"I was afraid he would," she returned gravely. + +"It is better to keep a secret than to stir up strife," Miss Holmes +remarked. + +"But now there's another secret," and a look of distress clouded the +fair face. "It's been such a lovely day. I didn't ever suppose he +would come without the girls, but he has, and they do not know. Olive +will be angry, I am afraid." + +Miss Holmes smiled inwardly, so as not to pain Laverne. Even these +little girls began to have troubles and jealousies about the boys. She +had been in it herself during childhood, she had seen a great deal of +it later on. And childhood should be such a sweet and simple thing--a +season of pure enjoyment. + +"I think you had better say nothing about to-day. I'll explain the +matter sometime to Mrs. Personette." + +"Oh, that will be splendid! It was just a glorious time, wasn't it? +And I should be sorry to have it spoiled." + +Her face was joyous again with relief. + +"But I can tell Uncle Jason?" + +"Oh, yes." + +She would have felt much relieved if she had known that the young +fellow went straight to the Personettes and found his aunt home alone. +The girls were out driving with some friends. + +"Aunt Grace," he said frankly, after the first courtesies had passed, +"I've been up there on the hill where the Chadseys live, getting +acquainted with the pets; and what an odd, pretty place it is. I like +Miss Holmes very much. I wish Isola had just such a friend instead of +that half-French governess. And Miss Laverne is a very charming little +child, isn't she? Can't you bring them over some Saturday and I'll do +my best to entertain you. I've told mother a good deal about +them--well, so have you;" and he laughed with boyish gayety. + +"Yes, I've been thinking of it. And now everything is at its best. +I'll be over in a day or two and we will settle upon the time. I +should like your mother to know Miss Holmes. And, oh, what a treat it +will be for that little Laverne. She might almost as well be in a +convent, but she is happy and bright as a lark. She's a really +charming child, but it would be a pity to make an early 1800 girl out +of her when we are passed the middle of the century." + +They both laughed at the idea. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +IN THE SUNSHINE OF YOUTH + + +There was a great talk about hard times. Some discouraged people +returned east, convinced there was just as good a chance for +prosperity there. But the city went on laying out streets, paving +some, erecting large business buildings, discarding old oil lamps, for +now gas was introduced. And in April, a branch Mint was opened by the +Government on Commercial Street, which had been a great necessity, +though there had been allowed a private coining establishment. The +payment of many transactions had been in gold dust or nuggets. There +was also an earnest endeavor to awake interest in a through railroad +service. The overland route was hazardous, painful, and expensive, +that round the Horn tedious, and across the isthmus difficult. + +There were also several filibustering expeditions that came to grief, +and some quite noted citizens were tried and punished. Riots, too, +were of frequent occurrence, but, on the whole, a spirit of +improvement was visible everywhere. The long-neglected Plaza was +regraded, a fence placed around it, a flagstaff raised, and it became +quite a favorite resort, the drive around it being thronged by +carriages on pleasant afternoons. + +The Vigilance Committee had done good work and rendered the city much +safer. Manufactures were started. True, coal had to be brought from +some distance, and there was a great need of really skilled labor. + +The little party that had taken the "Hazard of new fortunes" were +prospering. Now and then Dick Folsom had been seized with a mining +fever that had required all the ingenious arguments of his mother to +combat. Then, seeing an opportunity, and having good backers in the +Dawsons, she had opened a sort of Home Hotel that at once became a +great favorite on account of its excellent bread and rolls, and now +Dick had business enough on his hands, though it did not quench his +longing for a more adventurous life. + +Miss Gaines, too, had extended her borders. She had taken a place on +an attractive street and opened a real business of dressmaking and +millinery, and was largely patronized, Boston being considered really +higher style than New York. Jacintha Vanegas had married, and Miss +Gaines had persuaded the mother to sell her old house as the lot was +needed for an important improvement. So Señora Vanegas came to keep +house for her, and Felicia to be her right-hand woman. + +"It's worlds better than teaching school," she explained to Miss +Holmes. "When you once rise to a positive dictum in style, people give +in to you and pay you any price. I'm not going to spend all my time on +furbelows. After a few years I shall retire and take some journeys +about the world. One of my cousins is anxious to come out and I shall +send for her. As for marrying--I certainly shall not take a man to +hang on to me, as one might easily every month in the year." + +The hard times had touched Jason Chadsey rather severely, but he held +up his head bravely. For he saw that San Francisco must be the brain +of the outlying country. The treaty with Japan would open up new +ventures. There was to be a line of mail steamers from San Francisco +to Shanghai. And all up and down the coast from Puget Sound to the +Isthmus vessels were plying, bringing the treasures of other lands. + +The visit to Oaklands had been beautifully arranged. Mrs. Savedra had +sent a written invitation to her sister-in-law, enclosing a note to +Miss Holmes. They were to come early in the morning, at least the big +carriage would meet the boat at ten. It was across the bay, to be +sure, but only like a ferry. + +Olive took upon herself the real significance of the visit. They were +_her_ relatives, not even her stepmother's. Her aunt was quite French +still and talked with a pretty accent, and was really very charming, +though she did not go much into society. + +"Of course, you've seen Victor--you can't help liking him, you know. +Isola is only a year younger, but she's a queer, fretful sort of girl, +who always has a headache if she doesn't want to do the things you +choose. Elena is a little witch, good and bad, sweet and sour all in a +minute. Then some children died, and Andrea is a sweet, big, spoiled +baby." + +Laverne laughed. + +"If Isola was like most girls we could have lots of fun. I hate +half-sick people, don't you? I want them to be ill enough to stay in +bed, or else able to have some fun. She plays beautifully on the +organ, though, and the piano." + +"Oh, I do love music," declared Laverne. "I could listen forever." + +"Then you and she will get along. Victor will entertain Isabel, of +course. You can't have him all the time," with a touch of malice. + +Laverne turned scarlet. + +Up and down the bay seemed alive with vessels of every kind and +degree, and some sailboats keeping out of the way of the larger craft. + +Victor had the big family carriage with its three seats. + +"I'm going to sit with the driver," announced Olive. + +Victor assisted the ladies in, expressing his pleasure that it was a +fine day and that they could all come. The two handsome horses flung +up their heads and pawed the ground a little. They went somewhat +south-easterly, passed the streets that already had quite a city +aspect, and then turned into a road bordered with magnificent trees +and almost paved with great violets of all colors, and farther back a +wild profusion of bloom. Geraniums like small trees, brilliant in +scarlet, rose, and pink. Magnificent palms, shining olive trees, and +oranges that had been cultivated to perfection. Laverne drew long +breaths of the perfumed air. + +All at the southern side was an immense garden. At the north it was +protected by a great belt of woods. How different from their rocky +mound, but she recalled the fact that Victor had found some points to +admire. + +The mansion was broad and low, the centre reaching up two stories with +a sharp peak, the wings but one story. A porch ran the whole length of +it, shaded by heliotrope trained as a vine and full of purple bloom, +and passion flowers in lavender, purplish red and white, with touches +of grayish purple. These climbed over lattices, leaving spaces between +that looked like French windows reaching to the ground. It was really +a succession of rooms. Easy chairs, lounging chairs (one on wheels for +Isola when she felt indisposed for walking), small tables with books +and papers, or a work-basket, and down one end a large one with +various dishes of fruit. + +Mrs. Savedra welcomed them in a most cordial manner. She was hardly +medium height; indeed, she looked short beside these taller women. Her +black hair was a bed of ripples with curling ends, her eyes a soft +dusky black, and her complexion a rather pale sort of olive with a +dash of color in the cheeks. + +Victor could hardly be said to resemble her, and yet he had taken some +of her best points. + +Isola stood beside her mother, almost as tall, but slim as a willow +wand, and sallow as to complexion, with a deep shade under the eyes. +Her hair was a duller tint, and her eyes a gleam that in some lights +would have a suggestion of yellow. + +There were also two young gentlemen--one a visitor who had come with +his father on some business, the other a schoolmate of Victor's that +the Personette girls had met before, Vance Lensam. Louis Alvarado was +older than either of them, a handsome young fellow, with blue black +hair and eyes that seemed to look through one. + +Victor had asked his friend Vance, so that, he said laughingly, his +cousins would not pull him to pieces. + +"And this is the little girl we have heard about, who took the long, +long journey around Cape Horn," Mrs. Savedra said, holding her small +fair hand and glancing smilingly into the deep blue eyes. "I took one +journey from New Orleans with my husband, and it seemed endless, +though we had many pleasures by the way and some dangers. Once we lost +our way and had to sleep in the woods, and we heard the wolves howl." + +"There were no wolves on shipboard and we couldn't get lost," returned +the child, in a soft tone. + +"Oh, you might have been blown out of your course by a storm," +commented Victor. + +"I think we were once or twice. But they all said it was an +exceptional passage," returned his aunt. + +Then they were seated on the porch while the maids took their hats and +mantles, for one never quite knew when a strong west wind would come +up. And for a few moments there was a confusion of pleasant voices. +The servant brought a great stone pitcher of delightful fruit beverage +and filled the glasses. It was ice-cold and most grateful. There were +some queer crispy cakes with scalloped edges that were very nice, +Laverne thought. + +The elders began to talk on the subjects of the day. There was never +any lack of news in the various papers, though there were few +telegraph connections and no cables to flash around the world. Vance +Lensam came round to Isabel's side. He had been to the theatre a few +nights before and seen a remarkable young actress, Miss Heron, in the +play of "Fazio," and it was superb. + +"I want so to go to the theatre," declared Isabel. "Father will not +allow us, he declares it is no place for young people." + +"Anybody might see this play, I think. And the audiences have grown +more respectful and respectable. We are getting to be quite a staid +and orderly city," and he laughed with a little irony. + +"And just as soon as a girl is married she can go anywhere," Isabel +declared. + +"With her husband--yes." + +"And I want to go to a real ball. I have outgrown children's parties. +Oh, there are to be some splendid picnics when school closes. I hope +we can go. Mother has so many engagements all the time. We ought to +have a summer governess." + +"That would be a good idea. One as manageable as the Señorita's," and +he half nodded in Isola's direction. + +"But she never wants to do anything worth while. Oh, dear, it isn't a +nice thing never to be real well." + +"No, I wouldn't like it." + +"Do you know that Mr. Alvarado?" + +"I only met him yesterday. They are Spanish Cubans, I believe." + +"Come down and talk to him. Oh, I do get on so slowly with French and +Spanish. Mother wishes she could send me to a good Eastern school, +where they make girls study." + +"You wouldn't like it?" enquiringly. + +"Do they lock them up and keep them on bread and water, or beat them? +I'd like to see the teacher who could make me study." + +"Are you so very obstreperous?" he laughed. + +"I don't see the use of so much of it. You marry, and that's the end +of learning. But I wish I was a good French scholar. I was quite +ashamed the other night. Father had a French visitor come in about +something, and he didn't understand English very well, so he asked me +to translate, and I couldn't." + +"Moral!" Vance said sententiously. + +They had been moving slowly down to the young man, who now gave them a +nod of welcome, and began to air his rather lame English. + +The nurse brought out the baby, a charming child of four, and +Laverne's face lighted up with joy. + +"You are fond of babies," said the mother, in a glad tone. + +"Oh, yes, and there are so few of them, except the dirty street +children." + +"Where is Lena?" asked Olive. + +"One can never tell for five minutes where she is," said the mother. + +"I'm going to hunt her up; she's such fun." + +But Olive went no further than the group shaded by the passion vine, +and the four were in the midst of something amusing, to judge by their +merry laughs. + +"Why, I didn't know Alvarado could be so gay," declared Victor. "He +doesn't talk very well, and last night I hardly knew how to entertain +him. His father is to send him North to one of the cities in the +autumn. We need some of this work here, high schools and colleges." + +"That will come. Think how young you are. I am amazed at the +progress," declared Mrs. Personette. + +"I suppose San Francisco is an old, young city. The Americanos have +really overpowered us. But, Aunt Grace, did you ever stand in the +street a few moments and listen to the jargon? You can imagine what +the Tower of Babel must have been. I think we have gathered all the +nations of the earth within our borders. And the Chinese are the +oddest. Oh, mother, I am glad you were not a Chinese woman." + +"I think your father would not have been allowed to marry me," she +said smilingly. "And I did not know a word of English then. I had been +in a convent. We thought it a barbarous tongue." + +"It's going to conquer the world some day." + +"Will everybody speak English, do you think?" and Laverne glanced up. +The baby's arms were tight about her neck. + +"Oh, baby!" cried the mother. "Nurse, you had better take him." + +It was funny to hear the baby scold in French. + +"Victor, you might take the little girl--Laverne, is it not? and show +her the garden. I heard about your pets. You must have a charm." + +Laverne smiled. They walked down the porch and Victor paused a moment +to invite his friends to join them. They did not at once, but the two +kept on. They turned down a wide alley, under some orange trees. The +late blossoms had fruited, the early ones been killed by the unusual +frost of the winter. + +"Oh, it is so beautiful, so very beautiful!" she exclaimed, with +almost the poignancy of joy. "I never supposed there was all this +beauty such a little distance from us. Why didn't they come over here +and build the city?" + +"You will not ask that twenty years from this time. San Francisco +will be one of the great cities of the world, the gateway of the +Western coast, the link of everything splendid! Think of the Golden +Gate, of the magnificent bay, where no enemy could touch a ship. And +that rocky coast, a defence in itself." + +"Twenty years," she repeated musingly. "Why, I shall be quite an old +woman," and a look almost of terror flashed up in her face. + +He laughed at her dismay. "I am not quite seventeen. Then I shall be +thirty-seven, and I hope to have a home and be just as happy as my +father is, and shall endeavor to be just as prosperous. But I wouldn't +want you to call me an old man." + +She flushed under his eager eyes. + +"Everything grows finer here than in San Francisco. Even at the +Estenegas it was not luxuriant like this." + +"For fifteen years father has had it cultivated. There are two +gardeners working all the time. He is so fond of beautiful +things--trees, and flowers, and birds. No one is allowed to molest +them. Oh, listen!" + +They both stood still. She clasped her hands, and her eyes were lucent +with mistiness. + +"Oh," she cried, "it is like this: + + "'How they seemed to fill the sea and air, + With their sweet jargoning.'" + +Certainly they were a gay and happy lot, singing for the very love of +melody, it seemed. Then they passed masses of flowers, beautiful +groups of trees again, wound around unexpected corners. + +"I wonder you found anything to praise up there on the hill," she said +in a low, rather disheartened tone. + +"Oh, I came to see you, and the gull, and Snippy, and to have the nice +ride. And I did have a fine day. Now, you are not going to envy your +neighbor's garden!" + +"Why, no; I wouldn't want to take it away if I could, for there are so +many of you to enjoy it, you see, and only so few of us." + +"And your uncle will be rich enough to give you everything you want +some day." + +She had never thought about his being that. + +A sudden shower of olives dropped down upon them like a great pelting +rain. + +"Oh, Elena, where are you, you little witch! Ah, I see you. Shall I +shake you down out of the tree?" + +A gay, rippling laugh mocked him. + +"Lena, come down. The little girl is here who has the squirrel named +Snippy, and the gull." + +"I thought it was Olive. I was going to crown her with her namesakes. +Why did they give her that name, like hard, bitter fruit?" + +"Why are girls named Rose and Lily?" + +"Oh, they are pretty names, and sweet." + +"Well, you see, no one consulted me about it. Please, come down." + +She laughed again, like the shivering of glass that made a hundred +echoes. Then there was a rustling among the branches, and a lithe +figure stood before them, looking as if she might fly the next moment. + +"Lena! Lena!" and Victor caught her by the shoulder. "What did you +promise this very morning--that you wouldn't torment Olive, but +behave discreetly." + +"This isn't Olive," and she gave her elfin laugh. + +"But you meant it for Olive. This is the little girl who lives over on +the rock, where we go to see the seals and the great flocks of birds. +You know I told you of her." + +Elena stared at the visitor. She had a curious, gypsy-like brilliance, +with her shining, laughing mischievous eyes and the glow in her +cheeks. She was very dark, a good deal from living in the sun, and not +a bad-looking child either. And now an odd, coquettish smile flashed +over the eyes, mouth, and chin, and was fascinating in its softness. +She held out her hand. + +"Victor likes you so much," she said, and Victor flushed at the +betrayal of confidence he had used to persuade her into cordiality. "I +think I shall like you, too. Let us run a race. If I beat you, you +must like me the most and do just as I say, and if you beat I will be +just like your slave all day long." + +"No, Lena. You must not do any such thing." + +"She is like a little snail then! She is afraid!" and the black eyes +flashed mirth as well as insolence. + +"I am not afraid." Laverne stood up very straight, a bright red rose +blooming on each cheek. "Where to?" she asked briefly. + +"Down to the fig trees." + +"Will you count three?" Laverne asked of Victor. + +He smiled and frowned. + +"Count!" she insisted authoritatively. + +They started like a flash, the shadows dancing on the path. Elena +gained. Victor grew angry, and came after them; then Laverne gave a +sudden swift swirl and turned on her antagonist. + +Lena stopped with a laugh. She was not angry. + +"How you can run!" she exclaimed. "I wish you lived here. We would +have races twenty times a day. And--can you climb trees?" + +"Oh, yes." + +"And swim?" + +"No," admitted Laverne frankly. + +"Then you can't do everything that I can." + +"And she can do something you cannot. She can read French and Spanish, +while you really can't read English; she can do sums and write +letters, and--and sew," he was guessing at accomplishments now. + +"There are the women to sew." + +"But you might be wrecked on an island where there were no women, and +tear your frocks, as you generally do." + +Laverne smiled. How find a needle and thread on a desolate island? +Lena did not see the point, and looked rather nonplussed. + +"Oh, well, I shouldn't care then," she retorted. + +"Come, let us go to the aviary. Miss Laverne will like to see the +birds." + +There was a large space netted in from tree to tree in which there +were many rare birds of most exquisite plumage, and quantities of tiny +South American love birds, gossiping with each other in low, melodious +tones. + +"Oh, how wonderful!" Laverne exclaimed. + +"It's a great fancy of father's. Sea captains bring him birds from all +countries. After a while, when they get really acclimated and can +protect themselves, he lets them out to settle in the woods about. Do +you see those two with the beautiful long tails? They came from the +island of Java. Do you know where that is?" + +"Oh, it is one of the Sunda Islands down by the Indian Ocean. Uncle +Jason has been to Borneo and Sumatra. And coffee comes from Java." + +"How do you know? Have you been there?" questioned Elena. + +"Father knows, and he has not been there," returned Victor. "He could +tell you a good many things if you did not like to learn them out of +books." + +Laverne walked round the inclosure in a trance of delight. And though +the voices now and then made discord, on the whole it was a +fascinating orchestra. + +"Couldn't you tame some of them?" + +"It would take a long time, I think. Those bright Brazilian birds are +very wild. Every one cannot charm birds, and father is a pretty busy +man." + +Elena soon tired of the birds, and inquired if Laverne had a pony. +Then they might ride after luncheon. + +"And it must be nearly that now. Come, let us go up to the house." + +Elena chattered like a magpie, and danced about, now and then hopping +on one foot, and running to and fro. + +"You will think we are a rather queer lot," Victor said, half in +apology. + +"Oh, _you_ are not queer. I like you very much." She raised her clear, +innocent eyes, and it seemed a very sweet compliment to him. + +"There isn't much training. Mamacita could not govern a cat, though, +for that matter, I don't believe cats are easily governed. Cats are +queer things. But school straightens up one, I suppose. Elena will go +to a convent to be trained presently. Isola cannot, so she has a +governess to teach her music and a few things. You must hear her play +on the organ. All she cares about is music." + +"Is she very ill?" + +"Oh, not very, I think. But she won't ride, which the doctor thinks +would be good for her, and she goes about in that wheeling chair when +she ought to walk, and lies in the hammock. Mamacita would like her to +be gay and bright and entertaining to the young men, as Isabel is, +because all girls are expected to marry. Mamacita was only fifteen +when papa met her at a ball at New Orleans. That must be a very gay +place, without the crime and rough life that San Francisco has. I do +hope sometime we will be civilized, and not have to take in the +off-scourings of all lands. I want it to be a splendid city, like Rome +on its seven hills. And there is the grand sea outlook that Rome did +not have, though she made herself mistress of the seas." + +The little girl watched him with such intelligent eyes that it was a +great satisfaction to talk to her. She was different from any one he +had known. For those of the Southern blood were coquettes from their +very cradle, and wanted to talk of pleasure only. Of course, she was +being brought up by a great traveller, even if he had never risen +higher than mate of a trading vessel. And then the eastern women were +somehow different. + +Elena ran on, and announced with a shout "that they were coming." The +porch was set out with little tables. Mrs. Personette was the matron +of the one that had her daughters and the two young men. Mrs. Savedra +took charge of Elena and Isola, and left Miss Holmes to Laverne and +Victor. + +There were flowers and fruits, dainty summer viands, and much gay +chatting, since they were near enough to interchange with each other. +Laverne was very enthusiastic about the aviary. + +"Oh, you must go out and see it," she said eagerly. + +Victor was thinking of the great difference between Miss Holmes and +Mam'selle Claire. Of course, she could talk about musicians, she +seemed to have them at her tongue's end, and some French writers. He +was not of an age to appreciate them; young, energetic souls were +quoting Carlyle, even Emerson had crept out here on the Western coast. +In a way there was a good deal of politics talked, and a rather bitter +feeling against the East for turning so much of the cold shoulder to +them. Even the suggestion of war with England over the northern +boundary did not seem very stirring to these people. It was their own +advancement, the appreciation of all they held in their hands, the +wonderful possibilities of the Oriental trade. And though it seemed +quite necessary to study French, when there were so many French +citizens, the young fellow considered the literature rather +effeminate. But Miss Holmes was conversant with the march of the +Carthaginian general over the Alps, and later, that of Napoleon, and +the newer scheme that had set their wisdom at naught, and that the +railroad was a necessity if the Union was not to part in the middle. +He liked Miss Holmes' admiration of California. Mam'selle Claire +thought it rude and rough. + +There was lounging in the hammocks afterward, the sun was too hot to +drive about. Isola went in the room presently, and played some soft, +low chords on the organ. Laverne crept in, enchanted. She liked the +voluntaries in church when they had no grand crushes in them. Victor +was talking with Miss Holmes, so she slipped away, for Elena had found +the quiet irksome, and there were always dogs to play with. The dogs +she thought better company than most people. + +Laverne had never been near an organ. This was not a very large one, +but sweet-toned for parlor use. She crept nearer and nearer, and +almost held her breath, while the tears came to her eyes. It seemed +the sad story of some one, the story the ocean waves told at times, or +the wind in the trees, when twilight was falling, and now it was +darkness, and you could almost hear the stars pricking through the +blue. Then one faint call of a bird, and a far-off answer, and lower, +lower, until the sound wandered away and was lost. + +"Oh," she breathed, "oh!" + +"You like it?" + +Laverne drew a long breath. "Oh, that isn't the word," she said. "We +may like a good many things, but they do not all go to your heart." + +Isola took the fair face in both hands, which were cold, but the child +did not shrink, she was still so impressed with the melody. + +"Let me look at you. Oh, what beautiful eyes you have--sometimes you +find that color in the sky. But music goes to the soul, the brain, +and I wish I could see yours. Did you feel as if you could swoon +away?" + +"I wanted to cry," Laverne said, in a tremulous tone. "But it was not +from sorrow nor joy; you sometimes do cry when you are full of +delight, but--at times when I hear the right music in church, I think +that is what heaven will be like." + +"What was that like--not heaven?" + +"It was night when I am sitting out on the step, and not thinking, but +just watching the stars come out." + +"Oh, you little darling. I wish you could stay here always. I wish +they, your people, would fancy Elena, and we could change. She laughs, +and it goes through me like a bolt of lightning, and leaves me numb. +I'd like to have some one who listens that way. Mam'selle declares the +playing is wrong because I do not follow the notes, and one day when +she insisted, I flung myself down on the floor and cried until I was +sick. And now I am let to play what I like most of the time. I hate +books--do you like to study dry, prosy things? What does it matter +whether the world is round or square?" + +"Why, it might not revolve in quite the right way, and I guess the +ships couldn't sail as well." She smiled at the thought of the +corners. + +"Now, we will have morning." + +First it was a wind rustling among the trees. The sort of metallic +swish of the evergreens, the whisper of the pines, the patter of the +oaks; then a bird singing somewhere, another answering, hardly awake; +young ones peeping a hungry cry, then a gay, swinging, dashing chorus, +with a merry lark going higher and higher, until he was out of +hearing. Sounds growing discordant, impatient, harsh. + +"That's the world," she explained; "morning down on the bay; the +people working, scolding, swearing; don't you hate all that?" + +"We are not near enough to hear it." + +"But if you have heard it once you can imagine it. And some music +isn't much better. Mam'selle plays things that set my teeth on edge. +Do you know what your soul is?" + +Laverne was startled. "Why," hesitatingly, "it is the part that goes +to heaven." + +"Well--heaven must be sweet and soft and fair, if it is full of +angels. And why don't we keep to the soft and lovely sides of +everything if we are to go there. Is kneeling on a hard stone floor in +a convent at all like heaven?" + +"I should think not." + +"Mam'selle considers it useful discipline. Why, it is being dead to be +shut up in a cold, dark cell. And I think you are taken up in strong, +tender arms, and wafted above the clouds, like this----" + +Then she began to play again. The sound stole along softly, halting a +little, murmuring, comforting, entreating, floating on and on to +sounds so sweet that the tears did overflow Laverne's eyes, and yet +she was not crying. + +Victor glanced through the wide doorway. + +"Why, that child has even found a way to Isola's heart," he said. + +"I have been listening. Your sister is really a musical genius," Miss +Holmes replied. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +NEW EXPERIENCES + + +Mr. Savedra came home early to have a share in the guests. It was +pleasant now for riding and driving, for the wind was coming from the +ocean, and wafting with it the inspiration that started the pulses +afresh. There were ponies and saddle horses. Laverne must ride. + +"I will go if she can sit by me in the carriage," said Isola. + +Laverne gave a quick breath. She would rather have had the mount, but +the almost melancholy eyes decided her. She held out her hand with a +smile, and she saw that it pleased Mr. Savedra also. + +Victor had a little of his mother, but he had taken most of his good +looks from his father. + +"Aunt Grace, won't you go with them?" he said persuasively. "I want +Miss Holmes. Both of us will be needed to keep watch of this monkey." + +"As if I didn't go alone often and often!" Elena retorted, wrinkling +up her face in a funny fashion. + +They took their way to the eastward, and were soon in the open +country, with the great Sierra Range towering in the distance. Summer +had not scorched up the fields or the woods. Hill and valley were +spread out before them, here glowing with flowers, there still green +with herbage, where Mexican shepherds were letting their flocks +browse. Some pastures had been eaten off to the roots and glinted in +golden bronze. Tangles of wild grapes, with their pungent fragrance, +reaching up and climbing over clumps of trees. The far-off points +seemed to touch the very sky that was like a great sea with drifts one +could imagine were an array of ships bound to some wondrous port. +Laverne thought of the weird experiences of the "Ancient Mariner." + +Yellow wings, blues of every shade, black and gold and iridescent, +dashed here and there or floated lazily as if the butterfly had no +body. + +Isola held the child's hand, but did not say anything, she hated +exclamations. Mrs. Savedra smiled to herself, she knew her daughter +was enjoying her companion. Laverne felt half mesmerized by the hand +that had been cold at first, and was now gently throbbing with some +human warmth. She seemed to have gone into a strange country. + +The sun set gorgeously as they were returning. There was a tempting +supper spread for them, and some lanterns were lighted at the edge of +the porch. Then Mr. Savedra insisted upon sending the party home in +the carriage. + +"I hope you have had a nice time, Laverne," Mrs. Personette said, in a +most cordial tone. "I don't know what the Savedras will do with that +daughter. I'd like to shake her up out of that dreaminess. She'll be +in a consumption next. As for you two girls, I think you have had your +fill of attention to-day," and she laughed. "You have a stepmother +out of a thousand, and I hope you will never do her any discredit." + +They certainly had enjoyed their day wonderfully, never imagining +Victor had planned it so that he could be left at liberty. + +The little girl sat out under the rose vine that trailed over their +little porch, thinking of the beautiful house, the garden, the +grounds, the birds, and, oh, the organ with its bewildering music. + +"An organ must cost a good deal," she said, in a grave tone, but there +was no longing in it. "And then if you couldn't play--I like the +things that are not tunes, that just go on when you don't know what is +coming next, and the voices of the birds and the sound of the waves +and all sweet things. It was like fairyland, only I don't believe +fairyland could be quite so satisfying, and this is all real and won't +vanish when you wake up." She laughed tenderly in her joy. "Mr. +Savedra must be very rich," she continued. + +"Yes, he is," said Uncle Jason. + +She leaned her head down on the broad breast where the heart beat for +her alone. + +"And you had a happy day?" + +"Oh, so happy. If you had been there!" + +She should have all these things some day. He was working and saving +for her. And times had changed very much. He and her mother could have +been happy in a little cottage where the sharp north winds rushed +down, and the drifts of snow hedged one in half the winter. She busy +about household work, he wresting scanty crops from the grudging +earth. Yet if she could have seen a world like this! Well, the little +one should have it all, and see strange lands and no end of beautiful +things, for the world kept improving all the time. + +He began to feel a good deal more secure about her. At first, when he +saw men from every State in the Union, men who had committed various +crimes, tramps, and scamps, he had a vague fear that somewhere among +them David Westbury would come to light. He would not know him, only +the name. And he wished now he had changed his in this new western +world. But he would know nothing about the child unless he went to the +old home, and that was hardly likely. But if some day, stepping off a +vessel or wandering around the docks, a man should clap him on the +shoulder and say, "Hello, Chadsey, old man, I never thought to find +you here!" he would shake him off, or pay his way somewhere else. + +It had never happened, and was not likely to now. He could go on +planning this delightful life for the little girl. Presently they +would make another move, have a better house and finer furniture. He +had lost nothing through this snap of hard times, neither had he made, +but business looked brighter. Occasionally he had a longing to go to +the mines. Several times he had dreamed of finding a great nugget, and +once he dreamed that in stumbling over rocks and wilds, he had lost +her. Night came on and all through the darkness he called and called, +and woke with great drops of cold perspiration streaming down his +brow. No, he could not go to the gold fields and leave her behind. + +The weeks and months passed on. There was vacation when she went over +to Oaklands, and had splendid times again, and was fascinated by Isola +and her music, and they took up a peculiar friendship that seemed to +rouse the dreamy girl and delight Mrs. Savedra. Then Mrs. Personette +was going down to Monterey with her two girls for a fortnight, and +nothing would do but Miss Holmes and Laverne should accompany them. It +was not the Monterey of forty years later, but a queer old Spanish +town with its convent, where they found Carmencita Estenega, who did +not look like a joyous, happy girl, though next year she was to be +married. + +"Dear me!" exclaimed Mrs. Personette; "it seems the same thing +everywhere, just lovers and marriage. There is really no career for +girls here but that, and the convent people are as anxious to marry +them off as any one else. To be sure, they can become sisters, which +covers the obloquy of old maidism. And so many of the husbands are not +worth having, and desert their wives on the slightest pretext. I'd +counted on taking some comfort with my girls, but here is Isabel +considering every young man as a matrimonial subject, wanting to leave +school and go into society, and her father saying, 'Why not?'" + +Miss Holmes smiled a little. + +"We used to think a girl ought to look at marriage in a serious light, +and get ready for the important step; now it is fine clothes, an +engagement ring, and a wedding gown. But I suppose in this wonderful +land where your fruit buds, and blossoms, and ripens in a night, girls +do mature sooner." + +Some weeks later she saw her friend again and announced that she had +been compelled to yield. + +"Isabel would not go to school," she said. "If there had been a good +boarding school anywhere near, I should have pleaded hard for that. +But her father would not listen to her being sent East. She has a +smattering of several branches. She can converse quite fluently in +French and Spanish, she dances with grace and elegance, she has +correct ideas of the fitness of things that are certainly attractive, +and is quick at repartee. She reads the fashion magazines when they +arrive, and the newspaper bits of arranging a table, cooking odd +dishes, giving luncheons and dinners. She is really a fashionable +young lady. And we are to give a ball for her, and after that I must +see that she is properly chaperoned. My dear Marian, we _do_ belong to +the past generation, there is no denying it. And I half envy you that +you can live out of the hurly-burly." + +"I am glad myself," Miss Holmes returned. "So far as most things go, +we could be living in some quaint old Puritan town. I don't know +whether it is really best for the child, but it suits her uncle to +have it so. Now she is going over to the Savedras two afternoons a +week to study piano music. They think Isola improves by the +companionship. And those French children, the Verriers, are very nice +and trusty. They are up here quite often. She likes some of her +schoolmates very well, and she and Olive have friendly spells," +laughing. + +"Olive blows hot and cold. She takes up a girl with a certain vehement +preference and for a while can think of no one else. Then she finds +her friend has some faults, or fails in two or three points, and she +is on with a new admiration. Girls are crude, funny creatures! Do you +suppose we were like them?" she questioned with laughing, disavowing +eyes. + +"No, we were not," returned Marian. "Times have changed. Life and its +demands have changed. We were taught to sew, to darn, to do fine +needlework; here a Mexican or a Spanish woman will do the most +exquisite work for a trifle. Every country lays its treasures at our +feet; it would be folly to spin and to weave. And there is money to +buy everything with. How careful we were of a bit of lace that our +grandmother had! The women of the street flaunt in yards and yards of +it, handsomer than we could ever have achieved. We are on the other +side of the country, and are topsy-turvy. We have begun at the big end +of everything. Whether we are to come out at the little end----" and +she paused, her eyes indecisive in their expression. + +"Would you like to go back?" + +"I'd like to see dear old, proper Boston, and really feel how much we +had changed. But the breadth and freedom here are fascinating. It has +not the hardships of new settlers. Even the men who sleep out on the +foothills with the blue sky for covering may be rich six months hence, +and putting up fine buildings. And when you come to that there is no +lack of intelligence. Haven't we some of the best brain and blood of +the East, as well as some of the worst? Our papers are teeming with +news, with plans, with business schemes, that would craze an Eastern +man. No, I do not believe I should be satisfied to take up the old +life there again." + +"And now I must consider my daughter's entrée into society. Think of +the mothers in the old novels, who took their daughters to Bath or to +London, and looked over the list of eligibles and made two or three +selections. Our young women will select for themselves in a +half-mercenary fashion, and one can't altogether blame them. Poverty +is not an attractive subject." + +Miss Holmes was out for a little shopping expedition, and went in her +friend's carriage. Every year saw great changes. Fire destroyed only +to have something grander rise from the ashes. There was already an +imposing line of stores, and a display of fabrics that roused envy and +heart-burning. Where there had been one-story shanties filled with the +miscellany of a country store, only a few years ago, now all things +were systematized and compared well with some Eastern towns, not as +much, but certainly as great a variety. It had taken San Francisco +only a few years to grow up. She sprang from childhood to full +stature. + +Then one drove round the Plaza to Russ's, mingling in the gay +cavalcade until a stranger might have considered it a gala day of some +sort. Then to Winn's for luncheon, tickets, perhaps, to the theatre +where Laura Keene was drawing full houses of better-class people. + +The little girl was not in much of this. She went to school regularly; +she found some very congenial friends. She never could tell how much +she liked Olive, and she was accustomed to be taken up with fervor +and then dropped with a suddenness that might have dislocated most +regards, and would if she had set her heart on Olive. She had a serene +sort of temperament not easily ruffled; she had brought that from +Maine with her. She talked over her lessons with Uncle Jason, who +seemed to know so many things, more she thought than Miss Holmes, +though she had taught school in Boston. + +She had a host of squirrel friends now, though Snippy was amusingly +jealous, and at times drove the others off. There were flocks of +birds, too, who would hop up close or circle round her and +occasionally light on her shoulder, and sing deafeningly in her ear, +trills and roulades, such as Mam'selle played on the piano--she was +not so fond of the organ, it was fit only for church and convents in +the Frenchwoman's estimation. + +It was funny to see Balder follow her about. During the rainy season +he found so many puddles in which to stop and rest and disport +himself, but in the dry times they filled a tub for him, and he was +content. Pablo caught fish for him, and it was his opinion that Balder +lived like some grand Señor. She never tired of the flowers, and was +always finding stray nooks where they bloomed. She and Miss Holmes +often went over to the ocean and sat on the rocks, looking, wondering. + +"Sometime Uncle Jason is going to take me way over yonder," nodding +her head. "We shall go to the Sandwich Islands, which he says are +still more beautiful than California. And then to China. Perhaps then +all the gates of Japan will be open and they will let us in. I'd like +to see the little girls in Japan; they don't drown them there, they +never have too many. And then there will be India, and all those +queer islands. You wouldn't think there would be room for Australia, +which is almost a continent by itself, would you? The world is very +wonderful, isn't it?" + +Sometimes they watched magnificent sunsets when the whole Pacific +seemed aflame with gorgeous tints, for which there could be no name, +for they changed as quick as thought. Then they noted a faint +pearl-gray tint just edging the horizon line, it seemed, and then +spreading out in filmy layers, growing more distinct and yet darker, +marching on like an army. Gulls circled and screamed, great loons and +murres gave their mournful cry, cormorants swept on, hardly stirring a +wing until, with one swift lurch, they went down and came up +triumphant. Then the sky and sea faded, though you knew the sea was +there because it dashed upon the rocks, though its tone was curiously +muffled. + +"Come," Miss Holmes would say, "we shall be caught in the fog." + +"I'd just like to be damp and cold. It has been so dry that one wants +to be wet through and through." + +"We shall have to pick our way." + +It would sometimes come up very fast, woolly, soft to the skin, at +others like a fine cutting mist, when the west wind drove it in. And +now it was all gray like a peculiar twilight that made ghosts out of +the rocks, piled about and shut out the Golden Gate and the peaks +beyond, but they drew long breaths of the sea fragrance that were +reviving. The ponies stepped carefully down this way, and across that +level, and then on the road Pablo was making for his mistress. The +ponies shook their heads and whinnied for very gladness. Bruno gave +his cheerful bark. Balder made a funny grumbling noise as if he were +scolding. + +"Oh, you know you like the fog. You are dripping wet," with a hug of +tenderness. + +They were dripping wet, too, but they soon found dry clothes. Miss +Holmes kindled up the fire, for Pablo kept them well supplied, though +sometimes he went long distances and came home with a great bundle on +his back that almost bent him double. + +"Now you look just like a German peasant," Laverne would declare; and +Pablo would shake his head mysteriously. The young Missy had seen so +many wonderful things. + +Wood was a rather scarce article in this vicinity, and was expensive. +Coal likewise, though now some had been discovered nearer home. The +charcoal venders were familiar figures in the streets. Wild indeed +would he have been who had ventured to predict a gas range, even the +useful kerosene stove. + +The fog storms were all they would have for a time in the summer, and +it was wonderful how in a night vegetation would start up. + +Then Uncle Jason would come in puffing and blowing, fling off his +long, wet coat, and stand before the fire and declare that Maine +people said: + + "An August fog would freeze a dog," + +which always made Laverne laugh. + +Miss Holmes did not go to the ball given in honor of Miss Isabel +Personette, but Miss Gaines was among the grown people. It was at one +of the fine halls used for such purposes, and was beautifully +decorated with vines and flowers and American flags. The greatest +curiosity was the really splendid chandelier with its branching +burners and glittering prisms. Few of the real boy friends were +invited--there were enough young men very glad to come and dance their +best. No one had to entreat them in those days. Indeed, dancing +parties were the great entertainment for young people. True, women +played cards and lost and won real money, but it was done rather +privately and not considered the thing for any but the seniors. + +It was very gay and delightful, quite an ovation to Miss Personette, +and the banquet part eminently satisfactory to the elders. Of course, +Victor Savedra was included, being a cousin, and went, and it brought +freshly to his mind the party when he had danced with the sweet, +fair-haired, little girl, who had no knowledge, but infinite grace, +and how happy she had been. + +Even with politics, city improvements, vigilance committees, quarrels, +and crimes, there was found space in the papers of the day for the +social aspects of life, and though "sweet girl graduates" had not come +in fashion, débutantes were graciously welcomed. Miss Isabel felt much +elated. She had shot up into a tall girl and was very well looking. +Miss Gaines had transformed her into beauty. + +Olive considered it very hard and cruel that she could not go, but she +was quite a heroine at school for several days. It was truly the next +thing to a wedding. + +"And to think of all the splendid things that come to real young +ladies!" she complained, yet there was a kind of pride in her tone as +well. "Two theatre parties, and she goes to Sausalito to a birthday +ball, and stays three days with some very stylish English people, +friends of father's. I just hate being thought a little schoolgirl! +And I want to go to the Seminary." + +And then she said to Laverne: + +"I don't see what you find in Isola to be so devoted to her. I +wouldn't go over there twice a week and bother with her for all the +music in the world. And those cold hands of hers make you shiver. +They're like a frog." + +"They have grown warmer. She goes to ride every day now. And we read +French and English, and--verses. I like the music so much." + +Olive was still secretly jealous of Victor. But presently he was going +away to finish his education. And she knew several boys who went to +the Academy that she thought much more fun. Victor was growing too +sober, too intellectual. + +They had all become very fond of the little girl at the Savedras. Even +wild Elena, in a half-bashful way, copied her. She could run races and +climb and ride the pony with the utmost fearlessness, she did not +squeal over bugs and mice and the little lizards that came out to sun +themselves. Lena had thrown one on her, and she had never told of it. +She was not a bit like Isola, although she could sit hours over the +music and reading of verses. And she knew so much of those queer +countries where tigers and lions and elephants lived. + +"But you have never been there," the child said with severe disbelief. + +"You study it in books and at school." + +"I hate to study!" + +"You will love it when you are older. Some day your father may take +you to France, and then you will want to know the language." + +"I know a little of it, enough to talk." + +"Mam'selle will be glad to teach you the rest." + +"And Spanish--I knew that first." + +"And I had to learn it, and French, with a good deal of trouble." + +"But you knew English," rather jealously. + +"Just as you knew Spanish--in my babyhood." + +That seemed very funny, and Lena laughed over it. + +"Then you really were a baby, just like Andrea, only whiter. Will your +hair always be goldy like that?" + +"I think so. Uncle Jason likes it." + +She asked dozens of inconsequent questions. + +"You must not let her trouble you so much," Mrs. Savedra said. "She +will have more sense as she grows older." + +Laverne only smiled a little. + +Isola found her such a companion, such a listener as she had never +known before. Isabel did not care for music; Olive teased her, and she +put her stolid side out. She would not get angry and satisfy them. And +then it seemed as if Victor suddenly cared more for her, and she half +unconsciously did some of the things he suggested. She did not know +that Laverne had said to him, "Oh, you ought to do the things that +please her, and then she will love you. I wish I had a sister." + +She wondered a little whom she would want her like? It was a serious +matter to have a sister who would be with one continually. She was +used to Miss Holmes, and that was more like--well, like an aunt. +Sometimes she tried to think of her mother, but the remembrance was +vague. She could seem to see her old grandmother much easier, fretting +and scolding. + +Victor was glad and proud that she had found a way to all their +hearts. + +There were Christmas and New Year's with all their gayety. And in a +month spring, that had run away from the tropics. + +"It goes on too fast," she said to Uncle Jason. "And do you see how I +am growing? Miss Holmes says something has to be done to my frocks all +the time. I don't want to be big and grown up." + +He studied her in amazement. He did not want her to be big and grown +up either. These years were so satisfying. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +BALDER THE BEAUTIFUL + + +They were planning at the school for a May Celebration. They would go +clear up the bay in a boat to San Pablo, and have a picnic and a dance +out of doors, and come home in the moonlight. + +So it was a little late, and Bruno stood watching out for her. "Good +old fellow!" she said, with a pat. Miss Holmes had a visitor, she saw +through the open window. She went round by the kitchen. + +Bruno tugged at her skirt. + +"What is it, Bruno?" + +His eyes had a sorrowful look, she thought. "What is it, what do you +want?" + +He tugged again at her skirt. + +"Well, come on. Though I've stacks of lessons to learn. Look at all +those books." + +She dropped them on the step, and followed the dog. Up the winding +path, and now there was water enough for a musical trickle over the +stones. + +There was Balder's basin, where he was so fond of disporting himself +after the rains filled it up. Oh, what was that lying on the side, +that still white thing glistening in the sunshine! + +"Bruno?" She stamped her foot and looked upbraidingly at him. Had he +been playing roughly with her pet? Oh, what was the meaning of these +blood-stained feathers about his neck! She flung herself down beside +him. The eyes were dull and partly closed. She stroked the white +feathers with tender hands. + +"Bruno, I shall never love you again, never! Oh, how could you!" + +He took a few steps away. Then he dragged some tumbled gray thing to +her feet. Why, that was a fox, with his bushy tail. They had been +hunted a good deal and were giving civilization a rather wide berth. + +She looked at the dog, who told the story with his eyes as he glanced +from one to the other. She reached up and put her arms about his neck. + +"Oh, Bruno, I'm sorry I blamed you. I thought perhaps you were a +little rough, but you cared so for my beautiful Balder that I might +have known you couldn't hurt him! And that wicked, wretched fox! Well, +I am glad he has his deserts. But that will not bring back my dear +Balder. Oh, have you gone to join the old heroes in Valhalla? For I +can't think you were just a common bird. You would have gone back to +your kind if you had been. I ought to write a lament for you." + +Pablo was coming up the road with a back load of brush. But he dropped +it in dismay as she called. + +Bruno pawed the fox, then gave it a push, and glanced up at Pablo. + +"You see--the fox must have crept up here, and seized my dear Balder +by the neck and killed him. And Bruno made him pay for it." + +When Pablo was deeply moved or amazed, he went back to his Mexican +patois, that Bruno had come to understand very well, and nodded +sagaciously. + +"The thief! The murderer! Last year, you know, your uncle and I shot +two of the bloody thieves over the ridge there, and I've not seen one +since. Bruno seized him by the throat, and has torn him well. Look at +the brush--why, a lady could put it on her tippet. And the skin--I'll +have that. We'll throw him out to feed the hawks. Oh, the poor gull! +He was like folks, Missy, you had all trained him so much. Oh, don't +cry so, Missy." + +Bruno came up and rubbed her shoulder, licked her hand, and gave a +low, mournful lament of sympathy. + +Laverne rose and took the dead bird in her arms. The visitor had gone, +and Miss Holmes stood out by the door, wondering. The procession took +their way thither. + +"The mean, sneaking brute, that he should have come just when I had +gone. The bird was so fond of paddling round there. Strange that he +never wanted to go with his kind, but most things want to keep by you, +Missy." + +They told the sad story over. Laverne laid the gull down tenderly on a +bit of matting. + +"Pablo, will you wash his neck and have him all clean and white?" + +"My dear," Miss Holmes said, and clasped the child in her arms, +letting her cry out her sorrow. She and Bruno went down to meet Uncle +Jason presently. No grief, hardly a disappointment, had come near her +until now. How could he comfort his darling? And he felt with Pablo +that the bird had been almost human. + +"I wonder," he said in the evening, "if you would like to have him +mounted. There's an old Frenchman down in Rincon Street who does this +to perfection. The birds look alive." + +Laverne considered. "No, I believe I would rather have him buried. I +should think how the sly fox crept up and dragged him out before he +could turn to defend himself. We will put him in a box and bury him. +Oh, Balder, I shall miss you so much." + +"I think I could capture one easily." + +"To be sure you could. They're stupid things," subjoined Pablo. + +"But he wasn't. Uncle Jason, I think some wicked fairy changed him +from something else, for he used to look at times as if he had a story +in his eyes. No, I don't want another. And I should always be afraid +of a fox." + +He snuggled her up with his arm close about her. So they sat until the +stars came out, twinkling like live spirits in the cloudless blue. It +was warm, with all manner of odors in the air, and the hum of the +city, lying below them, came up faintly. Oh, how he loved her. And he +prayed there might never come any deeper sorrow to touch her tender +heart. + +Pablo dug a grave the next morning, and they buried Balder the +beautiful. All day she dreamed of the Norse gods, and of Hermod, who +took the journey to the barred gates of Hell, at Frigga's earnest +persuasion, and how every rock, and tree and all living things wept +for him, except one old hag, sitting in the mouth of a cavern, who +refused because she hated him, and so Balder could not return. She was +a little absent, and missed two or three questions, and Miss Bain +asked her if her head ached, she made such an effort to keep the tears +from her eyes. + +So Balder slept under a straight young pine near the little lake they +had made for him. Pablo skinned the fox with great zest, and made of +it a fine rug, with a strip of black bearskin for a border. + +She wondered whether she ought to feel merry enough to go on the May +party. But the children insisted. The boat was a fine strong one, and +there really was no danger; Uncle Jason was assured of that. Then it +was such a glorious day. There was a fog early in the morning, and the +fight between the golden arrows of the sun and the gray armor that +came up out of the sea. Sometimes it did conquer, and came over the +city, but this morning it was pierced here and there, and then torn to +tatters, driven out beyond the strait, into the ocean. + +Miss Bain took supervision of her scholars, and Miss Holmes had many +charges not to let the little girl out of her sight a moment. There +were a number of schools, but some of the children preferred the May +walk, and the treat afterward. They started off with flags flying, and +the young Geary Band had volunteered their services. There were a +drum, two fifes, a cornet, and a French horn, and the boys began with +the stirring patriotic tunes. But even here the old negro melodies had +found their way, many of them pathetic reminders of the cotton fields +of the South, that seemed to gain melody from the stretch of bay. + +They passed Fort Point and Alcatraz Island, where the government was +beginning magnificent defences, its high point looming up grandly. +Angel Island, then almost covered with a forest of oak, yet oddly +enough containing a fine quarry, where laborers were at work, hewing +into the rock, almost under the shadow of the waving trees. Yerba +Buena, with its fragrant odors blown about by the wind, smaller +islands, big rocks rising out of the sea, the inhabitants being +chiefly birds; vessels of nearly every description, and intent mostly +upon trade, plied hither and thither. Here was another strait opening +into San Pablo Bay, into which emptied creeks and rivers, the +Sacramento washing down golden sands; and the San Joaquin. And up +there was the wonderful land where the Argonauts were searching for +treasure with less toil and anxiety than the elder Jason, though here, +too, there were treachery and murder. + +Almost by the strait there was a beautiful point of land jutting out +in the water, and nearly covered with magnificent trees, that had +grown so close together that the branches interlaced and made arches, +while underneath were aisles, carpeted with fallen leaves and moss, +that made you feel as if you were walking over velvet. You could see +San Raphael and San Quentin, and the mountain range with the one high +peak, as you looked westward; eastward there was, after the woodland, +meadows of richest verdure, with their thousand blooms nodding gayly +to each other, and softly gossiping, perhaps about these strange +newcomers, who were presently to disturb their long, long +possessorship. There the great, grand Sierras, that looked so near in +the marvellously clear air. + +They found a choice spot, and built a fire--it would not have been a +picnic without that. There were boys, of course, though a girl was +restricted to a brother or cousin. I fancy some cousins were smuggled +in. They ran about; they were even young enough to play "tag," and +"blind man in a ring," and "fox and geese," which was the greatest fun +of all. Then they spread out their tablecloths on a level space, and +though real paper plates and thin wooden ones had not come in yet, +they had made some for themselves that answered the purpose. They were +merry enough with jests and laughter. + +Olive Personette was quite the heroine of the day. Miss Isabel's +engagement to Captain Gilbert, who had been appointed to take some +charge at Alcatraz, and had come of an old Californian family, beside +being educated at West Point, was still a topic of interest, because +there had been two other aspirants for her hand who had quarrelled and +fought a duel, which was quite an ordinary matter in those days, +though frowned upon by the best people. So neither had won her heart. +One was lying in the hospital, the other had fled northward. But it +had made quite a stir. + +Of course, she had asked Victor, importuned him, though he had meant +all the time to come. He was a fine, manly fellow now, and the girls +_did_ flock about him. He had such a grave, courteous manner, and +never descended into rudeness, though he was quick enough at fun, and +it does not need an intricate order of wit to amuse before one is +twenty. + +Olive picked out the most prominent girls for him, and kept him busy +enough. But he managed now and then to pass Laverne and say a word to +show that she was in his mind. + +"I think Isola wanted to come very much," he announced to her once. +"She's taking such an interest in the pleasures that girls have, and +she has grown stronger. Father is planning some day to take a sail all +around the bay, just a little party of us, and we want you and Miss +Holmes." + +That was such a delight. She did not refuse to talk to other boys, but +she liked the girls better. Her rather secluded life had not given her +so much interest in hunting and fishing and ball-playing and +race-running. Then on Sunday there was always horse-racing up on the +track by the old Mission. Church-going people, not really members, but +those who considered it the proper thing to pay a decorous attention +to religion, went to church in the morning and drove out in the +afternoon. Throngs of fine carriages, and handsomely dressed ladies, +men on horseback, with enough of the old-style attire to stamp them as +Mexican, Spanish, or the more than half Old Californian. Many of the +more successful ones began to plume themselves on a sort of +aristocracy. + +The boys knew the favorite horses, some of their fathers owned a fast +trotter. But somehow she did not care much to talk about them, though +she had gone out occasionally with Uncle Jason, and it was exciting to +witness the trials of speed. But she liked better to jog about on +Pelajo and talk in the lovely by-paths they were always finding. + +After the repast they swung in hammocks and talked over plans, or +rambled about, then the band played for dancing. No gathering would +have been perfect without that. Of course, they flirted a little, that +was in the young blood, but they came home merry, and had not disputed +unduly about their respective admirers. + +Victor found time to say that he should come over next Saturday. +"We'll have a nice time, all to ourselves," he whispered, and she +glanced up with delighted eyes. + +All her life thus far had been very quiet, in spite of the fact that +she was in such a turbulent place, and with all sorts of people, +gathered from the ends of the earth; where seldom a day passed without +some tragedy. And it seemed as if the city was coming nearer and +nearer, though it went southward, too, and all along the bay, docks +and wharves and warehouses were springing up in a night. + +Victor came over the following Saturday as he had promised. They sat +under the pine tree and wrote verses to Balder's memory. Victor had +found a volume of Scandinavian legends and poems, and they were +fascinated with it. + +"Of course, we can't write anything like that," she said simply, "but +you notice these do not rhyme. Do you not think it really grander, +tenderer?" + + "I heard a voice that cried + 'Balder the Beautiful + Is dead, is dead! + And through the misty air, + Passed like the mournful cry + Of sunward sailing cranes.'" + +"You repeat poetry so beautifully," he exclaimed, enchanted with the +pathetic voice, that could express so much, yet was so simply sweet. + +They were not born poets. He had great trouble about his Latin +hexameters. He could feel it floating through his brain, but it was +very elusive, vanishing before it was caught. She made a few little +lines without rhyming. + +Then he told her of the other god that had ruled a realm of lovely +thoughts, until, as the legend ran, when Christ, the Redeemer of +mankind, was born, a great groan was heard all over the isles of +Greece, the rushes bowed their heads, and the waves shuddered when it +was proclaimed that Olympus was dethroned, and Pan was dead. + + "And that dismal cry rose slowly, + And sank slowly through the air, + Full of spirit's melancholy + And eternity's despair + As they heard the words it said-- + Pan is dead, great Pan is dead-- + Pan, Pan is dead." + +And then, as they listened, the gulls' cry came to them, toned by the +distance, softened by the murmur of the wind into a requiem for the +dead Balder. + +After all he did not tell her what he had meant to. He would put off +the evil day. + +Everybody--children, I mean--was anxious about examinations. Very few +really longed for them, but there was the vacation beyond. + +She had been wandering about one afternoon, Bruno keeping close to her +side, though there was little to call strangers up this way. The view +was finer from the Presidio, and the principal fishing ground was +farther down below. So, when Bruno gave a growl, she started and +glanced about, and saw some one toiling over the rocks with a cane. A +very old woman it seemed, as she leaned upon her stick, and hardly +knew which way to go. + +"Hush, Bruno, hush!" she commanded. + +The figure came nearer. Bruno was not at all pleased with it. + +The rough hair was a grayish white. A flowered handkerchief was tied +over it with a knot that hid the chin. The garments were coarse and +faded, the short skirt of a Mexican woman, and clumsy shoes. + +"It is Laverne Chadsey." Something in the voice connected it with the +past. And now that she straightened herself up, she was quite tall. + +"But I don't know you," Laverne said, rather hesitatingly. + +"Then the disguise must be very good. I am an old--shall I say, old +friend? We were not very warm friends when I knew you." + +Was it a school friend playing a prank? + +"I am so tired." She dropped down on a stone. "I wanted to see you +first--I am a little afraid of Miss Holmes." Then she pulled off the +headgear, afterward the gray wig. + +Laverne stood astounded. "It isn't, it surely isn't Carmen Estenega!" + +"Why--yes; you know you saw me last at the Convent." + +"And you were going to be married." + +"Oh, what a blind idiot I was! But it was considered a great thing, +and I didn't know how any one might love then. I know now. I have run +away. I would kill myself sooner than marry Pascuel Estenega." + +Laverne drew a long breath. Yes, this really was Carmen. The eyes, the +mouth, when she talked, but there was a fire in the face that had not +been there in childhood, and a spirit that half frightened Laverne. + +"I want to see your uncle. I have a note to him, from--from a person +he has confidence in. And I want to tell him my story. I think men +take a different view, of some things, at least I believe he will, and +another person thinks so." + +She blushed as she uttered this. + +"You ran away--from the Convent?" + +"Yes. It was very skilfully planned. They were not quite so strict--I +was to be married in a month, there in the chapel, and they allowed me +time to myself. I had a--a girl devoted to me, who did embroidery and +sewing, and she carried notes. Then there was a place in the old +garden where the railing was broken, but it was hidden by the +shrubbery. A girl had seen a snake there, and no one would go near it. +We used to meet there when his vessel came in. And it was all +planned." + +"He--who? Not----" and Laverne hardly knew how to put her question. + +"Oh, not Pascuel Estenega. He love a girl!" + +The face seemed to quiver with scornful indignation, and the eyes +fairly blazed. + +"He is an American. He is in the employ of your uncle, and he will be +good to us both. Perhaps in his youth he knew what love was. We are +going to trust him. He comes up with the trading vessel on Saturday. +He put me on another, the _Lulita_, an old Spanish thing, and I was an +old Mexican woman. No one suspected. We came in at noon, and I walked +off. Gracious! how the world has changed. I had to ask the way; no one +paid any attention to an old woman with a stick, and bent in the +shoulders." + +She gave a triumphant laugh. + +"But--your marriage----" + +She seemed to study Laverne from head to foot, and the girl shrank a +little. + +"Holy Mother, what a child you are! Not in long skirts yet! And you +know nothing about love; but you may some day. Not like the heat that +is in the Spanish blood, when it is roused, but many a woman is given +in marriage who knows no more about it than a child. Papa Estenega +came to see me when I had been in the Convent some months. I do not +understand, but mamacita has some old portraits and archives and +jewels, that came from Spain, and we are the last of the two houses. +He was very anxious for these, and mamacita had no son. So when she +came they signed a marriage contract. Pascuel had been ill, and the +doctor had taken him away for his health. We went out to the estate. +It is a splendid old place. I was very proud then of being chosen as +its mistress. Well, perhaps I held my head too lofty. Then I heard +that years before Pascuel had wedded a young girl, and when her baby +was born dead, he treated her very bitterly, and one night she threw +herself down an old well, though it was said she had gone out of her +mind. He came to the convent after a while, and I thought I should +faint when I saw him. He was a shrunken-up thing, a good head shorter +than his father. Oh, I do believe I could have married Papa Estenega +more willingly. His eyes were small and cruel, he had a great +mustache, over a hanging lip, and his hair was already turning white. +Then I began to place some credence in what one of the girls said, and +repeated it to mamacita. Panchita was sent away from school the next +week, and no one knew just why. Mamacita would not hear a word, and +said it was sheer envy; that any girl would be proud of reigning +there, and being the mother of an Estenega heir. And then I saw Señor +José Hudson, the American, and my heart seemed to go out of me at +once. We talked with our eyes, and then he sent me a note. He came to +church two or three times, but of course we hardly dared look at each +other. He found this broken place, and I used to steal down there. Oh, +it was delicious! I told him all the story, and he said we would run +away and that I should be his wife. He had no estate, but he could +make enough money to take care of me, and that we would go farther +north, and be, oh, so happy with each other. So I seemed to give in, +and fretted mamacita no more, and they began with the trousseau. Señor +Hudson planned it all, and brought me the wig and the garments. And +one day, just dusk, I slipped out, a lame old woman, and a servant +took me to the boat. He was waiting there, and we had a talk. You see, +it would not have been best for me to come on his boat. When he asked +me if I had any trusty friend in San Francisco, I spoke of you, and he +said, 'Oh, that is my master. Jason Chadsey owns the boat. I have +worked for him two years. Go straight to him and he will befriend +you.' So he wrote the letter I have in my hand. I could not seek him +in that busy place, where there were crowds of men around, so I found +my way up here. Juana had written me about it, though I was frightened +at every step. And I found you. I saw you up here with the dog. You +know in that old time I did not care much for you, we were taught that +the Americanos were interlopers, and would sweep us out of our homes, +drive us, heaven only knew where, but now, because I have found one so +sweet and noble and tender, I can see the virtues and graces in you +all. And I know you will befriend me." + +She knelt suddenly at Laverne's feet, and snatching her hands, covered +them with kisses. Isola Savedra sometimes did this. The child was +confused, helpless. + +"And the Señor Chadsey will be good to me for the sake of Señor +Hudson. It will be only two days. And will you beseech your Señora to +be kind and pitiful, and to pardon this attire, as if I was a beggar?" + +A bell rang then. It was Miss Holmes' call for a return home, a +warning that it was near supper time. + +"Come," Laverne said. She was still bewildered, but led the way. And +there, turning round the corner, she saw Uncle Jason, so she ran +forward with outstretched arms, her light hair flying like a cloud. + +"Well, little one!" smiling fondly. + +"Something so queer has happened." She was out of breath, and flushed, +for her heart was beating tremendously. "Carmen Estenega is here and +she is going to marry the man you have talked about, Joseph Hudson." + +"Why, the vessel has not come in, will not be in until Saturday." + +"Yes. She wants to wait here for him. Oh, Uncle Jason, you will be +good to her. She has run away from the convent, and it is like a story +from a book. Come!" + +Carmencita stood where Laverne had left her. For the first time she +began to feel frightened. "Oh," she cried, "have pity on me; do not +send me away until Señor Hudson comes, and you will see that my story +is true." + +"What is all this?" He looked from one to the other. Miss Holmes came +out. Then Carmen turned scarlet, remembering her attire. + +"It is--" Miss Holmes looked her over. + +"Carmencita Estenega, who asks shelter for two days, and prays that +you will not betray her to a cruel life. Oh, like the other poor lady, +I should drown myself." + +"You have run away from a convent?" + +"Oh, let me explain!" + +She told the story over again as they stood there, now her voice +athrill with love, now piteous with entreaty. And it did move Jason +Chadsey's heart. Besides, he had found the young fellow trusty, and +liked him, and his note was very straightforward. + +"We will talk more at length about it," he said gravely, "and I dare +say supper is ready." + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +A WEDDING AND A PARTING + + +Miss Holmes led her guest to her room, where she might refresh +herself, and provided her with some garments, as they were nearly of a +size. Carmen was too excited to be hungry. She did not attempt to +disguise her dislike and fear for the man chosen to be her husband, +but Chadsey knew family fortunes were often united that way, and girls +had little voice in the matter. That she loved young Hudson was quite +apparent. Miss Holmes smiled. She had thought Carmen a rather proud, +stolid girl, quite captious about Americans. + +Jason and Miss Holmes considered after the girls had gone to bed. It +was a rather risky thing to harbor her and consent to a marriage, but +the escape had been so well managed, they would hardly look for her in +the city. Telegraphs did not flash news from everywhere then. + +"But suppose this young man is not quite trustworthy?" said prudent +Miss Holmes. + +"Oh, you don't know Hudson. He is straight as a yardstick. And, +somehow, I hate to spoil the romance and the love. We can wait until +Saturday. Yes, I think that will be better." + +Laverne was not to go to school the next day, lest she might +inadvertently touch upon the adventure. And so the two girls steeped +themselves in Romance. Carmen had heard more than one confidence +within the cloistered walls that had never gone to confession. There +were girls with their destinies mapped out before them as hers had +been, sent there to keep them from the grasp of another love which had +already caught them, girls praying for husbands with the life of a nun +before them. They went out and sat under the pine tree. + +"Oh," said Carmen, "if you have had no greater love and no greater +sorrow than that for a bird, your life has flowed evenly enough. But +you Americanos are so much colder of blood." + +In the main, it was a wonderful day to Laverne, but she felt that she +did not need any other love than that of Uncle Jason. + +"You are such a child," Carmen said almost pityingly. Yet it was an +unknown childhood to her. + +Miss Holmes brought down one of her frocks, that, with a spasm of +economy, she had meant to make over for the child. She had grown a +little stouter in this wonderful climate, and could not wear it. She +glanced at the slender virginal form, and decided what could be done. +Carmen was handy with her needle, there had been need enough in her +straitened life. + +No one came near them. Pablo had forgotten about the Estenegas, or +thought of them vaguely as children, and this was a friend of Missy's. + +Jason Chadsey was much puzzled what course to pursue. The right way +seemed to be to send word to the Señora Estenega. But the tidings +could just as well be sent if he found Joseph Hudson untrustworthy. +The vessel came in Saturday afternoon. The master was watching out, +and saw Mr. Chadsey on the pier. He waved his broad-fronted tarpaulin, +and was answered by the return wave of a hand. There were some orders +to give, the boat was made fast, and Hudson sprang ashore. And as the +elder man looked full into the young, trusty face, his heart went out +to the lovers, and he resolved to befriend them. + +So he brought him home to supper, and it was planned that they would +go over to Sausalito on the morrow and find a priest to marry them. +Then he must secure a vessel going northward, and be out of the way +some months at least, for he knew Spanish vengeance was quick and +sharp. He had heard a few stories about Pascuel Estenega's treatment +of servants that were rather chilling. The matter had been so well +managed that he had not been suspicioned at all, and when the vessel +left Monterey, the disappearance had not been whispered outside the +convent walls. But that was not to say no search had been made. + +Jason Chadsey accompanied them, and stood as sort of sponsor for the +marriage. The priest was old and not inquisitive, or perhaps the fee +in hand convinced him that all things were right. The sponsor was +curiously touched by the unalloyed delight of the young couple, who +seemed now so perfectly content that they made love in the most +unabashed fashion, while before, Carmen had appeared shy and in +terror. + +They returned to the home that had sheltered them, and Hudson thought +it best to take some trip up northward, perhaps settle there for a +while. Already there was much trading up to the Columbia River. +Chadsey hated to give up so trusty and capable a man. He might fit out +a vessel with miscellaneous stores; indeed, that was the way to carry +trade to strange places. He would put Joseph Hudson in as captain, and +leave the bargain-making in his hands. + +Miss Holmes did some shopping for the young wife, as it was not deemed +prudent for Carmen to venture out. She longed ardently to see her +little sisters, and begged that Laverne might go and call on them. The +latter had not seen them for a long while, the watchful sister had +discouraged any intimacy. + +Laverne had begun school on Monday with many injunctions from Miss +Holmes to be most watchful over herself. She had a wonderful secret +now. Olive Personette never had had anything like it, for her sister's +engagement had been announced at once. And she was so full of that, +and the marriage in the early autumn, that she could hardly steady her +mind sufficiently to pass her examinations. Then she was going to the +Academy next year. They were all young ladies in the department, you +had nothing to do with little girls. There were to be three +bridesmaids, and their attendants were to wear full military costumes. + +"Don't you think I might go over to the sisters?" Laverne pleaded. "I +would be very, very cautious. Carmen wants so to hear about them." + +Miss Holmes was almost afraid, but the pleading eyes conquered. + +She went after school. There was the long, bare corridor, with one +table and a big registry book, two wooden benches, and a few chairs. +The adobe floor had been painted gray, like the walls, and it looked +cheerless to the American girl. + +Sister Anasticia was not quite sure. The children were busy with the +study hour. But Laverne pleaded with the same eyes that she had won +Miss Holmes, and presently the sister brought the children in, and +seated herself at the table with some needlework. + +They were full of quiet joy, and squeezed Laverne's hands with the old +friendliness. And they had so much to tell her. Carmen was to be +married soon, the wedding gowns were being made, and they were +beautiful. The old home had been dismantled, the city was to cut +streets through it. They did not care, it was a lonely old place. They +were going to Monterey to live, and they were so glad. Carmen would be +a great lady, and live on a fine estate, ride around in her carriage, +and give balls, and they would all be so happy. + +Juana resembled her mother in face and figure. But Anesta had shot up +into a tall girl, and suggested Carmencita, carried her head rather +haughtily. + +The sister rapped on the table with her thimble, raising her eyes. + +"You are too noisy and too frivolous," she said, with severity. + +They kissed each other good-by. + +"I wish we could come over and see you," Juana whispered. "We always +had such a good time. Perhaps you will come to Monterey," wistfully. + +"Oh, I think I shall," was the hopeful reply. + +Carmen was so glad to hear about them, and how they looked, and if +they seemed happy. She had considered writing letters to them a great +hardship, now she felt she could fill pages and pages. She wondered +how it was that her heart was so overflowing with love. And the +thought that she might never see them again filled her eyes with +tears. + +"Oh, I do wonder if Pascuel will desire to marry either of the girls?" +she cried in half affright. + +"But if he is so old----" + +"That doesn't seem to matter where there is money. And Papa Estenega +wanted both branches of the family united. And if I had not had a +son!" + +She shuddered, thinking of the poor wife who had drowned herself. + +It was not until the last of the week that Captain Hudson was ready to +start with his venture. Carmen packed her plain trousseau, and was +most grateful for all the kindness. + +"I shall see you sometime again," she said, in a broken voice, "but +not in quite a while. It will be best to stay until they have +forgotten about me. I shall be cast out, you know. They will take my +name off the books, and excommunicate me, I think. But I shall be an +American, and you do not fear such things, so I will try not to. Oh, +how good you have all been to me. I can never repay, but I shall pray +night and morning, and you will live in my thoughts." + +They started out Saturday afternoon. Jason Chadsey pressed a roll of +money in the bride's hands. In those days wedding gifts were pure +friendship. There would be a full moon, and they could sail all night, +for a full moon on the Pacific Coast was something really beyond +description. Jason Chadsey sat out on the step enjoying it. He always +felt beauty keenly, though he had no words for it. This was why he +delighted in the child's prattle. She had so much imagination. + +Had he been young once and loved like that? Young people of to-day put +their love in passionate words, rapturous kisses. They were not afraid +of making it the best thing of life, as it was. And his love had only +sipped the dregs. + +Was Laverne crying? "What is it, dear?" he asked. + +"The house seems so lonely, just as if some one had been buried, as it +did when Balder was killed. Uncle Jason, couldn't we go somewhere? Or +if something would happen again. I liked Captain Hudson so much. And +Carmencita has grown so sweet. Oh, it has been such a lovely week, but +it went so rapidly. Does the time pass quickly when you are happy, and +slowly when you are a little dull?" + +"But you have me," he said jealously. + +"I couldn't live without you." She nestled closer. + +"I want you always, always." + +"And sometime we might go up North. It is a queer, wild country, +grand, but not as beautiful as the southland, with its millions of +flowers. Something like Maine, I reckon." + +"I've almost forgotten about Maine." + +"Up there the mountain peaks are covered with snow the year round." + +"Then it is like the Alps." + +"And the great Columbia River. No towns to speak of, but stations, +hunters, and trappers, and fur animals, and wildness of every kind, +game of every kind." + +Something of the old adventurous life stirred within him. But he had +the little girl. And when they began their travels, she would be older +and have a taste for beautiful things. + +Yes, the house _did_ seem lonesome, but Laverne was very busy, and +events began to happen. Mrs. Folsom made another move, this time to +quite a fine family hotel, and she gave a housewarming on going in. +Old friends, there were not many of them, and new friends, of whom +there was an abundance, for she was a favorite as a householder. Dick +had grown up into a jaunty, well-looking young fellow, and had not +plunged into ruinous excesses, partly because his mother had kept a +sharp oversight, and the rest his clean New England stamina, the +wrecks had filled him with disgust and repulsion. + +All the old friends met, of course. Mrs. Dawson was rosy and plump, +and had retired to a stylish house with servants and carriage. The +Dawson Café was one of the better-class institutions of the town, and +coining money. Miss Gaines stood at the head of fashionable modistes, +and there was no appeal from her dictum. You could accept her style or +go elsewhere. There had been offers of marriage, too, she laughingly +admitted to her friends. "Ten years ago I should have accepted one of +them gratefully; now I value my independence." + +Dick Folsom went over to Laverne. + +"I haven't seen you in so long and you have grown so, I hardly knew +you," he said. "May I beg the honor of your hand for this quadrille?" + +She was quite longing to dance and accepted. + +"We oughtn't forget each other after that five months' journey +together," he remarked in one of the pauses. "Does it ever seem queer +to you, as if it was something you dreamed? I can't make it real. But +they've improved the overland so much, and when we get the +railroad--presto; you will see a change! If we were only nearer +England. But there's China, if we are not swamped by the pigtails and +pointed slippers! How queer they are! We don't need to go to foreign +lands to study the nations. I sometimes wonder what the outcome of all +this conglomeration will be!" + +"We are so far off," she replied in a sort of tentative fashion. "It's +almost like another town." + +"Yes. They'll tumble you down presently, as they did before. You +wouldn't know the old place, would you? They've carted away stones and +débris to fill up the marshy edges of the bay. And there's a long, +straight street, a drive out to fine country ways. Is there any other +land so full of flowers, I wonder!" + +"And they are so royally lovely. Think of great patches of callas in +blossom nearly all the time. Miss Holmes said when she was at home she +used to nurse up one to blossom about Easter. If she had two flowers +she thought it quite a marvel." + +What a soft, musical laugh the child had! They used to run races on +the boat, he remembered, and he had enough boyish gallantry to let her +win. They ought to be dear old friends. + +"Do you ever go out to drive on Sunday afternoon?" + +"It's Uncle Jason's day, the only leisure he has. And we spend it +together." + +"He's had stunning luck, too. Getting to be a rich man." + +"Is he?" she said simply. + +"Is he? Well, you ought to know," laughing. + +"He doesn't talk much about business." + +"A great country this is for making fortunes! The trouble is that you +can spend them so easily. But I'm bound to hold on to mine, when I get +it made." + +Some one else took her. He looked after her. She would be a pretty +girl presently and quite worth considering. He had a good opinion of +himself, and was not going to be lightly thrown away. + +They trudged up the hill just after midnight. Laverne was gay and +chatty, recounting her good times. It seemed as if she had as much +attention as Olive from the younger men, and Olive was always so proud +of that. + +Uncle Jason gave a sigh. + +"Oh," she cried, "you look tired. Don't you like parties? I thought it +splendid!" + +"I'm getting old, dear----" + +"Oh, you mustn't get old!" she interrupted impulsively. "Why can't +people turn back a little somewhere along, and be young again? For, +you know, I can't get old very fast, and I think--yes, I am quite sure +I don't want to. I'm having such a splendid time since you were so +lovely to Carmen, and made her happy. I sometimes think if you had +sent her back to Monterey--but you couldn't have done that, could +you?" + +"No, dear," he answered softly. + +He had heard a point discussed this evening that did trouble him a +little. They were talking of lowering Telegraph Hill again. He was not +ready to go yet. In two years maybe. She would not have any lovers by +that time, and then they could start off together. He must not grow +old too fast. + +The next happening in their little circle did interest her a good +deal. Howard Personette had finished his year's term at college, and +come home quite unexpectedly, when his father had intended him to +finish and take a degree. + +"I'm not a student, I'm convinced of that," he announced rather +doggedly. "I don't see any sense in keeping at what you don't like, +and don't mean to follow. I want the stir and rush of business instead +of splitting hairs about this and that. I've been awfully homesick the +last year, and dissatisfied, but I knew you would not agree to my +coming home, so I just came. And if there's nothing else for me to do, +I'll go to work on the streets." + +Students were expected to study in those days. Athletics had not come +in for their diversion. Mr. Personette was disappointed. He wanted to +make a lawyer out of his son, and to lay a good foundation for the +years to come. + +Mrs. Personette rather sympathized with the eager young fellow, who +was ready to take up any active life. + +"The East is so different," he explained. "Perhaps if I hadn't been +born here and breathed this free, exhilarating air all my life, I +might have toned myself down and stayed. But I had begun to hate +books, and what was the use maundering away several years?" + +Olive thought him quite a hero. Captain Franklin said if there was any +lack of employment in the city he could come out to Alcantraz. They +would be very glad to have a fellow who was not afraid to work. + +"Why, I should feel proud of him, shouldn't you?" Laverne asked of +Uncle Jason. + +"That depends," he answered, with a shake of the head. + +But if one came home from an indifference to study, another was going +to take a greater absence. Four years without coming home at all! The +journey was long and expensive, and there seemed a better use for +vacations. + +This was Victor Savedra, who had many student longings. And so one +afternoon the two sat out under the pine, their favorite place, and he +was explaining to Laverne his plans for a few years to come. + +"Father wanted me to go to Paris," he said. "If I meant to be a +physician, I think I would. But first and last and always I mean to be +an American citizen. I suppose I might go to Yale or Harvard, but that +seems almost as far away, and my choice appears more satisfactory all +around," smiling a little. "We like the new, but we have a hankering +for the old civilizations, and the accretions of knowledge." + +They both looked out over the Golden Gate, the ocean. There were +dancing sails, jungles of masts, cordage like bits of webs, tossing +whitecaps in strong contrast to the blue, and over beyond, the green, +wooded shores. The old semaphore's gaunt arms were dilapidated, and +it was to come down. But it had thrilled hundreds of hearts with its +tidings that friends, neighbors, and greatest joy of all, letters from +loved ones in lands that seemed so distant then. + +Now the lack of rain had dried up vegetation, except the cactus and +some tufts of hardy grass. The little rivulet was spent, there was +only a bed of stones. But they had managed to keep something green and +inviting about the house. A riotous Madeira vine flung out long +streamers of fragrant white blooms that seemed to defy fate +laughingly. Down below they were levelling again, this time for a last +grade, it was said. + +"It will all be so changed when I return. I wonder where you will go? +For you cannot climb up to this eyrie. You would be perhaps a hundred +feet up. They want the sand and the débris to fill in the big piers +they are building. Why, they will almost sweep the great hill away, +but they will have to leave the rocks by the sea. It will be a new San +Francisco." + +"Why, it is almost new now," and she smiled. + +"Everything will have changed. And we shall change, too. I shall be +twenty-three when I come back." + +Laverne looked at him wonderingly. They had all been big boys to her, +and she had been a little girl. True, he had grown to man's estate in +height, and there was a dainty line of darkness on his upper lip. It +had been so imperceptible that just now it seemed new to her. + +"And I shall be--why, I shall be past nineteen then," she commented in +surprise. + +"And--and married," he hazarded. The thought gave him a pang, for that +was new, too. + +"No," she returned, looking up at him out of innocent eyes, while the +faint rose tint in her cheek never deepened. "No, I shall not be +married in a long, long time. Presently Uncle Jason and Miss Holmes +and I are to set out on a journey, just as they do in some of the +stories. We shall go to the strange lands he tells me about, we shall +see the people in their native element," and she smiled at the +conceit, "where we see only a dozen or two here. What do you suppose +draws them to California?" + +"Why, the stories of gold, of course." Their coming and going did not +interest him. "I wonder if you will be in London?" he inquired. + +"Oh, of course. I want to see the Queen and the palaces, and +Edinburgh, and Holyrood, and all the places those proud old Scots +fought over, and poor Marie Stuart! And Sweden and Norway, and the +midnight sun, and the Neva, and St. Petersburg----" + +She paused, out of breath. + +"London is what interests me," he interposed. "And if you could come +over next summer----" + +She shook her head. "No, it won't be next summer, but it may be the +year after," she returned gravely. + +"And if it was my vacation. Then I might join you for a few weeks." + +"That would be splendid." Her soft eyes glowed. + +"I shall keep thinking of that." + +"Oh, will you? Then I will think of it, too. And it is queer how time +runs away. You hardly notice it until the bells ring out for New +Year's." + +"I wonder--if you will miss me any?" and his voice fell a trifle, +though he tried to keep anxiety out of it. + +"Miss you? Why, of course!" She was full of wondering, and to him, +delicious surprise. "We have been such friends, haven't we? Ever since +that night you showed me about the dancing? I've been amazed since +that I had the courage, when I hardly knew a step, but after all it +was very much like dancing to the singing of the birds, and I had +often done that. Olive didn't like it. We were not good friends for +ever so long afterwards." + +"Olive wants to be head and front of everything, and have the main +attention. I'm sorry not to stay to the wedding--it will be a grand +affair. And no doubt next year Olive will go off. You haven't many +girl friends, have you?" + +"Well,"--she hesitated delicately and smiled in a half absent but +adorable fashion,--"I do not believe I have. You see, we seem to live +a little apart up on this hill, and there have been lessons, and +riding about on the pony, and going over to your house, and most of +the girls are larger----" + +"The children all adore you. Oh, I hope you will go over often. I +don't know what Isola would do without you." + +"Yes, I shall," she said. "I'm so fond of music. If I were a poet, a +real poet, you know," and she flushed charmingly, "I should write +little songs to her music. They go through my brain with lovely words, +and I can see them, but they don't stay long enough to be written +down. Oh, yes, I shall go over often. And we shall talk about you. Of +course, you will write to your father, and we shall hear." + +"Yes." Something, perhaps not quite new, but deeper and stronger than +any emotion he had ever known before, stirred within him. If he were +going to stay here he would insist upon being her best friend, her +admirer, her---- He choked down some poignant pain that was delicious +in spite of the hurt. He hated to think of leaving her behind, two +long years. She would be seventeen then; yes, old enough for any man +to marry--but she did not mean to marry, that was the comfort. And he +believed it because he wanted to so very much. She was such an +innocent child. If this tumult within him was love, it would frighten +her, she would not know what it meant. + +She slipped her hand in his. "We shall all be so sorry to have you go, +but then you _will_ return. And perhaps--oh, yes, I shall beg to go to +London first," she cried eagerly. + +He was different from an impulsive American. He had been trained to +have great respect for the sacredness of young girls, and he owed a +duty to his father, who had planned out a prosperous life for him. + +The sun was dropping down into the ocean, and the fog, creeping along, +sent gray and soft purplish dun tints to soften and almost hide the +gold. And, oh, how the birds sang, freed most of them from family +cares. The meadowlark, the oriole, the linnets, and the evening +grosbeak, with a clear whistling chorus after the few melodious notes +of his song. They both rose, and went scrambling down the winding path +that defied Pablo's efforts to keep in order. The shifting sand and +the stones so often loosened and made rough walking, so he held her +up, and she skipped from one solid place to another. + +Down below they were moving some houses on the newly cut street, so as +to prepare for the next. + +"They ought to begin at the top," she said, "but I am glad they +didn't. What a great city it is!" + +"And if one could see the little town it was twenty years ago!" + +He would not stay to supper--he did sometimes. He wanted to be alone, +to disentangle his tumultuous thoughts, and wonder if this thing that +had swept over him was the romance of love. + +The next fortnight was very full. They went over to Alcantraz to view +the foundations for the new fortress. They went up to Mare's Island, +where, in days to come, was to be the splendid navy yard, and then on +a day's excursion down the bay. There was no railroad all along the +coast line, though it was talked of. And after a little they left the +shipping and the business behind them. All along were little clusters +of houses that were some day to be thriving cities. Then long +stretches of field where sheep were browsing, the wheat and oats +having been cut long before, clumps of timber reaching back to the +mountain ridge, clothed in a curious half shade from the slanting sun. + +They left the boat at the little cove, and found a fine level where +they spread out the luncheon, and decorated it with flowers, wild +geranium, or rather geraniums growing wild, some of it in tall trees. +Vines creeping everywhere, grapes ripening, figs and fruits of +various kinds, that later, under cultivation, were to be the marvels +of the world. + +Isabel and her betrothed, Olive and a young lieutenant, were +chaperoned by Mrs. Personette. Mrs. Savedra, the governess, and all +the children, with the two from "the Hill," and Isabel's dearest +friend and chosen first bridesmaid. And now Olive cared very little +for her cousin, if he was a handsome young man. He was going away, and +she would be married before his return, then he was too much of a +student, although an elegant dancer. So he could well be apportioned +to his sister and Laverne, neither in the realm of real womanhood, or +society. + +They sailed up the western side of the bay, following some of the +indentations, and in the clear air the Pacific did not seem so far +away. The elders had enjoyed the converse with each other. The young +people were merry, not even the lovers were unduly sentimental. Mrs. +Savedra watched her daughter and noted a great improvement. + +"If we could have Miss Holmes and Laverne all the time," she thought. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +THE ENCHANTMENT OF YOUTH + + +They went to wish Victor _bon voyage_. Laverne was learning to play on +the guitar, and another event happened to interest her very much. Mr. +Chadsey had used his influence to obtain a position of first mate on a +vessel bound for Shanghai for Joseph Hudson, who was expected in daily +with his wife. No word had come from the Estenegas. The two children +had been sent to Monterey, the old house dismantled, and now swallowed +up by the fine street that would some day make a great driveway. For +anything else the world might have swallowed them up. + +Mrs. Hudson had been quite Americanized, but was more deeply in love +than ever. There was a certain piquancy and dainty freedom that was +very attractive, quite unlike her former stiffness. She was not afraid +to go anywhere with José now--to the very ends of the earth if there +was need. + +Captain Blarcom was delighted to secure the services of so trusty a +man and good seaman as Joseph Hudson for his first mate. Being a +trading vessel, they might be gone two years or more. + +"I shall send mamma a letter, and tell her the whole story," said +Carmen. "I have been so happy I think she will soften her anger and +not curse me as mothers sometimes do. And perhaps, when I come back, +she may admit me to her again, since I was married lawfully and by a +priest of our Holy Church. For in quiet moments one longs for the +mother of all one's earlier years. Only the life here is so much +broader and earnest, and every one seems working to some end, not +trifles that become monotonous." + +"Yes," Miss Holmes returned, "I should write by all means." + +They kept her very close; indeed, she was rather afraid to venture +down in the town. And at last, the ship was laden and ready, and +another friend went out of Laverne's life for a while at least. + +Nearly a year later they heard the sequel of the Estenegas' fortunes. +Pascuel Estenega had been most savagely angry that this young bride +should have slipped out of his reach, and left no clew. He blamed the +Convent Superior, he threatened vengeance on any daring lover who had +circumvented him. But no lover or maiden was found, they had covered +their flight so securely. He grew more and more ill-tempered, until +hardly a servant would accept a position with him. And on one +occasion, for some trifling fault, he had beaten his coachman so +severely that he himself had fallen into a fit, and never recovered +consciousness, dying a few days after. Then the Señora and her +daughters had gone to care for the elder man, who had been made quite +ill from the shock. + +Isabel Personette's marriage was one of the events of the early +season. Even Major Barnard honored the occasion with his presence, and +the younger military men were in their most notable array. There was +an elegant reception afterward, and Olive was in her glory as the +only Miss Personette. Howard's bent was mechanical, and his father +presently admitted that he had chosen wisely. + +Indeed, there was much call for ability in every direction. A railroad +had been projected to Sacramento. Congress had established a line of +mail steamers between San Francisco and Shanghai. Between the city and +the Hawaiian Islands there was frequent communication. Coal was being +brought now from Bellingham Bay, gas was furnished about the city, +there were rows of handsome dwellings. The new Merchants' Exchange was +begun, the Custom House would be massive and beautiful. The shipping +and mercantile part of the city seemed to settle itself about Clark's +Point, on account of the great advantages it offered for wharves. + +Then there were several fine theatres and a large music hall, erected +by a Mr. Henry Meiggs, where people of the more quiet and intellectual +order could patronize concerts, oratorios, and lectures. Private balls +were quite the thing, and people struggled to get within the charmed +circle, where an invitation could be secured. + +If the little girl had lost one friend, two came in his place. Howard +Personette constituted himself her knight when they met at any +gathering, and brought them tickets for concerts, and new books or +magazines, when he found Miss Holmes was much interested in them. +There was indeed a library association that readers found very useful, +and the daily papers were good news purveyors. + +Richard Folsom felt he had something of a claim on her friendship, and +was importuning them both to come to dinner and go to some +entertainment. + +"You show the result of your quiet life and freedom from care," Mrs. +Folsom said to Miss Holmes. "You're younger looking to-day than when +we met on shipboard. I half envy you your easy time, and I +occasionally wonder if the money one piles up is worth the hard work +and anxiety. Only I had a son to look after and place in the world. He +was crazy to go to the gold fields, but I think he saw enough at the +Dawsons. It's hard work to keep a boy from going to the bad in a place +like this, but Dick has grown up into a pretty nice fellow. Now, if he +can only marry a sensible girl, one of the home kind, who isn't all +for show and pleasure! I wouldn't mind if she hadn't anything but her +wedding clothes. An early marriage steadies a fellow." + +But Dick wasn't thinking particularly about marriage. He couldn't have +told just why he liked to climb Telegraph Hill an hour or so before +sundown and chat a while, bringing some rare fruit, or a new kind of +flower, and have a talk and a ramble about. There were girls that were +lots more fun, girls who jumped at a chance for a drive behind his +fine trotter, Hero, and who didn't even disdain the Sunday drive to +the races. Miss Holmes never went to these. + +Sometimes of a Sunday they all went over to Oaklands. Mr. Savedra was +much interested in the quaint, intelligent man who was not only making +a reputation for honesty and fair dealing, but fortune as well. The +place was so lovely and restful. + +The agricultural resources of the outlying places were beginning to be +appreciated. Gardens and farms were found to be largely profitable +since people must be fed. Fruit, too, could be improved upon and bring +in abundant returns. + +After several conversations with Miss Holmes, it was deemed advisable +to have an English governess, since French and Spanish were as native +tongues to the children. Isola was improving in health, but quite +backward for her age, except for her really wonderful gift in music. + +"I can't seem to make up my mind to send either of them away," she +said to Miss Holmes. "We miss Victor so much. And a mother's joy +centres largely in her children. I could not live without them. If I +could find some one like you." + +"There are some still better adapted to the undertaking than I should +be," Miss Holmes returned with a half smile. "I sometimes feel that I +have been out of the world of study so long, that I am old-fashioned." + +"That is what I like. The modern unquiet flurry and ferment annoys me. +And pleasure continually. As if there were no finer graces to life, no +composure, nothing but dress and going about. And you have made such a +charming child of Miss Laverne. How pretty she grows." + +And now she was growing tall rapidly. Miss Holmes wondered +occasionally what would happen in a year or two, if, indeed, the idea +of travel was a settled purpose. Mr. Chadsey seldom spoke of it, +except to the child. He was very much engrossed with his business. +But presently she would need different environment. She could not +always remain a little girl. And she _was_ pretty with a kind of +modest fairness that had an attractive spirituality in it, yet it did +not savor of convent breeding. It was the old New England type. She +seemed to take so little from her surroundings, she kept so pure to +the standard. + +They were at Mrs. Folsom's to dinner one day. Uncle Jason had found it +necessary to be away late on business, and would come for them. He did +not quite like to leave them alone in Pablo's care, though Bruno was a +good keeper. But an evil-disposed person might shoot the dog. He began +to realize that it was more exposed up on the hill now that there were +so many rough workmen about. Another year of it, and then---- + +They had a delightful little dinner in a "tea room," there was a great +deal of coming and going in the large dining room. And Mrs. Folsom +said: + +"I'm going to ask a guest in to share your company. She's rather +lonely, as her husband is away on some business. They have been here a +fortnight or so. Laverne will like to hear her talk. She's been most +all over." + +So she brought in Mrs. Westbury, and introduced her. + +"I hope I haven't intruded," the newcomer said, in a peculiarly +attractive voice. In a young girl it would have been pronounced +winsome. "I have been taking some meals in my own room; I tired of +going to the public table when Mr. Westbury was not here. But I do get +so lonely. I generally go with him, but this was up to the mines, +where the roughness and wickedness of the whole world congregates, I +believe." + +"You are quite welcome," Miss Holmes replied, with a certain New +England reserve in her voice. + +"You came from the East?" with an appreciative smile, as if that was +in her favor. + +"From Boston; yes." Miss Holmes was always proud of that. + +"And I from southern New Hampshire; we're not so very far apart. I +married Mr. Westbury in New York, but we have been about--almost +everywhere," in a tired voice. "I had wanted to travel, and I've had +it." + +Laverne's eyes kindled. "And were you abroad?" she asked rather +timidly. + +"Well--yes," smiling. "I've lived longest in London. And there's been +Paris and Berlin, and, oh, ever so many German towns, where they're +queer and slow, and wouldn't risk a dollar a month if they could make +ten by it. Most of the Eastern cities, too, but I think this is the +strangest, wildest, most bewildering place I ever was in; as if the +whole town was seething and had no time to settle." + +"I think that is it. You see, we are used to age in our New England +towns; permanent habits, and all that. Yet, one would hardly believe +so much could have been done towards a great city in a dozen years." + +Mrs. Westbury raised her brows. "Is it as young as that?" + +"And we have people from everywhere who will presently settle into a +phase of Americanism, different from all other cities. Most places +begin poor and accumulate slowly. San Francisco has begun rich." + +"And the newly rich hardly know what to do with their money. You have +some fine buildings, and queer old ones, that look as if they had +stood hundreds of years." + +There was something peculiar in the voice, and that had been born with +the girl, and had needed very little training. It had an appealing +quality; it indicated possibilities, that fixed it in one's memory. +She might have suffered, had strange experiences, but one deeply +versed in such matters would have said that she had come short of +entire happiness, that hers was not the tone of rich content. She had +a delicate enunciation that charmed you; she passed from one subject +to another with a grace that never wearied the listener. + +Mrs. Folsom came in to see if all was agreeable. She had taken a fancy +to Mrs. Westbury, she had such an air of refinement and good-breeding. +Mr. Westbury seemed a fine, hearty, wholesome man, prosperous yet no +braggart. That was apt to be the fault out here. He had commended his +wife to Mrs. Folsom's special care, and paid liberally in advance, +besides depositing money at a banker's for his wife's needs. + +They were having a pleasant, social time. When the dinner was through +they retired to Mrs. Folsom's private parlor. In the large one there +were card playing and piano drumming and flirtations going on. + +Perhaps Mrs. Westbury did most of the talking, but she made sundry +halts to give her listeners opportunity to answer, and she never +seemed aggressive. Laverne listened, charmed over the delightful +experiences. + +She had learned that these were more attractive than one's troubles or +perplexities, and she had set out to be a charming woman. There was +only one terror to her life now--she was growing so much older every +year. She had kept her youth uncommonly, but alas, no arts could bring +the genuine article back. + +Some lives go purling along like a simple stream that encounters +nothing much larger than pebbles in its course, others wind in and +out, tumble over rocks, widen and narrow, and take in every variety. +She had been a mill hand, pretty, graceful, modest. After having been +a widower two years and married to a woman older than himself, a +bustling, busy worker who lived mostly in her kitchen, Mr. Carr, the +mill owner, married this pretty girl, installed her in the big, gloomy +mansion, and made her the envy of the small town where many of the +families were related to him. He had some peculiar views in this +marriage. He meant to rule, not to be ruled; he hoped there would be +children to heir every dollar of his estate. He succeeded in the +first, but in the twelve years there were no children. She was +miserable and lonely; there were times when she would have preferred +the old mill life. Her only solace came to be reading. There was a +fine library, histories, travels, and old English novels, and it +really was a liberal education. + +Then Mr. Carr died suddenly, having made a will that tied up +everything just as far as the law allowed. She was to live in the +house, a brother and a cousin were to run the mill on a salary that +was made dependent on the profits. A shrewd lawyer discovered flaws, +and it was broken. The heirs paid her very well to step out of it all +and have no litigation. She was extremely glad. She took her money and +went to New York, and for three years had a really enjoyable time. + +She was thirty-seven when she married David Westbury, who was +thirty-five. She set herself back five years and no one would have +questioned. After several years of ill-luck, fortune had smiled on him +and whatever he touched was a success. He bought up some valuable +patents and exploited them, he formed stock companies, he had been +sent abroad as an agent, he was shrewd, sharp, long-headed, and not +especially tricky. Honesty paid in the long run. And now she had +enjoyed seven happy, prosperous years. She had proved an admirable +co-partner, she had a way of attracting men that he wanted to deal +with and not lowering her dignity by any real overt act. Her +flirtations never reached off-color. But of late she felt she had lost +a little of her charm. She was not inclined to play the motherly to +young men, nor to flatter old men. Those between went to the charming +young girls. + +"Oh, dear, I'm so sorry to go," Laverne exclaimed, when word was sent +up that Mr. Chadsey was waiting for them. "I've had such a splendid +time listening to you. It's been like travelling. And to see so many +celebrated people and places, and queens." + +"I'm glad you enjoyed it. I hope you will come again. Oh, I like you +very much," and she leaned over and kissed her, though she was not an +effusive woman. + +Jason Chadsey had been sorely bothered. A young fellow he had had high +hopes of had proved recreant and gone off with considerable money. He +had been straightening accounts, and trying to decide whether to set +the officers on his track or let him go--to do the trick over again on +some one else. So he only half listened, glad to have his darling gay +and full of delight. He really did not notice when she said "Mrs. +Westbury." + +That lady had a talk with Dick the next morning. He thought she was +"quite nice for an old girl," so far off does youth remove itself. +Could she get a carriage and ask Miss Holmes and her young charge to +go out with her? + +"Why, I'll take you, ma'am, and be glad to. Oh, yes, we're such old +friends. It's odd, but we may be called old settlers, really. A party +of us came round the Horn just at the last of '51. She was such a +little thing, the only child on board. And we all stayed and are +settled just about here. Tell you what I'll do. We'll stop at school +for her and take her home, and then go on." + +"But, Miss Holmes"--hesitatingly--"she ought to have notice," smiling +deprecatingly. + +"Oh, that won't count. You just take my word, Laverne will be glad +enough." + +He was glad enough. He had a vague idea somehow that Miss Holmes +rather fenced him out. This time he would have Laverne on the front +seat with him. Not that he really was in love with her now, but in +time to come---- + +His plan worked admirably. Laverne was delighted and greeted her new +friend cordially. They drove around a little at first, then up to the +hill, and now the road was broken up unless one went a long way +round. + +"I can run up," Laverne said eagerly. "I won't be many minutes," and +she sprang out. + +"They're going to lower this hill," Dick explained. "They started it +once, but land! only a goat can climb it now." + +"Say a deer or an antelope," with a light laugh, as both watched the +child threading her way in a zig-zag fashion, the shortest. + +"It must be awfully lonely up there." + +"But the prospect is wonderful. And there is Golden Gate and the +ocean. Still, I should like to be more with folks. Chadsey doesn't +mind. He's a queer Dick, and his mind is all on making money." + +"She is his niece. Are there any others?" + +"No, I guess not. I never heard of any. All her folks--family are +dead." + +"And Miss Holmes isn't related?" + +"Oh, no." + +They watched and saw them coming down presently, but they took a +better pathway. Miss Holmes seemed pleased with the plan. Laverne +sprang in beside Mrs. Westbury. + +"Perhaps the ladies----" Dick was disappointed. + +"I want to sit here," the girl said rather imperiously. "And you know +you won't let me drive." + +"You'd be like that fellow you told of driving the chariot to the sun, +I'm afraid. I don't dare trust any one except Nervy, the jockey, to +ride her. It was immense on Sunday. You saw that she won. Mother's +against having me enter her, and I don't do it often. But jimini! I'd +like to. And ride her myself." + +Mrs. Westbury had seen the Derby, where all the style of London went, +and fortunes were lost and won. Dick was fascinated by the account. + +They turned oceanward. Sandhills, stones, patches of verdure where one +least expected, tangled depths of laurels and alder, manzanita, vines +scrambling everywhere and such a wealth of bloom, then barren rocks +and sand. Now you could see the glorious ocean, the great flocks of +sea birds swirling, diving, flying so straight and swiftly that not a +wing moved. Cries of all kinds, then from the landward side a strange, +clear song that seemed to override the other. Seals thrusting up their +shiny black heads and diving again, sunning themselves lazily on the +rocks. + +"Is there another country in the world like this?" exclaimed Mrs. +Westbury. "And all down the coast! I stayed at Monterey before. We +crossed the Isthmus and came up. It is wonderful." + +Dick kept them out quite late to see the gorgeous sunset, and then +would fain have taken them home with him. Laverne had her hands full +of flowers that she had never seen before, and her eyes were lovely in +their delight. + +"I shall be spoiled. I shall want to see you every day. I wish there +was no school," Mrs. Westbury said. "Oh, can't I come and visit you?" +and the entreaty in her voice would have won a harder heart. + +"Our home is so very simple, and now the streets are in such a state, +almost impassable. But if you have the courage we shall be glad to see +you," responded Miss Holmes, curiously won. + +"I shall come, most assuredly, although I have rather begged the +invitation. But you are so different from the women of the Hotel. I do +tire of their frivolity. I even go out alone to walk, though at first +I was afraid. Could I meet my little friend at her school and come +up?" + +"Oh, yes, she will be glad to pilot you." + +It was late that evening when Jason Chadsey came home. He looked tired +and worn. Indeed, the farther he went in the matter the worse it +appeared. And the culprit had made his escape. So there was nothing to +do but to pocket the loss. + +"Shall I make you a cup of tea?" inquired Miss Holmes. + +"If you please--yes. Then I shall go straight to bed; I must be up +betimes in the morning. Is Laverne in bed?" + +She answered in the affirmative. + +Friday Mrs. Westbury sent a little note to Laverne, asking if Saturday +would do for the visit. Every other Saturday the child spent at +Oaklands. So it was the next week when the visit was made. She stopped +at the school for Laverne, and Dick Folsom was to come for her in the +evening. + +"It is very queer," she declared, laughing. "It seems a little like +Swiss châlets built in the mountain sides where you go up by wooden +steps. Only--the sand. I should think you would slip away." + +"They are not going to take another street until next year. Of course, +we shall move; I think down in the town. But it has been so delightful +up here. And it did not seem so queer at first. But since they have +been putting up such splendid buildings in the town, and making such +fine streets, it has given us a wild appearance. Presently there will +not be anything of Old San Francisco left. A good part of it has +burned down already." + +Miss Holmes welcomed her guest warmly and brought her a glass of +delightful fruit sherbet. The place was plain enough, and yet it gave +evidence of refined and womanly tastes in its adornments. And the +clustering vines and bloom made a complete bower of it. + +Mrs. Westbury espied the guitar. She was really glad there was no +piano. Was Laverne musical? + +"I've been learning the guitar. And I sing some. But you should hear +my friend at Oaklands. Her voice is most beautiful. If mine was not a +contralto I shouldn't venture to sing with her." + +"You don't look like a contralto. A pure blonde should be a soprano." + +"Perhaps I'm not a very pure blonde," with a merry light in her eyes. +"I've heard concert singers who could not compare with Miss Savedra, +but her people would be shocked at the idea of her singing in public. +I was telling her about you. We are great friends. She is odd in some +ways and foreign; they are Spanish people, but I love her better than +any girl I know." + +"And this Olive?" questioningly. + +"Oh, Olive. She took a great liking to me in the beginning--we were +quite children. She and the Savedras are cousins. And her father +married a friend of Miss Holmes, but she is a delightful stepmother. +Only now Olive seems so much older and has lovers. Yes, we are +friends in a way, but we do not really love each other." + +"And you haven't any lovers?" + +"Oh, no." She flushed at that. "I don't want any. Why, I am not +through school." + +Mrs. Westbury found that she could not only read, but talk French +and Spanish, and that she was being sensibly educated. But that +was not the chief charm. It was a simplicity that defied art, a +straightforwardness that was gentle, almost deprecating, yet never +swerved from truth, a sweetness that was winning, a manner shy but +quite captivating. And though she told many things about her life up +here on the hill, there were no indiscreet or effusive confidences +such as she had often listened to in young girls. + +When Mr. Chadsey met the guest as they were coming in from the arbor, +he simply stared at the name, not realizing that he had heard it +mentioned before. A fair, somewhat faded woman, so well made up that +she could still discount a few years. Her attire and her jewels +betokened comfortable circumstances, indeed wealth, for besides some +fine diamonds she had two splendid rubies. + +Twice since he had been in California he had been startled by the +name. Once by a young fellow of two or three and twenty, looking for a +chance at clerking. The other had been a miserable, disreputable +fellow, who had failed at mining and was likely through drunkenness to +fail at everything else. He questioned him closely. The man had left a +wife and family at Vincennes, and would be only too glad to get back +to them. He had been born and raised in Indiana. So he had helped him +on his way, praying that he might reach there. And here it had cropped +up again. It sent a shiver through him. + +He questioned the guest adroitly, carefully. She was proud of her +husband and his successes. She had met him in New York; she thought +him a native of that State. + +Surely the David Westbury he knew could never have had all this good +fortune. So he dismissed this case from his mind, and smiled over +Laverne's new friend, who would be one of the transient guests of the +heart. + +Mr. Westbury sent word by a messenger that he would be detained longer +than he expected. He hoped she found her quarters satisfactory, and +that she would take all the entertainment she could. He had struck a +new opening that would in all probability make a millionaire of him. +When he returned they must go at once to London, and they might remain +there for years, since it was one of the places she liked. + +Yes, she did like it, and had made some very nice friends there. +But--if she had a daughter like this girl to draw young men; she +should always yearn for the young life that had never been hers, and a +girl to dress beautifully, to take out driving in the "Row," to have +one and another nod to her, to take her calling--that was the way +mothers did in England, to give dainty parties for her, to let her +tend stalls at fairs, to have her some day presented to the Queen, and +at last to marry well. Her daughter might have such a fortune. David +Westbury had been lucky in a good many things and he seldom made a +mistake. + +She dreamed this over and over again. She had never cared for babies +or little children, and she had felt glad there had been no children +to tie her to the old New Hampshire town, where she must then have +spent her life. She had had so much more enjoyment, larger liberty, +and oh, worlds more money. Travelling, hotels, meeting delightful +people. But now her day was about over. If there was a young blossom +growing up beside her to shed a charm around, to attract, to fill a +house with gayety, so she could go through with it all again. Then +lovers and marriage. She should want a pretty girl, one with a winsome +manner. A little training would do wonders with this one, who was just +the right age to be moulded into success. + +Of course, her uncle would never give her up, and one could not coax +her away. A man's journeying about would have no society advantages. +Miss Holmes was very nice and sensible, but there were some +old-maidish traits. She was rather narrow. She really pitied the +girl's life between them. It would lose the exquisite flavor of +enjoyment that by right belonged to youth. + +Of course, all this was folly. But she did like the child so much. And +she wanted a new adoration, which she believed she could win easily. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +IN THE BALANCE + + +Agnes Westbury had listened all the early part of the evening to her +husband's enthusiastic plans. Good fortune expanded him in every +direction. It was true that quicksilver had been discovered at +Alameda, also that the new process of separating gold was a great +saving. Working mines had been most extravagant and wasteful. Some of +the old ones had been deserted that no doubt would pay again. He had +taken options for the London Company, he had two or three for himself. +Luck had surely come his way. Now they must leave as soon as possible. + +Had she enjoyed herself? Had the landlady been satisfactory? Had she +gone about and seen much, made any pleasant friends? San Francisco was +a strange and wonderful place. It had risen up in a night, as it were. +It was in the line of the Eastern trade, it would be the great mart of +the world. What was Congress thinking about not to establish a through +route, but depend on this miserable overland accommodation for the +crowds who would come! Its very wildness and sublimity outdid Europe. +Some day it would be a worldwide attraction for tourists. Such +mountains, such a range of climate, such a profusion of everything, +such a seacoast line. + +David Westbury was pacing up and down the apartment with a light, +springy step. He had been in his youth a tall and rather lanky +down-easter. Now he had filled out, was fine and robust, with a good +clear skin. In those days his nose had been too large, his mouth wide, +with rather loose lips. Now the rest of his face had rounded out, his +lips had grown firm-set, decisive, and his mustache was trimmed in the +latest style. Just at the corners of his mouth his beard had begun to +whiten a little, his lightish hair had turned darker. Prosperity had +made a man of him. He had grown sharp, far-sighted, but he had an +amiability that was more than pleasing--attractive. He had learned to +use his own phrase, "not to buck against the world." Where he had been +rather credulous and lax in early life, he had become wary and shrewd, +and did not hesitate if he could turn the best of the deal his way. + +"Yes, she had enjoyed herself very much. Mrs. Folsom and her son had +been most attentive, there had been some star players at the theatres +and a noted singer or two. She had met some nice people, there was a +good deal of crudeness and display, but on the whole it was very fair +for a new place. And some odd, quaint individuals, some really refined +women from Boston, and such a charming young girl that she coveted; +she wished she had her for a daughter." + +"That's a queer wish; too, I thought you were not fond of children." + +"Well, I am not generally. I'd like them full-grown, and attractive," +laughing. + +"I wouldn't mind a fine, upright, sober, honorable son that one could +trust in all things, but they are scarce." + +"David, what will you do with your money?" + +"Well,"--he laughed a little. "Let me see--endow a hospital perhaps, +or build a college. But we must have all the pleasure we desire." + +She gave a little sigh. + +"About this girl, now?" he queried. + +"She's the dearest, sweetest, simplest body, not foolish, not +sentimental, but like water in a ground glass globe, if you can +understand. She's one of the old settlers, and that's laughable, came +in '51, round the Horn, from Maine, I believe, with an uncle and some +friends. He is a Mr. Chadsey, and keeps a big warehouse, shipping +stores and what not, and is, I believe, making a fortune--to take her +journeying round the world." + +"Chadsey," he said thoughtfully. "Chadsey. What is the girl's name?" + +"Oh, Chadsey, too." + +"Ah!" nodding, yet he drew his brows a little. + +"I suppose he was her mother's brother. Her mother died just before +they came out here." + +He made a brief calculation. "Yes, it was in '51 that _she_ died. And +Jason Chadsey was there, he took the little girl away. At Boston all +trace was lost, though he had _not_ searched very exhaustively for +her. He had a feeling that she would be well cared for." + +David Westbury glanced at his wife. Her elbow was on the window sill +and her cheek rested on her hand. There was a touch of sadness in her +face, a longing in her eyes. He loved her more now than when he had +married her. She was a little exacting then. She had been very fond of +pleasure, theatres, balls, fine dinners at hotels, journeys, dress, +jewels. He enjoyed them, too, with the zest that generally comes to +one who has been deprived of them in early life, and whose training +has been to consider them reprehensible. + +They had taken their fill. Now his mind was all on business; he liked +to surmount difficulties, to bring success out of chaos. He had to +leave her alone a good deal. She used to find entertainment in +conquering the admiration of young men, but these last few years she +had found herself less attractive, except as she listened to their +love troubles and begged her for advice. He did not understand this at +all, only he felt he had an engrossing business and she had nothing +but looking on. + +"You like this girl very much?" + +"Yes, I can't tell just why, except that she is so honestly sweet, so +ready to give of her best without expecting any return. Do you +remember Lady Westmere and her two daughters? They were fine girls and +devoted to her. I had not considered it much before, but I understood +then what an interest and solace a young girl of the right sort would +be. You know I had Gladys Wynne to stay a month with me when you were +over to Paris. I had half a mind to engage her as a sort of companion, +and she would have been glad enough to come. But I found she had some +mean, underhand tricks, and was looking out for her own advantage +while she was trying to persuade you that it was yours. And she told +little fibs. So I gave up the idea. A maid, you know, is no company, +though one must have her abroad. But we couldn't coax or kidnap this +girl," and she sighed in the midst of a sad smile. + +He still paced up and down. How long since he had thought of that old +life. He had always said to himself that he had been a fool to marry +Laverne Dallas, but he had taken a good deal of satisfaction then in +"cutting out" Jason Chadsey. What fools young fellows were! + +"Agnes," he began, "before I married you I did not tell you my whole +story. I said I had lost my wife and child, that ill luck had dragged +me through those early years. She had another lover, Jason Chadsey, a +seafaring man, of whom she had not heard in a long time, when she +married me. Some years later I was at a low ebb and away, trying to +make money for them as well as myself. When I had a little success I +went back. She was dead and buried. Chadsey had come back, it seems, +and taken the child, since there were no near relatives to say him +nay. At Boston I lost trace of them." + +"Oh, David!" She sprang up and flung both arms about him. "You don't +think--this Laverne--why, what if she should be yours!" + +"She came here late in '51. Her mother died early in the spring +before. She must have been about eight. Why, it's quite a romance for +this prosaic world." + +"If you are her father, you have the best right. Oh, David, I should +love her and be so good to her. She should have everything, and I +would be so happy. Oh, you _must_ see to-morrow." + +There was a hysterical catch in her voice, and a great throb at her +heart. + +"There, don't get into a fit. Why, I didn't suppose you could care so +much. Yes, I know you will be good to her. Chadsey may kick about +giving her up, but I doubt if he took any steps toward legal adoption. +Oh, I think there will not be any real trouble unless she will not +come." + +"But she ought to have some regard for her father! And he isn't really +her uncle or guardian. Why, it wouldn't be quite the thing for her to +travel round the world with him." + +They talked it over until their plans seemed most reasonable. And then +they wondered at the strangeness of it. He had no real compunctions of +conscience about the past, though of course he would have accepted the +responsibility of his daughter if he could have found her. He had a +practical business way of looking at matters. And while Agnes Westbury +lay awake, and had vague visions, dropping now and then into snatches +of dreams, he slept soundly and awoke with a resolve to settle the +question with just the same purpose as if he had resolved to buy his +wife thousands of dollars' worth of jewels. + +They had begun the necessary sea wall that was to safeguard the piers +and the shipping that grew more extensive every year. Here was the old +Fisherman's Pier, then steamers, trading vessels, queer foreign ships, +business places of all sorts, many of them quite dilapidated, fringed +East Street. Here, where Clay Street ran down, almost meeting +Sacramento, there were warehouses, packing houses, boxes and bales and +general confusion. The one-story place with the sign "J. Chadsey" over +the wide doorway, not much handsomer than that of a barn, but +strengthened with iron bars and great bolts, had stretched out and +out, and now they were packing in stores from the Orient, stores from +the Isthmus, that were being unloaded from two vessels. Jason Chadsey +had been giving orders here and there, setting men at work, and was +warm and tired when word came that a gentleman wanted to see him in +the office. They made distinctions in those days, even if the country +was new and rough. + +That was no strange summons. He pulled out his handkerchief, and wiped +the sweat and grime from his face, listened a moment to the wrangling, +swearing, strange Chinese chatter, songs in various languages, then +turned and went in, hardly able to see at first from the glitter of +the sun that had drenched him. This was a place just now with two big +desks and a clerk writing at one. The inner office had a window on the +street side and two wooden stools, one dilapidated leathern chair +before another desk. + +A man rose up and faced him. A well-dressed, well-kept man, with a +certain air of prosperity and authority, and if he had any scheme to +exploit it would no doubt have some advantage in it. But he was a +stranger. + +"You are Jason Chadsey?" Westbury would have known him anywhere. +Except to grow older, to be a little more wrinkled,--weatherbeaten, he +had always been,--and his hair slightly grizzled at the temples, he +was the same. There was honesty, truth, and goodness in the face that +had not changed either. + +"Yes," Chadsey replied briefly. + +"And you don't remember me?" + +Chadsey tried to consider the voice, but that had grown rounder, +fuller, and lost all the Maine twang. There had been so many faces +between youth and this time. + +"Well, I am David Westbury." + +Jason Chadsey dropped on a stool and stared, then mopped his face +again, while a shiver passed over him that seemed to wring his very +vitals, turn him stone-cold. + +"It's odd how things come about." The man of the world had his rival +at a disadvantage. "I'd had runs of hard luck," in an easy, almost +indifferent tone, being where he could laugh at the past, "and I'd +tried about everything in vain. I was too proud to come back to +Laverne empty-handed. Then, when I had made something, I turned, +hoping to ease up her hard life, and found she was dead and buried. +You had befriended her; thank you for that. But you took my child. I +traced you to Boston. After that my search was vain. I have looked +over lists of vessels, thinking to strike your name as captain or +mate, and finally given up search. Business brought me here, perhaps +fate, too, had a hand in it. My wife has seen and known the child, and +already loves her. I am grateful for your care all these years, but I +would rather have had her in my keeping. I am a rich man--if I was a +poor devil I would put in no claim, no matter how dear she was to me, +but a father has the best right." + +Jason Chadsey rose. For a moment he had murder in his heart. The man's +evident prosperity and effrontery stung him so. The past came rushing +over him. + +"Do you know how I found her?" he began hoarsely. "I had resolved to +come out here. I was getting tired of seafaring. I went to Munro to +say good-by to a few old friends. I expected to find her a happy wife +and mother, with little ones about her. Instead it was a virtually +deserted wife, who had heard nothing of her husband in a long while, +who had used up all her little store and was in debt besides, who was +suffering from cold, want, heartbreak, and dying, knowing no refuge +for her child except the poor farm or to be bound out to some +neighbor." + +"No, she would not have been," was the almost fierce interruption. + +"The dying woman did not know that. She had some comfort in her last +moments," and his voice softened curiously with remembered pathos. +"She gave me the child. I have been father and mother to her. You +cannot have her." + +"I believe the law gives the parent the right to the child until she +is of age. You had no consent of mine. You could not legally adopt +her, at least, it would not hold in law." + +Jason Chadsey turned pale under the tan of years. Why, he had not even +thought of any legal protection for his claim. It rested only on love +and care. + +"You see," continued the confident voice, "that my right has been in +no way jeopardized. I am Laverne Westbury's father, amply able to care +for her in an attractive and refined manner, place her in the best +society, to give her whatever education and accomplishment she needs, +the protection of a mother, the standing of a father, travel--we are +to go to England shortly--and it would be worse than folly to stand in +her way." + +"She will not go," Jason Chadsey said sturdily. + +"She will if the law directs." + +"She will not when she knows the struggle of the last year of her +mother's life. Why, you robbed _her_ mother, the poor, old, helpless +woman, of the little she had. You persuaded her to take up money on +the house--it was not worth much, but it was a home to shelter them." + +"Laverne was as anxious to get out of the place as I. What could I do +there? She was willing that I should try. I was unfortunate. Other men +have been--you find wrecks everywhere. I struggled hard to recover, +and did, even if it was too late for her. We thank Providence for our +successes--doesn't the same power direct reverses? It wasn't my fault. +Luck runs against a man his whole life sometimes." + +"You could have written. That would have cheered her solitary hours. +She would have told you she was dying, and begged you to come. When I +think of what that dreary winter was to her----" + +"You were there to comfort her." There was a half sneer on the face. +"See here, Jason Chadsey, you were her first lover, not a very ardent +one, I fancy, either. I was a fool to persuade her to marry me, though +I think her grandmother had a strong hand in it. You were there those +last weeks. Did she confess her mistake, and admit that you had held +her heart all these years? What confidences took place?" + +"None that you might not hear. Nothing but some truths that I guessed, +and wrung out of her--your neglect. You would not dare to stain the +mother's memory to the child. If you did I think I could kill you. Any +one who knows aught about those New England women, brought up among +the snowy hills like nuns, would know it was a base lie!" + +"Come, come, we won't slop over into melodrama. We will leave it to +the law if you agree to abide by the decision." + +"The law will not force her to go." + +"I think she will be convinced. You are no kin to her. Now that she is +grown, it is hardly the thing for her to go on living in this fashion. +You may mean to marry her. That would be monstrous!" + +"Go your way, go your way, David Westbury," and he made an indignant +gesture as if he would sweep him out of the place. "I have other +matters on hand. I have no time to parley." + +Then Chadsey turned and, being near the door, made a rush for the +street, plunging the next minute into the thick of business. Westbury +laughed a moment, lighted a cigar, and sauntered out at his leisure. +Up in a more respectable street he glanced about, finding a lawyer's +office, and though he guessed the opinion must be in his favor he +wanted an assurance. + +"If there had been an assignment under belief that the father was +dead, he could recover, if it was proved he was the proper person to +have the care of the child, and amply able to support it." + +Jason Chadsey worked furiously. He would not think. It was high noon +before he found a respite. Then he went in the office instead of going +to lunch. He could not eat. + +The shadow that would hang over him now and then, that he had always +managed to drive away, had culminated at length in a storm that would +sweep from its moorings the dearest thing he held on earth, that he +had toiled for, that he had loved with the tenderness of a strong, +true heart, that had been all his life. Without her it would only be a +breathing shell of a body, inert, with no hope, no real feeling. Ah, +if they had been ready to go away a few months ago! If Laverne was of +age! If he had a legal adoption, they might make a fight on that. He +had nothing. But she would not go, she would not go. + +Ah, how could he tell her? Perhaps her father and yes, that +soft-spoken, insinuating woman, was her stepmother, and Laverne had a +young girl's fancy for her--perhaps they would go and lay the case +before her, persuade, entreat--oh, no, they could not win, he felt +sure of that. How could he ever go home! What would the home be +without her! What would life be--the money--anything! + +It was quite late when he climbed the ascent, growing worse and worse. +There had been two landslides. Why, presently they would be swept +away. + +"Oh, how late you are!" cried the soft, girlish voice. "How did you +get up? Isn't it dreadful! Have you had a hard day? Was there a +steamer in? Do you suppose we shall ever have a letter from the +Hudsons?" + +Nothing had happened. Perhaps David Westbury did not dare. He almost +crushed the slim figure in his arms. + +"Oh, what a bear hug!" she cried, when she could get her breath. "And +you are so late. We had such a splendid big fish that Pablo caught and +cooked, and it was delicious. And I made a berry cake, but you like +that cold, and we will have the fish heated up. Was it an awful busy +day?" + +"Yes, a vessel in, and another to be loaded up." + +His voice shook a little. + +"Oh, you dear old darling, you are tired to death. Here's a cup of +nice tea. And if you were a young lover, I would sing you the +daintiest little Spanish song. Isola and I made it up. You see, things +don't sound quite so bare and bald in Spanish, and you can make the +rhymes easier. The music is all hers. We are supposed to sing it to +some one gone on a journey that we want back with us." + +"Well, I'm an old lover; sing it to me!" Then she would not notice +that he was not eating much supper. + +The guitar had a blue ribbon, and she threw it over her shoulder and +shook her golden hair about. Tinkle, tinkle, went the soft +accompaniment. She had a sweet parlor voice, with some sad notes in +it, wistful, longing notes. He wondered if she was thinking of any one +miles and miles across the water. + +"It is tender and beautiful," he said, "sing something else." + +"You are not eating your cake." + +"But I shall." He must choke down a little. + +Afterward they strolled about the hill. There was no moon, but the +stars were like great golden and silver globes, and the air was sweet +with a hundred fragrances. Nothing had happened, and he wondered a +little at it. Suddenly she said: + +"Oh, you must go to bed after such a hard day's work. And I am cruel +dragging you about." + +He could not tell her. Oh, what if he should never need to tell her! +How could he give her up? Was life all sacrifice? + +Something odd had happened to her. She sat by the window living it +over. She had gone around by Folsom House to see Mrs. Westbury, +thinking how she should miss her when they went back to England. She +ran up to her room. There was a thin lace drapery in the doorway to +bring a breeze through and yet shield the occupant from the passer-by. + +"Oh, you sweet little darling! Did you dream that I was wishing for +you? I've been just crazy to see you all day." + +She was in a dainty white silk négligée, with cascades of lace and +some pale pink bows. She wore such pretty gowns, Laverne thought. + +"Do you know that in about a week we shall go away? And I shan't know +how to live without you. I love you so! Why do you suppose I should be +always longing for you, thinking about you? Last night----" + +She gave her a rapturous embrace and kissed lips and brow and eyelids. +Sometimes Isola Savedra caressed her this way. But Isola was just a +girl, musical, vehement, Spanish. + +"I couldn't sleep for thinking of you, longing for you. Shall I steal +you and take you away? Oh, if you loved me well enough to come, you +should have everything heart could desire. I am so lonesome at times." + +"I shouldn't come for the things," she returned, coloring. "And if I +loved you ever so much----" + +"No, don't say you wouldn't. Oh, to-morrow I shall have something +strange to tell you, but now I say over and over again I want you, I +want you!" + +Laverne drew a long breath. She was half magnetized by the intensity, +by the strange expression in the face, the eager eyes. + +"I shall be sorry to have you go." She hardly knew what to say. Sorrow +did not half express it. + +"Don't mind me--yes, it is true, too. But I heard a story last night +that suggested such a splendid possibility. I couldn't sleep. And I +can't tell you just yet, but when you hear it--oh, you'll be tender +and not break my heart that is so set upon it. Something you can do +for me." + +"I will do anything in my power." + +"Remember that when I ask you." + +She was fain to keep her longer, but Laverne had a curious feeling +that she could not understand, a half fear or mystery. And then she +had some translation to make for to-morrow. She was studying German +now. + +She worked steadily at her lessons. Then she had a race with Bruno, +and waited out on the steps for Uncle Jason. What would happen to her +to-morrow? It might be an elegant parting gift. How strange Mrs. +Westbury had been. No one had influenced her in just that way before. + +Then she went to bed and fell asleep with the ease of healthy youth. +Jason Chadsey tossed and tumbled. What would to-morrow bring? How +would Laverne take it? Must she go? Would she go? How could he endure +it? + +"One," the solemn old clock downstairs said. "Two." He had half a mind +to get up. Hark, what was that? Or was he dreaming? Oh, again, now a +clang sharp enough to arouse any one. Fire! Fire! He sprang out of bed +and went to the window. Was it down there on the bay? He stood +paralyzed while the clamor grew louder, and flames shot up in great +spires, yellow-red against the blue sky. And now an immense sheet that +seemed to blot out the middle of the bay, as if it could run across. +"Clang, clang," went the bells. + +"Oh, what is it, fire?" cried Miss Holmes. + +"Fire down on the docks. I must go. Do not disturb Laverne." + +Let her sleep now. She would know sorrow soon enough. + +He dressed hurriedly and went out. The stars were still shining in the +blue sky, though round the edges toward the eastward there were faint +touches of grayish white. But the zenith seemed aflame. Up went the +great spires grandly, a thing to be admired if it brought no loss. He +went stumbling down the rough ways in the semi-darkness. Once a stone +rolled and he fell. Then he hurried on. Other people were out--you +could discern windows crowded with heads. Was San Francisco to have +another holocaust? There were shrieks and cries. The noise of the +engines, blowing of horns, whistles, boats steaming up, others being +towed out in the bay, wooden buildings hastily demolished to stay the +progress of the red fiend. Crowds upon crowds, as if the sight were a +new one. + +On the corner of Davis Street he sat down on a barrel, close by a +stoop, overwhelmed by the certainty. Why go any nearer? The rigging of +a vessel had caught, the flames twisted this way and that by their own +force, as there was no wind, fortunately. + +All the labor of years was swallowed up, her fortune, her luxuries, +her pleasures. Another twelve months and it would have been secured. +But, alas! she would not be here to share it. Did it matter so very +much? His soul within him was numb. Since he had lost her, what need +he care for a prosperity she could not share? + +The hot air swept his face. Pandemonium sounded in his ears. Men ran +to and fro, but he sat there in a kind of dumb despair that all his +life should have gone for nought, labor, and love as well. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +THE DECISION OF FATE + + +Pablo told them the heart-breaking news. But about eight o'clock Uncle +Jason returned. The fire was out, there were only heaps of smoking +ashes and smouldering brands. Jason Chadsey had been warmly +sympathized with, proffered assistance to rebuild, to recommence +business, and would have been deluged with whiskey if he had accepted. +That was still a panacea for all ills and troubles. But he refused, +and wandered about in dogged silence. No one knew the whole loss. + +In the farther office desk he had slipped a box with a string of +pearls for his darling's birthday. Some one had said pearls were for +blondes, and in spite of much out-of-door living, she had kept her +beautiful complexion. Then crushed by the astounding news, he had +forgotten about it. + +"Oh, Uncle Jason!" Grimed as he was with smoke and cinders, she flew +to his arms, and sobbed out her sorrow. + +"There, there, dear." His voice had the stress of fatigue and great +emotion. "I am not fit to touch. And I can't talk now. I am tired to +death. Give me a cup of coffee." + +"I don't believe I will go to school to-day," she said, with fine +disregard of rules. "And yet I ought. There are the translations to be +handed in." + +"Yes, do go. I must get some rest." + +"I'll come home at noon," kissing him fondly. + +He nodded. He was a broken old man in what should have been the prime +of life. He drank his coffee, then took the whiskey he had refused +down on the dock, went to his room, and after a good cool wash, threw +himself on the bed. + +The fire was on everybody's tongue. Not that fires were a rarity. But +this might have been much worse, yet it was bad enough for Jason +Chadsey. The air was still full of smoke, there was a dense fog and a +cloudy sky. Everywhere you heard the same talk. + +The lessons at school went on well enough, though Laverne's nerves +were all of a tremble. Just after eleven as recess began she was +summoned to the reception room. + +David Westbury had been out to the fire and come in again. + +"Gad!" he exclaimed. "It's that Chadsey's place! And he had a +tremendous stock, a new shipload just in, some others waiting to be +loaded up. This is a queer town where every so often there's a big +fire. The only amends is that it is rebuilt better. Half of the old +rookeries ought to come down, they look so forlorn and ancient." + +"Oh, David. Well, if he has lost everything he will be the more +willing to give up the girl." + +"He will give her up, anyhow," in a determined tone. Some things +Chadsey had said still rankled in David Westbury's mind. + +He went downtown again. Yes, it was ruin sure enough. Being prosperous +now, he could afford to pity the unfortunate ones. Chadsey had gone +home. The police were in charge, to keep off the roughs and the +thieves. + +"We must have the matter settled to-day," he declared to his wife. + +"I know where she is at school. Let us go there." + +"Excellent. I should like to see her alone. It is right that she +should hear my story." + +So to the school they went. Laverne came in a little flurried, and yet +bewitching in her simple girlhood. Her bodice was rather low about the +throat, with some edging around, and a band of black velvet encircled +her white neck. Her skirt was ankle length, and the man noted her +trim, slender feet, with the high arch of the instep. + +Mrs. Westbury kissed her with warmth and tenderness. Her eyes were +luminous this morning, and the flushes showed above the delicately +tinted cheeks; her whole air was pleading, enchanting. + +"You know I said there was a strange story for you to hear," she +exclaimed, when they had talked at length about the fire. "Mr. +Westbury will tell you." + +He began to pace up and down, as was his habit, so slowly that it gave +him an air of thoughtfulness. Mrs. Westbury had her arm around +Laverne. + +"Yes, a rather curious story, yet numbers of these instances crop out +along life. Friends, often relatives are reunited, tangled threads are +straightened, mysteries explained. In a little village in Maine lived +a girl and her two friends, they were a little too old for real +schoolmates. Her name was Laverne Dallas." + +Why, that was her mother's name. And Maine. She began to listen +attentively, just as one pieces out a dream that has nearly escaped +from memory. And Westbury! Why, she had forgotten she ever had any +other name than Chadsey--it was her story as well, and now she looked +at the man, who certainly had nothing repellant about him, and the +story of those early years was pathetic as he lent it several +appealing embellishments. She really could not remember him with any +distinctness. The death of her grandmother, the pale, reserved mother, +coughing and holding on to her side, the coming of Uncle Jason, who it +seemed was no uncle at all, her mother's death, and all the rest was +school and play. + +"Oh! Oh!" she cried, and hid her face on Mrs. Westbury's shoulder. + +"So you see you are my little daughter. Your own mother is not here to +care for you and make you happy, but here is a new mother, who has +learned to love you unaware. And now we are returning to London, and +will take you with us, and give you the life that rightly belongs to +you----" + +"Oh, no, no," she interrupted with poignant pathos. "I cannot go. I +could not leave Uncle Jason in this sad loss and trouble. He has been +so good, so kind, so tender----" + +"As if an own father could not be that! Laverne, my darling, my own +little girl!" + +If he had been poor he would have thought any child a great burden. He +was not the sort of man to make sacrifices for any one. They would +have irked him terribly. But in prosperity he was very indulgent. +There are many such people. Jason Chadsey would have shared his last +dollar, his last crust, ungrudgingly. + +They began to set the matter before her in a reasonable, practical +light. Henceforward she would be a burden on Mr. Chadsey, who had +already done so much for her. She would have in her parents' care +accomplishments, travel, society, a lovely home, pleasures of all +kinds, and now she was old enough to enjoy them. And they wanted her. +Her father had the lawful right, would have until she was of age. + +"I must go home," she said at length. "It is so strange. I must think +it over. And if Uncle Jason wants me----" + +"And we want you." Agnes Westbury gave her a tender embrace, as she +wiped the tears from her own eyes. They could not be allowed to run +riot down the cheeks as Laverne's were doing. + +She rose unsteadily. + +"Have you no word for me, your father?" + +She went to the outstretched arms and hid her face on his breast. She +could not love all at once. She could not break Uncle Jason's heart. + +"I know it must seem strange, but I think Mr. Chadsey will recognize +my right in you. We must see him----" + +"To-morrow, then," she interrupted. "Let me have this afternoon to +consider, to talk." + +Her voice trembled from exhaustion. She took a few unsteady steps. The +noon bells began to ring, and again she said she must go. + +They importuned her to accompany them to the Folsom House to dinner, +but she would not consent. Then her father insisted that she should +have a hack, but she refused that strenuously. They walked together +some distance. + +"Arrangements must be made to-morrow morning," her father said +authoritatively. She felt as if she had been metamorphosed into some +other person. Laverne Westbury! it made her shiver. She liked the old +personality so much better. Must she go away? This was all the real +home she had ever known, this strange, odd, ever-changing Old San +Francisco. Why, over here there was a row of tents when they first +came. And the queer little one-room and two-room adobe houses, and the +tangled-up streets that ended at some one's house. How plainly she +could see it all! + +She began to climb the hill wearily. Then some one came to meet her, +helped her tenderly over the rough places. They did not pause at the +house, but took the winding path up to the pine tree that grew more +beautiful every year, with its shining needles and gray-green, fuzzy +buds, almost like little kittens rolling and tumbling in the wind. +Balder the beautiful was resting here. Here Victor had really said +good-by to her. Why, Victor was in London. And suddenly London seemed +to emerge from the gloom of the Tower, and the execution of King +Charles and a hundred other melancholy reminiscences. + +"Laverne!" her uncle began. + +"Oh, I know! I know! They both came to school. They told me +everything. But I shall not go. Do you think I could be so ungrateful, +so heartless now in all this trouble? And I love you. It is years of +love between us, and only a few weeks with them. Oh, no, no!" + +There was a long silence. A vireo came and sang his merry lilt in the +tree overhead. The fog and a good deal of the smoke had cleared away, +and the sun was shining. + +He was very glad of the love. It would comfort him all the rest of the +weary way. + +"Listen, child," he said at length, and he went carefully over the +ground. The strongest point of all was that the law would give her to +her father the next four years. And now he would have to start in anew +and make another fortune. "I am not too old," he declared, with a +little pride. + +A word had caught her, just as one catches a ball with a chain at +careless throw. + +"Four years," she said. "Why, then when I am twenty-one I could come +back. Four years only! Will you be waiting for me? I shall surely +come." + +She would be married before that. A pretty young girl with a fortune +was not likely to be left on the bush. He caught at it, too. It would +smooth the way since the parting had to be. He had nothing; Westbury +had it all. + +"Oh," she cried impulsively, "I can think how you loved my mother. Was +she happy there at the last with you? But you two should have been +married, and I should have been your child. Why do things, wishes, +events go at cross-purposes?" + +Alas! no one could tell. It was one of the great world's mysteries. + +Miss Holmes summoned them to dinner presently. She had heard the +story, and though it was hard, they had to admit that the child +belonged to her father while she was under age. + +Half the night Laverne thought she would defy them all and stay. Would +her father want to drag her away a prisoner? What was a father's love +like? Wasn't the playing at it better and holier; the sense of loss +somewhere else making it diviner, giving it a yearning that a full +right could never quite embody? She did not like the full right to be +taken, she would rather be coaxed a little and led along. And she +could not positively decide about Mrs. Westbury. Some girls she found +were quite extravagant in their protestations and then forgot. Olive +was one; there was another very sweet girl in school who wanted always +to be caressing the one she liked. Isola was not always demonstrative. +They did have some delightful quiet times. Were not women girls grown +larger and older? + +It was strange, Laverne thought, how nearly every one was ranged on +Mr. Westbury's side. The Personettes admired him, Mrs. Folsom +considered him a gentleman, and at that time the term was a +compliment. The schoolgirls envied her the romance and the going +abroad. Even Miss Holmes thought it the right and proper thing to do. +Uncle Jason did not discuss the right, with him there was nothing else +to do. + +Other matters troubled him. Property had been queerly held in the +city. There had been squatters, there had been old Mexican deeds, +claims coming up every now and then to be settled with difficulty. +Jason Chadsey had leased the ground and the waterfront when it had +not been very valuable. He had bought one building, erected others. In +a year more the lease would expire. Already large prices had been +offered for it. He could not rebuild, though generous friends had +proffered him any amount of money. He felt unable to take the stir and +struggle for no end, that he could not explain. Like a wounded animal, +he wanted to go off in quiet and seclusion and nurse his hurts. He had +been worsted everywhere, let him give up. + +Mrs. Westbury had wisdom enough not to make her claim at all onerous. +There would be plenty of time on the long journey. Every day her old +friends seemed dearer to Laverne. At Oaklands they bewailed the +separation, but recognized its rightfulness, its necessity. To Isola +it was a joy that she would see Victor, and she sent no end of +messages. + +Mrs. Savedra said to Miss Holmes, "If you desire to make a change, we +shall be more than glad to have you." + +David Westbury drove his wife and pretty daughter about with a proud, +satisfied air. Agnes shopped for her, "just enough to make her +presentable," she said when Laverne protested. But, after all, the +parting was very hard. + +"You must not come and see me off, Uncle Jason." She could not +renounce the dear, familiar name. "If you did, I should give one wild +leap and land on the wharf, and you would have to keep me. Four +years--it's a long, long while, and there will be room for a great +many heartaches in it, but one day they will be healed." + +He obeyed her, and did not come. There were many friends who did. So +she went sailing out of the Golden Gate on as fair a day as she had +first entered it. Oh, how the sun shone and tipped the waves with +molten gold. Never were skies bluer. Even the rocks, and the clefts, +and the crannies brought out their indescribable colors, browns that +deepened through every shade into purple and black, grays that were +pink and mauve and dun, blues that ran into sapphire, and green and +chrysoprase. Telegraph Hill and the old, time-worn semaphore. Oh, +farewell, farewell, dear old San Francisco! + +There was some trouble getting insurance matters straightened up and +paying debts. Jason Chadsey had lost the spring of ambition and life. +He would take a voyage up north with some of the explorers, then he +would think of the next thing. Four years. Oh, no, she would never +return. The bright, laughing, gay world would swallow her up. + +Marian Holmes pitied the man profoundly through this time. They had +been excellent, sensible friends. There had been two or three +occasions when she would have married him if he had been really in +love with her. She knew now why his love-day had passed. She enjoyed +her own life, her own neat ways, her liberty. She and Miss Gaines were +still very warm friends, and the latter would have liked her to come +with her. + +"I have a fancy to try it at Oaklands, and help Americanize these +charming people, perhaps spoil them. It will be very easy and +delightful. The daughter will be a rather curious study. If she were +poor, she would have a fortune in her voice. She has quite a gift of +poetry. I shall try to keep her from morbidness and a convent, now +that she has lost her friend. And her mother wants her fitted for +marriage. How these foreigners harp on that!" laughing a little. + +Laverne Westbury cried herself to sleep many a night, though in the +daytime she took a warm interest in all about her, and tried to be +agreeable, tried to draw near to her father. He was proud of her +prettiness, of her refined ways, the delicacy that had come down to +her from the New England strain. It was English, and she would "take" +over there. Then he was glad to have Agnes so happy. It was like a +girl with her first doll. Often Laverne would rather have been left +alone, but she tried not to be ungracious. + +They crossed the Isthmus, quite a new experience. They went up to +Washington, where David Westbury had an excellent scheme to exploit +that did get taken up afterward. Then to Liverpool. The little girl +never dreamed there would come a time when one could cross the +continent in a week, the ocean in another, and her father's +expectations seemed quite wild to her. + +There was a visit over to Paris. Eugénie was at the height of her +popularity, but now she had to take a little pains with her beauty. +Still she was the mother of a future Emperor, she was a favorite +daughter of the Church, she set the fashions and the manners of the +day and did it most admirably. + +It was not possible for a girl to be unhappy or cry herself to sleep +amid such charming surroundings. Her French was very useful, she had +been so in the habit of using it at home that she did not take it up +awkwardly. + +Then they must go to London and get settled. They would have a real +home, an attractive place where they could entertain. Mr. Westbury +would be away a good deal on flying trips, and now he would not mind +leaving his wife with her pleasant companion. He really grew fond of +Laverne in a proud sort of way. He liked women to have attractions. He +was not jealous, he had found his wife too useful to spoil it by any +petty captiousness. + +Laverne was really amazed. A simple little home, Mrs. Westbury had +said, but it seemed to her quite grand. A pretty court, the house +standing back a little, a plot of flowers and some vines, a spacious +hall with rooms on both sides, a large drawing room, smaller +delightful apartments, sleeping and dressing rooms upstairs, a man and +several maids, and a carriage kept on livery. + +On one side of the hall were an office and a smoking room devoted to +the gentlemen who called on business, and there were many of them, but +they did not disturb the ladies. + +Some old friends came to welcome Mrs. Westbury back, and this was Miss +Westbury, who had been at school in the "States" while they were +travelling about, and now would remain permanently with them. Mrs. +Westbury sent out cards for a Sunday reception and presented her +daughter to the guests. She was something delightfully fresh and new, +a pretty, modest girl who might have been reared in any English +family, and who was not handsome enough to shine down the daughters of +other mammas. + +It was her very naturalness that proved her greatest charm. And Mrs. +Westbury found she had not made any mistake in desiring her. Young men +sought her favor again. Older men lingered for a bit of bright talk. +Laverne felt at times as if she were in an enchanted world. How could +youth remain blind to the delight? + +Then all the wonderful journeys about to famous places, art galleries, +concerts, drives in the parks. It seemed as if there was no end to the +money. Since prosperity had dawned upon David Westbury he had made it +a rule never to want twice for a thing be it indulgence of any +reasonable sort, once when he had, and once when he had not. His plans +were working admirably. A golden stream was pouring in and he was in +his element. A few years of this and he could retire on his +competency. + +She wrote to Miss Holmes and heard from her the current news about +every one. Olive Personette was well married. Isola had a music +master, an enthusiastic German, who insisted such a voice should not +be hidden out of sight and hearing. Her father had been persuaded to +allow her to sing in St. Mary's Church, recently completed in a very +fine manner, on Ascension Sunday and there had been great enthusiasm +over the unknown singer. Elena was growing up into a bright, eager +girl who rode magnificently and danced to perfection, and was already +drawing crowds of admirers, much to her mother's satisfaction, and +would make amends for Isola's diffidence and distaste of society. Dick +Folsom was still flirting with pretty girls. Nothing had been heard +from Mr. Chadsey, except that he had gone up to the wild Russian +possessions. There was inclosed a letter from Mrs. Hudson, who was a +happy mother, and José was the best of husbands. + +Laverne wondered at times how it was possible to hear anything of +Victor Savedra. Girls were so hedged about here, everything they did +inquired into. It would not be proper for her to write, and if she had +an answer Mrs. Westbury would know it. She kept an excellent watch +over her pretty daughter. She was really glad no one heard from Jason +Chadsey. In this round of pleasure Laverne would soon forget that +crude life, and not care to go back to it. + +She did find many things to interest. But the Westbury society was not +of the intellectual type. Then there were no stirring questions about +one's own town. London seemed a great agglomeration of small places, +and was to a degree finished. There was no especial Steamer day, there +was no influx of miners, no great bay with its shipping at hand, and, +oh, no great ocean with its multitude of denizens to watch. + +Yet, of course, there were other wonderful things, the galleries, with +their pictures and statues, only it seemed to her that people went +quite as much to see each other's fine clothes. There were the +churches, the palaces, the great piles of learning that had trained +Englishmen hundreds of years. Mr. Westbury took them to the House of +Commons to a debate that he was interested in, but she felt a little +disappointed. Somewhere at Oxford was Victor Savedra, but what was one +amid the great multitude? + +They went over on the French coast for a summering and Laverne found +herself quite a favorite at once. She was so modest and unassuming. +American tourists had not invaded every corner of Europe. And a young +American who knew French and Spanish people at home, where no one +supposed they could be found, where they looked only for wild Indians, +was indeed an unusual personage. + +Mrs. Westbury was proud of her stepdaughter. She was so tractable, it +was so easy to keep her out of the reach of undesirable admirers. +Indeed, she thought she should be jealous when Laverne came to have +lovers. + +Then back to London again, visiting at country houses where there were +hunts and much fine riding, pretty evening balls, queer old women, +titled and bejewelled, to whom every one seemed to bow. + +And it was while they were at Thorley that Lord Wrexford came home +from the Continent, where he had been trying to live cheaply for a +while. He was five and thirty, very well looking and agreeable, and +though he had taken on some flesh he was not too stout for dancing, so +he was invited out considerably, though he was not esteemed a catch in +the matrimonial market. For it was well known that Wrexford Grange was +nearly covered with mortgages. The old lord was helpless from +paralysis, not able to sign his name, and too infirm in mind to +consent lawfully to any measures looking to the disposal of the old +place. Indeed, his death was looked for almost any time. + +He came with a purpose beside dancing. A friend had said: "See if +Westbury can't do something for you, or put you in a way to help +yourself. He has some companies under way that are simply coining +money." + +"Why, I thought he went to America." + +"He did and has been back a year perhaps. Lord Elsden is in one +company. It has something to do with quicksilver, and there's a gold +mine. You used to be quite cronies." + +"Yes, he was a good fellow. He helped me out of one difficulty." + +So he went to Thorley Wold not only to dance, but the day after the +ball he took David Westbury over to Wrexford Grange and they went +through papers and debts, some to the Jews that had been ruinous and +were now pressing. + +"You see," the younger man said, "if I stood alone I should let the +place go. You must know of chances to make money out there in the new +countries. I'd start off to-morrow if I could, and hunt up a gold +mine." + +"They are not always to be found," smiling with a touch of shrewdness. +"And mining isn't just the thing for----" + +"A scion of nobility. What did I read the other day?--some lucky +fellow unearthed a nugget worth thousands." + +"Yes--that does happen," nodding rather incredulously. "Well, if you +want me to, I will take these papers to London with me and see what I +can do for you. It's a fine old estate." + +"And nothing to keep it on. Oh, I shall get out of it fast enough when +the poor old Governor is gone. It's a good thing he's past worrying +over it, or knowing it, for that matter." + +So they returned to Thorley in time for dinner, and in the small dance +that evening among the house guests, he took Laverne Westbury out +twice, and heard part of her story. + +Mrs. Westbury did not think particularly of the matter until Lord +Wrexford had been at the house several times and paid her some marked +attention, invited her and her daughter to visit Grosvenor Gallery and +see an especially handsome portrait, the work of a friend of his who +was coming rapidly up to fame. + +"The fur on her wrap is so beautifully done that it seems as if you +might blow it about with a breath. And she is an extremely handsome +woman, was one of the court beauties a few years ago." + +Mrs. Westbury was very much pleased with her escort. A title did go +some distance in her favor, though she never made any vulgar snatch at +it. + +"What about that Lord Wrexford?" she asked of her husband one of the +evenings they happened to be alone. + +He looked up from the stock list he was going over. + +"The man or the estate?" with a short, rather brusque laugh. + +"Well--both." Her smile might have been that of an arch conspirator. A +sudden thought occurred to him. There were many business proffers made +to him in these days. + +"He's trying to stave off some business until his father has gone. He +was willing to cut off the entail, but the question arose as to +whether his father was capable, and the lawyers declare he is not. +Some parties are to bring suit unless certain claims are met. The +indebtedness is enough to swallow up the whole thing. A fine old +estate, too." + +"It is a pity the title cannot go with it," she remarked longingly, +with a meaning look. + +"The young man can," and he laughed. + +"I wonder some one hasn't----" and she made a suggestive pause. + +"He might marry the daughter of a rich tradesman, I suppose. He is +really a better class fellow, and would shrink from a lot of vulgar +relations. Most of these Commoners have such large families, and the +other class seldom have fortunes for their daughters. The Jews will +get the estate in the end, I think, and I am really sorry for him." + +"And he wants some help from you?" + +"To tide over the present, he imagines. But it will be for all time. +Now, if you want a handsome estate right in among good old families. +You know we heard about it at Thorley. It wouldn't be a bad +speculation if one wanted to live there. It's not such a great +distance from London." + +"If one could buy the title," and she sighed. + +He gave a short laugh and then returned to his list. + +She leaned back in her luxurious chair and dreamed. They really had +something wherewith to purchase the title. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +TO SEE YOU ONCE AGAIN + + +Mr. and Mrs. Westbury had gone to Wrexford Grange. Laverne was glad to +have a few days to herself. At first she wrote a long homesick letter +to Miss Holmes. Already she was tired of her new life. Yet more than a +year had passed--three years more and she would be free. But how long +it looked! + +After Uncle Jason's tender love she was cruelly hurt by her father's +indifference. He was deeply immersed in business and proud of his +successes. Indeed, why should he not be? He was shrewd enough to take +no honor in coming up from the ranks. He preferred to have his patrons +think he had always been quite high on the ladder of fortune. Making +money was now his chief enjoyment, his one ambition. Laverne was a +pretty enough girl, but not the sort that drew men irresistibly to her +side. His wife was much more attractive. And then Laverne brought some +remembrances that he wished strenuously to forget, that he had once +dismissed from his mind. He had made a little romance of it for his +wife's ears, and he had a vague fear that Laverne might recall some +disagreeable fact that it would not be so easy to disavow. She never +had, but he was not sure how much might linger in her memory. + +There was always a gulf between the father and the child. He had +demanded her mostly to please his wife, the rest to satisfy a little +grudge against Jason Chadsey that he had happened to possess himself +of the episode not at all to his, Westbury's, credit. From the bottom +of his heart he wished Chadsey had come back in time to marry Laverne. +It had been a most unfortunate step for him, he reasoned. + +Laverne had been in a way fascinated by Mrs. Westbury's protestations +of affection. She had appealed to all that was sweetest and finest in +the girl's nature, all these years she had been studying men and women +on the emotional side, she was not capable of any intellectual +analysis. And though she could assume so much, at heart she had very +little faith in her fellow beings, as she measured them mostly by +herself. An attractive young girl would draw young people, and she +sunned herself in the enthusiasms of youth, they were a tonic to her. +She did not mean to grow old, but she had a quality rare in the people +who cling to youth, she made no silly assumption further than to use +all the arts and aids that she persuaded herself were quite as +necessary as a good diet to conserve health. She enjoyed her world, +her wealth, her little elusive pretexts and inventions, and was amused +to see how easily people who pretended to discrimination were +ensnared. + +At first Laverne had been a new toy, a plaything, a puppet that she +could draw in any fashion that she thought best. But presently she was +amazed at the child's utter honesty, her shrinking from dissimulation, +the surprise at some things she read in the clear eyes. It had been +pleasant, but now she was tiring of her toy. Would she be the sort of +girl who would draw lovers to her feet and dismiss them with a wave of +her fan? + +There was marriage, of course. This was really her first season. The +daughter of a rich man would not lack offers. She wished she was a +little less cold, self-contained, indifferent. + +And now a new scheme had presented itself. Why should not Laverne be +Lady Wrexford? If her father became the virtual owner of Wrexford +Grange, why would it not be a fine dowry? And they could manage that +Lord Wrexford should be judicious in expenditures. It might be best +that the entail should not be meddled with. + +Laverne did enjoy the solitude. She was coming to feel that she was +watched continually, criticised gently, of course, but often it hurt. +And she had not gone down to the real heart of anything. Was there a +heart or was it all surface living? + +She went out to take her drive each day with her maid. Several young +friends had called. + +One afternoon Preston brought up a card. "Mr. Victor Savedra," Laverne +read. + +"He requested especially to see you," Preston said. "I was not +sure----" and she glanced inquiringly. "It is all right, quite right," +the girl made answer, but her heart was in her throat, her voice +husky. She stood there some seconds, fingering the card. Truth to +tell, she felt hurt that Victor had made no effort to see her through +all this time, knowing from his own family she was in London. It was +hardly her place to appeal to him. Indeed, she had soon learned her +old friends were not subjects of pleasure to her new relatives. And +now she had quite given up hope with a sad heartache. + +Laverne walked slowly down the broad staircase, lingered a moment, +while she felt her color coming and going in great bounds. Then there +was a step, a figure emerged from the reception room, and caught both +hands in his. Neither of them spoke, but simply glanced in each +other's eyes. He had changed, matured, and was a really handsome young +man in the somewhat brilliant Spanish style. But the soft eyes had not +lost their olden tenderness. + +"Oh," he began, "I was afraid I should never see you again," and the +glance seemed almost to devour her. + +"You have been in London all this time." There was the faintest touch +of reproach in her tone. + +"And you? It seems to me if one can credit society news you have been +very gay." + +She flushed, and her eyes were downcast, the brown lashes making a +shadow on her cheek. + +"You must not upbraid me. I made some effort to find you. I was so +amazed at the strange turn of affairs. Isola and mother wrote to me +and begged me to call on you. At last I did learn where you were and +sent you a note, directed to your father's care. It was answered by +Mrs. Westbury, who explained that you were not in society, a gentle +suggestion that I might have been rather forward, also that you were +going to some French watering place, but no hint that I might be +welcome on your return," and he half smiled. + +"I never saw the note--I never heard. Oh, did you think I could forget +an old friend when all things were so strange and I so lonely?" + +Now the lashes were gemmed with tears. He longed to kiss them away. +An infinite pity stirred his heart. + +"Have you been lonely and unhappy? Forgive me, but I thought of you as +gay and full of pleasure. I have not been much in ladies' society. I +have made some fine friends among men, and it has been study, study, +but I have achieved most of my plans and pleased the best of fathers. +Last summer with some friends I made a walking tour of Switzerland. +This summer I return home. I like America best. And how San Francisco +will look after four years' absence! Nothing of the kind could happen +in this staid old world. I wonder sometimes if I have not dreamed part +of it. And if I have not dreamed about you! Oh, what a brute I am. +Come and sit down and let us talk it all over. And your poor +uncle--what do you hear from him?" + +She wiped the tears from her eyes and in a broken voice said: +"Nothing." + +"Oh, poor child!" All his heart went out to her. He had thought +nothing of love before. He had been but a boy, but he knew he loved +her now with a man's love, and with a sudden resolve he determined to +take her back with him even if it had to be his wife without his +parents' blessing and God speed. + +"No one hears, I believe," she replied when she had recovered her +voice. "Only--I promised to come back to him when I was twenty-one and +free, and he will be waiting for me, I know." + +Then this new relationship had not been happy. He had besought Miss +Holmes to tell him about it, but she had been very non-committal. He +gathered from that she had not been favorably impressed with either +Mrs. or Mr. Westbury, although under the circumstances there was +nothing else to be done. + +When they had recovered self-possession a little they began to talk of +the old times, the old days that had been full of delight, it +appeared, now touched by the enchanter, memory. The first time they +had danced together when she was a little girl, his Saturday at the +old house, and the ride they had taken down the coast. Snippy, and the +verses they had tried to make for the dead Balder. How he had hated to +tell her _he_ was going away for four long years, and how glad he had +been to get Isola's extravagant letters, "for you know she simply +adored you," he confessed, with a smile. + +"It has all changed," she said mournfully, "There will be no more San +Francisco. The hill has been lowered so much, and our old house has +gone with it. Olive was married in the autumn, you know." + +"And Howard is turning into a fine young business fellow, father +writes. Uncle Personette may well be proud of his children, who have +had the kindest of stepmothers. I always liked Aunt Grace and your +Miss Holmes. Mother thinks she couldn't do without her. And it's +queer," laughing a little, "she declined a very nice offer of marriage +that a friend of father's made her, the captain of a vessel going up +and down to the Isthmus. She was very fond of you." + +The sweet eyes filled with tears again. Had she left all love behind +in the grand city guarded by the Golden Gate? + +The room grew dusky. The maid came in to light up, and glanced sharply +at them. + +"Oh, what an unconscionable visit I have been making," and yet he +laughed lightly, not at all troubled by the proprieties that he had +really outraged--and he knew better. + +How very charming he was, standing up there, just medium height, with +one of the figures that is often likened to Mercury or Ganymede. The +rich tinted Spanish complexion, the dark melting eyes, when he +smiled--could they ever look fierce? the narrow mustache, leaving the +red line on the short upper lip, the chin rounded out with youth and +health, the hands dainty enough for a lady. They reached over and held +hers, the eyes smiled into hers, but all the same there came a sharp +pang at his going. + +"For the next two weeks I shall be awfully busy," he explained. "Then +come the Christmas holidays. I didn't have any last year. I just +stayed and ground in the mill. I was bound to reach a certain point. +But now I shall spend a week in London. I think I can persuade Mrs. +Westbury to admit me." + +Why should she not? Laverne thought. + +A happy girl sat down to her solitary meal. She was no longer lonely. +Christmas was near. Of next summer she would not think. + +A letter came from Mrs. Westbury with news that scarcely touched +Laverne, and perhaps after all had not much of real sadness in it. +They had gone to Wrexford Grange to settle some important business, +and before it was finished the poor old paralytic, who for the last +year had been scarcely conscious of anything but breathing, had passed +out of life. Lord Wrexford had insisted upon their staying until after +the funeral. Would she mind if she gave up the Liscombes' dance? Mrs. +Leigh would be pleased to chaperon her, but it would be in better +taste to remain at home. + +Laverne did this cheerfully. To be sure, the days were rather lonely, +but the driving and a little shopping and going to some picture +exhibitions with Mrs. Leigh filled them up. + +There was a pile of notes and invitations on Mrs. Westbury's desk when +she returned. Laverne often answered the least important. Between them +she sandwiched Wrexford Grange. It was an old, old estate, the title +dating back for more than three hundred years, and though it had been +neglected of late could be put in excellent order again. Such grand +rooms, such a splendid hall, such a great stone stairway with oaken +railing. Family portraits and a copy of the First Charles,--the +Wrexfords had been royalists,--but all these things had been hidden +away until the accession of the son, with the old family silver, +rather clumsy, she thought, but she was wise enough to know that age +redeemed it. + +"Oh," she began suddenly, "the Doncasters want you for their Christmas +Bazaar. The Thorleys are coming up--yes, I think you must go. It is +for the doctor's pet charity, those crippled babies. I think it would +be a mercy if the Lord took some of the poor things out of the world, +but while they are here they must be taken care of. It is only one day +and evening. We must give a luncheon to Florence and Claire Thorley. +I'm sorry Lord Wrexford must be counted out of the Christmas gayeties. +Yes, write an acceptance." + +When she came down to the bottom she glanced over the cards, smiling, +then frowning, not sorry to have missed some of the calls. + +"Victor Savedra," she exclaimed, "why----" + +"It is those Spanish people at home, at least, the son is here at +Oxford, and he called." + +She confessed it very quietly, without a change of color or +embarrassment. + +"Oh, yes--let me see--he asked permission to call--I think I told +you--sometime in the early summer--we were going away." + +These little half truths annoyed Laverne, but she made no comment. + +Mrs. Westbury had accomplished one step toward what she thought would +be the crowning point of her life, and she was amazed that it had been +done so easily. As Laverne was an important factor in it she was +prepared to be very sweet. + +"He is still at Oxford?" + +"Yes, he will be through in June, and then he will return to America." + +She was not even troubled when Preston told her the young man had +stayed two good hours. In fact, Laverne was rather surprised at her +amiability and indulgence. She saw very little of her father, but he, +too, seemed awakening to a new interest in her. There were business +and board meetings and dinners of directors, but he was always in +excellent spirits. He sometimes wondered himself how it was that fate +seemed to send everything his way. He was very lavish with Christmas +money to his wife and daughter. + +So she went to the Bazaar in the best of spirits. She really liked Amy +Doncaster, though she was finding that the type of Olive Personette +was by no means an uncommon one. Amy was deeply interested in her +brother's hospital, and often visited it and made garments for the +poorer patients. + +It was quite a pet charity in one circle. There were hundreds of other +things in the great city, but they had their share of patronage. The +hall was dressed with evergreens, and though some of the half-hidden +flowers were paper they looked quite as pretty and did not wither in +the heat and light. Tastefully arranged tables, with handiwork both +useful and ornamental, attractive for Christmas gifts; young girls in +simple white attire, the fashion of those days, older ones with more +elegance keeping supervision and adding dignity. Carriages came and +went before the broad doorway, and visitors seemed generously +inclined. + +She was very happy, this charming American girl. At the middle of the +century there were not so many of them to share and often fight for +triumphs. Then, Mr. Westbury had won a standing of his own and was +paving a golden path. It was not trade, something that was held in +higher esteem. Miss Westbury might be quite an heiress. There was no +older brother to demand a share. For we had not outgrown the idea that +the brothers must be provided for first of all. + +When the hall was lighted up and the young men began to throng in, the +scene was brilliant and the moneychangers brought out their best +charms and sweetest smiles. Mrs. Westbury had been in during the +afternoon and had gone to a "high tea" at old Lady Carcroft's. So in +the early evening she came again. + +Fred Doncaster, who had elected the Church for a profession, since +there was a very excellent living in the other branch of the family, +and he being a second son, brought in his friend Victor Savedra. + +"He is a Spaniard," explained Amy Doncaster to a group of girls. "And +isn't he handsome! Fred brought him over once, they are great chums, +and he has the most charming manners. Oh, Miss Westbury, he +lives--well--it isn't far from that wonderful San Francisco where you +came from, and they must be very rich, Fred thinks, though he never +boasts of it, but it must be something like a big English estate. Oh, +they are coming over here." + +They made their way through, and Victor's face lighted with intense +satisfaction. Laverne flushed "celestial rosy red." He reached over +and took her hand, exclaiming, "What a pleasure! I am so glad to see +you here." + +"Hillo!" and Fred gazed from one to the other. + +"We have been friends from childhood--isn't it?" smiling out of his +delight. "And Miss Doncaster--I came almost purposely to buy some of +your wares," glancing at that lady. + +"Oh, thank you," she returned gayly. + +The rest of the introductions were given and the party fell into a +social chat. Mrs. Westbury entered the hall at that juncture with Mrs. +Doncaster. A spasm of something like anger shot over her. Yes, she was +quite sure that must be Victor Savedra. Was Laverne making secret +engagements with him? + +"Oh," Mrs. Doncaster began, "there is Fred's friend, a young Spaniard, +who has been over here for his education. We were all charmed with him +when Fred brought him to dinner one night, and wished we had made his +acquaintance earlier, since he leaves us in the summer. The Spaniards, +I believe, were some of the old settlers on the western coast. I don't +quite understand all the distinctions of American people." + +Mrs. Westbury recalled the fact that she had met the elder Mr. +Savedra, who had come to say farewell to Laverne and to assure her +that they would do their best to make Miss Holmes happy. Then she was +formally introduced to the young man, who had a notably distinctive +charm, partly due no doubt to his foreign air. + +Fred certainly was in high spirits, and helped the girls in their +sales, even if he did call them shopkeepers. Then he insisted that +Miss Westbury should accompany him around to "spy out the nakedness of +the land," he said, which in this case meant an accession of funds for +the Hospital. "My brother _would_ study surgery," he said, with a half +protest. "Minturn is a born philanthropist, so between us both we +shall care for bodies and souls. I'd worlds rather have my +profession." + +Amy and Savedra were talking just in front of them, now and then +pausing at a booth, where the girl proudly introduced her companion. +Some stalls were already sold out; indeed, every one seemed jubilant +over the success. In a little rather private corner groups were having +some refreshments, and at one they found Miss Doncaster and an +admirer, who made room for them, and they had a merry time. Victor sat +on one side of Laverne, and they exchanged bits of talk mostly +satisfactory to each. + +Savedra had accepted an invitation from the Doncasters. It was true +Londoners were rushing out to country homes, or to holiday house +parties, but there were hosts of them left. + +"I had no idea the Doncasters knew you," Victor said. "I am glad we +have a mutual friend. I shall spend all the holidays in town, and we +must see a good deal of each other to make up for the lost time." + +Her eyes drooped and a delicious flush overspread her face. How shy +and sweet she was! He would not think of the time when he must go away +and leave her behind. + +Mrs. Doncaster accepted a seat in Mrs. Westbury's brougham. The young +people would walk home, as the doctor headed the party. The girls had +planned to have a little dance the night after Christmas, just an +informal, suddenly arranged matter, and Laverne must be sure to come. +They were to go to a Christmas dinner, but there was no engagement for +Friday evening. + +After they had set their companion down at her own door, Mrs. Westbury +still commented on the success of the Bazaar and the prettiness of the +girls. + +"And I thought that young Savedra quite _épris_ with Miss Amy, didn't +you? He was devoted to her." + +"They all like him very much." She was so happy there was no room in +her heart for jealousy. Indeed, gladness forbade the thought of +possessorship. + +"And English girls don't mind marrying and going to the ends of the +earth. That Miss Morven went to Canada to marry her betrothed, who was +in some government position, and couldn't leave. And Lady Estee's +daughter went out to India. Of course, Laverne, you will not give a +second thought to Fred Doncaster. It will be two years before he can +be ordained. And there's such a family, six children!" + +"Oh, no," returned Laverne cheerfully. + +She had it in her mind to say: "Your father has other views for you," +but caution intervened. Still, when she glanced her over in the light +of her room as she was saying good-night, she thought how really +pretty the girl looked to-night, her soft eyes shining, her mouth +settled in the curves of a half smile that would tempt any lover to +kiss, the clear, beautiful complexion, the long bronze lashes that +seemed to play with the dainty color on her cheek, as the sun over +dimpling waters. Yes, she wanted the excitement of pleasure. + +Laverne went to the dance with great gladness of heart and a strange +freedom. Victor danced with the Doncaster girls first, they were the +hostesses. Then it came Laverne's turn, and they had a delightful time +between the figures. + +"Oh, do you remember how frightened you were that night at Uncle +Personette's? I really made you dance, didn't I? I wonder that you +were not vexed. Was I worse than importunate?" laughing. + +"Oh, I thought you were so good, so delightful, to take the trouble. +And I was such a child. There were so many big girls. How could I have +been vexed? That would have been ungrateful." + +"We have always been such friends. And now I shall venture to call on +you. I had a fancy that Mrs. Westbury didn't quite like--well, of +course, you were not in society. Customs are different." + +"You are going back so soon." She said it with a most adorable little +sigh. + +"There will be the Easter vacation, and we must make the best of this. +When I am away I shall think of you half the time. Let us see. Can't +we make a plan--just at twilight, let us say. No matter where we are +we will send a thought to each other. There's a queer new belief, +magnetism or some such thing, that you _can_ send an influence to your +friends across any space, that if you sit still a few moments and +think of them they will respond." + +"Oh, that is a most felicitous thought!" Could she make Uncle Jason or +any one think of her in that manner? + +"Let _us_ promise--just at twilight." + +Some one took her in the next figure. What a slim, graceful girl she +was. How like a bird she skimmed along when she ran races with Elena! +And how they had scrambled over rocks and sat on the summits +overlooking the ocean! There were no such fascinating memories with +any other human being. There was no one quite like her. + +And they did have a merry, delightful time. A week of going somewhere +every day, of chances to slip in bits of charming confidences, of +strolls in the old Museum and other famous places, and then it came to +an end. + +Fred and Savedra, friends as they were, dropped in to say good-by. +Mrs. Westbury was present. He went over and took her hand--what +magnificent rubies those were! + +"I want to thank you for a great deal of courtesy," he said, "and +much pleasure. And now we must both return to our old pastures and dig +away at the dry roots and forget about everything but the exams." + +He shook hands quietly with both ladies. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +THE GUIDING FINGER + + +Agnes Westbury watched her stepdaughter closely when the two young men +were gone. She did not droop. She was happy and serene, compliant with +whatever was proposed. She made some visits to the hospital with Miss +Doncaster; that was safe enough. Charity had not come to be a fad +then, though there were many earnest workers. + +Mr. Westbury and Lord Wrexford took a run over to Paris. After that he +was a frequent visitor. Mrs. Westbury had a curious charm for him. She +was so intelligent that he sometimes forgot it was like talking to a +man. + +"You American women know about your husband's business and never seem +to think it a bore," he said one evening. "Ours do take an interest in +politics when their husbands are up. And you have the art of making +attractive homes. Now, the average person would have a certain +stiffness about this place----" The belongings were of the regulation +sort, and individual taste was hardly comprehended. + +She had added some easy chairs, an odd and pretty table, with a series +of shelves to hold books of engravings, and portraits of celebrated +authors and artists, several fine vases disposed around, and these +articles announced with an air "we belong to the present mistress," +the furniture belongs to the house. + +"I like to take some comfort and not be continually fretted with +surroundings. As we are living in furnished houses mostly, I can't +suit myself. I don't pretend to. I just have a little and dream of +what will be when we are permanently settled." + +"I wonder if that will be here--in London?" tentatively. + +"I think I shall not go back to America, 'the States,' as you call +it," smiling a little. "I shall have Laverne to keep me company if Mr. +Westbury has to take a business journey. I confess to a fondness for +the older civilization. Our land is still in an undeniably crude +state. But so were you a few centuries back." + +This woman had a curious charm in her frankness, that was never rude +even in its most truthful moments. There was something about her that +he could not define, and that kept him studying and full of interest, +watching the next turn. If it was art, it was the most judiciously +managed. If it was due to temperament, then, indeed, she had a +many-sided nature. She kept young, but it was not the shy simplicity +of her daughter, she seemed to have a wide range of knowledge, but she +was not pedantic, not obtrusive. There were dainty concessions that +flattered a man, little embellishments that seemed an understanding of +a man's mood, too delicate for him to pick to pieces, if he could. +Then there was a mysterious charm about her attire, a French +adaptiveness of style, of something made different from most women, +with a touch of color, a bow or a flower. She was a pleasant study. + +Now and then she delicately drew Laverne into the talk. She asked her +to bring over the portfolio of Albert Dürer's engravings they had +bought only a few days before, and draw up the small buhl stand. Then +they discussed them and Holland; she had been reading up a volume of +travels that very morning, and was as fresh as if she had just come +from there. Laverne was appealed to for this or that. She was not kept +in the background, but she seemed always flying there with adorable +shyness. + +Afterward in his own room, smoking his pipe, he thought the matter +over, as he often did. He had been rescued from an _esclandre_, his +father had been buried as became one of the old line of Wrexfords. He +could go back to the Grange with a certain prestige. He might be asked +to stand for Chediston. There would be no more straits and pinches of +poverty, and he had suffered a good many during the last three years. +All this smooth sailing was conditioned on his marrying Laverne +Westbury. She was a nice enough young girl, but he had had a surfeit +of young girls. It would be hard to bridge over the seventeen years +between them, very hard for her. + +If it was the mother instead! Not being her own daughter she was +hardly likely to resemble her more as time went on. He had a vague +feeling that the child was something less than money-making in her +father's life. All this matter was largely in her mother's hands, and +if the threads were not wisely pulled, Wrexford Grange would be in her +hands, too. Yes, if _she_ were single. + +For the present he was out of society proper. He went to his club, he +called on a few old friends, and he was taking a rather curious +interest in one of the new companies. He really might be a rich man +again. + +So passed away a month or two. Mrs. Westbury had meant to push Laverne +into society, perhaps have her "presented" at some Court drawing room +in the season. But as Lady Wrexford it would have a much greater +effect. There could be a marriage four or five months after the old +lord's death. + +Was Laverne ignorant of the trend of all this? She was thinking that +at Easter she should see Victor again, and that would be another bit +of the old life to sustain her exile. So she listened with only half +attention to hints and suggestions. She knew her father had invested a +good deal of money in Wrexford Grange, and that her mother liked Lord +Wrexford, that as they were not very gay he enjoyed dropping in, that +he was their attendant on various occasions of the soberer sort. + +David Westbury said to his wife: "You had better state the case to +her. She has some of that New England obtuseness. Well, she is very +young. We have grown much wiser in the world's ways since that early +period of our lives. It is the gain of experience," with a short, +brusque laugh. + +Then he kissed her. She always exacted that, and it was generally +freely given. + +"I may not be back until late to-night," he said. + +It was a miserable day, with a blinding fog that had better have been +a rain. Laverne practiced two hours instead of one, then she read +aloud in a novel of the day. There was luncheon; some dawdling and +scolding about the weather. + +Once Mrs. Westbury put her arms about Laverne and looked into her eyes +with an intense expression. + +"I wonder how much you love me?" in a caressing, pleading tone. "I'm +trying to do all the nice things I can for you; what would you do for +me?" + +"Why--there is nothing I _could_ do," with a delicate emphasis. Surely +she could not spend all her life with Mrs. Westbury--making that +mental reservation. + +"You _could_ do something that would repay, that would give your +father and myself the greatest happiness." + +She was not destined to hear it just then. Some styles had been sent +from the dressmaker's, would Mrs. Westbury look them over and choose +which suited her? + +She was having a lavender satin made, and here were also patterns of +lace for the trimming. So they discussed them. Then the postman, a few +invitations to answer. It was so dark the house was lighted up. +Laverne went to the piano again and tried to catch some of the elusive +things she had learned from Isola Savedra. She could see the lovely, +half-tropical home, hear the sweet voices, smell the fragrances of a +hundred blooms. Ah, how lovely it must be on that Pacific slope. She +could have cried with rapture and pain. + +Dinner, then a long evening. No one came in. Laverne read, hardly +taking in an impression. + +"Put up the book, Laverne." The voice was persuasive, but it struck a +chord of fear in the girl's soul. "Your father wished me to lay a +subject before you that is very near his heart, that would really +crown his endeavors for wealth and standing. And it is _my_ desire as +well. I think I have always studied your welfare from the time I +snatched you out of that crude, half-barbarous life. And a third +person's happiness is at stake." + +Laverne shivered. A sudden light broke in upon her. She had half +fancied that she had been used as a sort of blind that her mother +might enjoy Lord Westbury's society, but if it should be---- + +"What an odd girl you are, not a bit curious? So I must put my story +in plain terms." + +It was embellished. In business statements Mrs. Westbury could come to +the point quickly, but she did somehow dread this a little, for she +began to mistrust the girl she had fancied would be easily convinced. +She went briefly over the commercial side, and suggested this had been +done because Lord Wrexford had taken a great fancy to her the first +evening he had met her at the Thorleys. For her sake and for her +advantage her father had rescued Wrexford Grange. Any girl would be +proud of such an opportunity. Lord Wrexford was getting impatient, and +desired to make his proposal, though the marriage would not be hurried +unduly. + +"I saw you were not dreaming of such a thing, and your father thought +I had better prepare you a little. Think, Laverne, a simple American +girl becoming Lady Wrexford!" + +Laverne threw herself at Mrs. Westbury's feet, and buried her face on +the elder's lap, shuddering in every limb. + +"Oh, I cannot! I cannot!" she cried passionately. "No, do not ask me. +I cannot love him, he does not love me. Why, it is like being +sold----" + +"Hush, you silly girl. There is no being sold about it. He has asked +for your hand honorably. It is a chance out of a thousand. Any girl +would jump at it. Your father put his money in the Grange for you, and +you will be a most ungrateful daughter not to accede to his wishes. +When you have made up your mind you will find Lord Wrexford most +agreeable. It can be a late spring marriage, and you really will be +the envy of many a high-born girl when you step among them. You can be +presented at the last drawing room, Lady Wrexford! Why, you would be +worse than an idiot to refuse it." + +Laverne rose. "No, I cannot--I cannot," shuddering. + +"Your father will have his say to-morrow. There, no words. You can go +to your room, and resolve that you will pay due respect to your +father. You are under age." + +She was glad to go. Oh, yes, she had been blind. For the last month +Lord Wrexford had really been _their_ devoted admirer. Most of his +conversation had been addressed to Mrs. Westbury. Yet he had watched +her closely, she recalled that now. He had shown a delicate solicitude +in many things. Oh, could it be possible that he really cared for her! +That would make it so much harder. And how could she meet her father, +how defy him! Yes, she was really afraid of him. Oh, if he would only +be angry and send her back to California! + +She opened the window as if she could look across to the old home. The +fog was absolute blackness, chilling, penetrating every nerve. She +shut it down again, but the breath of it seemed to strangle her. She +did not cry, her terror and dread were too deep for tears. + +She would hear him come home presently, his full, strong voice, and +they would talk it over. So she listened and listened. The clocks +inside struck midnight, then the small hours. Would she never get to +sleep! + +Somewhere toward dawn there was a sharp clang of the bell, and strange +voices. Then hurried steps up and down, Mrs. Westbury giving a shriek, +crying out confusedly, calling the maid, going downstairs, then a +carriage driving away, and the servants still talking. She opened her +door. + +"Oh, what is it, what is it?" she asked. + +"We were not to disturb you, Miss Laverne." + +"But I was awake. I heard--has Mrs. Westbury gone away? Oh, did +something happen to father?" + +"Yes, Miss. He was hurt, knocked down somehow, and taken to the +hospital. But I guess it will all be right. It's natural he would want +Mrs. Westbury." + +Laverne threw herself down on the bed, shocked. One would never think +of associating death with that active, robust physique. Oh, no, it +would not be that, only some hurt. And if he should be ill and ask +this great sacrifice of her! + +There was no word the next morning. The butler had even forgotten to +inquire what was the name of the hospital. Laverne did not want any +breakfast, she wandered from room to room, she sat down at the piano +and played a few melancholy tunes. How hard the uncertainty was! Her +very fingers grew nerveless. + +At noon Lord Wrexford came. He was so gentle and sympathetic that her +heart almost went out to him. He told the story with a tender gravity. +Whether in the dense fog Mr. Westbury had missed his carriage or +slipped and fallen no one knew. An oncoming horse had stepped on him, +and the injury was severe. There had been an operation---- + +"But he will not die! He cannot die! He is so strong--Oh, surely, +surely----" and her voice broke. + +"My dear child, we must wait and see. I am going back. Mrs. Westbury +will stay----" + +He had not the courage to say that a few hours would end it all. The +young, grief-stricken face touched his heart. Yes, he would make her a +good, kind husband. If he were free to choose he would not select her +from all the women he knew, but now the marriage would be imperative, +and he would do his best. + +That evening he brought Mrs. Westbury home. She would not see Laverne, +but went at once to her room. He told the child the story as far as +any one could learn the particulars. A horse's hoof had injured the +skull, crushed it in so that there was only a very faint hope from the +first, but he worded it delicately, and stayed in the library all day, +receiving the body when it came, seeing various people, and having one +interview with Mrs. Westbury. After that she sent for Laverne, and +they wept together in each other's arms. Laverne thought she must have +loved him, she was so shocked by his fate. + +It was a distressing occurrence to all his friends, and he had won +many. Beside there was the great question of what the two companies +were to do without the working head. Lord Wrexford proved himself +invaluable through these troublous days. + +A sad Easter it was. The Doncasters and others brought their warmest +sympathy. Victor Savedra came, and the pale girl in her deep mourning +went at once to the heart that had thought of her daily and kept +tryst. Ah, how should she tell him that since that fatal night she had +not! For now she began to understand the great reason why she could +never come to care for Lord Wrexford. He had not asked her to marry +him, but somehow he had taken a lover's authority. + +Mrs. Westbury had many subjects to revolve in her mind, and was +alarmed at first lest matters might go wrong. So she accepted and +acted upon the fact that Lord Wrexford should be her son-in-law. She +would not give up the chance of this connection with nobility. Besides +Lord Wrexford was necessary. + +Affairs were found in excellent order, and Mr. Westbury gained in the +esteem of the directors. But now the company must assume the +responsibility. + +The new method of separating ore had been patented in both countries, +and was invaluable. Lord Wrexford, it was assumed, had been a kind of +confidential secretary and his knowledge must be devoted to the +company. Mrs. Westbury had large interests, he was made her agent at +once. + +Now, it was found that he had willed everything to his wife, who was +to make such settlements on his daughter as she considered best. And +she held the right to Wrexford Grange. + +She demanded the utmost affection and sympathy from Laverne. + +"Of course, you cannot understand all that he was to me. Marriage +interprets one to the other. And you have only known him such a brief +while. Then, I think these placid natures cannot love and suffer like +the more intense ones. The shock has nearly killed me. Oh, do comfort +me! You are all I have left." + +Laverne tried earnestly. But she noted that she quickly overcame a +paroxysm of grief when Lord Wrexford or the lawyer came, and could +spend hours over the business. + +"Of course," she said, a few weeks afterward, "the marriage must be +put off a while, but it is more necessary than ever. Your father felt +you were too young to be made independent. The Grange was to be your +dowry on your wedding day--to you and your children. The marriage can +be rather a quiet one, and in six months, under the circumstances, you +can lay your mourning aside. Meanwhile we may be considering the +trousseau. We can go to Paris----" + +Laverne threw herself at her stepmother's feet, and clasped her hands +in entreaty. "Oh, do not, do not compel me," she cried, in anguish. "I +do not care for the Grange nor the money. If you will only send me +back to America----" + +"I shall not send you back. I am your natural, lawful guardian now. I +shall do what I consider best for you, and in the years to come you +will thank me for it. There, we will have no discussion." + +What should she do? A dozen plans came and went through her brain. She +remembered how Carmen Estenega had run away from a hateful marriage. +But she had an ardent lover. This would be such a long journey, and +she would have no friends on the way. Should she appeal to Victor? Oh, +no, she could not. Yet she had a consciousness that he would respond +at once. + +She was coming to have a strange fear of Mrs. Westbury, as if she +might dominate all her life. Surely she would if this marriage should +take place. Oh, it could not. She would not consent even at the last +moment. No one was forced to marry. Ah, would not Carmen have been +forced? + +Lord Wrexford came and went. There were visits from lawyers and +directors, and calls of condolence. A certain kind of peace, but it +seemed like an armed truce. And Laverne realized more thoroughly every +day that there had never been any true and tender love for her in Mrs. +Westbury's heart. She was older now, and could see more clearly, had +more discrimination, yet she did wonder why her father's wife had been +so exigent. She could not understand the vanity, the selfish desire +for the admiration of this young soul. And she also saw that Mrs. +Westbury sought her own advantage in this marriage. To be allied to +the higher orders, to be the mother-in-law to Lord Wrexford, to have +the entrée into the charmed circles. How had she grown so wise! + +She thought of her father with infinite pity, that he should have been +wrenched out of the life he enjoyed so much. She felt that he had +never truly loved her, and that she had not succeeded in loving him. +Always her heart was turning back to Uncle Jason. Yes, that was the +sweet, tender, and true life, finer and nobler than this striving and +subterfuge, this greediness for wealth and high places. + +Lord Wrexford came one afternoon, quite a custom with him now. Mrs. +Westbury had been sent for to some important meeting. He walked in +with the easy familiarity that characterized him, and passed a few +pleasant conventionalities. How many times she had thought if she +could see him alone, and now that the opportunity had come she +trembled with a certain kind of fear and shame. What could she say to +a man who had not yet asked her to marry him? + +He began to perceive that she was unduly excited. The color wavering +over her face and the quivering lips touched him. He was not a +heartless man, and every day he was feeling this was more of a dilemma +for him. + +"My child," he began, rather blunderingly, realizing all the years +between them, and then he saw that her eyes were overflowing. + +"Lord Wrexford," she tried to steady her voice, but it trembled +noticeably, "I believe I have been offered to you as--as--an +equivalent----" + +"No, don't put it that way," he interrupted quickly. "Your father was +very honorable." + +"I do not know much about marriage, but it seems as if----" + +"As if youth and love should go hand in hand? Middle age and money may +make a dicker. But if there were love, or if the title won you in any +degree," and he knew there were some who would have been won even by +poverty and a title with the background of the Grange. + +"I do not love you," she said simply. "It seems ungrateful when you +have been both kind and patient. Indeed, I have been trying----" There +was such a wistful cadence to her tremulous voice that it touched him, +man of the world as he was. The slow tears dropped from her lashes, +but she could not raise her eyes, though there was entreaty in every +line of her slight figure, even in the limp hands that hung by her +side. + +"And a love that is forced is no love at all. But you must realize the +sacrifice you will make, and consider. It will be more than giving up +a title. Everything is in your mother's hands----" + +"Oh, I have told her that I do not care for the money. I remembered so +little of papa that he seemed an utter stranger to me, and--some one +had loved and adopted me before. She knows I wish to go back home----" + +Her voice faltered and broke. + +"You are a brave little girl," he exclaimed admiringly. "An honest and +true one, and you deserve to be happy, to love some one who has love +and youth to give in return." Did she know such a one? "I think you +are not taking root here." + +"You know mamma is not any real relation," she began as if in apology. +"She has been very kind and indulgent to me. I would like to please +her. But, oh, I would so much rather have been left in San Francisco. +My dear uncle would not have gone away. We should have been poor, for +he had just lost everything in a dreadful fire, but I wouldn't have +minded----" + +"My dear child, you shall not be sacrificed." He wanted to take the +drooping figure in his arms, and kiss away the tears that rolled +silently over the softly rounded cheeks. She looked so fragile in her +black frock. If she could be his little sister! But he had nothing to +dower her with, he would even lose the Grange himself. But he said, +"Do not give yourself any further uneasiness, I will see Mrs. +Westbury." + +"Oh, thank you a thousand times!" She did not know how adorably her +face lighted up. Yes, if she had loved him it might have done. And if +the race of Wrexford died out with him what matter? + +Laverne felt so much more friendly toward him that she could not help +showing it. Mrs. Westbury hailed this with delight. + +"Have you asked, and has she accepted?" she inquired one afternoon +when they were alone. + +It was a warm day, and she defied custom sufficiently to lay aside +heavy crapes indoors. Her gown was of some thin black stuff, trailing +and cloud-like. Her arms, that were well shaped, showed through in +their whiteness, and she often used them in a caressing sort of +manner. Her throat had the delicate prettiness of art, and she looked +really younger in this half simplicity. The fragrance and quiet of the +room seemed to be a perfect setting for her, and it made her +suggestive, attractive to the verge of fascination. + +"Neither," he said, drawing nearer. "We understand each other. When +the time comes, a year hence or less, perhaps, I am going to ask you +to accept the title to Wrexford Grange. It will suit me worlds +better. I have outgrown the bread and butter period." + +She was very little rouged, and a color flushed up in her face. She +had cultivated the trick of this. She was versed in men's meanings and +knew this was no idle compliment. But she was surprised. + +"Yes, a year or so," in a slow charming manner with becoming +hesitation. + +"Meanwhile be good to the poor little thing." + +"Since you plead for her. I confess I have been somewhat disappointed +in her. Perhaps no child can be quite like your own. She wants to go +back to America--shall I send her?" + +She did not care for a daughter now. As Lady Wrexford she would rather +have all the homage. The girl had been useful. There are people who +can drop one easily when no longer needed. Laverne Westbury was too +honest to be a comfortable companion. And then--what if Lord Wrexford +should come to consider a younger wife preferable? Men _did_ change in +many of their views, she had learned by experience. + +In a way she had loved David Westbury. He was fond of caresses, but +she had never tired him of them. She was proud of his successes, yet +she had a conviction that it was her money that had been the keynote +of prosperity. He was one of the men who dropped an unsuccess very +soon, and did not spend his energies fighting his way through. For the +first weeks she had been crushed by the loss, and this she said to +herself was because of her deep love for him. When she found that +affairs were in a good shape, that she was a rich woman, to be +consulted by the directors, that she still held many things in her +hands, and that she would have still more prestige by being the +mother-in-law of a lord, who had about sown all his wild oats, and +found the crop unprofitable; Laverne was of use to her. And now with a +better understanding the child had become something of a trial. She +was no longer a half-blind worshipper. + +"What friends has she there?" he asked after some consideration. + +"Oh, I suppose the man who adopted her is somewhere--he was a lover of +her own mother. And there was another family connected with the +Savedras--why, there _is_ the young man. I half suspected he was a +rival about Christmas time. And I'm not sure now----" + +"He was here at the Easter holidays. Well, that would be more +appropriate. May and December, you know," with a vague smile. + +"You have a long later summer and autumn before you reach December," +and she raised her eyes with a look of appreciation, and that +admiration which always touches a man's vanity. "I will not have you +growing old too fast. And I think almost any young girl would fall in +love with you, unless there was some prior claim. Perhaps there was." + +"He returns home in July. Well, why not give him the opportunity?" +smiling softly. + +She looked undecided. + +"At least give her a choice. I _do_ admire her sincerely. Many girls +would not have refused a title." + +She knew that. And Laverne's refusal was going to bring her the best +of good fortune. So she could afford to pardon her high +conscientiousness. + +"I will have a talk with her. If we cannot make her happy here, and I +think she is not suited to this sort of life, it would be cruel to +keep her." + +The reluctance betokened some affection on Mrs. Westbury's part, he +thought, though he could not divine the secret joy this new aspect had +brought her. She was not desirous of sharing her right in him with +anybody. + +Laverne waited in a state of tremulous fear and expectation. Mrs. +Westbury was quietly gracious at dinner. Afterward they retired to the +library. + +"Lord Wrexford came to me this afternoon when you had dismissed him," +she began rather severely. + +She did not mean to be too lenient with the girl. + +"You have been most foolish and short-sighted," she said. "And knowing +that it was your father's dearest wish, his plan for a splendid +future. The money he put in Wrexford Grange was for you. He would not +have risked his money merely for the young man." + +"I--I couldn't have married him. Oh, you do not understand----" + +"You are a little fool. I suppose that young Savedra stood in the +way?" + +Laverne was silent. She was glad she had her scarlet face turned away. + +"You pride yourself on truthfulness and honor, yet you have been +underhand and deceitful. You have carried on an intrigue with a lover +while you assumed a sort of ultra conscientiousness toward Lord +Wrexford----" + +Laverne rose and came forward in the light. Now she was very pale, but +her face wore a high, serene expression. + +"You accuse me unjustly, Mrs. Westbury," she began with quiet dignity, +that awed the older woman. "I have carried on no intrigue. No word of +love has been uttered between us. He has not asked me anything that +you and Lord Wrexford might not hear. He wrote me a letter of +condolence--if you would like you can see it. It called for no answer. +We had been friends since childhood. The home at Oaklands was like a +second home to me. If Victor Savedra had been engaged to Amy Doncaster +I should have felt just the same toward Lord Wrexford. Oh, I think he +understands it better than you do." + +"You needn't be so tragic about it. I _am_ disappointed in you. I +hoped to have a daughter who would love me tenderly, sincerely. If I +had been opposed to the plan, your father would have left you there in +that wild land among barbarians, who do not know what to do with their +gold, when they have dug it out of the ground." + +No, it was not for any real love for her, she had known that this long +while. And now she understood that she and her stepmother were on +lines that were too dissimilar for friendship even. She was an alien +and a stranger, she would drift farther and farther away. + +"You seem to have made up your mind that you cannot be happy here, +that my regard is worth very little. Matters have changed with me +somewhat. I shall not keep this house, I must get away from the +remembrance that my dear husband has lain dead in it, after the awful +tragedy. And if you have any choice----" + +"Oh, I have, I have! Send me back home, that is all I ask. And--I do +not want the money. My father's wish that you should have it all was +right enough. You see, I never seemed like a real child to him. I do +not think he cared much for my mother. Yes, let me go----" + +The voice with its pathos did pierce Agnes Westbury's heart, but there +were so many motives ranged on the other side, and she persuaded +herself that the child really had been ungrateful and was incapable of +any ardent or sustained feeling. It would be much better for them to +part. + +"I will consider," she said languidly. "Now go, I have a headache, and +these scenes are too much for me in my weak and excited state. I have +had so much sorrow to bear." + +"Good-night," Laverne said. She did not offer the kiss that after it +had failed to be tenderness, remained a perfunctory duty, but now had +ceased to be even that. + +"Good-night, to you. Mine will be wretched enough, they always are." + +But after a few moments' thought, and when Laverne had dismissed the +maid on the upper landing, she stepped briskly over to the desk, +turned up the light, and wrote a letter to Victor Savedra. + +Fate or Providence had played into her hands always. She would be very +decorous and observe the strictest propriety, but she counted up the +months that must elapse before she could be Lady Wrexford. She had her +lover in her own hands. + + + + +CHAPTER XX + +AN ENCHANTED JOURNEY + + +Was it a happy dream Laverne Savedra kept asking herself, out on the +broad ocean with no land in sight and the great vault overhead, that +by night filled up with myriads of stars, that by day was a great +unknown country over which other ships went drifting to ports beyond +mortal ken. It was a much longer journey then, but going round the +world would not have been too long for all the confidences she and her +husband never wearied of exchanging. + +She felt a little confused that he should have appeared so suddenly, +with such a brave air, and in the long talk told all his doubts and +fears, the whisper he had heard that she was likely to marry Lord +Wrexford, and that he found he had loved her since that first evening +they had danced together. And when he heard that, he felt he had no +right to keep a tryst with her in the twilight, but still he could not +put her out of his thoughts. And to him Lord Wrexford seemed quite a +middle-aged man, and he wondered if the Grange, said to be one of the +fine old estates in that shire, had won her with perhaps the +persuasion of her parents. Then her father's sudden and terrible death +had deterred him from a wild dream of coming to press his claim, for +he was not sure her regard was more than a childish preference. And +he, too, had been brought up to respect parental authority. Then, +there were so many regulations in English society that he feared to +transgress, and he was desperately busy with examination papers, and +now all that trouble was ended, and he should rejoice his father's +heart by his degrees. But there never would be any place to him like +his beloved California, so rich in treasures of the God-sent kind, if +she could not boast great universities and picture galleries and +libraries. They would all come in time. + +Mrs. Westbury had insisted upon one condition. He was to destroy her +letter and never make any mention of it. For Laverne, with her ultra +delicate notions, might resent being offered to another lover. He was +to come as any friend might and learn for himself. + +She had thought of the difficulty of sending the child on such a long +journey with only a maid. It was not merely crossing the ocean--for +then there was no cable and even telegraph communications were apt to +be interrupted. But if she could be really married and in a husband's +care, the way would be clear. + +Victor Savedra had hesitated a little. They would hardly fail to +accord Laverne a warm welcome; but when his father had been so +indulgent to him, to take such an important step without his +knowledge! But there was no other course. + +"I'll give you a generous trousseau, Laverne," she said, "but your +father's property is so tied up in stocks and various things that I +hardly know where to turn for money for myself." + +"Oh, please do not think about the money. I am glad you are not +displeased about--about----" and she colored deeply. "Indeed, I never +thought of Mr. Savedra as a lover. We had been such friends----" + +"To have you Lady Wrexford would have been very flattering to me, +seeing that you were hardly in society. But your refusal was so +decided, and I must say, he took it in a very gentlemanly manner. It +might have cost me my friend, even, and I should hardly have known +what to do. He has been most kind and useful." + +"I do not think he really loved me," Laverne answered, with some +spirit. + +"The acquaintance had hardly been long enough for that. And a man at +his time of life has lost the impetuosity of youth," the elder +returned rather dryly. + +Laverne had made one protest about the marriage. She wanted to see +Uncle Jason first. In a way she belonged to him. If he were poor and +unfortunate he would need her so much the more. + +"But you see you could not search for him alone. We will both try to +find him. And I think he is dearer than your father was. I always +liked him so much. And his home shall be with us always." + +"How good you are," Laverne murmured with deep feeling. + +It was not merely crossing the ocean, that was done by even an +unattended woman, it would be the remainder of the journey, and that +would prove simply impossible. But Mrs. Westbury was determined to +have some reflected distinction in her stepdaughter. This marriage had +an aureole of romance about it. She could wash her hands of Laverne +in a very satisfactory manner. + +So it was a very pretty wedding in church, with the Doncaster girls +for bridesmaids and a quiet reception to say farewell to friends as +they were to sail on the morrow. Mrs. Westbury was modest in her white +crêpe dress with the plainest of adornment. The bride was charming, +the groom a proud and handsome young fellow. Lord Wrexford bestowed +upon her a handsome necklace of pearls and gave her the best of +wishes. Mrs. Westbury parted with some jewels she cared little about, +but to enhance their value she said with well-assumed emotion: + +"They may be dear to you, Laverne, as mementoes of your father. He was +a good judge of such articles, and would have the best or none. And in +times of prosperity he was most generous. Of course, he had not always +been as successful as during these last few years." + +The parting was very amicable, tender, indeed, with the hope that +Laverne and her husband would find their way abroad again. It was +hardly likely _she_ would ever visit America. + +They began their new life as lovers indeed, but the hopes of both were +centred in the old place where they had first met. Dozens of fresh +recollections came to light every day. His memory went back farther +than hers, and now they said "Old San Francisco." He wondered how much +it had changed in the four years, and she supposed Telegraph Hill had +been cut down still more. Probably the old house was no more. Pelajo +had been sent over to Oaklands--would he be alive? And had the +squirrels all been driven to other wilds by the march of improvement? + +A long, long journey it proved. All her life she was to be a great +traveller, but she thought then these two journeys were enough to +satisfy any one. + +And at last the Golden Gate came in view. Oh, had it ever been so +grand and imposing before! Here was the rocky frowning coast line with +its few breaks. The sun was not shining, but the soft, low clouds +floating in silvery gray, turning to mauve with here and there a high +light just edging them, gave the gray brown rocks all manner of +indescribable tints that blended with the gray green lapping waves. +There was no stormy aspect about it, but a splendid, serene peace. +Even the gulls seemed to float in the mysterious ether, the under side +of their wings matching the prevailing tint. And nothing screamed, or +cried, or disputed. Clusters were settled sleepily in the recesses of +the rocks. And way up above they could see Mount Tamalpais with vales +and woods and great sandheaps between, and here was Sausalito, Point +Bonito, Point Lobos, as they entered in. They had reached the Promised +Land. Laverne glanced up with eyes full of tears. The joy was too deep +for words. + +Here were streets running out to the newly begun sea wall. Here were +new piers, the Old Fisherman's Pier made over. Why, Telegraph Hill had +stepped from its lofty estate, though there were still some terraces +left, some houses perched up high with winding paths. Streets +straightened down to Market Street, which seemed to cut the city +diagonally in two. The old islands, the opposite shores, the towns +that had sprung up. How strange and yet how familiar. But now going +and returning was such an ordinary occurrence that there were no great +crowds to welcome travellers. And every one seemed so intent upon +business that it almost confused Laverne. + +There were three who came to greet them. Mr. Savedra, Miss Holmes, and +Elena, a tall girl now, with flashing black eyes, a saucy scarlet +mouth, and brilliant complexion. And Miss Holmes was no longer young, +to Laverne's surprise, who had always held her in mind as she had +appeared on that first voyage, and who had never noted any change in +her when she saw her day by day. + +Victor had apprised his father of his marriage and Laverne found +herself tenderly welcomed, as a foretaste of what was awaiting her on +the opposite side of the bay. So a little of the luggage was +collected, to follow them the next day, and they left the fine, new +mail ship for the ferry boat. The same old diversity of people that +looked strange now to the young girl. And the whirl, the bustle, the +confusion of tongues, the jostling of rough and refined, how queer it +seemed. + +"You have hardly changed," Miss Holmes said when she had studied her +for some time. + +"Haven't I?" with the old girlish smile. "Sometimes I feel as if I had +lived a hundred years in these two. Oh, I shall have so much to tell +you." + +And yet she had an oddly pretty air and self-possession of wifehood +gained in these months when the world of travel had held only each +other, when every day had brought new revelations. + +The remainder of the family were out on the porch with open arms and +kisses that it was worth crossing the ocean to win. For it was early +spring again, with everything a vision of beauty, though they had left +midwinter behind somewhere. Oh, the fragrance in the air, had she ever +breathed anything so delicious since she said good-by to the old +place! + +They were very glad to have her, if the marriage had been out of the +usual order. Isola had a mind to be quite jealous of Victor, and that +amused him greatly. She had improved a great deal under Miss Holmes' +sensible care and training, and had an exalted, spiritual kind of +grace and expression. Laverne felt as if she had gone into a new +world, and the atmosphere was enchanting. + +There was so much to say that midnight came before they had half said +it. And it was not until the next day she had the courage to inquire +if anything had been heard of Uncle Jason. + +Miss Holmes smiled. "Mr. Savedra has a story for you," she answered. +"I will not spoil it." + +He was walking up and down the path with Victor when she ran out to +him, eager-eyed and breathless. + +"If you have missed one fortune, you seem in a fair way for another," +he began smilingly. "I have been telling Victor." He put his arm about +her and drew her close. "Jason Chadsey's love for you is one of the +rare affections seldom met with. You know we were all surprised to +learn that you were no kin to him. But your mother did wisely when she +bequeathed you to him." + +"Oh, you have heard, you know----" she interrupted vehemently. "He is +living. I--we," coloring, "must go and find him. He was more than a +father to me. Oh, tell me," and he felt her pulse tremble. + +"You need not go. He will be only too glad to come to you. Two months +ago I was surprised when he entered my office. At first I could not +place him. But his voice and his eyes recalled him. He had gone +through a variety of adventures. He admitted that he had been eager to +get away from the town and forget his losses, though friends would +have been ready enough to help him in business again. He wandered up +to British Columbia, and all the land between he thinks marvellous in +its capabilities. It is like a romance to hear him talk. Then he came +down again, sometimes trying the wilds and forests, and at last +returning to an old resolve that had taken possession of him before he +saw you--to go to the gold fields. And thither he found his way about +six months ago. At first he was not much prepossessed. It seemed as if +everything worth while had been claimed. Then he fell in with a poor +young man dying with consumption, whose claim had been very promising +in the beginning, but some way had failed, but he had not lost faith +in it from certain scientific indications. They worked together for a +while. This Jarvis, it seems, had been at the School of Mines in New +York. But at the last he went very rapidly, and bequeathed his claim +to your uncle. A week after he had buried the poor fellow he unearthed +the secret again, and it was just as he was about to give it up. He +made no comment, but worked steadily, burying his gold every night +instead of taking it to his cabin, and adroitly hiding the real lode. +His companions laughed and jeered, one after another left the gulch. +Then, as I said, he came down to me with two or three small bags of +gold nuggets hidden about his person. Upon assaying, they turned out +first-class. So he left them in my possession and went back again, +delighted that he was at last on the sure track of your fortune. He +had the utmost confidence that you would return to him when you were +of age----" + +"Oh, poor, dear Uncle Jason! His life has been devoted to me! But he +must not take all this toil and trouble. I do not care for the +fortune. Oh, you must believe that if I had not been compelled to go, +I should never have left him in adversity. It almost broke my heart," +and she paused in tears. + +"My dear child, no one could blame you. There was no other course +then. I understand how he felt about it." + +"And now I must go to him at once----" raising her lovely eyes, full +of entreaty. + +"My child, it will be better to send for him. It is a rough journey, +and a miner's cabin will not afford much accommodation for a lady," he +returned, with gentle firmness. + +"But, I cannot wait. Why, I could fly to him," and she looked in her +beautiful eagerness as if she might. + +"And Victor promised----" glancing at him. + +"We can send a messenger at once, to-day, and a man can travel more +rapidly, put up with hardships. Neither can we lose you, when we have +hardly seen you. Think how patiently he is waiting, almost two years +more, he believes." + +Laverne did yield to persuasion at length. For that matter not half +the experiences had been told over. They were all so glad to have her +that she felt it would be ungracious not to be joyous and happy. Elena +wanted to hear about London. Yes, she had seen the Queen and some of +the princesses, but she had not been presented. + +"She would have been, as Lady Wrexford," said Victor laughingly. "And +you can't think all that a title counts for there. I wonder she wasn't +tempted. For I had not asked her then." + +"But I had promised Uncle Jason." + +Isola's music was a greater delight than ever. She had improved very +much under her careful training, though her soul's desire was still +improvising. + +"Oh, how you would be admired in London," Laverne cried +enthusiastically. "Such a gift is really wonderful. Why some one ought +to write it down." + +"Professor Gerhart has tried some things. But you see I never play +them twice quite alike, and that bothers. I want to turn this way and +that," smiling, yet flushing a little. + +"Yes," Victor added, "you could make fame and fortune abroad." + +"But she could not play in public," said the mother. + +Then they must take new views of the town. + +"There is no more Old San Francisco," Victor declared. "One would +hardly credit the changes if he were told." + +There were streets now running out to Islais Creek, where the marsh +was being filled up. And the queer little corner, where the streets +ran a block or two in every direction by Channel Creek, still held +some adobe houses. Some day the Southern Pacific Railroad would run +along here and build its immense freight houses and stations. Market +Street was creeping along. Sandhills had been toppled over into +depressions. Great buildings had been reared. Kearny Street was +running up over Telegraph Hill. The lower end was given over to +handsome stores, that displayed goods which could stand comparison +with any other city. + +Telegraph Hill was to be lowered, even after this revolution, that had +left the topmost crest fifty or sixty feet above sea level. It had a +rather curious aspect now. Some of the quaint old houses had been +lowered, and smart new ones formed a striking contrast. A few scrubby +oaks, firmly rooted, had defied removal, it would seem, and were left +in sandy backyards. The beautiful pine was gone, the old house had not +been worth any trouble, and so had shared destruction. + +"I can't make it seem real," Laverne said piteously, with tears in her +eyes. "There is no more Old San Francisco." + +There was no more little girl either. + +But farther down the aspect was more natural. Here was the new +Presbyterian Church, where she had seen the old one burn down. And +here was Saint Mary's, with its fine spire still unfinished. The +Mission on Vallejo Street, and St. Patrick's in Happy Valley, and the +fine school of Mission de Dolores, they had all improved, though she +found some familiar features. + +And the little nucleus of China Town had spread out. While the old +Californian and the Spaniard relinquished the distinguishing features +of the attire, the Chinaman in his blue shirt, full trousers, white +stockings, and pointed toes set way above the soles, and the black +pigtail wound about his head, looked just as she had seen them in her +childhood, and they had not grown appreciably older, or had they +always been old? + +Mr. Dawson had died, and his wife had retired to a handsome private +dwelling, and kept her carriage. The Folsom House was much grander, +and Dick, a "young blood," whom girls were striving in vain to +captivate. Mrs. Folsom wanted to hear about her father's death, and if +her stepmother had lived up to her promises. + +"I do suppose your father died a rich man. Or, did it all take wings +and vanish?" + +Laverne answered that the business had not been settled, and that Mrs. +Westbury had proved very kind to her. + +"I never could quite make up my mind about her. Queer, wasn't it, that +she should take such a fancy to you and insist upon having you, for +second wives' fancies don't often run that way. I had an idea she +would marry you to some lord, with all the money, they expected to +have. And here you've married that Mr. Savedra and come back. Does any +one hear what has become of that old uncle of yours?" + +"Oh yes, he keeps in touch with Victor's father." + +"It was too bad he should have lost all by that dreadful fire. Fires +have been the bane of the town, but we do not have as many now. Oh, +didn't the place look queer when we first came. There were rows of +tents still, and such shanties, and now great four-story bricks and +stone, and banks and business places. One would hardly believe it if +he had not seen it." + +Mr. Personette was in a large real estate business, and even yet was +hardly reconciled that Howard had not gone into the law. But he was +very well satisfied with what he called "real business." + +Mrs. Personette was stout and rosy, and had been made a grandmother +twice. Miss Gaines had taken a husband, though she still kept up a +very stylish establishment. Sometimes the three old friends met and +talked over their adventures. + +Laverne was very happy and added a great charm to the household. Elena +would have had her talk continually about her life abroad. + +"Why do you not make Victor describe some of the places where _he_ has +been? Every summer he took a journey away," she said, rather amused. + +"He talks about places. You always put in the people, and they are +more interesting." + +Jason Chadsey was startled by this message. His little girl really +here--but, after all, another's. At first it gave him a sharp pang. +Yes, he must fly to her. So he picked up his nuggets again. Norcross +Gulch was about deserted. Better mining had been found up on a little +stream emptying into the Sacramento. Cabins had mostly been carried +off, shacks had fallen down. Certainly, nothing could look more dreary +than a deserted mining region. But in a month or two another horde +would doubtless invade it. + +He came in town and "spruced up," in his old Maine vernacular, was +trimmed as to beard and hair, and purchased a suit of new clothes. His +little girl! He ought to take some great treasure to her. What if she +were changed; but no, they would love each other to the very end of +life. He had sent her away in that desperate time, but no, he could +not have kept her. + +Ah, what a meeting it was! A pretty girl with the air of a princess, +he thought, sweeter than some of the princesses he had seen, coming +back to his arms with all the old love, nay, more than the old love. +For now she realized what his affection had been, and how he had +soothed her mother in those last sad days. And she confessed to him +much that she had not even told Victor; how, by degrees, she had +learned the hollowness of the lavish professions that had put on the +semblance of love as the present whim had swayed Mrs. Westbury, and, +at the last, she had been really relieved to dismiss her, because she +could not bend her to her desires. For even Laverne had not suspected +her of aiming at the title for herself. + +"And she takes everything!" he said indignantly. "He was concerned +with a company that will make some tremendous fortunes in +quicksilver--an English company. And it is said that he managed by +underhand ways to get possession of the tract while he was here. They +have just sent out a new agent, and that you, his only child, should +have no part nor lot in this!" + +"Oh, don't mind," she cried, "I would rather belong to you in poverty +than to live with them in luxury. It was dreadful to have him die that +way; he was so fond of life, and business, and plans. It makes me feel +quite free not to be under any obligation to them. And I do not care +about the money. I would a hundred times rather have stayed with you +and helped you, and comforted you, if I could have been any comfort." + +They would fain have kept Jason Chadsey for a longer stay, but he was +a little restless and would go back. He had not secured all the Golden +Fleece, he declared, and he must live up to his name. But he would see +them often now. To himself he said, he must get used to sharing his +little girl's heart with another, and, since it must be, he would +rather have it Victor than a stranger. + +They were all very happy at the Savedras. The house was large, and +they gave them room and the heartiest of welcomes. And there was room +in the rapidly growing town, and need for young men of culture and +integrity and all the earnest purposes of life that mould men into +fine citizens. For there was much work to do in this glorious land, +even if nature had dealt bountifully by it. + +And then came the terrific struggle that swept through the country, +with its four years of hopes and fears, sacrifices and sorrows, and +the loss of human lives. California took her share bravely. Gold mines +missed the rapid influx, the city had to call a halt in improvements. +But a great interest in agriculture was awakened, and now they +understood that this might be the most bountiful garden spot of the +world. + +Through this time of anguish to many, Laverne Savedra felt that she +had been singled out for good fortune and some of the choicest +blessings of life. Her little son was born, and to none did it give +greater joy than to Jason Chadsey. He kept at his lode with varying +fortunes, and at length struck his aim in a splendid nugget that for a +while was the town's marvel. Now the place swarmed again, and he was +offered a fabulous price for his claim. He listened at length to his +earnest advisers, and retired from the field. For, though he was not +an old man, he had borne much of the heat and burden of life, and won +a resting time. + +And, after years of trading about and buying a boat of his own, +Captain Hudson sailed in to San Francisco one fine day with his wife +and three babies, bright rosy children, and she with content written +in every line of her face. He had a cargo of valuables consigned to +several San Francisco firms, and they were overjoyed to meet old +friends. When her first baby was born, Carmen had written a long, +tender letter to her mother, and was glad to have a reply, even if it +did upbraid her dreadful disobedience. After that matters softened. +The old Papa Estenega died, and, though there were still some distant +cousins, he left the estate to those who had cared for him in his last +days. Juana had married well, and Anesta had a nice lover. She was to +go to Monterey to see them all as soon as Captain Hudson could be +spared. + +And then, the last spike in the line that united California with the +East, was driven by Leland Stanford in May, 1869. Railroads were being +built elsewhere, but this was the dream and desire of the Old San +Francisco that had almost passed away. + +But nothing could take away the beautiful Bay and the Golden Gate, the +entrance to the golden land that had been the dream of centuries. + +Afterward they did go round the world. Some of the old ports had +changed greatly. Some just as Jason Chadsey had seen them thirty or +more years agone. And there was wonderful Japan, which was some day +to startle the world with its marvellous capacities. Strange India, +with its old gods and old beliefs; Arabia, the Holy Land, with its +many vicissitudes; great, barbarous Russia, Germany, the conqueror, +and the beautiful Eugénie a sorrowful widow. + +In Europe, Isola Savedra joined them, and did make a name as a +remarkable improvisatrice. She did not court publicity, but the higher +circles of music were really enchanted with her marvellous gift, and +invitations came from crowned heads to play at palaces. + +Lady Wrexford had achieved most of her ambitions, and was a social +success. If she could only have kept off old age! + +They came back well content. And, lo! again San Francisco had changed, +stretched out up and down, with the hill-encircled bay on one side and +the ocean-fretted rocks on the other. Is this old Market Street, and +this Montgomery, with its splendid buildings? Whole blocks taken up by +spacious hotels. California Street, with its palaces; Kearny Street, +with its glittering stores and throngs of handsome shoppers or +promenaders--everywhere a marvellous city. + +But the old "Forty-niners" are gone, the Mexican in his serape and +sombrero, the picturesque Californian on horseback, and nearly all the +wandering Indians. Tents and shacks and two-roomed adobe houses have +disappeared before the march of improvement. + +The Savedras are prosperous and happy, and have a lovely home out of +the turmoil and confusion, where beautiful nature reigns supreme. And +an old, white-haired man, rather bent in the shoulders, tells a group +of pretty, joyous children about the Old San Francisco of half a +century before, and the long search of Jason after the Golden Fleece +and the little girl that he loved so well. They go up Telegraph Hill +and say, "Was it here she and Pablo made the little lake for Balder, +was it here she climbed up the crooked paths and tamed birds and +squirrels, and here that Bruno killed the cruel fox?" It is more +wonderful than any fairy story to them. diff --git a/ss2013/1_Web Mining/Uebungen/1_Uebung/abgabe/txt/Einfuehrung in die moderne Logik.txt b/ss2013/1_Web Mining/Uebungen/1_Uebung/abgabe/txt/Einfuehrung in die moderne Logik.txt new file mode 100755 index 00000000..2c99582e --- /dev/null +++ b/ss2013/1_Web Mining/Uebungen/1_Uebung/abgabe/txt/Einfuehrung in die moderne Logik.txt @@ -0,0 +1,3786 @@ +Erster Hauptteil. + +Die Wahrheit. + + + ------------------ + + + +Erster Abschnitt. + +Was ist Wahrheit? + + + Erste Untersuchung. + + +Die herkömmliche Definition der Wahrheit. + +Seit Cartesius spielt der Gedanke einer gegensätzlichen Trennung von Leib +und Seele in der Philosophie eine Rolle. In ähnlicher Weise hat seit Kant +der Gedanke einer gegensätzlichen Trennung des Erkennens und seines +Gegenstandes die Philosophen beschäftigt, und zwar verstanden sie unter +Gegenstand das sogenannte Ding an sich oder den Gegenstand, wie er +unerkannter Weise ist. Beide Gedanken sind der Aristotelischen und +mittelalterlichen Philosophie fremd. Der letztere Gedanke führt zu einer +Auffassung der gewöhnlichen Definition der Wahrheit, welche jede +Erkenntnis der Wahrheit unmöglich macht. Nach dieser Definition nämlich, +auf die alle Erörterungen über die Wahrheit vielfach unbewusst und +unfreiwillig zurückkommen, besteht die Wahrheit in der _Übereinstimmung +des Erkennens mit seinem Gegenstande_. Fassen wir hier Gegenstand in +seiner gegensätzlichen Trennung vom Erkennen als das Unerkannte oder so +wie er unerkannter Weise ist, so kann von einer Erkenntnis der Wahrheit +keine Rede mehr sein; denn der Gegenstand kommt uns doch nur innerhalb +unsrer Vorstellungen und Gedanken, also vermittelt durch unser Erkennen, +zum Bewusstsein. Was er abgesehen davon sein mag, darüber wissen wir +nichts. Aber muss in jener Definition der Wahrheit das Wort Gegenstand +notwendig im Sinne des unerkannten Gegenstandes, wie er unerkannter Weise +ist, genommen werden? Wir werden der Absicht der gewöhnlichen Definition +der Wahrheit gerecht, wenn wir den Gegenstand als das betrachten, was vom +Erkennen weder gemacht noch geändert wird und insofern vom Erkennen +unabhängig ist. Damit steht aber nicht im Widerspruch, wenn wir an einer +unlösbaren Verbindung des Erkennens mit seinem Gegenstande festhalten und +insofern von einer wechselseitigen Abhängigkeit einerseits des Erkennens +vom Gegenstande und anderseits des Gegenstandes vom Erkennen reden. Wenn +das Erkannte auch nicht _durch_ das Erkennen ist, so bleibt doch die +Annahme möglich, dass es nicht _ohne_ das Erkennen sein kann und insofern +von ihm abhängig ist. Ausgeschlossen ist hierbei die rationalistische +Annahme, dass das Erkennen seinen Gegenstand aus sich selbst schöpft; aber +auch die empiristische Annahme ist unrichtig, dass dem Erkennen sein +Gegenstand einfach gegeben wird. Das Gegebene ist noch nicht das Erkannte; +das Erkennen darf den Gegenstand weder erzeugen oder auch nur ändern, noch +kann es ihn als Unerkanntes als Ding an sich erfassen. + +Indes ganz abgesehen davon können wir die Definition, wie sie gewöhnlich +gegeben wird, nicht gebrauchen, schon wegen der Unbestimmtheit und +Vieldeutigkeit des Wortes »Gegenstand«, und es würde daran auch dann +nichts geändert, wenn wir dieses Wort durch das nicht minder unbestimmte +und vieldeutige »Wirklichkeit« ersetzten. _Für uns giebt es nur einen +Gegenstand des Erkennens, und das ist die Wahrheit._ Wir nehmen an, dass +wir die Wahrheit erkennen können, erklären uns aber ausser Stande, von dem +was Wahrheit ist, eine Definition zu geben. Wenn wir aber auch keine +eigentliche Definition von dem Begriff der Wahrheit zu geben vermögen, so +können wir doch wenigstens ein Merkmal dieses Begriffs aufweisen und in +ihm uns seinen Inhalt vergegenwärtigen. Das Merkmal ist freilich kein +letztes Unterscheidungsmerkmal, aber doch ein wesentlicher, wenn nicht der +wesentlichste Bestandteil des Begriffs der Wahrheit. Wir können ferner +auch ein Kennzeichen der Wahrheit angeben, an dem wir Wahrheit und +Falschheit unterscheiden, und damit den Umfang dieses Begriffs bestimmen. +Wie so oft muss auch hier die genauere Bestimmung des Umfangs einen Ersatz +bieten für die unzulängliche Festsetzung des Inhalts. Das Kennzeichen ist +freilich nur ein äusseres, aber als einziges unterscheidendes Kennzeichen +nicht bloss praktisch unentbehrlich, sondern auch von entscheidender +Wichtigkeit. + + + Zweite Untersuchung. + + +Der überzeitliche Charakter der Wahrheit. + +Aus Thatsachen und Gedanken, d. h. aus dem Vorgefundenen und aus unsren +nicht willkürlichen sondern dem Vorgefundenen entsprechenden Zuthaten, +bauen sich die Wissenschaften auf. Wenigstens ist in dem, was wir +Thatsachen nennen, das Vorgefundene das herrschende Element, während in +den Gedanken das Vorgefundene gegen die Zuthaten zurücktritt. Zu den +Gedanken gehören auch die Begriffsurteile oder Begriffssätze wie: weiss +ist nicht schwarz, ein Viereck nicht rund, ein gleichseitiges Dreieck +gleichwinklig, zwei kleiner als drei usw., die das Gebiet der logischen +und mathematischen Wahrheiten umfassen. Sie sind vollkommen wahr, auch +wenn die Glieder, die sie miteinander verbinden, gar nicht existieren; +auch wenn es so etwas wie weiss und schwarz, Viereck und rund, +gleichseitiges und gleichwinkliges Dreieck, zwei und drei in Wirklichkeit +gar nicht giebt, so bleibt doch die in diesen Urteilen ausgedrückte +Beziehung durchaus wahr. Sie ist ewig gültig, ihre Wahrheit hat einen +überzeitlichen Charakter. + +Richtig verstanden gilt das aber von allen Urteilen, die eine Wahrheit zum +Ausdrucke bringen. Die Thatsachen unsres Bewusstseins, von denen nur wir +allein jeder für sich Kenntnis haben können, und alle übrigen Thatsachen +von mehr oder minder langer Dauer -- wie sie z. B. in den Urteilen: ich +freue mich jetzt, oder: die Lampe steht auf dem Tische, ausgedrückt werden +-- können nur wirklich oder wahr sein, wenn dies, dass sie jetzt oder eine +zeitlang bestehen, für alle Zeiten gilt. Alle Wahrheit, auch die +anscheinend nur einen Augenblick oder eine kurze Zeit bestehende, hat +einen überzeitlichen Charakter. Sie hat trotz ihres scheinbar kurzen +Bestandes eine ewige Gültigkeit. Nur darum ist sie Wahrheit. + + + Dritte Untersuchung. + + +Bedeutung des überzeitlichen Charakters der Wahrheit. + +Aber wie ist das möglich? Nur dadurch, dass auch die vergängliche +Thatsache eine ewige Bedeutung hat, aus der sich ihr Hervortreten in der +Zeit erklärt. Nur aus dieser ihrer ewigen Bedeutung, die ihre zeitliche +Existenz bedingt und begründet, folgt notwendigerweise der überzeitliche +Wahrheitscharakter der Thatsache. Eine ewige Bedeutung kann aber der +zeitlichen und vergänglichen einzelnen Thatsache nicht als solcher in +ihrer Vereinzelung sondern nur als Glied eines grösseren über ihre +Zeitlichkeit und Vergänglichkeit hinausgehenden Ganzen zukommen; nur als +Teil der Gesamtwirklichkeit, die als Ganzes wenigstens über die +Zeitlichkeit und Vergänglichkeit ihrer Teile hinausgeht. Schon im +gewöhnlichen Leben sprechen wir bei Thatsachen nur von Wahrheit, wenn sie +in den Zusammenhang des Wirklichen aufgenommen werden können und durch +ihre Stellung in diesem Ganzen eine Bedeutung gewinnen. Dass ein Stein am +Wege liegt, eine Person uns begegnet, nennen wir schwerlich eine Wahrheit, +ausser wenn die Betonung dieses Sachverhalts aus andren Gründen etwa wegen +eines gerichtlichen Verfahrens wichtig ist. Jedenfalls werden wir uns den +Wahrheitscharakter der Thatsachen, der notwendig ein überzeitlicher ist, +nur zum Bewusstsein bringen können, wenn wir sie der zufälligen +Äusserlichkeiten, insbesondere ihrer Vereinzelung zu entkleiden und mit +Spinoza zu reden sub specie aeternitatis zu betrachten suchen. Ob und +inwiefern dies Streben von Erfolg gekrönt ist oder zu inhaltlich +bedeutsamen Erkenntnissen führt, mag fraglich bleiben; aber davon hängt +natürlich die notwendige Überzeitlichkeit des Charakters der Wahrheit +nicht ab. + +Eine Folgerung drängt sich auf: das Gelten steht höher als das Existieren; +das Existieren ist nur möglich durch das Gelten. Mit andren Worten: die +Wahrheit steht höher als die Wirklichkeit und die Wirklichkeit ist nur +Wirklichkeit durch die Wahrheit. Aber was ist Wirklichkeit, abgesehen von +ihrer Wahrheit? + + + Vierte Untersuchung. + + +Nur Eine Wahrheit für alle Denkenden. + +Was für alle Zeit gilt, gilt natürlich auch für alle Denkenden. Es giebt +entweder keine Wahrheit, oder aber sie gilt für alle Denkenden. Die +Wahrheit ist nicht ein Erzeugnis der menschlichen Organisation überhaupt +oder jeder einzelnen menschlichen Organisation insbesondere, sodass sie +nur für die Menschen gälte oder gar für jeden einzelnen Menschen eine +andere und besondere wäre. Alle Erkenntnis hat nur Einen Gegenstand, das +ist die Eine Wahrheit, die für alle Erkennenden dieselbe ist. Damit ist +aber keineswegs gesagt, dass die Wahrheit unabhängig vom Erkennen sei im +Sinne der Transcendenz oder des Dinges an sich. Bei einer solchen +Unabhängigkeit hörte die Wahrheit auf, Gegenstand des Erkennens zu sein. +Die unauflösliche Verbindung der Wahrheit mit dem Erkennen muss +festgehalten werden, wie immer diese Verbindung zu denken ist. Ausserdem +wird man von einer Abhängigkeit der Wahrheit vom göttlichen Denken oder -- +wenn man diesen Ausdruck vorzieht -- vom »Bewusstsein überhaupt« und auch +vom menschlichen Denken reden dürfen, vorausgesetzt, dass das menschliche +Denken, wenn es wahr ist, eins mit dem göttlichen ist. + +Gilt die Wahrheit, auch wenn wir sie nicht erkennen? Gilt das Gesetz der +Gravitation, ehe es Newton entdeckte? Zweifellos! Aber was heisst das +anders, als dass diese Wahrheit, wie alle andren, einen überzeitlichen +Charakter hat, dass sie ewig gilt! Muss man dann aber nicht schliessen, +dass die Wahrheit vorhanden sein kann, ohne unser Erkennen? Wir dürfen +nicht vergessen, dass auch unser Erkennen, wie alle Thatsachen, einen +überzeitlichen Charakter hat. Gewiss, es hat einen Anfang, es erlebt +Veränderungen, gehört also der Zeit an, wie alle zeitlichen Thatsachen. +Aber wir wissen nicht, wie sich später zeigen wird, was es mit der Zeit +auf sich hat, obgleich wir ihr die Bedeutung nicht absprechen. Sicher ist, +dass das Zeitliche vom Ewigen abhängig ist, dass es in seinem Hervortreten +in der Zeit durch das Ewige bedingt und bestimmt ist. Das gilt auch von +unsrem Erkennen. Aber nicht minder sicher ist, dass dieses Hervortreten in +der Zeit auch eine ewige Bedeutung hat, und das verbürgt uns seine +unauflösliche Verbindung mit der Wahrheit, in der allein diese ewige +Bedeutung ihren Grund haben kann. + + + Fünfte Untersuchung. + + +Die Wahrheit und das Urteil. + +In jedem Urteile haben wir ein Bewusstsein der Wahrheit, wenn auch nur +einschliesslich und der Sache nach. Ausdrücklich und der Form nach ist +dies allerdings nur der Fall in dem Urteile: Es ist wahr, dass dies oder +jenes zutrifft! Natürlich handelt es sich hierbei nicht immer um ein +Bewusstsein der wirklichen, sondern oft auch nur der bloss vermeintlichen +Wahrheit. Dieses Bewusstsein geht seinem Sinne nach stets über die +Verbindung der Vorstellungen im Urteile hinaus und weist auf einen +Sachverhalt hin, der in der Verbindung der Vorstellungen zum Ausdrucke +kommen soll, aber von ihr verschieden ist. Wir nennen das die Beziehung +des Urteils auf die Objektivität, und diese ist mit dem in ihm enthaltenen +Bewusstsein der Wahrheit ein und dasselbe. + +Wenn man das Urteil Ausdruck eines Sachverhalts nennt und darunter eben +nur diese Beziehung auf die Objektivität oder das Bewusstsein der Wahrheit +versteht, so ist dagegen nichts einzuwenden. Falsch wäre es aber, wenn man +das Wort Ausdruck im Sinne einer Nachbildung des Sachverhalts verstehen +wollte. Das im Urteil sich darstellende Erkennen ist keineswegs eine bloss +müssige Wiederholung der Wirklichkeit, ein blosses Spiegelbild derselben. +Dem Bilde ist es eigentümlich, eine Sache so wiederzugeben, wie sie +unabgebildeter Weise ist. Wäre das Erkennen ein blosses Bild der Wahrheit, +so würde es die Wahrheit wiedergeben, wie sie unerkannter Weise ist. Die +Wahrheit würde zum unerkennbaren Ding an sich. Im Erkennen haben wir nicht +ein blosses Bild der Wahrheit sondern die Wahrheit selbst. Es ahmt sie +nicht nach (homoiosis), sondern nimmt an ihr teil (koinonia), sie ist in +ihr gegenwärtig (parusia). Wir nehmen im Erkennen die Wahrheit selbst in +Besitz, nicht bloss ihr Spiegelbild, ihren Abdruck im Bewusstsein. Davon +überzeugt uns immer wieder die Reflexion auf den Erkenntnisvorgang. + +Wichtig ist, dass wir im Urteile nicht bloss über die in ihm vorhandene +Verbindung der Vorstellungen hinausgehen, sondern mit unsrem Denken oder, +wenn wir auch das falsche Urteil berücksichtigen wollen, wenigstens in +Gedanken in die überzeitliche, ewige Welt, die für alle Denkenden in +gleicher Weise gilt, hineinreichen und mit ihr im Zusammenhange stehen. +Das ist die Bedeutung der Beziehung auf die Objektivität, die mit dem +Bewusstsein der Wahrheit ein und dasselbe ist. Diese überzeitliche, ewige, +für alle Denkenden gleicherweise geltende Welt ist die Welt, das Reich +oder auch die Region, das System der Wahrheit. Jeder Urteilende tritt mit +jedem Urteil in dieses allem sinnlichen Scheine nicht bloss sondern auch +allem Vergänglichen, Veränderlichen so entgegengesetzte Gebiet ein und +fasst in ihm festen Fuss. + +Unsere Darlegung erinnert nicht bloss an Spinoza, der alles sub specie +aeternitatis betrachten will, sondern auch an Augustins veritates aeternae +et immutabiles, die ihren Grund nicht in dem veränderlichen menschlichen +Denken und ebensowenig in den veränderlichen Dingen der Welt sondern nur +in Gott haben können. Sie erinnert ferner an den Satz von Nikolaus von +Cues, der wieder an Eckhart anklingt, dass die ideelle Existenz der Dinge +(in dem Gedanken Gottes) wahrer ist als die in Raum und Zeit erscheinende +körperliche Existenz. Sie erinnert endlich ganz besonders an die +Ideenlehre Platons. Das, was wir Wahrheit nennen, ist in der That eine +Platonische Idee, oder sie umfasst vielmehr die ganze Ideenwelt Platons, +welche die Erscheinungswelt in ihrem Sein bedingt. + + + +Zweiter Abschnitt. + +Die Wahrheit und das Wesen der Dinge. + + + Sechste Untersuchung. + + +Wesentliche und nicht wesentliche Merkmale. + +Das Erkennen ist auf das Wesentliche gerichtet. Sein Ziel ist das Wesen +der Dinge. Das Wesentliche soll im Gegensatz stehen zu dem Zufälligen und +scheint dann als das Notwendige, Unentbehrliche betrachtet zu werden. Es +fragt sich, wem notwendig, wem unentbehrlich? Natürlich dem Begriff des +Dinges (Ding im allgemeinsten Sinne genommen, in dem es auch +Eigenschaften, Vorgänge und Beziehungen umfasst). Allein, fragen wir +weiter, woraus besteht der Begriff? so lautet die Antwort: aus den +wesentlichen Merkmalen. Durch Zurückgreifen auf den Begriff kommen wir in +der Erkenntnis dessen, was unter wesentlich zu verstehen ist, nicht +weiter. + +Jedenfalls setzt die Unterscheidung wesentlicher und zufälliger Merkmale +die Annahme eines Wertunterschieds unter den Merkmalen voraus. Und an +dieser Annahme wird festgehalten werden müssen. Schon wenn wir von der +Gestalt und Grösse der Ausdehnung, von der Höhe und Stärke eines Tones, +von der Richtung und Geschwindigkeit der Bewegung reden, tritt dieser +Wertunterschied deutlich hervor. Das erstgenannte Merkmal ist das +vorzüglichere, dem das zweite als Eigenschaft untergeordnet wird. Aber +nicht das Umgekehrte gilt. Man kann den Kaukasier nicht definieren als ein +menschliches Weisses, den Menschen nicht als ein zweibeiniges und +zweihändiges oder als ein zweifüssiges ungefiedertes Wesen, wenn gleich +diese Definitionen eine Unterscheidung des Kaukasiers von den andern +Menschentypen und des Menschen von allen andern Dingen ermöglichen. Warum +nicht? Weil die weisse Farbe, die Zweifüssigkeit, Ungefiedertheit keine +wesentlichen Merkmale bilden, das Weiss-Sein ausserdem sich dem +Mensch-Sein nicht überordnen lässt. Die Alten hatten recht, wenn sie im +Anschluss an Porphyrius nicht unterschiedslos alle Merkmale, die einem +Dinge und nur ihm zukommen, in seine Definition aufgenommen wissen +wollten, sondern nur gewisse wertvolle, die sie die wesentlichen nannten. +Auch darin hatten sie recht, wenn sie von den wesentlichen Merkmalen nicht +bloss die zufälligen, wie z. B. die Farbe beim Menschen, unterschieden, +sondern auch die notwendigen, die sogenannten Proprietäten. Was notwendig +zum Wesen des Menschen gehört, wie z. B. die Zweifüssigkeit, ist darum +noch nicht ein Bestandteil dieses Wesens. + + + Siebente Untersuchung. + + +Wie gewinnen wir die wesentlichen Merkmale? + +Aus dem Gesagten ergiebt sich, dass wir weder die einer Reihe von Dingen +gemeinsamen, sogenannten allgemeinen Merkmale, noch die im Laufe der +Entwicklung eines Dinges sich gleichbleibenden sogenannten konstanten +Merkmale mit den wesentlichen verselbigen dürfen. Es bedarf ferner nicht +eines Durchlaufens einer Reihe von gleichen oder ähnlichen Dingen oder der +Entwicklungsphasen ein und desselben Dinges um das Wesentliche an ihnen zu +entdecken. Freilich kann nicht geleugnet werden, dass dieses Verfahren der +Generalisation die Auffindung der wesentlichen Merkmale häufig +unterstützt. Sind die Umstände und Verhältnisse der Gegenstände, um deren +Erkenntnis es sich handelt, sehr verwickelt und schwer überschaubar, so +mag es unentbehrlich sein, aber doch nur für die Ausscheidung der +unwesentlichen Merkmale, nicht unmittelbar für die Auffindung der +wesentlichen. Die Abstraktion ist natürlich früher als die Generalisation, +weil deren Bedingung. Durch die Abstraktion gewinnen wir unter andrem auch +die wesentlichen Merkmale. Eine kleine Menge Wasser genügt dem Chemiker, +die Zusammensetzung des Wassers, alles Wassers aufzuweisen, eine einzige, +beliebig gewählte Dreiecksfigur dem Mathematiker, die Eigenschaften aller +Dreiecke darzuthun. Das bekannte Verfahren der Induktion, bei der von +einer grösseren oder geringeren Zahl von Einzelfällen ausgegangen und aus +ihnen mit grösserer oder geringerer Wahrscheinlichkeit auf einen +allgemeingültigen Sachverhalt geschlossen wird, kommt ebenso wie das +Verfahren der Generalisation nur dann zur Anwendung, wenn die Umstände und +Verhältnisse sehr verwickelt und schwer überschaubar sind. »Die wahre +Methode geht« nach Liebig (von Liebig, Franz Bacon und die Methode der +Naturwissenschaften 1863 S. 47) »vom einzelnen Falle, nicht von vielen +Fällen aus«. Das deutet auch Goethe an, wenn er (W. XXII. S. 264) sagt: +»Was ist das Allgemeine? Der einzelne Fall. Was ist das Besondere? +Millionen Fälle.« + +Indes, was ist denn das Mittel für die Erfassung des Wesentlichen? Ein +einfacher Blick des Geistes, über den freilich keineswegs jedermann +verfügt. Eine grosse Anzahl selbst von den wissenschaftlichen Forschern +hängen an Einzelheiten, Äusserlichkeiten, dringen nicht ein in den Kern +der Sache, nicht in das, worauf es ankommt. Der Blödsinnige und Dumme +ermangelt dieses Blickes gänzlich. Jener bleibt mit seinem sprunghaften +Denken keinen Augenblick bei derselben Sache, dieser sieht, wie man zu +sagen pflegt, vor lauter Bäumen den Wald nicht. Insbesondere zeigt dies +der Ungebildete durch Heranziehung aller, auch der gleichgültigsten +Nebenumstände bei Darstellungen und Erzählungen. Ihnen allen fehlt der +Blick des Geistes für das Wesentliche. + +Etwas dieser eigentümlichen Funktion des Bewusstseins Ähnliches haben wir +in dem, was man in der Wissenschaft als Aperçu oder Intuition bezeichnet. +Man muss darunter auch einen, wie man sagt, vorausschauenden Blick des +Geistes verstehen, durch den die wissenschaftlichen Ergebnisse, die das +Ende einer längren Gedanken- und Forschungsarbeit bilden und sie zum +Abschlusse bringen, vorweggenommen oder unmittelbar aufgefasst werden. +Freilich ist diese Vorwegnahme oder unmittelbare Auffassung keineswegs +schon eine Erkenntnis. An sie anschliessend nimmt die eigentliche +wissenschaftliche Gedanken- und Forschungsarbeit erst ihren Anfang, +zunächst sozusagen bloss probierend und tastend. Aber dieses eigentliche +wissenschaftliche Verfahren erhält doch durch das im voraus erfasste +Ergebnis seine Richtung und sein Ziel. Ihm liegt die Aufgabe ob, für das +Aperçu oder die Intuition den Beweis zu führen und sie dadurch zu einer +wirklichen Erkenntnis zu erheben. Wir werden bald sehen, dass der Blick +des Geistes, durch den wir die wesentlichen Merkmale gewinnen, darin mit +dem wissenschaftlichen Aperçu und der wissenschaftlichen Intuition +Ähnlichkeit hat, dass wir durch ihn und für sich allein noch keineswegs +Erkenntnisse gewinnen. + + + Achte Untersuchung. + + +Die wesentlichen (begrifflichen) Merkmale sind nicht aus den sinnlichen +(vorstellungsmässigen) abzuleiten. + +All unsrem Erkennen liegen Sinnenbilder zu Grunde. Auf das in den +Empfindungen gegebene, das Sinnliche, Sinnfällige, muss, sei es zur +Begründung, sei es zur Verdeutlichung unsrer Erkenntnisse, immer +zurückgegriffen werden; zur Verdeutlichung insbesondere dann, wenn es sich +um die Erkenntnis des Nichtsinnlichen, Geistigen handelt. Die +Grundbestandteile dieses Sinnlichen, Sinnfälligen bilden die Sinnenbilder +der Ausdehnung und Bewegung. Von beiden haben wir Tast- und +Gesichtsbilder, auch von der Bewegung (etwa die Berührungsempfindungen von +einem über die Hand kriechenden Sonnenkäfer), denen entsprechende +Gesichtsempfindungen zur Seite gehen. Natürlich sind diese Bilder selbst +ausgedehnt und bewegt und heissen nur uneigentlich Bilder von der +Ausdehnung und Bewegung. Das deutet schon darauf hin, dass wir unter der +Ausdehnung und Bewegung etwas andres verstehen müssen als diese +sogenannten Sinnenbilder. Was wir unter Ausdehnung und Bewegung verstehen, +das zeigen die Worte Ausdehnung und Bewegung an. Diese Worte sind +sozusagen Zeichen für ein in uns vorhandenes ruhendes Wissen, eine +Wissensdisposition, eine Fähigkeit, in Urteilen darzulegen, was Ausdehnung +und Bewegung ist, oder wenigstens jederzeit diese Worte richtig +anzuwenden. Wir wissen, dass die Ausdehnung eine Vielheit gleichzeitiger +einander berührender Teile, die Bewegung eine Vielheit aufeinander +folgender, ineinander übergehender Teile umfasst. Gleichzeitige Vielheit +und Berührung, aufeinander folgende Vielheit und Übergang, das sind die +Bestandteile der Begriffe Ausdehnung und Bewegung, die wesentlichen +(begrifflichen) Merkmale der Ausdehnung und Bewegung. Aber sind diese +Merkmale nicht schon in den Sinnenbildern der Ausdehnung und Bewegung +vorhanden, nicht in ihnen unmittelbar gegeben, sodass sie sich also von +den sinnfälligen, sinnlichen gar nicht unterscheiden oder höchstens doch +durch eine in Gestalt von Worten vermittelte Umformung aus ihnen +abgeleitet werden könnten? Wenn die Sinnenbilder selbst ausgedehnt und +bewegt sind, so sind diese Merkmale so in ihnen enthalten, wie in jedem +andren Ausgedehnten und Bewegten. Aber um sie zu finden, dazu bedarf es +eben eines Finders, der von den sinnlichen Empfindungen selbst verschieden +ist, eben jenes Blickes des Geistes, dem wir die Gewinnung der +wesentlichen Merkmale zuschreiben. Die Sinnenbilder an und für sich +genommen sind nichts andres als Zusammensetzungen von Empfindungen, die je +den Teilen der Netzhaut und Tasthaut entsprechen. Sie sind Zustände des +Bewusstseins, die noch gar nicht einmal einen gegenständlichen Charakter +haben, noch nicht einmal als Objekte uns gegenübertreten. Unsrem +entwickelten Bewusstsein erscheint freilich ihre Gegenständlichkeit als +etwas Selbstverständliches; aber doch nur darum, weil ihnen der Finder, +der Blick des Geistes, gegenübersteht. + +Wie werden ursprünglich aus den, sagen wir einmal bloss subjektiven +Empfindungen -- an sich genommen sind die Empfindungen ja weder subjektiv +noch objektiv -- Vorstellungen? Wie es scheint auf folgendem Wege. Mit den +Bewegungen unsrer eigenen Glieder sind Willensimpulse verbunden; sie +kehren regelmässig bei den sogenannten willkürlichen Bewegungen wieder und +associieren sich so mit den Sinnenbildern der Ausdehnung und Bewegung +dieser Glieder. Wenn nun Sinnenbilder der Ausdehnung und Bewegung, mit +denen diese Willensimpulse nicht verbunden sind, in uns auftreten, so wird +das Gedächtnisbild dieser Willensimpulse reproduziert und auch diesen +Sinnenbildern unterlegt. So treten dann diese Sinnenbilder als +Willensdinge den Sinnenbildern, die von vornherein mit den Willensimpulsen +verbunden sind, gegenüber. So erhalten diese erstren Sinnenbilder diesen +letztren gegenüber, wie es scheint, ursprünglich einen gegenständlichen +Charakter, oder, wie wir ohne Gefahr des Missverstandenwerdens besser +sagen, sie werden zu Vorstellungen. Gegenstände im eigentlichen Sinne als +das dem Geiste Gegenüberstehende giebt es für ihn erst auf Grund des +Urteils. + +Wir nannten die Sinnenbilder, mit denen associativ Willensimpulse +verbunden sind -- auch von den Sinnenbildern, mit denen sie ursprünglich +verbunden sind, können wir das Gleiche sagen, -- Willensdinge. Es ist +bekannt, dass die Wilden ebenso wie unsere Kinder und Dichter alles als +belebt und beseelt, alles als mit Gefühl und Willen ausgestattet, +auffassen. Diese Animismus genannte Erscheinung hält natürlich der +fortschreitenden Erfahrung gegenüber nicht Stand. Der geworfene Stein und +die freifliegende Taube werden bald unterschieden. Von dem Willensding +bleibt dann nur übrig, 1. dass es einen Raum ausfüllt, der nicht zugleich +mit ihm von einem andren Dinge eingenommen werden kann -- das Willensding +wird zur Substanz; 2. dass es jedem Eindringen in diesen Raum Widerstand +entgegensetzt, also Einwirkungen ausübt -- das Willensding wird zur +Ursache. Man könnte denken, diese wesentlichen (begrifflichen) Merkmale +der Dinge im engren Sinne seien wieder unmittelbar in den mit +Willensimpulsen verbundenen Sinnenbildern der Sinnendinge gegeben. Aber +auch hier gilt: es bedarf des Finders, des Blickes des Geistes, und erst +dieser schafft, erzeugt, freilich nicht willkürlich, sondern im engen +Anschluss und gemäss dem Sinnenbild, in seiner Thätigkeit von ihm bedingt +und bestimmt, das wesentliche oder begriffliche Merkmal. Das Finden, +Erblicken, auf geistigem Gebiete ist eben nicht ein materielles Aufnehmen +sondern ein Erzeugen, ein Schaffen. Allein, sollte man nicht annehmen +dürfen, dass wir diese begrifflichen Merkmale nur durch die urteilende +Thätigkeit gewinnen? Zumal wir ja die Vielheit der Teile des Ausgedehnten +und der Bewegung anscheinend nur durch Unterscheidung der Teile im Urteile +erhalten. Diese Unterscheidung im Urteil setzt die Erfassung der Teile als +einzelner, sozusagen eine Unterscheidung durch den einfachen Blick des +Geistes voraus. In der durch diese Unterscheidung gegebenen Vereinzelung +sind die Teile im Sinnenbilde der Ausdehnung und Bewegung nicht vorhanden, +sondern können erst durch den Blick des Geistes gewonnen werden. Dasselbe +gilt dann natürlich auch von dem Moment der Berührung und des Übergangs, +den andern begrifflichen oder wesentlichen Merkmalen der Ausdehnung und +Bewegung, in denen die einzelnen Teile zu zweien zusammengefasst werden. +Gewiss kommt in unsrem entwickelten Bewusstsein wie jene Vereinzelung so +auch diese Zusammenfassung im Urteil zum Ausdruck. Aber wie die im Urteil +gegebene Vereinzelung, so setzt auch die in ihm gegebene Zusammenfassung +den einfachen Blick des Geistes, dem wir die Gewinnung der wesentlichen +Merkmale zuschreiben, voraus. Diese durch den einfachen Blick des Geistes +sich vollziehende Vereinzelung und Zusammenfassung erzeugt neue +gedankliche Gebilde im Geiste, eben die wesentlichen, begrifflichen +Merkmale, die wir mit den Worten gleichzeitige, aufeinanderfolgende +Vielheit, Berührung, Übergang bezeichnen und die die Grundlage der +betreffenden unterscheidenden und zusammenfassenden Urteile bilden. + +Wir können nicht zugeben, dass die wesentlichen Merkmale, aus denen der +Begriff nach allgemeiner Annahme besteht, in den Sinnenbildern oder +Vorstellungen in dem hier erklärten Sinne wirklich enthalten sind. In +andren Fällen tritt uns das noch deutlicher entgegen. Wir haben +Sinnenbilder vom Punkt, der keine Ausdehnung hat, von der Linie, die nur +_eine_ Ausdehnung, von der Fläche, die nur zwei Ausdehnungen hat, von +einem luftartigen Gebilde als dem Geiste, der den ausschliessenden +Gegensatz zu allem Körperlichen ausmacht. Es ist einleuchtend, dass die +hier genannten wesentlichen Merkmale des Punktes, der Linie, der Fläche, +des Geistes nur durch Negation des in den betreffenden Sinnenbildern +Enthaltenen gewonnen werden können. Die Negation im eigentlichen Sinne hat +nur im negativen Urteile ihre Stelle, aber diese im negativen Urteil +gegebene Negation setzt den Blick für das, was anders ist, als das, was +negiert wird, voraus. + + + Neunte Untersuchung. + + +Das Wesen der Dinge. + +Aber wir haben immer noch nicht erklärt, was das Wesentliche eigentlich +ist oder worin das Wesen der Dinge besteht. Am einfachsten scheint die +Sache bei den mathematischen Gebilden zu liegen. Das Wesen eines Kreises, +einer Ellipse besteht natürlich nicht in der gezeichneten und von uns +gesehenen Linie, viel eher in der mathematischen Formel, durch welche das +Verhältnis der Linie zu dem einen Mittelpunkt des Kreises und zu den +beiden Mittelpunkten der Ellipse bestimmt wird, in dem Gesetze des Kreises +und der Ellipse. Sicher kommt die mathematische Formel dem Wesen des +Kreises und der Ellipse näher als die gezeichnete und gesehene Linie, die, +um gezeichnet und gesehen zu werden, im Widerspruch mit sich selbst +mehrere Ausdehnungen haben muss. Aber macht die mathematische Formel das +ganze Wesen des Kreises und der Ellipse aus? Sie gehören doch zu den +Kegelschnitten und nehmen innerhalb derselben eine bestimmte, durch neue +Formeln festgelegte Stellung ein. Diese gehört nicht minder zu ihrem +Wesen. Sie sind Linien, und Linien begrenzen Flächen; Flächen begrenzen +Körper, Körper nehmen hinwiederum in der Gesamtheit des Wirklichen eine +Stellung ein, an der auch die Linien teilnehmen. Auch diese Stellung zur +Gesamtheit des Wirklichen gehört zum Wesen des Kreises und der Ellipse, ja +es ist einleuchtend, dass sie ihr eigentliches Wesen bilden muss, da aus +ihr die Einzelstellung dieser mathematischen Gebilde und somit ihre +mathematische Formel sich ergiebt und abgeleitet werden kann. Was vom +Wesen des Kreises und der Ellipse gilt, wird vom Wesen aller Dinge +behauptet werden müssen. Eine rohe Auffassung sieht in diesem Wesen einen +beharrlichen, unveränderlichen Seinskern, an dem sich die mit dem Begriffe +des Dinges verträglichen Veränderungen vollziehen sollen. Einen solchen +unveränderlichen Seinskern giebt es nicht in den Dingen. Die Veränderungen +sind Veränderungen der Dinge, nicht an den Dingen. Man kann sich auch +nicht auf den Begriff des Dinges berufen, um die mit seinem Wesen +verträglichen Veränderungen des Dinges zu gewinnen. Denn der Begriff, der +die wesentlichen Merkmale umfasst, setzt das Wesen des Dinges voraus. Das +unveränderlich sich Gleichbleibende in den Dingen ist ihre Stellung zur +Gesamtheit des Wirklichen. Sie verleiht den Dingen eine überzeitliche +Geltung und eine ewige Bedeutung; in ihr besteht das Wesen der Dinge, und +dieses Wesen ist mit ihrer Wahrheit ein und dasselbe. Wie die Wahrheit, so +ist darum auch das Wesen unveränderlich und ewig. In diesem höchsten Sinne +giebt es von jedem Ding nur Einen Begriff. Er ist der Ausdruck für seine +Stellung in der Gesamtheit des Wirklichen, oder, wie wir auch sagen +können, für seine Stellung in dem System der Wahrheit. Natürlich ergiebt +sich auch aus der Stellung eines Dinges in der Gesamtheit des Wirklichen, +welche Veränderungen es durchlaufen kann, oder welche Veränderungen für +die Geltendmachung dieser Stellung erforderlich sind. + + + Zehnte Untersuchung. + + +Der Begriff der Philosophie. + +Können wir wirklich für unser Erkennen das Eindringen in das Wesen der +Dinge in diesem Sinne als Aufgabe in Anspruch nehmen? Geht eine solche +Aufgabe nicht über die Kraft des Erkennens hinaus? Gilt das Wesen der +Dinge nicht mit Recht für unerkennbar? Haben wir beispielsweise vom Wesen +der Farbe eine Erkenntnis? Die Physiker sagen, die Farben seien +Ätherschwingungen; die Physiologen nennen sie Empfindungen. Aber weder die +einen noch die andren können uns sagen, was es mit den Ätherschwingungen +und Empfindungen eigentlich auf sich hat, was ihr Wesen ist. Das Wesen der +Farbe würden wir erst dann erkannt haben, wenn wir den ursächlichen +Zusammenhang zwischen den Ätherschwingungen und unsren Empfindungen und +den Zweckzusammenhang zwischen beiden verstanden hätten, wenn wir wüssten, +warum die Ätherschwingungen die Farben erzeugen und wodurch sie das +vermögen. Davon aber sind wir sehr weit entfernt. Wir wissen nicht, wie +die durch die Ätherschwingungen erzeugten Gehirnvorgänge es machen, dass +die von ihnen ganz verschiedenen Farbenempfindungen auftreten, und noch +weniger, warum es der toten und gleichmässigen Ätherschwingungen bedarf, +um die ganze Farbenwelt hervorzuzaubern, die der Kunst der Malerei ihre +Existenz verleiht. Noch weniger können wir das Wesen des Menschen +erkennen. Platon nannte den Körper den Kerker und das Grab der Seele, +moderne Physiologen betrachten das Bewusstsein als ein überflüssiges und +unbequemes Nebenprodukt. Die Frage, warum der den Geist so oft behindernde +Körper mit dem den Körper so oft zum Siechtum verurteilenden Bewusstsein +verbunden ist, wird heutzutage kaum gestellt. Erst die Beantwortung dieser +Frage würde uns Aufklärung über das Wesen des Menschen geben. Aber wenn +wir das Wesen der Dinge gar nicht erkennen können, warum denn von dieser +Erkenntnis reden und von ihr so viel Aufhebens machen? Wir antworten: das +Ziel des Erkennens ist unzweifelhaft das Wesen der Dinge, und wer die +richtige Darstellung vom Erkennen geben will, darf dies sein Ziel nicht +ausser Acht lassen; mag das Erkennen dasselbe auch nur unvollkommen und +annähernd erreichen. Man hat die Philosophie nicht mit Unrecht als die +Wissenschaft vom Wesen der Dinge bezeichnet. Man muss sie folgerichtig +auch als die Wissenschaft der Fragen bestimmen, denn sie steht mitten im +Fragen und kommt aus dem Fragen gar nicht heraus. Aber ist das etwa eine +ihrer unwürdige Bestimmung? Ist die richtig gestellte Frage und das +Bewusstsein, sie nicht beantworten zu können, wirklich wertlos? Jedenfalls +ist diese Bestimmung ehrenvoller für die Philosophie, als wenn man sie, +ihrer gegenwärtigen Lage nicht ganz unangemessen, als die Wissenschaft +charakterisiert, in der jeder eine andere Meinung hat. + +Dass die Philosophie die Wissenschaft der Fragen ist, zeigt sich +besonders, wenn wir den Begriff des Erkennens ins Auge fassen. Man spricht +von Erscheinung im Gegensatz zum Wesen und unterscheidet die Erscheinung +im metaphysischen und erkenntnistheoretischen Sinne. Unter der erstren +sind die Veränderungen der Dinge zu verstehen, die sich natürlich aus +ihrer Stellung in der Gesamtheit des Wirklichen ergeben und darum aus +ihrem Wesen erklären lassen. Unter der letztren sind die Denkvorgänge im +weitesten Sinne des Wortes, die auch und in erster Linie die sinnlichen +Empfindungen umfassen, zu verstehen. Sie vermitteln das Erkennen, und +insofern sie das wirklich oder vermeintlich thun, gelten sie als +Erscheinung der Dinge in uns. Was hat es mit dieser Erscheinung der Dinge +in uns, diesen Denkvorgängen, die das Erkennen vermitteln, auf sich? Was +hat das Erkennen zu bedeuten, was ist sein Wesen? Nur eine blosse +Abspiegelung, eine müssige Wiederholung der Dinge im Bilde? Sind auch die +für unsre Erfassung des Wirklichen so notwendigen Ortsbestimmungen, die +einerseits feste Punkte voraussetzen und anderseits sich doch in lauter +Beziehungen auflösen, und ebenso die Zeitbestimmungen, von denen das +Gleiche gilt, Bilder einer von ihnen unabhängig bestehenden Wirklichkeit? +Dem Bilde ist es eigentümlich, den Gegenstand so wiederzugeben, wie er +unabgebildeterweise ist. Wäre das Erkennen nur ein Bild des Wirklichen, so +würden wir den Begriff des Dinges an sich nicht entbehren können. Um ihn +zu vermeiden, mussten wir eine unauflösliche Verbindung des Erkennens mit +seinem Gegenstande, der Wahrheit annehmen. Aber erst, wenn wir die Art +dieser Verbindung zu bestimmen vermöchten, würden wir das Wesen des +Erkennens erkannt haben, mit ihm auch die Bedeutung der für unsere +Erfassung des Wirklichen so notwendigen Orts- und Zeitbestimmungen. + + + Elfte Untersuchung. + + +Die Wahrheit das höchste Gut. + +Insofern die Philosophie als Wissenschaft vom Wesen der Dinge und vom +System der Wahrheit bezeichnet werden muss, ist sie auch die Wissenschaft +vom höchsten Gute: denn die Wahrheit ist in der That das höchste Gut, +dasjenige, wodurch alles andere Wert erhält. Wertvoll wird etwas nicht +etwa dadurch, dass es der Wahrheit nicht ermangelt, sondern geradezu durch +seine Wahrheit. Dass wir etwas aus sittlichen Gründen thun sollen, dass +etwas schön ist, gilt natürlich nur insoweit, als eben dies Thun-sollen +und das Schön-sein wahr ist. Wie wir gewöhnlich sagen, es gilt nur, wenn +das sittlich Gebotene wahrhaft oder wirklich sittlich, das für schön +erklärte wahrhaft oder wirklich schön ist. Wahrhaft und wirklich gut oder +schön ist etwas nur dann, wenn es dem allgemein für alle Denkenden und für +alle Zeit gültigen, dem in diesem Sinne objektiv gültigen Begriffe des +sittlich Guten und des Schönen entspricht. Mit diesem Begriff würde sich +unser Begriff vom sittlich Guten und Schönen erst decken, wenn wir ihn in +seiner Stellung im System der Wahrheit erkannt hätten. So lange und so +weit dies nicht der Fall ist, bleibt er missverständlich und einseitig; so +lange ist er darum kein unzweideutiger und vor allem kein vollständiger +Ausdruck des wahrhaft und wirklich Guten und Schönen. Für unsren Begriff +des sittlich Guten und des Schönen, sofern er wirklich wesentliche +Merkmale enthält, gilt: nicht ohne ihn giebt es etwas Gutes und Schönes. +Für den Begriff des sittlich Guten und Schönen im System der Wahrheit gilt +hingegen: nur durch ihn ist etwas schön, ist etwas gut. Auch das Gute und +Schöne erhält seine Wahrheit und Wirklichkeit lediglich durch seine +Stellung im System der Wahrheit oder dadurch, dass es in diesem System +eine Stelle hat. Ähnlich wie vom sittlich Guten und Schönen sprechen wir +auch von einem wahren, wirklichen Israeliten, von einem wahren, wirklichen +Menschen, von wahrem, wirklichem Golde u. s. w. Der hier als Massstab +zugrundeliegende Begriff, ein Soll-Begriff oder Idealbegriff, wird in +allen diesen Fällen von uns als etwas Allgemeingültiges geltend gemacht +oder in Anspruch genommen, als etwas, das alle anerkennen müssen, und +weist damit auf den ihm im System der Wahrheit entsprechenden Begriff hin. + +Was wahrhaft und wirklich ist, wird dadurch über die Vergänglichkeit und +Veränderlichkeit hinausgehoben; es ist nicht bloss etwas Scheinbares, +nicht etwas zum Verschwinden Bestimmtes, nicht etwas Nichtseinsollendes. +Aber wenn dem Scheinbaren, dem Nichtseinsollenden auch kein Wert und keine +Wahrheit zukommen soll, so ist es doch nichtsdestoweniger eine +Wirklichkeit. Wie ist das möglich? Auch das Vergängliche und +Veränderliche, worin immer es besteht, ist nur wirklich durch seinen +überzeitlichen Charakter, durch seine ewige Bedeutung. Sollen wir auch dem +bloss Scheinbaren, dem Zufälligen, dem Nichtseinsollenden einen +überzeitlichen Charakter und eine ewige Bedeutung zuschreiben? Wirklich +kann es nur durch diesen seinen überzeitlichen Charakter und seine ewige +Bedeutung sein; nur durch sie wird es über den blossen inhaltleeren +Schein, über den blossen sinnlosen Zufall hinausgehoben, wie der Schatten +nur sein kann, indem er sich an die Dinge der Umgebung dessen heftet, von +dem er ausgeht. Das Scheinbare, Nichtseinsollende, Zufällige ist, wie +später klar werden wird, das nicht wahrhaft und wirklich sondern nur +anmasslich und vorgeblich Selbständige, das die geliehene Selbständigkeit +als wirkliche gebraucht und damit zum Schein herabsetzt. + + + + +Zweiter Hauptteil. + +Unser Wissen. + + + ------------------ + + + +Dritter Abschnitt. + +Kennzeichen der Wahrheit. + + + Zwölfte Untersuchung. + + +Die Bestandteile des Erkenntnisvorgangs. + +Was wesentlich ist, ist einem Ding -- das Wort im weitesten Sinne genommen +-- wesentlich, es ist ihm zugehörig und gehört mit ihm zusammen. So führt +der Begriff des Wesentlichen auf den des Zusammengehörigen zurück. Das +zeigt sich insbesondere, wenn wir den alles Wesentliche zusammenfassenden +Begriff des Wesens der Dinge näher betrachten. Die Stellung der Dinge in +der Gesamtheit des Wirklichen, d. h. also ihre Zusammengehörigkeit mit +allem Wirklichen, macht das Wesen der Dinge aus. Die Zusammengehörigkeit +ist der Grundbegriff des Erkennens, in dem uns seine wesentlichste Seite +kund wird; das Wesen der Dinge und ihre Wahrheit ist sein Ziel, aber nur +durch Erfassung des Zusammengehörigen wird es erreicht. + +Das, was zusammengehörig oder wesentlich ist, muss sorgfältig +unterschieden werden von seiner Zusammengehörigkeit oder Wesentlichkeit. +Wir erfassen dasselbe mit einem Blick des Geistes, über den das +entwickelte Bewusstsein verfügt. Es ist vor allem wichtig zu beachten, +dass dieser Blick nicht als eine Erkenntnis betrachtet werden kann. All +unser Erkennen setzt ein Vorgefundenes voraus, nicht als seine Quelle, +sondern als Ausgangspunkt für eine Reihe von Thätigkeiten, die ihm +vorangehen. Diesen Ausgangspunkt, also das Vorgefundene, bilden die +Empfindungen und die aus ihnen zusammengesetzten Sinnenbilder. Auch die +Willensdinge, die durch blosse Association der Sinnenbilder der Ausdehnung +und Bewegung mit den Willensimpulsen entstehen, ferner die ersten +Vorstellungen, die wir von einem uns Gegenüberstehenden gewinnen, gehören, +wie die Sinnenbilder selbst zu den Voraussetzungen des Erkenntnisvorganges +und können insofern dem Vorgefundenen zugerechnet werden. + +Durch den Blick des Geistes, der eine besondere Art der Abstraktion +bildet, gewinnen wir den Begriff oder die wesentlichen Merkmale dieser +Willens- oder Sinnendinge. Natürlich belehrt uns dieser Begriff in keiner +Weise darüber, was den Sinnendingen für die Gesamtheit des Wirklichen für +eine Bedeutung zukommt. Hier zeigt sich insbesondere, dass die vielen +Begriffe, auch wenn sie die wesentlichen Merkmale umfassen, also wirkliche +Begriffe sind, von dem eigentlich einzig und allein diesen Namen +verdienenden Begriff, der die Stellung des Einzelnen im System der +Wahrheit bestimmt, ganz und gar verschieden sind. Zur Gewinnung dieses +Begriffs bedarf es eines sozusagen alles zusammenschauenden Blicks; für +die Gewinnung jener Begriffe genügt der in Gedanken trennende Blick. Diese +in Gedanken sich vollziehende Trennung ist der eigentliche Sinn der +Abstraktion, des lateinischen abstrahere, des griechischen aphaireisthai, +nicht das Absehen, viel eher das Hinsehen und Festhalten des einen, mit +Vernachlässigung und Beiseitesetzung des andren im Denken. Es ist klar, +dass ein solches Trennen, gedankliches Isolieren ein neues gedankliches +Gebilde eben das auf diese Weise Getrennte und Isolierte und zugleich +Festgehaltene erzeugen, erschaffen muss. Die so erzeugten, geschaffenen +Gebilde sind Einzelgebilde des Denkens und als solche im Denken vorhanden, +nicht erst in Urteilen gegeben. Wenn man den Nachdruck auf das Absehen, +Fallenlassen, das leicht als Ausscheiden, Verneinen gefasst werden kann, +legt, so liegt der Gedanke nahe, diese wesentlichen Merkmale seien für uns +nur in negativen Urteilen vorhanden. Aber das widerspricht einerseits der +Selbstbeobachtung, der Reflexion auf das, was wir thun, wenn wir diese +Gebilde festhalten: es ist ein einfaches Hinsehen, Hinblicken, dessen +thatsächlicher Nebenerfolg das Absehen freilich bildet, aber ohne als +besonderer Vorgang hervorzutreten. Anderseits setzen diese negativen +Urteile bereits die Isolierung der wesentlichen und unwesentlichen +Merkmale also eben diese isolierten Gebilde voraus. Durch diese Isolierung +gewinnen wir die wesentlichen Merkmale, die zu dem Sinnen- oder +Willensding gehören: Ausdehnung, Bewegung, Nebeneinander, Nacheinander, +Substanz, Kausalität. Was die Bedeutung dieser Worte ist, können wir +freilich nur in Urteilen angeben; aber daraus folgt nicht, dass wir den +Gedankengehalt dieser Worte auch nur durch Urteile gewinnen. Die Urteile, +in denen wir die Bedeutung dieser Worte darlegen, setzen vielmehr die +entsprechenden Einzelgebilde des Denkens voraus, in denen das in den +Urteilen Verbundene isoliert wird. Diese gedanklichen Einzelgebilde +schafft, erzeugt der Blick des Geistes, aber er entdeckt und findet sie +zugleich. Das, was er findet und entdeckt, ist jedenfalls von dem +Vorgefundenen verschieden, es ist eine Zuthat zu dem Vorgefundenen, die +freilich nicht willkürlich sondern ihm angemessen ist. Mit dieser Zuthat +ist das in der Empfindung Gegebene, das Vorgefundene jedenfalls +überschritten. Sie ist das, was wesentlich ist, das, was zusammengehörig +ist, wesentlich dem Dinge, zusammengehörig mit dem Ding, in dessen Besitz +wir zunächst durch den genannten Blick unseres Geistes gesetzt werden. + +Die zweite über das Vorgefundene hinausgehende Stufe, die aber auch noch +nicht als eigentliche Erkenntnis betrachtet werden kann, besteht darin, +dass sich unsrem Bewusstsein die Wesentlichkeit des Wesentlichen, die +Zusammengehörigkeit des Zusammengehörigen aufdrängt, dass der Gedanke +daran sich als unabweislich darstellt. Das Sichaufdrängen der +Zusammengehörigkeit und Sichalsunabweislichdarstellen darf nicht falsch +verstanden werden. Es ist ein _Einleuchten_ und hat darum mit äusserem +Zwange, der uns die Empfindungen aufdrängt, oder mit innerer Nötigung, die +wir erfahren, wenn uns ein Gedanke verfolgt, nichts zu thun. Es wendet +sich einfach an die Vernunft des Menschen. + +Nun folgt als dritte Stufe die eigentliche Erkenntnis, die in der +_Einsicht_ der Zusammengehörigkeit oder der Wesentlichkeit besteht. +Selbstverständlich ist der sich unabweislich aufdrängende Gedanke oder das +Einleuchten etwas von der Einsicht Verschiedenes. Nur in der Einsicht kann +die Erkenntnis bestehen. An die Einsicht schliesst sich als vierte Stufe +das Urteil an, das sich ganz auf die Einsicht stützt und nur als +gedanklicher Ausdruck der Einsicht aufgefasst werden kann. Als fünfte +Stufe folgt das Bewusstsein von der Objektivität des Urteils oder das +Bewusstsein der Wahrheit des Urteils, das seinen Grund in der zweiten +Stufe, dem Einleuchten der Zusammengehörigkeit hat. Es folgt als sechste +Stufe die Gewissheit, der Gegensatz des Zweifels, der allen Zweifel +ausschliesst und dem Bewusstsein die Festigkeit verleiht, wie der Zweifel +dasselbe ins Schwanken bringt. Es ist nach dem Zeugnis der Reflexion ganz +offenbar, dass die Einsicht, der eigentliche Erkenntnisakt, von ihrem +gedanklichen Ausdruck im Urteil verschieden ist. Weniger deutlich giebt +sich kund, dass von der Einsicht auch der Zustand der Gewissheit und das +Bewusstsein der Wahrheit verschieden ist; aber beide setzen die Erkenntnis +als vollendet voraus und dürfen darum nicht mit der Einsicht verselbigt +werden. + +Das Urteil entspricht dem Finden der wesentlichen Merkmale durch den Blick +des Geistes. Wie durch das letztere ein Einzelgebilde des Denkens erzeugt +wird, so durch das erstere eben jene Urteil genannte Verbindung, sei es +eines Sinnenbildes, sei es eines Einzelgebildes des Denkens mit einem +andren Einzelgebilde, eben dem wesentlichen Merkmal. Wie das Einzelgebilde +des Denkens im Worte seinen Ausdruck findet, so die Urteil genannte +Verbindung im Aussagesatze. Aber sowohl das Einzelgebilde wie diese +Verbindung sind gedanklicher Natur und müssen darum sorgfältig von dem +sprachlichen Ausdrucke unterschieden werden. Der Auffindung des +wesentlichen Merkmales folgt das Einleuchten und die Einsicht, dem Urteil +das Bewusstsein der Wahrheit und die Gewissheit. Auch diese Glieder +entsprechen sich: das Einleuchten dem Bewusstsein der Wahrheit und die +Einsicht der Gewissheit. Es sind Zustände, nicht Schöpfungen des +Bewusstseins, von denen Einleuchten und Bewusstsein der Wahrheit einen +objektiven, Einsicht und Gewissheit einen subjektiven Charakter haben. Das +Kennzeichen der Wahrheit besteht für uns in dem Einleuchten, der zweiten +über das Vorgefundene hinausgehenden Stufe des Erkenntnisvorgangs. Es +liegt nahe -- und das geschieht oft genug -- die Einsicht für das +Kennzeichen der Wahrheit zu halten; wird doch das griechische enargein und +das lateinische evidentia oft genug mit Einsicht wiedergegeben oder die +Einsicht näher als das Einleuchten der Wahrheit erklärt. Natürlich kann +unter dieser Voraussetzung nicht von einem criterium secundum quod ausser +für die nachträgliche Reflexion, sondern nur von einem criterium quo +cognoscitur die Rede sein. Wir verstehen unter dem Kriterium oder +Kennzeichen der Wahrheit nicht diesen subjektiven Zustand der Einsicht +sondern das Einleuchten, Sichaufdrängen der Zusammengehörigkeit, die +Unabweislichkeit des Gedankens derselben, die natürlich etwas Objektives +ist und darum auch die Objektivität des Urteils oder das Bewusstsein +seiner Wahrheit begründen kann. + + + Dreizehnte Untersuchung. + + +Die Gesetze des Erkennens. + +Die Wahrheit, das Ziel des Erkennens ist nicht eine zusammenhanglose Summe +von Teilen sondern ein Ganzes, in dem jeder Teil den andern bedingt und +trägt, kein Chaos sondern ein System, und dieses System ist der Wahrheit +so wesentlich, dass eine einzelne Wahrheit nur Wahrheit ist durch ihren +Zusammenhang mit dem Ganzen. Man kann darum streng genommen nicht von +einer einzelnen Wahrheit sprechen sondern nur von einem Reiche der +Wahrheit. Die verschiedenen zusammengehörigen Wahrheiten als +zusammengehörige, also ihre Zusammengehörigkeit zum Bewusstsein bringen, +so den Zusammenhang aller Wahrheit herstellen, oder besser gesagt die Eine +Wahrheit finden, das ist das Ziel des Erkennens. Die Ableitung und +Erschliessung der einen Wahrheit aus der andren ist nur die Kehrseite +dieses Zieles, seine bloss formale Folgeerscheinung, und von viel +geringerer Bedeutung. + +Das ist freilich ein hohes, ein allzuhohes Ziel. Der Zusammenhang aller +Wahrheit, oder, was dasselbe ist, das Wesen der Dinge zu erkennen, den +Einen Gedanken zu finden, der über alles Licht verbreitet, ist uns bis +jetzt versagt. Wir müssen uns mit einzelnen Strahlen dieses Lichtes +begnügen. Wir kommen nur wenig über die wesentlichen Merkmale der Dinge +hinaus, und wenn wir darunter diejenigen verstehen, von deren +Zugehörigkeit zu den Dingen wir eine Einsicht haben, reichen wir in vielen +Fällen nicht einmal an diese heran. So tritt für unser Denken an die +Stelle des Gesetzes der Zusammengehörigkeit, das uns die Aufgabe stellt, +alle Wahrheiten in ihrer Zusammengehörigkeit und somit als die Eine +Wahrheit zu erfassen, das Gesetz der Übereinstimmung, nach dem sich die +Wahrheit und Falschheit unsrer einzelnen Urteile bestimmt. Wir +unterscheiden vier, beziehungsweise acht Formen dieses Gesetzes, deren +Wahrheit uns unmittelbar einleuchtet. Erstens, das Zugehörige muss +zugesprochen werden. Zweitens, das Zugehörige darf nicht abgesprochen +werden. Drittens, das Nichtzugehörige muss abgesprochen werden. Viertens, +das Nichtzugehörige darf nicht zugesprochen werden. Zu dem Zugehörigen +gehört auch das Enthaltene. Was in einem Subjekt enthalten ist, gehört zu +ihm, aber nicht das Gegenteil gilt: was in einem Subjekt nicht enthalten +ist, kann ganz wohl ihm zugehören. Daraus ergeben sich die vier weiteren +nicht die Zugehörigkeit sondern das Enthaltensein betreffenden Formen. +Fünftens, das Enthaltene muss zugesprochen werden. Sechstens, das +Enthaltene darf nicht abgesprochen werden. Siebentens, das Nichtenthaltene +darf nicht als enthalten zugesprochen werden. Achtens, das Nichtenthaltene +muss als enthalten geleugnet werden. Der Zusatz als enthalten in sieben +und acht ist notwendig, weil auch das Nichtenthaltene zugehörig sein kann. +Was immer zugesprochen oder abgesprochen wird, wird als zugehörig +zugesprochen oder abgesprochen; deshalb bedarf es des Zusatzes als +zugehörig in drei und vier nicht, er ist ohne weiteres in diesen Formen +eingeschlossen. Setzen wir voraus, dass das negative mit dem unendlichen +Urteil: der Mensch ist nicht sterblich -- ist unsterblich; der Kreis ist +nicht rund -- ist nichtrund, dieselbe Bedeutung hat, so ergiebt sich, dass +die Formen zwei und drei und die Formen sechs und sieben dasselbe +ausdrücken. Man kann sie im Gegensatz zu dem Gesetze der Übereinstimmung +als Formen des Gesetzes des Widerspruches bezeichnen, das eigentlich nur +die negative Seite des Gesetzes der Übereinstimmung bildet. Es ist ein +Widerspruch nicht bloss das Nichtenthaltene als enthalten zu behaupten, +wie es die siebente Form, sondern auch das Nichtzugehörige als zugehörig +zu behaupten, wie es die dritte Form verbietet. + +Nicht bloss, was in einem Subjekt enthalten ist, kommt ihm zu, sondern +auch das nicht in ihm Enthaltene, sofern es zu ihm gehört. Würde nur das +erstere ihm zukommen, so gäbe es keinen Fortschritt im Erkennen. Aber +giebt es etwas nicht in einem Subjekt Enthaltenes, das trotzdem zu ihm +gehört? Ohne Zweifel, wenigstens für alle diejenigen, welche Sinnenbild +und Vorstellung von dem Begriff, der die wesentlichen Merkmale umfasst, +unterscheiden und von diesen wesentlichen Merkmalen behaupten, dass sie +nicht in den Sinnenbildern oder Vorstellungen enthalten sind. Fassen wir +unter dieser Voraussetzung das Subjekt unter der Vorstellung auf und legen +ihm ein wesentliches Merkmal bei, oder fassen wir es unter einem +wesentlichen Merkmal auf und legen ihm ein anderes wesentliches Merkmal +bei, so schreiben wir offenbar dem Subjekt etwas zu, das nicht in ihm +enthalten ist. Natürlich kommt dem Subjekt auch das zu, was in ihm +enthalten ist, und so ergiebt sich als besonderer Fall des Gesetzes der +Übereinstimmung das Gesetz des Enthaltenseins, das die Formen fünf bis +acht umfasst. + +Es giebt sehr vieles, was in einem Subjekt nicht enthalten ist und ihm +doch nicht abgesprochen werden darf, vielmehr zugesprochen werden muss. +Freilich liegt es sehr nahe, alle Urteile für analytische oder +Erläuterungsurteile, d. h. auf dem Verhältnis des Enthaltenseins beruhende +Urteile zu halten, wenn man bloss auf den gedanklichen Ausdruck der +Urteile achtet. Allein diesem gedanklichen Ausdruck, der immerhin als +blosse Analyse betrachtet werden mag, liegt eine Synthese zugrunde. Wir +denken, ehe wir urteilen, das Subjekt unter dem Gesichtspunkt des +Prädikats. Die Zusammengehörigkeit beider drängt sich uns auf, wir sehen +sie ein, und nun machen wir sie im Urteil geltend. Das alles sind wahre +Synthesen, sie kehren bei allen Urteilen, die für den Fortschritt unsres +Erkennens von Bedeutung sind, wieder. Fasst man das so unter dem +Gesichtspunkte des Prädikats gedachte Subjekt als eine Einheit auf, so ist +das Urteil natürlich, wie es sich uns in seinem gedanklichen Ausdruck +darstellt, ein bloss analytischer Vorgang. Wäre es _bloss_ dies, dann gäbe +es keinen Fortschritt in unsrem Erkennen, da alles Erkennen sich in +Urteilen vollzieht, oder darin wenigstens seinen gedanklichen Ausdruck +findet. Der Begriff des Enthaltenseins und des analytischen Verfahrens +thut unsrem Erkennen nicht genüge; wir müssen ihn ersetzen durch den der +Zusammengehörigkeit und der Synthese. + +Vom Enthaltensein kann nur bei einander über- oder untergeordneten +Begriffen die Rede sein; der übergeordnete Begriff ist in dem +untergeordneten enthalten. Dieses Verhältnis gilt also nur für die +sogenannten logischen Teile, für die Gattungs- und Artmerkmale, nicht für +die metaphysischen Teile. Geschwindigkeit und Richtung sind nicht in der +Bewegung enthalten, Stärke und Höhe nicht im Tone, sie sind Eigenschaften, +notwendige Eigenschaften von Bewegung und Ton, ohne die beide nicht sein +können, aber nicht Merkmale, die ihnen übergeordnet werden könnten; oder +genauer, die eine Gattung bilden, der Bewegung und Ton untergeordnet sind. +Das Verhältnis des Enthaltenseins ist das Verhältnis des Allgemeinen zum +Besondren. Es ist nicht das einzige, nicht einmal das wichtigste +Verhältnis für unser Erkennen. Die Inhaltsmerkmale oder Constitutive eines +Begriffs sind in ihm wirklich enthalten; sie sind ausser dem letzten +unterscheidenden Merkmale auch Merkmale des höheren, übergeordneten Art- +oder Gattungsbegriffes, und verhalten sich darum zu dem Begriff in der +That wie das Allgemeine zum Besondren. Der Gedanke liegt freilich nahe, +dass dieses Verhältnis, wenn nicht das einzige, so doch das +hauptsächlichste für unser Erkennen bildet. Gilt doch allgemein bei den +Aristotelikern das Prädikat des Urteils als der allgemeinere Begriff und +wird hiernach das Verhältnis von Subjekt und Prädikat als ein +Subsumtionsverhältnis bestimmt. Statt der Baum blüht, sollen wir hiernach +sagen, der Baum ist blühend, oder besser noch, ein blühendes Etwas; statt +der Mensch ist sterblich, der Mensch ist ein sterbliches Wesen. Auf diese +Weise wird freilich das Urteil in das Subsumtionsverhältnis eingespannt. +Aber die Eigentümlichkeit der von diesem Verhältnis verschiedenen +Verhältnisse von Ding und Vorgang, Ding und Eigenschaft werden dabei +unterdrückt und beseitigt. Man muss die vier Kategorien von Begriffen +unterscheiden: Ding, Eigenschaft, Vorgang, Beziehung. In jeder dieser +Kategorien giebt es über- und untergeordnete Begriffe, aber man kann die +Begriffe der einen Kategorie nicht denen der andren über- oder +unterordnen. Der Vorgang hat das Eigentümliche eines zeitlichen Anfangs, +Verlaufs und Endes, das einer Reihe von Veränderungen eines Veränderlichen +gleichkommt. Die Eigenschaft hat das Eigentümliche eines Unselbständigen +gegenüber einem Selbständigen, das an dessen Sein teilnimmt und ohne +dasselbe nicht vorhanden sein kann. Die Beziehung hat das Eigentümliche, +dass sie zwischen zwei Gliedern besteht und ohne diese Glieder nicht +vorhanden sein kann. Überall handelt es sich hier um Verhältnisse, die vom +Verhältnis des Allgemeinen zum Besondren oder vom Verhältnis des +Enthaltenseins verschieden sind und für unser Erkennen eine viel +wichtigere Rolle spielen. Die Eigenschaft ist das Endglied des +Substanzverhältnisses, der Vorgang das Mittelglied des +Ursachverhältnisses, die Beziehung das, was die Zusammenfassung der +einzelnen Wahrheiten zu dem System oder Reiche der Einen Wahrheit +ermöglicht. + +Die einzige Möglichkeit, alles auf das Verhältnis des Enthaltenseins +zurückzuführen, besteht darin, dass man auch die sogenannten negativen +Merkmale als in den Dingen enthalten oder als Inhaltsmerkmale derselben +betrachtet. Dann ist in jedem Gegenstande alles Aussagbare enthalten. +Allein negative Merkmale setzen negative Urteile voraus und haben nur in +ihnen Halt und Bestand. Durch diese negativen Urteile werden sie aber +gerade von den betreffenden Gegenständen ausgeschlossen. Man müsste also +das Ausgeschlossene als eingeschlossen, d. h. das, was nicht zum Inhalt +gehört, als zum Inhalt gehörend, oder das, was nicht Bestandteil des +Inhalts ist, als Bestandteil des Inhalts betrachten, wollte man die +negativen Merkmale für Inhaltsmerkmale erklären. Heutzutage, wo wir so +stark sind in dem Voraussehen der Konsequenzen im praktischen Leben sowohl +wie in der Wissenschaft, dass wir darüber die Prinzipien kaum noch +beachten oder ununtersucht auf sich beruhen lassen, ist es nicht zu +verwundern, dass alles zur Analyse drängt und von Synthese nichts wissen +will. Aber der Natur und dem Wesen des Erkennens geschieht damit nicht +genüge. Das ist es, was wir betonen möchten. + +Das Gesetz der Übereinstimmung, des Enthaltenseins und des Widerspruchs +sind Gesetze für die Einzelurteile, aber auch die einzigen Gesetze, nach +denen die Wahrheit und Falschheit der Einzelurteile bestimmt werden kann. +Sie sind in allen ihren Formen, jede für sich genommen, unmittelbar +einleuchtend. Das gewöhnlich aufgestellte Gesetz des ausgeschlossenen +Dritten ist nicht Gesetz für ein Einzelurteil sondern nur für das +Verhältnis zweier Urteile zu einander. Es lautet: Wenn von zwei Urteilen +eins dasselbe bejaht, was das andere verneint, -- so ist notwendig eins +von beiden wahr, sie können nicht beide falsch sein, die Wahrheit ist +nicht ein Drittes, von Bejahung und Verneinung nicht Betroffenes; -- sie +können nicht beide wahr sein, eins von beiden ist falsch, auch die +Falschheit ist nicht ein Drittes, weder in der Bejahung noch in der +Verneinung Ausgedrücktes. Nach diesem Gesetze folgt aus der Wahrheit von +eins die Falschheit des Gegenteils von zwei, aus der Falschheit des +Gegenteils von zwei die Wahrheit von zwei; und dasselbe gilt von drei und +vier, von fünf und sechs, von sieben und acht. Eigentlich heisst das +Gesetz nur: zwischen Bejahen und Verneinen giebt es kein Mittleres; +Bejahen und Verneinen sind ausschliessende Gegensätze. Dass sie es sind, +kommt uns bei einem Vergleiche von eins und zwei, drei und vier, fünf und +sechs, sieben und acht zum Bewusstsein. Aber auch nur hier, wo es sich um +das Einzelwirkliche handelt. + + + Vierzehnte Untersuchung + + +Gesetze des Erkennens. (Fortsetzung.) + +Giebt es keine weiteren Gesetze des Erkennens? Die genannten Gesetze sind +eigentlich nur Gesetze für das Einzelwirkliche; sie geben Bestimmungen +über das, was zu ihnen gehört oder nicht zu ihnen gehört. Sofern dieses +Einzelwirkliche das Subjekt der Urteile bildet, sind sie Gesetze der +Urteile. Aber das Einzelwirkliche ist Glied der Gesamtwirklichkeit, und +diese seine Stellung zur Gesamtwirklichkeit macht sein eigentliches Wesen +aus. Es muss auch Gesetze für den Zusammenhang alles Wirklichen geben, den +wir auf dem Wege des Schlusses erkennen. Diese Gesetze sind darum Gesetze +des Schlusses. Es sind drei Gesetze: das Gesetz der Einheit, das Gesetz +der Kausalität und das Gesetz des Grundes. Es ist eine alte Rede vom +Einheitsstreben unserer Vernunft. Aber Einheit ist nicht Einerleiheit, +nicht Dieselbheit, sogern das auch der Analytiker annähme. Die rein +äusserlichen Orts- und Zeitbestimmungen, deren wir zur Unterscheidung des +Einzelwirklichen von einander bedürfen, setzen feste Punkte in Raum und +Zeit voraus, die dann aber sofort sich in lauter Beziehungen auflösen. +Beziehungen ohne Beziehungsglieder sind undenkbar. Also muss ein über +allen Zeit- und Raumbestimmungen stehendes Sein angenommen werden, das +diesen Beziehungen Halt und Bestand giebt. Unser Bewusstsein, das +ebenfalls dem Fluss der Zeit angehört, kann dieses Sein nicht ausmachen. +Man kann sich auch nicht darauf berufen, dass Raum und Zeit etwa nur +Formen unserer Anschauung sind. Das mag sein, eine Bedeutung für die Welt +der Wirklichkeit kommt ihnen unzweifelhaft zu, mögen wir dieselbe kennen +oder nicht. Zu dem gleichen Ergebnis führte schon den Aristoteles die +Bewegung, die er als eine anfangslose betrachtete. Nehmen wir eine +rückwärts sich erstreckende unendliche Zahl von Bewegungsgliedern an, von +denen das nachfolgende Glied immer von dem vorausgehenden abhängt, so +haben wir lauter abhängige Glieder; die unendliche Reihe ist so lange ohne +Halt und Bestand, als wir nicht ein über ihr stehendes Unbewegtes, den +unbewegten Beweger des Aristoteles annehmen, in dem die Bewegung ihren +Grund hat, ohne dass er an ihr teilnimmt. Wir betonten früher, dass es +keine Einzelwahrheit giebt und demnach auch strenggenommen keine einzelnen +Wesen, da alles mit einander im Zusammenhang steht, und das Eine in dem +Andern seine Stütze und seine Begründung findet. Das Reich der Wahrheit +ist ein Ganzes, keine Summe von Teilen, kein wirres Durcheinander, sondern +eine nach Gründen geordnete oder besser durch einen +Begründungszusammenhang gegliederte Einheit. Jede Wahrheit hat ihren +objektiven Grund, auch die unmittelbar einleuchtenden Thatsachen und +Prinzipien, für die wir einen Beweis nicht führen können und die in sofern +_subjektiv_ für uns _grundlos_ sind. Man könnte sich das Reich der +Wahrheit nun als ein System von Gliedern denken, die sich gegenseitig +stützen und tragen. Allein die Beziehung zur Erkenntnis ist der Wahrheit +wesentlich. Die Wahrheiten sind keine Dinge an sich, die wir so erkennen, +wie sie unerkannter Weise sind. Ihr Einheitspunkt ist darum das ihnen +allen gemeinsame göttliche Erkennen oder Denken, an dem unser Erkennen +teilnimmt. In ihm haben sie ihren letzten _objektiven Grund_, ganz +verschieden von dem subjektiven Grund unserer Einsicht. In diesen +Gedankengängen von den Zeit- und Ortsbestimmungen zu dem über Zeit und Ort +Erhabenen, von der Bewegung zu dem unbewegten Beweger, von dem System der +Wahrheiten zu dem Erkennenden und Denkenden, in dem es seinen Grund hat, +macht sich das Einheitsgesetz unseres Denkens geltend. Es lautet: Das +System der Wahrheit setzt einen Erkennenden voraus, in dem es seine +Einheit hat. + +Als weiteres Gesetz unseres Erkennens bezeichnen wir das Gesetz der +Kausalität: Was anfängt zu existieren, setzt ein Anderes voraus, das bei +seinem Anfange schon vorhanden ist und diesen Anfang ermöglicht -- Gesetz +der Ermöglichung. Das Gesetz der Kausalität verhält sich ähnlich zum +Einheitsgesetz wie das des Widerspruchs zum Gesetz der Übereinstimmung. +Wie das Gesetz des Widerspruchs zum Gesetze der Übereinstimmung +hinüberleitet, so das Gesetz der Kausalität zum Einheitsgesetz. Meistens +müssen wir uns mit der Wegräumung des Unwesentlichen begnügen, und dazu +verhilft uns das Gesetz des Widerspruchs immer, auch wenn wir nicht im +stande sind, das Wesentliche oder eigentliche Wesen der Dinge zu erkennen. +Meistens müssen wir uns auch zufrieden geben mit der Herstellung des +Kausalzusammenhangs der Dinge mittels des Kausalitätsgesetzes. Und diese +Herstellung gelingt uns fast immer, wenn wir auch die Stellung der Dinge +in der Gesamtheit des Wirklichen nach dem Einheitsgesetz nicht zu erkennen +vermögen. Falsch ist die Formel des Gesetzes: Was anfängt zu existieren, +setzt ein Anderes voraus, aus dem es notwendig hervorgeht. Diese Formel +schiebt das Gesetz der Kausalität in das Gesetz des Grundes hinein, die +Wirkung wird dadurch zur blossen logischen Folge herabgesetzt. Was immer +unter dem causari verstanden werden mag, es ist verschieden von sequi. Das +Gesetz der Kausalität in der von uns gegebenen Form ist unmittelbar +evident. Es leuchtet uns unabweislich ein, dass kein Ding sich den Anfang +seines Seins selbst geben kann, sondern eines Andern bedarf, das diesen +Anfang ermöglicht, obgleich die erstere Annahme keineswegs einen +Widerspruch einschliesst. Sicher wäre es widersprechend, wenn man annehmen +wollte, ein Ding könne freilich nicht selbst seinen Anfang ermöglichen, +und doch leugnete, dass dazu etwas von ihm Verschiedenes schon bei seinem +Anfange Vorhandenes notwendig sei. Aber bedarf es einer Ermöglichung des +Anfangs? Darüber sagt uns das Gesetz des Widerspruchs nichts. Das Gesetz +der Kausalität bejaht die Frage, und diese Bejahung drückt seinen +eigentlichen Sinn aus. Natürlich ist das Gesetz der Kausalität auch ganz +etwas andres, als das von der Gleichförmigkeit des Naturlaufs, das auf +induktivem Wege gewonnen wird, und als das viel weniger gesicherte +Seitenstück desselben, dass alle Denkenden unter gleichen Umständen +gleiche Urteile fällen. Das Gesetz von der Gleichförmigkeit des Naturlaufs +ist nur eine Zusammenfassung unserer Erfahrungen von der Qualität der +Ursachen oder Ermöglichungsgründe, worüber uns natürlich nur die Erfahrung +und nicht das ganz allgemeine Gesetz der Kausalität oder Ermöglichung +belehren kann. Von Evidenz kann bei dem Gesetze der Gleichförmigkeit keine +Rede sein. + +Als letztes Gesetz erwähnen wir das Gesetz des Grundes. Es lautet: Bei +Bejahung des Grundes muss auch die Folge bejaht werden, und bei Verneinung +der Folge muss auch der Grund verneint werden. Da eine Folge verschiedene +Gründe haben kann, so gilt wenigstens nicht allgemein die Umkehrung des +ersten Teiles des Gesetzes: Bei Bejahung der Folge muss auch der Grund +bejaht werden. Da die Folge im Grunde enthalten ist, so gilt natürlich +immer: Wenn die Folge, das Enthaltene, nicht vorhanden ist, so ist auch +der Grund, das die Folge notwendig Enthaltende, nicht vorhanden. Es +handelt sich hier offenbar lediglich um das Verhältnis des Enthaltenseins. +Das Gesetz des Grundes ist nichts andres, als das Gesetz des +Enthaltenseins in seiner Anwendung auf zwei oder mehrere Urteile, die sich +wie Grund und Folge verhalten. Natürlich kann das Gesetz des Grundes +ebensowenig wie das des Enthaltenseins zu einer Erweiterung unserer +Erkenntnisse dienen und hat deshalb, wie dieses letztere, einen bloss +formalen Charakter. + +Wenn wir das in einem Subjekt Enthaltene von ihm leugnen, das in einem +bejahten Urteil enthaltene andere Urteil leugnen, oder auch trotz der +Verneinung des enthaltenen Urteils das enthaltende bejahen, so verstossen +wir nicht bloss gegen das Gesetz des Enthaltenseins und gegen das Gesetz +des Grundes sondern auch gegen das Gesetz des Widerspruchs: wir +widersprechen uns selbst. Insofern kann man die Form, welche wir, die +Verneinung zu Hülfe nehmend, dem Gesetze des Grundes geben können: Bei +Bejahung des Grundes darf nicht die Folge verneint und bei Verneinung der +Folge nicht der Grund bejaht werden, als dritte Form des Gesetzes des +Widerspruchs bezeichnen. Das, was wir als erste Form des Gesetzes des +Widerspruchs bezeichnen können: Das Nichtzugehörige nicht zusprechen oder +als zugehörig bejahen, ist natürlich von etwas anderer Art als die dem +Verhältnis des Enthaltenseins entsprechende zweite und dritte Form des +Gesetzes. Wer gegen diese zweite und dritte Form verstösst, widerspricht +sich selbst, wer hingegen gegen die erste Form verstösst, legt bloss einem +Subjekt ein nicht zu ihm gehörendes Prädikat bei, das im Subjekt nicht +enthalten ist, ihm also auch nicht widerspricht. Aber er legt doch ein +nicht zugehörendes Prädikat als zugehörend bei und begeht in sofern einen +Widerspruch. + +Das Gesetz der Übereinstimmung, das Einheitsgesetz und das Gesetz der +Kausalität sind Realgesetze, die den Fortschritt unsres Denkens +ermöglichen und begründen, müssen darum als Gesetze des Erkennens im +strengen Sinne bezeichnet werden; das Gesetz des Enthaltenseins und das +Gesetz des Grundes sind Formalgesetze, nach denen der Inhalt der +gewonnenen Erkenntnis zergliedert wird, also eigentlich Denkgesetze. Indes +auch durch Verneinung des Nichtzugehörigen und ebenso auch durch +Verneinung des Nichtenthaltenen findet entschieden ein Fortschritt des +Erkennens statt. Insofern kann auch das Gesetz des Widerspruchs eine reale +Bedeutung haben. + + + Fünfzehnte Untersuchung. + + +Erkenntnis und blinde Überzeugung. + +Wir unterschieden den Blick, der die zusammengehörigen Merkmale entdeckt; +das Sichaufdrängen oder Einleuchten der Zusammengehörigkeit; das Sehen, +Wahrnehmen dieser Zusammengehörigkeit oder die Einsicht in dieselbe, worin +der eigentliche Erkenntnisakt besteht; den gedanklichen Ausdruck der +Zusammengehörigkeit im Urteil; das Bewusstsein der Objektivität oder +Wahrheit des Urteils, das dem Einleuchten oder Sichaufdrängen der +Zusammengehörigkeit entspricht; endlich die Überzeugung von der Wahrheit +oder Gültigkeit des Urteils, die zur Gewissheit wird, wenn sie jeden +Zweifel ausschliesst. Die thörichte Frage, ob das Ding so ist, wie wir es +mit den leiblichen Augen sehen, stellen wir nicht, auch nicht die, ob ein +solches Ding existiert, sondern die andere, was das Ding seinem Wesen, +seiner Wahrheit nach ist. Das hängt natürlich von seiner Stellung in der +Gesamtheit des Wirklichen ab und kann nur mit dem Auge des Geistes gesehen +werden. + +Das auf Einsicht beruhende Urteil und die auf Einsicht beruhende +Überzeugung haben natürlich, wie die Einsicht selbst, in dem Einleuchten +der Zusammengehörigkeit einen vernünftigen sie vollkommen rechtfertigenden +Grund, der aber, wie wir sehen werden, keineswegs zwingend ist. Einsicht +darf nicht mit Denknotwendigkeit verwechselt werden. Allein Urteil und +Überzeugung können auch ohne vernünftigen Grund eintreten. Wir sprechen +dann von blindem Urteil, blinder Überzeugung. Natürlich hat auch das +blinde Urteil und die blinde Überzeugung einen Grund, nur keinen +zureichenden, wirklich rechtfertigenden Grund. Ihr Grund besteht in den +Gefühlen des Gefallens und Missfallens, der Abneigung und Zuneigung, in +der durch die Meinung anderer, zu der auch die öffentliche Meinung gehört, +entstehenden Gewöhnung, in den von dort her rührenden Vorurteilen der +Familie, des Standes, der Nation, der Konfession, des Berufs, in der +Erziehung, in ererbten und erworbenen Gehirndispositionen, endlich im +Egoismus und Lebenstrieb, der sich im Wettbewerb und im Kampfe ums Dasein +kundgiebt. Aus allen diesen Gründen entsteht zunächst ein blindes +Urteilen, oder gedankliches Behaupten, das, wenn es oft genug wiederholt +wird, eine blinde Überzeugung zur Folge hat, die freilich auch unmittelbar +aus diesen Gründen, insbesondere aus den Gefühlen der Abneigung und +Zuneigung, des Gefallens und Missfallens, dann aus dem Egoismus und +Lebenstriebe hervorgehen kann. Diesem blinden Urteilen und Überzeugtsein +folgt dann das vermeintliche Sehen, Wahrnehmen der Zusammengehörigkeit, +die vermeintliche Einsicht in dieselbe, die natürlich keine Erkenntnis +ist, weil sie des vernünftigen Grundes, auf dem alle Erkenntnis beruht, +ermangelt. Die Erkenntnis ist wirkliche, nicht bloss vermeintliche +Einsicht in die Zusammengehörigkeit und beruht auf dem Einleuchten dieser +Zusammengehörigkeit. Diese wirkliche Einsicht geht immer dem Urteil, der +gedanklich behaupteten Zusammengehörigkeit, voran und unterscheidet sich +dadurch wesentlich von der vermeintlichen Einsicht. Wie solche blinden +Urteile und Überzeugungen des vernünftigen, sie rechtfertigenden Grundes +ermangeln, der nur in dem Einleuchten der Wahrheit bestehen kann, so +ermangeln sie damit auch des Kennzeichens der Wahrheit, das eben in diesem +Einleuchten besteht. Wenn sie wahr sind, so sind sie doch nur zufälliger +Weise wahr; eine Bürgschaft für ihre Wahrheit bieten sie in keiner Weise. + +Mit der in der Einsicht bestehenden Erkenntnis ist immer eine Gewissheit +verbunden, sie ist von derselben unabtrennbar. Unter Gewissheit aber +verstehen wir eine Überzeugung, die jeden Zweifel ausschliesst. So lange +wir zweifeln, hin- und herschwanken, oder auch die Gründe für oder gegen +eine Sache abwägen, erkennen wir nicht. Wenn wir aber sagen: das ist +zweifelhaft, entweder weil gar keine Gründe dafür sprechen, oder weil die +Gründe, die dafür sprechen, nicht durchschlagend sind; wenn wir ferner +sagen: das ist wahrscheinlich oder das ist unwahrscheinlich, weil mehr +oder weniger Gründe für eine Sache sprechen als für ihr Gegenteil, so ist +das eine Erkenntnis; wir sagen so, weil wir es einsehen. Eine +wahrscheinliche oder zweifelhafte Einsicht giebt es nicht, sondern nur +eine Einsicht, dass etwas wahrscheinlich oder zweifelhaft ist. Die +Einsicht ist eben immer mit der Gewissheit verbunden und von ihr +unabtrennbar, aber auch die blinde Überzeugung kann jeden Zweifel +ausschliessen und so zur Gewissheit werden. Von dieser Art ist +unzweifelhaft die Überzeugung des Fanatikers oder desjenigen, der +blindlings einem Andern in rückhaltloser, unbedingter Weise vertraut. Ihre +Überzeugung schliesst sicher jeden Zweifel aus und muss darum als +Gewissheit bezeichnet werden. Freilich ist das eine blinde Gewissheit, die +von der auf Einsicht beruhenden und von ihr unabtrennbaren Gewissheit +verschieden ist. Offenbar hat die Gewissheit, insofern sie jeden Zweifel +ausschliesst, also nach ihrer negativen Seite, keine Grade; nach ihrer +positiven Seite hat sie allerdings, wenigstens als blinde Gewissheit, +ebenso wie die blinde Überzeugung, Grade. Die blinde Gewissheit kann nicht +als ein Maximum der blinden Überzeugung betrachtet werden, sondern ist +durch die Leidenschaftlichkeit des Blindglaubenden einer Steigerung bis +ins Unermessliche fähig. Anders scheint es mit der auf Einsicht beruhenden +Gewissheit zu sein. Die Einsicht hat natürlich keine Grade, sie ist +entweder vorhanden oder nicht vorhanden. Ein Mehr oder Minder giebt es +hier nicht. Dasselbe scheint auch von der mit der Einsicht verbundenen +Gewissheit zu gelten. Sie ist nicht bloss nach ihrer negativen sondern +auch nach ihrer positiven Seite ohne Grade. + + + Sechzehnte Untersuchung. + + +Zulänglichkeit des Kennzeichens der Wahrheit. + +Es ist keine Frage, dass es ein vermeintliches Einleuchten giebt, dass wir +oft glauben, die Zusammengehörigkeit leuchte uns ein und doch hinterher +bekennen müssen, dass wir uns getäuscht haben. Wir wechseln nicht bloss +unsere Ansichten sondern auch unsere Einsichten, verwerfen eine frühere +Einsicht als bloss vermeintlich und setzen eine andere möglicherweise +wieder vermeintliche an ihre Stelle. Alles auf Grund des, sei es +wirklichen, sei es vermeintlichen Einleuchtens. Wie kann da dieses +Einleuchten noch als massgebendes und entscheidendes Kennzeichen der +Wahrheit betrachtet werden? Wir haben schon gezeigt, dass die mit Einsicht +verbundene Gewissheit von andrer Art ist als die ohne Einsicht. Was von +der Gewissheit gilt, die ohne Einsicht eintritt, muss natürlich auch von +der Gewissheit behauptet werden, die sich mit der vermeintlichen Einsicht +verbindet. Da sich nun immer mit der vermeintlichen Einsicht ebenso wie +mit der wirklichen eine Gewissheit verbindet, so können wir beide schon +durch die Art der mit ihnen verbundenen Gewissheit unterscheiden. Aber +auch abgesehen von diesem Unterschiede zwischen der vermeintlichen und +wirklichen Einsicht können wir uns der ersteren erwehren und ihr gegenüber +die letztere zur Geltung bringen. Der vermeintlichen und wirklichen +Einsicht entspricht das vermeintliche und wirkliche Einleuchten oder +Evidentsein eines Sachverhaltes. Es kann nun irgend etwas mittelbar oder +unmittelbar einleuchtend sein. Alle des Beweises bedürftigen Sätze sind, +wenn sie bewiesen sind, mittelbar einleuchtend; unmittelbar einleuchtend +ist nach unsrer Auffassung nicht bloss das Gesetz des Widerspruchs, +sondern auch das der Ermöglichung oder Kausalität. + +Nehmen wir nun an, dass ein Satz in mittelbarer Weise einleuchtend zu sein +scheint, so können wir, wenn sein Gegenteil mittelbar einleuchtend gemacht +werden kann, einen Beweis hierfür erbringen und dadurch den Schein des +Einleuchtens beseitigen. Mag aber das Gegenteil des Satzes auch eines +Beweises nicht fähig sein, in jedem Falle sind wir im stande, den Beweis, +der für den in mittelbarer Weise scheinbar einleuchtenden Satz geführt +wird, zu prüfen und, falls sich hierbei ein Fehler ergiebt, durch diese +Prüfung den Schein des Einleuchtens zu zerstören. Nehmen wir ferner an, +dass ein Satz in unmittelbarer Weise einleuchtend zu sein scheint, so +können wir für das Gegenteil einen Beweis zu führen suchen und dadurch den +Schein des Einleuchtens entfernen. Es bleibt noch ein Fall als möglich +übrig. Ein Satz könnte unmittelbar einleuchtend scheinen und sein +Gegenteil auch nur unmittelbar einleuchten, sodass wir also keinen Beweis +für dasselbe zu führen im Stande sind. Hier stehen nun freilich Ja und +Nein einander gegenüber, und eine Entscheidung ist unmöglich. Aber dieser +vierte Fall ist in der Geschichte der Philosophie nicht vorgekommen. +Heraklit und Hegel haben das Gesetz des Widerspruchs geleugnet, aber ihr +Recht zu dieser Leugnung durch einen Beweis darzuthun gesucht. In neuester +Zeit hat man das Gesetz der Kausalität nicht eigentlich geleugnet aber +doch bezweifelt, dass es unmittelbar einleuchtend sei. Aber auch diesen +Zweifel sucht man zu begründen, indem man dem Gesetze der Kausalität das +Gesetz von der Gleichförmigkeit des Naturlaufs, das nur auf einer +Induktion beruht, substituiert -- eine Zusammenfassung unsrer Erfahrungen +über die Qualität der zu bestimmten Wirkungen gehörenden Ursachen. Solche +Gedankengänge, die das unmittelbare Einleuchten gewisser Sätze bestreiten, +kommen natürlich im wirklichen Leben nicht vor. Man ist hier eher geneigt, +das unmittelbare Einleuchten gewisser dem sinnlichen Schein oder einer +unberechtigten Verallgemeinerung zu liebe aufgestellter Sätze zu +behaupten, wie z. B. das unmittelbare Einleuchten des Satzes, dass die +Sonne still steht. Hier ist es ein Leichtes, durch den Beweis des +Gegenteils den Schein des unmittelbaren Einleuchtens zu zerstören. + +Es ergiebt sich, dass wir dem unleugbaren Vorkommen einer vermeintlichen +Einsicht und eines vermeintlichen Einleuchtens nicht ratlos +gegenüberstehen und uns hierdurch in der Annahme des Einleuchtens der +Zusammengehörigkeit als eines zuverlässigen und entscheidenden +Kennzeichens der Wahrheit nicht irre machen lassen dürfen. Wir können +nicht bloss die wirkliche Einsicht von der vermeintlichen an bestimmten +Merkmalen unterscheiden, wir können auch die entstehende vermeintliche +Einsicht überwinden, und zwar durch die wirkliche Einsicht. + + + Siebzehnte Untersuchung. + + +Einsicht und Denknotwendigkeit. + +Die Einsicht oder Erkenntnis beruht, wie wir sahen, auf einem +vernünftigen, zureichenden, sie völlig rechtfertigenden Grunde. Es ist +aber zu beachten wichtig, dass dieser Grund nicht zwingend wirkt. Einsicht +hat nichts mit äusserem Zwange oder innerer Nötigung gemein; sie kann +darum auch keineswegs mit Denknotwendigkeit verselbigt werden. Allerdings +kommt in unsren Schlussfolgerungen aus der Einsicht häufig so etwas wie +Denknotwendigkeit zum Ausdruck. Wir sagen: es kann nicht anders sein, es +muss so sein. Wir sagen das nicht bloss, wenn es sich um begriffliche, +sondern auch, wenn es sich um bloss thatsächliche Wahrheiten handelt. Wenn +wir sie einsehen, so erscheint uns das Gegenteil ausgeschlossen, also +unmöglich. Woher kommt das? Offenbar lediglich von der mit der Einsicht +verbundenen Gewissheit. Wir sind gewiss, das heisst, aller Zweifel und +damit auch die Möglichkeit, dass es anders sein könnte, die Möglichkeit +des Gegenteils ist ausgeschlossen. So sagen wir denn eben wegen dieser +Gewissheit: so muss es sein. Soll das etwa heissen, dass zwischen den +zusammengehörigen Gliedern, deren Zusammengehörigkeit wir einsehen, ein +Notwendigkeitszusammenhang besteht? Sicherlich nicht. Denn sonst dürften +wir nicht in gleicher Weise reden, wenn es sich um bloss thatsächliche +Wahrheiten handelt, bei denen offenbar die Annahme eines +Notwendigkeitszusammenhangs ausgeschlossen ist. Indes könnte immerhin die +Einsicht überall da mit der Denknotwendigkeit verselbigt werden müssen, wo +ein solcher Notwendigkeitszusammenhang des Zusammengehörigen vorliegt. Das +bedarf einer nähern Untersuchung. + +Es fragt sich, ob bei allen begrifflichen Sätzen eine solche +Denknotwendigkeit vorhanden ist, und weiterhin, ob dort, wo sie vorhanden, +die Denknotwendigkeit mit der Einsicht ein und dasselbe ist. In den +Gesetzen des Erkennens und Denkens kommt anscheinend überall eine +Denknotwendigkeit zum Ausdrucke. Gesetz der Übereinstimmung: Das +Zugehörige _muss_ zugesprochen, _darf nicht_ abgesprochen, das +Nichtzugehörige _darf nicht_ zugesprochen, _muss_ abgesprochen werden. Das +Gesetz des Enthaltenseins: Das Enthaltene _muss_ zugesprochen, _darf +nicht_ abgesprochen, das Nichtenthaltene _darf nicht_ als enthalten +zugesprochen, _muss_ abgesprochen werden. Das Gesetz der Einheit: Das +System der Wahrheit setzt _notwendig_ einen Denkenden voraus. Das Gesetz +der Ermöglichung: Was anfängt, zu existieren, setzt _notwendig_ ein +Anderes voraus, das bei seinem Anfange schon vorhanden ist und diesen +ermöglicht. Das Gesetz des Grundes: Aus der Wahrheit des Grundes ergiebt +sich _notwendig_ die Wahrheit der Folge, aus der Falschheit der Folge die +Falschheit des Grundes. Das »muss«, »darf nicht«, »notwendig« drückt hier +zunächst auch nichts anderes als die Gewissheit aus, die jeden Zweifel und +damit die Möglichkeit des Andersseinkönnens ausschliesst. Aber es verhält +sich doch bei diesen Gesetzen mit der Notwendigkeit nicht gleichmässig. +Ein Notwendigkeitsverhältnis zwischen dem Ding und dem von ihm Ausgesagten +liegt unzweifelhaft vor, wenn das Ausgesagte in dem Dinge enthalten ist. +Natürlich ebenso, wenn es sich nicht um Dinge sondern um Urteile handelt, +wenn nach dem Gesetze des Grundes aus der Wahrheit des den Grund bildenden +Urteils die Wahrheit des die Folge ausdrückenden Urteils und wenn aus der +Falschheit des die Folge ausdrückenden Urteils die Falschheit des den +Grund bildenden Urteils erschlossen wird. In diesen beiden Fällen, +allgemeiner: in Urteilen, wo es sich um ein Enthaltensein handelt, mag man +von einer Denknotwendigkeit reden, aber man darf eben nur dies mit dem +Enthaltensein gegebene Notwendigkeitsverhältnis darunter verstehen. Wir +sind durch nichts äusserlich gezwungen oder innerlich genötigt, das in +einem Dinge Enthaltene von ihm auszusagen oder aus einem Urteil als dem +Grunde ein anderes als seine Folge abzuleiten. Wir sehen freilich mit +einer allen Zweifel ausschliessenden Gewissheit ein, dass das Urteil, in +dem wir das in einem Ding Enthaltene von ihm aussagen, notwendig wahr sein +muss, ebenso, dass das Urteil wahr sein muss, das sich als Folge aus einem +andren Urteil als seinem Grunde ergiebt. Aber wiederum ist zu beachten +wichtig, dass diese Einsicht in die Wahrheit der Urteile mit der im +Enthaltensein gegebenen Denknotwendigkeit nichts zu thun hat, von ihr ganz +und gar verschieden ist und sich in keiner Weise auf sie stützt. Es +ergiebt sich, dass, wenn auch in Bezug auf das Enthaltensein von +Denknotwendigkeit geredet werden kann, diese Denknotwendigkeit doch nicht +mit der Einsicht verwechselt oder verselbigt werden darf. + +Auch in Bezug auf das zusammengehörige Nichtenthaltene kann von +Denknotwendigkeiten geredet werden. Man hat von jeher unterschieden +zwischen den Proprietäten oder wahren Eigenschaften, die nicht als +Merkmale im Ding enthalten sind und ihm doch notwendig zukommen, und +zwischen den Accidentien, die ihm zukommen können. Richtung und +Geschwindigkeit sind für die Bewegung, Stärke und Höhe für den Ton solche +Eigenschaften, aber die bestimmte Richtung und Geschwindigkeit, die +bestimmte Stärke und Höhe sind nicht notwendig. Ohne jene Eigenschaften +kann Bewegung und Ton gar nicht vorhanden sein, wohl aber ohne diese +Bestimmtheiten. Die Zugehörigkeit ist hier Denknotwendigkeit. Aber es ist +zu beachten wichtig: nicht weil es denknotwendig ist, betrachten wir +dieses Zugehörige als zugehörig, sondern nur darum, weil uns die +Zugehörigkeit einleuchtet und wir sie einsehen. Jede Eigenschaft setzt +ferner ein Selbständiges, jede Bewegung, jede Veränderung ein Bewegliches, +ein Veränderliches, ein Beharrliches voraus. Wir können das nicht anders +denken; also wiederum eine Denknotwendigkeit innerhalb des Zugehörigen, +Nichtenthaltenen. Es scheint, als wenn dieser Denknotwendigkeit gar keine +Einsicht entspricht. Wir sehen ein, dass und warum das Enthaltensein +denknotwendig ist; aber wir sehen nicht ein, warum wir in unsrem Denken +für die Eigenschaft ein Selbständiges, für die Bewegung ein Bewegliches, +für die Veränderung ein Veränderliches voraussetzen müssen. Wir können nur +sagen, die Einrichtung unsres Denkens bringt das so mit sich. Die Röte hat +doch ihren eigenen Inhalt, ebenso die Bewegung, ebenso die Veränderung. +Warum setzt sie etwas voraus, das rot ist, sich bewegt, sich verändert? +Hier scheint bloss ein blindes Müssen vorhanden zu sein, das auf einer +Einrichtung, auf einem Mechanismus unsres Denkorganismus beruht. Es +scheint nicht unwichtig zu beachten, dass keine Denknotwendigkeit besteht, +jedes Selbständige mit Eigenschaften auszustatten oder jedem Beharrlichen +eine Bewegung oder Veränderung zuzuschreiben. Wenn wir einem +Selbständigen, einem Dinge eine Eigenschaft zuschreiben, ihm Bewegung oder +Veränderung beilegen, so geschieht das, weil uns die betreffenden +Zusammengehörigkeiten einleuchten. + +Auch bezüglich des Nichtenthaltenen und Nichtzugehörigen giebt es +Denknotwendigkeiten, die wir als Unverträglichkeitsverhältnisse +bezeichnen. Sie sind überall dort vorhanden, wo von einem Subjekt ein +Prädikat notwendig ausgeschlossen ist. Das gilt von allen Prädikaten, die +das kontradiktorische Gegenteil des Subjekts ausdrücken. Es gilt ferner +von allen Dingen -- das Wort im engern Sinne genommen -- unter einander. +Da sie ein Eigensein haben und einander gegenüber selbständig sind, können +sie nicht von einander ausgesagt werden. Bei vielen Prädikaten macht sich +in ihrem Verhältnis zu einander diese Unverträglichkeit geltend, die nur +die Kehrseite der Notwendigkeit ist. Sie können nicht zugleich von +demselben Subjekt ausgesagt werden; so: Bejahen und Verneinen desselben +Gegenstands, Wollen und Widerstreben in Bezug auf denselben Gegenstand, +die sogenannten konträren Gegensätze arm und reich, jung und alt, gross +und klein, schwarz und weiss usw. Dass wir diese Prädikate als +unverträglich miteinander oder mit dem Subjekt erkennen, hat seinen Grund +natürlich lediglich in dem Einleuchten der Unverträglichkeit, nicht in der +mit ihr gegebenen Denknotwendigkeit, sodass also auch hier +Denknotwendigkeit und Einsicht als etwas ganz Verschiedenes erscheint. + +Es fragt sich, ob nicht eine Denknotwendigkeit in dem Einheitsgesetz und +dem Gesetz der Kausalität vorliegt, und weiterhin, ob nicht diese +Denknotwendigkeit mit der Einsicht als ein und dasselbe gesetzt werden +muss. Zunächst ist einleuchtend, dass es sich für uns nicht darum handeln +kann, zu entscheiden, ob zwischen dem Denkenden und dem System der +Wahrheit, zwischen dem den Anfang irgendwie Ermöglichenden und dem +Anfangenden ein Notwendigkeitszusammenhang besteht, sondern lediglich +darum, ob er von dem Einheits- und Kausalitätsgesetz gefordert wird und in +diesen Gesetzen zum Ausdrucke kommt. Beides wird nun geleugnet werden +müssen. In dem Einheitsgesetz (das System der Wahrheit setzt einen +Denkenden voraus, der alle Wahrheit erkennt) und in dem Gesetz der +Kausalität (das Anfangende setzt ein anderes schon Bestehendes voraus, das +seinen Anfang ermöglicht) ist von einem Notwendigkeitsverhältnis zwischen +dem Denkenden und dem System der Wahrheit, zwischen dem den Anfang +Ermöglichenden und dem Anfangenden in keiner Weise die Rede; ein solches +Notwendigkeitsverhältnis wird darum auch von diesen Gesetzen nicht +gefordert. Nur insofern kommt auch in diesen Gesetzen ein +Notwendigkeitsverhältnis zum Ausdruck, als das System der Wahrheit +notwendig einen Erkennenden, und das Anfangende notwendig einen +Ermöglichungsgrund voraussetzt. Es ist nichts dagegen einzuwenden, dieses +Notwendigkeitsverhältnis als eine Denknotwendigkeit zu bezeichnen; aber +wiederum gilt, dass diese Denknotwendigkeit nicht der Grund unsrer +Einsicht in die Wahrheit dieser Gesetze ist, dass vielmehr dieser Grund, +wie überall so auch hier, nur das Einleuchten der Zusammengehörigkeit sein +kann. Auch hier sind also Denknotwendigkeit und Einsicht ganz und gar +verschieden. + + + Achtzehnte Untersuchung. + + +Einsicht und Wille. + +Da mit der Einsicht keinerlei Zwang oder innere Nötigung für uns verbunden +ist, so sind wir im Stande uns derselben zu entziehen, wenn sie unsren +Neigungen nicht entspricht, wie viele Erfahrungen unseres Lebens uns +bestätigen. Das Widerstreben gegen die erkannte Wahrheit ist eine leider +nur zu häufig vorkommende Thatsache. Wir können unsren Blick von dem +Sichaufdrängen und Einleuchten der Zusammengehörigkeit ablenken und auf +etwas andres richten, uns dadurch die eintretende Einsicht aus dem Sinne +schlagen, in den Hintergrund drängen, verdunkeln und sogar ganz +beseitigen, um uns einem entgegengesetzten, blinden Dafürhalten, das +unsren Neigungen besser entspricht, hinzugeben. Aber auch wenn dies nicht +der Fall ist, bleibt die Einsicht und das ihr folgende Urteil oft ein +blosser Verstandesakt, selbst vorausgesetzt, dass entgegengesetzte +Interessen vorhanden sind aber keinen Einfluss ausüben, weil der Wille +nicht widerstrebt. Ganz verschieden von diesen Verstandesakten ist die +Liebe zur Wahrheit, die sich in der Hingabe und Unterwerfung des Willens +unter die Wahrheit und in dem Ergriffen- und Unterjochtwerden des Gemütes +von der Wahrheit kundthut und der Vertiefung in die Wahrheit, insbesondere +in ihren überzeitlichen Charakter, zu folgen pflegt. Es ist klar, dass die +Wahrheitserkenntnis erst durch diese Mitbeteiligung des Willens und Gemüts +eine Bedeutung für unser inneres Leben erhält. Die Anerkennung der +erkannten Wahrheit, das Festhalten an ihr trotz entgegengesetzter Neigung +ist eine strenge sittliche Pflicht, ja die höchste sittliche Pflicht, denn +alles Unsittliche hat seine letzte Wurzel und Quelle in dem Widerstreben +gegen die erkannte Wahrheit, was schon in dem blossen Sichabwenden und +Unbeachtetlassen der eben aufleuchtenden Einsicht sich kundgiebt. Die +erkannte Wahrheit ist ein sittliches Gut, nicht ein Gut des egoistischen +Willens sondern ein Gut des Gemeinschaftswillens; ja sie ist das Gut der +Güter, das höchste Gut, denn alle andren Güter erhalten nur durch sie +ihren Wert. Die Wahrheitsliebe ist Pflicht jedes Menschen, die glühende +Liebe zur Wahrheit ist die Tugend des wissenschaftlichen Forschers. Das +Wort Kants vom guten Willen gilt im höchsten Sinne von der Wahrheit: Das +einzige, was nicht bloss in der Welt der wollenden Wesen, wie der gute +Wille, sondern überhaupt um seiner selbst willen gut ist, ist die +Wahrheit, denn alles andere ist nur gut durch sie. Das gilt von allen +Wahrheiten. Einer besondren Beachtung bedürfen die sittlichen und +religiösen Wahrheiten, die Wahrheiten, welche, allgemeiner gesprochen, +unser praktisches Verhalten und unsre persönlichen Beziehungen regeln. Sie +müssen natürlich den Willen in ganz andrer Weise beeinflussen und das +Gemüt in Anspruch nehmen und doch bleiben gerade sie häufig lediglich +blosse Kopfwahrheiten. Die mit ihnen verbundene Einsicht ist natürlich +auch ein Verstandesakt. Sitte und Gewohnheit bringen es mit sich, dass man +ihnen die Anerkennung im Denken und Reden nicht versagt. Diese Anerkennung +wird als etwas Selbstverständliches betrachtet. Aber sie ist auch +lediglich eine Anerkennung des Verstandes, die diesen Wahrheiten in +gedankenloser Weise entgegengebracht wird, ohne dass der Wille und das +Herz davon irgendwie berührt werden, selbst wenn das Leben des +Anerkennenden den Wahrheiten durchaus widerspricht. Der Widerspruch +zwischen den Gewohnheiten des Lebens, wie sie im Handeln sich kundgeben +und zwischen der ebenfalls im Denken und Reden zur Gewohnheit gewordenen +Anerkennung kommt gar nicht mehr zum Bewusstsein. Die Gewohnheit auf +beiden Seiten lässt eine Reflexion gar nicht aufkommen und alles als +selbstverständlich erscheinen. Das ist die Lage der meisten Menschen, die +im Reden und Denken an der ihnen anerzogenen Moral und Religion +festhalten, obgleich die Grundsätze dieser Moral und Religion auf ihre +Gesinnung, ihr Leben und Handeln gar keinen Einfluss ausüben. Ihre Moral +und Religion ist lediglich zur Kopfwahrheit geworden. Wie oft werden +Grundsätze im Denken und Reden als selbstverständlich anerkannt und doch +im Leben und Handeln ohne weiteres, wir müssen sagen gedankenlos, +unbewusst, mit Füssen getreten. Wer verurteilt in seinem Denken und Reden +nicht den Egoismus, und wer zieht das zuerst deutlich, dann immer weniger +deutlich, zuletzt gar nicht mehr als minderwertig erkannte eigene Ich +nicht dem fremden vor? + + + +Vierter Abschnitt. + +Umfang unsres Wissens. + + + Neunzehnte Untersuchung. + + +Schranken unsres Erkennens. + +Es unterliegt keinem Zweifel, dass der Gegenstand und das Ziel des +Erkennens nichts andres sein kann als die Wahrheit in ihrem überzeitlichen +Charakter, der allein ihre Allgemeingültigkeit für alle Denkenden +verbürgt. Aber es fragt sich, ob die thatsächliche Beschaffenheit der +Erkenntnisvorgänge dieser Aufgabe in jeder Hinsicht angemessen ist und +gerecht wird. Um diese Frage zu beantworten, gehen wir von der seit +Aristoteles und dem Neuplatoniker Porphyrius üblichen Unterscheidung +zwischen den Prädikabilien und Prädikamenten oder Kategorien aus. Unter +Prädikabilien verstehen wir höchste Aussagen über Begriffe, unter +Prädikamenten oder Kategorien höchste Aussagen über das Seiende. Man zählt +nach Porphyrius fünf Prädikabilien: Gattung, Art, Differenz, das +Notwendige (Proprietät), das Zufällige (Accidenz), die wesentlichen +Merkmale, welche in Gattung, Art und Differenz vorhanden sind, von den +ausserwesentlichen notwendigen oder zufälligen unterscheidend; ferner nach +Aristoteles zehn Kategorien: Substanz, Eigenschaften, Grösse, Beziehung, +Ort, Zeitpunkt, Lage, Thun, Leiden, Zustand. + +Die notwendigen Merkmale oder Proprietäten sollen also etwas anderes als +die Eigenschaften sein. Die Eigenschaft kann sowohl Proprietät als +Accidenz sein, sie kann dem Ding sowohl notwendig als zufällig zukommen. +Z. B. ist die weisse Farbe und das Kranksein eine Eigenschaft gewisser +Menschen, aber doch nur ein Accidenz. Es gehört zum Wesen der Eigenschaft, +dass sie nicht ohne ein Selbständiges sein kann, dessen Eigenschaft sie +ist, dass sie ein Selbständiges notwendig voraussetzt: aber darum ist sie +noch nicht notwendig für dieses Selbständige. Das gilt nur von der +Proprietät. So setzt auch das Anfangende einen Ermöglichungsgrund +notwendig voraus, geht aber darum noch keineswegs aus diesem +Ermöglichungsgrund notwendig hervor oder ist mit ihm notwendig verbunden. +Die Proprietät gehört, wie das Accidenz, zum Ausserwesentlichen; die +Eigenschaft kann sowohl zum Wesentlichen als Ausserwesentlichen gehören. +Man sieht, die Unterscheidung von Proprietät und Eigenschaft lässt sich +zur Not aufrecht erhalten und durchführen. Aber warum sollen die +Proprietäten, warum soll überhaupt das Ausserwesentliche nur eine Aussage +über Begriffe enthalten? Gehört das Ausserwesentliche nicht auch zum +Seienden? Gattung und Art sind offenbar Prädikabilien, wenn man sie +einfach nach dem Verhältnis des Allgemeinen und Besondern ins Auge fasst. +Aber die Alten haben mit Recht Gattung und Art nicht bloss nach diesem +Verhältnis bestimmt, sondern für beide nur die wesentlichen Merkmale in +Anspruch genommen und die ausserwesentlichen auf Proprietät und Accidenz +verteilt. Ist aber nun das Wesentliche und weiterhin das Wesen ein blosses +Prädikabile? und nicht vielmehr eine Kategorie? Ja, die Kategorie der +Kategorien? Das Seiende ist doch eben nur ein Seiendes dadurch, dass es +ein Wesen, eine Wahrheit hat. + +Verschiedenheit und Gleichheit sind sicher unmittelbar nur Aussagen über +unsre Begriffe, keine Kategorien, ebensowenig das Nichtseiende, die +Negation des einen vom andern; Mensch als Nicht-Pflanze z. B. Demnach kann +auch die Zahl keine Kategorie sein; sie ist der Gattung verwandt und wie +diese Zusammenfassung niederer Einheiten zu einer höheren Einheit; nur +dass bei der Gattung in dieser höheren Einheit die niedern für das +Bewusstsein verschwinden, während sie bei der Zahl im Bewusstsein +festgehalten werden. Aber wie steht es mit der Einheit im höchsten Sinne? +Ist sie auch keine Kategorie? Sicher ist sie eine Kategorie. Nur dadurch, +dass das Seiende ein Teil der Einen Wahrheit ist und an ihr teilnimmt, ist +es ein Seiendes; die Einheit wie das Wesen, wie die Wahrheit selbst ist in +der That die höchste Kategorie; sie ist von Wahrheit und Wesen nicht zu +trennen, so wenig wie das Wesen von der Wahrheit und die Wahrheit vom +Seienden. + +Es mag angemessen sein, das für ein Ding Notwendige und das ihm Zufällige +zu unterscheiden; aber wichtiger ist die Frage, ob etwas darum, weil es +zufällig ist, weniger zum Seienden gehört. Zufällig ist dem Menschen das +Kranksein, das Krüppelhaftsein, wohl auch die Farbe, die schwarze, gelbe, +rote Haut; aber sind diese Eigenschaften darum weniger seiend, weil sie +zufällig sind? Was hat es mit dem Zufälligen überhaupt in Hinsicht des +Seins auf sich? Fragen wir endlich, ist die Wirklichkeit eine Kategorie? +Auch die nichtseinsollende Wirklichkeit? Sicherlich wird man diese Frage +bejahen müssen! Wir kommen auf den ersten Teil derselben zurück. Wie steht +es mit der Negation, die als Negation des Nichtzugehörigen, +Nichtenthaltenen für den Fortschritt unsres Erkennens von so grosser +Wichtigkeit ist? Hat sie eine reale Bedeutung? Wenn man sagt, das eine ist +bloss nichtseiend mit Bezug auf das andere, nicht aber an sich, so +vergisst man, dass das Nichtsein des andern die Beschränktheit, die +Endlichkeit des einen, gleichsam das im einen selbst vorhandene Nichtsein +voraussetzt. Was hat es mit diesem anscheinend seienden Nichtsein auf +sich? + +Wie die Prädikabilien von dem Gedanken des Enthaltenseins, von dem +Verhältnis des Allgemeinen zum Besondren beherrscht sind, so tritt für die +Tafel der Kategorien die sinnliche, sinnfällige Wirklichkeit (Substanz, +Grösse, Ort, Lage) in den Vordergrund. Das entspricht in gewisser Hinsicht +der thatsächlichen Beschaffenheit unsrer Erkenntnisvorgänge, aber in +keiner Weise dem Zwecke derselben. Je mehr wir uns von der sinnfälligen +Wirklichkeit entfernen, desto inhaltleerer wird anscheinend unser Denken. +Wir haben immer weniger Anlass, mit der Negation zu unterscheiden und zu +trennen. Das Verhältnis des Enthaltenseins tritt in den Vordergrund, das +Denken ist sozusagen in dasselbe eingespannt, die Einheit wird zur +Einerleiheit, das Wesen zum inhaltsleeren Allgemeinen; selbst die Wahrheit +kommt auf das Enthaltensein zurück (immanenter Wahrheitsbegriff). Und doch +hat das Verhältnis des Enthaltenseins für unser Erkennen nur eine +untergeordnete Bedeutung. Die sogenannte sinnfällige Wirklichkeit kann, +wie wir noch sehen werden, nur die Bedeutung eines Erkenntnismittels +haben, das wohl die Richtung des Erkennens, aber nicht sein Ziel bestimmt. +In dieser thatsächlichen Beschaffenheit unsrer Erkenntnisvorgänge liegt +offenbar eine Schranke für das seinem Ziele zustrebende Erkennen. + +Als weitere Schranken unsres Erkennens lehrt eine eingehende Betrachtung +die Kategorien des Raumes, der Zeit, der Substanz und Kausalität kennen, +die in unsrem Erkennen die grösste Rolle spielen. Vergleichen wir das +System der Wahrheit, wie es unsrem Erkennen gegeben wird oder +entgegentritt, einem Gebäude, in dem wir das Gerüste oder Fachwerk von der +ausfüllenden Masse, einem Gewebe, in dem wir die Kette von dem Einschlag +unterscheiden, so können Raum, Zeit, Substanz und Kausalität als das +Gerüste oder Fachwerk für das Gebäude der Wahrheit oder als die Kette für +das Gewebe, das sie bildet, bezeichnet werden. + +Die Kategorien Raum und Zeit setzen die Sinnenbilder der Ausdehnung und +Bewegung voraus, gehen aber weit über diese Sinnenbilder hinaus; sie +bestehen in einer begrifflichen Bearbeitung derselben, die nicht etwa +bloss das in ihnen Enthaltene wiedergiebt, sondern auch das für das Denken +ihnen Zugehörige hinzufügt. Aber in dieser begrifflichen Bearbeitung +steckt ebenso wie in den entsprechenden Sinnenbildern ein irrationales +oder dem Denken inkommensurables Element. Es ist für Ausdehnung und Raum +die Berührung der Teile, welche das den beiden wesentliche Nebeneinander +ausschliesst; es ist für Bewegung und Zeit der Übergang, der das der +Bewegung und Zeit wesentliche Nacheinander ausschliesst. Zwischen zwei +nebeneinander liegenden Orten giebt es keinen dritten, beiden gemeinsamen; +zwischen zwei auf einander folgenden Zeitpunkten keinen dritten, beiden +gemeinsamen. Und doch setzt das die Berührung und der Übergang voraus, +wenn wir mit dem Denken zu erfassen suchen, was sie besagen. Die +Kategorien der Substanz und Kausalität verlangen, dass dem Sinnenbild des +Ausgedehnten und Bewegten der der innern Erfahrung entstammende +Willensimpuls in associativer Weise unterlegt wird. Dadurch entstehen aus +dem Ausgedehnten die den Raum ausfüllenden und damit Widerstand +entgegensetzenden Dinge -- neue, umfassendere Sinnenbilder, deren +begriffliche Bearbeitung die Begriffe der Substanz und Kausalität ergiebt. +Auch diese enthalten das irrationale, dem Denken inkommensurable Element +in verstärktem, verdoppeltem Masse. Die Berührung wird für die Substanz +zur Quelle des Nebeneinander, trotzdem sie eigentlich das Nebeneinander +ausschliesst. Der Übergang wird für die Kausalität zur Quelle des +Nacheinander, trotzdem der Übergang das Nacheinander ausschliesst. + +Natürlich sind die Begriffe von Raum und Zeit, von Substanz und Kausalität +nicht etwa bloss umgeformte Sinnenbilder oder sinnliche Empfindungen, sie +sind das Erzeugnis einer begrifflichen Bearbeitung und gehen insofern weit +über das sinnliche Gebiet hinaus; aber in ihnen bleibt ein aus der +Empfindung stammendes, für das Denken nicht aufzuhellendes, +undurchsichtiges Element. Trotzdem schon in den Sinnenbildern der +Ausdehnung und Bewegung und mehr noch in den umfassenderen Sinnenbildern, +die aus ihnen durch associative Verknüpfung mit dem Willensimpuls +entstehen, am meisten aber in der begrifflichen Bearbeitung dieser +Sinnenbilder der synthetische Charakter unsres Erkennens zum Ausdrucke +kommt, kann doch in allen unsren Erkenntnissen, in denen diese +Sinnenbilder und die aus ihnen durch begriffliche Bearbeitung gewonnenen +Kategorien der Zeit, des Raumes, der Substanz und Kausalität eine Rolle +spielen, von einem Einleuchten des Zusammengehörigen und von einer +Einsicht in dasselbe keine Rede sein; ausser insofern wir von dem in den +Sinnenbildern enthaltenen und in diesen Kategorien wiederkehrenden +irrationalen Element absehen. Sehen wir von diesem irrationalen Element +ab, so bleibt uns eine blosse Mannigfaltigkeit in Raum und Zeit übrig, +über die wir, was das Verhältnis und die Zusammenordnung der Teile angeht, +einleuchtende und einsichtige Urteile zu fällen im Stande sind. + +In den Gesetzen des Erkennens und Denkens, die wir als einleuchtend und +einsichtig betrachten, haben wir von den Vorstellungen Substanz und +Kausalität natürlich keinen Gebrauch machen können. Das Gesetz der +Übereinstimmung spricht von Dingen, aber in ganz allgemeinem Sinne, wonach +Eigenschaften, Vorgänge, Beziehungen auch als Dinge gelten können; nicht +aber im Sinne der Substanzvorstellung. Im Gesetze der Kausalität haben wir +nur von der Ermöglichung des Anfangs reden können, nicht von der +Kausalität im Sinne der Ursachvorstellung als hervorbringender Ursache. +Dass etwas in einem bestimmten Zeitpunkte anfängt, hat für uns keine +grössere Schwierigkeit zu denken, als dass es in einem bestimmten +Zeitpunkte oder an einem bestimmten Orte vorhanden ist. Man könnte in dem +Einheitsgesetze unsres Erkennens den Einen Erkennenden als Träger und +Erzeuger des überzeitlichen, natürlich auch überräumlichen Systemes aller +Wahrheit auffassen; aber es ist einleuchtend, dass das Wort Träger in +diesem Falle nicht im Sinne der Substanzvorstellung und das Wort Erzeuger +nicht im Sinne der Ursachvorstellung gedacht wird. + +Raum und Zeit bieten der Erkenntnis freilich noch eine andere +Schwierigkeit. Sie verhalten sich völlig gleichgültig gegen den Inhalt, +passen sich jedem Inhalte an, vermehren den Inhalt in keiner Weise und +bilden insofern einen Gegensatz zu Substanz und Kausalität. Man kann sie +deshalb als Formalkategorien, Substanz und Kausalität im Gegensatz zu +ihnen als Realkategorien bezeichnen. Die Frage nach der Bedeutung von Raum +und Zeit für den Inhalt ist darum eine unabweisliche, um so mehr, da nur +durch sie die Individualisierung der Dinge und Vorgänge möglich ist. Sie +sind die Prinzipien der Individuation, durch die allein für unser Denken +die Dinge aus der Sphäre der unbestimmten und darum bloss gedanklichen +Allgemeinheit herausgehoben und zu Wirklichkeiten gestempelt werden, die +nur Einzelwirklichkeiten sein können. Was haben Raum und Zeit im Reiche +der Wahrheit für eine Bedeutung, wie unterscheiden sich Wahrheit und +Wirklichkeit? das ist die für das Erkennen schwierige, vielleicht +unlösbare, jedenfalls noch nicht gelöste Frage. Sagen wir, das Wahre ist +wirklich, insofern es vom göttlichen Wesen nicht bloss gedacht sondern +auch gewollt wird, Raum und Substanz sind der symbolische Ausdruck für die +scheinbare Selbständigkeit der Dinge ihm gegenüber, Zeit und Kausalität +der symbolische Ausdruck für die völlige Abhängigkeit der Dinge von ihm, +so sind das jedenfalls viel zu allgemeine Antworten, um als genügend +gelten zu können, obgleich sie eine ganze Weltanschauung und vielleicht +die einzig mögliche enthalten. Natürlich muss das Weltwirkliche sich in +völliger Abhängigkeit von Gott befinden. Der Willensakt, dem es seinen +Ursprung verdankt, kann ihm nur eine scheinbare, keine wirkliche +Selbständigkeit verleihen. Wo gäbe es in der Welt auch etwas wirklich +völlig Selbständiges? Es giebt kein gottfremdes, ihm nicht gehörendes Sein +-- ein solches würde ja eine Schranke für Gott, ein zweiter Gott sein. +Unter dieser Voraussetzung ist jener göttliche Wille nur als +Selbstentsagung, Selbstentäusserung, Selbstverzicht Gottes zu denken, +durch welche den Dingen der Welt eine Selbständigkeit geliehen wird, die +ihnen eigentlich nicht zukommt. Diese geliehene Selbständigkeit kommt in +Raum und Substanz, hingegen die wirkliche Unselbständigkeit, die +unbeschadet jener besteht, in Zeit und Kausalität zum Ausdruck. Hiernach +ist die Wirklichkeit nicht wie Raum und Zeit eine Formalkategorie, was man +wegen des Zusammenhangs der Entstehung unserer Erkenntnis der Wirklichkeit +mit den Kategorien von Raum und Zeit erwarten sollte. Sie beruht auf dem +wirklichen Akte der Selbstentsagung und Selbstentäusserung Gottes, dessen +Ergebnis, die geliehene Selbständigkeit, nicht als etwas bloss Scheinbares +betrachtet werden kann. Die auf ihren Wirklichkeitssinn pochenden +Philosophen der Gegenwart werden diese Gedanken für übersteigend oder gar +verstiegen halten, das ist ebenso leicht als überflüssig. Wünschenswert +wäre, dass sie endlich erklärten, worin denn nach ihrer Meinung die +Wirklichkeit im Unterschied von der Wahrheit bestehe und ob Raum und Zeit +bloss für das Zustandekommen unserer Erkenntnis der Wirklichkeit oder auch +für diese selbst eine Bedeutung haben. + + + Zwanzigste Untersuchung. + + +Die Erkenntnis der Aussenwelt. + +Wenn wir die Entstehung und Zusammensetzung unsrer Vorstellungen der +Weltdinge und ihrer Ordnung in Raum und Zeit ins Auge fassen, wie sie nach +dem gesicherten Ergebnis der Psychologie notwendig gedacht werden muss, so +können wir keinen Augenblick darüber zweifeln, dass wir von der +Beschaffenheit dieser Dinge keine Erkenntnis haben. Die Annahme, dass die +Dinge so sind, wie wir sie wahrnehmen, beruht offenbar auf einer bloss +vermeintlichen, durch die Psychologie völlig beseitigten Einsicht. Für den +Kenner der Psychologie ist die Frage, ob die Dinge so sind, wie wir sie +sehen, einfach ungereimt. Jeder hat sein besonderes, eigenes Gesichtsbild +von den Dingen, und dieses besteht aus den Gesichtsempfindungen und den +mit ihnen associierten Tastempfindungen: seine Stelle im Raum wird +bestimmt durch die für das Zustandekommen dieser Tastempfindungen +erforderlichen Muskelempfindungen der Arm- und Beinexkursionen. Zu einem +uns gegenüberstehenden sogenannten Gegenstande wird das Ding durch die von +unsren Bewegungen hergenommene und dem bewegten Gesichtsbilde zu Grunde +gelegte Willensenergie, die allmählich verblasst und als Restbestand das +den Raum ausfüllende und Widerstand entgegensetzende Ding übrig lässt. +Wenn wir die Dinge so wahrnehmen sollen, wie sie sind, dann muss diese +ihre Beschaffenheit in blossen Empfindungen bestehen, und die Dinge können +nichts als Vorstellungen sein. Allein niemand versteht unter den Dingen +blosse Komplexe von Empfindungen oder Vorstellungen, auch nicht +fortdauernde (unter gleichen Umständen immer wiederkehrende) Möglichkeiten +von Empfindungen; ganz abgesehen davon, dass diese Möglichkeiten als reale +Möglichkeiten gedacht werden müssen und so einen Ermöglichungsgrund der +Empfindungen voraussetzen. Alle denken unter den Dingen etwas von den +Empfindungen und Vorstellungen Verschiedenes. + +Müssen wir also auf die Erkenntnis der Beschaffenheit der Dinge +verzichten, so fragt sich, ob wir nicht wenigstens die Existenz von +Dingen, die uns unter der Hülle von Empfindungen bewusst werden, erkennen +können. Davon nun, dass von uns verschiedene, durch die Empfindungen und +Vorstellungen uns gegebene und unsrem Bewusstsein gegenwärtige Dinge +existieren, davon haben wir eine unmittelbare Einsicht. Die +Zusammengehörigkeit dieser Empfindungen und Vorstellungen mit einem von +uns verschiedenen Sein oder Etwas leuchtet uns unmittelbar ein. Die +Einsicht davon lässt sich nicht wegdisputieren; sie bleibt bestehen, auch +wenn die anfängliche Einsicht, dass wir die Beschaffenheit der Dinge +erkennen, beseitigt oder als eine bloss vermeintliche Einsicht erkannt +ist. + +Es ist wichtig zu beachten, dass die Einsicht eine unmittelbare ist und +die Zusammengehörigkeit uns unmittelbar einleuchtet. Sie ist nicht +vermittelt durch die Einsicht, die wir vom Gesetz der Kausalität haben. +Wir schliessen nicht daraus, dass die Empfindungen ohne unser Zuthun in +uns entstehen, auf etwas von uns Verschiedenes, das ihren Anfang +ermöglicht. Gegen diesen Schluss ist mit Recht eingewendet worden, dass +die Empfindungen möglicherweise aus uns entstehen könnten, ohne dass wir +darum wüssten. Unsre Erkenntnis von den Dingen der Aussenwelt, sofern es +sich um ihre Existenz handelt, ist eine streng unmittelbare; von dem +Bewusstsein einer Ursache, eines Anfangs und einer Ermöglichung des +Anfangs ist in ihr nichts zu entdecken, wie das schon oft hervorgehoben +worden ist. Für die Nichtexistenz der Dinge in dem Sinne, in dem wir sie +verstehen, ist eine unmittelbare Evidenz nie in Anspruch genommen worden, +kann auch, so viel ich sehe, in Zukunft nicht in Anspruch genommen werden. +Sie sind natürlich verschieden von den Empfindungskomplexen, den +Willensdingen, von ihrer Substanz und Kausalität, deren Entstehung und +Zusammensetzung uns die Psychologie mit durchsichtiger Klarheit kennen +lehrt. Sie können Gedanken sein und sind nach unsrer Auffassung Gedanken +Gottes, oder wenn man lieber will, des Bewusstseins überhaupt (Berkeley, +Rehmke), also nicht Gedanken unsres oder meines individuellen +Bewusstseins. Sie sind nicht Dinge an sich, die wir erkennen, wie sie +unerkannterweise sind, sondern ein von Ewigkeit und vor uns Gedachtes, und +unsre Erkenntnis derselben ist nur ein Nachdenken eines Vorhergedachten. +Giebt es keine unmittelbare Evidenz der Nichtexistenz der Dinge in diesem +Sinne, so ist der seltene Fall, wo sich Evidenz und Evidenz wie Ja und +Nein gegenüber stehen, also ausgeschlossen, der einzige Fall, in dem wir +uns auf eine Evidenz nicht berufen könnten. Für die Nichtexistenz von +Dingen in unsrem Sinne scheint auch kein Beweis geführt werden zu können. +Positivisten wie Stuart Mill, welche sich auf die fortdauernde Möglichkeit +der Empfindungen, aus denen sich das Vorstellungsbild der Dinge ergiebt, +zurückziehen, müssen diese Möglichkeit als reale fassen und bedürfen daher +für sie eines Ermöglichungsgrundes, den sie nur in den Dingen in unsrem +Sinne finden können. Idealisten wie Berkeley, Rehmke können gegen die +Annahme von Dingen als Gedanken Gottes oder des Bewusstseins überhaupt von +ihrem Standpunkte aus keinen Beweis zu erbringen versuchen. + +Hingegen können wir unsere Annahme von solchen Dingen, die wir durch +unmittelbare Einsicht gewinnen, auch noch durch einen Beweis stützen. Seit +Cartesius ist in der Philosophie die abstrakte Trennung von Leib und +Seele, von Körperwelt und Bewusstsein, die von ihm aus bloss methodischen +Gründen eingeführt wurde, zu einer gewohnheitsmässigen Annahme geworden, +über deren Recht oder Unrecht kaum noch reflektiert wird. Aristoteles und +den mittelalterlichen Philosophen war diese Annahme völlig fremd. Auch +unsere Psychologie setzt die abstrakte Trennung von Leib und Seele als +selbstverständlich voraus, sie geht darum von den Empfindungen als den +Anfangszuständen des Bewusstseins aus und legt auf Grund derselben und im +Anschluss an sie den reichen Inhalt des Bewusstseinslebens dar. Das bietet +methodische Vorteile und ist insofern nicht zu verwerfen. Allein schon +eine Definition der Empfindung ist unmöglich ohne Zuhilfenahme +körperlicher Vorgänge, der Sinnesreize und Gehirnerregungen. Ausserdem +wird niemand bestreiten, dass das Kind von Empfindungen als +Bewusstseinsvorgängen noch nichts weiss. In unsrem entwickelten +Bewusstseinsleben treten ferner die Empfindungen nie als Empfindungen, als +Bewusstseinsvorgänge auf. Man hat deshalb gesagt, sie seien uns nicht als +Empfindungen sondern als objektivierte Vorstellungen gegeben. Was heisst +das? Werden Empfindungen je objektiviert und dadurch zu Vorstellungen? Die +Theorie der Objektivation und Projektion ist veranlasst durch die Farben, +die Empfindungen sind und doch von uns in der Ferne als den Dingen +anhaftend gesehen werden. Allein mit den Farbenempfindungen sind +entsprechende Tastempfindungen associiert, die wir nur haben können, wenn +wir den Gegenstand berühren. Es ist darum begreiflich, dass wir beim Sehen +des Gegenstandes uns in Gedanken an seinen Ort versetzen und ihn nun +unmittelbar, wie mit den Tastempfindungen so auch mit den +Gesichtsempfindungen der Farben umkleiden (hierin liegt der Grund, wie bei +der Erörterung über die Erinnerung deutlich werden wird, warum wir bei der +äussern Wahrnehmung nicht leicht von einer Einsicht reden). Wir würden +nicht von objektivierten oder gar projizierten Empfindungen als dem +unmittelbar Gegebenen reden, sondern vorziehen zu sagen, dass uns die +Empfindungen nicht als Empfindungen ursprünglich gegeben sind sondern als +Erkenntnismittel. + +Auf einer gewissen Stufe des entwickelten Bewusstseins hören schon beim +unmündigen Kinde die Empfindungen auf unverstandene Zustände zu sein. Es +erhebt sich der auf das Wesen der Dinge und die Wahrheit gerichtete Blick +des Geistes, durchdringt die sinnliche Hülle der Empfindungen, die in +jedem andere und besondere sind, und erfasst das für alle Zeit und darum +auch für alle Denkenden den Empfindungen irgend entsprechende, jedenfalls +mit ihnen zusammengehörende Sein und Etwas, d. h. das für alle Zeit und +für alle Denkenden gültige Wesen der Dinge in der unbestimmten Weise, wie +es eben dem Begriffe des Seins und Etwas entspricht. Natürlich bleibt die +Empfindung das Kleid, die Hülle dieses unbestimmten Seins und Etwas, der +Stützpunkt, das Schwungbrett, um mit Platon zu reden, für diesen Blick des +Geistes, das er nicht entbehren kann. Empfindungen als +Bewusstseinsvorgänge sind Abstraktionen, als Erkenntnismittel für die +Aussenwelt sind sie das ursprünglich Gegebene. Aber auch für die höchsten +Begriffe können wir dieses Erkenntnismittel, wie Aristoteles zuerst sieht, +nicht entbehren. Kein Begriff ohne Phantasiebild -- dieser Satz stammt von +ihm. Er will sagen: kein Begriff ohne wieder auflebende Empfindungen, die +als Erkenntnismittel funktionieren. Dem Blick des Geistes, der das den +Empfindungen entsprechende Sein findet oder entdeckt, folgt das +Einleuchten der Zusammengehörigkeit und diesem die Einsicht in die +Zusammengehörigkeit. Aber nur von dem ganz unbestimmten Sein und Etwas der +Dinge, das freilich für alle Zeit und für alle Denkenden gilt, giebt uns +diese Einsicht Kunde, nicht von seiner Beschaffenheit. Etwas Näheres von +seiner Beschaffenheit, freilich noch unbestimmt genug, erfahren wir nach +dem Einheitsgesetz unsres Erkennens, nach dem alle Wahrheit und damit +alles Wesen der Dinge Gedanke Gottes ist. Hiernach muss dann auch das mit +den Empfindungen zusammengehörende Sein und Etwas als Gedanke Gottes +gefasst werden. Davon haben wir dann eine mittelbare, eine durch das +Einheitsgesetz vermittelte Erkenntnis. + +Wir gehen bei unsrer Beweisführung davon aus, dass nicht bloss unser Leib +sondern auch die Körperwelt mit unsrem Bewusstsein eine Einheit bilden. +Denn nur unter dieser Voraussetzung scheint eine unmittelbare Erkenntnis +der Körperwelt aus den Empfindungen und durch sie, wenn auch nur ganz +unbestimmt, als eines Etwas oder Seienden möglich zu sein. Aber besteht +jene Annahme zu recht? Können wir wirklich nicht bloss von einer Einheit +unsres Leibes, sondern auch der Körperwelt mit unsrem Bewusstsein reden? +Zunächst unterscheidet das Kind seinen eigenen Leib noch nicht von fremden +Körpern. Erst die Schmerzgefühle, welche mit den Angriffen auf den Leib +verbunden sind, machen ihm klar, dass es sich mit dem eigenen Körper +anders verhält als mit fremden Körpern. Dann steht doch auch der eigene +Körper mit der ganzen Körperwelt in einer auf beständigem Austausch +beruhenden Verbindung; sie bilden mit einander eine unauflösliche Einheit, +in dem es kein Leeres und keine Sprünge giebt. (Horror vacui. Natura non +facit saltus.) Natürlich leugnen wir nicht, dass das Verhältnis des +Bewusstseins zu dem, was wir unsren Leib nennen, ein andres ist als zu den +fremden Körpern. Aber erstens ist dies Verhältnis uns unbekannt; zweitens +ist es nicht zu allen Teilen des eigenen Leibes das gleiche, scheint zu +vielen Teilen desselben vielmehr kein engeres zu sein wie zu der übrigen +Körperwelt; drittens endlich ist dieses Verhältnis, was die Erkenntnis des +eigenen und der fremden Körper angeht, sicher das gleiche, und bloss in +dieser Hinsicht kommt dieses Verhältnis für uns hier in Betracht. + +Wir fragen endlich, wie weit denn unsre Einsicht bezüglich der Aussenwelt +reicht? Wir antworten: genau so weit, als unsere wirkliche Erkenntnis; +denn diese ist mit der Einsicht ein und dasselbe. Natürlich gehört Raum +und Zeit, Substanz und Ursache, nicht minder aber auch Materie und Kraft, +in denen die gleichen irrationalen, dem Denken inkommensurabeln, durch +dasselbe nicht aufzuhellenden Elemente enthalten sind, bloss zu der +Erscheinung der Welt in unsrem Bewusstsein. Abgesehen von den Urteilen +über das in diesen Formen Verbundene giebt es keinerlei Einsicht von +ihnen, was natürlich nicht hindert, dass wir von dem in diesen Formen +Gegebenen, unter ihnen Erfassten eine Einsicht haben. Sehen wir aber von +dieser Erscheinung der Aussenwelt in uns ab, so bleibt kaum etwas anderes +übrig, als ein unbestimmtes Seiendes, das freilich im Gegensatz zu dieser +Erscheinung objektiv für alle Zeit und für alle Denkenden gültig ist, und +in diesem Sinne existiert. Giebt es eine Vielheit von Dingen in der +Aussenwelt, die wir freilich nur nach den sinnfälligen Eigenschaften ihrer +Erscheinung unterscheiden können? Wir werden behaupten müssen, dass wir +davon eine einsichtige Erkenntnis haben, sofern es sich um die grossen +Himmelskörper einschliesslich unsrer Erde und um die kleinen Menschen-, +Tier- und Pflanzenkörper handelt, auch bezüglich der Atome der Physiker, +bezüglich der Aggregatzustände Luft, Wasser, Erde, ferner der Berge, +Flüsse, Thäler, Meere. Aber was diese vielen Dinge der Natur sind, die wir +nur nach ihrer Erscheinung im Bewusstsein bestimmen und unterscheiden +können, insbesondere, wodurch sie sich in Wirklichkeit unterscheiden, +wissen wir nicht. Die Vielheit stellt sich uns ferner als eine gebrochene +Einheit dar. Natürlich haben wir auch von den Ergebnissen der +beschreibenden Naturwissenschaften, sofern sie wirklich wissenschaftliche +Ergebnisse sind, einsichtige Erkenntnisse, bei denen freilich immer +vorbehalten bleibt, was es mit den Körpern, von denen sie handeln, +eigentlich auf sich hat, was sie abgesehen von ihrer Erscheinung in unsrem +Bewusstsein sein mögen. Das Gleiche gilt von den Ergebnissen der Chemie, +Astronomie, Physik, Mechanik und zwar in um so höherem Grade, je weiter +wir uns in diesen Wissenschaften von den verwickelten Verhältnissen des +Einzelwirklichen entfernen, jemehr wir von ihnen abstrahieren. Bis an die +äusserste Grenze der Abstraktion gehen wir in der Geometrie und +Arithmetik, und daher rührt die durchsichtige Klarheit der Sätze dieser +Wissenschaften. Bei der Geometrie bleibt freilich noch der Raum und die +Ausdehnung mit dem in ihnen enthaltenen irrationalen Elemente gleichsam +als Hindernis einer vollkommen uneingeschränkten Einsicht bestehen, die +wir erst für die Sätze der Arithmetik, bei der auch dieses Hindernis in +Fortfall kommt, in Anspruch nehmen können. + + + Einundzwanzigste Untersuchung. + + +Über die Erkenntnis des eigenen Bewusstseins. + +Die Erkenntnis der Aussenwelt ist, wie wir sehen, überall durch +unüberschreitbare Schranken eingeengt. Wenn wir von der Existenz der Dinge +und Vorgänge der Aussenwelt und ebenso der Beziehungen zwischen ihnen auch +eine wirkliche, in der Einsicht bestehende Erkenntnis haben, so bleibt uns +die nähere Beschaffenheit dieser Dinge und ebenso der Vorgänge doch +verborgen. Wir können sie nur nach ihrer Erscheinung in unsrem Bewusstsein +näher bestimmen, und diese mag für ihre Unterscheidung ausreichen, kann +uns aber über ihre Beschaffenheit keine Belehrung geben. Der Aussenwelt +steht die Innenwelt unsres Bewusstseins gegenüber. Können wir von dieser +Einsichten, Erkenntnisse gewinnen, die umfassender und vertiefter sind, +wie manchmal behauptet wird? Von einer Reihe von Forschern, die sich an +Brentano anschliessen, wird angenommen, dass wir Einsichten überhaupt nur +von den Gegenständen der innern Wahrnehmung, also von der eigenen +Innenwelt haben können, nicht aber von den Gegenständen der äussern +Wahrnehmung, also von der Aussenwelt, sofern sie Gegenstand der äussern +Wahrnehmung ist. + +Jedenfalls ist jeder Bewusstseinsvorgang durch das Merkmal der Bewusstheit +charakterisiert, das man als ein Wissen des Bewusstseinsvorganges um sich +selbst bezeichnen kann. Jeder hat sich selbst zu seinem Inhalte. In diesem +Sinne kann man sagen: jede Vorstellung stellt etwas vor, mag sie richtig +sein oder nicht, und das ist der nicht von ihr verschiedene Inhalt. Dieses +Wissen des Bewusstseinsvorganges um sich selbst muss natürlich immer wahr +sein: in ihm kann es keinen Irrtum, keine Falschheit geben. Aber es ist +kein eigentliches Wissen, kein namentliches, vorstellungsmässiges, +begriffliches Wissen. Wir gewinnen durch dasselbe noch keine +Vorstellungen, Begriffe von den Bewusstseinsvorgängen. Dieses +uneigentliche Wissen ist keine Einsicht, keine Erkenntnis. Aber wir können +über die Bewusstseinsvorgänge reflektieren und diese Reflexion, selbst ein +Bewusstseinsvorgang, ist von den Bewusstseinsvorgängen, die ihren +Gegenstand bilden, verschieden. Durch die Reflexion nun gewinnen wir +zweifellos nicht bloss von der Existenz sondern auch von der +Beschaffenheit der Bewusstseinsvorgänge eine Einsicht, eine Erkenntnis. +Wir stehen ihnen nicht ratlos gegenüber wie den Dingen und Vorgängen der +Natur oder müssen uns mit einer ganz unbestimmten Erkenntnis derselben +begnügen. Wir wissen, was es mit ihnen auf sich hat, wodurch sie sich von +einander unterscheiden auf Grund von Merkmalen, die wir in den +Bewusstseinsvorgängen selbst finden. Allerdings sind alle unsere +Vorstellungen, die wir von den Bewusstseinsvorgängen haben, aus dem +sinnlichen Gebiete entlehnte, übertragene, ursprünglich also sinnliche und +mit Bezug auf die Bewusstseinsvorgänge nur bildliche Vorstellungen. Wir +bedürfen dieser Krücken der sinnlichen Vorstellungen bei jedem Schritte, +den unser Denken thut und können ihrer nirgends entraten, auch nicht, wenn +es sich um die Erkenntnis unserer Bewusstseinsvorgänge handelt. Aber wir +wissen sehr wohl zwischen dem ursprünglichen und übertragenen Sinne dieser +Vorstellungen, z. B. der Vorstellung Vorstellen, zu unterscheiden und +geben ihnen unwillkürlich bei der Übertragung auf die Bewusstseinsvorgänge +eine diesen entsprechende andere Bedeutung. Hier kommt das mit jedem +Bewusstseinsvorgang verbundene, uneigentliche Wissen des +Bewusstseinsvorgangs um sich selbst zur Geltung und verhindert eine +Herabziehung der Bewusstseinsvorgänge in das sinnliche Gebiet. Die +Empfindungen, insofern sie Erkenntnismittel der Aussenwelt sind und als +solche immer unter Mitwirkung der Sinnesorgane, sei es der äussern, sei es +bloss der innern, der Gehirnerregungen, funktionieren, gehören dem +sinnlichen Gebiete an, ja sie konstituieren dasselbe. Insofern wir aber +bei der Reflexion über die Empfindungen von dieser ihrer körperlichen +Seite absehen, bilden sie, wie alle Bewusstseinsvorgänge, einen Gegensatz +wie zu allem Körperlichen, so auch zu allem Sinnlichen. Es ist unrichtig +zu sagen, dass wir von den Bewusstseinsvorgängen nur Vorstellungen haben +und nicht wissen, was diesen Vorstellungen eigentlich entspricht; von +unsren gegenwärtigen Gefühlen, gegenwärtigen Wollungen und gar von unsren +gegenwärtigen Vorstellungen sollen wir blosse Vorstellungen haben. Es +leuchtet unmittelbar ein, dass diese Annahme falsch ist, abgesehen von den +widersinnigen Konsequenzen, zu denen sie führt. Müssten wir ja dann auch +von den Vorstellungen unsrer Bewusstseinsvorgänge nur Vorstellungen haben +und von diesen Vorstellungen wieder nur Vorstellungen und so fort ohne +Ende. Man könnte denken, die Übertragung der aus dem sinnlichen Gebiete +entlehnten Vorstellungen auf die Bewusstseinsvorgänge könne nur in +Urteilen geschehen. Allein diese Urteile setzen das Einleuchten der +Zusammengehörigkeit der Bewusstseinsvorgänge mit den Vorstellungen und die +Einsicht in diese Zusammengehörigkeit voraus, die Übertragung geht also, +wie der Einsicht und dem Einleuchten, so auch dem Urteil voran, und wir +werden sie dem Blick des Geistes zuschreiben müssen, dem wir die +wesentlichen Merkmale verdanken. + +Man kann die Bewusstseinsvorgänge isolieren, wie wir das thun, wenn wir +sie durch übertragene Vorstellungen näher bestimmen. Das ist ein +abstraktes Verfahren, welches zu diesem Zwecke angewendet werden kann und +in der Psychologie gute Dienste thut. Aber man darf nicht glauben, dass +die Bewusstseinsvorgänge in Wirklichkeit auch isoliert von einander sind. +Sie liegen nicht nebeneinander wie die Atome eines Körpers, haben vielmehr +einen übergreifenden, die gleichzeitigen und sogar auch die vorangehenden +Bewusstseinsvorgänge mit umfassenden Charakter. Ohne dieses Übergreifen +ist das Zustandekommen des Sinnenbildes der Ausdehnung, in dem die +gleichzeitigen Empfindungen, und des Sinnenbildes der Bewegung, in dem die +aufeinanderfolgenden Empfindungen in bewusster Weise zusammenhängen oder +einen bewussten Zusammenhang bilden, nicht zu erklären. Die den einzelnen +Bewusstseinsvorgängen eigentümliche Bewusstheit oder das Wissen um sich +selbst greift hier auch auf die andern gleichzeitigen oder vorausgehenden +und nachfolgenden Empfindungen hinüber. Das, was wir Einheit des +Bewusstseins nennen, vermöge deren wir von _unsrem_ Bewusstsein reden und +dieses den fremden Bewusstseinen gegenüberstellen, hat hierin seinen +Grund. Es ist zu beachten wichtig, dass wir nicht bloss eine wirkliche +Einsicht und Erkenntnis von der Existenz und Beschaffenheit der +Bewusstseinsvorgänge haben, sondern ebenso auch von ihrer Zugehörigkeit zu +unsrem Bewusstsein, oder dass sie unsere Bewusstseinsvorgänge sind. Auch +von dem besonderen Zusammenhange zwischen Vorstellungen und Gefühlen, +Gefühlen und Wollungen, zwischen Überlegung, Entschluss, Vorsatz, +Ausführung -- mag uns die Art dieses Zusammenhangs auch dunkel bleiben -- +haben wir eine Einsicht, eine wirkliche Erkenntnis, also wenigstens davon, +dass dieser Zusammenhang besteht. Wir wissen, was wir beabsichtigen, und +wann wir ohne Absicht handeln und darum für den Erfolg unserer Handlungen +entweder gar nicht oder nicht völlig verantwortlich sind, und dieses +Wissen beruht auf einer Einsicht und Erkenntnis. Das Gefühl der Reue und +der Verantwortung und ihr Gegenteil hat darin seinen Grund. + +Giebt es auf Einsicht beruhende Erinnerungen, sind Erinnerungen wirkliche +Erkenntnisse? Zweifellos können sie das sein und sind es in Wirklichkeit +oft genug. Eigentlich können wir uns nicht an Dinge und Vorgänge, sondern +nur an unsere Wahrnehmung der Dinge und Vorgänge erinnern. Die Erinnerung +ist ein Wissen der Zusammengehörigkeit eines vergangenen +Bewusstseinsvorganges mit dem gegenwärtigen, daher seiner Zugehörigkeit zu +unsrem Bewusstsein. Dass uns diese Eigentümlichkeit der Erinnerung bei der +Erinnerung selbst weniger zum Bewusstsein kommt, hat seinen Grund darin, +dass wir bei den Erinnerungen uns ganz in die Zeit des vergangenen +Vorgangs versetzen und mit unsrem Denken nur bei ihm verweilen; ähnlich +wie wir bei der Wahrnehmung uns an den Ort des Gegenstandes versetzen. Das +ist auch der Grund, warum wir nicht leicht von einer Einsicht sprechen +weder bei der Erinnerung noch bei der Wahrnehmung. Die Einsicht setzt +immer zwei Glieder voraus, deren Zusammengehörigkeit uns einleuchtet. Bei +dieser Versetzung in die Zeit des erinnerten und an den Ort des +wahrgenommenen Gegenstandes scheint aber immer nur ein Glied vorhanden zu +sein. Kommen wir aber auf dem Wege der Reflexion dazu, die Erscheinung des +Dinges in unsrem Bewusstsein von dem wahrgenommenen Dinge selbst oder den +gegenwärtigen Erinnerungsakt von dem vergangenen erinnerten +Bewusstseinsvorgang zu unterscheiden, so leuchtet uns die +Zusammengehörigkeit beider ein, und wir begreifen, dass wir auch bei der +Wahrnehmung und Erinnerung von einer Einsicht sprechen müssen. Sehen wir +unter dieser Voraussetzung ab von der Bedeutung der Zeit, der +Vergangenheit in ihrem Verhältnis zur Gegenwart, die wir nicht kennen, +sehen wir ferner ab von Ausdehnung, Bewegung, Raum, Substanz, die nur die +Erscheinung der Dinge und Vorgänge im Bewusstsein ausmachen können (falls +bei der Erinnerung auch äussere Dinge und Vorgänge, sofern sie +wahrgenommen wurden, in Frage kommen), so kann es keinem Zweifel +unterliegen, dass es Erinnerungen giebt, die in einer Einsicht oder +wirklichen Erkenntnis bestehen. Die ganz klaren und deutlichen sind von +dieser Art. Wer kann leugnen, dass er eine auf Einsicht beruhende +Gewissheit davon hat, heute Morgen aufgestanden zu sein, einen Spaziergang +gemacht zu haben, auf demselben jemand getroffen oder gesprochen zu haben, +von Kummer erfüllt gewesen zu sein beim Tode eines Angehörigen, beim +Verlust eines Vermögens usw.? Sogar darüber, ob unsere Erinnerung ungenau, +lückenhaft, verschwommen ist, können wir unter Umständen eine auf Einsicht +beruhende Gewissheit haben. Ist das Gedächtnisbild von einem früheren +Bewusstseinsvorgang von dieser Beschaffenheit, so werden die mit dem +früheren Bewusstseinsvorgang verbundenen Gefühle auch nur zum Teil in +lückenhafter, verwischter Weise wieder aufleben. Das hat eine Spannung, +ein Unbehagen zur Folge, worin wir etwa den psychologischen +Anknüpfungspunkt für das Einleuchten der Nichtzusammengehörigkeit, (die in +diesem Falle als Nichtangemessenheit bestimmt werden muss) des +Gedächtnisbildes mit dem Bewusstseinsvorgang erblicken können, der die +Einsicht in diese Nichtzusammengehörigkeit folgt. + +So sicher es aber auch ist, dass wir Erinnerungen haben, die in Einsichten +bestehen und also wirkliche Erkenntnisse sind, so sind die bei der +Erinnerung gewonnenen Einsichten doch mancherlei Einschränkungen +unterworfen, und wir müssen ihnen gegenüber mancherlei Vorbehalte machen. +Noch mehr ist das der Fall, wenn wir von der Erkenntnis unseres Ich +sprechen. Wie jeder Bewusstseinsvorgang ein Wissen, freilich ein +uneigentliches Wissen von sich selbst hat, das wir seine Bewusstheit +nennen, so hat auch das, was wir unser Ich, unser Selbst nennen, ein +Bewusstsein von sich. Wir haben ein Ich-Bewusstsein, ein +Selbst-Bewusstsein, die Zusammengehörigkeit unsres Ich, unsres Selbst mit +diesem Bewusstsein von sich leuchtet uns unmittelbar ein; davon haben wir +eine Einsicht, eine Erkenntnis, eine unmittelbare Einsicht, die jeden +Zweifel ausschliesst. Wenn Hume behauptet, dass er in sich jederzeit nur +ein Bündel von Vorstellungen findet, so hat er eben vergessen, dass dazu +ein Vorfinder, eben das Ich, erforderlich ist. Aber was ist dieses Ich, +dieses Selbst? Das ist eine andere Frage. Und hier fehlt uns offenbar die +Einsicht oder Erkenntnis. Sicher ist es nicht unser Körper oder einer +seiner Teile, die Augen, die Ohren, die wir, auch abgesehen von ihrer +Erscheinung in unsrem Bewusstsein, unterscheiden müssen, obgleich das Wort +Ich lange Zeit hindurch von unsren Kindern und von vielen Erwachsenen ihr +Leben hindurch nur oder fast nur von ihrem Leibe verstanden wird, also von +dem leiblichen Ich; obgleich ferner das Ich von dem, was dem Leibe, +abgesehen von seiner Erscheinung im Bewusstsein, entspricht, nicht +getrennt werden kann, soll es nicht zu einem blossen Abstraktum werden. +Ohne dieses, dem sinnlich erscheinenden Leib Entsprechende ist ja kein +Bewusstsein denkbar, und ohne Annahme des Bewusstseins können wir auch von +keinem Ich reden. Sicher ist es ferner keine Substanz, die nur zur +Erscheinungsform der körperlichen Dinge gehören kann. Auch mit dem +Selbst-Bewusstsein oder Ich-Bewusstsein, das nur sein Merkmal bildet, kann +das Ich und Selbst nicht verselbigt werden. Es ist der Ausdruck für die +Zusammengehörigkeit der Bewusstseinsvorgänge zu Einem Bewusstsein, aber +doch kein blosses Wort; vielleicht ist es das Band dieser +Zusammengehörigkeit, das sich ebenso zu der Gesamtheit der +Bewusstseinsvorgänge verhält wie der Eine Denkende zum Reich der Wahrheit. +Hier sind wir auf blosse Vermutungen angewiesen, es fehlt uns jede +Einsicht und damit die wirkliche Erkenntnis. Wenn wir urteilen: ich freue +mich, ich bin traurig, ich stelle mir vor, so haben wir zweifellos eine +Einsicht und wirkliche Erkenntnis von der Zusammengehörigkeit unsrer +Bewusstseinsvorgänge mit dem Ich- oder Selbstbewusstsein, von ihrer +Zugehörigkeit zu unsrem Bewusstsein, diese leuchtet uns unmittelbar ein. +Aber vorbehalten bleibt, was es mit dem Ich und Selbst auf sich hat. + +Wir sehen, nicht bloss für die Erkenntnis der Aussenwelt, auch für die +Erkenntnis unsrer eignen Innenwelt giebt es unübersteigliche oder +wenigstens bis jetzt nicht überwundene Schranken; auch hier müssen wir +Vorbehalte machen, wenn wir von Einsicht und wirklicher Erkenntnis reden +wollen. Freilich besteht, was die Erkenntnis der Aussenwelt und die unsrer +eigenen Innenwelt angeht, ein wesentlicher Unterschied. Sehen wir vom Ich +ab, so wissen wir doch, was wir unter Händen haben, wenn wir uns mit den +Bewusstseinsvorgängen beschäftigen; wir kennen ihre Merkmale und können +sie danach von einander unterscheiden, während wir von den Dingen und +Vorgängen der Natur in der That nicht wissen, was sie sind, und sie +lediglich nach ihrer Erscheinung in unsrem Bewusstsein von einander +unterscheiden können. Bei den Bewusstseinsvorgängen fällt natürlich ihre +Erscheinung im Bewusstsein mit ihnen selbst zusammen. Denn diese ihre +Erscheinung im Bewusstsein ist nichts anderes als das mit ihnen verbundene +Wissen von sich selbst, das wir ihre Bewusstheit nennen. Die Reflexion ist +nur eine Wiederholung dieses mit jedem Bewusstseinsvorgange verbundenen +Wissens von sich selbst. + + + Zweiundzwanzigste Untersuchung. + + +Weitere Schranken unseres Erkennens. + +Eine Schranke unsrer Erkenntnis, der Innen- und Aussenwelt, haben wir +bisher absichtlich unerwähnt gelassen. Wir erkennen das Wesen der Dinge +und Vorgänge der Natur wie der Vorgänge unsres Bewusstseins, ihre +Wahrheit, erst dann, wenn wir ihre Stellung in dem System aller Wahrheit +erfasst haben. Davon sind wir aber mit all den erörterten Einsichten und +Erkenntnissen noch weit entfernt. Wir gewinnen mit ihnen sozusagen nur die +Glieder dieses Systems. Über ihren Zusammenhang innerhalb desselben, auf +den doch alles ankommt, bleiben wir völlig im Dunkeln. Das ist die letzte, +höchste, eine allgemeine Schranke unserer Erkenntnis, die sowohl für die +Erkenntnis der Aussenwelt wie für die Erkenntnis der Innenwelt gilt. +Weitere, näher liegende, ebenfalls allgemeine Schranken unsrer Erkenntnis +bedürfen einer besondren Erörterung. + +Wir bezeichnen gewöhnlich als unser Wissen alles das, von dem wir eine +Gewissheit haben. Die Gewissheit verbindet sich aber auch oft genug mit +einem blinden Dafürhalten und ist in diesem Falle ohne vernünftigen Grund. +Wenn wir die zahlreichen Quellen des blinden Dafürhaltens ins Auge fassen, +wenn wir insbesondere erwägen, wie oft unsre Zuneigungen und Abneigungen, +unsre Interessen auf unsre Überzeugungen einen massgebenden und +bestimmenden Einfluss ausüben, wie oft nach dem Sprichwort der Wunsch der +Vater des Gedankens ist, werden wir kaum zweifeln können, dass die Zahl +der auf blindem Dafürhalten beruhenden und darum des Charakters der +Vernünftigkeit entbehrenden Wissensinhalte sehr gross ist und kaum +überschätzt werden kann. Diese Wissensinhalte können natürlich nicht als +Erkenntnisse im eigentlichen Sinne gelten. + +Von den Erkenntnissen im eigentlichen Sinne müssen ferner die sogenannten +Kenntnisse, die auf einer blossen Kenntnisnahme, auf einem blossen +Kennenlernen beruhen, sorgfältig unterschieden werden. Sie bilden die +unübersehbar grosse Gruppe der associativen Wissensinhalte, bei denen +ebenfalls in keiner Weise von einer Einsicht die Rede sein kann. Wir haben +Gesichtsempfindungen von den Dingen; mit ihnen zusammen treten die +Gehörsempfindungen oder Gehörsvorstellungen von den auf diese Dinge +angewendeten Worten auf; sie associieren sich mit den ersteren und werden +gelegentlich, wenn sich die Gesichtsempfindungen wiederholen, +reproduziert. Wir sagen dann, das Ding heisst so und so. Das ist natürlich +ein lediglich associatives Wissen, ohne alle Einsicht. Alles Namen- und +Wortwissen in der eigenen und fremden Sprache, alle Benennungsurteile sind +von dieser Art, da die Namen und Worte nur willkürliche Zeichen sind für +das, was sie bedeuten. Nicht bloss mit den Worten steht es so, es ist +vielfach nicht anders mit den Sachen. Wie selten haben wir +verhältnismässig eine Einsicht in den Zusammenhang der Teile, aus denen +wir die Dinge zusammensetzen, der Eigenschaften, die wir ihnen beilegen, +des Geschehens in Natur und Geschichte, wenigstens wenn wir über die +nächsten Zusammenhänge bei diesem Geschehen hinausgehen wollen. Die +Wissenschaft stellt sich die Aufgabe, diese Zusammenhänge darzulegen, +oder, was dasselbe ist, die Gesetze für dieselben zu finden. Aber wie weit +ist sie von der Lösung dieser ihrer Aufgabe entfernt. Sehr oft haben diese +Zusammenhänge für uns nur den Charakter des zufällig Verbundenen oder des +Zusammengeratenen, von dem es nur ein associatives Wissen geben kann, weil +das Bewusstsein der Zusammengehörigkeit und damit die Einsicht fehlt. + +Es ist endlich klar, wenn wir auf Grund einer geringeren oder grösseren +Zahl von Einzelfällen einen allgemeinen Satz aufstellen, wenn wir mit +andren Worten einen Induktionsschluss ziehen, so hat dieser Satz, je nach +der Zahl der Fälle, eine grössere oder geringere Wahrscheinlichkeit, aber +von dieser Wahrscheinlichkeit haben wir doch eine Einsicht, eine wirkliche +Erkenntnis, eine Einsicht in seine Wahrscheinlichkeit. + + + Dreiundzwanzigste Untersuchung. + + +Erkenntnis der Innenwelt andrer. + +Wir haben gesehen, wie wir zur Erkenntnis unserer eigenen Innenwelt +gelangen und welche Schranken für diese Erkenntnis vorhanden sind. Aber +wie steht es mit unserer Erkenntnis der Innenwelt andrer? Haben wir eine +auf Einsicht beruhende wirkliche Erkenntnis von fremden Bewusstseinen? +Allgemein wird jetzt angenommen, dass diese Erkenntnisse, wenn es +wirkliche Erkenntnisse sind, auf dem Wege des Analogieschlusses zustande +kommen. Mit unsren Bewusstseinsvorgängen sind Ausdrucksbewegungen, z. B. +Lachen und Weinen mit Freude und Trauer, ausserdem Mienen, Gebärden als +Zeichen bestimmter Gefühle, Worte als Zeichen bestimmter Gedanken +verbunden. Nehmen wir diese nun an andren wahr, so schliessen wir, dass +auch bei ihnen die gleichen Bewusstseinsvorgänge vorhanden sein müssen. +Sollte wirklich alle Erkenntnis fremder Bewusstseine auf diesem Wege +zustande kommen? Sollte beispielsweise das Kind die Freude, die Trauer, +den Zorn und Unwillen der Mutter, ihre Liebe, ihren Beifall nur auf diesem +Wege kennen lernen? Ist das Kind, wenn es anfängt in dieser Weise in das +Bewusstsein der Mutter Blicke zu thun, wohl imstande, die mit seinen +Bewusstseinsvorgängen verbundenen Ausdrucksbewegungen, insbesondere seine +mit ihnen verbundenen Mienen, die fast ausschliesslich in Betracht kommen, +genau zu kennen, um sie mit den Mienen der Mutter vergleichen und daraus +bei der Mutter auf ähnliche Bewusstseinsvorgänge schliessen zu können? Das +scheint den Beobachtungen, die wir am Kinde machen können, durchaus zu +widersprechen. Aber auch soweit wir Erwachsene fremde Bewusstseine +erkennen, spielt dieser schwerfällige Analogieschluss, wie die Reflexion +deutlich lehrt, keine Rolle. Unsre Erkenntnis der fremden Bewusstseine +giebt sich uns als eine unmittelbare kund und, wie es scheint, kann sie +auch beim Kinde keine andere sein. + +Aber wie ist das möglich? Der blosse Anblick der Bewegung eines andren, +z. B. beim Stossen einer Billardkugel, beim Springen über einen Graben, +erzeugt in uns, wenn nicht die gleiche Bewegung, so doch den Ansatz dazu. +Ähnlich kann man beobachten, dass die Gefühlsäusserungen eine ansteckende +Wirkung ausüben. Begegnen wir finstern Mienen, so verdüstert sich auch +unwillkürlich unsere eigene Miene. Wo alles lacht, müssen auch wir lachen; +wo alles weint, können wir uns des Weinens nicht enthalten, und wenn wir +auch nicht wirklich mitlachen oder mitweinen sollten, so werden wir doch +fröhlich oder traurig gestimmt. So lange wir Kinder sind und noch nicht +gelernt haben, unsren Gefühlsäusserungen Zügel anzulegen, werden wir nicht +bloss fröhlich mit den Fröhlichen und traurig mit den Traurigen; wir +lachen wirklich mit den einen und weinen mit den andren. Das ist die +Regel. Natürlich giebt es Ausnahmen, bei Kindern sowohl als bei +Erwachsenen, wenn sie sehr egoistische, sehr gefühllose Naturen sind. Das +Merkwürdige hierbei ist nur, dass die ansteckende Wirkung nicht bloss bei +den Gefühlsäusserungen stehen bleibt, sondern sofort auch, und wie es +wenigstens bei den Erwachsenen scheint, mit grösserer Sicherheit auf die +Gefühle selbst übergeht. Nehmen wir nun an, dass wir von unsren +Mitmenschen nach ihrer leiblichen Erscheinung bereits eine Erkenntnis +gewonnen haben, ist es dann nicht natürlich, dass wir in diesen uns +aufgedrängten Gefühlen und sonstigen Bewusstseinsvorgängen ihre eigenen +erblicken, dass die Zusammengehörigkeit dieser ihrer Bewusstseinsvorgänge +mit ihrer leiblichen Erscheinung sich uns aufdrängt, uns unmittelbar +einleuchtet und wir so eine unmittelbare Einsicht, eine unmittelbare +wirkliche Erkenntnis von dieser Zusammengehörigkeit und damit von den +fremden Bewusstseinen gewinnen? So erklärt sich denn die allbekannte +Erscheinung von der unwillkürlich in unsren Kindern auftretenden Abneigung +gegen Personen, die Kinder nicht leiden können oder die von schlechter +Gemütsart sind. Das Gefühl der Abneigung gegen Kinder, gegen alle Menschen +überhaupt, teilt sich den Kindern mit, und in diesem Gefühle lesen sie +gleichsam unmittelbar in der Seele des andren und sehen, was in ihr +vorgeht. Ich brauche nicht zu bemerken, dass diese Erscheinung zu den +Erfahrungen gehört, die wir täglich an uns selbst machen können und die +somit als eine allgemein menschliche Erscheinung betrachtet werden muss, +mithin auch für das Leben der Erwachsenen gilt. Die Unmittelbarkeit der +Erkenntnis der fremden Bewusstseine hat im Grunde nichts Auffälliges. Das +Gegenteil ist nur scheinbar natürlicher; der Raum, der uns anscheinend von +dem fremden Bewusstsein trennt, gehört selbstverständlich nur unserer +Vorstellung an. Eine actio in distans, Einwirkung aus der Ferne muss nach +dem jetzigen Stande der Naturwissenschaft sogar für die Körperwelt +angenommen werden, wenigstens so lange, als noch nicht nachgewiesen ist, +dass die Gravitation zu ihrer Wirkung Zeit braucht; bis jetzt gilt diese +Wirkung als eine unzeitliche oder zeitlose. Von der actio in distans der +Körper bis zum immediatum commercium animarum ist nur ein Schritt. + +Freilich hat die Erkenntnis anderer, insbesondere ihres Innern, auch ihre +Schranken. Schon Aristoteles und Locke sagen, dass wir nicht wissen +können, ob die Empfindungen etwa von rot und grün, die wir beim Anblick +von Blut und Gras haben, bei andren die gleichen und nicht vielmehr die +umgekehrten sind, so dass ihnen beim Gras die Empfindung gegenwärtig ist, +die wir beim Blut haben, und umgekehrt. Da wir alle von Jugend an gelernt +haben, das Gras grün und das Blut rot zu nennen, so würden natürlich die +sprachlichen Bezeichnungen die gleichen bleiben. Da ferner für unsre +Erkenntnis andrer, so unmittelbar sie ist, doch ihre Gefühlsäusserungen +massgebend sind, so muss natürlich immer vorausgesetzt werden, dass diese +Gefühlsäusserungen natürliche sind und nicht etwa künstlich zum Zweck der +Verstellung oder der schauspielerischen Darstellung hervorgebracht werden. +Pestalozzi betont, dass darüber, ob eine Handlung aus selbstlosen oder +selbstsüchtigen Motiven hervorgeht, ob sie mit andren Worten sittlich oder +unsittlich ist, nur jeder bei sich selbst urteilen kann. Natürlich gilt +das Gleiche auch davon, ob neben dem negativen Moment der Selbstlosigkeit +auch das positive Moment der rückhaltlosen Hingabe an Gott, des +persönlichen Verhältnisses zu ihm, worin das Wesen der Religiosität +besteht, für das Zustandekommen der Handlung bestimmend war. Obgleich sich +das nun nicht bestreiten lässt, so ist doch anderseits auch nicht zu +leugnen, dass wir auf Grund von Erfahrungen, die wir an uns und an andren +machen, andren mehr Vertrauen schenken können und müssen als uns selbst, +andere für ehrlicher, uneigennütziger, hingebender, opferwilliger halten +müssen als uns selbst. In Bezug auf mich selbst bin ich doch eben wegen +meiner Eigenliebe, die zum Selbstbeschönigen und Selbstbetrügen führt, +viel mehr der Täuschung ausgesetzt, als in Bezug auf andere. Abgesehen +davon ist das in Wort und That vorliegende Leben des Einzelnen ebenso +Ausdruck seines Innern wie die Gefühlsäusserungen, und wenn wir hier das +Natürliche, Nichtkünstliche und Nichtverstellte von seinem Gegenteil +unterscheiden können, muss das auch dort gelten. Ist aber dies der Fall, +dann kann sich mit der Erkenntnis der Lebensführung des Einzelnen, wie sie +sich äusserlich kundgiebt, auch die Vorstellung der Sittlichkeit, der +Religiosität verbinden und die Zugehörigkeit dieser innern Vorzüge zu ihr +uns einleuchten, sodass wir nun auch von diesem Leben nach seiner innern +sittlich religiösen Seite eine Einsicht und wirkliche Erkenntnis haben +können. Oft macht das Leben eines Menschen auf uns einen so +überwältigenden Eindruck, dass wir bezüglich der Lauterkeit und Reinheit +seiner Gesinnung eine durch nichts zu erschütternde Überzeugung gewinnen +und uns sagen müssen und wirklich sagen, dass, wenn hier keine Einsicht +vorhanden ist, es überhaupt keine Einsicht giebt. Es ist merkwürdig, dass +die solchen seltenen Menschen Nahestehenden und mit ihnen Umgehenden trotz +der entgegengesetzten Erfahrung, die sie an sich selbst und an andren +machen, in diesem ihre Einsicht betreffenden Urteil übereinstimmen, auch +wenn der sogenannte Verehrungssinn in ihnen wenig oder gar nicht +entwickelt ist. Natürlich sind wir bei dieser auf Einsicht +zurückzuführenden Erkenntnis des Innern andrer auch auf ihre Worte als +ungewollte und unbeabsichtigte Selbstbeurteilungen angewiesen, also auch +auf die Mitteilungen andrer. Ob und inwiefern wir bezüglich der +Mitteilungen andrer auch von wirklichen Erkenntnissen oder Einsichten +reden können, darüber bedarf es einer besondren Untersuchung, der wir den +Titel Geschichtliche Erkenntnisse geben, da die geschichtlichen +Mitteilungen unter den Mitteilungen andrer die erste Stelle einnehmen. + + + Vierundzwanzigste Untersuchung. + + +Geschichtliche Erkenntnisse. + +Den Mitteilungen andrer gegenüber sind wir gewohnt, von einem Dafürhalten +zu reden, das wir mit dem geringschätzigen Namen Glauben bezeichnen und +insofern dem Wissen als etwas Minderwertiges gegenüberstellen. Wir +vergessen dabei gewöhnlich, dass unser ganzes Gerichtsverfahren, auch wenn +es sich bei ihm um Leben und Tod handelt, auf Zeugenaussagen, also auf +einem Glauben in diesem Sinne beruht, und dass das Leben in der Familie, +in der Gesellschaft, im Staate, jeder Verkehr mit unsresgleichen ohne ihn +unmöglich würde. Sicher ist, dass blosse Mitteilungen an sich genommen +keine Einsichten sind, wenigstens nicht für diejenigen, denen die +Mitteilungen gemacht werden. Mitgeteilte Urteile sind zunächst noch keine +von uns gefällten Urteile, bei denen die Zugehörigkeit des Prädikates zum +Subjekt uns einleuchtet. Aber wir haben gesehen, wie unübersehbar gross +die Wissensinhalte sind, die wir uns selbst verdanken und bei denen +ebenfalls von einem solchen Einleuchten keine Rede sein kann. Wir +bezeichneten diese Wissensinhalte als Kenntnisse und unterschieden sie von +den Erkenntnissen. Mit diesen Kenntnissen stehen die Mitteilungen zunächst +auf einer Stufe. Aber ebenso wie die blossen Kenntnisse können auch sie +unter Umständen zu Einsichten oder Erkenntnissen erhoben werden. Es ist +also insofern kein Grund vorhanden, sie den Wissensinhalten gegenüber, die +wir uns selbst verdanken und die blosse Kenntnisse sind, für minderwertig +zu halten. + +Sicher ist ferner, dass wir bezüglich der mitgeteilten Urteile sehr häufig +nicht zu einer unmittelbaren Einsicht in die Zusammengehörigkeit des +Prädikats mit dem Subjekte gelangen können, uns vielmehr mit der Einsicht, +dass der Mitteilende die Wahrheit sagen kann und sagen will, begnügen +müssen, und dass wir erst hieraus auf die Zusammengehörigkeit des +Prädikats mit dem Subjekte schliessen können. Aber auch von den +Wissensinhalten, die wir uns selbst verdanken und die zunächst blosse +Kenntnisse sind, gilt, dass wir sehr oft nur eine mittelbare Einsicht von +ihnen gewinnen und sie nur durch diese mittelbare Einsicht zu eigentlichen +Erkenntnissen erheben können. Wenn wir eine wirkliche Einsicht gewinnen, +ist es in der That nicht von Bedeutung, ob dieselbe mittelbar oder +unmittelbar ist, ebenso wenig, ob sie eine äussere ist, vermittelt durch +Einsicht in die Fähigkeiten und Gesinnungen der Mitteilenden, oder eine +innere, vermittelt durch Einsicht in Sätze, die von selbst einleuchten. +Auch die äussere mittelbare Einsicht führt in letzter Instanz auf Sätze +zurück, die durch sich selbst einleuchtend sind. Ich möchte deshalb +vorschlagen, die im Deutschen (im Englischen hat sowohl believe +dafürhalten, als faith Glauben im religiösen Sinne eine ganz andere +Bedeutung) übliche Unterscheidung des Glaubens von dem Wissen fallen zu +lassen und an ihre Stelle die andere von Wissensinhalten, die wir uns +selbst und die wir andren verdanken, zu setzen. Es ist dies die bei den +Engländern übliche Unterscheidung zwischen Kenntnissen erster und zweiter +Hand. Das Wort Glaube bleibt besser wie das englische faith auf seine +religiöse Bedeutung beschränkt. + +Überblicken wir nun einmal das unermesslich grosse Gebiet der +Wissensinhalte, die wir andren verdanken, oder der Kenntnisse zweiter +Hand, gegenüber der kleinen Zahl von Wissensinhalten, die wir uns selbst +verdanken, oder der Kenntnisse erster Hand, und erwägen wir die +Konsequenzen, zu denen es führt, wenn wir die erstren als minderwertig +gegenüber den letztren betrachten wollen! Man bedenke, die ganze +Geschichte, die Geographie fremder Länder und Völker, die wir nicht selbst +gesehen, die Reisebeschreibungen und Naturbeschreibungen von Gegenständen +und Dingen, die wir nicht selbst erforschten, die Geschichte der +Wissenschaften, auch die Lehren der Biologie, Chemie und Physik, selbst +der Mathematik, die wir nicht nachgeprüft haben -- und welcher Fachmann +wäre im Stande, alles vor ihm Erforschte nachzuprüfen? -- alles das sind +Kenntnisse zweiter Hand, deren Wahrheit wir nur mittelbar erkennen, sofern +wir auf sie aus der Einsicht, dass die uns diese Kenntnisse Mitteilenden +die Wahrheit wussten und auch sagen wollten, schliessen. Können wir diese +sämtlichen Wissensinhalte, weil wir sie der Mitteilung andrer verdanken, +für minderwertiger halten als die geringe Zahl der durch eigene Thätigkeit +gewonnenen Wissensinhalte, die doch grösstenteils auch nur Kenntnisse sind +und insofern mit ihnen auf einer Stufe stehen? Oder doch für +minderwertiger als diejenigen unter ihnen, welche eigentliche Erkenntnisse +sind, insbesondere als die Begriffsurteile der Arithmetik, der Logik, der +Metaphysik und die diesen Begriffsurteilen sich nähernden, freilich nicht +ohne Vorbehalt als Erkenntnisse zu betrachtenden allgemeinen Lehrsätze der +Geometrie, Astronomie, Physik, Mechanik? Wegen der allgemeinen +Anwendbarkeit der Begriffsurteile und dieser sich ihnen nähernden +Lehrsätze ist ihr Nutzen für den Aufbau der Wissenschaften nicht hoch +genug anzuschlagen, und insofern mögen sie höherwertig sein als die +einfachen Thatsachenurteile. Aber der Erkenntniswert der Begriffsurteile +ist offenbar nicht grösser als der der Thatsachenurteile. Hier wie dort +besteht er in dem Einleuchten der Zusammengehörigkeit und der Einsicht in +dieselbe, was beides bei Thatsachen ebensowohl vorhanden sein kann als bei +Begriffen. Ausserdem hat die Wahrheit der Thatsachenurteile ebenso einen +überzeitlichen Charakter wie die Wahrheit der Begriffsurteile. Die meisten +der auf Mitteilung beruhenden Urteile, ausser denen, die zu den +erklärenden Naturwissenschaften und zur Mathematik gehören, sind solche +Thatsachenurteile; die geschichtlichen Wissenschaften bestehen fast +lediglich aus ihnen. + +Es ist wichtig zu beachten, dass den geschichtlichen Thatsachen, die wir +sämtlich der Mitteilung andrer verdanken, kein geringerer, im Gegenteil +sicher ein höherer Erkenntniswert zukommt als, ganz allgemein gesprochen, +den Wissensinhalten der Naturwissenschaften, von denen wir viele durch +unsere eigene Beobachtung gewinnen und die wir, wenn sie durch Beobachtung +andrer gewonnen wurden, nachprüfen können, die ferner wegen ihrer +grösseren Einfachheit eher die Herstellung gesetzlicher, den +Begriffsurteilen sich nähernder Zusammenhänge ermöglichen. Wir haben +gesehen, dass sich uns die Natur als eine gebrochene Einheit, nicht als +eine wahre Vielheit darstellt; damit hängt zusammen, dass das Einzelne in +der Natur nur als Beispiel einer Gattung und Art und nicht als solches +Bedeutung hat. Den Botaniker interessiert dieses bestimmte Exemplar einer +viola tricolor nur als Beispiel der Art. Ganz anders in der Geschichte. +Die geschichtlichen Personen bilden eine wirkliche Vielheit. Jede einzelne +hat ihren Wert, ist sozusagen eine Gattung, eine Art für sich. Eben darum +stellen die geschichtlichen Thatsachen dem Erkennen eine viel schwerer zu +bewältigende Aufgabe als die Naturthatsachen; sie bieten dem Erkennen zu +gleicher Zeit aber auch einen Reichtum und eine Lebensfülle, hinter der +die reichste und lebensvollste Ausstattung der Naturgestalten +zurückbleibt. Die Geschichte ist die Quelle von Gedanken, welche uns der +Lösung des Rätsels des Weltgeschehens näher bringen, während die Natur +unsren Fragen gegenüber verstummt. Von dem Körperlichen, dem eigentlichen +Gegenstande der Naturwissenschaft, wissen wir strenggenommen nicht, was es +ist; von den Triebfedern und Beweggründen menschlicher Handlungen, die +sich uns als die Hebel der geschichtlichen Entwicklung darstellen, haben +wir eine eigentliche, in einer Einsicht bestehende Erkenntnis. Ausserdem +ist das Körperliche sicher dem für die Geschichte massgebenden und +bestimmenden Geistigen untergeordnet und hat in ihm seinen Zweck. Was +haben beispielsweise die freilich bloss hypothetisch angenommenen +Ätherschwingungen und die wirklich zu konstatierenden Luftschwingungen +sonst für einen Zweck, als in unserem Bewusstsein die Farben und die Töne +zu erzeugen und damit den Künsten der Malerei und Musik zur Geburt zu +verhelfen? Es giebt einen der Natur innewohnenden Zweckzusammenhang, der +in der Ermöglichung und Herausbildung des Bewusstseins, vor allem des +menschlichen Bewusstseins, seine Spitze hat und in ihm, wie es scheint, +seinen Abschluss findet. Es scheint nicht richtig, die Natur als Gegensatz +zum Geiste zu betrachten; vielmehr stellt sie sich uns dar als eine +Stufenleiter zum Geiste, der uns nicht bloss in unsrem Bewusstsein sondern +mehr noch in der Geschichte offenbar wird. Man könnte sagen, die Natur +oder Körperwelt sei für uns, die wir allein das Bewusstsein seiner +Beschaffenheit nach kennen, das Nichtbewusstsein, also Gegensatz des +Bewusstseins. Allein das ist nur ein andrer Ausdruck für unser +Nichtwissen. Eher kann man sagen, das Niedere sei um des Höheren willen, +also in letzter Instanz alles für das Bewusstsein da. Herausbildung des +Nervensystems als Bedingung der Empfindung, des Bewegungssystems als +Werkzeug des Willens -- das scheint der ganze Zweck des tierischen und +menschlichen Körpers zu sein. Wofür wäre die Farbenpracht, der +Formenreichtum der Pflanzenwelt, wenn nicht für das sehende Auge? + +Oder soll etwa das Bewusstsein seinen Zweck in der Natur haben und ihr als +Mittel dienen? Allein die Natur geht die Jahrtausende hindurch ihren +unabänderlichen Gang nach ehernen Gesetzen, die das Bewusstsein entdecken +und dann sich dienstbar machen, aber nicht im geringsten ändern kann. Das +Antlitz des Weltalls und der Erde bleibt das gleiche Jahrtausende +hindurch, ohne von dem Bewusstsein einen ändernden Einfluss zu erfahren. +Die Benutzung der Naturgesetze zu seinen, nämlich des Menschen Zwecken, +das sich Dienstbarmachen und Beherrschen der Natur, das Zwingen derselben +zum Gehorsam im Experiment kraft dieser Gesetze ist ferner unerklärbar, +wenn das Bewusstsein der Natur wie das Mittel dem Zweck untergeordnet oder +um der Natur willen vorhanden wäre. + +Es bleibt noch eine dritte Möglichkeit, nämlich mit der mechanischen +Naturauffassung den Zweckbegriff ganz zu eliminieren. Allein die Anhänger +dieser Auffassung können der Entwicklungshypothese nicht entbehren und +führen mit ihr gleichsam durch eine Hinterthür den Zweckbegriff wieder in +die Wissenschaft ein. Die Entwicklungshypothese verlegt die +Zielstrebigkeit, die Aristoteles zur Ermöglichung der Selbstentfaltung und +Selbstentwicklung für jedes einzelne Naturding in Anspruch nahm, in das +Ganze der Natur. Das Niedere ist nach ihr dem Höheren untergeordnet und +dient ihm als Mittel zum Zwecke. Man sucht freilich die Zweckmässigkeit +mechanisch zu erklären. Nur was seiner Umgebung angepasst und für den +Verkehr mit ihr eingerichtet ist, soll daseinsberechtigt und lebensfähig +sein. Woher kommt die Anpassung und Einrichtung? Es passt sich selbst an, +richtet sich selbst ein; vermöge seines Selbsterhaltungstriebes kommt es +zur Selbstentfaltung und Selbstentwicklung. Das ist eben das, was +Aristoteles Zielstrebigkeit nennt. Man sagt, das Stärkere erhält sich, +weil es besser für den Kampf ums Dasein ausgerüstet ist. Aber das gilt +nicht eigentlich vom Stärkeren, sondern vom feiner Organisierten, vom +Empfänglicheren, Reizbareren, also von dem Vollkommneren. Dieses ist das +Stärkere. Mit andren Worten, die Entwicklung zum Vollkommneren, die +Zielstrebigkeit setzt sich durch, hält sich aufrecht. Der Geruchssinn des +Parfumeriefabrikanten, der Geschmackssinn des Gourmands, der Gehörssinn +des Musikdirigenten, der Gesichtssinn des Mikroskopikers wird durch die +infolge der Übung und Gewöhnung wiederholt auftretenden und einander +weckenden Empfindungen feiner, zarter, für Unterschiede empfänglicher, +keineswegs aber gröber, stärker. Wäre das letztere der Fall, dann liesse +sich durch Summierung der wiederauflebenden Empfindungen alles sehr leicht +erklären, rein mechanisch; alle Vervollkommnung wäre nur ein +Stärkerwerden. Aber es ist anders in der Natur; man kann von einem +aristokratischen Prinzip als dem herrschenden, in letzter Instanz +ausschlaggebenden reden. Das Bessere, das Vollkommnere gewinnt im +Allgemeinen den Sieg, das Stärkere nur ausnahmsweise. Dem gegenüber +versagt die mechanische Erklärung. Dass sich das Bessere, Vollkommnere +durchsetzt und erhält, scheint ohne Zielstrebigkeit nicht erklärt werden +zu können. + +Die fortschreitende Entwicklung der Natur ist nicht zu leugnen. Sie +vollzieht sich durch Zusammenfassung des Nebeneinanderliegenden, +Getrennten zur Einheit, durch Bildung kleinerer Ganzen, z. B. der +Himmelskörper im Weltenraum, der Krystalle, Pflanzen, Tiere auf der Erde, +und innerhalb dieser letztern durch Herstellung von Mittelpunkten zuerst +und dann von Systemen, die das kleine Ganze beherrschen: Ernährungs-, +Nerven-, Bewegungssystem. Aber wie langsam geht diese Entwicklung vor +sich, ihr Alter zählt nach Jahrmilliarden! Die eigentliche Stätte +unablässiger, augenscheinlicher, fortschreitender Entwicklung ist die +Geschichte. Insofern kann man sie als die an Intensität freilich alles +Vorausgehende hinter sich lassende Fortsetzung der Natur bezeichnen. Auch +in ihr handelt es sich um Herausbildung von Einheiten; aber diese +Einheiten sind nicht Zusammenfassungen neben- und aussereinanderliegender +Teile, sondern Einheiten, die in einem Bewusstsein von sich selbst, an dem +alle ihre Glieder teilnehmen, bestehen: Volk, Staat, Gesellschaft, Nation. +Einheiten ferner im strengen Sinne, nämlich geistige Einheiten, +Persönlichkeiten, welche die eigentlichen Träger der geschichtlichen +Entwicklung bilden. Sie sind Träger von Ideen, welche die Massen bewegen. +Darin liegt ihre Bedeutung. Die Geschichte bewährt sich gerade durch diese +in ihr hervortretenden, in den Persönlichkeiten verkörperten Ideen als +fortschreitende Entwicklung. Die Frage, ob es einen Fortschritt in der +Geschichte giebt, sollte darum von rechtswegen gar nicht gestellt werden. +Für die Wissenschaft und Religion hat man ihn nicht leugnen können; +zeitweilige Rückschritte sind nur Anläufe zu kräftiger Erhebung. Man wird +hienach nicht bestreiten können, dass die Geschichte einen viel +bedeutsameren und gehaltreicheren Erkenntnisgegenstand ausmacht als die +Natur. Es giebt ohne Zweifel in der fortschreitenden Entwicklung der Natur +etwas Neues, das aus den vorausgehenden Faktoren nicht erklärt werden +kann, -- das Organische gegenüber dem Unorganischen ist, wie das Tier +gegenüber der Pflanze, ein solches Neues -- wenn man nicht etwa den Satz +ex nihilo fit nihil zu leugnen versucht. Das gilt in noch viel höherem +Grade von der Geschichte. Hier ist das Neue an das Individuum gebunden, +und die Bedeutung des Individuums bedingt und bestimmt den geschichtlichen +Fortschritt. + + + Fünfundzwanzigste Untersuchung. + + +Künstlerische und wissenschaftliche Inspiration. + +Es giebt eine alte Unterscheidung von drei Erkenntnisquellen: Erfahrung, +Vernunft und Offenbarung. Man begegnet ihr heute nicht mehr. Sie gilt für +veraltet. Indes hat sie doch ihr gutes Recht. Die Redeweise: es war mir +oder kam über mich wie eine Offenbarung, wird nicht selten gebraucht, und +viele werden gestehen müssen, dass sie so etwas wirklich erlebt haben. Man +spricht allgemein von einer künstlerischen Inspiration. Die schöpferische +Einbildungskraft ist etwas andres. Worin liegt der Unterschied? Was ist +unter dieser Inspiration, Eingebung, die als Offenbarung bezeichnet werden +muss, zu verstehen? + +Es bedarf eines Blickes des Geistes, um das Wesentliche von dem +Unwesentlichen in den Dingen unterscheiden, um die Merkmale ihres +Begriffes auffinden und entdecken zu können. Nicht jeder verfügt über +diesen Blick. Viele bleiben an dem Äusserlichen und Nebensächlichen mit +ihrem Denken haften. Wir sagen dann, sie können nicht denken. Wie sie des +eigentümlichen Erlebnisses, das wir als Einsicht bezeichnen, ermangeln und +sich kaum über die Stufe des bloss associativen Wissens erheben, so fehlt +ihnen auch der Blick des Geistes, durch den allein das Wesentliche erfasst +werden kann. Eines solchen Blickes bedarf es nun auch, um den Gedanken zu +erfassen, der in einem Kunstwerke ausgedrückt ist. Aber für den Künstler +selbst, der den Gedanken in dem Stoffe verwirklicht, genügt dieser Blick +nicht. Ihm muss der Gedanke _gegeben_ werden. Und das geschieht eben durch +die Eingebung oder Inspiration. Sie ist, wie ersichtlich, von dem Blicke +des Geistes, durch den wir das Wesen, den Kern der Sache erfassen, +verschieden. Dieser Blick orientiert sich an der äussern Erscheinung des +Wesens, er ist durch sie bedingt und wird durch sie bestimmt, obgleich er +sozusagen durch sie hindurchdringt und über sie hinausgeht. Die +Inspiration oder Eingebung hingegen ist ein objektiver Zustand, der ohne +unser Zuthun zustande kommt, dem gegenüber wir uns leidend verhalten. Sie +setzt natürlich in uns eine Empfänglichkeit voraus, die mannigfach +vermittelt ist; ihre Auffassung hängt darum von einer bestimmten +Entwicklung des Bewusstseins ab. Man kann die Inspiration mit dem +Einleuchten der Zusammengehörigkeit vergleichen und muss dann die +Auffassung der Inspiration mit der Einsicht zusammenstellen. Auch bei der +Eingebung handelt es sich um Zusammenhänge, um Zusammengehörigkeiten, +freilich andrer, höherer Art als bei dem Einleuchten, wie sie +beispielsweise das Motto der Goetheschen Iphigenie darstellt: Alles +irdische Gebrechen sühnet reine Menschlichkeit. In der schaffenden +Thätigkeit des Künstlers nun spielt vor allem die Inspiration oder +Eingebung eine Rolle, sie macht sich die Phantasie des Künstlers dienstbar +und lässt sie an seiner Schöpferkraft teilnehmen. Die so schöpferisch +gewordene Phantasie schaltet und waltet mit ihrem sinnlichen Stoff gemäss +der Eingebung, ihn formend und gestaltend. + +Natürlich sagen wir nicht, dass alle Ideen, die unsren Kunstwerken +zugrunde liegen oder die in ihnen verkörpert sind, auf einer Eingebung +beruhen. Oft ist das Kunstwerk ja nur eine Darstellung des in Erfahrung +und Geschichte Gegebenen, freilich so, wie es sich im Geiste des Künstlers +spiegelt, wie es seiner Auffassung entspricht. Diese Spiegelung oder +Auffassung hängt natürlich, wie die Auswahl der darzustellenden +Gegenstände, von der Individualität des Künstlers ab. Man wird +demgegenüber schwerlich von einer auf Eingebung beruhenden Idee reden +können, wenn man nicht etwa für diese Individualität, wie überhaupt für +die Bedeutung des Individuums in der Geschichte etwas der Eingebung +Analoges in Anspruch nehmen will, das nicht bloss Gedanken im menschlichen +Bewusstsein sondern Wirklichkeiten erzeugt. Abgesehen davon wird man nicht +leugnen können, dass vielen Kunstwerken, insbesondere Werken der redenden +Kunst, Ideen zugrunde liegen, die auf einer Eingebung beruhen, die mit +andren Worten aus dem in Erfahrung und Geschichte Gegebenen nicht erklärt +werden können. Das Motto der Goetheschen Iphigenie ist unzweifelhaft eine +solche Idee, wenn auch für Goethe diese Idee keine eigentliche Eingebung +war, sondern dem reichen Schatze der Eingebungen entnommen wurde, die in +der christlichen Religion gegeben sind und deren Mittelpunkt eben diese +Idee bildet. + +Können wir auch von einer wissenschaftlichen Inspiration reden? Ohne +Zweifel müssen wir es! Wird das Forschungsergebnis, zu dem man nur mühsam +durch langwierige Arbeit gelangt, nicht meistens schon mit +vorausschauendem Blicke vorweggenommen, und ist nicht dieser +vorausschauende, das Ergebnis vorwegnehmende Blick der Ansporn, der uns +zur Forschungsarbeit drängt, und das Licht, das uns hierbei leitet? Alle +grossen wissenschaftlichen Entdeckungen, wie alle Entdeckungen überhaupt, +scheinen so auf ursprünglichen Intuitionen zu beruhen, die vielfach +Eingebungen sind. Das Ergebnis wird oft erst auf sehr verwickelten und +verschlungenen Wegen gewonnen, und doch steht es uns von Anfang an +deutlich vor der Seele. Wie ist das zu erklären, wenn das Ergebnis nicht +eine Eingebung, Inspiration ist? Wir sprechen davon, dass uns Gedanken +einfallen, wodurch der Fortschritt im Denken vielfach bedingt ist. Oft +sind das freilich nur Reminiscenzen aus der Lektüre, aus den Gesprächen +mit andren, oft nur mehr oder minder berechtigte Verallgemeinerungen, oft +blosse Associationen. Aber wir wissen auch, dass das keineswegs immer der +Fall ist. Nicht selten tritt uns ein Gedanke, der gleichsam aus der +verborgenen Tiefe unsres Innern auftaucht, als etwas durchaus Neues +entgegen, für das wir in unsrem bisherigen Geistesleben vergebens nach +Anknüpfungspunkten suchen. Solche Gedanken werden wir doch Eingebungen +nennen müssen. Das Ergreifen, Erfassen derselben im Bewusstsein ist von +dem Blicke für das Wesentliche, der durch die Erscheinung der Dinge und +Vorgänge im Bewusstsein bedingt und bestimmt ist, verschieden. Solche +Gedanken drängen sich uns auf, werden uns so aufgenötigt, wie wir von den +Empfindungen sagen, dass sie uns aufgedrängt, aufgenötigt werden. Von +unsrem Bewusstsein scheinen sie nicht hervorgerufen oder erzeugt zu +werden; aus ihm scheinen sie nicht hervorzugehen oder zu entstehen, +vielleicht aus den uns selbst verborgenen Tiefen unseres Wesens. Durch +dieses Sichaufdrängen und Sichaufnötigen, das die auf Eingebung beruhenden +Gedanken mit den Empfindungen gemein haben, unterscheiden sie sich +insbesondere von dem Wesentlichen, das wir durch einen einfachen Blick des +Geistes erfassen, bei dem von einer innren Nötigung, einem innren Zwange +nichts zu verspüren ist. + +Natürlich bilden auch die eingegebenen Gedanken Zusammenhänge, +Zusammengehörigkeiten, sie treten in der Form von Urteilen auf; aber das +Einleuchten dieser Zusammengehörigkeit und das mit ihr verbundene +Einsehen, der Blick für das Wesentliche verbindet sich nicht ohne weiteres +mit den eingegebenen Gedanken, ist auch grundverschieden von dem +Sichaufdrängen, das die eingegebenen Gedanken wie die Empfindungen +charakterisiert. Wie bei dem Blicke des Geistes für das Wesentliche, so +ist auch bei dem ihm folgenden Einleuchten und Einsehen der +Zusammengehörigkeit von irgendwelcher Nötigung, irgendwelchem Zwange +nichts zu entdecken. Die auf Eingebung beruhenden Gedanken stellen sich +meistens dann ein, wenn der Blick für das Wesentliche versagt, sodass ihr +Aufleuchten gleichsam einen Ersatz, eine Ergänzung für diesen Blick +bildet. Wir kennen das Wesen des Körperlichen nicht, können es vielmehr +nur nach seiner Erscheinung in unsrem Bewusstsein charakterisieren und +näher bestimmen. Wenn man das Körperliche für den Gegensatz des Geistigen +erklärt, so geschieht das auf Grund einer Eingebung in unsrem Sinne; der +Erfahrung folgend würde es eher als eine Stufenleiter zum Geistigen hin +betrachtet werden müssen. Aber auch diese Betrachtung findet in der +Erfahrung keine ausreichende Stütze und muss insofern ebenfalls als +Eingebung bezeichnet werden. Natürlich sind solche Eingebungen keine +Erkenntnisse; es kommt darauf an, sie zu verifizieren. Die +wissenschaftliche Arbeit hat in ihnen wohl einen Ansporn und ein Licht, +aber sie beginnt erst mit der Eingebung und muss so lange fortgesetzt +werden, bis die Zusammengehörigkeit der Eingebung mit dem Wirklichen +einleuchtet und eingesehen wird. Dann erst wird die Eingebung zur +Erkenntnis. + +Der Ausdruck Eingebung ist insofern ein vorläufiger. Zu einer wirklichen, +von der Einbildung sich unterscheidenden Eingebung wird ein Gedanke erst +dadurch, dass wir ihn zu einer wirklichen Erkenntnis erheben. Von den +beiden Gedanken über das Wesen des Körperlichen, die wir erwähnten, +scheint sicher zu sein, dass sie zu wirklichen Erkenntnissen nicht erhoben +werden können. Nach dem ersteren Gedanken, der die Natur als Gegensatz zum +Bewusstsein fasst, müsste man die Natur etwa als Schranke des +Bewusstseins, als symbolischen Ausdruck seiner Endlichkeit auffassen, dem +sich dann die scheinbar unendliche Ausdehnung der Natur im Raume als +symbolischer Ausdruck ihrer vorgeblichen Unendlichkeit zur Seite stellt. +Nach dem letzteren Gedanken müsste man etwa annehmen, dass die Natur in +einer stufenweisen Entwicklung allmählich zu einem geistigen Dasein +verklärt würde, wie es die Anschauung des neuen Testamentes ist oder zu +sein scheint. Aber was in beiden Fällen die Wirklichkeit der Natur +eigentlich sein soll, bleibt völlig dunkel. + +Wenn wir an dem wirklichen Bestehen von Eingebungen nicht zweifeln können, +so fragt es sich, woher sie kommen. Wir haben gesehen, dass das Wesen der +Dinge in ihrer Wahrheit besteht und dass sie nur dadurch, dass sie wahr +sind, wirklich sein können. Ihre Wahrheit ist Bedingung ihrer Wirklichkeit +und ihr gegenüber das Massgebende und Entscheidende. Alle Dinge hängen so +mit dem Reiche der Wahrheit, mit dem System der Wahrheit zusammen -- eine +einzelne Wahrheit giebt es streng genommen nicht -- sind von ihm +durchdrungen oder in dasselbe eingegliedert. Das gilt natürlich auch von +unsrem Bewusstsein, von unsrem Erkennen und allen dasselbe vorbereitenden +Vorgängen. Sie sind aufs engste mit dem Reiche oder System der Wahrheit +verbunden, und aus dieser Verbindung erklärt es sich, dass scheinbar +unvermittelt in uns Gedanken auftreten oder, wie wir gewöhnlich sagen, uns +eingegeben werden. + +Es giebt sicher zwei Erkenntnisquellen, das Wort im weitesten Sinne +genommen: nicht Quellen, aus denen wir die Erkenntnisse schöpfen, sondern +Ausgangspunkte, zwei verschiedene Ausgangspunkte für unser Erkennen, die +dasselbe bedingen und seinem Inhalte nach bestimmen. Das sind einerseits +die Empfindungen als Erkenntnismittel der Aussenwelt und die +Bewusstseinsvorgänge als Erkenntnismittel der Innenwelt, beide zusammen +das ausmachend, was wir als Erfahrung bezeichnen können, wenn wir darunter +eben den Ausgangspunkt für das Erkennen verstehen. Diesen stehen +anderseits die Eingebungen gegenüber. Die Erkenntnis ist natürlich von +beiden verschieden. Sie ist Sache des Denkens, der Vernunft, und besteht +weder in einer blossen Umformung der Empfindungen, wie Condillac und die +Sensualisten meinen, noch in einer blossen Umformung der +Bewusstseinsvorgänge. Dass uns die Eingebungen, die nur dem +hochentwickelten Bewusstsein zuteilwerden können, in den an die Erfahrung +sich anschliessenden Formen des Denkens gegeben werden, hindert natürlich +nicht, sie als Ausgangspunkt für das Erkennen in dem erörterten Sinne zu +betrachten. + + + Sechsundzwanzigste Untersuchung. + + +Religiöse Erkenntnisse. + +Nimmt man an, dass es künstlerische und wissenschaftliche Inspirationen +giebt, so wird man auch den religiösen Inspirationen seine Anerkennung +nicht versagen können. Die Religion ist, ganz allgemein gefasst, das +Bewusstsein von der Verbindung des Menschen mit Gott und ein auf Grund +dieses Bewusstseins eingeleiteter Verkehr des Menschen mit Gott, der in +der rückhaltlosen Hingabe des Willens, der Person, des ganzen Wesens an +Gott seinen Grund hat und in einer persönlichen Beziehung zu Gott besteht. +Wird nun unter Gott, wie es in der Religion der Fall ist, das über der +Welt der Erscheinungen erhabene Wesen verstanden, in dem alles wirkliche +Sein und alle Wahrheit ihren Grund hat, so ist begreiflich, dass gerade +auf religiösem Gebiete die Inspirationen die grösste Rolle spielen. Sie +sind von der Religion ihrem wahren Wesen nach unabtrennbar. Das kann man +nur leugnen, wenn man dieses Wesen völlig verkennt oder in sein Gegenteil +verkehrt. In allen weltbewegenden Religionen treten Seher, Propheten auf, +die sich solcher von Gott empfangener Inspirationen rühmen. Sofern sie +eine neue religiöse Bewegung herbeiführen, nennen wir sie Gründer, Stifter +der Religionen oder Verbesserer, Reformatoren. Der Inhalt ihrer +Inspirationen sind keineswegs, nicht einmal grösstenteils, Zukunftsbilder, +sondern die ganze Natur und Menschenwelt umspannende Gedanken, die über +das eigentliche Wesen und die Wahrheit der Dinge, d. h. über ihre Stellung +und Bedeutung für die Gesamtheit des Wirklichen oder im System der +Wahrheit Licht verbreiten. Sie haben deshalb zu allen Zeiten das lebhafte +Interesse des Philosophen geweckt, dem es um die Erkenntnis des Wesens und +der Wahrheit der Dinge zu thun ist. + +Allerdings sind diese Gedanken in erster Linie praktischer Natur, denn die +Religion ist zunächst eine praktische, das Gefühl und den Willen angehende +Angelegenheit. Aber sie schliessen die umfassendsten und bestimmtesten +theoretischen Voraussetzungen ein, ohne die sie Halt und Bestand verlieren +und bei deren Veränderung sie selbst völlig verändert werden. Und diese +theoretischen Voraussetzungen sind nicht etwa darum wahr, weil sie sich +praktisch für das Gefühl und den Willen bewähren. Der Wert der Praxis +liegt gerade darin, dass diese Voraussetzungen wahr sind. Wie alles in der +Welt, so erhält auch sie ihren Wert nur durch die Wahrheit, die sie +natürlich nicht verbürgen und garantieren kann. Es ist eine den +Religionsbegriff verflachende und entleerende Auffassung, wenn man +erklärt, die Religion bestehe in blossen Gefühlen, und wenn man sie in +diesem Sinne mit Gesinnungen verselbigt. Als ob Gesinnungen ohne +theoretische Grundlagen denkbar wären! Gewiss, das Wesen der Religion, ihr +Herz und ihre Seele besteht nicht in theoretischen Anschauungen, nicht in +Lehren, sondern in der persönlichen Hingabe der Menschen an Gott, in dem +Opfer seiner selbst. Aber wie verschieden ist doch die stoische Hingabe an +den Weltlauf, die auch von den Stoikern als Gehorsam gegen Gott bezeichnet +wird, und die christliche Ergebung in den Willen Gottes! Worin liegt die +Verschiedenheit? Nun darin, weil die diesen Gesinnungen zugrunde liegende +Lehre eine andere ist. Heilswahrheiten sind nicht wahr, weil sie uns Heil +bringen, sondern weil sie wahr sind, deshalb bringen sie uns Heil. Der +Glaube als rückhaltlose Hingabe an Gott setzt die Erkenntnis Gottes als +der rückhaltlosen Hingabe an uns voraus. Er soll den Frieden des Innern +und die Kraft zum sittlichen Handeln bringen. Aber man kann nicht auf +Probe glauben, abgesehen davon, dass das keine rückhaltlose Hingabe wäre. +Mit andren Worten: die Erkenntnis, auf der der Glaube beruht und die uns +seine Wirkung verbürgt, ist nicht um dieser Wirkung willen wahr, und der +diese Erkenntnisse einschliessende Glaube erhält nicht durch diese seine +Wirkung seine Wahrheit. Dass der Glaube seine Wahrheit nicht erhält durch +seine Wirkungen, geht schon daraus hervor, dass die Wirkungen rein +psychologisch auch eintreten, wenn der Glaube falsch ist, d. h. wenn die +in ihm enthaltene Annahme, also das intellektuelle Element in ihm, nicht +wahr ist. Ohne dieses intellektuelle Element, dass Gott ist, dass er die +Liebe ist, kommt kein Glaube zustande, ohne dasselbe kann er keinen +Augenblick bestehen. Ist es nicht wahr, so ist er Trug, Täuschung, +Einbildung, also völlig wertlos, trotz seiner guten Wirkungen. + +Aber hat das intellektuelle Element, von dessen Wahrheit wir reden, in der +Religion nur Bedeutung als Voraussetzung, als bedingender Bestandteil? +Muss man nicht vielmehr sagen, die Wahrheit sei das Einzige, was um seiner +selbst willen geschätzt werden müsse, alles andere könne nur darum +geschätzt werden, weil es wahr ist (nur weil es wahr ist, ist es ja auch +wirklich)? Wir sprechen von wahrer, wirklicher Liebe, von wahrer, +wirklicher Sittlichkeit, von wahrem, wirklichem Menschsein und meinen +damit eine Liebe, wie sie sein soll, eine Sittlichkeit, wie sie sein soll, +einen Menschen, wie er sein soll. Das ist natürlich Wahrheit in andrem +Sinne; Wahrheit als Übereinstimmung mit einem Ideal. Aber im höchsten +Sinne ist Liebe, Sittlichkeit, Mensch nur wahr, insofern sie eine Stellung +in der Gesamtheit des Wirklichen haben, die durch das System der Wahrheit +bestimmt wird, also als Glieder des Reiches der Wahrheit -- nur insofern +haben sie eine ewige Bedeutung und einen unvergänglichen Wert. Insofern +ist dann die Wahrheit alles in allem, das einzige, das wahrhaft höchste +Gut. Dieser höchste Sinn der Wahrheit muss auch für die Religion gelten. +Als einzelne Wahrheit oder Teilwahrheit ist sie blosse Voraussetzung, +bedingender Bestandteil der Religion; als Wahrheit im höchsten Sinn ist +sie auch für die Religion alles. Was Voraussetzung, bedingender +Bestandteil und insofern Anfang für Glaube, Liebe, Sittlichkeit, Religion +ist, dass muss auch das Ende, das höchste Ziel sein. In diesem höchsten +Sinne wird in der christlichen Religion Gott als die Wahrheit bezeichnet +und die Erkenntnis mit dem ewigen Leben verselbigt, oder das ewige Leben +auf die Erkenntnis zurückgeführt. »Das ist das ewige Leben, das sie Dich +erkennen und den Du gesandt hast, Jesum Christum.« In diesem höchsten +Sinne des Wortes Wahrheit wird dann auch in der christlichen Religion +alles auf Gott, den König im Reiche der Wahrheit, bezogen, alles sub +specie aeternitatis betrachtet, alles nach seiner ewigen Bedeutung im +Gegensatze zu dem vergänglichen Scheine ins Auge gefasst und gewertet. In +diesem höchsten Sinne des Wortes Wahrheit endlich wird alle Wahrheit in +der christlichen Religion als auf Eingebung, Inspiration, Offenbarung +beruhend betrachtet. + +Für die Erkenntnis der Wahrheit in diesem höchsten Sinne gilt dann +freilich auch wieder Glaube, Liebe und Sittlichkeit als Bedingung. »Wer +meine Worte hält und danach thut, der wird erkennen, dass sie wahr sind«. +Insofern muss zugestanden werden, dass die Wahrheit wohl an sich, nicht +aber für uns das höchste Gut ist. Für uns ist die Sittlichkeit ein höheres +Gut als die Wahrheit und hinwiederum die Seligkeit, der Friede, ein +höheres Gut als die Sittlichkeit. Denn nur wenn wir die Seligkeit oder den +Frieden erlangt haben, können wir sittlich leben, und das sittliche Leben +hinwiederum ist Bedingung der Erkenntnis der Wahrheit im vollen Sinne des +Wortes. Insofern gilt der Primat des Willens, nicht der Primat des +Intellekts; insofern können wir auch die beiden letzten Glieder der für +das Zustandekommen des Glaubens wichtigen Reihe notitia assensus +(Einsicht) fiducia umkehren und sagen notitia fiducia assensus, was +übrigens auf den alten Satz von der fides quaerens intellectum +hinauskommt. + +Man unterscheidet Eingebung und Offenbarung. Eingebungen, Inspirationen +werden einem Einzelnen zuteil, und wenn dieser sie andren mitteilt als von +Gott stammend oder auf Inspiration beruhend, so werden sie Offenbarungen +genannt. Kann der, dem die Eingebung zuteil wird, diese wirklich als +Eingebung erkennen? Will man das bezüglich der künstlerischen und +wissenschaftlichen Eingebungen nicht leugnen, so ist kein Grund vorhanden, +es für die religiösen Eingebungen zu bestreiten. Dass der religiös +Inspirierte seine Eingebungen auf Gott zurückführt, spricht nicht dagegen. +Gott ist ihm der König und Herrscher im Reiche der Wahrheit, und vom +Gläubigen wie von dem Künstler und Gelehrten gilt, dass er sein ganzes +Sein und Wesen von diesem Reiche der Wahrheit zu Lehen trägt und nur als +Glied dieses Reiches ein Sein und Wesen besitzt. Wie alle Dinge, so stehen +auch die bevorzugten Menschen, die Künstler, Gelehrten und religiös +Inspirierten unter dem unmittelbaren Einflusse dieses Reiches und werden +von ihm unmittelbar berührt. Warum sollten sie nicht eine Einsicht und +darum eine wirkliche Erkenntnis davon gewinnen können, dass ein in ihnen +auftauchender Gedanke nicht das Ergebnis ihres Nachdenkens, noch weniger +das Endglied einer rein mechanisch sich vollziehenden Association, sondern +etwas wirklich Neues ist, das nur jenem geheimnisvollen Reiche der +Wahrheit entstammen kann, das wir um des überzeitlichen Charakters aller +Wahrheit willen annehmen mussten? + +Können auch diejenigen, denen die Eingebung als von Gott stammend +verkündigt wird, eine Einsicht davon gewinnen, dass sie wahr ist, können +sie mit andren Worten eine Einsicht davon gewinnen, dass der Verkündende +die Wahrheit sagen kann und sagen will? Denn diese Einsicht ist der +einzige Weg, auf dem wir uns von der Wahrheit einer Mitteilung durch +andre, sofern sie eben eine Mitteilung ist und bleibt, überzeugen können. +Massgebend hierfür und entscheidend ist einzig und allein der Eindruck der +Persönlichkeit des Verkündigers nach seiner sittlichen und religiösen +Seite. Es giebt und gab zu allen Zeiten Persönlichkeiten, die in beider +Hinsicht einen überwältigenden Eindruck auf uns ausüben, solange wir uns +gegen solche Eindrücke nicht verhärtet und abgestumpft haben, wie wir ja +auch gegenüber dem Eindrucke der Wahrheit, dem Einleuchten oder der +Evidenz blind und gleichgültig werden können. Wenn wir jenen +überwältigenden Eindruck erfahren, dann ist es einfach konsequent, +jedenfalls einzig vernünftig, dass wir ihren auf Religion und Sittlichkeit +sich beziehenden Aussagen rückhaltlosen Glauben schenken oder sie auf +Grund dieser mittelbaren Einsicht für wahr halten -- was auch immer +geschieht, wenn nicht die eigenen Neigungen und Interessen jenen Aussagen +widerstreiten. Ob wir unmittelbar von der Wahrheit dieser Aussagen eine +Einsicht oder Erkenntnis gewinnen können, ist eine andere Frage, die aber +für den Religiösen nur eine untergeordnete Bedeutung hat. Jener +überwältigende Eindruck wird bei ihm ein Ergriffensein des Gemüts und +Sichunterwerfen des Willens zur unmittelbaren Folge haben, das eine +Verstärkung durch die unmittelbare Einsicht in die Wahrheit jener Aussagen +schwerlich und nie, sehr häufig und leicht aber eine Abschwächung erfährt, +da die unmittelbare Einsicht in die Wahrheit selbst die Gefahr mit sich +bringt, die Wahrheit zu einer blossen Verstandes- oder Kopfwahrheit +herabzusetzen. Darum begnügt sich der Religiöse gern und freudig mit der +äusseren Einsicht in die Wahrheit der Offenbarung, die sich darauf stützt, +dass der die Offenbarung Verkündigende die Wahrheit sagen konnte und sagen +wollte. + +*Schluss.* + +Man wird sagen, unsere Darlegung sei Metaphysik. Gewiss mit Recht! Wir +kennen keine andren Wahrheiten als die einen überzeitlichen Charakter +haben, und Wahrheit in diesem Sinne ist Metaphysik, auch wenn man sie +durch ihre unlösbare Verbindung mit dem Erkennen davor schützt, Ding an +sich zu sein. Wer die Metaphysik in diesem Sinne leugnet, für den giebt es +keine Wahrheit mehr. Er ist unrettbar dem Skepticismus verfallen. Oder +nicht? Man sagt, Wahrnehmungen, die sich bewähren, sind wahr, wie die +Wahrnehmung, dass Digitalis den Puls herabsetzt, Chinin Fieber beseitigt. +Oder Wahrnehmungen, die sich als Teil einem widerspruchslosen System von +Sätzen einordnen lassen, sind wahr. In beiden Fällen werden aus den +Wahrnehmungen Erfahrungen. Das erstere ist die empiristische +Wahrheitstheorie, das letztere die rationalistische. Aber es fragt sich, +woher wir wissen, dass etwas sich bewährt, das etwas sich einem +widerspruchslosen System von Sätzen einordnen lässt. Doch nur daraus, dass +es uns einleuchtet und wir es einsehen. Was immer uns aber einleuchtet und +was immer wir einsehen, das leuchtet uns ein, oder das sehen wir ein als +eine Wahrheit, die für alle Zeiten und darum auch für alle Denkenden gilt. +Das Sichbewährende ist, wie alles induktiv Erschlossene, nur +wahrscheinlich, das Widerspruchslose nur möglicherweise wahr. Oft wenn die +Verhältnisse einfach überschaubar sind, haben wir schon bei der einzelnen +Wahrnehmung eine Einsicht in die Wahrheit. Wir erkennen z. B. sofort, dass +der glühende Ofen verbrennt, dass Wasser aus Wasser- und Sauerstoff +besteht; ebenso dass gleichseitige Dreiecke gleiche Winkel haben, dass +Peripheriewinkel die Hälfte der Centriwinkel ausmachen. Dort bedarf es nur +Einer Wahrnehmung, hier nur einer beliebig gewählten Figur. Das Probieren, +Versuchen der Wiederholung einer Wahrnehmung oder ihrer Einordnung in ein +System hat seinen Wert: die Wiederholung, um unsere Lebenszwecke zu +sichern und zu fördern, die Einordnung, um ein Erkenntnisideal zu +verwirklichen; aber beides ist kein Prüfstein der Wahrheit. + + + + + +NAMEN- UND SACHREGISTER. + + +*A.* + +*Abhängigkeit* völlige aller Dinge von Gott S. 51. + +*Absehen* nicht das Wesen der Abstraktion S. 21, -- von dem in den +Sinnenbildern der Ausdehnung und Bewegung und den entsprechenden +Kategorien enthaltenen irrationalen Element S. 49, 57--58. + +*Abstraktion*, worin sie besteht S. 21--22, -- geht der Generalisation +voran, durch sie gewinnen wir unter anderm auch die wesentlichen Merkmale +S. 9, -- sie schafft neue Einzelgebilde des Denkens, ist verschieden von +den negativen Urteilen S. 21--22. + +*actio in distans* S. 68. + +*Allgemein* nicht dasselbe mit wesentlich S. 8. + +*Allgemeingültigkeit* Folge der überzeitlichen Geltung S. V, 5. + +*Analyse und analytisches Verfahren* nur die Kehrseite des Zieles des +Erkennens, seine bloss formale Folgeerscheinung S. 24, -- thut dem +Erkennen, nicht Genüge S. 27, 29; warum man alle Urteile für analytische +halten könnte S. 26 und 27. + +*Analogieschluss*, ob notwendig für die Erkenntnis fremder Bewusstseine +S. 67. + +*Animismus* S. 12. + +*Ansteckende Wirkung* der Gefühlsäusserungen und Gefühle S. 67--68. + +*Anerkennen* der erkannten Wahrheit Pflicht S. 43--44. + +*Anfang* und Vorhandensein in der Zeit S. 50. + +*Aperçu* und Intuition, inwiefern dem Blick für das Wesentliche ähnlich +S. 10, -- inwiefern von ihm verschieden S. 80. + +*Aphaireisthai*, *abstrahere* s. *Abstraktion*. + +*Aristokratisches Prinzip* in der Natur: das Vollkommnere nicht das +Stärkere siegt S. 75--76. + +*Aristoteles* gegen die Trennung des Erkennens vom Gegenstand S. 1, -- +gegen die Trennung von Leib und Seele S. 54, -- seine Kategorienlehre, in +der das sinnfällige Wirkliche die erste Rolle spielt S. 45, 47, -- +unbewegter Beweger S. 30, -- kein Begriff ohne Phantasievorstellung S. 55, +59. + +*Aristoteliker*: Prädikat der allgemeinere Begriff S. 27. + +*Art*, inwiefern sie zu den Prädikabilien gehört S. 46. + +*Assensus*, inwiefern ihm die fiducia vorangeht S. 85. + +*Associatives Wissen* S. 65. + +*Association* der Willensimpulse mit den Sinnenbildern S. 12. + +*Aufgenötigt*, *aufgedrängt*, Empfindungen, Gedanken, auch Eingebungen; +aber nicht das Einleuchten, die Einsicht S. 22, 38, 78, 80. + +*Augustins* veritates aeternae S. 7. + +*Ausdehnung*, Sinnenbild und Begriff derselben S. 11, irrationales Element +in der Ausdehnung S. 48. + +*Aussenwelt*, was darunter nicht zu verstehen ist S. 52, 57; wir haben von +ihrer Existenz, nicht von ihrer Beschaffenheit eine unmittelbare Einsicht +S. 53; warum wir bezüglich der Aussenwelt nicht leicht von einer Einsicht +sprechen S. 61, 62 und 55; sie steht mit unserm Bewusstsein in +untrennbarem Zusammenhang S. 56 und 63. + +*Ausgangspunkte* zwei verschiedene für unser Erkennen, Erkenntnismittel +nicht eigentliche Erkenntnisquellen S. 81--82. + +*Ausserwesentlich* das Zufällige, das Notwendige zum Teil, ob es zum +Seienden gehört oder nicht S. 46. + +*B.* + +*Bacon* und die Methode der Naturwissenschaften S. 9. + +*Bedeutung* der überzeitlichen Geltung der Wahrheit S. 4, -- von Raum und +Zeit für das Reich der Wahrheit S. 30, 50, -- der Zeit S. 5, 62. + +*Begriff* von Ausdehnung und Bewegung verschieden von den entsprechenden +Sinnenbildern und Vorstellungen S. 11--12, -- von Punkt, Linie, Fläche, +Geist desgleichen S. 14; -- umfasst die wesentlichen Merkmale S. 21, 7--8, +-- umfasst nicht alle Merkmale, die einem Ding und nur ihm zukommen S. 8, +46, -- der Religion S. 69, 82; -- der Philosophie S. 15--17. Der _Eine_ +Begriff, welcher die Stellung der Dinge im System der Wahrheit bestimmt, +und unsere Begriffe S. 15, 18, 21. + +*Begriffsworte* enthalten eine Wissensdisposition, die betreffenden +Urteile fällen zu können S. 11. + +*Believe* Dafürhalten, S. 71. + +*Berkeley* über die Dinge als Gedanken Gottes S. 53, 54. + +*Berührung* enthält ein irrationales Element a) als Bestandteil der +Ausdehnung, b) als Bestandteil der Substanz S. 48--49. + +*Beschränktheit* als seiendes Nichtsein S. 47. + +*Bewegung*, Sinnenbild und Begriff derselben S. 11; irrationales Element +in der Bewegung S. 48. + +*Beweis* für die Existenz der Aussenwelt S. 54--56. + +*Bewusstheit* Wissen des Bewusstseinsvorgangs um sich selbst S. 58, -- +uneigentliches, nicht namentliches, nicht begriffliches Wissen, keine +Einsicht oder Erkenntnis S. 59, -- hat einen übergreifenden Charakter +S. 60--61, -- analog dem Bewusstsein des Ich und Selbst von sich S. 63, -- +ist die Erscheinung der Bewusstseinsvorgänge im Bewusstsein, die sich in +der Reflexion wiederholt S. 64, -- kommt bei der Übertragung der +sinnlichen Vorstellungen auf die Bewusstseinsvorgänge zur Geltung S. 59. + +*Bewusstsein* der Wahrheit S. 6; unser Bewusstsein und die fremden +Bewusstseine S. 61; Ich- und Selbstbewusstsein S. 63. + +*Beziehung* auf die Objektivität gleich Bewusstsein der Wahrheit S. 6--7, +-- setzt zwei Glieder voraus S. 28, -- eine Kategorie S. 28. + +*Bild*, was ihm eigentümlich ist S. 17. + +*Bildliche* Vorstellungen S. 59. + +*Blick des Geistes für das Wesentliche*, eine Abstraktion (s. d.) S. 9; -- +schafft, erzeugt ein neues Gebilde des Denkens, ist Voraussetzung der +Urteile der zergliedernden, der verbindenden, der negativen S. 13, 21, 14, +-- vermittelt die Übertragung der sinnlichen Vorstellungen auf die +Bewusstseinsvorgänge S. 60, -- erste Stufe des Erkenntnisvorgangs, noch +keine Erkenntnis S. 20, 21; doppelte Funktion dieses Blickes: +Vereinzelung, Zusammenfassung, Trennen, Zusammenschauen S. 13, 21. + +*Blinde* Überzeugung, worauf sie sich gründet S. 34, -- Gewissheit, +wodurch von der einsichtigen verschieden S. 36, -- Wissensinhalte sehr +zahlreich S. 65, 25. + +*Brentano* über äussere und innere Wahrnehmung S. 58. + +*C.* + +*Caput mortuum* das Ding an sich, ein toter Punkt S. VI. + +*Cartesius* Trennung von Leib und Seele S. 1, 54. + +*Causari* hervorgebracht werden, verschieden von sequi folgen S. 32. + +*Christliche* Ergebung und stoischer Gehorsam S. 83, -- Religion, +Mittelpunkt derselben S. 79; inwiefern sie Gott als die Wahrheit erklärt +S. 85. + +*Commercium immediatum animarum* unmittelbare, gegenseitige Beeinflussung +der Bewusstseine S. 68. + +*Condillac* S. 82. + +*Criterium quo cognoscitur* -- das, wodurch wir erkennen, die Einsicht, +Kennzeichen der Wahrheit im uneigentlichen Sinne S. 24. + +*Criterium secundum quod cognoscitur* -- das, gemäss dem wir erkennen, das +Einleuchten Kennzeichen der Wahrheiten im eigentlichen Sinne S. 24. + +*Cues* Nikolaus v., ideelle Existenz der Dinge wahrer als die +zeiträumliche S. 7. + +*D.* + +*Definition* der Empfindung unmöglich ohne Zuhülfenahme körperlicher +Vorgänge S. 54, -- der Wahrheit gewöhnliche, a) falsche Auffassung b) +richtige Auffassung S. 1, 2. Was gehört in die Definition? S. 8. + +*Denken*, inwiefern Gegenstand der Logik S. IV. + +*Denkgesetze* Formalgesetze: das Gesetz des Enthaltenseins und des Grundes +S. 33. + +*Denknotwendigkeit* oft nur Folgerung aus der Gewissheit S. 39, -- in +keinem Falle Grund unserer Einsicht in die Wahrheit S. 40, 41, 42. + +*Descartes* s. Cartesius. + +*Ding an sich* ein ungereimter Begriff S. VI, -- führt zu einer Auffassung +der Definition der Wahrheit, die alle Erkenntnis unmöglich macht S. 1, die +Wahrheit nicht Ding an sich S. 5, 6, 31. + +*Dinge im Allgemeinen* S. 50. + +*E.* + +*Eckhart* S. 7. + +*Eigenschaft*, das Eigentümliche derselben S. 28, warum sie ein +Selbstständiges voraussetzt S. 41, und Proprietät S. 46. + +*Einbildung* und Eingebung S. 81. + +*Einbildungskraft* schöpferische verschieden von Eingebung S. 77, 78. + +*Eingebung* verglichen mit dem Einleuchten, dem Blick für das Wesentliche, +der Einsicht S. 10, 78, 80, -- noch kein Erkennen, vielmehr Ausgangspunkt +(zweiter) für das Erkennen S. 81, 82, wann Gedanken Eingebungen sind +S. 79, 81, worin die Eingebungen ihren Grund haben S. 81. + +*Einheit* Gesetz der Einheit S. 30, 31, -- Kategorie S. 47; -- gebrochene +in der Natur S. 57, 73 -- des Bewusstseins S. 61. + +*Einleuchten* und *Einsicht*, Verschiedenheit beider S. 22, 23, 24, +Einleuchten keinerlei Zwang S. 22, 34, 38, 43, 80, -- verglichen mit +Inspiration und Auffassen der Inspiration S. 78, -- wirklich oder bloss +vermeintlich S. 35, 36, 37, 38; Schein des Einleuchtens, wie beseitigt +S. 37; Einleuchten unmittelbar oder mittelbar S. 37, 38. Einsicht innere +und äussere S. 71, 87. Einleuchten keine Erkenntnis, Grund der Erkenntnis +S. 22, 34, 38, Einleuchten Massstab, Kennzeichen der Wahrheit; das, nach +dem wir über Wahrheit und Falschheit urteilen S. 24. + +*Einsicht* Erkenntnis S. 23, Sehen, Wahrnehmen der Zusammengehörigkeit +S. 34, -- verschieden von Urteil, Bewusstsein der Wahrheit, Gewissheit +S. 23, keine wahrscheinliche oder zweifelhafte Einsicht möglich S. 35, 36 +-- hat keine Grade S. 36, -- unmittelbare in die Existenz der Aussenwelt +S. 53 -- in die religiös-sittliche Beschaffenheit eines Andern S. 70, +diese der Grund, dass wir seinen Aussagen über Religion und Sittlichkeit +Glauben schenken S. 87, -- subjektiv wie die Gewissheit S. 23; inwiefern +kann die unmittelbare Einsicht grundlos, inwiefern der Grund der Einsicht, +das Einleuchten, als subjektiv bezeichnet werden? S. 31, die vorausgehende +Einsicht für die nachfolgende Reflexion eigentliches Kennzeichen der +Wahrheit (criterium secundum quod), Einsicht an sich genommen nur +uneigentlich sogenanntes Kennzeichen der Wahrheit (criterium quo) S. 24. + +*Einzelwirklichkeit* -- Gegensatz Gesamtwirklichkeit S. 4, Gesamtheit des +Wirklichen S. 15. Gesetze für das Einzelwirkliche; auch das Gesetz des +ausgeschlossenen Dritten gilt nur für das Einzelwirkliche S. 29. + +*Empfindungen* a) als Gegenstand der Reflexion S. 60, b) als +Erkenntnismittel S. 55, 59, c) isoliert vom Körper bei Cartesius und in +der Psychologie S. 54, Definition der Empfindungen S. 54. + +*Enargein* Einleuchten S. 24. + +*Einzelgebilde* des Denkens, die wesentlichen Merkmale S. 13, -- überhaupt +das durch Abstraktion Geschaffene S. 21; das Urteil kein Einzelgebilde, +vom Denken geschaffene Verbindung S. 23. + +*Enthaltensein*, Gesetz des Enthaltenseins für Begriffe S. 26; Gesetz des +Enthaltenseins für Urteile -- das Gesetz des Grundes S. 32; im +Enthaltensein eine Denknotwendigkeit vorhanden S. 40. + +*Entwicklung* fortschreitende in der Natur S. 76, 81, 74. + +*Entwicklungstheorie* führt den Zweckbegriff wieder ein S. 75. + +*Erfahrung* Ausgangspunkt des Erkennens a) die Empfindungen als +Erkenntnismittel der Aussenwelt, b) die Bewusstseinsvorgänge als +Erkenntnismittel der Innenwelt, -- keine Erkenntnis S. 82. + +*Erinnerung*, was sie ist S. 61; warum wir bei ihr nicht leicht von +Einsicht reden S. 61--62, unter welchen Vorbehalten es einsichtige +Erinnerungen gibt S. 62. + +*Erkennen* hat eine metaphysische Bedeutung S. V, VI; a) empiristischer +Begriff, b) rationalistischer Begriff des Erkennens S. 2, -- Lehre vom +Erkennen erster Teil der Logik, Lehre vom Denken zweiter Teil S. IV; das +Erkennen und die Wahrheit S. IV, 2; die Wahrheit unabtrennbar vom Erkennen +S. VI, 2, 5, 31, -- nicht Abdruck, Spiegelbild, müssige Wiederholung der +Wirklichkeit, besitzt die Wirklichkeit selbst S. 6, 17. Erkennen gleich +Einsicht verschieden vom Urteil S. 23, 6. + +*Erkenntnisideal* S. 88 + +*Erkenntnismittel* S. 55, 82. + +*Erkenntniswert* der Naturwissenschaften und Geschichte S. VI, 73, 76, -- +der Begriffs- und Thatsachenurteile S. 72. + +*Erklärung* mechanische der Natur, wann möglich? S. 75, -- psychologische +der Entstehung und Zusammensetzung unserer Vorstellungen der Weltdinge +S. 52, 12. + +*Ermöglichung* der Empfindungen S. 52, Gesetz der Ermöglichung S. 32. + +*Evidenz evidentia* Einleuchten S. 24. + +*Ewigkeitscharakter* der Wahrheit S. V, 4. + +*Existenz* der Aussenwelt unmittelbar erkannt S. 53, -- des Ich +desgleichen; keine Erkenntnis seiner Beschaffenheit S. 63--64. + +*F.* + +*Faith* Glaube in religiösem Sinne S. 71. + +*Fiducia* religiöser Glaube, der dem assensus der Zustimmung des +Verstandes oder dem einsichtigen Urteil vorangeht, ein und dasselbe mit + +*Fides* quaerens intellectum religiöser Glaube, der die einsichtige +Erkenntnis erstrebt d. h. die mit ihr verbundene äussere Einsicht durch +die innere zu ergänzen sucht S. 85. + +*Farbe*, Wesen der Farbe S. 16, unsere Auffassung der Farben Grund der +Objektivationstheorie S. 54, 55. + +*Formalgesetze* Denkgesetze, das des Enthaltenseins und des Grundes S. 33. + +*Formalkategorien* Raum und Zeit S. 50. + +*Formen* (3) des Gesetzes des Widerspruchs S. 33. + +*Formulierung* falsche des Kausalitätsgesetzes S. 31--32. + +*Fragen*, ihr Wert S. 16--17, Philosophie Wissenschaft der Fragen S. 16, +-- ob die Dinge so sind, wie wir sie wahrnehmen, thöricht, ungereimt +S. 34, 52. + +*G.* + +*Gattung*, wann Proprietät S. 46, 8, verglichen mit der Zahl S. 46. + +*Gebiet* das sinnliche konstituiert von den Empfindungen, inwiefern? +S. 59. + +*Gedanken* aufgedrängte S. 80, 22, -- Gottes die Dinge der Welt S. 53, 54, +56. + +*Gefühle* Grund der blinden Überzeugung S. 34; die Religion besteht nicht +in blossen Gefühlen S. 83. + +*Gegenstand* Unbestimmtheit des Wortes S. 2; einziger Gegenstand des +Erkennens die Wahrheit S. 2; im eigentlichen Sinne giebt es nur auf Grund +des Urteils Gegenstände S. 12. + +*Gegenständlicher* Charakter der Vorstellungen, wie kommt er zu Stande +S. 12. + +*Geist*, Blick des Geistes S. 9, 13--14, 20--21, 60; -- und Körper S. 16, +Begriff und Sinnenbild des Geistes S. 14. + +*Gelten* mehr als Existieren S. 4, vergl. ideelle Existenz in Gott wahrer +als zeiträumliche Existenz S. 7. + +*Gemüt*, Ergriffensein des Gemüts von der Wahrheit S. 43, 87. + +*Generalisation* S. 8--9. + +*Geschichte*, Erkenntniswert der Geschichte S. VI, 73, 76, Bedeutung des +Individuums in der Geschichte S. 73, 77, Fortschritt in der Geschichte +S. 76, Gedanken in der Geschichte S. 73, 76. + +*Gesamtheit des Wirklichen* s. *Einzelwirklichkeit*. + +*Gesetze* als Ausdruck des Wesens der Dinge S. 14; -- des Erkennens: +Grundgesetz, Urteilsgesetze S. 25 u. 29, Schlussgesetze S. 30 ff., Gesetz +der Gleichförmigkeit des Naturlaufs S. 38. + +*Gewissheit* einsichtige und blinde, ihr Unterschied S. 35--36. + +*Glaube* in religiösem Sinne S. 84, 71, 72; als Fürwahrhalten der +Mitteilungen andrer S. 70. + +*Glaubensüberzeugungen* geschichtliche Erkenntnisse S. V, Kant über +Glauben S. V. + +*Gleichheit* und Verschiedenheit Prädikabilien S. 46. + +*Goethe* über das Allgemeine und Besondere S. 9; Motto seiner Iphigenie +S. 78, 79. + +*Gravitation* zeitlos S. 68, Gesetz der -- S. 5 + +*Gott* als Bewusstsein überhaupt S. 5, 53, -- der Eine Erkennende vom +System der Wahrheit vorausgesetzt S. 30--31, 85, seinem Wesen nach +Selbstentäusserung, rückhaltlose Hingabe S. 51, 84. + +*Grund*, Gesetz des Grundes S. 32--33; subjektiver, objektiver Grund der +Wahrheit S. 30--31, 7. + +*Gut*, die Wahrheit an sich das höchste Gut S. 18, 44, 84--85, nicht für +uns S. 85, ein sittliches Gut, ein Gemeinschaftsgut S. 44. + +*H.* + +*Hegel* und die Evidenz des Gesetzes des Widerspruchs S. 38. + +*Heraklit* und die Evidenz des Gesetzes des Widerspruchs S. 38. + +*Homoiosis* Verähnlichung S. 6. + +*Horror vacui* kein leerer Raum S. 56. + +*Humes* Irrtum über das Ich S. 63. + +*I.* + +*Ich*, inwiefern erkennbar S. 63--64. + +*Ideal* der Erkenntnis S. 88. + +*Ideelle Existenz* wahrer als zeiträumliche S. 7. + +*Ideen*, Persönlichkeiten in der Geschichte, ihre Träger S. 76. + +*Ideenwelt* Platons dasselbe mit dem System der Wahrheit S. 7. + +*Immediatum commercium animarum* s. *Commercium*. + +*Inhaltsmerkmal* der Wahrheit S. 2; die negativen Begriffe keine +Inhaltsmerkmale S. 28. + +*Induktion* S. 9, 66. + +*Individualität* des Künstlers S. 78. + +*Individuation* Prinzip der -- S. 50. + +*Intellectus* s. *Fides quaerens intellectum*. + +*Irrational* vom Erkennen nicht aufzuhellen S. 48. + +*Inkommensurabel* vom Erkennen nicht aufzuhellen S. 48. + +*Intuitionen* s. *Aperçu*. + +*Inspirationen* s. *Eingebung*. + +*Isolierung* der Teile des Ausgedehnten und Bewegten durch die Abstraktion +S. 13, 21, der Empfindungen und körperlichen Vorgänge S. 54, der +Bewusstseinsvorgänge S. 60. + +*K.* + +*Kant* über Glauben und Wissen S. V, sein Einfluss auf die Logik S. I; +Trennung des Gegenstandes vom Erkennen -- Ding an sich S. VI und S. 1, -- +vom guten Willen S. 44. + +*Kategorien* des Aristoteles S. 45, -- vier: Ding, Eigenschaft, Vorgang, +Beziehung S. 28, Formalkategorien: Raum und Zeit; Realkategorien: Substanz +und Kausalität S. 50, Wesen und Einheit sind Kategorien S. 46--47; +Wirklichkeit eine Realkategorie S. 51. + +*Kausalität* Verursachung; Ursprung des Begriffs S. 12--13, 49, Ursache +und Vorgang S. 28, Gesetz der Kausalität S. 31--32; irrationales Element +S. 49; -- die Ermöglichung nicht hervorbringende Ursache S. 31, 50, -- als +symbolischer Ausdruck für die völlige Abhängigkeit der Dinge von Gott +S. 51. Siehe *Substanz*. + +*Kausalzusammenhang* S. 31. + +*Kenntnisnahme* verschieden von Erkennen S. 65. + +*Kenntnisse* keine Erkenntnisse S. 65--66, 71, -- erster und zweiter Hand +S. 72. + +*Kennzeichen* der Wahrheit S. IV, 3, nicht die Einsicht sondern das +Einleuchten S. 24. + +*Kinder* Erfahrungen an -- S. 67, -- unmündige S. 55, wodurch belehrt über +den Unterschied des eigenen von fremden Körpern S. 56. + +*Koinonia* Teilnahme an einer Sache S. 6. + +*Kopfwahrheit* S. 45, 87. + +*Körperwelt*, unser Bewusstsein unabtrennbar mit ihr verbunden S. 56, 63, +doppelte Auffassung ihres Wesens S. 74, 81, dreifache Auffassung ihres +Verhältnisses zum Geiste S. 74--75. + +*Konstante* Merkmale S. 9. + +*Kraft* enthält wie die Zeit und Kausalität ein irrationales Element, +gehört darum nur zur Erscheinung der Welt im Bewusstsein S. 57. + +*L.* + +*Leben* das ewige eine Erkenntnis S. 85. + +*Leib* und Seele untrennbar S. 1, 54, vergl. S. 63. + +*Locke* u. Aristoteles über die Schranken unserer Erkenntnis des +Innenlebens anderer S. 69. + +*Logik* als Denklehre in erster Linie Erkenntnislehre S. IV, -- formale u. +erkenntnistheoretische S. III--IV. + +*Logismus* formalistischer S. VI. + +*Lückenhaftigkeit* der Erinnerung, wie erkannt S. 62. + +*M.* + +*Materie* siehe *Kraft*. + +*Mathematik*, ob für alle verständlich S. VII, warum und inwiefern ihre +Lehrsätze durch- (ein-)sichtige Klarheit besitzen S. 58, 49. + +*Mensch*, Begriff des Menschen S. 8, Wesen des Menschen S. 16. + +*Merkmale*, Wertunterschiede unter den Merkmalen S. 8, -- wesentliche und +unwesentliche S. 6--7, 46, -- begriffliche und sinnfällige S. 10 ff. + +*Metaphysik* vermeintliche Grundvoraussetzung das Ding an sich S. VI, +Scheu vor der Metaphysik S. VI, Begriff der Wahrheit ist Metaphysik S. 87. + +*Metaphysische Bedeutung* des Erkennens S. VI. + +*Methode psychologische*, Isolierung der Empfindungen vom Körper S. 54, +der Bewusstseinsvorgänge von einander S. 60. + +*Mill, Stuart* S. 54, 52. + +*Mittelalterliche* Philosophie S. 1, 54. + +*Mitgeteilte* Urteile keine selbstgefällten S. 70--71. + +*Mitte* zwischen Bejahen und Verneinen ausgeschlossen für das +Einzelwirkliche S. 29. + +*N.* + +*Nacheinander* in der Zeit ausgeschlossen durch den Übergang S. 48. + +*Namenwissen* blosse Kenntnis S. 65--66. + +*Namentliches* begriffliches Wissen eigentliches Wissen S. 59. + +*Natur* Wissenschaft der Natur S. 57--58, Erkenntniswert geringer als der +der Geschichte S. VI, 73, 76, Auffassung der Natur mechanische S. 75, +Auffassung der Natur doppelte unverifizierbare S. 74, 81. + +*Natura non facit saltus* keine Sprünge in der Natur S. 56. + +*Nebeneinander*, ausgeschlossen durch die Berührung S. 48. + +*Neues* in Natur und Geschichte S. 77. + +*Newtons* Gravitationsgesetz S. 5. + +*Negation* nur im Urteil möglich, setzt aber den Blick für das, was anders +ist, voraus S. 14, 28. + +*Nichtsein* wirkliches S. 47. + +*Nichtseinsollendes* ob wirklich S. 19, 47. + +*Nihil.* *Ex nihilo fit nihil.* Aus Nichts wird Nichts S. 77. + +*Nötigung* keinerlei -- beim Einleuchten und der Einsicht. S. 22, 34, 38, +80. + +*Notwendigkeit des Denkens* scheinbare als Folge der Gewissheit. S. 39, +42--43 wirkliche einsichtige im Verhältnis des Enthaltenseins S. 40, +wirkliche einsichtige in den Unverträglichkeitsverhältnissen S. 41--42, +wirkliche einsichtslose S. 41. + +*O.* + +*Objektiver* Grund aller Wahrheit S. 31. + +*Objektivationstheorie*, Grund derselben S. 54, Ersatz derselben S. 55. + +*Offenbarung* im allgemeinen Sinne die Inspiration mit einschliessend +S. 77, im Unterschied von der Inspiration S. 85--86. + +*Ort* der Dinge, Ursprung des Bewusstseins derselben S. 52. + +*Ortsbestimmung* löst alles in Beziehungen auf, setzt darum ein +Unräumliches voraus S. 30. Prinzip der Individuation S. 50. + +*P.* + +*Parusia* Gegenwart S. 6. + +*Pestalozzi* über die Schranken unserer Erkenntnis des Innern anderer +S. 69. + +*Phantasie* schöpferische des Künstlers S. 78. + +*Phantasiebild* als Begleiter der Begriffe S. 55, 59. + +*Persönliches Verhältnis* das Wesen der Religiosität S. 69. + +*Persönlichkeiten* in der Geschichte als Träger der Ideen S. 76. + +*Philosophie* Wissenschaft vom Wesen der Dinge, Wissenschaft der Fragen +S. 16. + +*Prinzip* aristokratisches in der Natur S. 76, -- der Individuation S. 50. + +*Platons* Theätet S. VII, Ideenlehre S. 7, Ansicht vom Körper S. 16, 55. + +*Psychologische Methode* Isolierung der Empfindungen vom Körper S. 51, der +Bewusstseinsvorgänge von einander S. 60. + +*Primat des Intellekts, des Willens* S. 85. + +*Probe* auf Probe glauben in religiösem Sinne unmöglich S. 84. + +*Porphyrius* über die Prädikabilien S. 45. + +*Proprietät* und Eigenschaft S. 46. + +*R.* + +*Rationalistischer* Begriff des Erkennens S. 2, der Wahrheit S. 88. + +*Raum* als Kategorie S. 48, als Begriff S. 49, Formalkategorie, Prinzip +der Individuation S. 50, symbolischer Ausdruck der scheinbaren +Selbstständigkeit der Dinge, der Unendlichkeit S. 51, 81, enthält ein +irrationales Element, gehört darum nur zur Erscheinung der Welt in unserm +Bewusstsein S. 57. + +*Realgesetze* S. 33--34. + +*Realkategorien* S. 50. + +*Rehmke* S. 53, 54. + +*Religion*, positive Seite der Moral S. 69, ihr Wesen S. 82, 83, ihre +doppelte Wirkung S. 84, vergl. S. 85, Bedeutung der Erkenntnis in der +Religion S. 84--85. + +*Reflexion* verschieden von dem Bewusstheit genannten Wissen S. 59, +Wiederholung desselben S. 64, Empfindung als Gegenstand der Reflexion +S. 60. + +*S.* + +*Scheinbar*, inwiefern das Scheinbare wirklich S. 19, die geliehene +Selbstständigkeit verschieden von der anmasslichen nicht etwas bloss +Scheinbares S. 51, 19, scheinbare Selbstständigkeit, Symbol derselben +S. 51, 81. + +*Schöpfung* Akt der Selbstentäusserung S. 51. + +*Schranken* unübersteigliche oder noch nicht überwundene für die +Erkenntnis der Aussenwelt und unserer eigenen Innenwelt S. 64, für die +Erkenntnis der Innenwelt anderer S. 69. + +*Schluss* der Analogie S. 67, der Induktion S. 66, 9. + +*Selbstbewusstsein* unmittelbare Einsicht in die Zusammengehörigkeit der +Bewusstseinsvorgänge, die wir unsere nennen, mit dem Ich oder Selbst, +S. 63, 61. + +*Selbsterkenntnis* S. 69. + +*Selbstentäusserung* s. *Schöpfung*. + +*Seligkeit* als Friede, Voraussetzung der Sittlichkeit S. 85, 84. + +*Sensualisten* S. 82, VI. + +*Sinnfällige* Wirklichkeit S. 48, -- Eigenschaften S. 57. + +*Sinnliches* Gebiet, wodurch konstituiert S. 59--60, sinnliche Merkmale +S. 10. + +*Sinnenbilder*, was sie sind S. 11; die Grundbestandteile des Sinnlichen, +Sinnfälligen, die Sinnenbilder der Ausdehnung und Bewegung S. 10--11, +einfache Sinnenbilder die genannten, aus ihnen entstehen erweiterte, neue, +umfassendere S. 49, Sinnenbilder und Vorstellungen S. 11--12, Sinnenbilder +und Begriffe S. 49. + +*Sittlichkeit* in dem negativen Moment der Selbstlosigkeit bestehend, das +einer Ergänzung bedarf S. 69, Kraft zum sittlichen Handeln S. 84; +inwiefern für uns ein höheres Gut als die Wahrheit S. 85. + +*Skepticismus* -- Folge der Leugnung des metaphysischen Charakters der +Wahrheit S. 87. + +*Spinoza* S. 4, 7. + +*Stoiker* S. 83. + +*Stoische Hingabe* S. 83. + +*Stufen*, Vorstufen und Stufen als Bestandteile des Erkenntnisvorgangs +S. 20, 21, S. 21--23. + +*Subjektiv* grundlos was unmittelbar einleuchtet, hat einen objektiven +Grund S. 31. + +*Subjekt* der Urteile das Einzelwirkliche S. 29, -- Sinnenbilder oder +Vorstellungen und wesentliche Merkmale S. 26. + +*Substanz* entsteht aus dem Willensding S. 12, setzt ein umfassenderes +Sinnenbild als die Ausdehnung voraus S. 49, begriffliche Bearbeitung, +Begriff der Substanz S. 13, 49, enthält das irrationale Element in +verdoppeltem Masse S. 49, gehört darum nur zur Erscheinung der Welt in +unserm Bewusstsein S. 57, symbolischer Ausdruck für die scheinbare +Selbständigkeit der Dinge S. 51. + +*Synthese* Ziel des Erkennens, nicht Analyse S. 27, 29, 24. + +*Symbolischer Ausdruck* für die scheinbare Selbständigkeit der Dinge Raum +und Substanz, für ihre völlige Abhängigkeit Zeit und Kausalität S. 51, 81. + +*System* der Wahrheit wesentlich S. 30, 24, 15, 4. + +*T.* + +*Thatsachen*, Urteile über Thatsachen überzeitlich S. 4, -- und Gedanken, +S. 3. + +*Trennung* abstrakte von Leib und Seele, Gegenstand und Erkennen S. VI, +VIII, 1, 54, Abstraktion ein Trennen, Isolieren S. 21, 13. + +*U.* + +*Übereinstimmung*, Gesetz der -- S. 25. + +*Übergreifender Charakter* der Bewusstheit, warum notwendig, S. 60, 61. + +*Übertragung* der sinnlichen Vorstellungen auf geistige Vorgänge wie +vermittelt? S. 59, 60. + +*Überzeugung*, blinde, ihr Grund S. 34--35, auch als Gewissheit von der +einsichtigen Gewissheit verschieden S. 36. + +*Unerkennbarkeit* des Wesens der Dinge S. 16, 24--25. + +*Untrennbarkeit* der Seele vom Leibe (seinem Wesen nach), des Gegenstandes +vom Erkennen S. VI, 1, 2, 5, 6, 31, 54. + +*Unverträglichkeitsverhältnisse* S. 41--42. + +*Urteil* gedankliches Gebilde, Verbindung von gedanklichen Einzelgebilden +S. 23, sein gedanklicher Ausdruck eine Analyse, schliesst bei allen +synthetischen, nicht auf dem Enthaltensein beruhenden Urteilen eine +Synthese als bedingenden Bestandteil ein, sprachlicher Ausdruck wieder +Synthese S. 26--27. + +*V.* + +*Verkündiger* der Offenbarung, kann die Eingebung als solche erkennen +S. 86, 79, wann glaubwürdig S. 86--87, 69--70. + +*Verstandesakt* die Einsicht S. 43, 87. + +*Vorgefundenes* Grundelement der Thatsachen S. 3, von doppelter Art: +Sinnenbilder und Vorstellungen S. 20--21. + +*Vorstellungen*, wie werden aus den Empfindungen Vorstellungen? S. 11--12, +sinnliche und übertragene S. 59, 60, keine blossen Vorstellungen von den +Bewusstseinsvorgängen S. 60. + +*W.* + +*Wahrheit*, metaphysischer immanenter empiristischer, rationalistischer +Wahrheitsbegriff S. V, 48, 87--88, keine einzelne Wahrheit S. 81, 24, 20, +4, Wahrheit und Wirklichkeit S. 86, 84, 81, 19, 5--6, 4, V, Wahrheit und +Wesen der Dinge S. 15, Wahrheit an sich höchstes Gut S. 18, 85, Wahrheit +kein Ding an sich S. 2, 5, 6, 31, 81. + +*Wahrscheinlichkeit* der Sätze der Induktion S. 66, das einzige, was die +empiristische Wahrheitstheorie verbürgt S. 88, keine wahrscheinliche +Einsicht sondern nur Einsicht in die Wahrscheinlichkeit S. 35--37. + +*Wesen* s. *Wahrheit* -- der Religiosität S. 69, -- der Farbe, -- des +Menschen S. 16, -- der Religion S. 83. + +*Wesentliche* s. *Blick für das Wesentliche*; -- Merkmale der Sinnenbilder +noch keine Erkenntnis des Wesens S. 21; ob immer mit Einsicht verbunden? +S. 25. + +*Wirklichkeit*, ganz und gar abhängig von der Wahrheit S. V, 4, 5--6, 19, +81, 84, 86, Sinnfällige Wirklichkeit S. 48, Wirklichkeit Realkategorie +S. 51, Was ist Wirklichkeit? S. 51, 4, VII. + +*Wissen*, Wissens-Disposition S. 11, -- uneigentliches nicht namentliches, +nicht begriffliches S. 59, Namenwissen S. 65--66, -- associatives S. 65, +Wissen und Glauben S. 70--71. + +*Wissenschaft*, Naturwissenschaft S. VI, beschreibende S. 57, erklärende +S. 73, Geschichtswissenschaft S. 72--73. + +*Wissenschaftliche* Inspiration S. 79--81. + +*Z.* + +*Zeit* vergl. *Raum*, -- symbolischer Ausdruck der thatsächlichen +Abhängigkeit und Beschränktheit S. 51, Zeitlichkeit des +Erkenntnisvorganges S. 5--6. + +*Ziel* des Erkennens, Synthese nicht Analyse S. 24. + +*Zielstrebigkeit* in der Natur S. 75. + +*Zulänglichkeit* des Kennzeichens der Wahrheit S. 3, 36--38. + +*Zusammengehörigkeit* S. VIII, 24, 20, 22, siehe *Einleuchten* und +*Einsicht*. + +*Zweckzusammenhang* in der Natur S. 74. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/ss2013/1_Web Mining/Uebungen/1_Uebung/abgabe/txt/Expository Writing by Mervin James Curl.txt b/ss2013/1_Web Mining/Uebungen/1_Uebung/abgabe/txt/Expository Writing by Mervin James Curl.txt new file mode 100755 index 00000000..c3a4ab7f --- /dev/null +++ b/ss2013/1_Web Mining/Uebungen/1_Uebung/abgabe/txt/Expository Writing by Mervin James Curl.txt @@ -0,0 +1,13254 @@ +CHAPTER I + +THE NATURE AND MATERIAL OF EXPOSITION + + +"The Anglo-Saxons," Emerson said, "are the hands of the world"--they, +more than any other people, turn the wheels of the world, do its work, +keep things moving. Without lingering to quarrel with Emerson, or +to justify him, we may safely assert that Expository Writing is the +hands of literature. In a world which man even as yet only slightly +understands, surrounded as he is by his fellows who constantly baffle +his intelligence, and shut up within the riddle of himself, Exposition +attempts to explain, to make clear, to tear away the clouds of mystery +and ignorance. + +Exposition attempts to answer the endless curiosity of man. "What is +this?" man asks, of things and of ideas. "Who are you?" he addresses to +his fellows. "How did this originate, what caused it, where is it going, +what will it do, how is it operated?" he repeats from birth to grave. +Perhaps the most interesting question in the world is the never-ending +"What does this mean to me, how does it affect me, how can I use it?" +These are the questions--and there are more of them--which Exposition +tries to answer. Obviously, in making the answers the writing will +often be garbed in the sack suit of business, will sometimes roll up +its sleeves, will pull on the overalls or tie the apron. Then it may +explain the workings of a machine, the wonders of a printing press, or +may show the mysteries of Congressional action, or the organization +of a department store, or even tell how to bake a lemon pie. But it +may also appear in the opulence of evening costume, and criticize the +ensemble of an orchestra, discuss the diplomacy of Europe, address us +in appreciation of the Arts. It may assume the fine informality of the +fireside and give us of its most delightful charms in discussing the +joys of living and learning, the whimsicalities of the world. In any +case it will be answering the endless curiosity of man. + +It would not be rash to say that more expository thinking is done than +any other kind of mental activity. The child who dismantles a clock to +find its secret is doing expository thinking; the official, of however +complicated a business, who ponders ways and means, is trying to satisfy +his business curiosity; the artist who studies the effect of balance, of +light and shade, of exclusion or inclusion, is thinking in exposition; +politicians are ceaselessly active in explaining to themselves how +they may, and to their constituents how they did. We cannot escape +Exposition. The question then arises, since this form of writing is +always with us how can we make it effective and enjoyable? + +All writing should be interesting; all really effective writing does +interest. It may not be required that every reader be interested in +every bit of writing--that would be too much to hope for in a world +where sympathies are unfortunately so restricted. To peruse a directory +of Bangkok, if one has no possible acquaintance in that city, might +become tedious, though one might draw pleasure from the queer names and +the suggestions of romance. But if one has a lost friend somewhere in +New York, and hopes that the directory will achieve discovery, the bulky +and endless volume immediately takes on the greatest interest. Lincoln, +driven at length to write a recommendation for a book, to escape the +importunities of an agent, wisely, whimsically, wrote, "This is just the +right kind of book for any one who desires just this kind of book." Wide +though his sympathies were, he recognized that not every one enjoys +everything. The problem of the writer of exposition is to make as wide +an appeal as he can. + +Interest in reading is of two kinds: satisfaction and stimulation. And +each of these may be either intellectual or emotional or both. The +interest of satisfaction largely arises when the questions which the +reader brings with him to his reading are answered. A reader who desires +to know what is done with the by-products in a creamery, where the skim +milk goes to, will be satisfied--and interested--when he learns the +complete list of uses, among them the fact that skim milk is largely +made into the white buttons that make our underclothing habitable. +The reader who leaves an article about these by-products with the +feeling that he has been only half told is sure to be dissatisfied, +and therefore uninterested. In the same way, when a reader picks up an +article or a book with the desire to be thrilled with romance or wonder, +to be taken for the time away from the business of the world, to be +wrenched with pity for suffering or with admiration for achievement--in +other words, when a reader brings a hungry emotion to his reading--if he +finds satisfaction, he is interested. + +The interest of stimulation may include that of satisfaction, but +not necessarily. It is the interest that drives a person to further +thinking or acting for himself, that loosens his own energies and makes +him aware of desire for satisfaction that he did not know he had. A +reader may, for example, peruse an editorial in a daily paper and find +a complete array of facts, setting forth in detail the subject, and may +be satisfied about the subject. He may read another editorial which will +not leave him cold, indifferent, but will set his brain to churning with +ideas, or may even make him clap on his hat and start forth to change +things in the world. The second editorial has given him the interest of +stimulation. + +Writing that makes the interest of stimulation is the writing of power: +to the mere satisfaction of hunger, such as one can get from eating +dry oatmeal, it adds the stimulation, the joy in life that a fragrant +cup of coffee would add to the oatmeal. Exposition that satisfies is +adequate; that which stimulates is powerful. Obviously, some expository +writing would suffer from being filled with the power to rouse the +reader. Much legal writing must be addressed to the intellect alone; +often the entrance of stimulation, the rousing of the emotions, will +destroy the chance for justice. Obviously, again, some subjects can be +treated to contain both kinds of interest: an account of the devastation +of northern France may be as cold as a ledger in its array of facts +which are to be added; it may also be so treated as to rouse a vitriolic +hatred for the government that caused such devastation to be made. +Each treatment is allowable, and each necessary for a perfectly proper +purpose. + +Let us admit, without debate, that much expository writing is stupid. +Why is it thus? Largely for two reasons: the writer has not made his +material mean anything to himself, and he has not made it significant +for his reader. In writing exposition there is no place for him who +draws his pen along like a quarry slave who is soon to be scourged +to his dungeon and does not care for anything. A person who finds no +interest in his subject should do one of two things: consult a physician +to see if his health is normal so that he may expect reasonably vivid +reactions to life and things; or choose a new subject. Interest, in +other words, enters at the moment when the writing becomes related +vitally to human beings, and not until that moment. Why do students +enjoy reading the writings of William James? Simply because the author +made his facts relate to himself and to everybody else. If a writer +feels like saying, "I don't see anything interesting in this!" and +yet he feels duty pointing a stern finger at composition, he should +examine the subject more nearly, should see if it does not in some way +affect him, does not present a front that he is really concerned with. +Suppose, for example, that the task presents itself of accounting for +the use of skim milk, and suppose that the writer thinks skim milk of +all things the stupidest. Well, buttons, they say, are made from it--but +who cares what buttons are made from; their purpose is to hold clothes +together, and that's all! But wait a bit: here are some hundreds of +gallons of skim milk, from which thousands of buttons can be made. +Without the milk, the buttons will be cut from shells, perhaps, at a +much larger cost. Ah, the pocketbook is affected, is it--well, let's +have the milk used, then. And when one stops to think of it, is it not +remarkable that from a soft thing like milk a hard thing like a button +should be made? Isn't man, after all, rather ingenious? Who in the world +ever thought of milk buttons? Some such process the mind often passes +through in its approach to a subject. At length it finds interest, and +then it can write--and not before. + +Here is the difference, then, between being a dumb beast of a reporter +of facts, and a free agent of an interpreter. Some facts, to be sure, +are in themselves so startling that mere report is sufficient. Slight +comment is needed to horrify an audience at Turkish atrocities in +the war. Perhaps comment would even weaken the effect. The terrible +poignancy of such facts so fires the imagination that more is perhaps +positively harmful. Many facts are not thus immediately translated into +human experience. At first thought the fact that a new hotel will be +supplied with indirect lighting seems a mere fact of trade: instead +of ordering hanging chandeliers of one kind, the builder will order +another kind. But thought of more fully, this fact takes on both the +interest of satisfaction and that of stimulation: why did the builder +decide to install the indirect system? and what will the effect be? +Imagining one's self in that hotel at the end of a long and bewildering +journey, with nerves on edge and eyes aflame with dust, will relate the +fact of choice at once to human feelings and needs--and the subject +is interesting. A reader can be made to understand the workings of the +engine in a super-six automobile, and also to feel the power of it; to +understand a cream separator and also to thrill to the economy of time +and strength which it brings; to understand a clarinet and also to rouse +to the beauty of its voice; to understand an adding machine and also to +marvel at the uncanny weirdness of the invention. The writer interprets +as soon as he brings his subject into relation with human life and shows +its real value. + +As already mentioned, care is to be exercised to use the treatment +which the subject demands. An explanation, for practical purposes, of +a machine lathe will be dangerous if it attempts too much imaginative +stimulation: there would lurk too great a danger to material fingers. An +essay, on the other hand, such as those of Lamb and Stevenson, depends +largely on its imaginative interpretation, on its appeal to the interest +of stimulation. For a neutral newspaper account of a football game the +following heading was used: "Yesterday's game between the University of +Illinois and the University of Chicago resulted in no score for either +side." That is a bald report of the facts, for a neutral audience. The +interpreting spirit, as it appeared at the two universities, colored +the tale: "Fighting Illini tie Maroons 0-0"; and, "Maroons hold Illini +to 0-0 score." These two headings, if expanded into complete articles, +would color the story with interpretation for a specific audience that +is vitally interested. The accounts would probably be more interesting +than that of the newspaper, but they would also run the chance of being +less fair. + +For Webster's New International Dictionary _art_ is defined as follows: +"Application of skill and taste to production according to æsthetic +principles; an occupation having to do with the theory or practice of +taste in the expression of beauty in form, color, sound, speech, or +movement." George Gissing, making a definition of the same subject for +his book, _The Private Papers of Henry Ryecroft_, writes as follows: + + It has occurred to me that one might define Art as: an + expression, satisfying and abiding, of the zest for life. This + is applicable to every form of Art devised by man, for, in his + creative moment, whether he produce a great drama or carve a piece + of foliage in wood, the artist is moved and inspired by supreme + enjoyment of some aspect of the world about him; an enjoyment + keener in itself than that experienced by another man, and + intensified, prolonged, by the power--which comes to him we know + not how--of recording in visible or audible form that emotion of + rare vitality. Art, in some degree, is within the scope of every + human being, were he but the ploughman who utters a few would-be + melodious notes, the mere outcome of health and strength, in the + field at sunrise; he sings or tries to, prompted by an unusual + gusto in being, and the rude stave is all his own. Another was he, + who also at the plough, sang of the daisy, or the field mouse, + or shaped the rhythmic tale of Tam o' Shanter. Not only had life + a zest for him incalculably stronger and subtler than that which + stirs the soul of Hodge, but he uttered it in word and music such + as go to the heart of mankind, and hold a magic power for ages.[1] + + [1] George Gissing: _The Private Papers of Henry Ryecroft_. By + permission of the publishers, E. P. Dutton & Co., New York City. + +Of these two definitions obviously the first attempts merely to satisfy +the intellectual curiosity of the reader, is a mere report of facts, and +the second is interested in making an interpretation, in stimulating the +reader. For most readers the words of Gissing would be more interesting; +though, since a dictionary is not primarily an amusement, it is a bit +unfair to mention the fact. + +Interesting our expository writing must be; it must also be truthful. +Nothing worse can be imagined than the kind of writing that forgets the +facts, that remembers only the desire to please. Under the pleasing +phraseology of any bit of expository writing there must be the firm +structure of thought, and the close weave of fact. Expository writing +is commonly divided into Definition and Analysis. Definition attempts +to set bounds to the subject, to say "thus far and no farther," to tell +what the subject is. Analysis regards the subject as composed of parts, +mutually related, which together form the whole, and attempts to divide +the subject into as many parts as it contains. Analysis is divided into +classification and partition. Classification groups individual members +according to likeness, as one might classify Americans according to +color or birthplace or education or health, in every case placing those +who are alike together. Partition divides an organic whole into its +parts, as one might divide the United States Government into its three +branches of legislative, judicial, and executive, or the character of +George Washington into its components. Now definition and analysis often +intermingle and help each other, and are often informally treated, +but somehow, in every piece of exposition, the underlying thought +must have a sound basis of one or the other or both. This will be the +nucleus of the thinking; it may then be treated as a bald report or +as an interpretation, aiming merely to give information or to rouse +the further interest of the reader. The method of treatment will be +determined by the nature of the facts and the purpose of the author in +writing. + +It cannot be too strongly stated that the underlying thought and the +interest are really one, after all. As you approach a subject, and +learn its character and meaning, you will be at the same time learning +whether it is a subject capable of great appeal or only of slight +attraction. Interest is not something laid on, but is a development from +the nature of the facts themselves. The first question should be, "Is +this interesting?" and then the second question may follow, "How shall I +bring out the interest?" Remember that interest depends on relation to +human beings; the closer the relation, the greater the interest. + +Mr. Henry Labouchere, English statesman and for many years editor of +_Truth_, had an ideal reaction to life, so far as interest is concerned. +If, scanning the horizon for interest, he had bethought himself of the +rather impolite advice of the Muse to Sir Philip Sidney, "'Fool,' said +my Muse to me, 'look in thine heart and write,'" he would have found, +upon following the advice, a heart full of eager curiosity and readiness +to be attracted to anything. The following account of one of his +qualities, as related in his biography, is worth remembering when you +feel like saying, "Oh, I don't see anything interesting in that!": "If +he had encountered a burglar in his house already loaded with valuables, +his first impulse would have been, not to call the police, but to engage +the intruder in conversation, and to learn from him something of the +habits of burglars, the latest and most scientific methods of burgling, +the average profits of the business, and so forth. He would have been +delighted to assist his new acquaintance with suggestions for his future +guidance in his profession, and to point out to him how he might have +avoided the mistake which had on this occasion led to his being caught +in the act. In all this he would not by any means have lost sight of his +property; on the contrary, the whole force of his intellect would have +been surreptitiously occupied with the problem of recovering it with +the least amount of inconvenience to his friend and himself. He would +have maneuvered to bring off a deal. If by sweet reasonableness he could +have persuaded the burglar to give up the 'swag,' he would have been +delighted to hand him a sovereign or two, cheer him with refreshment, +shake hands, and wish him better luck next time; and he would have +related the whole story in the next week's _Truth_ with infinite humor +and profound satisfaction." + +To make clear, to explain,--that is the task of exposition. Such +writing does not have the excitement of the fighting-ring, which we +find in argument, nor does it attain the lyric quality of impassioned +description, or the keen wild flight of narrative. It keeps its feet on +the earth, tells the truth--but tells it in such a way, with so much +of reaction on the writer's part, and with so strong an appeal to the +reader's curiosity or imagination or sympathy, that it is interesting, +that it is always adequate, and may be powerful. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +HOW TO WRITE EXPOSITION + + +The Problem + +All writing--except mere exercise and what the author intends for +himself alone--is a problem in strategy. The successful author will +always regard his writing as a problem of manipulation of material +wisely chosen to accomplish an objective against the enemy. The enemy is +the reader. He is armed with two terrible weapons, lack of interest and +lack of comprehension. Sometimes one weapon is stronger than the other, +but a wise author always has an eye for both. The strategic problem is, +then, so to choose material, and so to order and express it, that the +reader will be forced to become interested, to comprehend, to arrive, +in other words, at the point in his feeling and thinking to which the +author wishes to lead him. The author's objective is always an effect +in the reader's mind. In so far as the author creates this effect he is +successful. And the time to consider the effect, to make sure of its +accomplishment, is before the pen touches the paper. + +Sometimes the author makes a mistake in his planning, as did the +composer Handel when he wrote the oratorio of "The Messiah." He placed +the "Hallelujah Chorus" at the end of the oratorio. But when, toward the +end of the second section, he saw from his place on the stage that the +audience was not so enthusiastic as he had expected it to be at that +point, he changed his plan, with practical shrewdness rushed to the +front and shifted the famous chorus from the end of the third section to +the end of the second, and had the satisfaction of seeing the audience +so moved that first the King rose, and then, of course, the audience +with him. The chorus has stood at the end of the second part to this +day; that is the place for it--it brings about the effect that Handel +desired much better there than if it were saved for the end of the +oratorio. The oratorio is, in other words, a greater work than it would +have been had not the author kept a keen eye for the audience, for the +effect, and a willingness to change his plans whenever the gaining of +the effect required a change. Just so the writer should constantly scan +the horizon of the reader's mind for signs of interest and for shafts of +intelligence. + +The effect that the writer desires in the reader's mind may be of +different natures. In Baedeker's Guide-Book the aim is largely to +satisfy the understanding, to meet the reader's desire for compact +information. In some of Poe's tales the effect is of horror. Patrick +Henry aimed primarily to rouse to vigorous action. Shakespeare wished to +shed light upon the great truths of existence, to satisfy the reader's +groping curiosity, and also to thrill the reader with pity and terror or +with high good humor or the unrestrained laughter of roaring delight. + +In so far as the author accomplishes his purpose, in just so far he is +successful. When friends complimented Cicero, telling him that he was +the greatest orator, he replied somewhat as follows: "Not so, for when I +give an oration in the Forum people say, 'How well he speaks!' but when +Demosthenes addressed the people they rose and shouted, 'Come, let us +up and fight the Macedonians!'" If Cicero was correct in his estimate, +Demosthenes was the greater orator--of that there can be no doubt--for +he gained his effect. President Wilson's great war messages had as one +of their objects, certainly, the rousing in American hearts of a high +thrill to the lofty object for which they fought, the overcoming of +might with right. The remarkable success of the messages attests the +author's power. + +Now the author will accomplish this effect in the reader's mind only +if his writing "takes hold," and it will "take hold" only if it is +weighty, that is, only if it bears toward the desired end in every part +and in every implication. This is as true in writings that aim at light, +frivolous effects as in those that stir the deeper emotions, in writing +that aims at the understanding almost alone as in that which strives not +only to make clear but to infuse with deathless appeal to the heart. +A treatise on the fourth dimension must bear, in every stroke, toward +the complete satisfaction of the reader's intellectual curiosity; a +comedy must lay down each word in the intention of liberating the +silver laughter of humor; a tragedy must leave us in every implication +serious, even in its introduction of comical material to heighten the +tragic nature of the whole. To make every word bear in the one general +direction--that is the writer's task. In no other way can he move the +reader's mind and heart as he wishes to. + +An author finds, however, that to gain the desired effect requires +skillful manipulation on his part. He confronts a mass of refractory +material, often full of contradictions, in which any potential effect +seems almost as difficult to discover as the proverbial needle in the +well-known haystack. For example, when a historian sits down, one +hundred years hence, to the task of explaining the Great War, he will +be confronted with an amazing welter of endless facts, tendencies, +personal, national, and racial ambitions, enmities, competitions in +trade, language, customs, indiscretions of diplomats, inscrutable +moves of controlling powers, checks and counter checks, assertion +and denial, accusation and assurance of innocence, bribery and plots +and spy systems, amateur comment in newspaper and magazine, defenses +by people who have retained their poise and other defenses by those +whose faculties have been unseated by the awful strain of war--and +everywhere he will find the endless array of events and detailed facts +of organization of civil and military life to mold somehow into a +consistent, intelligible whole. Well may he say that the task is too +great for mortal man. Yet somehow the history is to be written, somehow +the effect that he wishes is to be gained. Obviously the great prime +task is to unify, to bring order out of chaos, to create from formless +material a real edifice of thought. Exactly the same task awaits the +writer of any kind of literature; in a short theme no less, the first +great duty is to find some principle whereby the author can exclude the +useless and include what is of value. + +The first question to ask is--and it is also the last and the +intervening question--"What am I trying to accomplish?" At first +thought this question may seem the most obvious, the most elementary, +and the least helpful query possible. But upon its being successfully +met depends the whole success of the writing, whether of choosing or +ordering or proportioning the material, or of expressing the selected +ideas. For, since the chief task before the writer is to make his +thoughts and his expression drive in one direction, so that the whole +composition is simplified in the reader's mind, is unified and given an +organic existence, even the choice of words, upon which depends so much +of the tone of the composition, is largely settled by the answer to this +question of what the author hopes to accomplish. + +In Exposition, the explaining the relations among things and ideas, we +are commonly told that we must "cover the ground," must "stick to the +subject," must "include whatever is valuable and reject the rest." But +such directions are insufficient. Until I have some touchstone, some +applicable standard, I cannot tell whether material is valuable or not. +It is as if one were brought into the presence of multifarious building +material,--wood both hard and soft, cement and the other ingredients +of concrete, bricks, stucco, and steel beams, and terra cotta +tiles,--and then were requested to build a house, using whatever of the +material might be of value, and removing the rest. The builder would +be nonplussed. He cannot build, now with wood, now with stone, and +again with tile; if he did, the saying would be all too true, "There's +no place like home!" He can do nothing reasonable until he has been +informed as to the kind of house desired, until he is given a principle +of selection. Then, if he has been bidden to make a brick house, he +at once knows what his object is, and can then reject whatever does +not help him, in the accomplishment. In the same way, if I am asked to +write five thousand words about Horticulture, I am at a loss to choose +from the history of the science, or the present status, or the still +unsolved problems, or the relative advancement in different countries, +or the possibility of the pursuit of horticulture as a profession, or +the poetic, the imaginative stimulus of working among apple blossoms, +or the value to health of working in the open air. Perhaps any one +of these divisions of the total subject would require five thousand +words; certainly with so limited an amount of material of expression +I cannot cover all; and if I choose a bit of each, the result will +hopelessly confuse the reader as to the science, for I shall perforce +write a series of mere _disjuncta membra_. I must, then, choose at once +some guiding principle of selection that will make clear whether, for +instance, the poetic appeal of the science has anything to do with my +object. Then, and only then, shall I be able to write an article that +will "take hold," that will bear in every part toward some definite +goal, that will leave my reader with a well-organized, easily understood +piece of writing. Only thus can I escape making a mere enumeration about +as sensible as to add potatoes and church steeples and treasurers' +reports and feather boas and card parties and library paste in the +hope of making an integral whole. This guiding idea, which avoids such +selections, may perhaps best be called the "controlling purpose" of the +theme or article or book. + + +The Controlling Purpose + +_What, then, is the controlling purpose? It is the answer to the +question, "What am I trying to accomplish?" It is the intelligent +determination on the writer's part to make the material of his writing +march straight toward a definite goal which he wishes the reader to +perceive. It is the actively operating point of view of the writer, +the positive angle of vision that he takes toward the subject._ The +controlling purpose in Lincoln's mind as he rode up to Gettysburg +must have been to bring home to the civilians of the country, with a +great humble thrill toward accomplishment, the fact that after the +soldiers had done all they could, the civilians must reverently take +up the fight for freedom and union. His address is immortal. But +suppose, for a moment, that he had ascended the platform with the vague +idea of "saying something about America, the war, you know, and the +soldiers, and liberty,--oh, yes, Liberty, of course,--and, oh, things +in general." Though he had thundered for hours his words would likely +have been ineffective. Only an intense realization of the purpose in +one's mind, and a consistent bending of one's efforts to gain this end, +bring simplicity, weightiness, and the powerful effect in the reader's +mind. From the reader's point of view, in fact, we might say that +the controlling purpose is the means of making writing interesting, +since nothing so holds a reader's mind as to feel that he is getting +somewhere, that he is accomplishing something by his efforts. In no +other way can he be made so clearly to see his progress, for only thus +can he be prevented from undirected wandering. + + +Source of the Controlling Purpose + +_a._ _The Subject itself_ + +When we ask how we shall find and choose the controlling purpose, we +discover that it is determined by three things; the subject itself, the +personality of the writer, and the character of the reader. Just how +these three operate to determine the cast of the writing we shall now +attempt to discover. + +The first thing for the writer to do is to look at the subject itself +and learn what it is, really understand it. He must know its exact +nature before he can be allowed to proceed with the development. Now +this often requires much honesty, for it is necessary to put aside +prejudice and bias of all kinds and to look at the subject just as it +is, with a passionate desire to learn its exact nature. For example, if +you are to write about the value of a college education, and you are an +idealist, you may be tempted to overlook the fact that such a training +does actually help a man to earn more money than he otherwise would. You +may think that such a consideration is beneath your dignity. But you +must put aside your prejudice for the time being and must look the fact +honestly in the face. And, if you are a hard-headed, practical person, +you must nevertheless admit that a college education is broadening, +chastening, in its influence. In either case you will not stop until +you have looked at all possible sides of the subject. You will amass +such facts, then, as that a college education is broadening, that it +increases earning capacity, that it puts a person in touch with the +world, that it makes him more able to be a useful citizen. Other facts +also will occur to you, but let us suppose that these are the most +important. If you carefully examine them you will perhaps come to the +conclusion that a college education is valuable in that it helps a +person to realize his best possibilities in every way, as a citizen, +a friend, a personality. Or, if you are to write about the aeroplane, +you will discover that it is heavier than air, that it is propelled +by motor-power, that it attains certain speeds, that it has definite +lifting power, that it is self-stabilizing to a remarkable degree, that +it is made of certain kinds of material, of certain weight, and that +it has one, or two, or even three planes. In addition you will note +the qualities of efficiency, of triumphing over winds, of beautiful +poise, and smoothness of execution. In both these cases you have been +seeking the core of your subject, the real meaning of it, its essence. +You must, before you begin to write a word, be able to say what all the +noticed facts amount to, to say, "All told, this subject, this machine, +or whatever it is, means so-and-so." Perhaps of the aeroplane you would +say, "This machine stands for wonderful potential efficiency, not yet +completely understood." In the same way we say of people and things, "He +is a bore," or "a tyrant," or, "That is a great social menace," or some +other such comment. In each case we have tagged the person or thing with +what we think it is at its heart, with its total significance. And not +until we have done this are we at all ready to begin writing. + +_b._ _The Writer's Attitude_ + +The second influence in determining the controlling purpose is the +reaction of the writer to the subject. In the following estimate of Lord +Morley, the great English statesman, you will notice that, though the +treatment seems to be, at first, purely objective, quite impersonal, +the author cannot keep himself out: he enters with the fifth word, +"thrilling," in which he shows where he stands himself in regard to +truth, and he appears more at length in the last two clauses of the +selection, where he definitely set the approval of his own heart upon +Lord Morley's attitude. The third influence, that of the reader, appears +also, for when you consider that the article was written for Englishmen +to read, you see the molding for the national temper, different of +necessity from that which would have been made for Frenchmen, for +example. The author relies upon a knowledge of Morley among his readers, +and upon a certain definite attitude among them toward the truth. + + You will catch that thrilling note in the oratory of Lord + Morley at all times, for he touches politics with a certain + spiritual emotion that makes it less a business or a game than a + religion. He lifts it out of the street on to the high lands where + the view is wide and the air pure and where the voices heard are + the voices that do not bewilder or betray. He is the conscience of + the political world--the barometer of our corporate soul. Tap him + and you will see whether we are at "foul" or "fair." He has often + been on the losing side: sometimes perhaps on the wrong side: never + on the side of wrong. He is + + True as a dial to the sun, + Although it be not shined upon. + + There is about him a sense of the splendid austerity of + truth--cold but exhilarating. It is not merely that he does not + lie. There are some other politicians of whom that may be said. It + is that he does not trifle with truth. It is sacred and inviolate. + He would not admit with Erasmus that "there are seasons when we + must even conceal truth," still less with Fouché that "les paroles + sont faites pour cacher nos pensées."[2] His regard for the truth + is expressed in the motto to the essay "On Compromise": "It makes + all the difference in the world whether we put truth in the first + place or in the second." This inflexible veracity is the rarest + and the most precious virtue in politics. It made him, if not, as + Trevelyan says of Macaulay, "the worst popular candidate since + Coriolanus," at least a severe test of a constituency's attachment. + It is Lord Morley's contribution to the common stock. Truth and + Justice--these are the fixed stars by which he steers his barque, + and even the Prayer Book places Religion and Piety after them, for + indeed they are the true foundation of religion and piety.[3] + + [2] Words were made to conceal our thoughts. + + [3] A. G. Gardiner: _Prophets, Priests, and Kings_. By permission of + the publishers, E. P. Dutton & Co., New York City. + +The second consideration, then, is, "What does this subject mean to +me?" Of course there are subjects in which this question is of slight +importance: in writing a treatise on mathematics, for instance, one +might be quite indifferent to any personal reaction, though in even such +a piece of writing there might appear a thrill at the neat marshaling +of forces for the inevitable waiting answer to the problem. In general, +however, this question is of great importance. Stevenson goes so far as +even to say that the author's attitude is more important than the facts +themselves. Certainly a writer cannot tell what is the truth for himself +unless he expresses his ideas in the light of his own personality. +Suppose that in the case of the aeroplane, though you believe the +central fact as we expressed it above, you are primarily appealed to by +the fact that the motor is of the utmost importance, and that at present +it is not so highly developed as it should be for perfect flying. You +are, in other words, impressed with the problem that confronts engineers +of making the motor more efficient. Your controlling purpose would now +be modified, then, and would perhaps read, "The aeroplane is a machine +of wonderful potential efficiency not yet completely understood, +_especially as regards the driving power_." In the same way you would +modify the purpose of the treatment of college education and might say, +"A college education is valuable in that it helps a person to realize +his best possibilities in every way, but _especially as an heir of all +the wisdom of the ages gone_." + +The relative importance of this second consideration depends on whether +the subject is much or little affected by personal interpretation. In +the personal essay, as written by Lamb, for example, we may care more +for the man than for the facts, or more for the facts as seen by the man +than for the mere facts alone. In questions of society, of morality, of +taste, in which the answer is not absolute in any case, in all matters +that affect the well-being of humanity and in which there is a shifting +standard, the attitude of the writer is important. The writer who wishes +to have a voice of authority must cling to the fact as to a priceless +jewel, but he must also remember that if, for example, he is writing +on Feminism, or Socialism, or Church Attendance, or The Short Ballot, +or The New Poetry, or The Value of Social Clubs in the Country, or +any such subject, we, the readers, eagerly wait on his words as being +primarily an expression of his personal reaction to the matter. And the +final value of the treatment will depend on whether the personality is +well-poised, largely sympathetic, able to take an elastic view of the +subject and to bring it home to the reader as a piece of warmly felt and +honestly stated conviction. In exposition, as well as in argument, we +must ask the witness,--that is, the writer,--whether he is prejudiced +or not. Especially must we do this when we happen to be the author +ourselves. Violent condemnation of Capital by a man who has become +embittered by mistreatment at the hands of employers must be taken with +somewhat of caution, just as sweeping arraignment of Socialism by an +arrogant capitalist must be eyed askance. + +It might not be amiss to remark here that the writer in a college class +who declares that he has no reaction to his subject, that he is quite +indifferent to it, should do one of two things, either choose a new +subject, or drop from college and go to work at some vitalizing effort +with other people which will bring home realities to him in such a way +that he cannot fail to react. + +In the following brief incident it is interesting to note how the author +shows his own personality. Another would have thought of the problem +of dietetics involved, or of the absence of coffee or "parritch" or +the rasher of bacon, or of the austerity of the meal. To Gissing[4] +the incident was significant as showing a national characteristic both +admirable and amusing. + + [4] George Gissing: _The Private Papers of Henry Ryecroft_, "Summer," + XXI. By permission of the publishers, E. P. Dutton & Co., New York + City. + + At an inn in the north I once heard three men talking at their + breakfast on the question of diet. They agreed that most people ate + too much meat, and one of them went so far as to declare that, + for his part, he rather preferred vegetables and fruit. "Why," he + said, "will you believe me that I sometimes make a breakfast of + apples?" This announcement was received in silence; evidently the + two listeners didn't quite know what to think of it. Thereupon the + speaker, in rather a blustering tone, cried out, "Yes, I can make a + very good breakfast on _two or three pounds of apples_." + +Wasn't it amusing? And wasn't it characteristic? This honest Briton +had gone too far in frankness. 'T is all very well to like vegetables +and fruit up to a certain point; but to breakfast on apples! His +companions' silence proved that they were just a little ashamed of him; +his confession savoured of poverty or meanness; to right himself in +their opinion, nothing better occurred to the man than to protest that +he ate apples, yes, but not merely one or two; he ate them largely, +_by the pound_! I laughed at the fellow, but I thoroughly understood +him; so would every Englishman; for at the root of our being is a +hatred of parsimony. This manifests itself in all manner of ludicrous +or contemptible forms, but no less is it the source of our finest +qualities. An Englishman desires, above all, to live largely; on +that account he not only dreads but hates and despises poverty. His +virtues are those of the free-handed and warm-hearted opulent man; his +weaknesses come of the sense of inferiority (intensely painful and +humiliating) which attaches in his mind to one who cannot spend and +give; his vices, for the most part, originate in loss of self-respect +due to loss of secure position. + +_c._ _The Reader_ + +The third consideration is, "Who is my reader, and what are his +characteristics?" The counter-question, "What difference does it +make who my reader is?" can be summarily answered with the statement +that it makes a great deal of difference. As soon as you note what a +large part temperament plays in the forming of opinions in politics +and religion and social questions, and remember that no two people +ever react to any truth in exactly the same way--that what seems to +one sensible person monstrous will appear to another equally sensible +person as highly virtuous--you will see that in all writing, where +either the understanding or the emotions are involved, this question +assumes importance. If we believe the theory with which we set out, +that all writing is done to accomplish an object, that is, a certain +effect in the reader's mind, and then remember that different readers +take different trails to the same objective, and that some must be even +coaxed back from one trail into another, we shall see that it is vital +that the reader do not select the wrong way, and, like a futile dog, +"bark up the wrong tree." A hasty glance at current magazines will at +once show how operative this consideration is in practical writing: +_The Atlantic Monthly_ uses a different set of subjects and a different +style of expression from that of _The Scientific American_ or _The Black +Cat_ or _The Parisienne_. The editors, in other words, are remembering +who their readers are and are trying to meet them with gifts, not with +weapons of offense. After all, the reader is always the destination of +all writing; the place where the effect will be made is the reader's +mind. + +To apply this third consideration to our two subjects, the value of a +college education and the aeroplane, let us see how the treatment should +differ according to the differing readers. If, in the treatment of the +first subject, we are presenting our statements to a body of educators, +even though the facts of college education remain unmoved, and though +our personal leaning toward the supreme value in dowering the student +with the wisdom of the past is unchanged, we shall yet see that these +educators have already thought as we have about the matter, that merely +to repeat to them will be futile and wearying; and we shall, if we are +wise, change the point of attack and develop the value as enabling the +student _to apply to practical problems the wisdom of the past_. Or, if +the readers are to be politicians whom we wish to enlist in sympathy +with larger endowments, we shall perhaps treat the subject as being +_increased political insight and sympathy with all people_. In the +treatment of the aeroplane, if we are presenting our words to engineers, +we shall probably analyze the present lack of proper engine power and +try to suggest means of correction. And we shall make our presentation +in language that has not been stripped of its technicalities but has +been allowed to stand in engineering terms. But if we address a body of +benevolent women who are trying to organize an "Airmen's Relief Fund," +and who look upon the machine with horror as a potential destroyer +of life, we shall simply show that _accidents may be caused through +faulty engines which may often result in loss of life_. The original +controlling purpose will now appear, "The value of a college education +lies in its offering the best chance for personal development through +showing to the student his heirship to all the wisdom of the ages +past, especially as this is applied to present-day problems," or, "The +aeroplane is a machine of great potential efficiency not yet completely +understood, especially as regards the driving power, through which lack +of understanding grave accidents may occur." + +Now if we scan these two statements carefully, I believe that we shall +be persuaded of their inadequacy. To explain to the benevolent women +who are interested in saving lives the fact that we do not yet fully +understand the aeroplane, is like attempting to persuade a man from the +path of an oncoming thunderous locomotive by telling him of the lack of +laws to regulate public safety. In other words, we have forgotten that a +wedge makes the easiest entrance, and we have attacked on far too broad +a front, have failed to whittle away the chips that are of no value to +the reader. Perhaps we need a complete restatement of the controlling +purpose, occasioned by the nature of the reader. We may say that the +value of a college education is in enabling a student to be of service +to the state by applying the wisdom of the past, or that the aeroplane, +partly through our ignorance of it, is causing terrible accidents. +These purposes are far different from those with which we started out. +All are perfectly true; these are better adapted to our particular +readers, are more useful in helping to accomplish our selected aim. The +gist of the matter is this: wisdom in writing demands that we discover +the special loophole through which our readers regard the subject and +then bring our material within the view from that loophole, bearing +in mind always the training and the prejudices of the reader, and +conforming material to suit the special needs. + +One large reason why college themes are liable to dullness is the fact +that few students write for any one in particular. They merely put down +colorless facts which do not stir a reader in the slightest. They forget +that facts exist, really, only as they relate to people, individual +people, and that they must be clothed attractively, as is virtue for +a child's consumption, or the reader will have none of them. Even +the patient writer of themes should regard a specially chosen reader +as at the same time his best friend and his potentially worst enemy: +friend in the sense of recipient of literary gifts, and enemy in the +sense of possible foiler of all the author's good intentions. As enemy +the reader must be conquered, must be made to read and understand; as +friend he is to be sympathetically met and smiled upon. And if there +be no reader determined by the circumstances, the writer should choose +some well-known friend and adapt his material to that friend, or should +select any ordinarily intelligent being and use the widest appeal that +he can. + +_d._ _Relative Value of Sources_ + +Now the relative value of these three sources of the controlling purpose +is variable. In an article for the encyclopædia the writer's reaction +should be subordinated, since the reader comes to the encyclopædia for +facts and not for opinion. Likewise the reader, in such an article, +will be of minor importance, for the article is addressed to general +ordinary intelligence that desires a straightforward statement. But as +we have seen, an article on Feminism must with the greatest care watch +the reader and the writer--the reader because the subject rouses both +assent and opposition; the writer because the subject is of the kind +that depend largely on opinion. So a theme on the problem of the hired +man, or Tennyson's attitude toward science, or the reasons for attending +one university rather than another, or the value of mechanical stokers, +or the application of Mendel's Law to human beings will vary its purpose +according to the varying importance of the three sources. Only one great +caution needs to be made. Never falsify or mistreat the facts: they are +the supreme thing. It is for this fault that the newspapers are most +blameable: they consider their readers and their own points of view, but +all too often they treat the facts cavalierly. A high reverence for the +truth, and an unflinching determination to tell it are prime essentials. + + +The Controlling Purpose and the Emotional Reaction + +So far we have been concerned with the problem of placing the _facts_ +before the reader, of appealing to his intelligence. But writing +consists of vastly more than that alone. After the understanding, +sometimes before, must be considered the emotions. We have the facts, we +know what we think of them, and we are reasonably sure of the reader's +attitude. Now we must discover how to set the reader's emotions afire +in so far as we desire such an effect. In listening to a great tragedy +we perceive the cold analysis of a great truth of life; but that is +not all: far out beyond the bounds of understanding our emotions are +profoundly stirred and we _feel_ pity and terror. So in the account of +a tremendous battle, of a fire, of anything that touches human life +at all nearly and with power, our emotions are called into play. Now +different pieces of writing, just like different subjects, call for +different degrees of emotional reaction. Drama always rouses us, lyric +poems depend upon their emotional quality, the informal essay has much +emotional appeal, fiction of any sort stirs our feelings, and the more +powerful the writing is, the more sure the appeal. + +At first thought most expository writing might be considered to make +slight appeal, if any, to emotions. That is not necessarily true; the +more effective the exposition, the more real is usually the call to +feeling. Often this call is subtle, usually it is subordinate to the +appeal to the understanding, but in most effective expository writing +it will be found. In an explanation of the Panama Canal certainly there +would be roused the reader's admiration and wonder at the magnitude +of the operation. The mere analysis of the facts in a criminal trial +often settles the case, so great is the emotional appeal. In didactic +writing the call to emotion is less strong, though such a writer as +Jonathan Edwards could explain the writhing of man like a spider before +the Almighty in a profoundly moving way. In axiomatic mathematical +propositions we find perhaps the least strong appeal: that the sum of +the angles of a triangle is equal to two right angles might seem to be +divorced from all excitement. But in most exposition when emotional +appeal is overlooked the writing suffers. + +In an account of the American Civil War, for example, the writer +might set out to show that the conflict was the culmination of the +struggle between yeoman and cavalier begun long since in England. But +the war meant more than that. The author will then see the emotional +significance of the fight and will add to his purpose the intention +to thrill the reader at the magnificent exhibition, on both sides, of +devotion to an idea. So Emerson, in his essay on "Fate" in _The Conduct +of Life_, fills the reader with gloom for page after page, detailing how +thoroughly the individual is bound down by conditions of birth, sex, +breeding, wealth--and then in two wonderful sentences he turns the +whole course of thought and emotion by saying, "Intellect annuls fate. +So far as a man thinks, he is free," and the reader is stirred as with a +trumpet call to renewed courage, which, to use Emerson's words, "neither +brandy, nor nectar, nor sulphuric ether, nor hell-fire, nor ichor, nor +poetry, nor genius" can overcome. And the historian Greene, in his +well-known account of Queen Elizabeth, states his controlling purpose +in the words, "Elizabeth was at once the daughter of Henry and of Anne +Boleyn." But these words are not the whole of his purpose; he intends, +besides the intellectual grasping of the Queen's character, an intense +admiration and wonder at the resourcefulness, the shrewd judgment, and a +reaction of amusement to the strange outbreaks of unwomanly freaks or of +feminine wiles. + +The controlling purpose, then, is almost always of a dual nature; it +aims at both the understanding and the emotions. Whenever there is any +real possibility of making it thus double the writer should so express +it to himself. + +In the following magazine article such a double purpose obviously +exists. First of all there are the facts of the marching of American +troops through London. These facts are unchangeable. Baldly stated, the +significance of the fact is that the New World is coming to the help +of the Old World against the monster of unrestrained militarism. To a +person who regards life coldly, as the mere interplay of calculable +forces, one whose emotions are not concerned, this would be a sufficient +statement of the whole truth, of the total significance. But such +writing would miss the chance of power, would be forever less valuable +than it ought to be, for a great warming of the heart answers those +footfalls in London streets. In other words, just as we have seen that +there are two kinds of exposition--mere noting of facts and interpreting +of facts--so we now see that interpretation can be either lifeless, +or moving, charged with power. It is the old difference between the +drama and a sermon: the play thrills and the sermon convinces. Either +may add the other quality--a fine drama or a well-made sermon does. In +this account of American soldiers in London the truth is made clear, but +far more than that it is made alive, pulsating with emotion of national +pride, of racial solidarity, of high moral purpose. In so far as the +writer succeeds in stirring us, in just so far he is more likely to make +the truth take hold upon us and bind us firmly in its grasp. It is the +writing that both convinces and moves us that is lasting, that is really +powerful. + +"SOLEMN-LOOKING BLOKES"[5] + + [5] Stacy Aumonier, in _The Century Magazine_, December, 1917. By + courtesy of the publisher, The Century Company, New York City. + + At midday on August 15 I stood on the pavement in Cockspur + Street and watched the first contingent of American troops pass + through London. + + I had been attracted thither by the lure of a public "show," + by the blare of a band, and by a subconscious desire to pay tribute + in my small way to a great people. It was a good day for London, + intermittently bright, with great scurrying masses of cumuli + overhead, and a characteristic threat of rain, which fortunately + held off. Cockspur Street, as you know, is a turning off Trafalgar + Square, and I chose it because the crowd was less dense there than + in the square itself. By getting behind a group of shortish people + and by standing on tiptoe I caught a fleeting view of the faces of + nearly every one of the passing soldiers. + + London is schooled to shows of this kind. The people gather + and wait patiently on the line of route. And then some genial + policemen appear and mother the people back into some sort of line, + an action performed with little fuss or trouble. Then mounted + police appear, headed by some fat official in a cockade hat and + with many ribbons on his chest. And some one in the crowd calls out: + + "Hullo, Percy! Mind you don't fall off yer 'orse!" + + Then the hearers laugh and begin to be on good terms with + themselves, for they know that the "show" is coming. Then follows + the inevitable band, and we begin to cheer. + + It is very easy and natural for a London crowd to cheer. I + have heard Kaiser William II cheered in the streets of London! + We always cheer our guests, and we love a band and a "show" + almost as much as our republican friends across the channel. I + have seen royal funerals and weddings, processions in honor of + visiting presidents and kings, the return of victorious generals, + processions of Canadian, Australian, Indian, French and Italian + troops and bands. I wouldn't miss these things for worlds. They + give color to our social life and accent to our everyday emotions. + It is, moreover, peculiarly interesting to observe national traits + on a march: the French, with their exuberant élan, throwing kisses + to the women as they pass; our own Tommies, who have surprised the + world with their gayety, and keep up a constant ragging intercourse + with the crowd and cannot cease from singing; the Indians, who + pass like a splendidly carved frieze; the Canadians, who move + with a free and independent swing and grin in a friendly way; the + Scotch, who carry it off better than any one. But I had never seen + American troops, and I was anxious to see how they behaved. I said + to myself, "The American is volatile and impressionable, like a + child." I had met Americans who within an hour's acquaintance + had told me their life-story, given me their views on religion, + politics, and art, and invited me to go out to Iowa or Wisconsin or + California, and spend the summer with them. Moreover, the American + is above all things emotional and--may I say it?--sentimental. It + would therefore be extremely interesting to see how he came through + this ordeal. + + The first band passed, and the people were waving flags and + handkerchiefs from the windows. We could hear the cheers go up from + the great throng in the square. And there at last, sure enough, was + Old Glory, with its silken tassels floating in the London breeze, + carried by a solemn giant, with another on either side. + + And then they came, marching in fours, with their rifles at + the slope, the vanguard of Uncle Sam's army. And we in Cockspur + Street raised a mighty cheer. They were solemn, bronzed men, loose + of limb, hard, and strong, with a curious set expression of purpose + about them. + + _Tramp, tramp, tramp, tramp._ + + And they looked neither to the right nor the left; nor did + they look up or smile or apparently take any notice of the cheers + we raised. We strained forward to see their faces, and we cried out + to them our welcome. + + _Tramp, tramp, tramp, tramp._ + + They were not all tall; some were short and wiry. Some of the + officers were rather elderly and wore horn spectacles. But they did + not look at us or raise a smile of response. They held themselves + very erect, but their eyes were cast down or fixed upon the back + of the man in front of them. There came an interval, and another + band, and then Old Glory once more, and we cheered the flag even + more than the men. Fully a thousand men passed in this solemn + procession, not one of them smiling or looking up. It became almost + disconcerting. It was a thing we were not used to. A fellow-cockney + near me murmured: + + "They're solemn-looking blokes, ain't they?" + + _Tramp, tramp, tramp, tramp._ + + The band blared forth once more, a drum-and-fife corps with + a vibrant thrill behind it. We strained forward more eagerly to + see the faces of our friends from the New World. We loved it best + when the sound of the band had died away and the only music was + the steady throb of those friendly boots upon our London streets. + And still they did not smile. I had a brief moment of some vague + apprehension, as though something could not be quite right. Some + such wave, I think, was passing through the crowd. What did it mean? + + _Tramp, tramp, tramp, tramp._ + + The cheers died away for a few moments in an exhausted + diminuendo. Among those people, racked by three years of strain and + suffering, there probably was not one who had not lost some one + dear to them. Even the best nerves have their limit of endurance. + Suddenly the ready voice of a woman from the pavement called out: + + "God bless you, Sammy!" + + And then we cheered again in a different key, and I noticed + a boy in the ranks throw back his head and look up. On his face + was the expression we see only on the faces of those who know the + finer sensibilities--a fierce, exultant joy that is very near akin + to tears. And gradually I became aware that on the faces of these + grim men was written an emotion almost too deep for expression. + + As they passed it was easy to detect their ethnological + heritage. There was the Anglo-Saxon type, perhaps predominant; the + Celt; the Slav; the Latin; and in many cases definitely the Teuton: + and yet there was not one of them that had not something else, who + was not preëminently a good "United States man." It was as though + upon the anvil of the New World all the troubles of the Old, after + being passed through a white-hot furnace, had been forged into + something clear and splendid. And they were hurrying on to get this + accomplished. For once and all the matter must be settled. + + _Tramp, tramp, tramp, tramp._ + + There was a slight congestion, and the body of men near me + halted and marked time. A diminutive officer with a pointed beard + was walking alone. A woman in the crowd leaned forward and waved an + American flag in his face. He saluted, made some kindly remark, and + then passed on. + + _Tramp, tramp, tramp, tramp._ + + The world must be made safe for democracy. + + And I thought inevitably of the story of the Titan myth, of + Prometheus, the first real democrat, who held out against the gods + because they despised humanity. And they nailed him to a rock, and + cut off his eyelids, and a vulture fed upon his entrails. + + But Prometheus held on, his line of reasoning being: + + "After Uranus came Cronus. After Cronus came Zeus. After Zeus + will come other gods." + + It is the finest epic in human life, and all the great + teachers and reformers who came after told the same story--Christ, + Vishnu, Confucius, Mohammed, Luther, Shakespeare. The fundamental + basis of their teaching was love and faith in humanity. And + whenever humanity is threatened, the fires which Prometheus stole + from the gods will burn more brightly in the heart of man, and they + will come from all quarters of the world. + + He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored; + He hath loosed the fateful lightning of his terrible, swift sword. + + There is no quarter, no mercy, to the enemies of humanity. + There is no longer a war; it is a crusade. And as I stood on the + flags of Cockspur Street, I think I understood the silence of those + grim men. They seemed to epitomize not merely a nation, not merely + a flag, but the unbreakable sanctity of human rights and human + life. And I knew that whatever might happen, whatever the powers + of darkness might devise, whatever cunning schemes or diabolical + plans, or whatever temporary successes they might attain, they + would ultimately go down into the dust before "the fateful + lightning." "After Zeus will come other gods." + + _Tramp, tramp, tramp, tramp._ + + Nothing could live and endure against that steady and + irresistible progression. And we know how you can do things, + America. We have seen your workshops, your factories, and your + engines of peace. And we have seen those young men of yours at the + Olympic Games, with their loose, supple limbs, their square, strong + faces. When the Spartans, lightly clad, but girt for war, ran + across the hills to Athens and, finding the Persian hosts defeated, + laughed, and congratulated the Athenians, and ran back again--since + those days there never were such runners, such athletes, as these + boys of yours from Yale and Harvard, Princeton and Cornell. + + And so on that day, if we cheered the flag more than we + cheered the men, it was because the flag was the symbol of the + men's hearts, which were too charged with the fires of Prometheus + to trust themselves expression. + + At least that is how it appeared to me on that forenoon in + Cockspur Street, and I know that later in the day, when I met a + casual friend, and he addressed me with the usual formula of the + day: + + "Any news?" + + I was able to say: + + "Yes, the best news in the world." + + And when he replied: + + "What news?" + + I could say with all sincerity: + + "I have seen a portent. The world is safe for democracy." + + +Proper Use of the Controlling Purpose + +Despite whatever of good has been said here about the controlling +purpose, there may lurk the suspicion that it is, after all, dangerous, +that perhaps it gives to a piece of writing a tendency toward bias, +partial interpretation, even unfairness, and that it makes toward +incompleteness. In the first place, in answering this charge, we must +remember that facts _as related to people_ are eternally subject to +different interpretations according to shifting significance, which is +determined largely by the individual to whom the facts are related. In +the second place we have to remind ourselves that seldom does a writer +try to say all that can be said about his subject. Much is always either +implied or left to another piece of writing. And finally, even when +an author attempts perfect completeness and objectivity, he usually +addresses his work to some one in particular, even though the "some +one" is as vague as the general reading public; and that some one has a +particular attitude that must be borne in mind. + +In "Solemn-Looking Blokes" not everything about the subject is said. +From one point of view the tramp of American feet in London streets +signified that the United States had emerged from its traditional +aloofness and had joined the main current of the world; from another, +that a tremendous military preparation was going on in America, the +first fruits of which were those solemn ringing steps; from another, +that however Europe had professed to despise American power, she +was now willing, eager, to accept American aid; from another, that +the old enmity between England and America has been forgotten in +the common bond of like ideals and racial traditions. Each of these +possible meanings--and there are more not listed here--is implied in +the treatment actually given to the subject. No one of them is really +developed. Instead, we have flowering before us the idea that the world +is to be made safe for democracy. No one would presume to declare that +the total possibilities of the subject are here met and explained; yet +no one can rightly say that the chosen treatment is unfair. Considering +the facts, the author, and the people who would read the article, and +their emotional connection with the facts, we see that the author chose +the purpose that seemed most useful--to make American hearts warm to +the fact that their country was helping to make the world safer for all +men everywhere. In other words, facts are useful only in so far as they +accomplish some definite end, which, in writing, is to make the reader +see the truth as the author thinks that he should try to make the reader +see it. + +Now, of course, if the writer makes an unfair analysis, if he blindly +or willfully falsifies in seeing or expressing his subject, his writing +is not only useless but actually vicious. The analysis must be correct. +Every subject has its center of truth, which can be discovered by +patient clear thinking; if the thinking be either unclear or impatient, +the interpretation will be false. If the author of "Solemn-Looking +Blokes" has made an incorrect estimate, his writing is futile. There is +no more challenging quest than the search for the real truth at the core +of a chosen subject. Perhaps the very difficulty of attaining success is +what has stayed many minds in floundering, timid, fogginess. + +As to the charge that infusion of emotional quality into the writing +produces bias, first of all it must be said that if the subject contains +no emotion, none should be attempted in the writing. In a report, for +example, of the relative value of different woods for shingles, an +author will hardly try to infuse emotion, for the reader wishes to +learn, quickly and easily, just what kind of wood is the best. But most +subjects are not thus aloof; even the report about shingles becomes +of vast significance to the owner of extensive timber lands which are +suddenly found to be of high value. All subjects which concern the +prosperity and happiness of humanity are charged with emotion; the +nearer to the great facts of life, such as birth, marriage, death, +food, shelter, love, hatred, the keener the emotion. Who shall write of +problems of heredity and leave us unstirred? Who shall treat of our +vast irrigation projects, which turn the deserts into fair gardens and +give food to millions of people, without firing the imagination? The +writer's task is to look so clearly at his subject that he discovers its +true value to both brain and heart. + +As a matter of fact, in writing of such subjects a writer finds that +words _will be_ emotional, whether he will have them so or not, that +they take sides, are charged with tendency and fly toward or away from +an emotional quality with all the power of electricity. Now, this +emotional quality, when it is uncontrolled, is dangerous. Words that +show tendency must be guided with the firm hand lest they lead the +reader into wrong impressions and into the confusion that comes from +counter emotions, the strong impression of disunion. It is only by +relating these cross-tendencies to a guiding idea that they can be made +to serve the author's purpose. To choose wisely a controlling purpose +that recognizes and handles the inherent emotions of words is merely to +organize inescapable material. In the following selection from Emerson's +"Fate" we find the emotional quality both high and well-organized. +Such a paragraph might easily be made to confuse a reader hopelessly, +but Emerson drives the chargers of his thought straight to his goal, +intellectual and emotional, and holds tight his reins: + + Nature is no sentimentalist,--does not cosset or pamper us. + We must see that the world is rough and surly, and will not mind + drowning a man or a woman, but swallows your ship like a grain + of dust. The cold, inconsiderate of persons, tingles your blood, + benumbs your feet, freezes a man like an apple. The diseases, the + elements, fortune, gravity, lightning, respect no persons. The way + of Providence is a little rude. The habit of snake and spider, the + snap of the tiger and other leapers and bloody jumpers, the crackle + of the bones of his prey in the coil of the anaconda,--these are + in the system, and our habits are like theirs. You have just + dined, and however the slaughter-house is concealed in the graceful + distance of miles, there is complicity, expensive races--race + living at the expense of race. The planet is liable to shocks from + comets, perturbations from planets, rendings from earthquake and + volcano, alterations of climate, precessions of equinoxes. Rivers + dry up by opening of the forest. The sea changes its bed. Towns + and counties fall into it. At Lisbon an earthquake killed men like + flies. At Naples three years ago ten thousand persons were crushed + in a few minutes. The scurvy at sea, the sword of the climate in + the west of Africa, at Cayenne, at Panama, at New Orleans, cut off + men like a massacre. Our western prairies shake with fever and + ague. The cholera, the small-pox, have proved as mortal to some + tribes as a frost to crickets, which, having filled the summer with + noise, are silenced by the fall of the temperature of one night. + Without uncovering what does not concern us, or counting how many + species of parasites hang on a bombyx, or groping after intestinal + parasites or infusory biters, or the obscurities of alternate + generation,--the forms of the shark, the _labrus_, the jaw of the + sea-wolf paved with crushing teeth, the weapons of the grampus, + and other warriors hidden in the sea, are hints of ferocity in the + interior of nature. Let us not deny it up and down. Providence has + a wild, rough, incalculable road to its end, and it is of no use to + try to whitewash its huge, mixed instrumentalities, or to dress up + that terrific benefactor in a clean shirt and white neck-cloth of a + student in divinity.[6] + + [6] Ralph Waldo Emerson: "Fate," _The Conduct of Life_. Houghton + Mifflin Company, publishers, Boston. + +Now this controlling purpose, including both the appeal to the +understanding and that to the emotions, should be stated, clearly, +before the author begins his actual writing, in one sentence. The value +of this is at once apparent: our minds tend all too much to wander from +subject to subject, browsing here and there, without any really directed +feeding. Now such procedure, though difficult to avoid, is nevertheless +harmful to our writing. The edge of the writing is never so keen, the +telling of the message, whatever it may be, is never so well done, +until we thoroughly organize and direct all that we are to say. In +phrasing the controlling purpose in one sentence, we make just such an +organization. And we have one which is most easily handled, most easily +remembered, least likely to allow us to escape into empty wandering. +Even in a long work this should be done, this unifying knot should be +tied in the writer's mind. Those readers who rise from the last pages +of a long historical work, covering several volumes and hundreds or +thousands of pages, with a clear central conception of the whole work +are profoundly grateful to the author. It is safe to say that such a +conception could not have been given to the reader had not the writer, +before he wrote a word, formulated in a few words the goal, the aim of +his writing. This sentence should include the emotional appeal either as +stated in a separate clause or phrase, or as expressed in the choice of +words to present the facts. + +The amount of machinery that seems to be required for using the +controlling purpose may appear too much for practical purposes in one +short lifetime. The truth is that the actual finding of the purpose will +require much less time, often, than the explanation of the process here +has needed. In a short theme you will often be able to scan the subject +itself, to estimate your own reaction to the subject, and to determine +upon your reader with remarkable quickness. More frequently you will +find difficulty in determining the emotional quality of the material +and your desires. But a little practice will enable you to do the +preliminary thinking with rapidity and comfort. But if your subject is +difficult, and if the effect is of great importance, by no means allow +yourself to be swerved from determination to find the real object which +you are seeking, but even at the expense of time and trouble state the +center of your intentions as related to the subject, yourself, and your +reader. + + +Practical Use of the Controlling Purpose + +We have yet to answer the practical question: when I sit down to +write, of just what value will the controlling purpose be to me in the +actual task of expressing my ideas? How can it really serve me in my +writing? The answer is clear: the controlling purpose is of the utmost +strategic value in helping to select and arrange material for attack +upon the objective, which is the effect to be created in the reader's +mind. Now the best strategy always combines the line of greatest +advantage to the writer, the line of least resistance from the reader, +and the necessities of the subject. In other words, what point can +I attack easiest, where is my opponent weakest, what demands of the +ground--gullies, hills, swamps, etc.--must I allow for? Sometimes these +three are more or less mutually antagonistic; sometimes they unite with +the greatest helpfulness, as we shall see. + +_Selection of Material_ + +The first question is, What, and how many, forces shall I choose for +the attack? Remember, we do not now merely attack in general, wherever +we find an enemy. Instead, we decide that our objective is, perhaps, +a hill ten miles across the enemy's frontier. The taking of that hill +is our controlling purpose. It would be easiest for us to use several +regiments of fresh young troops. But the terrain is strewn with gullies +and hillocks, with boulders and tangled timber. So we shall use two +regiments of veteran troops who are accustomed to rough country, and +follow these with some fresh youngsters who are endowed with sense and +a desire to outdo the veterans. Since the enemy has a strong battery, +we shall use heavy artillery. And since the enemy lacks machine guns, +we shall use many of them and catch him where he is weak and may be +terrified. We could easily send thirty camp kitchens to the fighting +lines, but strategy demands that they be kept back. + +In exactly the same way Mr. Burroughs plans the essay which follows this +discussion. His controlling purpose is obviously to make the reader +understand the process of bee-hunting in such a way as to be attracted +to it as a delightful sport. The nature of the subject demands that +the several steps in the process be explained. Well, that suits Mr. +Burroughs, because he knows these steps. The easiest method for him +is to narrate his own experiences. Of course he could investigate the +authorities on bee-hunting, and write a treatise, but that would be more +difficult, and moreover, it would not meet the line of least resistance +from the reader. To be successful, the essay must overcome the reader's +inertia and make him feel that he is actually sharing in things that he +enjoys. The selection is thus determined. From his personal experience, +as giving the writer the greatest advantage, Mr. Burroughs chooses. +He selects details about the beauty of nature because a reader would +prefer to have fine surroundings. He mentions traits of the bee that are +interesting or necessary to know. He narrates two special experiences +of his own for added attractiveness. And all the while, lest inertia +raise its head, he lures the reader with the glimpses of pails full of +rich golden honey. In other words, keeping his eye for his controlling +purpose, Mr. Burroughs can easily select the things that will accomplish +that purpose to his own greatest advantage, the reader's greatest ease, +and according to the demands of the subject. + +You do not find in the essay a discussion of the lucrative value of +bees, nor of the complicated life of the hive, nor of the present +standing of the science of bee-keeping. These topics, however +interesting, are not useful to the controlling purpose. The standard +is, not connection, but usefulness. "Any road," says Carlyle, "this +simple Entepfuhl road, will lead you to the end of the world," and if +you follow mere connection with your subjects, you will find yourself +at the end of the world. The practical helpfulness of the controlling +purpose is seen when you ask yourself the question, "Does the matter +that I am putting in this paragraph, this sentence, actually advance my +reader in thought or emotion or both, nearer the point to which I wish +to lead him?" Thus the question of selection is answered. + +_The Ordering of the Material_ + +If we could have our own sweet will in attacking the hill ten miles +beyond the border, we should ask the enemy to stack his arms, and then, +with trumpet and drum and flag we should sweep in and take possession. +But our sweet will must give way to necessity. Since unscalable crags +lie ahead, we shall have to go round to the rear of the hill. Since we +must cross a swamp, engineers must precede and build a road. Though we +should like to crawl up a wide valley on the other side, we must choose +a smaller one, because the enemy could wither us away in the larger one. +And, to trick the enemy, we shall perhaps open fire far off on the left, +while we are stealing out to the right, and thus we may take him off his +guard. Our purpose of securing that hill makes these things necessary. + +Similarly, in writing, we may sometimes employ the order of greatest +advantage, but more often we must modify this order to meet the +requirements of the subject and to rouse the least resistance from +the reader. In Stevenson's essay, "Pulvis et Umbra," part of which +follows the essay by Mr. Burroughs, the author used the method of +greatest advantage. His object is to thrill the reader at the thought +that mankind constantly strives in spite of all his failures. Several +orders are possible: he could treat of the striving alone, neglecting +the failure; he could treat the striving first and then the failure, or +vice versa, and so on. He saw that he would gain his purpose best if he +treated failure first, until he had fairly overwhelmed the reader, and +then suddenly shifted and showed that in spite of all this failure man +still strives. He had to run the risk of offending the reader at the +beginning by his insistence upon failure, and thus rousing the reader's +possible great resistance. For we do not like to read unpleasant things. +But he took the chance, knowing that if, by skillful use of words he +could persuade the reader through the first part, he could easily thrill +him with the reaction. For it makes a great difference whether we say, +"In spite of striving, man always fails," or "In spite of failure, man +always strives." The selection from the essay which appears here is +taken from the middle. It is interesting to note that the first two +sentences of the essay read: "We look for some reward of our endeavors +and are disappointed; not success, not happiness, not even peace of +conscience, crowns our ineffectual efforts to do well. Our frailties +are invincible, our virtues barren; the battle goes sore against us to +the going down of the sun." And the words of the final sentence of the +essay are: "Let it be enough for faith, that the whole creation groans +in mortal frailty, strives with unconquerable constancy: surely not all +in vain." + +In the essay by Mr. Burroughs the author's advantage and the reader's +acquiescence largely coincide, so that the author can at once begin +with remarks about the attractiveness of the hunt, the delights of its +successful conclusion. To discuss at once the possibility of being stung +would have been unwise, because unpleasant, and the controlling purpose +of the essay is to attract. Later, this topic can safely be tucked in. + +Mr. Wilson's war messages showed a combination of the lines of greatest +advantage and of least resistance with the nature of the historical +events. These messages began with a series of facts which, obviously +true, would rouse no resistance and would at the same time insert some +resentment against Germany, the very thing that the author wished to +do. Then they followed the strict chronological order, as if the author +were pursuing a course already mapped for him--which, of course, he +was not doing. With the controlling purpose of showing that America's +entrance into the war was occasioned entirely by Germany's actions, he +then proceeded to base the proposals of the messages upon the very facts +that the readers had already accepted in accordance with his ultimate +point of view. Such skillful manipulation deserved the success that the +messages met. + +All three of these examples gain their point, their objective. They do +this largely because the authors knew exactly what they wished to do, +what their controlling purposes were, and then marshaled their material +so as to accomplish this end. Some of the topics that are subordinated, +such, for example, as the possibility of being stung, are as important +as others which are magnified, such as the beauty of nature--that is, +they are as important in an impersonal way. As soon as the controlling +purpose is known, however, they immediately become dangerous unless so +placed as to bring the reader nearer the goal and not to push him from +it. The point is that knowing the controlling purpose, that is, having +thought out beforehand exactly what you wish to do with subject and +reader, you are at once aware of both helps and obstacles, and can make +use of the one, avoid the other. + +Thus you will consider both the reader's ease and his prejudices. If +you are to write of abstruse matters, of some question in philosophy +or ethics or religion, in order to carry your reader with you you will +begin with things that he can understand, and thus pave a highway into +the misty lands where you desire to take him. Failure of some eminent +philosophers to receive recognition has been due to their lack of a +comprehensive controlling purpose, to their restricting attention to the +subject alone regardless of the reader. In setting forth the principle +of the machinery that digs tunnels under rivers Mr. Brooks in _The +Web-foot Engineer_ first shows how a boy digs a tunnel into a sand +bank, and then proceeds, with the reader's understanding assured, to the +more complex but still similar operation under the river. In explaining +inductive reasoning, with the controlling purpose of making it seem both +frequent and natural, Huxley showed first how we reason practically +about the nature of apples in a basket at the grocer's. The reader's +resistance is thus avoided and the writer's advantage is increased. + +A shrewd controlling purpose also makes allowance for the reader's +prejudices. You ought to take as much care to cajole your reader into +following you as the cook does to make us happy to the final morsel. +After ices and cakes and coffee a roast or a soup is positively +offensive; the cook wisely wins the battle of the spit and the dripping +pan while the epicure is still receptive. So, if you are to explain +democracy in a state where the recall of judges is practiced to an +aristocrat who distrusts the "common herd" and is easily ruffled, you +will do well to preface discussion of this recall with words about the +general excellence of life in the state and then, when your reader is +in a mood of acceptance, pass to the possibly offensive topic. Without +knowing just what you wish to accomplish, you are likely to write in +what may seem a dogged, defiant mood that intends to strike right and +left, hoping to wallow through to victory. + +If between us and the enemy's fort is a stream which needs pontoons for +crossing, and we blindly start out marching up toward victory with no +pontoons, we shall perhaps sail away to sea, but shall also probably +not win the fort. If we insist upon keeping our platoon as rigidly +straight, even while we climb hills through the woods, as ever a line +was kept at West Point, we shall come to grief. So, if the logic of the +subject has imperious demands, the controlling purpose must make count +of them. William James in his essay, "The Moral Equivalent of War," +saw that before a reader could understand how civic work could be a +moral equivalent, he must see what the morality of war is. The subject +demands this. In an account of the United States Government it might be +logically necessary to state and explain first the theory of checks and +balances before the relations of executive, legislative, and judicial +branches could be properly estimated. Wisely chosen, the controlling +purpose of such an account would make this fact at once evident. + +Constantly keeping in mind, in planning and composing an article, what +the objective is, makes even the individual paragraphs and sentences +more successful. If you will examine the paragraphs in "Pulvis et +Umbra," you will observe, pretty uniformly, at the beginning and end of +each, a strong statement of the message of the paragraph, sentences of +high emotional value. Each paragraph definitely advances the cause of +the controlling purpose. Even the sentences--an example of a sentence +uncontrolled occurs in Mr. Hamlin Garland's book, _A Son of the Middle +Border_: "It stood on the bank of a wide river and had all the value of +a seaport to me, for in summer-time great hoarsely bellowing steam-boats +came and went from its quay, and all about it rose high wooded hills." +The final item about the hills is in no way necessary, does not even +help to give the feeling of a seaport, which more often than not lacks +high hills. A sentence from Stevenson is in contrast: "The sun upon my +shoulders warmed me to the heart, and I stooped forward and plunged into +the sea." In this sentence facts, rhythm, even the sound of the words +drive in one direction. + +Without being too dogmatic--for every problem in writing is new and +not infrequently a law to itself--you may be sure that if you have a +definite controlling purpose, and know well what it is, you will be more +likely to attain success with subject and with reader when you come to +the ordering of your material. + +Finally, since strategy suggests that we attack the weakest places in +the enemy's defense, we shall do well, unless the logic of the subject +or the reader's prejudice demand otherwise, to make our strongest +blows when the enemy, the reader, is least prepared, that is, at the +beginning and the end. Success in writing depends so much upon the +freshness of the reader's mind, that an _attaque brusque_ at first to +insert important things, and a strong reinforcement at the end, when +the reader is pricking up his ears at the coming final period, form +a wise strategy. If, in order to understand one point, another is +necessary, or to avoid irritation, a roundabout method is advisable, +the path is plain. When these accidents do not obtain, the reader's +understanding will be most easily won at the beginning and the end. At +these points you must see to it that the reader is guided, with the +first word, toward the emotional tone that your controlling purpose +demands, and toward some important idea that bolsters this purpose, even +if, as we have seen Stevenson do, you seem to be at first flying away +from the purpose which we later discover. Thus Mr. Taft, in an article +entitled "Present Relations of the Learned Professions to Political +Government," places the ministry at the beginning and the law at the +end. His controlling purpose is to make the reader believe that every +profession offers large chance for the conscientious man to be of use to +the political government. Consequently he chooses the two that he thinks +most important, and of these places the less important at the beginning +and the more important at the end. In this way he succeeds at once in +turning the reader as he wishes, and leaves him also with the strongest +possible bias toward belief. And since these two professions offer the +greatest chance for victory for his controlling purpose, he gives them +much more space than to the others, almost three times as much to law, +for instance, as to teaching. + +Moreover, since the emotions are affected in much writing, the skilled +strategist will instantly bear in mind just what emotion he wishes +to rouse, and will see that the ideas of greater moving value receive +larger development. Mr. Burroughs gives much more space to the sections +that deal with the excitement and the joy of bee-hunting than to those +that deal with the less pleasant side. To the difficulty of detecting +the flight of a bee he gives the single sentence: "Sometimes one's head +will swim following it, and often one's eyes are put out by the sun." To +the interesting actions of the bee when it is caught he gives at least +ten times as much space. In this way he guides the reader's emotions in +the way he wishes them to go--and makes successful writing. + +The chief strategic problem in exposition, then, is that of so choosing +and arranging the material that the point of the writing is made +with the proper emphasis. For the accomplishment of this purpose the +writer must be able to answer the question, "_What do I wish to do +in this piece of writing?_" Then he must bring all the material and +its expression to bear upon the reader's mind so that the desired end +may be inevitable. To determine what his purpose is the writer must +consult the subject itself, his own personality, and the reader. He +must also bear in mind the reader's intellect and his emotions. And +he must unify the approach to both intellect and emotions. The firmly +held conception of what his purpose is will determine what material he +is to choose--what is useful and what is not--and also how to arrange +this material and how to proportion the space that different sections +shall have. He will arrange the material for the greatest advantage to +himself and the least resistance from the reader. In other words, to +make his writing successful in the sense of accomplishing its end, the +writer must, before he sets down a single word, decide upon what his +controlling purpose is to be and just how he intends to make material +and expression--even in the individual sentence--unite to drive in the +one direction of that controlling purpose. + +AN IDYL OF THE HONEY-BEE[7] + +_John Burroughs_ + + [7] John Burroughs: _Pepacton_. Houghton Mifflin Company, publishers, + Boston. + + One looks upon the woods with a new interest when he suspects + they hold a colony of bees. What a pleasing secret it is; a tree + with a heart of comb-honey, a decayed oak or maple with a bit of + Sicily or Mount Hymettus stowed away in its trunk or branches; + secret chambers where lies hidden the wealth of ten thousand little + free-booters, great nuggets and wedges of precious ore gathered + with risk and labor from every field and wood about. + + But if you would know the delights of bee-hunting, and how + many sweets such a trip yields beside honey, come with me some + bright, warm, late September or early October day. It is the golden + season of the year, and any errand or pursuit that takes us abroad + upon the hills or by the painted woods and along the amber colored + streams at such a time is enough. So, with haversacks filled with + grapes and peaches and apples and a bottle of milk,--for we shall + not be home to dinner,--and armed with a compass, a hatchet, a + pail, and a box with a piece of comb-honey neatly fitted into + it--any box the size of your hand with a lid will do nearly as + well as the elaborate and ingenious contrivance of the regular + bee-hunter--we sally forth. Our course at first lies along the + highway, under great chestnut-trees whose nuts are just dropping, + then through an orchard and across a little creek, thence gently + rising through a long series of cultivated fields toward some high, + uplying land, behind which rises a rugged wooded ridge or mountain, + the most sightly point in all this section. Behind this ridge for + several miles the country is wild, wooded, and rocky, and is no + doubt the home of many wild swarms of bees. + + After a refreshing walk of a couple of miles we reach a point + where we will make our first trial--a high stone wall that runs + parallel with the wooded ridge referred to, and separated from it + by a broad field. There are bees at work there on that goldenrod, + and it requires but little manoeuvring to sweep one into our + box. Almost any other creature rudely and suddenly arrested in + its career and clapped into a cage in this way would show great + confusion and alarm. The bee is alarmed for a moment, but the bee + has a passion stronger than its love of life or fear of death, + namely, desire for honey, not simply to eat, but to carry home as + booty. "Such rage of honey in their bosom beats," says Virgil. It + is quick to catch the scent of honey in the box, and as quick to + fall to filling itself. We now set the box down upon the wall and + gently remove the cover. The bee is head and shoulders in one of + the half-filled cells, and is oblivious to everything else about + it. Come rack, come ruin, it will die at work. We step back a few + paces, and sit down upon the ground so as to bring the box against + the blue sky as a background. In two or three minutes the bee is + seen rising slowly and heavily from the box. It seems loath to + leave so much honey behind and it marks the place well. It mounts + aloft in a rapidly increasing spiral, surveying the near and minute + objects first, then the larger and more distant, till having + circled about the spot five or six times and taken all its bearings + it darts away for home. It is a good eye that holds fast to the bee + till it is fairly off. Sometimes one's head will swim following it, + and often one's eyes are put out by the sun. This bee gradually + drifts down the hill, then strikes away toward a farm-house half + a mile away, where I know bees are kept. Then we try another and + another, and the third bee, much to our satisfaction, goes straight + toward the woods. We could see the brown speck against the darker + background for many yards. + + A bee will usually make three or four trips from the hunter's + box before it brings back a companion. I suspect the bee does not + tell its fellows what it has found, but that they smell out the + secret; it doubtless bears some evidence with it upon its feet or + proboscis that it has been upon honey-comb and not upon flowers, + and its companions take the hint and follow, arriving always many + seconds behind. Then the quantity and quality of the booty would + also betray it. No doubt, also, there are plenty of gossips about + a hive that note and tell everything. "Oh, did you see that? + Peggy Mel came in a few moments ago in great haste, and one of + the up-stairs packers says she was loaded till she groaned with + apple-blossom honey which she deposited, and then rushed off again + like mad. Apple blossom honey in October! Fee, fi, fo, fum! I smell + something! Let's after." + + In about half an hour we have three well-defined lines of bees + established--two to farm-houses and one to the woods, and our box + is being rapidly depleted of its honey. About every fourth bee goes + to the woods, and now that they have learned the way thoroughly + they do not make the long preliminary whirl above the box, but + start directly from it. The woods are rough and dense and the hill + steep, and we do not like to follow the line of bees until we + have tried at least to settle the problem as to the distance they + go into the woods--whether the tree is on this side of the ridge + or in the depth of the forest on the other side. So we shut up + the box when it is full of bees and carry it about three hundred + yards along the wall from which we are operating. When liberated, + the bees, as they always will in such cases, go off in the same + directions they have been going; they do not seem to know that + they have been moved. But other bees have followed our scent, + and it is not many minutes before a second line to the woods is + established. This is called cross-lining the bees. The new line + makes a sharp angle with the other line, and we know at once that + the tree is only a few rods into the woods. The two lines we have + established form two sides of a triangle of which the wall is the + base; at the apex of the triangle, or where the two lines meet in + the woods, we are sure to find the trees. We quickly follow up + these lines, and where they cross each other on the side of the + hill we scan every tree closely. I pause at the foot of an oak and + examine a hole near the root; now the bees are in this tree and + their entrance is on the upper side near the ground, not two feet + from the hole I peer into, and yet so quiet and secret is their + going and coming that I fail to discover them and pass on up the + hill. Failing in this direction, I return to the oak again, and + then perceive the bees going out in a small crack in the tree. The + bees do not know they are found out and that the game is in our + hands, and are as oblivious of our presence as if we were ants + or crickets. The indications are that the swarm is a small one, + and the store of honey trifling. In "taking up" a bee-tree it is + usual first to kill or stupefy the bees with the fumes of burning + sulphur or with tobacco smoke. But this course is impracticable on + the present occasion, so we boldly and ruthlessly assault the tree + with an axe we have procured. At the first blow the bees set up + a loud buzzing, but we have no mercy, and the side of the cavity + is soon cut away and the interior with its white-yellow mass of + comb-honey is exposed, and not a bee strikes a blow in defense of + its all. This may seem singular, but it has nearly always been my + experience. When a swarm of bees are thus rudely assaulted with an + axe, they evidently think the end of the world has come, and, like + true misers as they are, each one seizes as much of the treasure as + it can hold; in other words, they all fall to and gorge themselves + with honey, and calmly await the issue. When in this condition they + make no defense and will not sting unless taken hold of. In fact + they are as harmless as flies. Bees are always to be managed with + boldness and decision. + + Any halfway measures, any timid poking about, any feeble + attempts to reach their honey, are sure to be quickly resented. The + popular notion that bees have a special antipathy toward certain + persons and a liking for certain others has only this fact at the + bottom of it; they will sting a person who is afraid of them and + goes skulking and dodging about, and they will not sting a person + who faces them boldly and has no dread of them. They are like dogs. + The way to disarm a vicious dog is to show him you do not fear + him; it is his turn to be afraid then. I never had any dread of + bees and am seldom stung by them. I have climbed up into a large + chestnut that contained a swarm in one of its cavities and chopped + them out with an axe, being obliged at times to pause and brush the + bewildered bees from my hands and face, and not been stung once. I + have chopped a swarm out of an apple-tree in June and taken out the + cards of honey and arranged them in a hive, and then dipped out the + bees with a dipper, and taken the whole home with me in pretty good + condition, with scarcely any opposition on the part of the bees. In + reaching your hand into the cavity to detach and remove the comb + you are pretty sure to get stung, for when you touch the "business + end" of a bee, it will sting even though its head be off. But the + bee carries the antidote to its own poison. The best remedy for bee + sting is honey, and when your hands are besmeared with honey, as + they are sure to be on such occasions, the wound is scarcely more + painful than the prick of a pin. + + When a bee-tree is thus "taken up" in the middle of the day, + of course a good many bees are away from home and have not heard + the news. When they return and find the ground flowing with honey, + and piles of bleeding combs lying about, they apparently do not + recognize the place, and their first instinct is to fall to and + fill themselves; this done, their next thought is to carry it home, + so they rise up slowly through the branches of the trees till they + have attained an altitude that enables them to survey the scene, + when they seem to say, "Why, _this_ is home" and down they come + again; beholding the wreck and ruins once more they still think + there is some mistake, and get up a second or a third time and + then drop back pitifully as before. It is the most pathetic sight + of all, the surviving and bewildered bees struggling to save a few + drops of their wasted treasures. + + Presently, if there is another swarm in the woods, robber-bees + appear. You may know them by their saucy, chiding, devil-may-care + hum. It is an ill-wind that blows nobody good, and they make the + most of the misfortune of their neighbors; and thereby pave the way + for their own ruin. The hunter marks their course and the next day + looks them up. On this occasion the day was hot and the honey very + fragrant, and a line of bees was soon established S.S.W. Though + there was much refuse honey in the old stub, and though little + golden rills trickled down the hill from it, and the near branches + and saplings were besmeared with it where we wiped our murderous + hands, yet not a drop was wasted. It was a feast to which not only + honey-bees came, but bumble-bees, wasps, hornets, flies, ants. The + bumble-bees, which at this season are hungry vagrants with no fixed + place of abode, would gorge themselves, then creep beneath the bits + of empty comb or fragment of bark and pass the night, and renew the + feast next day. The bumble-bee is an insect of which the bee-hunter + sees much. There are all sorts and sizes of them. They are dull + and clumsy compared with the honey-bee. Attracted in the fields by + the bee-hunter's box, they will come up the wind on the scent and + blunder into it in the most stupid, lubberly fashion. + + The honey-bee that licked up our leavings on the old stub + belonged to a swarm, as it proved, about half a mile farther down + the ridge, and a few days afterward fate overtook them, and their + stores in turn became the prey of another swarm in the vicinity, + which also tempted Providence and were overwhelmed. The first + mentioned swarm I had lined from several points, and was following + up the clue over rocks and through gulleys, when I came to where + a large hemlock had been felled a few years before and a swarm + taken from a cavity near the top of it; fragments of the old comb + were yet to be seen. A few yards away stood another short, squatty + hemlock, and I said my bees ought to be there. As I paused near it + I noticed where the tree had been wounded with an axe a couple of + feet from the ground many years before. The wound had partially + grown over, but there was an opening there that I did not see at + the first glance. I was about to pass on when a bee passed me + making that peculiar shrill, discordant hum that a bee makes when + besmeared with honey. I saw it alight in the partially closed + wound and crawl home; then came others and others, little bands + and squads of them heavily freighted with honey from the box. The + tree was about twenty inches through and hollow at the butt, or + from the axe mark down. This space the bees had completely filled + with honey. With an axe we cut away the outer ring of live wood and + exposed the treasure. Despite the utmost care, we wounded the comb + so that little rills of the golden liquid issued from the root of + the tree and trickled down the hill. + + The other bee-tree in the vicinity, to which I have referred, + we found one warm November day in less than half an hour after + entering the woods. It also was a hemlock, that stood in a niche + in a wall of hoary, moss-covered rocks thirty feet high. The tree + hardly reached to the top of the precipice. The bees entered a + small hole at the root, which was seven or eight feet from the + ground. The position was a striking one. Never did apiary have a + finer outlook or more rugged surroundings. A black, wood-embraced + lake lay at our feet; the long panorama of the Catskills filled the + far distance, and the more broken outlines of the Shawangunk range + filled the near. On every hand were precipices and a wild confusion + of rocks and trees. + + The cavity occupied by the bees was about three feet and a + half long and eight or ten inches in diameter. With an axe we cut + away one side of the tree and laid bare its curiously wrought + heart of honey. It was a most pleasing sight. What winding and + devious ways the bees had through their palace! What great masses + and blocks of snow-white comb there were! Where it was sealed up, + presenting that slightly dented, uneven surface, it looked like + some precious ore. When we carried a large pail of it out of the + woods, it seemed still more like ore. + + In lining bees through the woods, the tactics of the hunter + are to pause every twenty or thirty rods, lop away the branches or + cut down the trees, and set the bees to work again. If they still + go forward, he goes forward also and repeats his observations till + the tree is found or till the bees turn and come back upon the + trail. Then he knows he has passed the tree, and he retraces his + steps to a convenient distance and tries again, and thus quickly + reduces the space to be looked over till the swarm is traced home. + On one occasion, in a wild rocky wood, where the surface alternated + between deep gulfs and chasms filled with thick, heavy growths of + timber and sharp, precipitous, rocky ridges like a tempest-tossed + sea, I carried my bees directly under their tree, and set them to + work from a high, exposed ledge of rocks not thirty feet distant. + One would have expected them under such circumstances to have gone + straight home, as there were but few branches intervening, but they + did not; they labored up through the trees and attained an altitude + above the woods as if they had miles to travel, and thus baffled + me for hours. Bees will always do this. They are acquainted with + the woods only from the top side, and from the air above; they + recognize home only by landmarks here, and in every instance they + rise aloft to take their bearings. Think how familiar to them the + topography of the forest summits must be--an umbrageous sea or + plain where every mark and point is known. + + Another curious fact is that generally you will get track of a + bee-tree sooner when you are half a mile from it than when you are + only a few yards. Bees, like us human insects, have little faith in + the near at hand; they expect to make their fortune in a distant + field, they are lured by the remote and the difficult, and hence + overlook the flower and the sweet at their very door. On several + occasions I have unwittingly set my box within a few paces of a + bee-tree and waited long for bees without getting them, when, on + removing to a distant field or opening in the woods I have got a + clue at once. + + Bees, like the milkman, like to be near a spring. They do + water their honey, especially in a dry time. The liquid is then + of course thicker and sweeter, and will bear diluting. Hence, old + bee-hunters look for bee-trees along creeks and near spring runs + in the woods. I once found a tree a long distance from any water, + and the honey had a peculiar bitter flavor imparted to it, I was + convinced, by rain water sucked from the decayed and spongy hemlock + tree, in which the swarm was found. In cutting into the tree, + the north side of it was found to be saturated with water like a + spring, which ran out in big drops, and had a bitter flavor. The + bees had thus found a spring or a cistern in their own house. + + Wild honey is as near like tame as wild bees are like their + brothers in the hive. The only difference is that wild honey + is flavored with your adventure, which makes it a little more + delectable than the domestic article. + + +PULVIS ET UMBRA[8] + +_Robert Louis Stevenson_ + + [8] R. L. Stevenson: _Across the Plains_. Copyright, 1892, by Charles + Scribner's Sons, New York City. + + What a monstrous specter is this man, the disease of the + agglutinated dust, lifting alternate feet or lying drugged with + slumber; killing, feeding, growing, bringing forth small copies + of himself; grown upon with hair like grass, fitted with eyes + that move and glitter in his face; a thing to set children + screaming;--and yet looked at nearlier, known as his fellows + know him, how surprising are his attributes! Poor soul, here for + so little, cast among so many hardships, filled with desires so + incommensurate and so inconsistent, savagely surrounded, savagely + descended, irremediably condemned to prey upon his fellow lives: + who should have blamed him had he been of a piece with his destiny + and a being merely barbarous? And we look and behold him instead + filled with imperfect virtues, infinitely childish, often admirably + valiant, often touchingly kind; sitting down, amidst his momentary + life, to debate of right and wrong and the attributes of the deity; + rising up to do battle for an egg or die for an idea; singling out + his friends and his mate with cordial affection; bringing forth in + pain, rearing with long-suffering solicitude, his young. To touch + the heart of his mystery, we find in him one thought, strange to + the point of lunacy: the thought of duty; the thought of something + owing to himself, to his neighbor, to his God; an ideal of decency, + to which he would rise if it were possible; a limit of shame, below + which, if it be possible, he will not stoop. The design in most + men is one of conformity; here and there, in picked natures, it + transcends itself and soars on the other side, arming martyrs with + independence; but in all, in their degrees, it is a bosom thought. + It sways with so complete an empire that merely selfish things come + second, even with the selfish: that appetites are starved, fears + are conquered, pains supported; that almost the dullest shrinks + from the reproof of a glance, although it were a child's; and all + but the most cowardly stand amidst the risks of war; and the more + noble, having strongly conceived an act as due to their ideal, + affront and embrace death. Strange enough if, with their singular + origin and perverted practice, they think they are to be rewarded + in some future life: stranger still, if they are persuaded of the + contrary, and think this blow, which they solicit, will strike + them senseless for eternity. I shall be reminded what a tragedy of + misconception and misconduct man at large presents: of organized + injustice, cowardly violence, and treacherous crime; and of the + damning imperfections of the best. They cannot be too darkly drawn. + Man is indeed marked for failure in his efforts to do right. But + where the best consistently miscarry, how tenfold more remarkable + that all should continue to strive; and surely we should find it + both touching and inspiriting, that in a field from which success + is banished, our race should not cease to labor. + + If the first view of this creature, stalking in his rotatory + isle, be a thing to shake the courage of the stoutest, on this + nearer sight he startles us with an admiring wonder. It matters + not where we look, under what climate we observe him, in what + stage of society, in what depth of ignorance, burthened with what + erroneous morality; by campfires in Assiniboia, the snow powdering + his shoulders, the wind plucking his blanket, as he sits, passing + the ceremonial calumet and uttering his grave opinions like a + Roman senator; in ships at sea, a man inured to hardship and vile + pleasures, his brightest hope a fiddle in a tavern and a bedizened + trull who sells herself to rob him, and he for all that simple, + innocent, cheerful, kindly like a child, constant to toil, brave to + drown, for others; in the slums of cities, moving among indifferent + millions to mechanical employments, without hope of change in the + future, with scarce a pleasure in the present, and yet true to his + virtues, honest up to his lights, kind to his neighbors, tempted + perhaps in vain by the bright gin-palace, perhaps long-suffering + with the drunken wife that ruins him; in India (a woman this time) + kneeling with broken cries and streaming tears as she drowns her + child in the sacred river; in the brothel, the discard of society, + living mainly on strong drink, fed with affronts, a fool, a thief, + the comrade of thieves, and even here keeping the point of honor + and the touch of pity, often repaying the world's scorn with + service, often standing firm upon a scruple, and at a certain cost, + rejecting riches: everywhere some virtue cherished or affected, + everywhere some decency of thought and carriage, everywhere the + ensign of man's ineffectual goodness:--ah! if I could show you + this! if I could show you these men and women, all the world over, + in every stage of history, under every abuse of error, under every + circumstance of failure, without hope, without help, without + thanks, still obscurely fighting the lost fight of virtue, still + clinging, in the brothel or on the scaffold, to some rag of honor, + the poor jewel of their souls! + + +OUTLINES + +The Value of Outlines + +It has been thought that the old Scotchman who said, "A man's years are +three score and ten, or maybe by good hap he'll get ten more, but _it's +a weary wrastle all the way through_!" came to his final words as the +result of writing outlines. If this be true, surely it is unfortunate, +for the writing of outlines brings exceeding great reward. An outline +is not an ancient form of blind discipline, but rather a helping hand +across the bogland of facts and ideas. It is a most useful instrument +toward good writing; its justification is its practical usefulness. This +usefulness, helpfulness, is double in its value--to the writer and to +the instructor, when there is one. + +As to the value of an outline for the writer--without an outline you +face in your writing a complicated problem, more complicated, in +fact, than is justifiable. At one and the same time you must make +your thinking logical and your expression adequate--distinguished if +possible. Either of these tasks is sufficient to demand all your powers; +together, they offer a really overwhelming problem. Stevenson, to whom +style was of the greatest importance, as bone of the bone and blood of +the blood of the writing, wrote to a friend, "Problems of style are +(as yet) dirt under my feet; my problem is architectural, creative--to +get this stuff joined and moving." It was only after he had fitted his +material together that he felt able to devote himself to making the +beautiful prose that is so much admired. A noted Frenchman is quoted +as exclaiming, when first he beheld the famous Brooklyn Bridge, "How +beautiful it is!", then, "How well made it is!" and finally, after a +moment's reflection, "How well planned it is!" A good piece of writing +should have the same comments made; but they cannot be made, usually, +without the carefully planned outline. + +You face the problem, without an outline, of answering the two questions +about every detail that presents itself for treatment: first, shall I +include or exclude this detail; and secondly, how shall I make this +detail help the general flow of my writing, and how shall I express it +so that it shall contribute to the proper tone of the work? And while +you thus judge each small detail, you must also keep your critical +faculties active to estimate your total course, whether you are cleaving +your way clearly, steadily, and with sufficient directness to your goal, +whether the work as a whole is answering your desires. + +Now to ask the unaided brain, unless it has had long years of training, +to perform all this critical work during the actual process of +expression, is nothing short of cruel--and almost sure of failure. For +in any writing which enlists from you even a spark of interest the +fervor of creative work, the stimulating effect of seeing the work grow +under your pen, tends often to unseat the critical powers, to destroy +perspective, to make a detail seem more valuable or less valuable than +it should, on the whim of the momentary interest or repulsion. Thus the +logic of the writing is impaired, for details are included which should +not enter, and others are excluded which ought to be welcomed, and +proportions are bad. And the expression is so liable to unevenness as to +be less worthy than it should be. Bad logic and uneven expression beget +failure. + +The outline helps to overcome these difficulties. In the first place, +it is not final, can be changed at will, and makes no extraordinary +demands on the powers of expression. In the second place, as regards +logic, the outline shows the relation of ideas to each other and to +the whole subject; you can estimate rather easily whether a detail is +of sufficient value to warrant inclusion, and, if so, how much space +it deserves. For in the outline you have the bare fact, succinctly +expressed, which enables you to focus your attention upon the thought. +But since logic is more than mere inclusion and order and spacing, and +deals also with the logic of attitude, the outline is again of service. +For it shows what should be the tone of the complete piece of writing, +and how this tone should be modified by the individual section of the +writing. Suppose that you are to write of the attitude of a politician +toward party principles. If a heading in your outline reads, "He never +_feared_ to _modify_ principles to meet inevitable conditions," the +attitude which you take in writing will be radically different from +that which you would assume if the heading read, "He never _hesitated_ +to _warp_ principles to outwit unfavorable conditions." Both the logic +of structure and that of attitude, then, are aided by the use of an +outline. And, at any point in the actual completed writing, you can +easily determine by referring to the outline, whether you are gaining +the effect that you desire and what progress you have made. And in +the third place, as regards expression, the outline relieves you of +the necessity of doing the constructive thinking of the subject, and +enables you to apply all your powers to the actual saying of your +message. Shakespeare might have written, instead of "the multitudinous +seas incarnadine," "make all the ocean, that's full of fishes,[9] look +red"--but he did not. Had he done so, where would now have been the +power and the charm? Expression is of utmost value, and you can ill +afford to slight it. For this reason, and especially since distinguished +expression is so difficult to form, to be released from the attendant +worry of constructive thinking is of the greatest help to the writer. +Both logic and expression, then, are dependent on the outline: with it +they are more sure. + + [9] If this be the meaning of "multitudinous." + +Instead, then, of feeling that dim dread of failure, which ever dogs the +writer's steps, with a well-constructed outline you can feel comparative +safety in the possession of a safe guide in case of perplexity. You will +be initiated, will know the secrets of your subject, will have a "grip" +with your facts and ideas, and can apply your powers to putting the +intangible thoughts into tangible words. + +As for being of value to the instructor, often he too can estimate more +surely and easily the worth of the writing if he has the skeleton to +examine. For there the structural defects are more apparent, are not +concealed by the pleasant flow of words, just as the structure of a +skyscraper is more apparent before the wall-tiles or bricks are laid +on to conceal the girders. The instructor can therefore often point +out insufficiencies in the thought, or wrong relations, which might +otherwise stand as defects in the finished work. + + +The Form of the Outline + +Shall an outline be written in words and phrases or in complete +sentences? In the first place, so far as any reader except the author +is concerned, complete sentences are necessary for understanding. +Often they are necessary for the writer himself. In an outline of a +theme explaining gas engines the isolated heading _Speed_ means nothing +definite to any one but the author, if indeed to him. A reader cannot +tell from such a word whether speed is important or insignificant, or +whether the author intends to give to gas engines credit for comparative +excellence in this property. If, however, the heading reads, "In the +important property of _Speed_ gas engines are the equal of steam +engines," the reader knows at once what is meant, whether he may agree +with the statement or not. He can definitely tell from an outline of +complete sentences what the course of thought is to be and what will be +the tone of the theme. The reader, then, needs complete sentences. The +writer, on the other hand, might seem to be sufficiently helped by mere +words or phrases, since he naturally knows what he means. But does he +know? The chances are that when an author puts down such a heading as +_Speed_ he has only a large general notion of what he means, without +being sure of the immediate connection and application, and with perhaps +no idea at all of the tone which he intends to catch. If the author will +write the sentence quoted above, he will complete his thought, make it +really definite, and be pretty sure to know what he is talking about, +what he intends to do. Furthermore, even though he know, when he sets +down a phrase, what he means by it, the chance is strong that when he +arrives at the expansion of the phrase he will have forgotten some of +the implications and may give the heading a cast that he did not intend. +Whether he knows definitely what he means or not, the writer is more +safe if he uses complete sentences, and for any other reader of the +outline complete sentences are quite necessary. + +Outlines are of three kinds: those that show the topic relations by +division into indented headings; those that show the sequence of +paragraphs by statement of the topic sentence; and those that combine +these two forms. The primary object of the first form, which is +illustrated by the first outline of "An Idyl of the Honey-Bee" which +follows, is to aid in the thinking, to plot out the ground and to group +the material. In this first outline a glance at the five main headings +makes the plan of the essay at once apparent--first a statement of the +effect of bees upon us; then an account of a hunt; then some specific +examples to drive things home; then some special directions that might +be overlooked, and finally a tribute to the joy of the hunting. The +benefit of this kind of outline is that the general relationships +among topics are made clear, the large divisions of thought appear, +and the writer can with comparative ease tell whether he has covered +the subject, and whether he has chosen the best order of thought. It +avoids the invertebrate flow of thought that is unaware of structure. In +other words, it is of value chiefly to the thinking. It does not show +which topics shall be grouped into paragraphs together, and it does +not, of course, phrase the topic sentences, usually. In such an outline +care should be taken to make each heading a complete sentence, and to +make headings that are of the same rank fairly parallel in structure +of expression unless this interferes with the tone of the heading. For +example, A, B, and C under III are made similar in structure since they +bear the same general relation to III. + +The second type of outline, that in which a list of the topic sentences +is given, and which is illustrated by the second outline of "An Idyl of +the Honey-Bee" which follows, is of value, especially if used with an +outline of the first type, in that it shows just how much of the thought +should go into the various paragraphs, and thereby establishes the +divisions of expression. Comparison of the two outlines of "An Idyl of +the Honey-Bee" will show that paragraph 5 in the second outline includes +all the material in the four headings, 2, a, 1´, and b, under II in the +first outline. Now for the writer to know beforehand how he intends +to divide his material into paragraphs is of great value; otherwise he +might be giving to some comparatively minor point--which for the moment +assumes interest for him--a separate paragraph, as if, for example, Mr. +Burroughs had dwelt at length on the interesting location of trees on +ledges. In other words, this second kind of outline is valuable chiefly +in its arrangement and placing of material. Its service in making +the original choice is not so immediately apparent. It has also the +advantage that it indicates pretty well what kind of expression is to be +used in the expanded form. + +The third type of outline, which many writers prefer to either of +the others, indicates both the topics to be treated and the division +into paragraphs. It may be constructed in either of two ways: first, +the topic sentences may be stated in their regular order, with the +subdivisions of the thought as they appear in the indented outline +grouped under the topic sentences; or in the indented outline the +paragraphs may be indicated by the regular sign for the paragraph at +any point where a new division is to be made. That is, in the first of +the two outlines that follow, the first paragraph might be indicated +in the first outline as including I and I, A; the second as including +II and II, A; the third as including II, B, 1, a, b, etc. Or, in the +second outline the subheadings of the first might be indicated under +the various topic sentences. The value of this type of outline is +obviously that it both shows the logic of the thought and the divisional +arrangement for presentation in paragraphs. With such an outline the +chances that you could go wrong, in even a long theme on a difficult +subject, are slight. + +Do not fail, therefore, when your theme is to be of any considerable +length, or when the subject is at all difficult, to make an outline. +There is no greater pleasure in the world than that of creative effort +when the creator knows what he is about. But when the ideas are hazy, +when the writer does not know exactly what he wishes to do and what +impression he wishes to make--then the process of creation is anything +but pleasant. And since the outline presents a pattern of your work, +since with it you cannot fail to see what your intentions are and +what the requirements of your subject, regard it as your best writing +friend--and make use of the rights of friendship and require service. + +FIRST OUTLINE OF "AN IDYL OF THE HONEY-BEE" + + I. A colony of bees increases our interest in a wood. + + A. The secret of the hidden golden store of honey is pleasing. + + II. The hunt is most interesting, especially in the autumn. + + A. Nature, as we tramp with luncheon and with bait, is in her + greatest glory. + + B. We are stimulated by the odds against our finding the tree. + + 1. Determining the direction of the tree is a problem. + + a. It is easy to catch the first bee and watch it devour + the bait. + + b. But to be sure of its rapid flight home requires + sharp eyes and concentrated watching. + + c. Only after three or four trips of the first bee do + others discover the secret of our bait and join in + establishing the necessary "line" to the tree. + + 2. Determining the distance of the tree requires skill. + + a. From another point we make a new "line" that meets + the first at the tree. + + 1´. This is called "cross-lining." + + b. It is easy to pass by the tree even when we know + about where it is. + + C. Once found, the tree must be attacked boldly. + + 1. Bees do not sting a bold person. + + 2. But when a sting is touched, even on a dead bee, it + hurts. + + 3. Honey is the best cure for the sting. + + D. The actions of the bees are interesting. + + 1. Those which are away from home do not recognize the ruins + of their own hive, and begin to eat. + + a. At last they pathetically understand. + + 2. Robber bees come for plunder. + + a. Bumble-bees arrive in large numbers. + + 1´. Compared with honey-bees they are clumsy. + + III. Two examples from experience show the chances for missing and the + delights of triumph. + + A. Both trees were hemlocks. + + B. Both were in interesting situations. + + C. Both yielded good store of honey. + + IV. Special facts, occasioned by the habits of bees, need to be + remembered. + + A. In the woods, the hunter must stop, every little while, to + test his "line." + + 1. Sometimes he is baffled, because the bees do not know the + woods from the ground side. + + B. Bees hunt for honey far from home. + + 1. Usually it is easier to find a tree half a mile away than + from only a few yards. + + C. Since bees like water, a careful hunter looks along creeks + and near springs. + + V. Wild honey is better than tame because it tastes of the adventure + of finding it. + +SECOND OUTLINE OF "AN IDYL OF THE HONEY-BEE" + + 1. The presence of a colony of bees in a wood gives it interest. + + 2. The fall is the best time to start with luncheon and bait off + across the fields a-hunting. + + 3. After two miles we catch several bees and watch them start for + home with our honey. + + 4. After several trips, other bees that have discovered the secret + arrive. + + 5. With one line established, we move on, establish another, find + the tree and attack it. + + 6. Boldness in handling bees is essential. + + 7. Bees that are away from home when their tree is attacked have + considerable difficulty in recognizing it. + + 8. Robber bees join the plundered to eat all the remnants of honey. + + 9. A neighbor honey-bee leads to another store in a hemlock. + + 10. Another tree in the vicinity, also a hemlock, had a superb + situation. + + 11. The honey in this tree was most pleasing to see and to carry + home. + + 12. In lining bees one must stop every little while and test his + line; bees puzzle sometimes by their actions since they know the + woods only from above. + + 13. Bees discover their home to the hunter better when they are + caught at some distance from the tree. + + 14. Since bees like water, it is well to hunt along brooks and near + springs. + + 15. Wild honey is sweeter than tame. + + +EXERCISES + + I. Select the words and phrases in the selection from _Pulvis et + Umbra_ which immediately help to accomplish the controlling + purpose of the essay. + + II. From what grade in the intellectual and social world does + Stevenson select his examples in the paragraph beginning: _If the + first view of this creature_, etc.? Why? From what grade would + you select examples for a similar paragraph if you intended the + creation of despair as your controlling purpose? What common + qualities are found in _all_ Stevenson's examples through the + selection? Why does he strive for this quality? + + III. Make an outline of "An Idyl of the Honey-Bee," using the material + which now appears, but placing the accent of the essay upon the + difficulty of obtaining the honey, instead of upon the pleasures + of the hunt, as it is now placed--in other words, outline the + essay with change of controlling purpose. + + IV. Write the first paragraph of the essay, and the last one, as you + would wish them to appear if your intention were to make + difficulty rather than joy the controlling purpose. + + V. 1. Make an outline for "Solemn-Looking Blokes" with the + controlling purpose of bringing out the romantic nature of + the presence of American troops in England. + + 2. Make an outline such as would suit the expression of an + American who had been living in England since the declaration + of war in 1914 and had been taunted with the apathy of the + United States government, and now was supremely proud to see + United States troops in England. + + VI. Write a final paragraph of "Solemn-Looking Blokes" to express any + of the following controlling purposes: + + 1. Joy at the union of the old and the new worlds in a common + cause. + + 2. Heartache at the awfulness of soldiers' sailing 3000 miles + to die because an autocratic government precipitated war. + + 3. The pride of an American resident in London over the physique + of the United States soldiers. + + 4. The astonishment of a London school-boy who has just read in + his history how the American colonies rebelled. + + 5. The apprehension of a British Tory lest aristocracy be doomed + when the troops of a great democracy appear so far away from + home to battle against autocracy. + + VII. Write outlines and themes on any of the following subjects to + accomplish the different controlling purposes: + + 1. The Scientific Reduction of Noise. + + 1. To show the _social duty_ of engineers. + + 2. To show the wonder of man's analytical powers. + + 3. To show the seriousness of the difficulties that must be + faced. + + 2. The Growing Appreciation of Good Architecture in America. + + 1. To show the good educative work of our architects. + + 2. To show the influence of European travel. + + 3. To show the effect of the general rise in standards of + education. + + 3. The Popular Magazines. + + 1. To show the general looseness of thinking. + + 2. To show the senseless duplication of material and ideas. + + 3. To show the opportunity for a host of authors. + + 4. The Effects of the Big Mail-Order Houses. + + 1. To show how they ruin the small country store. + + 2. To show how they increase the opportunities of the small + buyers. + + 3. To show how they help give employment in the large + cities. + + 5. Is Religion Declining? + + 1. To show the shifting of responsibility from creeds to + deeds. + + 2. To show the changed status of the church. + + 3. To show the effect of increased education on religion. + + 6. "Best Sellers." + + 1. To show the relation of their immediate popularity to + their final valuation. + + 2. To indicate the qualities necessary to a "best seller." + + 3. To show the effect upon the thinking of a nation that has + many "best sellers." + + 7. Results of the Farm Credit Legislation. + + 1. To show the relief gained for the farmers. + + 2. To show the effect on increased production. + + 3. To show the fairer economic distribution. + + 8. The Use of Concrete. + + 1. To show the general economic value. + + 2. To show the general lightening of toil that it may have + caused. + + 3. To show the variety of its service. + + 9. The American Spirit. + + 1. To show its idealism. + + 2. To show its indebtedness to England, or France, or + Germany. + + 3. To show how it may help the world. + + 10. Beethoven's Piano-forte Sonatas. + + 1. To show them as the culmination of the sonata + development. + + 2. To show their romantic nature. + + 3. To show the development of Beethoven's genius as he + matured. + + 11. Heredity in Plants. + + 1. To show the similarity to heredity in man. + + 2. To show how knowledge of heredity in plants may serve an + economic purpose. + + 3. To show the wonderful consistency of the laws of heredity + in plants. + + 12. Glacial Action in the Mississippi Valley. + + 1. To show the economic result. + + 2. To indicate the sweep of time consumed in the formation. + + 3. To show the picturesque qualities in the gradual action. + + VIII. What is the controlling purpose in the following selection? Point + out the influence upon the writer of knowing that Bostonians + would read his words. Indicate how the selection would differ if + the controlling object were to be bitter jealousy expressed by a + resident in a newer, larger, envious city. + + Boston has a rather old-fashioned habit of speaking + the English language. It came upon us rather suddenly one day + as we journeyed out Huntington Avenue to the smart new gray + and red opera house. The very coloring of the _foyer_ of that + house--soft and simple--bespoke the refinement of the Boston + of to-day. + + In the Metropolitan Opera House, New York, in every + other one of the glib opera houses that are springing up + mushroom-fashion across the land, our ears would have been + assailed by "Librettos! Get your Librettos!" Not so in Boston. + At the Boston Opera House the young woman back of the _foyer_ + stand calmly announced at clocklike intervals: + + "Translations. Translations." + + And the head usher, whom the older Bostonians + grasped by the hand and seemed to regard as a long-lost + friend, did not sip out, "Checks, please." + + "Locations," he requested, as he condescended to the + hand-grasps of the socially elect. + + "The nearer door for those stepping out," announces + the guard upon the elevated train, and as for the surface and + trolley-cars, those wonderful green perambulators laden down + with more signs than nine ordinary trolley-cars would carry at + one time, they do not speak of the newest type in Boston as + "Pay-as-you-enter-cars," after the fashion of less cultured + communities. In the Hub they are known as Prepayment cars--its + precision is unrelenting.[10] + + [10] Edward Hungerford: _The Personality of American Cities_. By + courtesy of the publisher, Robert M. McBride & Co., New York + City. + + IX. What is the controlling purpose in the following selection from + Mr. John Masefield's volume of _Gallipoli_? Analyze this + controlling purpose as to the subject itself, the author's + personal reaction, and the intended readers--largely perhaps, the + American people. + + Let the reader imagine himself to be facing three + miles of any very rough broken sloping ground known to him, + ground for the most part gorse-thyme-and-scrub-covered, + being poor soil, but in some places beautiful with flowers + (especially a "spiked yellow flower with a whitish leaf") and + on others green from cultivation. Let him say to himself that + he and an army of his friends are about to advance up the + slope towards the top, and that as they will be advancing in + a line, along the whole length of the three miles, he will + only see the advance of those comparatively near to him, since + folds or dips in the ground will hide the others. Let him, + before he advances, look earnestly along the line of the hill, + as it shows up clear, in blazing sunlight only a mile from + him, to see his tactical objective, one little clump of pines, + three hundred yards away, across what seem to be fields. Let + him see in the whole length of the hill no single human being, + nothing but scrub, earth, a few scattered buildings, of the + Levantine type (dirty white with roofs of dirty red) and some + patches of dark Scotch pine, growing as the pine loves, on + bleak crests. Let him imagine himself to be more weary than he + has ever been in his life before, and dirtier than he has ever + believed it possible to be, and parched with thirst, nervous, + wild-eyed and rather lousy. Let him think that he has not + slept for more than a few minutes together for eleven days and + nights, and that in all his waking hours he has been fighting + for his life, often hand to hand in the dark with a fierce + enemy, and that after each fight he has had to dig himself a + hole in the ground, often with his hands, and then walk three + or four roadless miles to bring up heavy boxes under fire. Let + him think, too, that in all those eleven days he has never + for an instant been out of the thunder of cannon, that waking + or sleeping their devastating crash has been blasting the air + across within a mile or two, and this from an artillery so + terrible that each discharge beats as it were a wedge of shock + between the skull-bone and the brain. Let him think too that + never, for an instant, in all that time, has he been free or + even partly free from the peril of death in its most sudden + and savage forms, and that hourly in all that time he has seen + his friends blown to pieces at his side, or dismembered, or + drowned, or driven mad, or stabbed, or sniped by some unseen + stalker, or bombed in the dark sap with a handful of dynamite + in a beef-tin, till their blood is caked upon his clothes and + thick upon his face, and that he knows, as he stares at the + hill, that in a few moments, more of that dwindling band, + already too few, God knows how many too few, for the task to + be done, will be gone the same way, and that he himself may + reckon that he has done with life, tasted and spoken and loved + his last, and that in a few minutes more may be blasted dead, + or lying bleeding in the scrub, with perhaps his face gone + and a leg and an arm broken, unable to move but still alive, + unable to drive away the flies or screen the ever-dropping + rain, in a place where none will find him, or be able to help + him, a place where he will die and rot and shrivel, till + nothing is left of him but a few rags and a few remnants and + a little identification-disc flapping on his bones in the + wind. Then let him hear the intermittent crash and rattle of + the fire augment suddenly and awfully in a roaring, blasting + roll, unspeakable and unthinkable, while the air above, that + has long been whining and whistling, becomes filled with the + scream of shells passing like great cats of death in the air; + let him see the slope of the hill vanish in a few moments into + the white, yellow, and black smokes of great explosions shot + with fire, and watch the lines of white puffs marking the hill + in streaks where the shrapnel searches a suspected trench; and + then, in the height of the tumult, when his brain is shaking + in his head, let him pull himself together with his friends, + and clamber up out of the trench, to go forward against an + invisible enemy, safe in some unseen trench expecting him.[11] + + [11] John Masefield: _Gallipoli_. By courtesy of the publishers, The + Macmillan Company, New York City. + + What light does the following paragraph which appears at the + beginning of the book throw upon the controlling purpose? + + Later, when there was leisure, I began to consider + the Dardanelles Campaign, not as a tragedy, nor as a mistake, + but as a great human effort, which came, more than once, very + near to triumph, achieved the impossible many times, and + failed, in the end, as many great deeds of arms have failed, + from something which had nothing to do with arms nor with the + men who bore them. That the effort failed is not against + it; much that is most splendid in military history failed, + many great things and noble men have failed. To myself, this + failure is the second grand event of the war; the first was + Belgium's answer to the German ultimatum.[12] + + [12] John Masefield: _Gallipoli_. By courtesy of the publishers, The + Macmillan Company, New York City. + + X. Explain what would be your controlling purpose in a theme on any + of the following subjects, and how you would _arrange your + material_ to accomplish this purpose. + + 1. What is the Primary Function of a Successful Novel? + + 2. The Philosophy of Woman Suffrage. + + 3. Lynch Law and Law Reform. + + 4. The Conservatism of the American College Student. + + 5. Intellectual Bravery. + + 6. A Mediæval Free City. + + 7. Mr. Roosevelt's Career as an Index of the American Character. + + 8. Practical Efficiency as an Enemy to "Sweetness and Light." + + 9. The Æsthetics of the Skyscraper. + + 10. Possibilities for the Small Farmer in America. + + 11. The Future of Civil Engineering. + + 12. Housekeeping as an Exact Science. + + XI. Indicate what your controlling purpose would be in writing of + the following subjects, if you chose your purpose from the + _subject-matter alone_. Then show how the purpose might be + affected by the different sets of readers as they are indicated + in the subheadings. + + 1. The Intelligence of the Average Voter. + + a. For a woman who eagerly desires woman suffrage. + + b. For a refined but narrow aristocrat, descendant of an old + family. + + c. For an agitating member of the I.W.W. + + 2. The Value of Courses in Literature for the Technical Student. + + a. For a hard-headed civil engineer. + + b. For a white-haired, kindly old professor of Greek, who + resents the intrusion of science and labor. + + c. For a mother who wants her son to "get everything good + from his technical course." + + 3. The Delights of Fishing. + + a. For a woman who cannot understand why her husband wants + to be always going on silly fishing trips. + + b. For a group of city men who are devotees of the sport. + + c. For a small boy who hopes some day to go with "Dad" on + his trips. + + 4. The Value of the Civic Center. + + a. For a man who resents the extra taxation that would be + necessary to make one in his city. + + b. For a prominent, public-spirited architect. + + c. For a young woman graduate from college who eagerly + desires to "do something" for her city. + + 5. The Spirit of the "Middle West," the "Old South" or any other + section of the country. + + a. For a proud resident. + + b. For a sniffy resident of another section. + + c. For a person who has never thought of such a thing. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +DEFINITION + + +Definition is the process of explaining a subject by setting bounds to +it, enclosing it within its limits, showing its extent. The ocean is +properly defined by the shore; a continent or island is defined by its +coastline: shores set limits to the ocean; coastlines bound the island +or continent. So, when a child asks, "What is Switzerland?" you show +on the map the pink or yellow or green space that is included within +certain definite boundaries. These boundaries set a limit to the extent +of that country; in other words, they define it. As soon as a traveler +steps beyond the limit of that country, he is at once in another +realm, has become identified with a quite different set of conditions +and circumstances--he is, in fact, in a country that has a different +definition from that of Switzerland. In the same way, when some one +asks what truth is, or nickel steel, or a grand piano, or humanism, or +art, or rotation of crops, or a rocking chair, or the forward pass, +you attempt, in your reply, to set bounds to the thing in question, to +restrict it, to fence it off, to state the line beyond which if it goes +it ceases to be one thing and becomes another. It is by no means always +an easy task to find this line. Many a child has come to grief in his +attempts to keep safely within the limits of truth and yet be close up +to the realm of desirable falsehood. Likewise many witnesses in court +have been beguiled or browbeaten into crossing the line without knowing +that they were getting into the country of the enemy. But though the +quest for the line may be difficult, a true definition must set off the +thing being defined from other things, must set bounds to it, enclose it +within its limits, show its extent. + + +The Process of Definition + +The logical process of defining consists of two steps: first, stating +the class or group to which the object of definition belongs, as to say +that Switzerland is a _country_, the forward pass is a _strategic device +in football_, humanism is a _philosophy of personal development_; and +second, pointing out the difference between the object of definition +and other members of the class, showing how it is distinguished from +them. Since the purpose of definition is to limit the thing defined, +the practical value of the first step is at once apparent. If, in +total ignorance, a resident of India asks you, "What is ragtime?" the +most helpful thing in the world that you can do for him is to cleave +away with one stroke everything else in the world but music--absolute +exclusion of all other human interests--and place ragtime in that +comparatively narrow field. That is the first thing of great help. +However many qualities you may attribute to ragtime,--whether you call +it inspiring, invigorating, pleasing, detestable, or what not,--you +are making at best only slow progress toward defining, really limiting +ragtime. The number of pleasing things, for example, is so endless, and +the things are so diverse in character that your listener is almost as +ignorant after such a quality has been attributed as he was before. But +the moment that you limit ragtime to music you scatter untold clouds of +doubt and place the inquirer in the comfortable position of having a +fairly large working knowledge. What is left for the inquirer to do is +merely to distinguish ragtime from other kinds of music--after all, a +rather simple task. Likewise in any definition, such as that of rotation +of crops, the first necessity is to place the subject in its proper +field, in this case agriculture; the grand piano in the class of musical +instruments; the rocking chair in the class of furniture. + +Now sometimes the task of discovering to what class your subject +belongs is difficult. Is a believer in Unitarianism a Christian? He +follows the ethical teachings of Jesus but denies him any special +divinity. In this case obviously the question of classification will +depend on the definition that we make of Christianity. Is a man who +serves the state in legislative or judicial capacity and at the same +time writes novels to be called a statesman or a man of letters? +Governments have fallen into difficulty with each other over such +things as contraband of war, there being great doubt at times whether +a particular thing is properly contraband or not. The question is +sometimes doubtful--you will be inclined to say, "I don't know what to +call this," but in making a definition call it you must. The United +States Government, facing the problem of discovering the proper class +for frogs' legs, in determining customs duties after much perturbation +placed them under the heading "poultry." Ordinarily you will find +slight difficulty in determining the class; but in every case you must +patiently search until you have found some class into which your subject +naturally fits. Until you have done this you obviously cannot set it +apart from other members, because you will not really know what the +other members are, you will be forced to run through the total list of +human ideas and things. Until you know that _oligarchy_ is one form of +political society you cannot know whether to set it off from _democracy_ +and _monarchy_ or from _Christianity_ and _Buddhism_. First, then, +however difficult, discover the class to which your subject belongs. In +the following definition of a _clearing-house_, you will find that in +the course of time the class to which the subject belongs has changed, +has come to include more space, needs a larger fence to surround it, and +therefore the definition has been changed. + + What is a clearing-house? The Supreme Court of the State + of Pennsylvania has defined it thus: "It is an ingenious device + to simplify and facilitate the work of the banks in reaching + an adjustment and payment of the daily balances due to and from + each other at one time and in one place on each day. In practical + operation it is a place where all the representatives of the banks + in a given city meet, and, under the supervision of a competent + committee or officer selected by the associated banks, settle their + accounts with each other and make or receive payments of balances + and so 'clear' the transactions of the day for which the settlement + is made." + + But we must go farther than this, for though originally + designed as a labor-saving device, the clearing-house has expanded + far beyond those limits, until it has become a medium for united + action among the banks in ways that did not exist even in the + imaginations of those who were instrumental in its inception. A + clearing-house, therefore, may be defined as a device to simplify + and facilitate the daily exchange of items and settlements of + balances among the banks, and a medium for united action upon all + questions affecting their mutual welfare.[13] + + [13] Francis M. Burdick: _The Essentials of Business Law_. By courtesy + of the publishers, D. Appleton & Co., New York City. Copyright + 1902, 1908, by D. Appleton & Co. + +The second step in the logical process of definition is to show how the +subject for definition differs from other members of its class. Once I +am told that the piano is a musical instrument I must next learn wherein +it differs from the violin, the kettle-drum, and the English horn. The +surname _Tomlinson_ partly defines a person as a member of the Tomlinson +family, but the definition is not complete until the name is modified +and the person is distinguished by _George_ or _Charles_ or whatever +name may belong to him. A skillful shepherd knows not only his flocks +but also the characteristics of the different members of the flocks, +so that he can say, "This sheep is the one in X flock that is always +getting into the clover." Here "X flock" is the class, and the quality +of abusing the clover is the distinguishing individual tag. Since the +desire in this part of the process of defining is to set individuals +apart, no mention will be made of qualities that are shared in common +but only of those that are peculiar to the individual. These qualities +that distinguish individual members of classes from each other are +called the _differentia_, just as the class is commonly called the +_genus_. + +For convenience in keeping the list of differentia reasonably small, +to avoid unwieldiness of definition, care must be exercised in +choosing the class. When a class which itself contains other possible +classes is chosen, a long list of differentia will be necessary. It +is well, therefore, to choose a relatively small class to begin with. +For example, if I put the piano into the large class of _musical +instruments_, I shall then be under the necessity of amassing sufficient +differentia to set it apart from wind instruments whether of brass +or wood, from instruments of percussion, and from other stringed +instruments that do not use metal strings. If I restrict the class +to _stringed instruments_, I thereby exclude the differentia of both +wind instruments and instruments of percussion. If I further restrict +the class, at the beginning, to _instruments with metal strings_, I +need then to employ only such differentia as will set it off, perhaps, +from instruments that do not have a sounding board for their metal +strings. Such restriction of the class is advisable chiefly for purposes +of economy of effort in discovering the differentia, and is usually +accomplished, in expression, by preceding the class name with a limiting +adjective or by using a limiting phrase. This adjective or this phrase +is likely to be the expression of differentia among smaller classes, the +differentia among individual members being stated more at length later +in the definition. + +The process of definition will be complete, then, when the subject of +definition has been assigned to a class, which for convenience should be +relatively small, and the qualities that distinguish the subject from +other members of the class have been found. + + +The Two Main Classes of Definitions + +Two main classes of definition exist: first, the rigidly logical, +scientific kind such as is found in dictionaries, textbooks, and +other such writings which are not concerned with emotional values; +and second, the less rigid, more expanded, more informal kind which +aims to please as well as to instruct, and which is found in essays +and all forms of writing with a strong human appeal. The two kinds +are alike in the presence of both genus and differentia; they differ +chiefly in the presence, in the less formal, of the qualities of +pleasingness and stimulation as opposed to the quality, in the formal, +of scientific impersonality, cold intellectuality. For example, the +Standard Dictionary defines a _correspondent_ as "one who communicates +by means of letters; specifically one who sends regular communications +from a distant place to a newspaper or a business house." The author +of the volume entitled _Famous War Correspondents_[14] defines, with +much the same fundamental ideas, if not indeed exactly the same, a _war +correspondent_ as follows: + + [14] F. L. Billiard: _Famous War Correspondents_. By courtesy of the + publishers, Little, Brown & Co., Boston. Copyright, 1914. + + The war correspondent is a newspaper man assigned to cover a + campaign. He goes into the field with the army, expecting to send + his reports from that witching region known as "the front." He is + a special correspondent commissioned to collect intelligence and + transmit it from the camp and the battle ground. A non-combatant, + he mingles freely with men whose business it is to fight. He may be + ten thousand miles from the home office, but he finds competition + as keen as ever it is in Fleet Street or Newspaper Row. He is + engaged in the most dramatic department of a profession whose + infinite variety is equalled only by its fascination. If he becomes + a professional rather than an occasional correspondent, wandering + will be his business and adventure his daily fare. Mr. A. G. Hales + is of the opinion that the newspaper man who is chosen as a war + correspondent has won the Victoria Cross of journalism. + + For the making of a first-rate war correspondent there are + required all the qualifications of a capable reporter in any other + branch of the profession, and others besides. Perhaps it is true + that the regular hack work of the ordinary newspaper man is the + best training for the scribe of war. The men who had reported + fires and train wrecks in American cities proved themselves able + to describe vigorously and clearly the campaign in Cuba. William + Howard Russell had been doing a great variety of descriptive + writing before he was sent to the Crimea. The prime requisites for + a satisfactory war correspondent are those fundamental to success + in any kind of newspaper work, the ability to see straight, to + write vividly and accurately, and to get a story on the wire. + + Occasionally a brilliant workman appears from nowhere, the + happy possessor of an almost uncanny intuition of movements and + purposes. Such a man was Archibald Forbes. But Forbes, no less than + the average special, had to have the physical capacity to march + with the private soldier, to ride a hundred miles at a clip at + top speed over rough country, to sleep in the open, to stand the + heat of the desert and the cold of the mountain height, to endure + hunger and thirst and all the deprivations of a hard campaign. + Every correspondent at times must keep going until his strength is + utterly spent. He must have the tenacity which does not yield to + exhaustion until his messages are written and on the way to his + paper. When the soldier ceases fighting, the correspondent's work + is only begun. He needs also to have a degree of familiarity with + the affairs of the present and the history of the past which will + secure him the respect of the officers with whom he may associate. + Along with the courage of the scout he should possess the suavity + and tact of the diplomat, for he will have to get along with men of + all types, and occasionally, indeed, his own influence may overlap + into the field of international diplomacy. British correspondents, + having covered many wars, small and great, since 1870, usually + are acquainted with several languages, and often have acquired a + knowledge of the technicalities of military science. + +Of the two kinds of definition--formal and informal--you will more often +have occasion to write the second. You must guard against the danger, +in such writing, of allowing the interest to cloud the truth, of being +led into inaccurate partial statements by your desire to please. At the +root of every good definition is still the accurate statement of genus +and differentia. It is chiefly of the second kind that we shall treat +here. If you can write a definition that is pleasing and stimulating and +also accurate, you can always boil it down into the more bald formal +statement such as the dictionary offers. Whatever powers of grace or +neatness in expression you possess, whatever powers of saying things +in a pleasing manner, it is your privilege to employ in the writing of +definitions. + + +General Cautions + +For the sake of clearness and general effectiveness a few cautions need +to be made. In the first place, be sure to exclude everything from your +definition that does not properly belong in it. For example, if you +define the aeroplane as a machine that journeys through the air under +its own power, you include dirigible balloons, which are not aeroplanes. +You must introduce both the characteristics of being heavier than air +and of having a plane or planes before your definition can stand. You +will make this exclusion by choosing both class and differentia with the +greatest care. + +In the second place, include everything that does properly belong in the +definition. If you define a bridge as a roadway over a stream, either +resting on piers or hanging on cables strung over towers, you exclude +pontoon bridges certainly, and all bridges across dry chasms, if not +other kinds. Not until you include all varieties of things crossed and +all the methods of support and the various materials used will your +definition be sound and complete. This does not mean that you will have +to make an endless list of all possible forms, but that you will make a +comprehensive statement which will allow of being distributed over all +the different forms and kinds of bridges. + +In the third place, use simple and familiar diction. Since the first +purpose of a definition is to explain, one that is obscure or difficult +makes confusion worse confounded. The famous--or notorious--definition +which Dr. Johnson made of so simple a thing as _network_, "anything +reticulated or decussated at equal distances with interstices between +the intersections," is worse than useless because it positively throws +dust upon a comparatively easy matter to perceive--unless the reader +take time out for meditation. Remember that the Gettysburg Address and +many of Shakespeare's sonnets are largely in words of one syllable. And +then do not be afraid that you will be understood; the fire is always +presumably somewhat more uncomfortable than the frying-pan. + +In the fourth place, do not use the term that you are defining, or +any derivative of it. When college freshmen, in mortal combat with a +quiz question, define a description as _something that describes_, +they use words that profit them nothing. That a cow is a cow is fairly +obvious. The temptation to make this mistake, which, in the intellectual +world, occupies the relative space of the saucy old advice, "Chase +yourself round the block!" occurs usually when a long definition is +being written, in which the writer forgets to keep the horizon clear, +and finally falls into the formula _x_ is _x_. To avoid yielding to +such temptation, you will do well, after a definition is complete, to +phrase it in a single sentence which shall include both differentia +and genus, and in which you can easily discover the evil formula _x_ +is _x_. Bardolph, in Shakespeare's _King Henry IV_, yields to the +temptation--for which we are glad as to humor but not made wise as to +meaning--when Shallow puts him to the test: + + _Shallow_: Better accommodated! it is good; yea, indeed, it + is: good phrases are surely, and ever were, very commendable. + Accommodated! it comes of accommodo: very good; a good phrase. + + _Bardolph_: Pardon me, sir; I have heard the word. Phrase + call you it? by this good day, I know not the phrase; but I will + maintain the word with my sword to be a soldier-like word, and a + word of exceeding good command, by heaven. Accommodated; that is, + when a man is, as they say, accommodated; or when a man is, being, + whereby 'a may be thought to be accommodated; which is an excellent + thing. + +In the fifth place, be sure that you define, and do not merely "talk +about" the subject. Any amount of however interesting comment that fails +to accomplish the two necessities of definition, statement of the genus +and the differentia, is futile; it is not definition. This temptation, +like the former one, will be overcome if you take the trouble to phrase +the actual material of your definition in one sentence that really +includes both genus and differentia. As a minor suggestion, do not begin +your definition with the words, "X is when" or "X is where," unless you +are defining either a unit of time or a place--and even then you will do +well to avoid these too frequently used phrases. + +Finally, do not make your definition too mechanical, too much lacking in +real life. Thinking of how you must deal with genus and differentia, you +are liable to be overwhelmed with the grim duty of being logical, and to +forget that you should also be human, that people read definitions, as +other kinds of writing, in the double hope of information and pleasure. +No real antagonism exists between logic of the strictest kind and +pleasurable presentation, as is proved by the examples quoted during the +course of this chapter and at the end. While you remember your subject, +remember also your reader; then you will be unlikely to make a dull +definition. + + +Methods of Defining + +You may use various methods of defining. Sometimes you will choose only +one, and sometimes you will combine. There is no special virtue in one +method more than another except as sometimes one happens to be more +useful for a given case, as we shall see. In selecting your method, +then, select on the basis of practical workability for the effect that +you desire to create, adhering to one or using several as seems most +effective. + +_a._ _The Method of Illustration_ + +One of the most useful, natural, and easy methods is that of giving an +example or illustration of the thing that is being defined. The great +usefulness of this method lies in the stimulating quality that the +concrete example always has. If you wish to define an abstract quality, +for example, such as _patriotism_, or _honor_, or _generosity_, you +will often find advantage, for the first, in calling up the figure of +Washington, of Lincoln, of Cromwell; in citing, for the second, the +case of some man who, after bankruptcy, has set himself to pay all his +former debts, or of Regulus who, though he had the chance not to keep +his promise to return to Carthage as prisoner, yet bade Rome farewell +and returned to unspeakable torture; in presenting, for the third, a +specific set of conditions, such as possession of only one dime, which +is then shared with another person who is even less fortunate, or +showing a known person, like Sir Philip Sidney, who, though at death's +door on the field of battle, urged that the exquisite joy of cold water +be given to a comrade who was even more terribly in need. In every one +of these cases the quality under definition is presented in an easily +grasped, concrete form that has the great advantage of human interest, +of stimulating the reader's thought. That using such a method is natural +is apparent as soon as we remember that we think largely in concrete +forms, specific cases. That it is rather easy is obvious, because so +many instances are always at hand to be used. + +The danger in this method is that the example chosen will not be +entirely fair. Such lack of fairness may occur if the example covers +too little ground of the definition or if it too highly accentuates +one phase of the subject of definition. If, for instance, you cite the +example of the man who gave away his only pair of shoes, as an example +of generosity, you may run the risk of making the reader think that +nothing but an extreme act has the real stamp of the generous giver, or +that generosity is expressed only in material ways, forgetting that it +is generous to acknowledge a fault or to overlook unintended affront. +To avoid this danger be sure that your example is fair and sufficiently +comprehensive, and if it is not, choose other examples to add to it +until you are convinced of the all-round fitness of your definition. In +the following examples you may feel that Gissing does not wholly define +_poverty_, whereas Shaw is more complete in his approach to defining +_ability that gives value for money_, and Mr. Morman by taking a typical +example and working it out arrives at complete understanding with +perhaps less of piquant interest. + + Blackberries hanging thick upon the hedge bring to my memory + something of long ago. I had somehow escaped into the country and + on a long walk began to feel mid-day hunger. The wayside brambles + were fruiting; I picked and ate, and ate on, until I had come + within sight of an inn where I might have made a good meal. But + my hunger was satisfied; I had no need of anything more, and, + as I thought of it, a strange feeling of surprise, a sort of + bewilderment, came upon me. What! Could it be that I had eaten, + and eaten sufficiently, _without paying_? It struck me as an + extraordinary thing. At that time, my ceaseless preoccupation was + how to obtain money to keep myself alive. Many a day I had suffered + hunger because I durst not spend the few coins I possessed; the + food I could buy was in any case unsatisfactory, unvaried. But here + nature had given me a feast, which seemed delicious, and I had + eaten all I wanted. The wonder held me for a long time, and to this + day I can recall it, understand it. + + I think there could be no better illustration of what it means + to be poor in a great town.[15] + + [15] George Gissing: _The Private Papers of Henry Ryecroft_, "Autumn." + By permission of the publishers, E. P. Dutton & Co., New York + City. + + * * * * * + + In business, as a rule, a man must make what he gets and + something over into the bargain. I have known a man to be employed + by a firm of underwriters to interview would-be insurers. His sole + business was to talk to them and decide whether to insure or not. + Salary, £4000 a year. This meant that the loss of his judgment + would have cost his employers more than £4000 a year. Other + men have an eye for contracts or whatnot, or are born captains + of industry, in which cases they go into business on their own + account, and make ten, twenty, or two hundred per cent where you or + I would lose five. Or, to turn back a moment from the giants to the + minnows, take the case of a woman with the knack of cutting out a + dress. She gets six guineas a week instead of eighteen shillings. + Or she has perhaps a ladylike air and a figure on which a mantle + looks well. For these she can get several guineas a week merely + by standing in a show-room letting mantles be tried on her before + customers. All these people are renters of ability; and their + ability is inseparable from them and dies with them. The excess of + their gains over those of an ordinary person with the same capital + and education is the "rent" of the exceptional "fertility." But + observe, if the able person makes £100,000, and leaves that to his + son, who, being but an ordinary gentleman, can get only from two + and a half to four per cent on it, that revenue is pure interest on + capital and in no sense whatever rent of ability.[16] + + [16] George B. Shaw: _Socialism and Superior Brains_. By courtesy of + the publishers, John Lane Company, New York City. + + * * * * * + + By "amortization" is meant the method of paying a debt by + regular semi-annual or annual installments. To illustrate: + + Suppose a farmer gives a mortgage on his farm of $1000, with + interest at 5 per cent. In addition to the interest, he agrees + to pay 2 per cent a year on the principal. This makes a total of + 7 per cent a year, or a payment of $70, which may be paid in two + semi-annual installments of $35 each. The first year's interest + and payment on the principal are taken as the amount to be paid + annually. But of the first payment, $50 represents the interest + and $20 the payment on the principal. After the first year's + payment, therefore, instead of owing $1000, the farmer owes only + $980, with interest at 5 per cent. + + For the sake of simplicity, let us suppose that payments + are made annually. When the next time of payment comes round, + the farmer pays his $70. Since his debt is less, the interest + the second year amounts to $49 instead of $50, and therefore the + payment on the principal is $21 instead of $20 as it was the first + year. In the second year the debt is reduced to $959. + + On the return of the third time of payment the farmer pays + another $70, of which amount $47.95 represents the interest and + $22.05 the payment on the principal. This reduces the farmer's + mortgage debt to $936.95. + + Now, this system of payment and method of reducing the debt + continues until the mortgage has been lifted by a gradual process. + Thus, while the annual payments are always the same, the amount + of interest is always decreasing and the amount of the payments + on the debt is always increasing. Consequently, the mortgage is + paid off in ten to forty years according to the rate of payment on + the loan that the debtor himself elects to pay when the contract + is made. This is the simple principle of amortization, and it is + recognized in Europe as the safest, easiest, and best method of + reducing land-mortgage indebtedness hitherto conceived and put into + practice.[17] + + [17] J. B. Morman: _Principles of Rural Credit_. By courtesy of the + publishers, The Macmillan Company, New York City. + +If, then, you have a subject that is abstract and perhaps difficult +to understand in abstract explanation; if you wish, to stimulate your +readers and make their reading pleasant; if, for any reason, you wish +to write informally, then you may well decide to employ the useful, +natural, and easy method of definition by illustration. + +_b._ _The Method of Comparison or Contrast_ + +A second method, closely akin to that by illustration, is the method of +defining by comparison or contrast. The value of this method lies in +its liveliness and the ease with which it makes an idea comprehended. +The liveliness derives largely from the usual presence of specific facts +or things with which the subject of definition is compared or to which +it is contrasted, and from the imaginative stimulus that perception of +similarity in function creates. The implied definition of leader in +politics in Lincoln's famous remark about changing political parties in +war time, "Don't swap horses while crossing a stream," is not only true, +but more, it is interesting. The ease of comprehension is due largely +to employing the method of proceeding from the known to the unknown +in that comparison is usually made to things already familiar. If +contrast is used, there is the added interest of dramatic presentation +found especially in oratorical definitions. Liveliness and ease in +comprehension make this method a valuable one in addressing a popular +or an unlearned body of readers; it presents the truth and it enlists +interest. In the following examples you will not be aware of dramatic +quality in the first but you will find picturesque qualities in both. + + Lord Cromer describes a responsible statesman in a democracy + as very much in the position of a man in a boat off the mouth of a + tidal river. He long has to strive against wind and current until + finally a favorable conjunction of weather and tide forms a wave + upon which he rides safely into the harbor. There is an essential + truth in this which no man attempting to play the part of leader in + a democracy can forget except at his peril. Government by public + opinion is bound to get a sufficient body of public opinion on its + side. But withal it is manifestly the duty of a leader to help form + a just public opinion. He must dare to be temporarily unpopular, + if only in that way he can get a temporary hearing for the truths + which the people ought to have presented to them. He is to execute + the popular will, but he is not to neglect shaping it. It is his + duty to be properly receptive, but his main striving ought to be + that virtue should go out of him to touch and quicken the masses + of his citizens. If their minds and imaginations are played upon + with sufficient persistence and sufficient skill, they will give + him back his own ideas with enthusiasm. A man who throws a ball + against a wall gets it back again as if hurled by the dead brick + and mortar; but the original impulse is in his own muscle. So a + democratic leader may say, if he chooses, that he takes only what + is pressed upon him by the people; but his function is often first + to press it upon them.[18] + + [18] Gustav Pollak: _Fifty Years of American Idealism_. Houghton + Mifflin Company. By courtesy of _The Nation_. + + * * * * * + + The quack novel is a thing which looks like a book, and + which is compounded, advertised, and marketed in precisely the + same fashion as Castoria, Wine of Cardui, Alcola, Mrs. Summers's + free-to-you-my-sister Harmless Headache Remedy, Viavi Tablettes, + and other patent medicines, harmful and harmless. As the patent + medicine is made of perfectly well-known drugs, so the quack novel + of course contains perfectly familiar elements, and like the + medicine, it comes wrapped in superlative testimonials from those + who say they have swallowed it to their advantage. Instead of + "After twenty years of bed-ridden agony, one bottle of your Fosforo + cured every ache and completely restored my manhood," we have "The + secret of his powers is the same God-given secret that inspired + Shakespeare and upheld Dickens." This, from the Philadelphia + _Sunday Dispatch_, accompanies a quack novel by Mr. Harold Bell + Wright, of whom the Portland, Oregon, _Journal_ remarks, "It is + this almost clairvoyant power of reading the human soul that has + made Mr. Wright's books among the most remarkable works of the + present age." Similar to that aroma of piety and charity which + accompanies the quack medicines, an equally perceptible odor of + sanctity is wafted to us with Mr. Wright; and just as imitators + will make their boxes and bottles to resemble those of an already + successful trade article, so are Mr. Wright's volumes given that + red cloth and gold lettering which we have come to associate with + the bindings of Mr. Winston Churchill's very popular and agreeable + novels. Lastly--like the quack medicines--the quack novel is + (mostly) harmful; not always because it is poisonous (though this + occurs), but because it pretends to be literature and is taken for + literature by the millions who swallow it year after year as their + chief mental nourishment, and whose brains it saps and dilutes. + In short, both these shams--the book and the medicine--win and + bamboozle their public through methods almost identical.[19] + + [19] Owen Wister: _Quack Novels and Democracy_. By courtesy of The + Atlantic Monthly Company, Boston. + +For complete truth you need to present both resemblance and difference. +This necessity is apparent as soon as we remember that the differentia +are of vital importance, that we understand the subject only when we +see how it differs from other members of the same class. When these +differences are obvious, of course they need no mention. But in defining +_wit and humor_, for example, or _immorality and unconventionality_, +we must know not only the parallelisms but also the divergencies. The +best method of procedure is to discover in each of the subjects compared +the vital things, the heart without which it could not exist, and then +to observe how these work out in the particulars of the subject. In +defining _State_ and _Nation_ in the following selection Mr. Russell +takes care to show both resemblances and differences. + + _Nation_ is not to be defined by affinities of language or a + common historical origin, though these things often help to produce + a nation. Switzerland is a nation, in spite of diversities of race, + religion, and language. England and Scotland now form one nation, + though they did not do so at the time of our Civil War. This is + shown by Cromwell's saying, in the height of the conflict, that he + would rather be subject to the dominion of the royalists than to + that of the Scotch. Great Britain was one state before it was one + nation; on the other hand, Germany was one nation before it was one + state. What constitutes a nation is a sentiment and an instinct--a + sentiment of similarity and an instinct of belonging to the same + group or herd. The instinct is an extension of the instinct which + constitutes a flock of sheep, or any other group of gregarious + animals. The sentiment which goes with this is like a milder and + more extended form of family feeling. When we return to England + after having been on the Continent, we feel something friendly in + the familiar ways, and it is easy to believe that Englishmen on + the whole are virtuous while many foreigners are full of designing + wickedness. + + Such feelings make it easy to organize a nation into a state. + It is not difficult, as a rule, to acquiesce in the orders of a + national government. We feel that it is our government, and that + its decrees are more or less the same as those which we should + have given if we ourselves had been the governors. There is an + instinctive, and usually unconscious, sense of a common purpose + animating the members of a nation. This becomes especially vivid + when there is a war or a danger of war. Any one who, at such a + time, stands out against the orders of his government feels an + inner conflict quite different from any that he would feel in + standing out against the orders of a foreign government, in whose + power he might happen to find himself. If he stands out, he does + so with a more or less conscious hope that his government may in + time come to think as he does; whereas, in standing out against a + foreign government, no such hope is necessary. This group instinct, + however it may have arisen, is what constitutes a nation, and what + makes it important that the boundaries of nations should also be + the boundaries of states.[20] + + [20] Bertrand Russell: _National Independence and Internationalism_. + By courtesy of The Atlantic Monthly Company, Boston. + +_c._ _The Method of Division_ + +A third method, often used, and similar in its general form to analysis, +divides the subject into its various headings, the sum of which must +equal the whole. This method differs from analysis, perhaps, in that it +treats the subject throughout as a unit rather than as a congregation of +parts. This method may be used to define a subject like _mathematics_, +in stating that it is the pure science which includes arithmetic, +algebra, geometry, etc., or to define a quality like _patriotism_, by +enumerating the qualities that patriotism has. These qualities may be, +also, the uses to which the subject can be put, as in defining a tool or +a machine. The method consists in establishing the genus and then, from +a mental map of the subject, selecting the various parts that constitute +the whole, whether these parts be of physical extent, as in defining +the United States by giving the various sections of the country, or of +spiritual significance, as in defining an honest man by stating the +qualities that he should possess. + +One danger from this method is lack of completeness; great practical +value attaches here to the caution to be sure that the definition +includes all that properly belongs under it. Another danger is in the +temptation to "talk about" the subject without actually defining it, +merely saying some pleasant things and then ceasing. The caution against +this danger in general must be remembered. Properly used, this method, +though it is sometimes rather formal, should result in great clearness +through completeness of definition. The following celebrated definition +of a "classic" is a good example of compact definition by this method, +and the definition of "moral atmosphere" of a more leisurely, informal +breaking-up. + + A classic is an author who has enriched the human mind, who + has really added to its treasure, who has got it to take a step + further; who has discovered some unequivocal moral truth, or + penetrated to some eternal passion, in that heart of man where it + seemed as though all were known and explored, who has produced his + thought, or his observation, or his invention, under some form, no + matter what, so it be large, great, acute, and reasonable, sane and + beautiful in itself; who has spoken to all in a style of his own, + yet a style which finds itself the style of everybody,--in a style + that is at once new and antique, and is the contemporary of all + ages.[21] + + [21] Sainte-Beuve. + + * * * * * + + The moral atmosphere of the office was ideal. I mean more in + the extended and not alone in our specific English sense, though + in the latter it was even perhaps more marked. There was not only + no temporizing, compromising, compounding with candor, in either + major matters or trifling; there was no partiality or ingenuity + or bland indifference by which the devil may be, and so often + is, whipped round the stump. There was in the _Nation's_ field + and conception of its function no temptation to anything of this + sort, to be sure, which consideration may conceivably qualify its + assessment of merit on the Day of Judgment--a day when we may hope + the sins of daily journalism will, in consequence of the same + consideration, be extended some leniency--but certainly cannot + obscure the fact of its conspicuous integrity. There were people + then--as now--that complained of its fairness; which involved, + to my mind, the most naïve attitude imaginable, since it was + the _Nation's_ practice that had provided the objector with his + criterion of fairness in journalism. Of course he might assert that + this was only a way of saying that the paper made extraordinary + claims which in his estimation it failed to justify; but this was + verbiage, the fact being as I have stated it. + + But I also mean by moral atmosphere the peace, the serenity, + the gentleness, the self-respect, the feeling of character, that + pervaded the office. We seemed, to my sense, so recently filled + with the reactions of Park Row phenomena, "to lie at anchor in + the stream of Time," as Carlyle said of Oxford--which, actually, + we were very far from doing; there was never any doubt of the + _Nation's_ being what is now called a "live wire," especially + among those who took hold of it unwarily--as now and then some + one did. Mr. Garrison shared the first editorial room with me. + Mr. Godkin had the back office. The publication offices were in + front, occupied by the amiable Mr. St. John and his staff, which + included a gentle and aristocratic colored bookkeeper who resembled + an East Indian philosopher--plainly a Garrisonian protégé. The + silence I especially remember as delightful, and I never felt from + the first the slightest constraint; Mr. Garrison had the courtesy + that goes with active considerateness. The quiet was broken only + by the occasional interchange of conversation between us, or by + the hearty laugh of Mr. Godkin, whose laugh would have been the + most noteworthy thing about him if he had not had so many other + noteworthy characteristics; or by a visit now and then from Arthur + Sedgwick, in my time not regularly "on" the paper, who always + brought the larger world in with him (the office _was_ perhaps + a little cloistral as a rule), or the appearance of Earl Shinn + with his art or dramatic criticism--both the best written, if not + also the best we have ever had in this country, and the latter so + distinguished, I think, as to be unique. + + Of course, there were visitors, contributors and candid + friends, but mainly we worked in almost Quakerish tranquillity five + days in the week during my incumbency.[22] + + [22] Gustav Pollak: _Fifty Years of American Idealism_. Houghton + Mifflin Company. By courtesy of _The Nation_. + +_d._ _The Method of Repetition_ + +A fourth method, which may be used in connection with any other, +consists in repeating the definition over and over in different words, +from different points of view, driving home by accumulated emphasis. +The value of this method lies in its feeling of absolute sureness in +the reader's mind: once completed, the definition seems quite settled, +quite tamped down, quite clinched. It is a difficult method to employ, +for the writer is in great danger of saying exactly the same thing again +and again, forgetting to assume different points of view. From such a +definition tediousness is of course the result. The subjects treated by +this method are likely to be abstract matters upon which light is shed +from various angles, as if one poured spot lights from all sides upon +some object which remains the same but which delivers up all its phases. +Emerson often used this method, as in the following example where both +the method of repetition and that of comparison are used: + + The two parties which divide the state, the party of + Conservatism and that of Innovation, are very old, and have + disputed the possession of the world ever since it was made.... It + is the counteraction of the centripetal and the centrifugal forces. + Innovation is the salient energy; Conservatism the pause on the + last movement. "That which is was made by God," says Conservatism. + "He is leaving that, he is entering this other," enjoins Innovation. + + There is always a certain meanness in the argument of + conservatism, joined with a certain superiority in its fact. It + affirms because it holds. Its fingers clutch the fact, and it + will not open its eyes to see a better fact. The castle which + conservatism is set to defend is the actual state of things, good + and bad. The project of innovation is the best possible state + of things. Of course conservatism always has the worst of the + argument, is always apologizing, pleading a necessity, pleading + that to change would be to deteriorate: it must saddle itself + with the mountainous load of the violence and vice of society, + must deny the possibility of good, deny ideas, and suspect and + stone the prophet; whilst innovation is always in the right, + triumphant, attacking, and sure of final success. Conservatism + stands on man's confessed limitations, reform on his indisputable + infinitude; conservatism on circumstance, liberalism on power; + one goes to make an adroit member of the social frame, the other + to postpone all things to the man himself; conservatism is + debonair and social, reform is individual and imperious. We are + reformers in the spring and summer, in autumn and winter we stand + by the old; reformers in the morning, conservers at night. Reform + is affirmative, conservatism negative; conservatism goes for + comfort, reform for truth. Conservatism is more candid to behold + another's worth; reform more disposed to maintain and increase + its own. Conservatism makes no poetry, breathes no prayer, has no + invention; it is all memory. Reform has no gratitude, no prudence, + no husbandry. It makes a great difference to your figure and your + thought whether your foot is advancing or receding. Conservatism + never puts the foot forward; in the hour when it does that, it is + not establishment, but reform. Conservatism tends to universal + seeming and treachery, believes in a negative fate; believes that + men's temper governs them; that for me it avails not to trust in + principles, they will fail me, I must bend a little; it distrusts + nature; it thinks there is a general law without a particular + application,--law for all that does not include any one. Reform in + its antagonism inclines to asinine resistance, to kick with hoofs; + it runs to egotism and bloated self-conceit; it runs to a bodiless + pretension, to unnatural refining and elevation which ends in + hypocrisy and sensual reaction. + + And so, while we do not go beyond general statements, it may + be safely affirmed of these two metaphysical antagonists, that + each is a good half but an impossible whole. Each exposes the + abuses of the other, but in a true society, in a true man, both + must combine.[23] + + [23] Ralph Waldo Emerson: "The Conservative," in _Nature, Addresses, + and Lectures_. Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston. + +_e._ _The Method of Elimination_ + +Two methods, which are perhaps less frequently found, but which are +none the less useful, remain to be mentioned. The first is the method +of elimination, that is, the method of defining a thing by telling +what it is not, by eliminating all things with which it might become +confused. This method is of great value in defining an idea which is +often considered to mean what it actually does not. By shutting out +the erroneous interpretations, one by one, the errors are finally +disposed of. This method is most effective when not only are the wrong +interpretations excluded, but the correct idea, interpretation, is +positively stated at some point. If this is not done there lingers +in the reader's mind a taint of suspicion that either the author did +not know exactly the correct meaning, or that the subject is really +too difficult to bear real definition. And with a reader who does not +think clearly in original ways a positive statement is almost essential +lest he be unable to tell what the subject really is, after all, being +unable to supply the residue after the process of elimination has been +completed. Following this method Mr. Cross defines Socialism by showing +that it is not anarchy, is not single tax, is not communism, and is +not other systems with which it is often confused. The result is to +leave socialism standing out by itself with clearness. In the following +definition of college spirit the author has followed the method of +elimination to clear away the haze that in many minds surrounds the +subject: + + College spirit is like ancestry: we are all supposed to have + it, but few of us know intimately what it is. The freshman in whose + heart beats desire to show loyalty, the graduate whose pulse stirs + as the train nears the "little old college," the alumnus who + unties his purse-strings at the clarion call of a deficit--do these + show loyalty by mere desire or by deeds? And if by deeds, by what + kind of action shall their loyalty be determined? + + In the first place, college spirit is not mere voice culture. + The man who yells until his face is purple and his throat is a + candidate for the rest cure is not necessarily displaying college + spirit--though he may possess it. Yelling is not excluded; it + is merely denied the first place. For, to parody Shakespeare, a + man can yell and yell and still be a college slacker. Cheering, + indiscriminate noise making, even singing the college song with + gusto at athletic games--none of these will stamp a man as + necessarily loyal. Nor will participation in athletic sports or in + "college activities" of other natures be sufficient to declare a + man, for the participation may be of a purely selfish nature. The + man who makes a record in the sprints chiefly for his own glory, + or the man who edits the college paper because by so doing he can + "make a good thing out of it" for himself, is not possessed of + true college spirit, for college spirit demands more than mere + selfishness. In the same way, taking part in celebrations, marching + down Main Street with a flag fluttering round his ears, a sunflower + in his buttonhole, an inane grin on his face, a swagger in his + gait, and a determination to tell the whole world that his "dear + old Alma Mater" is "the finest little college in the world"--this, + too, is without avail, though it is not necessarily opposed to + college spirit. For this exhibition, also, is largely selfish. + Likewise, becoming a "grind," removing one's self from the human + fellowship that college ought to furnish in its most delightful + form, and becoming determined to prepare for a successful business + career without regard to the warm flow of human emotion through the + heart--this is not college spirit. All these harmless things are + excluded because they are primarily selfish, and college spirit is + primarily opposed to selfishness. + + True college spirit is found in the man whose heart has warmed + to the love of his college, whose eyes have caught the vision of + the ideals that the college possesses, whose brain has thought + over and understood these ideals until they have become very fibre + of his being. This man will yell not for the selfish pleasure + of wallowing in sentimentality, but for the solid glory of his + college; will run and leap, will edit the paper with the desire to + make and keep the college in the front rank of athletic, social, + and intellectual life; will study hard that the college may not be + disgraced through him; will conduct himself like a gentleman that + no one may sneer at the institution which has sponsored him; will + resent any slurs upon the fair name of the college; will be willing + to sacrifice himself, his own personal glory, for the sake of the + college; will be willing to give of his money and his time until, + perhaps, it hurts. And above all, he will never forget the gleam + of idealism that he received in the old halls, the vision of his + chance to serve his fellows. The man who does these things, who + thinks these things, has true college spirit. + +_f._ _The Method of Showing Origin, Cause, Effect_ + +The other of these two methods is that of defining by showing the origin +or causes of the subject or by showing its effects. If we can be made +to see what forces went to the making of anything, or what has resulted +from it, we shall have a fairly clear idea of the nature of the thing. +Thus we may perhaps best understand the nature of _cabinet government_ +by showing how the system came into being, what need it filled, what +forces produced it. The same method might make clear _primitive Greek +drama_, _the Hanseatic League_, _fertilization of land_, _the Federal +Reserve System of Banking_, _the modern orchestra_. And by showing +the effects we might define such matters as _the Montessori method of +education_, _the Feudal System_, _anarchy_, _militarism_. The writer of +a definition after this method needs to take care that when he has shown +the various causes or effects, he surely binds them somehow together and +vitally to the subject of definition. There must be no dim feeling in +the mind of the reader that, after all, the subject is not yet clearly +limned, not yet set off from other things. The definition which follows +makes clear the origin of the mechanical engineer, and by showing what +he does, what need there was for him, what lack he fills, makes clear +what he is. + + The period of systematic and scientific power development is + coincident with the true progress of the most basal of the several + branches of natural philosophy, chemistry, physics, mechanics, + thermodynamics, and the theory of elasticity of materials of + construction; and there is no doubt that the steam engine, which + was designed and built by workmen before these were formulated, + attracted the attention of philosophers who, in attempting + to explain what took place in it, created a related body of + principles by which future development was guided, and which are + now the fundamental bases for the design of the future. Those + men who became familiar with the natural sciences, and also with + the shop methods of making machinery, and who brought both to + bear on the problem of the production of machinery for specified + conditions, combining the special knowledge of the scientist and + the shop mechanic, were the first mechanical engineers; and the + profession of mechanical engineering, which is the term applied to + this sort of business, was created out of the efforts to improve + power systems, so as to make them more efficient and adapted to + all classes of service, and to render that service for the least + cost.[24] + + [24] C. E. Lucke: _Power_. By courtesy of the publishers, the Columbia + University Press. + +Emerson makes a definition of the civilization of America in the +following selection wherein he describes the effect of American society +and life upon the individual. + + The true test of civilization is, not the crops, not the + size of cities, not the census,--no, but the kind of man the + country turns out. I see the vast advantages of this country, + spanning the breadth of the temperate zone. I see the immense + material prosperity,--towns on towns, states on states, and wealth + piled in the massive architecture of cities: California quartz, + mountains dumped down in New York to be repiled architecturally + alongshore from Canada to Cuba, and thence westward to California + again. But it is not New York streets, built by the confluence of + workmen and wealth of all nations, though stretching out toward + Philadelphia until they touch it, and northward until they touch + New Haven, Hartford, Springfield, Worcester, and Boston,--not + these that make the real estimation. But when I look over this + constellation of cities which animate and illustrate the land, and + see how little the government has to do with their daily life, how + self-helped and self-directed all families are,--knots of men in + purely natural societies, societies of trade, of kindred blood, of + habitual hospitality, house and house, man acting on man by weight + of opinion, of longer or better-directed industry; the refining + influence of women, the invitation which experience and permanent + causes open to youth and labor: when I see how much each virtuous + and gifted person whom all men consider, lives affectionately with + scores of people who are not known far from home, and perhaps with + greatest reason reckons these people his superiors in virtue and in + the symmetry and force of their qualities,--I see what cubic values + America has, and in these a better certificate of civilization than + great cities or enormous wealth.[25] + + [25] Ralph Waldo Emerson: "Civilization," in _Society and Solitude_. + Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston. + +These, then, are the various methods that are in common use. The list +might be extended, but perhaps enough varieties have been discussed to +be of practical value. The choice of method will depend on the result +that the writer wishes to accomplish; at times he will wish to please +the reader's fancy with an illustration, and again he may wish to +contrast the subject to something else. If at any time more methods than +one are useful, there is not the slightest objection to combining; in +fact, most definitions of any length will be found to have more than one +method employed. Remember that the methods were made for you, not you +for the methods. And so long as you make your subject clear, so long as +you set it off by itself in a class, distinct from other members of the +class, you can be sure of the value of your definition. + + +EXERCISES + + I. Discover the restricting adjectives or phrases that will reduce + the number of differentia required by the genus in the following + definitions: + + 1. Vaudeville is _an entertainment_. + + 2. Pneumonia is _a disease_. + + 3. The Browning gun is _a machine_. + + 4. Landscape gardening is _an occupation_. + + 5. Smelting is _an operation_. + + 6. Lyrics are _writing_. + + 7. A college diploma is _a statement by a body of men_. + + 8. Rotation of crops is _a system_. + + 9. The Republican party is _an organization_. + + 10. Anglo-Saxon is _a language_. + + 11. An axe is _a tool_. + + 12. A printing press is _a steel structure_. + + 13. A hair-net is _weaving_. + + 14. Literature is _writing_. + + 15. Militarism is _an attitude of mind_. + + II. Write a definition of any of the following, showing how the + subject has shifted its genus by its development, as the + _clearing-house_ (page 75) has. + + 1. The Temperance Movement (sentimental crusade; sensible + campaign for efficiency). + + 2. War. + + 3. Incantation (means of salvation; curiosity). + + 4. Household Science (drudgery; occupation). + + 5. Aristocracy (through physical strength; through birth; + through property). + + 6. Justice (B.C.; A.D.). + + 7. Chemistry (magic; utility). + + 8. The Presidency of the United States (as changed by Mr. + Wilson's procedure with Congress). + + 9. The Theater (under Puritan and Cavalier). + + 10. Electricity (curiosity; fearsome thing; utility). + + Of course any one of these ten subjects can be defined with a + changeless genus, but such a genus is likely to be in the realm + of the abstract, pretty thoroughly divorced from practical life. + + III. From the following definitions taken from Webster's New + International Dictionary construct definitions of a more + amplified, pleasing nature, after the manner of the definition of + _war correspondents_. + + 1. _Laziness_ is the state of being disinclined to action or + exertion; averse to labor; indolent; idle; slothful. + + 2. _Efficiency_ is the quality of being efficient, of producing + an effect or effects; efficient power or action. + + 3. A _department store_ is a store keeping a great variety of + goods which are arranged in several departments, especially + one with dry goods as the principal stock. + + 4. _Metabolism_ is the sum of the processes concerned in the + building up of protoplasm and its destruction incidental to + the manifestation of vital phenomena; the chemical changes + proceeding continually in living cells, by which the energy + is provided for the vital processes and activities and new + material is assimilated to repair the waste. + + 5. _Judgment_ is the faculty of judging or deciding rightly, + justly, or wisely; good sense; as, a man of judgment; a + politician without judgment. + + 6. _Puddling_ is the art or process of converting cast iron into + wrought iron, or, now rarely, steel by subjecting it to + intense heat and frequent stirring in a reverberatory furnace + in the presence of oxidizing substances, by which it is freed + from a portion of its carbon and other impurities. + + 7. _Overhead cost_ is the general expenses of a business, as + distinct from those caused by particular pieces of traffic. + + 8. A _joke_ is something said or done for the sake of exciting a + laugh; something witty or sportive (commonly indicating more + of hilarity or humor than jest). + + 9. A _diplomat_ is one employed or skilled in the art and + practice of conducting negotiations between nations, as in + arranging treaties; performing the business or art of + conducting international discourse. + + 10. A _visionary_ is one who relies, or tends to rely, on + visions, or impractical ideas, projects, or the like; an + impractical person. + + 11. An _entrepreneur_ is an employer in his character of one who + assumes the risk and management of business. + + 12. _Loyalty_ is fidelity to a superior, or to duty, love, etc. + + 13. A _prig_ is one narrowly and self-consciously engrossed in + his own mental or spiritual attainments; one guilty of moral + or intellectual foppery; a conceited precisian. + + 14. _Heresy_ is an opinion held in opposition to the established + or commonly received doctrine, and tending to promote + division or dissension. + + 15. _Eugenics_ is the science of improving stock, whether human + or animal, or of improving plants. + + IV. Compare the definitions of the following which you find in the + Century Dictionary, the Standard Dictionary, the Webster's New + International Dictionary and the New English Dictionary; find the + common elements, and make a definition of your own. + + 1. Literature. + + 2. Living wage. + + 3. Capillary attraction. + + 4. Sympathy. + + 5. Classicism. + + 6. Inertia. + + 7. Fodder. + + 8. Religion. + + 9. Introspection. + + 10. Individuality. + + 11. Finance. + + 12. Capital. + + 13. Soil physics. + + 14. Progress. + + 15. Narrow-mindedness. + + V. Look up the definitions of the following terms and estimate the + resulting amount of increase in your knowledge of the subject + which includes the terms. Do you find any stimulus toward + _thinking_ about the subject? What would you say, as the result + of this investigation, about the value of definitions? What does + Coleridge mean by his statement "Language thinks for us"? + + 1. _Religion_: awe, reverence, duty, mystery, peace, priest, + worship, loyalty, prayer, supplication, trust, + divinity, god, service, church, temple, heaven, + fate. + + 2. _Socialism_: property, social classes, economic rights, + capital, labor, wages, the masses, aristocracy, + envy, self-respect, economic distribution, + labor union, boycott, strike, lock-out, + materialism, profit-sharing. + + 3. _Ability_: genius, wit, talent, insight, judgment, + perseverance, logic, imagination, originality, + intellectuality, vitality. + + 4. _Music_: sound, rhythm, melody, harmony, orchestra, + interval (musical), key, beat, tonic, + modulation, musical register, polyphony, + monophony, sonata, oratorio, musical scale, + diatonic, chromatic, tempo. + + 5. _Democracy_: independence, suffrage, representation, + equality, popular, coöperation. + + VI. Are the two statements which follow definitions? If not, why not? + What would be the effect of the use of definitions of this type + in argument? Write a defining theme with such a definition as its + nucleus, and test its value. + + 1. Beauty is its own excuse for being. + + 2. Virtue is its own reward. + + VII. In the following definitions[26] what are the genera? Are the + definitions fair? How would you criticize them in general? Write + a theme using the differentia noted, and trying to catch in the + theme the spirit that is shown in the lists. + + [26] From B. L. T.'s "The Line o' Type Column." By courtesy of the + _Chicago Tribune_. + + Highbrow: Browning, anthropology, economics, + Bacon, the up-lift, inherent sin, Gibbon, fourth dimension, + Euripides, "eyether," pâté de fois gras, lemon phosphate, + Henry Cabot Lodge, Woodrow Wilson. + + Low-highbrow: Municipal government, Kipling, + socialism, Shakespeare, politics, Thackeray, taxation, golf, + grand opera, bridge, chicken à la Maryland, "eether," stocks + and bonds, gin rickey, Theodore Roosevelt, chewing gum in + private. + + High-lowbrow: Musical comedy, euchre, baseball, + moving pictures, small steak medium, whiskey, Robert W. + Chambers, purple socks, chewing gum with friends. + + Lowbrow: Laura Jean Libbey, ham sandwich, haven't + came, pitch, I and her, melodrama, hair oil, the Duchess, + beer, George M. Cohan, red flannels, toothpicks, Bathhouse + John, chewing gum in public. + + VIII. Expand the following definition[27] into a theme, using the + combined methods of illustration and comparison. What is the + value of having the heart of the definition stated before the + theme is begun? + + [27] George Bernard Shaw: _The Sanity of Art_. By courtesy of the + publishers, Boni & Liveright. + + The worthy artist or craftsman is he who serves + the physical and moral senses by feeding them with pictures, + musical compositions, pleasant houses and gardens, good + clothes and fine implements, poems, fictions, essays, and + dramas which call the heightened senses and ennobled faculties + into pleasurable activity. The great artist is he who goes a + step beyond the demand, and, by supplying works of a higher + beauty and a higher interest than have yet been perceived, + succeeds, after a brief struggle with its strangeness, in + adding this fresh extension of sense to the heritage of the + race. + + IX. See "Poverty" (page 84). + + 1. In view of the fact that Gissing uses so slight an + illustration to fix his ideal, what makes the definition + valuable? Compare the value of this definition with another + of the same subject such as you might find in a text on + Sociology or Economics. + + 2. Define by illustration any of the following: Homesickness, + Jealousy, Despair, Discouragement, Vulgarity, Opulence, + Misery, Cheapness, Tenacity, Anger, Adaptability, Man of + action, Man of executive ability, Statesman, Ward boss, Man + of learning, Luck, Courage, Business success, "Bonehead + Play," Political shrewdness, The "College Widow," Perfect + technique, Up-to-date factory, Social tact, A Snob, "Some + Kid," Other-worldliness, A Gentleman, A Lady, A "real meal," + A fighting chance, Good breeding, A "Social climber," + Community music, Poetic justice, A wage-slave, A political + ring, Good team-work, Elasticity of mind, Bigotry. + + How far is definition by illustration concerned + with _morality_? Could you, for example, so illustrate + _courage_ as to seem to exclude a really courageous person? + What necessity in employing this method does your answer to + the preceding question indicate? + + Define any of the following: The ideal leader of + the "gang," The ideal ward boss, The ideal town librarian, + The ideal teacher, The ideal military general, captain, + corporal, The ideal headwaiter, The ideal foreman in a + factory, The ideal soda-clerk, The ideal athletic coach, The + ideal intellectual leader, The ideal orchestra conductor, The + ideal mayor, The ideal "boss" in a steel mill, on a farm, of + an engineering gang, of cotton pickers, of lumberjacks. + + Is the definition of a _Responsible Statesman_ any + the less sound because the differentia are duties rather than + facts? Write a theme explaining why an executive too far + "ahead of his times" fails of immediate results. + + 3. In the manner of the definition of _Amortization_, write a + definition of the following: Collective buying, Sabotage, + Montessori method of education, Dry cleaning, Dry farming. + + X. What is the chief value of the following selection as a real + definition? Which is of greater value, this selection or the kind + of definition that would be found in a text on geography? + + Define, in a manner similar to that of the selection: New + England, The Middle West, The "Old Dominion," "The Cradle of + Liberty," "Gotham," The "Gold Coast," "Dixie," "The Old South," + "The Auld Sod," "The Corn Belt," "The Wheat Belt," The Anthracite + Region, The Land of Big Game, "The Land of Heart's Desire," "The + Cockpit of Europe," "The Vacation Land." + + Between the Seine and the Rhine lay once a beautiful + land wherein more history was made, and recorded in old + monuments full of grace and grandeur and fancy, than in + almost any other region of the world. The old names were + best, for each aroused memory and begot strange dreams: + Flanders, Brabant, the Palatinate; Picardy, Valois, Champagne, + Franche-Comté; Artois, Burgundy, and Bar. And the town names + ring with the same sonorous melody, evoking the ghosts of a + great and indelible past: Bruges, Ghent, Louvain, and Liége; + Aix-la-Chapelle, Coblenz, and Trêves; Ypres and Lille, Tournai + and Fontenoy, Arras and Malplaquet; Laon, Nancy, Verdun, and + Varennes; Amiens, Soissons, and Reims. Cæsar, Charlemagne, St. + Louis, Napoleon, with proconsuls, paladins, crusaders, and + marshals unnumbered; kings, prince-bishops, monks, knights, + and aureoled saints take form and shape again at the clang of + the splendid names. + + It is not a large land, this Heart of Europe; three + hundred and fifty miles, perhaps, from the Alps to the sea, + and not more than two hundred and fifty from the Seine at + Paris to the Rhine at Cologne; half the size, shall we say, of + Texas; but what Europe was for the thousand years following + the fall of Rome, this little country--or the men that made + it great--was responsible. Add the rest of Normandy, and the + spiritual energy of the Holy See, and with a varying and + sometimes negligible influence from the Teutonic lands beyond + the Rhine, and you have the mainsprings of mediævalism, even + though for its full manifestation you must take into account + the men in the far countries of the Italian peninsula and the + Iberian, in France and England, Bavaria, Saxony, Bohemia.[28] + + [28] Ralph Adams Cram: _The Heart of Europe_. By courtesy of the + publishers, Charles Scribner's Sons, New York City. Copyright, + 1915. + + XI. Note the two selections that follow, in comparison with the + definitions of a responsible statesman and quack novels on pages + 87 and 88, and write a definition of any of the following groups, + using the method of comparison and contrast. + + A sale of personal property is the transfer of its + general ownership from one person to another for a price + in money. It is almost always the result of a contract + between the seller and the buyer. If the contract provides + for the transfer of ownership at once the transaction is + called "a present sale," or "a bargain and sale," or "an + executed contract of sale." If it provides for the transfer + of ownership at some future time it is called "a contract to + sell," or "an executory contract of sale." + + The business transaction most nearly resembling a + sale is that of barter, or the transfer of one article of + personal property for another, as when A and B trade horses, + or wagons, or oats, or cows. It differs from a sale only + in this, that the consideration for each transfer is the + counter-transfer of a chattel instead of money. Next to barter + in its likeness to sale is a mortgage of personal property, + usually called a chattel mortgage. This, in form, is a sale, + but it contains a proviso that if the mortgagor pays a certain + amount of money, or does some other act, at a stipulated time, + the sale shall be void. Even though the mortgagor does not + perform the act promised at the agreed time, he still has the + right to redeem the property from the mortgage by paying his + debt with interest. In other words, a chattel mortgage does + not transfer general ownership, or absolute property in the + chattels, while a sale does. + + A sale differs from a bailment.... The former is the + transfer of title to goods, the latter of their possession. + A bailee undertakes to restore to the bailor the very thing + bailed, although it may be in a changed form, while the buyer + is to pay money to the seller for the subject-matter of their + contract.[29] + + [29] Francis M. Burdick: _The Essentials of Business Law_. By courtesy + of the publishers, D. Appleton & Co., New York City. Copyright, + 1902 and 1908. + + The familiar distinction between the poetic and the + scientific temper is another way of stating the same + difference. The one fuses or crystallizes external objects + and circumstances in the medium of human feeling and passion; + the other is concerned with the relations of objects and + circumstances among themselves, including in them all + the facts of human consciousness, and with the discovery + and classification of these relations. There is, too, a + corresponding distinction between the aspects which conduct, + character, social movement, and the objects of nature are able + to present, according as we scrutinize them with a view to + exactitude of knowledge, or are stirred by some appeal which + they make to our various faculties and forms of sensibility, + our tenderness, sympathy, awe, terror, love of beauty, and all + the other emotions in this momentous catalogue. The starry + heavens have one side for the astronomer, as astronomer, and + another for the poet, as poet. The nightingale, the skylark, + the cuckoo, move one sort of interest in an ornithologist, + and a very different sort in a Shelley or a Wordsworth. The + hoary and stupendous formations of the inorganic world, the + thousand tribes of insects, the great universe of plants, + from those whose size and form and hue make us afraid as if + they were deadly monsters, down to "the meanest flower that + blows," all these are clothed with one set of attributes by + scientific intelligence, and with another by sentiment, fancy, + and imaginative association.[30] + + [30] John Morley: _Miscellanies_, vol. I. By courtesy of the + publishers, The Macmillan Company, New York City. + + 1. Autocracy and Democracy. + + 2. Fame and Notoriety. + + 3. Cribbing and Lying. + + 4. Immorality and Unconventionality. + + 5. Musician and Music Lover. + + 6. Popularity and Cheapness. + + 7. Enthusiast and Crank. + + 8. An Irish Bull and a Paradox. + + 9. Puppy Love and Real Love. + + 10. Boiling and Broiling. + + 11. Honesty and Truthfulness. + + 12. White Lies and Falsehoods. + + 13. Liberty and License. + + 14. Wages and Unearned Increment. + + 15. Knowledge and Scholarship. + + 16. Religion and Superstition. + + 17. Broadmindedness and Spinelessness. + + 18. Architecture and Architectural Engineering. + + 19. Socialism and Anarchy. + + 20. Wit and Humor. + + 21. Enough and Sufficient. + + 22. Genetic Heredity and Social Heredity. + + 23. Lying and Diplomacy. + + 24. Theology and Religion. + + 25. Force, Energy, and Power. + + 26. Sanitary Engineers and Plumbers. + + 27. Business, Trade, and Commerce. + + 28. "Kidding" and Taunting. + + 29. Eminence and Prominence. + + 30. Realism and Romanticism. + + 31. Kinetic and Potential Energy. + + 32. Popular and Permanent Literature. + + 33. A "Gentleman Farmer" and a Producer. + + 34. An Employer and a Slave-driver. + + 35. A Practical Joke and a "Mean Trick." + + Is the following selection properly a definition by the method + of comparison? What is defined? Are the general statements that + serve as background true? In how far does the whole selection + depend for its validity upon the truth of these general + statements? + + There is a difference between boys and men, but it + is a difference of self-knowledge chiefly. A boy wants to do + everything because he does not know he cannot; a man wants to + do something because he knows he cannot do everything; a boy + always fails, and a man sometimes succeeds because the man + knows and the boy does not know. A man is better than a boy + because he knows better; he has learned by experience that + what is a harm to others is a greater harm to himself, and + he would rather not do it. But a boy hardly knows what harm + is, and he does it mostly without realizing that it hurts. He + cannot invent anything, he can only imitate; and it is easier + to imitate evil than good. You can imitate war, but how are + you going to imitate peace? So a boy passes his leisure in + contriving mischief. If you get another fellow to walk into a + wasp's camp, you can see him jump and hear him howl, but if + you do not, then nothing at all happens. If you set a dog to + chase a cat up a tree, then something has been done; but if + you do not set the dog on the cat, then the cat just lies in + the sun and sleeps and you lose your time. If a boy could find + out some way of doing good, so that he could be active in it, + very likely he would want to do good now and then; but as he + cannot, he very seldom wants to do good.[31] + + [31] William Dean Howells: _A Boy's Town_. By courtesy of the + publishers, Harper & Brothers, New York City. Copyright, 1890. + + XII. Does the style of the definition of moral atmosphere (page 9) fit + well with the subject? Would the definition be more effective if + written in a more formal style? + + Define: + + 1. The scholarly atmosphere of a university. + + 2. The business atmosphere of the Stock Exchange. + + 3. The holy atmosphere of a large church. + + 4. The inhuman atmosphere of an ordinary criminal court. + + 5. The human atmosphere of a reunion (of a class, a family, a + group of friends). + + 6. The majestic atmosphere of Niagara Falls. + + 7. The beautiful atmosphere of a pond of skaters. + + {inspiring } + 8. The {overpowering} atmosphere of a steel mill. + {brutal } + {beautiful } + + 9. The calm atmosphere of a dairy farm. + + XIII. Does the following selection serve to define _honor_ as too + difficult of attainment, as too closely bound up with fighting? + Is any definition of _privilege_ implied? Define honor as taught + in a college and honor as taught in the business world. Can a + State University afford to maintain the kind of honor that forces + it to "remain loyal to unpopular causes and painful truths"? Is + the honor that seeks "to maintain faith even with the devil" + foolish? Write a report on the state of honor in your college or + university such as Washington or Lincoln would have written after + investigating conditions in the student politics of the + institution, or conditions in examinations and quizzes. + + Honor, perhaps because it is associated in the + public mind with old ideas of dueling and paying gambling + debts, and in general with the habits, good and bad, of + a privileged class, is not in high repute with a modern + industrial community, where bankruptcy laws, the letter of + the statute book, the current morality of an easy-going, + good-natured, success-loving people, mark out a smoother path. + But the business of a college is not to fit a boy for the + world, but to fit him to mould the world to his ideal. Honor + is not necessarily old-fashioned and antiquated; it will adapt + itself to the present and to the future. If it is arbitrary, + or at least has an arbitrary element, so are most codes of + law. If honor belongs to a privileged class, it is because + it makes a privileged class; a body of men whose privilege + it is to speak out in the scorn of consequence, to keep an + oath to their own hurt, to remain loyal to unpopular causes + and painful truths, to maintain faith even with the devil, + and not swerve for rewards, prizes, popularity, or any of the + blandishments of success. Because it is arbitrary, because it + has rules, it needs to be taught. To teach a code of honor is + one of the main purposes of education; a college cannot say, + "We teach academic studies," and throw the responsibility for + honor on parents, on preliminary schools, on undergraduate + opinion, on each boy's conscience. Honor is taught by the + companionship, the standards, the ideals, the talk, the + actions of honorable men; it is taught by honoring honorable + failure and turning the back on all manner of dishonorable + success.[32] + + [32] Henry Dwight Sedgwick: _The New American Type_. Houghton Mifflin + Company, Boston, publishers. + + XIV. Define, by showing the origin, any of the following: + + Highway Engineering, The County Agricultural Adviser, Customs + Officer, A private secretary, The linotype machine, National + public opinion, The Federal Reserve Board, The "Spoils System," + The American Federation of Labor, American "Moral Leadership" in + 1918, The Caste System, The mechanical stoker, The canal lock, + The trial balance sheet, The Babcock Test. + + XV. Are the following statements true definitions? Wherein does their + worth consist? What causes any weakness that they may have? + + 1. Life is one long process of getting tired. + + 2. Life is the distribution of an error--or errors. + + 3. Life is eight parts cards and two parts play; the unseen + world is made manifest to us in the play. + + 4. Life is the art of drawing sufficient conclusions from + insufficient premises. + + 5. The body is but a pair of pincers set over a bellows and a + stewpan and the whole fixed upon stilts. + + 6. Morality is the custom of one's country and the current + feeling of one's peers. Cannibalism is moral in a cannibal + country. + + 7. Heaven is the work of the best and kindest men and women. + Hell is the work of prigs, pedants and professional + truth-tellers. The world is an attempt to make the best of + both. + + 8. Going to your doctor is having such a row with your cells + that you refer them to your solicitor. Sometimes you, as it + were, strike against them and stop their food, when they go + on strike against yourself. Sometimes you file a bill in + chancery against them and go to bed.[33] + + [33] All these are from _The Note-Books of Samuel Butler_, published + by A. C. Fifield, London. + + XVI. In the light of the following definition of _Superiority of + Status_ write a definition of any of the following: Superiority + of birth, Superiority of training, Superiority of vitality, + Superiority of environment, Superiority of patronage. + + There is another sort of artificial superiority which + also returns an artificial rent: the superiority of pure + status. What are called "superiors" are just as necessary + in social organization as a keystone is in an arch; but the + keystone is made of no better material than any other parts of + a bridge; its importance is conferred upon it by its position, + not its position by its importance. If half-a-dozen men are + cast adrift in a sailing-boat, they will need a captain. It + seems simple enough for them to choose the ablest man; but + there may easily be no ablest man. The whole six, or four + out of the six, or two out of the six, may be apparently + equally fit for the post. In that case, the captain must be + elected by lot; but the moment he assumes his authority, that + authority makes him at once literally the ablest man in the + boat. He has the powers which the other five have given him + for their own good. Take another instance. Napoleon gained the + command of the French army because he was the ablest general + in France. But suppose every individual in the French army + had been a Napoleon also! None the less a commander-in-chief, + with his whole hierarchy of subalterns, would have had to + be appointed--by lot if you like--and here, again, from the + moment the lot was cast, the particular Napoleon who drew the + straw for the commander-in-chief would have been the great, + the all-powerful Napoleon, much more able than the Napoleons + who were corporals and privates. After a year, the difference + in ability between the men who had been doing nothing but + sentry duty, under no strain of responsibility, and the man + who had been commanding the army would have been enormous. + As "the defenders of the system of Conservatism" well know, + we have for centuries made able men out of ordinary ones by + allowing them to inherit exceptional power and status; and + the success of the plan in the phase of social development to + which it was proper was due to the fact that, provided the + favored man was really an ordinary man, and not a duffer, the + extraordinary power conferred on him did effectually create + extraordinary ability as compared with that of an agricultural + laborer, for example, of equal natural endowments. The + gentleman, the lord, the king, all discharging social + functions of which the laborer is incapable, are products as + artificial as queen bees. Their superiority is produced by + giving them a superior status, just as the inferiority of the + laborer is produced by giving him an inferior status. But the + superior income which is the appanage of superior status is + not rent of ability. It is a payment made to a man to exercise + normal ability, in an abnormal situation. Rent of ability is + what a man gets by exercising abnormal ability in a normal + situation.[34] + + [34] George Bernard Shaw: _Socialism and Superior Brains_. By courtesy + of the publishers, John Lane Company. + + XVII. In the following selection how many definitions occur, or how + many things are defined? Do you understand what the author says? + How many words do you have to look up in the dictionary before + you understand the article? Could the author have made the + subject clear in a sensible extent of space? + + What would you say is the chief virtue of the selection? How is + it gained? For what kind of audience was the article written? + What was the author's controlling purpose? Point out how he + attains it. + + Do you find any _pattern-designers_ among novelists, poets, + architects, landscape gardeners? Name a novel, a poem, a + building, a park, which is primarily a pattern-design. Name one + which is not a pattern-design so much as a dramatic expression. + Which is the more significant? Which is more difficult to make? + + Define: Futurist painting, Free verse, Social morality, in + relation to their preceding forms. Explain, through definition, + the controversy between Paganism and Christianity, between + Monarchy and Democracy, between Classical Education and + Industrial Education, between Party Politics and Independent + Politics, between Established Religion and Non-Conformist Views. + + Music is like drawing, in that it can be purely decorative, + or purely dramatic, or anything between the two.... You + can compose a graceful, symmetrical sound-pattern that exists + solely for the sake of its own grace and symmetry. Or you can + compose music to heighten the expression of human emotion; + and such music will be intensely affecting in the presence + of that emotion, and utter nonsense apart from it. For + examples of pure pattern-designing in music I should have + to go back to the old music of the thirteenth, fourteenth, and + fifteenth centuries ... designed to affect the hearer solely + by its beauty of sound and grace and ingenuity of pattern; + absolute music, represented to-day in the formal sonata and + symphony.... + + The first modern dramatic composers accepted as binding + the rules of good pattern-designing in sound; and this + absurdity was made to appear practicable from the fact that + Mozart had such an extraordinary command of his art that his + operas contain numbers which, though they seem to follow the + dramatic play of emotion and character, without reference to + any other consideration whatever, are seen, upon examining + them from the point of view of the absolute musician, to be + perfectly symmetrical sound-patterns.... Even Mozart himself + broke away in all directions, and was violently attacked by + his contemporaries for doing so, the accusations levelled at + him being exactly those with which the opponents of Wagner so + often pester ourselves. Wagner completed the emancipation of + the dramatic musician from these laws of pattern-designing; + and we now have operas, and very good ones, too, written by + composers not musicians in the old sense at all: that is, they + are not pattern-designers; they do not compose music apart + from drama. + + The dramatic development also touched purely instrumental + music. Liszt tried hard to extricate himself from pianoforte + arabesques, and become a tone poet like his friend Wagner. + He wanted his symphonic poems to express emotions and + their development. And he defined the emotion by connecting + it with some known story, poem, or even picture: Mazeppa, + Victor Hugo's Les Preludes, Kaulbach's Die Hunnenschlacht, + or the like. But the moment you try to make an instrumental + composition follow a story, you are forced to abandon the + decorative pattern forms, since all patterns consist of + some form which is repeated over and over again, and which + generally consists in itself of a repetition of two similar + halves. For example, if you take a playing-card (say the five + of diamonds) as a simple example of pattern, you find not only + that the diamond pattern is repeated five times, but that each + established form of a symphony is essentially a pattern form + involving just such symmetrical repetitions; and, since a + story does not repeat itself, but pursues a continuous chain + of fresh incident and correspondingly varied emotions, Liszt + invented the symphonic poem, a perfectly simple and fitting + common-sense form for his purpose, and one which makes Les + Preludes much plainer sailing for the ordinary hearer than + Mendelssohn's Melusine overture or Raff's Lenore or Im Walde + symphonies, in both of which the formal repetitions would + stamp Raff as a madman if we did not know that they were mere + superstitions.[35] + + [35] George Bernard Shaw: _The Sanity of Art_, "Wagnerism." By + courtesy of the publishers, Boni & Liveright. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +ANALYSIS + + +Suppose that the president of a railroad asked you to report on the +feasibility of a proposed line through a range of hills; or that you +found it necessary to prove to an over-conservative farmer that he +should erect a hollow-tile silo at once; or that your duty as chairman +of the town playground committee led you to examine an empty lot for +its possibilities; or that, as an expert in finance, you were trying +to learn the cause of the deficit in a country club's accounts. In the +first case you would examine the proposed route for its practicability, +would estimate the grades to be reduced, would look into the question of +drainage, would consider the possibility of landslides, would survey the +quality of the road-bed: all with a view to making a complete report on +the practicability of the route proposed. In the other cases you would +determine the conditions in general that you confronted, would answer +the questions: what is the value of a hollow-tile silo? why is this site +suitable for a playground? what is wrong with the finances of this club? +Such tasks as these occur in life all the time; in college they confront +one whenever an inconsiderate instructor asks for a term paper on, say, +"Conditions in New York that Made the Tweed Ring Possible," or "The +Influence of the Great War on Dyestuffs," or "Tennyson's Early Training +as an Influence on his Poetry," or some other subject. In every one of +these cases the writer who attempts to answer the questions involved is +writing analysis, for _Analysis is the breaking up of a subject into its +component parts, seeing of what it is composed_. + +In every such case you would wish, first of all, to tell the truth. +Of what use would your analysis be if you incorrectly estimated the +drainage of the proposed railway route and the company had to expend +thousands of dollars in fighting improper seepage? Unless the analysis +was accurate, it would be useless or worse. But suppose that you told +the truth about the site for the playground, its central position, its +wealth of shade, its proper soil conditions, and yet forgot to take into +account the sluggish, noisome stream that flowed on one side of the plot +and bred disease? Your report would be valueless because it would be, in +a vital point, quite lacking. In other words, it would be incomplete. +For practical purposes it would therefore, of course, be untrue. + +If you wish to write an analysis, then, your path is straight, and it +leads between the two virtues of truth and thoroughness. Your catechism +should be: Have I hugged my fact close and told the truth about it?, +and, Have I really covered the ground? + +The question of truth enters into every analysis; none may falsify. +Completeness, on the other hand, is a more relative matter. In the +report of a tariff commission it is essential; all the ground must +be covered. In a thorough survey of Beethoven's music no sonata or +quartette may be omitted. In determining the causes of an epidemic +no clue is to be left unexamined until all possibilities have been +exhausted. In the case of the term paper mentioned above, on the other +hand, "Tennyson's Early Training as an Influence on his Poetry," not +everything in his early life can be considered in anything short of +a volume. In such a case you may well be puzzled what to do until +you are suddenly cheered by the thought that your task is primarily +one of interpretation, that what you are seeking is the _spirit_ of +the training. There would seem, therefore, to be various degrees of +completeness in analysis. On the basis of completeness, then, we may +divide analysis into the two classes of the _Formal_ and the _Informal_. + + +The Two Classes of Analysis + +Formal analysis is sometimes called _logical analysis_--that is, +complete, as in the report of a tariff commission--because it continues +its splitting into subheadings until the demands of the thought are +entirely satisfied. Such thorough meeting of all demands might well +occur in an analysis of trades-unions, or methods of heating houses, or +such subjects. Informal analysis, on the other hand, which is sometimes +called _literary analysis_, does not attempt to be so thorough, but +aims rather at giving the core of the subject, at making the spirit +of it clear to the reader. For example, Mr. P. E. More in an essay +on Tennyson, which is primarily an informal analysis, makes one main +point, that "Tennyson was the Victorian Age." This he divides into +three headings: (1) Tennyson was humanly loved by the great Victorians; +(2) Tennyson was the poet of compromise; (3) Tennyson was the poet of +insight. Now in these three points Mr. More has not said all that he +could say, in fact he has omitted many things that from some angle +would be important, but he has said those things truthfully that are +needed for a proper interpretation of the subject, for a sufficient +illumination of it, for showing its spirit. It is, therefore, a piece of +informal analysis. + +The two examples which follow illustrate formal and informal analysis, +the first one classifying rock drills thoroughly, and the second very +informally discussing some odds against Shakespeare. + + Hammer drills may be classed under several heads, as follows: + (1) Those mounted on a cradle like a piston drill and fed forward + by a screw; (2) those used and held in the hand; and (3) those used + and mounted on an air-fed arrangement. The last two classes are + often interchangeable. + + Mr. Leyner, though now making drills of the latter classes, + was the pioneer of the large 3-inch diameter piston machine to be + worked in competition with large piston drills. The smaller Leyner + Rock Terrier drill was brought out for stopping and driving; it + could not, apparently, compete with machines of other classes. + + When the drills are thus divided we have: + + 1. Cradle drills--Leyner, Leyner Rock Terrier, Stephens + Imperial hammer drills and the Kimber. + + 2. Drills used only with air feed--Gordon drill and the large + sizes of the Murphy, Little Wonder, and others. + + 3. Drills used held in the hand or with air feed--Murphy, + Flottman, Cleveland, Little Wonder, Shaw, Hardy Nipper, Sinclair, + Sullivan, Little Jap, Little Imp, Traylor, and others. Again, they + may be divided into those that are valveless, with the differential + piston or hammer itself acting as a valve. The Murphy, Sinclair, + Little Wonder, Shaw, Little Imp, Leyner Rock Terrier, and Kimber + drills belong to this class. The large Leyner drill is worked by a + spool valve resembling that of the Slugger drill; the Flottman by a + ball valve; the Little Jap by an axial valve; the Gordon drill, by + a spool valve set at one end of the cylinder at right angles to it; + the Waugh and Sullivan drills by spool valves set in the same axial + line as the cylinder; the Hardy Nipper, and the Stephens Imperial + hammer drills by an air-moved slide-valve set midway on the side of + the cylinder; the Cleveland by a spool set towards the rear of the + cylinder. + + They may again be divided into those drills in which the + piston hammer delivers its blow on the end of the steel itself. A + collar is placed on the drill to prevent its entering the cylinder. + The other class has an anvil block or striking pin. This anvil + block fits into the end of the cylinder between the piston and the + steel. It receives and transmits the blow, and also prevents the + drill end from entering the cylinder.[36] + + [36] Eustace M. Weston: _Rock Drills_. By courtesy of the publishers, + McGraw-Hill Publishing Company. Copyright. + + * * * * * + + Powerful among the enemies of Shakespeare are the commentator + and the elocutionist; the commentator because, not knowing + Shakespeare's language, he sharpens his faculties to examine + propositions advanced by an eminent lecturer from the Midlands, + instead of sensitizing his artistic faculty to receive the + impression of moods and inflexions of being conveyed by word-music; + the elocutionist because he is a born fool, in which capacity, + observing with pain that poets have a weakness for imparting to + their dramatic dialog a quality which he describes and deplores + as "sing-song," he devotes his life to the art of breaking up + verse in such a way as to make it sound like insanely pompous + prose. The effect of this on Shakespeare's earlier verse, which + is full of the naïve delight of pure oscillation, to be enjoyed + as an Italian enjoys a barcarolle, or a child a swing, or a baby + a rocking-cradle, is destructively stupid. In the later plays, + where the barcarolle measure has evolved into much more varied and + complex rhythms, it does not matter so much, since the work is no + longer simple enough for a fool to pick to pieces. But in every + play from _Love's Labour's Lost_ to _Henry V_, the elocutionist + meddles simply as a murderer, and ought to be dealt with as such + without benefit of clergy. To our young people studying for the + stage I say, with all solemnity, learn how to pronounce the English + alphabet clearly and beautifully from some person who is at once an + artist and a phonetic expert. And then leave blank verse patiently + alone until you have experienced emotion deep enough to crave for + poetic expression, at which point verse will seem an absolutely + natural and real form of speech to you. Meanwhile, if any pedant, + with an uncultivated heart and a theoretic ear, proposes to teach + you to recite, send instantly for the police.[37] + + [37] George Bernard Shaw: _Dramatic Opinions and Essays_. Archibald + Constable & Co., Ltd., London, publishers. + +Analyses are to be divided also upon the basis of whether the subject is +an individual or a group of individuals, that is, whether the subject +is, for example, the quality of patriotism, which is to be analyzed +into its components, or, in the second place, shade trees, which are to +be grouped into the classes which together constitute such trees. Of +these two kinds of analysis we call the first _Partition_ and the second +_Classification_. The logical process is the same in the two cases, in +that it divides the subject; the difference lies in the fact that in the +first case the subject is always single, though it may of course be +complicated, and in the second it is always plural, and may contain a +very large number of individuals, as for example the human race--all the +billions of all the ages gone and yet to come. + +In this treatment of analysis you will find the main divisions made +on the basis of formality and the matter of single or plural subject +treated under each of the other headings. + + +Formal Analysis + +Formal analysis, which requires completeness of division,--which is +not well done until every individual case is accounted for, or, in +Partition, every quality or factor or part,--is found in reports to +corporations, in estimates of conditions for some society, in government +documents, in textbooks, and in other kinds of writing where detailed +and complete information is necessary for judgment. A report to the city +of Chicago on the subject of the smoke nuisance will be valuable largely +as it entirely covers the ground, discovers all the conditions that the +city has to face. Such a report will be primarily a partition of the +question, though it may employ classification of various like situations +or conditions. Likewise an account of the game birds of North America +will be a formal analysis only if every kind of game bird is given a +place in the account. The object of formal classification and partition +is to give information, to array facts completely. The following +classification of oriental rugs, which in its course also employs +definition, or a close approach to it, will be finally sufficient only +if no rug can be found which is not included within the classes named. +The partition of the character of Queen Elizabeth will be of lasting +value as formal partition only if it really accounts for the total +character of the subject. That it makes only two main divisions is in no +way indicative of its completeness; the question is merely, are all the +qualities included under those two headings? + + It is a common impression that oriental rugs are as difficult + to know as the 320,000 specimens of plants, and the 20,000,000 + forms of animal life that Herbert Spencer advised for the teaching + of boys. This impression is wrong. There are only six groups or + families of oriental rugs, and less than fifty common kinds. The + novice can learn to distinguish the six families in sixty minutes. + He would confuse them occasionally on so short acquaintance, but a + college examiner would give him a passing grade. + + Persian rugs are the rugs that are profusely decorated with + a great variety of flowers, leaves, vines, and occasional birds + and animals, woven free hand, with purely decorative intent. India + rugs are those in which flowers, leaves, vines, and occasional + animals are woven as they appear in nature. Early Indian weavers + transcribed flowers to rugs as if they were botanists; modern + Indian weavers are copyists of Persian patterns and their copies + are plainly not originals. + + In broad generalization, therefore, the two families of + oriental rugs that are decorated almost exclusively with flowers + have distinct styles that render their identification comparatively + easy. + + The Turkoman and Caucasian families of oriental rugs also + pair off by themselves. They are the rugs of almost pure geometric + linear design. Turkoman rugs, comprising the products of Turkestan, + Bokhara, Afghanistan, and Beluchistan, are red rugs with web or + open ends, woven in the patterns of the kindergarten--squares, + diamonds, octagons, etc. That wild tribes should dye their wools in + the shades of blood and weave the designs of childhood is fitting + and logical. + + Caucasian rugs differ from Turkoman rugs in being dyed in + other colors than blood red, in omitting the apron ends, and + in being more crowded, elaborate, and pretentious in geometric + linear pattern. The Caucasian weaver's distinction as the oriental + cartoonist, the expert in wooden men, women, and animals, is + well deserved. He holds the oriental rug patent on Noah's ark + designs. Incidentally Mount Ararat and Noah's grave, "shown" near + Nakhitchevan, are located on the southern border of his country. + + Chinese and Turkish rugs pair off almost as logically as the + other rug families, although they are totally unlike in appearance. + They contain both geometric linear and floral designs; the designs + of the very early rugs of both groups generally are geometric, and + the later ones floral. But these facts are not identifying. + + Chinese rugs can be recognized instantly by their colors, + which are determined by their backgrounds, the reverse of the + Persian method, which is to make the design the principal color + medium. The Chinese colors are probably best described as the + lighter and softer colors of silk--dull yellows, rose, salmon red, + browns, and tans, the design usually being blue. The Chinese were + the original manufacturers and dyers of silk, and they applied + their silk dyes to their rugs. + + Turkish rugs that are ornamented with flowers and leaves + can be distinguished from Persian and Indian products by the + ruler-drawn character of their patterns. A keen observer describes + them as quasi-botanical forms angularly treated. Turkish rugs that + contain the patterns common to the Caucasian and Turkoman families + can be recognized by their brighter, sharper, and more contrasting + colors. The key to the identification of this most difficult rug + family is to be found in the Turkish prayer rugs. To know Turkish + rugs, one must see many of them; to know the other families one + need see only a few. + + Reduced to a minimum statement, the identification of the six + oriental rug families amounts to this: + + Persian rugs--floral designs drawn free hand. + + India rugs--floral designs photographed and copied. + + Turkoman rugs--geometric linear design, blood red, web ends. + + Caucasian rugs--geometric linear designs, numerous blended + colors. + + Chinese rugs--floral and geometric linear designs, silk colors. + + Turkish rugs--floral designs, angular, ruled; and geometrical + designs, bright contrasting colors. + + To be able to identify an oriental rug as a particular kind + of Persian, Indian, Turkish, Turkoman, Caucasian or Chinese + weaving is somewhat more of an accomplishment. The way to begin + is to study first the rugs that have distinct or fairly constant + characteristics. Take Persian rugs, for example: + + Bijar--rugs as thick as two or even three ordinary rugs. + + Fereghan--small leaf design, usually with green border. + + Gorevan or Scrapi--huge medallions, strong reds and blues. + + Herat or Ispahan--intricate, stately design on claret ground. + + Hamadan--a camel hair rug. + + Kashan--dark, rich, closely patterned, extremely finely woven. + + Kermanshah--the "parlor" rug, soft cream, rose, and blue. + + Khorassan--plum colored, small leaf design, long, soft, wool. + + Kurd--colored yarn run through the end web. + + Meshed--soft rose and blue with silver cast. + + Polonaise--delicately colored antique silk rug. + + Saraband--palm leaf or India shawl design on rose or blue + ground. + + Sehna--closest woven small rug, minute pattern. + + Shiraz--limp rug, the sides overcast with yarns of various + colors. + + Tabriz--reddish yellow, the design sometimes resembling a + baseball diamond. + + To extend this list would make wearisome reading. Let it + suffice to indicate that many oriental rugs, like people, have + marked facial distinctions, and that many others have marked + peculiarities of body and finish, that make them easy to recognize. + Ease of naming, however, ceases with distinct markings, and rugs + that are out-and-out hybrids, the cross-bred products of wars, + migrations, and trade, are not named, but attributed. + + Hybrid oriental rugs--the bane of the novice and the joy + of the collector--are largely an epitome of the wars of Asia. + Cyrus the Great, heading a host of Persians, conquered the + Babylonians 500 years before Christ. Of course the Babylonians + became interested in Persian rugs and appropriated some of their + patterns. Two hundred years later Alexander the Great invaded Asia + and conquered it, except the distant provinces of India and China. + The Mohammedan Arabs mastered the Persians in the East and the + Spaniards in the West in the sixth century. Genghis Khan, out of + China with warriors as numerous as locusts, made a single nation of + Central Asia in the thirteenth century; and Tamerlane later made + subject farther dominions. Even 200 years ago the Afghans conquered + the Persians; and as recently as 1771, 600,000 Tartars fled from + eastern Russia to the frontiers of China under conditions to make + DeQuincey's essay, "Revolt of the Tartars," a contribution to rug + literature. + + The wonder is not, therefore, that Chinese patterns are + found in Turkestan, Persian, and Turkish rugs; that Persian + patterns are found in Indian, Caucasian and Turkish rugs; that + Turkish-Mohammedan patterns reach from Spain to China; and that + European designs are found wherever oriental invention bent the + knee to imitation. The wonder is rather that there are so many + oriental rugs with distinct or fairly constant characteristics.[38] + + [38] Arthur U. Dilley: "Oriental Rugs," in _The New Country Life_, + November, 1917. By courtesy of the publishers, Doubleday, Page & + Co. + + * * * * * + + She was at once the daughter of Henry and of Anne Boleyn. From + her father she inherited her frank and hearty address, her love of + popularity and of free intercourse with the people, her dauntless + courage and her amazing self-confidence. Her harsh, manlike voice, + her impetuous will, her pride, her furious outbursts of anger, came + to her with her Tudor blood. She rated great nobles as if they were + school-boys; she met the insolence of Essex with a box on the ear; + she would break now and then into the gravest deliberations to + swear at her ministers like a fishwife. But strangely in contrast + with the violent outlines of her Tudor temper stood the sensuous, + self-indulgent nature she derived from Anne Boleyn. Splendour + and pleasure were with Elizabeth the very air she breathed. Her + delight was to move in perpetual progresses from castle to castle + through a series of gorgeous pageants, fanciful and extravagant as + a caliph's dream. She loved gaiety and laughter and wit. A happy + retort or a finished compliment never failed to win her favour. + She hoarded jewels. Her dresses were innumerable. Her vanity + remained, even to old age, the vanity of a coquette in her teens. + No adulation was too fulsome for her, no flattery of her beauty too + gross. "To see her was Heaven," Hatton told her, "the lack of her + was hell." She would play with her rings that her courtiers might + note the delicacy of her hands; or dance a coranto that the French + Ambassador, hidden dexterously behind a curtain, might report her + sprightliness to his master. Her levity, her frivolous laughter, + her unwomanly jests, gave colour to a thousand scandals. Her + character, in fact, like her portrait, was utterly without shade. + Of womanly reserve or self-restraint she knew nothing. No instinct + of delicacy veiled the voluptuous temper which had broken out in + the romps of her girlhood and showed itself almost ostentatiously + throughout her later life. Personal beauty in a man was a sure + passport to her liking. She patted handsome young squires on the + neck when they knelt to kiss her hand, and fondled her "sweet + Robin," Lord Leicester, in the face of the court.[39] + + [39] J. R. Green: _Short History of the English People_. + + +Informal Analysis + +The formal analyses are in general far less frequent than the informal, +which are found constantly in the weekly and monthly magazines and in +the editorials of our daily papers. These analyses aim at giving the +core of the subject, the gist of the matter, with sufficient important +facts or points as background. Thus you will read an account of our +relations with Mexico during the revolution in that country. Not +everything is said; only the vital things. A study of the character +of Mr. Roosevelt or of Mr. Wilson, an article explaining the problems +that had to be faced in the building of the Keokuk or the Shoshone +dams, a treatment of the question of conscription in England--these +and thousands of others flood upon us with the object of illuminating +our approach to the subject, of interpreting for us the heart of the +matter. Mr. More, in the essay already mentioned, says little about +Tennyson's verse form, about his zeal for the tale of Arthur, about the +influence upon him of the classics of Greece and Rome. Into a complete +treatise these would of course enter; here Mr. More's object is not +all-inclusiveness, as one should examine the Pyramids for not only +their plan and size but also for their minute finish, their varying +materials, their methods of jointure, and the thousand other details; +rather he estimates what his subject is, as one should journey round the +Pyramids, view them in general, find their significance, and discover +the few essentials that make them not cathedrals, not Roman circuses, +but Pyramids. In other words, interpretation is the object rather than +completeness of fact. + +Obviously an informal analysis must be complete as far as it goes, +must be complete for its author's purpose, is not good writing if it +gives only a partial interpretation which gets nowhere. It is at once +apparent, then, that the controlling purpose which has been discussed +at length in an earlier chapter is in informal analysis of the utmost +importance. Only as it is clearly held in mind will the author know +when to stop, what to choose. In formal analysis, where his object is +to say all that there is to say, he chooses and ceases to choose by the +standard of completeness of fact; in informal analysis he must choose +and cease to choose by the standard of whether he has accomplished +the desired effect, made the desired interpretation. His analysis, +therefore, is valuable only when he has chosen the proper interpretation +and has made it effective and clear. If he wishes to analyze a period +of history for the purpose of showing the romance of the period, he +will choose and cease to choose largely in so far as his material helps +to establish the romance, and he will not hesitate to neglect many a +fact that would be otherwise important. In the following selection from +George Eliot's _Mill on the Floss_ you will find an analysis of the +effect of the Rhone scenery on the author written purposely with the +intention of driving home the dreariness of the subject, and therefore +with material chosen for that end: + + Journeying down the Rhone on a summer's day, you have perhaps + felt the sunshine made dreary by those ruined villages which stud + the banks in certain parts of its course, telling how the swift + river once rose, like an angry, destroying god, sweeping down + the feeble generations whose breath is in their nostrils, and + making their dwellings a desolation. Strange contrast, you may + have thought, between the effect produced on us by these dismal + remnants of commonplace houses, which in their best days were + but the sign of a sordid life, belonging in all its details to + our own vulgar era; and the effect produced by those ruins on the + castled Rhine, which have crumbled and mellowed into such harmony + with the green and rocky steeps, that they seem to have a natural + fitness, like the mountain-pine; nay, even in the day when they + were built they must have had this fitness, as if they had been + raised by an earth-born race, who had inherited from their mighty + parent a sublime instinct of form. And that was a day of romance! + If these robber barons were somewhat grim and drunken ogres, they + had a certain grandeur of the wild beast in them--they were forest + boars with tusks, tearing and rending: not the ordinary domestic + grunter; they represented the demon forces forever in collision + with beauty, virtue, and the gentle uses of life; they made a + fine contrast in the picture with the wandering minstrel, the + soft-lipped princess, the pious recluse, and the timid Israelite. + That was a time of color, when the sunlight fell on glancing steel + and floating banners; a time of adventure and fierce struggle--nay, + of living, religious art and religious enthusiasm; for were not + cathedrals built in those days, and did not great emperors leave + their Western palaces to die before the infidel strongholds in the + sacred East? Therefore it is that these Rhine castles thrill me + with a sense of poetry: they belong to the grand historic life of + humanity, and raise up for me the vision of an epoch. But these + dead-tinted, hollow-eyed, angular skeletons of villages on the + Rhone oppress me with the feeling that human life--very much of + it--is a narrow, ugly, grovelling existence, which even calamity + does not elevate, but rather tends to exhibit in all its bare + vulgarity of conception; and I have a cruel conviction that the + lives these ruins are the traces of were part of a gross sum of + obscure vitality, that will be swept into the same oblivion with + the generations of ants and beavers.[40] + + [40] George Eliot: _Mill on the Floss_. Houghton Mifflin Company, + Boston, publishers. + +Informal analysis is not only less complete, but also less strict in +adherence to pure analysis alone. It employs whatever is of value, +believing that the material, the message, is greater than the form. +Outside really formal analysis, which is likely to be fairly dull to all +except those who are eager for the particular information given, most +analytical articles make free use of definition whenever it will serve +well to aid the reader's understanding or to move his emotions toward a +desired goal; of description if it, like definition, proves of value; +even of anecdote and argument if these forms are the fittest instruments +for the fight. Thus Hawthorne, analyzing English weather, does not +hesitate to dress out his analysis in the charms of personal experience +and anecdote and description, which in no way obscure the facts of the +weather, but merely take away the baldness of a formal statement and add +the relish of actual life. + + One chief condition of my enjoyment was the weather. Italy + has nothing like it, nor America. There never was such weather + except in England, where, in requital of a vast amount of horrible + east wind between February and June, and a brown October and + black November, and a wet, chill, sunless winter, there are a few + weeks of incomparable summer scattered through July and August, + and the earlier portion of September, small in quantity, but + exquisite enough to atone for the whole year's atmospherical + delinquencies. After all, the prevalent sombreness may have brought + out those sunny intervals in such high relief that I see them, in + my recollection, brighter than they really were: a little light + makes a glory for people who live habitually in a gray gloom. The + English, however, do not seem to know how enjoyable the momentary + gleams of their summer are; they call it broiling weather, and + hurry to the seaside with red, perspiring faces, in a state of + combustion and deliquescence; and I have observed that even their + cattle have similar susceptibilities, seeking the deepest shade, or + standing midleg deep in pools and streams to cool themselves, at + temperatures which our own cows would deem little more than barely + comfortable. To myself, after the summer heats of my native land + had somewhat effervesced out of my blood and memory, it was the + weather of Paradise itself. It might be a little too warm; but it + was that modest and inestimable superabundance which constitutes a + bounty of Providence, instead of just a niggardly enough. During + my first year in England, residing in perhaps the most ungenial + part of the kingdom, I could never be quite comfortable without + a fire on the hearth; in the second twelvemonth, beginning to get + acclimatized, I became sensible of an austere friendliness, shy, + but sometimes almost tender, in the veiled, shadowy, seldom smiling + summer; and in the succeeding years,--whether that I had renewed + my fibre with English beef and replenished my blood with English + ale, or whatever were the cause,--I grew content with winter and + especially in love with summer, desiring little more for happiness + than merely to breathe and bask. At the midsummer which we are now + speaking of, I must needs confess that the noontide sun came down + more fervently than I found altogether tolerable; so that I was + fain to shift my position with the shadow of the shrubbery, making + myself a movable index of a sundial that reckoned up the hours of + an almost interminable day. + + For each day seemed endless, though never wearisome. As far + as your actual experience is concerned, the English summer day + has positively no beginning and no end. When you awake, at any + reasonable hour, the sun is already shining through the curtains; + you live through unnumbered hours of Sabbath quietude, with a calm + variety of incident softly etched upon their tranquil lapse; and + at length you become conscious that it is bedtime again, while + there is still enough daylight in the sky to make the pages of your + book distinctly legible. Night, if there be any such season, hangs + down a transparent veil through which the bygone day beholds its + successor; or, if not quite true of the latitude of London, it may + be soberly affirmed of the more northern parts of the island, that + To-morrow is born before its Yesterday is dead. They exist together + in the golden twilight, where the decrepit old day dimly discerns + the face of the ominous infant; and you, though a mere mortal, may + simultaneously touch them both with one finger of recollection and + another of prophecy. I cared not how long the day might be, nor how + many of them. I had earned this repose by a long course of irksome + toil and perturbation, and could have been content never to stray + out of the limits of that suburban villa and its garden. If I + lacked anything beyond, it would have satisfied me well enough to + dream about it, instead of struggling for its actual possession. At + least, this was the feeling of the moment; although the transitory, + flitting, and irresponsible character of my life there was perhaps + the most enjoyable element of all, as allowing me much of the + comfort of house and home, without any sense of their weight upon + my back. The nomadic life has great advantages, if we can find + tents ready pitched for us at every stage.[41] + + [41] Nathaniel Hawthorne: _Our Old Home_. Houghton Mifflin Company, + Boston, publishers. + +An extension of this willingness to make grist of whatever comes to the +writer's mill lies in the close approach, at times, that analysis makes +to the informal essay. Of course the line is difficult to draw--and +perhaps not necessarily drawn--and most informal essays are to some +extent, at least, analytical. The more you desire your analysis to +become interesting, the more you wish to take hold of your reader, +the more you will make use of the close approach unless your subject +and its facts are of a kind to repel such intimacy. An analysis of +the nebular hypothesis deals with facts of so august a nature, on +so nearly an unimaginable plane, that intimacy seems out of place, +impudent, like levity in cathedrals. But if you have such a subject as +George Gissing[42] chose in the following analysis of the sportswoman's +attitude and character, you may well, as he did, throw aside the +formalities of expression and at once make truce of intimacy with your +reader. So long as you do not obscure the facts of the analysis, make it +unclear or blurred, so long you are safe. + + [42] George Gissing: _The Private Papers of Henry Ryecroft_, "Spring." + By permission of the publishers, E. P. Dutton & Co., New York + City. + + I found an article, by a woman, on "Lion Hunting," and in this + article I came upon a passage which seemed worth copying: + + "As I woke my husband, the lion--which was then about forty + yards off--charged straight towards us, and with my .303 I hit + him full in the chest, as we afterwards discovered, tearing his + windpipe to pieces and breaking his spine. He charged a second + time, and the next shot hit him through the shoulder, tearing his + heart to ribbons." + + It would interest me to look upon this heroine of gun and pen. + She is presumably quite a young woman; probably, when at home, a + graceful figure in drawing-rooms. I should like to hear her talk, + to exchange thoughts with her. She would give one a very good idea + of the matron of old Rome who had her seat in the amphitheatre. + Many of those ladies, in private life, must have been bright and + gracious, highbred and full of agreeable sentiment; they talked of + art and of letters; they could drop a tear over Lesbia's sparrow; + at the same time, they were connoisseurs in torn windpipes, + shattered spines, and viscera rent open. It is not likely that many + of them would have cared to turn their own hands to butchery, and, + for the matter of that, I must suppose that our Lion Huntress of + the popular magazine is rather an exceptional dame; but no doubt + she and the Roman ladies would get on well together, finding only a + few superficial differences. The fact that her gory reminiscences + are welcomed by an editor with the popular taste in view is perhaps + more significant than appears either to editor or public. Were this + lady to write a novel (the chances are she will) it would have the + true note of modern vigour. Of course her style has been formed by + her favourite reading; more than probably, her ways of thinking and + feeling owe much to the same source. If not so already, this will + soon, I dare say, be the typical Englishwoman. Certainly, there is + "no nonsense about her." Such women should breed a terrible race. + + +Kinds of Informal Analysis + +_a._ _Enumeration_ + +Informal analysis may appear in various forms, not all of which are +at once apparent as analysis until we disabuse our minds of thinking +that analysis must be, always, complete in facts. For example, informal +analysis often appears in the form of enumeration, in which the +author "has some things to say"--always for a definite purpose--and +says them in some reasonable order. Thus Mr. Herbert Croly, in his +article "Lincoln as More than American," analyzes Lincoln's character +as related to the characters of other Americans through the qualities +of intellectuality, humanness, magnanimity, and humility. More might +be said; the analysis is not complete in fact, but it serves the +purpose of the author. It is distinctly in the enumerative order, the +progression being determined by the controlling purpose of delineating +Lincoln as worthy of not only respect but even true awe, the awe that +we give only to those great souls who, in spite of all their mental +supremacy, are yet beautifully humble. + +_b._ _Equation_ + +Informal analysis often appears in the form of equation: the subject of +analysis is stated as equal to something else--a quality, an instrument +from another field of human knowledge, the same thing in other more +common or well-known words. For example, William James, in his essay +"The Social Value of the College Bred," first states that the value of a +college education is "to help you to know a good man when you see him," +and then explains what he means by this phrase. This form of analysis, +then, is usually in the nature of a double equation: _x_ is equal to +_y_, which, in turn, can be split up into _a_, _b_, _c_. The method +really consists in arriving at an easily comprehended statement of the +significance of the subject through the medium of a more immediately +workable or attractive or simple synonymous statement. It is an +application of the old formula of going from the known to the unknown, +except that in this case we proceed from the unknown to the known and +then return to the unknown with increased light. + +_c._ _Statement of Significance_ + +A third form of informal analysis is the showing of the significance +of the subject, its root meaning. In this case the writer attempts not +so much to break the subject into its obvious parts as to set before +the reader the meaning of it as a whole, in so short a compass, often, +that it will not need further explanation, or if it does, that it may +be then divided after the statement in easier form has been made. The +following explanation of the philosophy of Nietzsche illustrates this +form of analysis: + + The central motive of Nietzsche seems to me to be this. It is + clear to him that the moral problem concerns the perfection, not + of society, not of the masses of men, but of the great individual. + And so far he, indeed, stands where the standard of individualistic + revolt has so often been raised. But Nietzsche differs from other + individualists in that the great object toward which his struggle + is directed is the discovery of what his own individuality itself + means and is. A Titan of the type of Goethe's or Shelley's + Prometheus proclaims his right to be free of Zeus and of all other + powers. But by hypothesis Prometheus already knows who he is and + what he wants. But the problem of Nietzsche is, above all, the + problem. Who am I, and, What do I want? What is clear to him is + the need of strenuous activity in pressing on toward the solution + of this problem. His aristocratic consciousness is the sense that + common men are in no wise capable of putting or of appreciating + this question. His assertion of the right of the individual to + be free from all external restraints is the ardent revolt of the + strenuous seeker for selfhood against whatever hinders him in + this task. He will not be interrupted by the base universe in the + business--his life-business--of finding out what his own life is to + mean for himself. He knows that his own will is, above all, what he + calls the will for power. On occasion he does not hesitate to use + this power to crush, at least in ideal, whoever shall hinder him + in his work. But the problem over which he agonizes is the inner + problem. What does this will that seeks power genuinely desire? + What is the power that is worthy to be mine?[43] + + [43] Josiah Royce: _Nietzsche_. By courtesy of The Atlantic Monthly + Company. + +_d._ _Relationship_ + +A fourth class of informal analytical writing is the showing the +relationship that exists between two ideas or things, as cause and +effect, as source and termination, as contrary forces, or as any +relation that has real existence. Under this heading will be found the +large group of articles that answer the question _why?_, as for example, +"Why the Quebec Bridge Collapsed," "Causes of the Strike among the +Garment Workers," "Popular Opinion as Affecting Government Action," and +other such subjects. In the following analysis of the relation existing +between human action as result, and impulse and desire as causes, you +will find such an informal presentation of material. + + All human activity springs from two sources: impulse and + desire. The part played by desire has always been sufficiently + recognized. When men find themselves not fully contented, and not + able instantly to procure what will cause content, imagination + brings before their minds the thought of things which they believe + would make them happy. All desire involves an interval of time + between the consciousness of a need and the opportunity for + satisfying it. The acts inspired by desire may in themselves be + painful, the time before satisfaction can be achieved may be very + long, the object desired may be something outside our own lives, + and even after our own death. Will, as a directing force, consists + mainly in following desires for more or less distant objects, in + spite of the painfulness of the acts involved and the solicitations + of incompatible but more immediate desires and impulses. All this + is familiar, and political philosophy hitherto has been almost + entirely based upon desire as the source of human actions. + + But desire governs no more than a part of human activity, and + that not the most important but only the more conscious, explicit, + and civilized part. + + In all the more instinctive part of our nature we are + dominated by impulses to certain kinds of activity, not by desires + for certain ends. Children run and shout, not because of any good + which they expect to realize, but because of a direct impulse to + running and shouting. Dogs bay the moon, not because they consider + that it is to their advantage to do so, but because they feel an + impulse to bark. It is not any purpose, but merely an impulse, + that prompts such actions, as eating, drinking, love-making, + quarrelling, boasting. Those who believe that man is a rational + animal will say that people boast in order that others may have a + good opinion of them; but most of us can recall occasions when we + have boasted in spite of knowing that we should be despised for it. + Instinctive acts normally achieve some result which is agreeable to + the natural man, but they are not performed from desire for this + result. They are performed from direct impulse, and the impulse + often is strong even in cases in which the normal desirable result + cannot follow. Grown men like to imagine themselves more rational + than children and dogs, and unconsciously conceal from themselves + how great a part impulse plays in their lives. This unconscious + concealment always follows a certain general plan. When an impulse + is not indulged in the moment in which it arises, there grows up + a desire for the expected consequences of indulging the impulse. + If some of the consequences which are reasonably to be expected + are clearly disagreeable, a conflict between foresight and impulse + arises. If the impulse is weak, foresight may conquer; this is + what is called acting on reason. If the impulse is strong, either + foresight will be falsified, and the disagreeable consequences will + be forgotten, or, in men of heroic mold, the consequences may be + recklessly accepted. When Macbeth realizes that he is doomed to + defeat, he does not shrink from the fight; he exclaims:-- + + Lay on, Macduff, + And damned be he that first cries, Hold, enough! + + But such strength and recklessness of impulse is rare. + Most men, when their impulse is strong, succeed in persuading + themselves, usually by a subconscious selectiveness of attention, + that agreeable consequences will follow from indulgence of their + impulse. Whole philosophies, whole systems of ethical valuation, + spring up in this way; they are the embodiment of a kind of + thought which is subservient to impulse, which aims at providing + a quasi-rational ground for the indulgence of impulse. The + only thought which is genuine is that which springs out of the + intellectual impulse of curiosity, leading to the desire to know + and understand. But most of what passes for thought is inspired by + some non-intellectual impulse, and is merely a means of persuading + ourselves that we shall not be disappointed or do harm if we + indulge this impulse. + + When an impulse is restrained, we feel discomfort, or even + violent pain. We may indulge the impulse in order to escape from + this pain, and our action is then one which has a purpose. But the + pain only exists because of the impulse, and the impulse itself is + directed to an act, not to escaping from the pain of restraining + the impulse. The impulse itself remains without a purpose, and the + purpose of escaping from pain only arises when the impulse has been + momentarily restrained. + + Impulse is at the basis of our activity, much more than + desire. Desire has its place, but not so large a place as it + is seemed to have. Impulses bring with them a whole train of + subservient fictitious desires: they make men feel that they desire + the results which will follow from indulging the impulses, and that + they are acting for the sake of these results, when in fact their + action has no motive outside itself. A man may write a book or + paint a picture under the belief that he desires the praise which + it will bring him; but as soon as it is finished, if his creative + impulse is not exhausted, what he has done grows uninteresting to + him, and he begins a new piece of work. What applies to artistic + creation applies equally to all that is most vital in our lives: + direct impulse is what moves us, and the desires which we think we + have are a mere garment for the impulse. + + Desire, as opposed to impulse, has, it is true, a large and + increasing share in the regulation of men's lives. Impulse is + erratic and anarchical, not easily fitted into a well-regulated + system; it may be tolerated in children and artists, but it is not + thought proper to men who hope to be taken seriously. Almost all + paid work is done from desire, not from impulse: the work itself + is more or less irksome, but the payment for it is desired. The + serious activities that fill a man's working hours are, except in + a few fortunate individuals, governed mainly by purposes, not by + impulses toward these activities. In this hardly any one sees an + evil, because the place of impulse in a satisfactory existence is + not recognized. + + An impulse, to one who does not share it actually or + imaginatively, will always seem to be mad. All impulse is + essentially blind, in the sense that it does not spring from + any prevision of consequences. The man who does not share + the impulse will form a different estimate as to what the + consequences will be, and as to whether those that must ensue are + desirable. This difference of opinion will seem to be ethical + or intellectual, whereas its real basis is a difference of + impulse. No genuine agreement will be reached, in such a case, so + long as the difference of impulse persists. In all men who have + any vigorous life, there are strong impulses such as may seem + utterly unreasonable to others. Blind impulses sometimes lead to + destruction and death, but at other times they lead to the best + things the world contains. Blind impulse is the source of war, but + it is also the source of science, and art, and love. It is not the + weakening of impulse that is to be desired, but the direction of + impulse toward life and growth rather than toward death and decay. + + The complete control of impulse by will, which is sometimes + preached by moralists, and often enforced by economic necessity, is + not really desirable. A life governed by purposes and desires, to + the exclusion of impulses, is a tiring life; it exhausts vitality, + and leaves a man, in the end, indifferent to the very purposes + which he has been trying to achieve. When a whole nation lives in + this way, the whole nation tends to become feeble, without enough + grasp to recognize and overcome the obstacles to its desires. + Industrialism and organization are constantly forcing civilized + nations to live more and more by purpose rather than impulse. In + the long run such a mode of existence, if it does not dry up the + springs of life, produces new impulse, not of the kind which the + will has been in the habit of controlling or of which thought + is conscious. These new impulses are apt to be worse in their + effects than those which have been checked. Excessive discipline, + especially when it has been imposed from without, often issues + in impulses of cruelty and destruction; this is one reason why + militarism has a bad effect on national character. Either lack of + vitality, or impulses which are oppressive and against life, will + almost always result if the spontaneous impulses are not able to + find an outlet. A man's impulses are not fixed from the beginning + by his native disposition: within certain wide limits, they are + profoundly modified by his circumstances and his way of life. The + nature of these modifications ought to be studied, and the results + of such study ought to be taken account of in judging the good or + harm that is done by political and social institutions.[44] + + [44] Bertrand Russell: _Why Men Fight_. By courtesy of the publishers, + The Century Company, New York City. + +_e._ _Statement of a Problem_ + +A fifth form in which analysis often appears is as a statement of +a problem. An engineer who is asked by a city to investigate the +conditions that confront the municipality as regards water supply will +have such a problem to state. The statement will presumably consist +of several divisions. First of all, of course--and this will be +essential in all such statements--will be an analysis of the conditions +themselves. In this particular case he will find out how much water is +needed, how great the present supply is, what sources are available for +increased supply, what the character of the water in these other sources +is, and anything else that may be of value to the city. If any former +attempts at solution have been made, he may mention them. If he is +asked to recommend a plan of procedure, he will make an analysis of the +details of this plan and will present them. + +Now obviously the nature of the audience will determine somewhat the +manner of approach to the conditions. If, for example, the problem +is to be stated to the financial committee of the city, the angle +of approach will be that of cost; if to a prospective constructing +engineer, from that of difficulties of construction of reservoirs or +from that of availability of sources. If you are to state the problem +of lessening the illiteracy in a given neighborhood, you will approach +the subject for the school committee from the angle, perhaps, of the +establishment of night schools, or from that of the necessary welding +of nationalities; for the charitable societies from that of the poverty +that compels child labor in the community. And in the recommendations +for meeting the conditions, if such recommendations are made, attention +must be paid to the particular people who will read the analysis. Of +course if you make an abstract, complete survey, you will cover the +ground in whatever way seems most suitable. + +Such an analysis, when it is in the nature of a report, will presumably +be in brief, tabulated form. If, on the other hand, it is not a report, +the subject may be treated more informally, made more pleasing. The +following statement of the problem of the development of power machinery +is made rather formally from the angle of the constructive engineer with +an eye also to the financial conditions. + + The problem of power-machinery development is, therefore, + divisible into several parts: First, what processes must be carried + out to produce motion against resistance, from the energy of winds, + the water of the rivers, or from fuel. Second, what combinations of + simply formed parts can be made to carry out the process or series + of processes. These two steps when worked out will result in some + kind of engine, but it may not be a good engine, for it may use up + too much natural energy for the work it does; some part may break + or another wear too fast; some part may have a form that no workman + can make, or use up too much material or time in the making; in + short, while the engine may work, it may be too wasteful, or do its + work at too great a cost of coal or water, attendance in operation, + or investment, or all these together. There must, therefore, be + added several other elements to the problem, as follows: Third, how + many ways are there of making each part, and which is the cheapest, + or what other form of part might be devised that would be cheaper + to make, or what cheaper material is there that would be equally + suitable. Fourth, how sensitive to care are all these parts when + in operation, and how much attendance and repairs will be required + to keep the machine in good operating condition. Fifth, how big + must the important parts of the whole machine be to utilize all the + energy available, or to produce the desired amount of power. Sixth, + how much force must each part of the mechanism sustain, and how + big must it be when made of suitable material so as not to break. + Seventh, how much work can be produced by the process for each unit + of energy supplied.[45] + + [45] Charles E. Lucke: _Power_. By courtesy of the publishers, the + Columbia University Press. + + +Principles of Analysis + +The problem that confronts you, then, in either kind of analysis, +however formal or informal it may be, is, How shall I go to work? The +first necessity is the choosing of a basis for division of the subject, +whether it be in classification or partition. The necessity for this +arises from the demand of the human mind for logical consistency. Life +seems often wildly inconsistent, but we demand that explanation of +it or any phase of it be arranged according to what seems to us some +logical law of progression, some consistent point of view. And in truth +without some such law or basis the mind soon becomes hopelessly enmeshed +and bewildered. I cannot expect my reader to understand my treatise +on locomotive engines, my classification of them, if I regard them +now as engines of speed, now as means of conveyance, now as potential +destroyers of life, and now as instruments whereby capitalists become +rich and workmen become poor. As often as I change my point of view, +so often I shall be under the necessity of making a new arrangement of +the engines, a new alignment. It is like skimming past a cornfield with +the platoons of green spears constantly shifting their number, their +direction, and their general appearance. If I station myself at one +point, I can soon make reasonable estimates, but so long as I whirl from +point to point my estimate must whirl likewise and I shall be confused +rather than helped. If, then, you are to analyze, say, our present-day +domestic architecture, it is not enough to heap together everything that +occurs to you about houses: their size, material, color, arrangement, +finish, beauty, convenience, situation as regards sidewalks, their +heating and upkeep. To prevent your reader from becoming hopelessly +muddled, from seeming to deal with the valley of the unorganized dry +bones of fact, you must have some guiding principle, some basis, some +point of view. Suppose that you take _beauty_ as your basis. Then at +once you have a standard by which you can judge all houses, to which you +can relate questions of position, arrangement, convenience, lighting, +heating, etc. Each of these questions is now significant as affecting +the cause of beauty. You could, of course, choose _convenience_ as your +basis, to which, then, beauty would be subordinate as contributing or +opposing. Asked to analyze the architecture of a railroad terminal, you +will not do well to plant dynamite under it and make an architectural +rummage sale of its parts; rather you will choose, perhaps, +_serviceability_ as your basis, and will then examine tracks, offices, +waiting rooms, etc. to see what the whole is. No part will thereby be +overlooked; each will be significant, and the whole will be unified by +your single point of view. An analysis of MacDowell's music might be +based on _emotional power_; of the currency problem on that of _general +distribution_; of universities on that of _proportion of cultural to +so-called practical courses_. Notice, also, that the choosing of a +basis of division is just as necessary in one kind of analysis as in +another, that formality and informality do not affect the logic of the +situation in the least, that whatever the subject or the proposed method +of treatment, you must be consistent in your point of view, must make a +pivot round which the whole can turn. + +Sometimes more than one principle will be necessary, in a complicated +analysis, as in judging a route for a railway we saw the necessity for +considering grades, drainage, landslides, etc., as we might interweave +the bases of cost, beauty, convenience, etc., but--like the reins of +the ten-span circus horses--all will be found to run back finally to +the single driver--in the case of the railway, _practicability_. In +classifying dredges, for example, we may use as basis the action of +the machine upon the bottom of the body of water, that is, whether the +action is continuous or intermittent; in this case we shall find four +types of continuous dredges: the ladder, the hydraulic, the stirring, +and the pneumatic; and we shall find two classes of intermittent: the +dipper and the grapple dredges. Or we may divide all dredges on the +basis of whether they are self-propelling or non-propelling. Finally, +we may take as basis for the classification the manner of disposing of +the excavated materials, in which case we shall find several groups. +In the following example we have two bases used for classifying +clearing-houses. The use of more than one basis will depend on whether +we can by such use make more easily clear to a reader the nature of the +subject and on whether different readers will need different angles of +approach. + + The clearing-houses in the United States may be divided into + two classes, the sole function of the first of which consists in + clearing-notes, drafts, checks, bills of exchange, and whatever + else may be agreed upon; and the second of which, in addition to + exercising the functions of the class just mentioned, prescribes + rules and regulations for its members in various matters, such + as the fixing of uniform rates of exchange, interest charges, + collections, etc. + + Clearing-houses may also be divided into two classes with + reference to the funds used in the settlement of balances: First, + those clearing-houses which make their settlements entirely on a + cash basis, or, as stated in the decision of the Supreme Court + above referred to, "by such form of acknowledgment or certificate + as the associated banks may agree to use in their dealings with + each other as the equivalent or representative of cash"; and + second, those clearing-houses which make their settlements by + checks or drafts on large financial centers.[46] + + [46] James G. Cannon: _Clearing-Houses_. By courtesy of the + publishers, D. Appleton & Co., New York City. Copyright, 1900. + +Sometimes, also, the minor sections may have a different basis from +the main one, a different principle of classification. For example, +a general basis for an analysis of the Mexican situation during Mr. +Wilson's administration might be _general world progress_. This might +cover our immediate relations with Mexico, our less close relations with +South America, and our rather more remote relations with Europe. The +first division might then possibly choose for its principle _fundamental +causes for inter-irritation_; the second, _our trade relations with +South America_; and the third, the _possibility of trouble through the +Monroe Doctrine_. All would unite under the one heading of general +progress, and so long as they were kept distinct would be serviceable. +For the uniting into one main principle is the important thing. It is +by this, and this only, that the reader will easily receive a clear +understanding of the subject. + +Having selected this unifying basis, you must then be careful lest your +subdivisions be only the subject restated in other words. If you are +analyzing a railroad route for practicability, do not name one division +_general serviceability_, for you will merely have made a revolution +of 360 degrees and be facing exactly as you faced before. In analyzing +Scott's works for humor do not name one division _ability to see the +funny side of life_, for again you will have said only that two equals +two. Each section must be less than the whole. + +Even more caution is required to keep the divisions from overlapping. +The man who wrote an enthusiastic account of the acting of Sir Johnston +Forbes-Robertson with subheadings as follows: (1) emotional power, (2) +effect on audience, (3) intellect, (4) appealing qualities, saw that +his divisions--like a family of young kittens--overlapped and sprawled +generally. When he had selected _moving power_ as his main principle, +and had then divided the treatment into the following headings: (1) +appearance, (2) voice, (3) general handling of the situation, (4) effect +at the time, and (5) memories of the performance, he found that his +kittens had become well-mannered little beasties and sat each in his +place. The overlapping of subdivisions is likely to occur because of +one or both of two causes: lack of clear thinking, and lack of clear +expression. Be sure, then, first to cut neatly between parts in dividing +your apple, and then to label each part carefully so that the reader +will not say, "Why, three is just like two!" + +Finally, be sure that the sum of your divisions equals the whole. +This means that in logical analysis you must continue the process of +dividing until nothing is left. You must follow the old advice: "Cut +into as small pieces as possible, and then cut each piece several +times smaller!" Such would be the process in analyzing and classifying +types of cathedral architecture; your work will not be complete until +you have included all possible forms. The same would hold true in a +thorough analysis of bridges; all forms would demand entrance. When you +write informal or literary analysis, on the other hand, since here the +object is illumination rather than exhaustion, almost suggestiveness +rather than completeness, choose the significant vital divisions and let +the rest go. This does not mean that in informal analysis you may be +careless; "any old thing" is far from being the motto; strict thinking +and shrewd selection are quite as necessary as in formal analysis. The +point is that the divisions will be fewer in number, as in an article +on the subject of the failure of freshmen in the first semester your +object, in informal analysis, would be to group the causes, for the +convenience of the reader, into a few general divisions which should +give him a clear idea of the subject without necessitating long and +painful reading. In literary analysis especially it is often well to +express in one sentence the gist of your thought, as Mr. More says, +"Tennyson was the Victorian Age." It is always well to be able to +express this sentence. Of course care must be exercised not to make the +structure of the article too evident by the presence of such a sentence, +but its judicious use will help to unify the thought for the reader. For +most minds analysis is difficult. Whatever you can do, therefore, to +make it easy will be worth while in gaining success. + + +EXERCISES + + I. Why, from the point of view of analysis, is it difficult to + select a list of "the greatest ten" living men, or women? Make + such a list and then examine its foundations. Is a similar list + of novels or plays or symphonies as difficult to make? + + II. Use any of the following sentences as a nucleus sentence on which + to build an informal analysis. + + 1. The attitude of scientific efficiency is incompatible with + feelings of humanity. + + 2. A college career does not always develop, but in fact often + kills, intellectual integrity. + + 3. The worst enemy of the American Public is the newspaper that + for political or business reasons distorts news. + + 4. Studies are the least valuable of college activities except + as they stimulate the imagination. + + 5. Our Country is so large that a citizen is really justified, + mentally and morally, in being provincial. + + 6. The study of literature in college is, except for the person + of no imagination, deadening to the spirit. + + 7. The fifteen-and twenty-cent magazine is a menace to American + life in that its fiction grossly distorts the facts of life. + + 8. The farmer who wishes to keep his soil in good condition + should use legumes as increasers of fertility. + + 9. The effect of acquisition of land property is always to drive + the possessors into the Tory camp. + + 10. The engineer is a poet who expresses himself in material + forms rather than words. + + III. Make a formal classification, in skeleton form, of any of the + following subjects. Then determine what qualities the subject has + that indicate how such a classification can be made interesting, + either by material or treatment. Then write an analytical theme + which shall thoroughly cover the skeleton classification and + shall also be attractive. (Compare the classification of Rock + Drills (page 115) and Oriental Rugs (page 119) to note the + difference in the amount of interest.) + + 1. Building materials for houses. + + 2. China dinner-ware. + + 3. Forms of democratic government. + + 4. Methods of irrigation in the United States. + + 5. Types of lyric poetry. + + 6. Chairs. + + 7. Commercial fertilizers. + + 8. Tractors for the farm. + + 9. Contemporary philosophies of Europe and America. + + 10. American dances. + + 11. Elevators. + + 12. Filing systems. + + 13. Races of men in Europe. + + 14. Gas ranges. + + 15. Pianos. + + 16. Contemporary short stories of the popular magazines. + + Indicate, in any given subject, how many possible bases for + classification you could choose, as, for example, you might + classify chairs on the basis of comfort, expense, presence of + rockers, upholstery, adaptation to the human figure, material for + the seat, shape of back, etc. + + IV. Analyze any of the following problems, first without + recommendation of solution, and second with recommendation as if + you were making a report to a committee or employer or officer. + + 1. Summer work for college students. + + 2. Keeping informed of world affairs while doing one's college + work faithfully. + + 3. "Outside activities" for college students. + + 4. Faculty or non-faculty control of college politics. + + 5. Choosing a college course with relation to intended career in + life. + + 6. Selecting shrubbery for continuous bloom with both red and + blue berries in winter. + + 7. The mail-order houses. + + 8. Preventing money panics. + + 9. Dye-manufacture in the United States. + + 10. Gaining foreign markets. + + 11. The farmer and the commission merchant. + + 12. The brand of flour selected for use in large hotels. + + 13. Color photography. + + 14. Wind pressure in high buildings. + + 15. Street pavement. + + 16. Electrification of railroads. + + 17. Heating system for an eight-room house. + + 18. Choice of cereal for children of six, nine, and eleven--two + boys, one girl. + + 19. Lighting the farmhouse. + + 20. Creating a high class dairy or sheep herd. + + 21. Creating an apple (or other fruit) orchard. + + 22. Method of shipping potatoes to a distant point, in boxes, + barrels, sacks. + + 23. Best use of a twenty-acre farm near a large city. + + 24. Investment of $500.00. + + 25. Best system of bookkeeping for the farmer. + + 26. Kind of life insurance for a man of twenty. + + 27. Location of a shoe factory with capital of $250,000.00. + + 28. Cash system in a large general store. + + 29. Reconciling Shakespeare's works with the known facts of his + life. + + 30. The secret of Thomas Hardy's pessimism. + + 31. Reconciling narrow religious training with the increased + knowledge derived from college. + + 32. The failure of college courses in English composition to + produce geniuses. + + 33. The creation of a conscientious political attitude in a + democracy. + + 34. Selection of $10,000 worth of books as the nucleus for a + small town library. + + V. Decide upon a controlling purpose for an informal analysis of any + of the following subjects, indicate how you hope to make the + analysis interesting, state why you choose the basis that you + do--and then write the theme. + + 1. Prejudices, Flirts, Entertainments, Shade-trees, Methods of + advertising, Languages, Scholastic degrees, Systems of + landscape gardening for small estates, Migratory song birds + of North America, Laces. + + 2. Causes of the Return-to-the-Soil movement, Origins of our + dairy cattle, Benefits of intensive agriculture, Imported + plant diseases, Legumes. + + 3. Opportunities for the Civil (or Mechanical or Electrical, + etc.) Engineer, Difficulties of modern bridge-building, The + relation of the engineer to social movements, The + contribution of the engineer to intellectual advance. + + 4. Changes in the United States system of public finance since + Hamilton's time, The equitable distribution of taxation, The + benefits of the Federal Reserve Movement in Finance, Forms of + taxation, Systems of credit. + + 5. Possibilities for Physiological Chemistry, Obstacles to color + photography, The chemistry of the kitchen, The future of the + telescope, The battle against disease germs, Theories of the + atom, Heredity in plants or animals, Edible fresh-water fish. + + 6. Bores, The terrors of childhood, The vanities of young men, + Methods of coquetry,--of becoming popular,--of always having + one's way, The idiosyncrasies of elderly bachelors, Books to + read on the train, Acquaintances of the dining-car. + + VI. Write a 250 word analysis of whatever type you choose on any of + the following subjects: + + The dishonesty of college catalogues, The prevalence of + fires in the United States, Causes of weakness in I beams, Effect + of fairy stories on children, Religious sectarianism, Public + attitude toward an actress, The business man's opinion of the + college professor, The tyranny of the teaching of our earliest + years, The state of American forests, Municipal wastefulness, + Opportunities for lucrative employment at ---- college or + university, The effect of oriental rugs in a room, The attitude + of people in a small town toward their young people in college, + People who are desolate without the "Movies" four or five times a + week. + + VII. Write a 1500-2000 word analytical theme on any of the following + subjects: + + 1. The Responsibilities of Individualism. + + 2. American Slavery to the Printed Word. + + 3. The Ideal Vacation. + + 4. What Shall We Do with Sunday? + + 5. The Value of Reading Fiction. + + 6. Why I am a Republican, or Democrat, or Pessimist, or + Agnostic, or Humanist, or Rebel in general, or Agitator + or--whatnot? + + 7. The Classics and the American Student in the Twentieth + Century. + + 8. The Chief Function of a College. + + 9. The Decline of Manners. + + 10. A Defense of Cheap Vaudeville. + + 11. The Workingman Should Know His Place and Keep It. + + 12. The Study of History as an Aid to a Critical Estimate of the + Present. + + 13. The Relation of Friendship to Similarity in Point of View. + + 14. Intellectual Leadership in America. + + 15. The Present Situation in the World of Baseball. + + 16. The Reaction of War upon the Finer Sensibilities of + Civilians. + + 17. Patriotism and Intellectual Detachment. + + 18. The Breeding Place of Social Improvements. + + 19. Organization in Modern Life. + + 20. The Conflict of Political and Moral Loyalty. + + 21. Why Has Epic Poetry Passed from Favor? + + 22. The Stability of American Political Opinion. + + 23. The Shifting Geography of Intellectual Leadership in the + World. + + VIII. In the following selection what does Mr. Shaw analyze? On what + basis? Is he thorough? If not, what does he omit? Does the + omission, if there is any, vitally harm the analysis? + + Passion is the steam in the engine of all religious + and moral systems. In so far as it is malevolent, the + religions are malevolent too, and insist on human sacrifices, + on hell, wrath, and vengeance. You cannot read Browning's + Caliban upon Setebos; or, Natural Theology in the Island, + without admitting that all our religions have been made as + Caliban made his, and that the difference between Caliban + and Prospero is not that Prospero has killed passion in + himself whilst Caliban has yielded to it, but that Prospero + is mastered by holier passions than Caliban's. Abstract + principles of conduct break down in practice because kindness + and truth and justice are not duties founded on abstract + principles external to man, but human passions, which have, in + their time, conflicted with higher passions as well as with + lower ones. If a young woman, in a mood of strong reaction + against the preaching of duty and self-sacrifice and the rest + of it, were to tell me that she was determined not to murder + her own instincts and throw away her life in obedience to + a mouthful of empty phrases, I should say to her: "By all + means do as you propose. Try how wicked you can be: it is + precisely the same experiment as trying how good you can be. + At worst you will only find out the sort of person you are. + At best you will find that your passions, if you really and + honestly let them all loose impartially, will discipline you + with a severity which your conventional friends, abandoning + themselves to the mechanical routine of fashion, could not + stand for a day." As a matter of fact, we have seen over and + over again this comedy of the "emancipated" young enthusiast + flinging duty and religion, convention and parental authority, + to the winds, only to find herself, for the first time in her + life, plunged into duties, responsibilities, and sacrifices + from which she is often glad to retreat, after a few years' + wearing down of her enthusiasm, into the comparatively loose + life of an ordinary respectable woman of fashion.[47] + + [47] George Bernard Shaw: _The Sanity of Art_. By courtesy of the + publishers, Boni & Liveright. + + Analyze the relation of _sincerity_ to _teaching_, + of _intellectual bravery_ to _reading_, of _subservience_ + to _politics_, of _vitality_ to _creative writing_, of + _broadmindedness_ to _social reform_, of _sympathy_ to _social + judgment_. + + Rewrite Mr. Shaw's article so as to place the sentence + which now begins the selection at the end. Is the result an + improvement or a drawback? What difference in the reader might + make this change advisable? + + IX. In the light of the following statement of the philosophy of Mr. + Arthur Balfour, the English statesman, analyze, into one word if + possible, the philosophy of Lincoln, of Bismarck, of Mr. Wilson, + of Robert E. Lee, of Webster, of William Pitt, of Burke, of any + political thinker of whom you know. + + In the same way analyze the military policy of Napoleon or + Grant or any other general; the social philosophy of Jane Addams, + Rousseau, Carlyle, Jefferson, or any other thinker; the creed + of personal conduct of Browning, Whitman, Thackeray (as shown + in _Vanity Fair_), or of any other person concerned with the + individual. + + Analyze the effect of such a philosophy as Mr. Balfour's. + Analyze the relation of such a philosophy as this to the actively + interested personal conduct of the holder of it toward definite + personal ends. + + Balfour is essentially a sceptic. He looks out on + life with a mingled scorn and pity--scorn for its passionate + strivings for the unattainable, pity for its meanness and + squalor. He does not know the reading of the riddle, but he + knows that all ends in failure and disillusion. Ever the rosy + dawn of youth and hope fades away into the sadness of evening + and the blackness of night, and out of that blackness comes no + flash of revelation, no message of cheer. + + The Worldly Hope men set their hearts upon + Turns Ashes--or it prospers; and anon + Like Snow upon the Desert's dusty Face + Lighting a little Hour or two--is gone. + + Why meddle with the loom and its flying shuttle? We + are the warp and weft with which the great Weaver works His + infinite design--that design which is beyond the focus of all + mortal vision, and in which the glory of Greece, the pomp of + Rome, the ambition of Carthage, seven times buried beneath the + dust of the desert, are but inscrutable passages of glowing + color. All our schemes are futile, for we do not know the end, + and that which seems to us evil may serve some ultimate good, + and that which seems right may pave the path to wrong. In this + fantastic mockery of all human effort the only attitude is the + "wise passiveness" of the poet. Let us accept the irrevocable + fate unresistingly. + + In a word, Drift. That is the political philosophy of Mr. + Balfour.[48] + + [48] A. G. Gardiner: _Prophets, Priests, and Kings_. By permission + of the publishers, E. P. Dutton & Co., New York City. + + X. Analyze the method of treatment that the author uses in the + following selections about King Edward VII and Mr. Thomas + Hardy, and in the one just quoted about Mr. Balfour. Would the + result in the reader's mind be as good, or better, if the author + specified a larger number of qualities? Why? What feeling do you + have as to the fairness of the three treatments? Does any one + of the three seem to claim completeness? Which is most nearly + complete? + + Write a similar analysis, reducing to one or two main + qualities or characteristics, the American Civil War, the French + Revolution, the Industrial Revolution, the Romantic Movement in + Literature, the Celtic Spirit, the Puritan Spirit, Socialism, + Culture. + + Now, King Edward is, above everything else, a very + human man. He is not deceived by the pomp and circumstance in + the midst of which it has been his lot to live, for he has no + illusions. He is eminently sane. He was cast for a part in the + piece of life from his cradle, and he plays it industriously + and thoroughly; but he has never lost the point of view of the + plain man. He has much more in common with the President of a + free State than with the King by Divine right. He is simply + the chief citizen, _primus inter pares_, and the fact that + he is chief by heredity and not by election does not qualify + his views of the reality of the position. Unlike his nephew, + he never associates the Almighty with his right to rule, + though he associates Him with his rule. His common sense and + his gift of humor save him from these exalted and antiquated + assumptions. Nothing is more characteristic of this sensible + attitude than his love for the French people and French + institutions. No King by "Divine right" could be on speaking + terms with a country which has swept the whole institution of + Kingship on to the dust-heap. + + And his saving grace of humor enables him to enjoy + and poke fun at the folly of the tuft-hunter and the collector + of Royal cherry stones. He laughingly inverts the folly. "You + see that chair," he said in tones of awe to a guest entering + his smoking room at Windsor. "That is the chair John Burns + sat in." His Majesty has a genuine liking for "J. B." who, I + have no doubt, delivered from that chair a copious digest of + his Raper lecture, coupled with illuminating statistics on + infantile mortality, some approving comments on the member + for Battersea, and a little wholesome advice on the duties + of a King. This liking for Mr. Burns is as characteristic of + the King as his liking for France. He prefers plain, breezy + men who admit him to the common humanities rather than those + who remind him of his splendid isolation. He would have had + no emotion of pride when Scott, who, with all his great + qualities, was a deplorable tuft-hunter, solemnly put the wine + glass that had touched the Royal lips into the tail pocket of + his coat, but he would have immensely enjoyed the moment when + he inadvertently sat on it.[49] + + [49] A. G. Gardiner: _Prophets, Priests, and Kings_. By permission of + the publishers, E. P. Dutton & Co., New York City. + + Thomas Hardy lives in the deepening shadow of the + mystery of this unintelligible world. The journey that began + with the bucolic joy of _Under the Greenwood Tree_ has reached + its close in the unmitigated misery of _Jude the Obscure_, + accompanied by the mocking voices of those aerial spirits who + pass their comments upon the futile struggle of the "Dynasts," + as they march their armies to and fro across the mountains and + rivers of that globe which the eye of the imagination sees + whirling like a midge in space. Napoleon and the Powers! What + are they but puppets in the hand of some passionless fate, + loveless and hateless, whose purposes are beyond all human + vision? + + O Immanence, That reasonest not + In putting forth all things begot, + Thou buildest Thy house in space--for what? + O Loveless, Hateless!--past the sense + Of kindly-eyed benevolence, + To what tune danceth this Immense? + + And for answer comes the mocking voice of the Spirit + Ironic-- + + For one I cannot answer. But I know + 'T is handsome of our Pities so to sing + The praises of the dreaming, dark, dumb Thing + That turns the handle of this idle Show. + + Night has come down upon the outlook of the writer + as it came down over the somber waste of Egdon Heath. There + is not a cheerful feature left, not one glint of sunshine in + the sad landscape of broken ambitions and squalor and hopeless + strivings and triumphant misery. Labor and sorrow, a little + laughter, disillusion and suffering--and after that, the dark. + Not the dark that flees before the cheerful dawn, but the dark + whose greatest benediction is eternal nothingness. Other men + of genius, most men of genius, have had their periods of deep + dejection in which only the mocking voice of the Spirit Ironic + answered their passionate questionings. Shakespeare himself + may be assumed to have passed through the valley of gloom in + that tremendous period when he produced the great tragedies; + but he came out of the shadow, and _The Winter's Tale_ has the + serenity and peace of a cloudless sunset. But the pilgrimage + of Thomas Hardy has led us ever into the deeper shadow. The + shades of the prison-house have closed around us and there is + no return to the cheerful day. The journey we began with those + jolly carol-singers under the greenwood tree has ended in the + hopeless misery of Jude.[50] + + [50] A. G. Gardiner: _Prophets, Priests, and Kings_. By permission of + the publishers, E. P. Dutton & Co., New York City. + + XI. On what basis is the following analysis of the farmer's life + made? Do you discover any overlapping of parts? Is the analysis + so incomplete as to be of slight value? At what point can you + draw the line between analysis and mere "remarks" about a + subject? + + Over and above the hardiness which the farm + engenders, and of a far higher quality, is the moral courage + it calls into play. Courage is the elemental virtue, for + life has been and will forever be a fight. A farmer's life + is one incessant fight. Think what he dares! He dares to try + to control the face of this planet. In order to raise his + crops he pits himself against the weather and the seasons; + he forces the soil to his wishes; he wars against the plant + world, the bacterial world. Is not that a fight, looked at + philosophically, to make one stand aghast? After I had been on + the farm seven years, the tremendousness of the fight that my + fellow farmers were waging disclosed itself to me with a force + no figure of speech can convey. Until one can be brought + to some realization of this aspect of the farmer's life, he + has no adequate grounds for comprehending the discipline and + development which is the very nature of the case that life + must receive. I often contrast the life of the clerk at his + books, or the mechanic at his bench, or the professional man + at his desk, with the lot of the farmer. The dangers and + uncertainties they confront seem to me extraordinarily mild + compared with the risk the farmer runs. That the former will + be paid for their work is almost certain; it is extremely + uncertain whether the farmer will be paid for his. He must + dare to lose at every turn; scarcely a week passes in which + he does not lose, sometimes heavily, sometimes considerably. + Those moments in a battle when it seems as if every plan had + gone to smash, which so test the fortitude of a general, are + moments which a farmer experiences more frequently and more + strenuously than men in most occupations. If he sticks to his + task successfully his capacity for courage must grow to meet + the demands; if he will not stick, he is sifted out by force + of circumstance, leaving the stronger type of man to hold the + farm.[51] + + [51] Arthur M. Judy: _From the Study to the Farm_. By courtesy of The + Atlantic Monthly Company. + + Analyze the life of the iron-worker, the country doctor, + the head-nurse of a city hospital, the college professor, the + private detective. + + XII. Would you classify the following selection as formal or informal + classification or partition? + + Write a similar treatment of fuel power, moral power, + physical strength, intellectual power. + + Wherever rain falls streams will form, the water of + which represents the concentrated drainage of all the land + sloping toward that particular valley at the bottom of which + the stream flows. This stream flow consists of the rainfall + over the whole watershed less the amount absorbed by the + earth or evaporated from the surface, and every such stream + is a potential source of power. The possible water-power of + a country or district is, therefore, primarily dependent on + rainfall, but also, of course, on absorption and surface + evaporation. In places where the land is approximately flat, + the tendency to concentrate rainfall into streams would be + small, as the water would tend to lie rather in swampy low + pools, or form innumerable tiny, slowly moving brooks. On the + contrary, if the country were of a rolling or mountainous + character, there would be two important differences + introduced. First, water would concentrate in a few larger + and faster-moving streams, the water of which would represent + the collection from perhaps thousands of square miles; and + secondly, it would be constantly falling from higher to lower + levels on its way to the sea. While, therefore, all streams + are potential, or possible sources of power, and water-power + might seem to be available all over the earth, yet, as a + matter of fact, only those streams that are large enough + or in which the fall of level is great enough, are really + worth while to develop; and only in these districts where + the rainfall is great enough and the earth not too flat or + too absorbent, or the air too dry, may any streams of useful + character at all be expected. The power represented by all the + water of a stream, and its entire fall from the source to the + sea, is likewise only partly available. No one would think of + trying to carry water in pipes from the source of a stream + a thousand miles to its mouth for the sake of running some + water-wheels.[52] + + [52] Charles E. Lucke: _Power_. By courtesy of the publishers, the + Columbia University Press. + + XIII. For what kind of reader do you judge that the following partition + of the orchestra was written? Is the partition complete? What + is the basis on which it is made? How does it differ from an + appreciative criticism of the orchestra as a musical instrument? + (See chapter on _Criticism_.) + + Make a similar partition of the brass band, the feudal + system, the United States Government, the United States Army, the + Hague Conference, the pipe organ, the printing press, a canal + lock, a Greek drama, a large modern circus, mathematics, etc. + + The modern orchestra is the result of a long + development, which it would not be profitable to trace in this + book. It is a body of instruments, selected with a view to + their ability to perform the most complex music. It will be + readily understood that such an instrumental body must possess + a wide range of timbres, a great compass, extensive gradations + of force, the greatest flexibility, and a solid sonority + which can be maintained from the finest pianissimo to the + heaviest forte. Of course the preservation of some of these + qualities, such as flexibility and solidity, depend largely + upon the skill of the composer, but they are all inherent in + the orchestra. They are gained by the use of three classes of + instruments, grouped under the general heads of wood, brass, + and strings, which have special tone-colors and individuality + when heard in their distinct groups, but which combine + admirably in the ensemble. + + It is the custom to name the three groups in the + order given because, for the sake of convenience, composers + place the flute parts at the top of the page of the score + where the wide margin gives room for their high notes. The + other wood-wind instruments follow the flutes, so as to keep + the wood-choir together. The brass is placed under the wood + because its members are so often combined with some of the + wood instruments in sounding chords. This brings the strings + to the bottom of the page, the instruments of percussion + (drums, cymbals, etc.) being inserted between them and the + brass. + + The instruments of the conventional symphonic + orchestra of the classic period, then, are flutes, oboes, + clarinets, bassoons in the wood department, horns, trumpets, + and trombones in the brass, and violins, violas, violoncellos, + and double-basses for strings. Modern composers have added + for special reasons the English horn, which is the alto of + the oboe, the bass-clarinet, the contrabassoon (which sounds + an octave lower than the ordinary bassoon), the bass-tuba, + a powerful double-bass brass instrument, and the harp. The + piccolo, a small, shrill flute sounding an octave higher than + the ordinary flute, was introduced into the symphony orchestra + by Beethoven, though it had frequently been used before in + opera scores.[53] + + [53] W. H. Henderson: _What is Good Music_? By courtesy of the + publishers, Charles Scribner's Sons, New York City. Copyright, + 1898. + + XIV. Criticize the following analysis of the indispensability of Law. + Write an analysis of the necessity for conformity to current + style in dress, the necessity for theaters, of the reason why + ultimate democracy is inevitable for the whole world; of the + inevitability of conflict between advancing thought and + established religion; of the unavoidability of struggle between + capital and labor. + + The truth is, laws, religions, creeds, and systems + of ethics, instead of making society better than its best + unit, make it worse than its average unit, because they are + never up to date. You will ask me: "Why have them at all?" + I will tell you. They are made necessary, though we all + secretly detest them, by the fact that the number of people + who can think out a line of conduct for themselves even on + one point is very small, and the number who can afford the + time for it is still smaller. Nobody can afford the time to + do it on all points. The professional thinker may on occasion + make his own morality and philosophy as the cobbler may make + his own boots; but the ordinary man of business must buy at + the shop, so to speak, and put up with what he finds on sale + there, whether it exactly suits him or not, because he can + neither make a morality for himself nor do without one. This + typewriter with which I am writing is the best I can get; but + it is by no means a perfect instrument; and I have not the + smallest doubt that in fifty years' time authors will wonder + how men could have put up with so clumsy a contrivance. When a + better one is invented I shall buy it: until then, not being + myself an inventor, I must make the best of it, just as my + Protestant and Roman Catholic and Agnostic friends make the + best of their imperfect creeds and systems. Oh, Father Tucker, + worshiper of Liberty, where shall we find a land where the + thinking and moralizing can be done without division of labor? + + Besides, what have deep thinking and moralizing to + do with the most necessary and least questionable side of + law? Just consider how much we need law in matters which have + absolutely no moral bearing at all. Is there anything more + aggravating than to be told, when you are socially promoted, + and are not quite sure how to behave yourself in the circles + you enter for the first time, that good manners are merely a + matter of good sense, and that rank is but the guinea's stamp: + the man's the gowd for a' that? Imagine taking the field + with an army which knew nothing except that the soldier's + duty is to defend his country bravely, and think, not of + his own safety, nor of home and beauty, but of England! Or + of leaving the traffic of Piccadilly or Broadway to proceed + on the understanding that every driver should keep to that + side of the road which seemed to him to promote the greatest + happiness to the greatest number! Or of stage managing Hamlet + by assuring the Ghost that whether he entered from the right + or the left could make no difference to the greatness of + Shakespeare's play, and that all he need concern himself + about was holding the mirror up to nature! Law is never so + necessary as when it has no ethical significance whatever, + and is pure law for the sake of law. The law that compels + me to keep to the left when driving along Oxford Street is + ethically senseless, as is shown by the fact that keeping + to the right serves equally well in Paris; and it certainly + destroys my freedom to choose my side; but by enabling me to + count on every one else keeping to the left also, thus making + traffic possible and safe, it enlarges my life and sets my + mind free for nobler issues. Most laws, in short, are not the + expression of the ethical verdicts of the community, but pure + etiquette and nothing else. What they do express is the fact + that over most of the field of social life there are wide + limits within which it does not matter what people do, though + it matters enormously under given circumstances whether you + can depend on their all doing the same thing. The wasp, who + can be depended on absolutely to sting if you squeeze him, is + less of a nuisance than the man who tries to do business with + you not according to the custom of business, but according + to the Sermon on the Mount, or than the lady who dines with + you and refuses, on republican and dietetic principles, to + allow precedence to a duchess or to partake of food which + contains uric acid. The ordinary man cannot get through the + world without being told what to do at every turn, and basing + such calculations as he is capable of on the assumption that + every one else will calculate on the same assumptions. Even + your man of genius accepts a hundred rules for every one + he challenges; and you may lodge in the same house with an + Anarchist for ten years without noticing anything exceptional + about him. Martin Luther, the priest, horrified the greater + half of Christendom by marrying a nun, yet was a submissive + conformist in countless ways, living orderly as a husband and + father, wearing what his bootmaker and tailor made for him, + and dwelling in what the builder built for him, although he + would have died rather than take his Church from the Pope. + And when he got a Church made by himself to his liking, + generations of men calling themselves Lutherans took that + Church from him just as unquestioningly as he took the fashion + of his clothes from the tailor. As the race evolves, many a + convention which recommends itself by its obvious utility + to every one passes into an automatic habit like breathing. + Doubtless also an improvement in our nerves and judgment + may enlarge the list of emergencies which individuals may + be entrusted to deal with on the spur of the moment without + reference to regulations; but a ready-made code of conduct for + general use will always be needed as a matter of overwhelming + convenience by all members of communities. + + The continual danger to liberty created by law + arises, not from the encroachments of Governments, which are + always regarded with suspicion, but from the immense utility + and consequent popularity of law, and the terrifying danger + and obvious inconvenience of anarchy; so that even pirates + appoint and obey a captain. Law soon acquires such a good + character that people will believe no evil of it; and at this + point it becomes possible for priests and rulers to commit + the most pernicious crimes in the name of law and order. + Creeds and laws come to be regarded as applications to human + conduct of eternal and immutable principles of good and + evil; and breakers of the law are abhorred as sacrilegious + scoundrels to whom nothing is sacred. Now this, I need not + tell you, is a very serious error. No law is so independent + of circumstances that the time never comes for breaking it, + changing it, scrapping it as obsolete, and even making its + observance a crime. In a developing civilization nothing can + make laws tolerable unless their changes and modifications are + kept as closely as possible on the heels of the changes and + modifications in social conditions which development involves. + Also there is a bad side to the very convenience of law. It + deadens the conscience of individuals by relieving them of + the ethical responsibility of their own actions. When this + relief is made as complete as possible, it reduces a man to a + condition in which his very virtues are contemptible. Military + discipline, for example, aims at destroying the individuality + and initiative of the soldier whilst increasing his mechanical + efficiency, until he is simply a weapon with the power of + hearing and obeying orders. In him you have legality, duty, + obedience, self-denial, submission to external authority, + carried as far as it can be carried; and the result is that + in England, where military service is voluntary, the common + soldier is less respected than any other serviceable worker + in the community. The police constable, who is a civilian and + has to use his own judgment and act on his own responsibility + in innumerable petty emergencies, is by comparison a popular + and esteemed citizen. The Roman Catholic peasant who consults + his parish priest instead of his conscience, and submits + wholly to the authority of his Church, is mastered and + governed either by statesmen and cardinals who despise his + superstition, or by Protestants who are at least allowed to + persuade themselves that they have arrived at their religious + opinions through the exercise of their private judgment. The + moral evolution of the social individual is from submission + and obedience as economizers of effort and responsibility, and + safeguards against panic and incontinence, to willfulness and + self-assertion made safe by reason and self-control, just as + plainly as his physical growth leads him from the perambulator + and the nurse's apron strings to the power of walking alone, + and from the tutelage of the boy to the responsibility of the + man. But it is useless for impatient spirits (like you and + I, for instance) to call on people to walk before they can + stand. Without high gifts of reason and self-control: that is, + without strong common-sense, no man yet dares trust himself + out of the school of authority. What he does is to claim + gradual relaxations of the discipline, so as to have as much + liberty as he thinks is good for him, and as much government + as he thinks he needs to keep him straight. If he goes too + fast he soon finds himself asking helplessly, "What ought I + to do?" and so, after running to the doctor, the lawyer, the + expert, the old friend, and all the other quacks for advice, + he runs back to the law again to save him from all these and + from himself. The law may be wrong; but anyhow it spares + him the responsibility of choosing, and will either punish + those who make him look ridiculous by exposing its folly, or, + when the constitution is too democratic for this, at least + guarantee that the majority is on his side.[54] + + [54] George Bernard Shaw: _The Sanity of Art_. By courtesy of the + publishers, Boni & Liveright. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +MECHANISMS, PROCESSES, AND ORGANIZATIONS + + +The problem of giving directions for making or doing something, or of +explaining the working of an organization, is not always easy to solve. +Most difficulties, however, occur through lack of considering just what +the problem involves, and through lack of sufficiently simplifying the +material. Thus, when you ask an old man in a strange city where the +post-office is, he is likely to reply somewhat as follows: "You keep on +just as you are going for a little ways, and then turn down a narrow +street on the right and go along for four blocks, and then turn to +your left and go until you come to a square, and then go across it and +down a side street and through an office building, and then it's the +stone building on the corner of the second street to your right." You +stroke your chin, meditate a bit, and, if you are polite, thank your +informant for his kind intentions. Then you ask the next person whom +you meet to tell you where the post-office is. The old man meant well, +of course, but he failed to simplify. So did the author of the little +book that Johnny received for Christmas mean well when he explained +how to make a beautiful chemical effect. But Johnny, who was a fairly +impetuous youth, did not stop to read the footnote at the end which +warned against working near a fire. When he was seraphically pouring +his chemicals together near the old oil lamp in the "shop" there came a +flash, a deafening roar--and little Johnny had no time either to examine +footnotes or, after the smoke had cleared, for _post-mortem_ complaints. +The trouble lay in the fact that the author did not give Johnny the +necessary information at the essential time. + +It seems that neither piety nor wit will suffice to locate post-offices +or direct experiments or explain machines. Better than either of these +is the ability to make the mechanism, the process, the organization +transparently clear, with each bit of information given at exactly the +proper moment. For, since the object of such explanation as attempts to +make clear is primarily information, the main quality of the writing +should be clearness. Everything that stands in the way of this quality +should be made to surrender to explanation. If the subject is itself +interesting or remarkable, the facts may speak for themselves, as in +an account of the nebular hypothesis; if the subject is merely common, +as for example the force pump, the primary aim should be clearness. +Pleasing presentation, however desirable, is secondary. No amount of +pleasant reading on the subject of making photographs, the working of +periscopes, the organization of literary societies will be of value if +at the end the reader has not a well-ordered idea of how to go to work +or of how the thing of which you treat is operated. + + +General Cautions + +For these reasons certain principles of caution can be laid down. The +first caution is, do not take too much for granted on the reader's part. +First of all take stock of your reader and his knowledge of the subject +and then write in accordance with your discoveries. If, in explaining +the bicycle to a Fiji Islander, you fail to note that the two wheels +are placed tandem rather than parallel, he may form a thoroughly queer +notion of the machine. And your protest, "Why, I supposed he would _know +that_!" is in vain. This caution does not mean that you must adopt a +tone of condescension, must say, "Now children," and patter on, but that +you will not omit any important part of the explanation unless you are +sure that your reader is acquainted with it. The second caution, which +is corollary with the first, is that you do not substitute for the +gaps in the written information the silent knowledge that is in your +own mind. The danger here lies in the fact that, knowing your subject +well, you will write part of it and think the rest. Having for a long +time practiced the high hurdles, for example, when you come to explain +them you will run the paradoxical risk of being so thoroughly acquainted +with the subject that you will actually omit much vital information and +thus make your treatment thin. And the third caution is, avoid being +over technical. An expert can always understand plain English; a layman, +on the other hand, can soon become hopelessly bewildered in a sea of +technicalities. Treatment of technicalities demands sense, therefore; +when a term is reasonably common its presence can do no harm, but when a +term is known only to the few, substitute for it, when writing for the +many, plain English, or define your terms. + + +Centralization + +Perhaps the greatest lack in expositions of this type is centralization. +A reader rises from the account of a cream separator or a suspension +bridge or the feudal system with the feeling that many cogs and wires +and wheels and spouts and lords and vassals are involved, but without a +clear correlation of all these elements into a clear and simple whole. +Now a suspension bridge is much more organic than a scrap heap, and the +feudal system than a city directory. It is for you as the writer to make +this clear, to show that all the things are related, that they affect +each other and interact. For this purpose you will find the greatest +help in the device of ascertaining what the root principle is, the +fundamental notion or purpose of the subject that you are explaining. +For example, to make your reader see the relation of the various parts +of the tachometer you should discover and present the fact that the +machine relies primarily on the principle of centrifugal force as +affecting the mercury that whirls as the automobile moves. Once this +principle is grasped by the reader, the various parts of the mechanism +assume their proper places and relations and become clear. Now obviously +this root principle is to be sought _in the subject itself_; here is no +place for an author to let his fancy roam where it will without keeping +an eye steadily upon the machine or process. You are trying to explain +the machine, not some vague or fanciful idea of what the machine might +be if it were like what your fancy says; therefore, in the words of the +good old advice, which comes handy in most writing, "keep your eye on +the object," which in this case will be the machine or the process or +the organization. And the more complicated the mechanism or process, +the more necessary will be the discovery of the root principle--a +printing machine, for instance, with its amazing complexity, will be +helped wonderfully by such a device, and the reader will welcome the +device even more than he would in an explanation of how, for example, a +fountain pen works--though he will be glad for it in any case. + +This root principle, nucleus, core, kernel can often be stated in one +sentence. You can say, for instance, in speaking of bridges like those +across the East River, "A suspension bridge consists of a roadway hung +by wires from huge cables which are anchored at the ends and are looped +up over one or more high supports in the stream." This sentence may not +be immediately and entirely clear, but it serves to show quickly what +relations parts have to each other, and to it the reader may refer in +his mind when detailed treatment of the maze of wires and bolts becomes +bewildering. Often this sentence need not be expressed alone; it should +always be thought out in the writer's mind. + +If it is expressed, such a sentence may stand at the beginning as a sort +of quick picture, or it may come at the end as a collecting statement +of what has preceded, or at any point where it seems to be of the most +value to the reader. It may take various forms as, for example, it +may state in essence how the machine or process works, is operated, or +what it is for, or of what it consists. If it occurs at the end as a +summary, it may be a summary of _facts_ in which the points made or the +parts described are enumerated, or it may be a summary of _essence_, in +which the significance or the principle of the thing is stated. In the +following examples the sentence will be found near the beginning in both +cases, and in the nature of a statement of the principle of operation. + + Of tools used for cutting, perhaps the most remarkable of + all is the oxygen blow-pipe. This is a little tool something the + shape of a pistol--which a workman can easily hold in one hand. + It is connected by a flexible tube to a cylinder of compressed + oxygen, and by another tube to a supply of coal-gas. Thus a jet of + oxygen and a jet of coal-gas issue from the nozzle at the end of + the blow-pipe, and, mingling there, produce a fine point of flame + burning with intense heat. If this be directed upon the edge of a + thick bar or plate of steel it will in a few seconds melt a tiny + groove in it, and, if the pipe be moved along, that groove can be + developed into a cut and in that way very thick pieces of steel can + be severed quite easily. The harder the steel, too, the more easily + it is cut, for hard steel contains more carbon than soft, and that + has a tendency to burn with oxygen, actually increasing the heat + of the flame. A bar of iron a foot long can be cut right down the + center in fifty seconds. It is said that scientific burglars have + been known to use blow-pipes to open safes with; but a very strange + thing about them is that, while they will cut hard steel of almost + any thickness almost like butter, they are completely baffled by + a thin sheet of copper. The reason of this is that copper is such + a good conductor of heat that the heat of the flame is conducted + quickly away, and so the part in contact with the flame never + becomes hot enough to melt.[55] + + [55] Thomas W. Corbin: _Engineering of To-day_. By courtesy of the + publishers, Seeley, Service & Co., London. + + * * * * * + + There is another very efficient substitute for the dynamite + cartridge, which may abolish blasting even in hard-rock mines. + It is a hydraulic cartridge, or an apparatus that works on the + principle of the hydraulic jack. Unlike dynamite, which consists of + a lot of stored and highly concentrated energy that is let fly to + do what destruction it may, the hydraulic cartridge is absolutely + inert and devoid of potential energy when placed in the blast-hole. + Only after it is in place is the energy applied to it. This it + gradually accumulates until it acquires enough to burst open + the rock without wasting a lot of energy in pulverizing it. The + apparatus is under the direct control of the miner all the time. + There is nothing haphazard about its operation. + + The cartridge consists of a strong steel cylinder, made in + various sizes. Disposed at right angles to the length of the + cylinder are a number of pistons, or rams, that may be forced + out laterally by pumping water into the cylinder. The cartridge + is introduced into the blast-hole with the rams retracted. Then + a quick-action pump is operated to move the rams out so that + they come in contact with the rock. After this, by means of a + screw-lever a powerful pressure is exerted upon the water, which + forces out the rams until the rock gives way under the strain.[56] + + [56] Taken from _The Century Magazine_ by permission of the + publishers, The Century Co. + + +Processes + +The development of this kind of exposition will vary somewhat according +to the nature of the subject. If you are explaining a process--how to +make a campfire, or how to find the width of an unbridged river, or how +to make bread--you will naturally follow the chronological order and +tell what to do first, what second, and so on. If several materials are +to be used in the process, you may enumerate them all at the beginning, +for collection, or state them piece by piece as they are needed. For +example, you may say, "In making a kite you will need so many pieces of +such wood of such and such sizes, with paper or cloth, strong twine, +glue, nails, etc." You may cast the whole process into a personal +mood by telling how some one, perhaps yourself, did it on a previous +occasion. This method, if it is judiciously used, adds interest. You +must take care not to seem to encumber obviously simple directions, +however, with the machinery of personal narrative so that the whole +account is longer than it should be. In case you are treating some +process in which mistakes are easily made, you can often help the reader +by showing how some one--preferably yourself--did it wrongly and thereby +came to grief. Or you can state concisely what not to do if there is +chance for mistake. In developing films, for example, you may warn the +reader not to mix any of the Hypo with the Fixing Bath; in picking his +apples not to break the twigs of the tree; in paddling a canoe through +rapids not to become excited. Note how, in the account which follows +of how to handle a punt, the author makes the material quite human and +personal--to the reader's pleasure. + + You may get yourself a tub or a working-boat or a wherry, a + rob-roy or a dinghy, for every craft that floats is known on the + Thames; but the favorite craft are the Canadian canoe and the punt. + The canoe you will be familiar with, but your ideas of a punt are + probably derived from a farm-built craft you have poled about + American duck-marshes--which bears about the same relationship to + this slender, half-decked cedar beauty that a canal-boat bears to a + racing-shell. + + During your first perilous lessons in punting, you will + probably be in apprehension of ducking your mentor, who is lounging + among the cushions in the bow. But you cannot upset the punt any + more than you can discompose the Englishman; the punt simply upsets + you without seeming to be aware of it. And when you crawl dripping + up the bank, consoled only by the fact that the Humane Society man + was not on hand with his boat-hook to pull you out by the seat of + the trousers, your mentor will gravely explain how you made your + mistake. Instead of bracing your feet firmly on the bottom and + pushing with the pole, you were leaning on the pole and pushing + with your feet. When the pole stuck in the clay bottom, of course + it pulled you out of the boat. + + Steering is a matter of long practice. When you want to throw + the bow to the left, you have only to pry the stern over to the + right as you are pulling the pole out of the water. To throw the + bow to the right, ground the pole a foot or so wide of the boat, + and then lean over and pull the boat up to it. That is not so easy, + but you will learn the wrist motion in time. When all this comes + like second nature, you will feel that you have become a part of + the punt, or rather that the punt has taken life and become a part + of you. + + A particular beauty of punting is that, more than any other + sport, it brings you into personal contact, so to speak, with the + landscape. In a few days you will know every inch of the bottom of + the Char, some of it perhaps by more intimate experience than you + desire. Over there, on the other curve of the bend, the longest + pole will not touch bottom. Fight shy of that place. Just beyond + here, in the narrows, the water is so shallow that you can get the + whole length of your body into every sweep. As for the shrubbery + on the bank, you will soon learn these hawthorns, if only to avoid + barging into them. And the Magdalen chestnut, which spreads its + shade so beautifully above the water just beyond, becomes quite + familiar when its low-reaching branches have once caught the top of + your pole and torn it from your hands.[57] + + [57] John Corbin: _An American at Oxford_. Houghton Mifflin Company, + Boston, publishers. + + +Mechanisms + +If you are explaining a mechanism, you may follow different orders. You +may explain chronologically, showing what happens first, what next, and +so on, as in the printing press you would show what happens first to +the paper, and then what processes follow. Here you must be careful not +to give a long list at the beginning of all the different parts of the +machine. Such a list bewilders and is rarely of any real value. Instead +of saying, for example, that a reaper and binder consists of a reel, a +knife, a canvas platform and belt, etc., you will do well to simplify at +the beginning, and say, perhaps, that from the front the machine looks +like a dash with an inverted V at one end: thus: ____[Greek: L] and then +go on to relate the various parts to this simple scheme. The brief +paragraph which follows illustrates the principle in a slight space. + + The stone-boat is a peculiar vehicle incidental to America, + and has nothing whatsoever to do with the water. It resembles a + huge metal tray or shovel hauled by a team of horses. And its + special path is as novel as the boat itself. It is only two wooden + lines fashioned from tree-logs adzed roughly flat on the upper + side, well greased, and laid promiscuously and roughly parallel on + the ground. The stone is prized and levered on to the tray, and + hauled with a speed, which, bearing in mind the primitive road, is + astonishing, to the dump, where a sharp swing round on the part of + the horses pitches the mass down the bank.[58] + + [58] F. A. Talbot: _The Making of a Great Canadian Railway_. By + courtesy of the publishers, Seeley, Service & Co., London. + +If you prefer, you can use, instead of the chronological order, the +device of showing what the need was for the machine and how it fills the +need, or what the object of the machine is and how it accomplishes that +object. An explanation of the cotton gin might present the woeful waste +of time before the gin was invented and then show how the invention +annuls that waste. One of the periscope might state the object of +invisible observation and then show how, by tubes and mirrors, this +object is accomplished. Or finally, as a third general method, you may +state the root principle and then expand in detail. With this scheme you +might state that the piano is an instrument in which felt hammers strike +metal strings that are stretched across a sounding board, and then go on +to show the significance, as related to this notion, of keys, pedals, +music rest, and other details. Often this method is the most helpful +for a reader, since it gives him at once a nucleus of theory round +which he can group the details with immediate or rapid understanding +of their relations and significance. In so simple a machine as the ice +cream freezer to introduce names like "dasher" without previous warning +may result in momentary confusion, whereas if the principle is stated +at the beginning, and the reader knows that the object is to bring the +cream into contact with the coldest possible _surface_ so as to produce +speed in freezing, the "dasher," when mentioned, is at once significant. +The description and explanation of a track-layer, which follows, is so +made as to be both clear and interesting. + + The track-layer is one of the most interesting tools with + which the railway-builder carries out his epoch-making work. It is + a cumbersome, ungainly, and fearsome-looking implement, but with a + convincing, grim, and business-like appearance. From the front it + resembles a gallows, and for this reason has earned the sinister + sobriquet of "the gibbet" among certain members of the engineering + fraternity. On the front of the truck there is a lofty rectangular + scaffolding of rigid construction, strongly based and supported for + the hard, heavy work it has to perform. A jib runs forward into the + air from the bottom of either leg to meet at the outer extremity + and to form a derrick. The car on which the structure is mounted + carries a number of small steam-engines, each of which has to + perform a particular function, while at the commanding point high + up on the rectangular construction is a small bridge, from which + the man in control of the machine carries out his various tasks and + controls the whole machine. Ropes, hooks, and pulleys are found on + every side, and though, from the cursory point of view, it appears + an intricate piece of mechanism, yet its operation is absurdly + simple. + + This machine constitutes the front vehicle of the train, with + the bridge facing the grade and the projecting boom overhanging the + track. Immediately behind are several trucks piled high with steel + rails, fish-plates to secure connection between successive lengths + of rails, spikes, and other necessaries. Then comes the locomotive, + followed by a long train of trucks laden with sleepers. On the + right-hand side of the train, level with the deck of the trucks, + extends a continuous trough, with its floor consisting of rollers. + It reaches from the rearmost car in the train to 40 or 50 feet in + advance of the track-layer, the overhanging section being supported + by ropes and tackle controlled from the track-layer truck whereby + the trough can be raised and lowered as desired. + + The appliance is operated as follows. The engine pushes the + fore-part of the train slowly forward until the end of the last + rail laid is approached. The rollers in the trough, which is in + reality a mechanical conveyor, are set in motion. Then the gangs + of men stationed on the rear trucks with might and main pitch the + bulky sleepers into the trough. Caught up by the rollers, the + ties are whirled along to the front of the train, and tumble to + the ground in a steady, continuous stream. As they emerge, they + are picked up by another gang of men who roughly throw them into + position on to the grade. Other members of the gang, equipped with + axes and crowbars, push, pull, haul, and prize the ties into their + relative positions and at equal distances apart. + + When thirty or forty sleepers have been deposited in this + manner, a pair of steel rails are picked up by the booms from the + trucks behind the track-layer, are swung through the air, and + lowered. As they near the ground ready hands grasp the bar of + steel, steady it in its descent, and guide it into its correct + position. The gauge is brought into play dexterously, and before + one can realize what has happened the men are spiking the pair of + rails to the sleepers, have slipped the bolts into the fish-plates + connecting the new rail with its fellow already in position, and + the track-layer has moved slowly forward some 13 or 16 feet over a + new unit of track, meanwhile disgorging further sleepers from the + mouth of the trough. + + The noise is deafening, owing to the clattering of the weighty + baulks of timber racing over the noisy rollers in the conveyor, + the rattle of metal, and the clang-clang of the hammers as the men + with powerful strokes drive home the spikes fastening the rail to + its wooden bed, and the hissing and screeching of steam. Amid the + silence of the wilderness the din created by the track-layer at + work is heard for some time before you can gain a glimpse of the + machine train. The men speak but little, for the simple reason + that they could scarcely make themselves heard if they attempted + conversation. Each moves with wonderful precision, like a part of + an intricate machine. + + In this way the rail creeps forward relentlessly at a steady, + monotonous pace. The lines of sleepers and rails on the track + disappear with amazing rapidity, and the men engaged in the task of + charging the conveyor-trough and swinging the rails forward, appear + to be in a mad race with steam-driven machinery. The perspiration + rolls off their faces in great beads, and they breathe heavily as + they grasp and toss the weighty strips of timber about as if they + were straws. There is no pause or diminution in their speed. If + they ease up at all the fact becomes evident at the front in the + course of a few seconds in a unanimous outcry from the gangs on the + grade for more material, which spurs the lagging men on the trucks + behind to greater effort. The only respite from the exhausting + labor is when the trucks have been emptied of all rails or sleepers + and the engine has to run back for a further supply, or when the + hooter rings out the time for meals or the cessation of labor. + + The track-layer at work is the most fascinating piece of + machinery in the building of a large railway. The steam-shovel may + be alluring, and the sight of a large hill of rock being blown + sky-high may compel attention, but it is the mechanical means + which have been evolved to carry out the last phase--the laying of + the metals--that is the most bewitching. One can see the railway + growing in the fullest sense of the word--can see the thin, sinuous + ribbon of steel crawling over the flat prairie, across spidery + bridges, through ravine-like rock-cuts, gloomy tunnels, and along + lofty embankments. Now and again, when the apparatus has secured a + full complement of hands, and every other factor is conducive, the + men will set to work in more deadly earnest than usual, bent on + setting up a record. Races against time have become quite a craze + among the crews operating the track-layer on the various railways + throughout America, and consequently the men allow no opportunity + to set up a new record, when all conditions are favorable, to slip + by.[59] + + [59] F. A. Talbot: _The Making of a Great Canadian Railway_. By + courtesy of the publishers, Seeley, Service & Co., London. + + +Organizations + +If you are explaining an organization you may again use the +chronological order and show how the organization came about as it is, +how for example the Federal Reserve Board was appointed for certain +reasons each of which has its correspondent in the constitution of the +board. Such a method is useful in explaining the feudal system, the +college fraternity, the national convention of a political party. Or, +finally, you can state the root idea, sometimes appearing as purpose +or significance, and then expand it. A labor union, thus treated, is a +body of men who individually have slight power of resisting organized +capital, but can collectively obtain their rights and demands. + + +Aids in Gaining Clearness + +Clearness then, through centralization, is the all-important necessity +of expositions of this type. To aid in gaining this quality you will do +well to avoid technical terms, as has already been mentioned. You can +make use of graphic charts when they will be useful, so long as they are +not merely a lazy device for escaping the task of writing clearly. Some +machines, such as the printing press or the rock drill, defy explanation +without charts and plates. Textbooks often wisely make use of this +device. You can also use familiar illustrations, as the one here used of +the reaper and binder or the one likening Brooklyn Bridge to a letter +H with the sides far apart, the cross piece extended beyond the sides, +and a cable looped over the tops of the sides. Such illustrations at +the beginning of the whole or sections are useful in helping the reader +to visualize. Another important aid to clearness is to take care that +nothing is mentioned for which the way has not been prepared. Just as +in a play we insist that the action of a character be consistent, that +a good man do not suddenly commit wanton murder, and that the villain +do not suddenly appear saintly, so we rightly demand that we be not +suddenly confronted with a crank, wheel, office, or step in a process +which bewilders us. You ought to write so that your reader will never +pucker his brow and say, "What is this?" And when a detail has some +special bearing, introduce it at the significant point. To have told +little Johnny in the beginning that he must keep his chemicals away from +flame would have avoided explosion and death; to declaim loudly after +the explosion is of no value. And finally, from a purely rhetorical +standpoint, make careful transition from section to section so that the +reader will know exactly where divisions occur, and make liberal use of +summaries whenever they may be useful without being too cumbersome. + +Notice how, in the following paragraph, the writer has given the gist of +the machines so that, if he wishes to expand and make a full treatment, +he will still have a nucleus which will considerably facilitate the +reader's understanding. + + Continuous dredges are of four types--the ladder, the + hydraulic, the stirring, and the pneumatic dredges. The ladder + dredge excavates the bottom by means of a series of buckets running + with great velocity along a ladder. The buckets scrape the soil at + the bottom, raise the débris to the surface and discharge it into + barges or conveyors so as to send it to its final destination. The + hydraulic dredge removes the material from the bottom by means of a + large centrifugal pump which draws the materials, mixed with water, + into a suction tube and forces them to distant points by means of a + long line of pipes. The stirring dredges are those employed in the + excavation of soils composed of very finely divided particles; they + agitate the soils and the material thus brought into suspension + is carried away by the action or current of water. The pneumatic + dredges are those in which the material from the bottom is forced + into the suction tube and thence into the discharging pipe, by the + action of continuous jets of compressed air turned upward into the + tube.[60] + + [60] Charles Prelini: _Dredges and Dredging_. By courtesy of the + publishers, D. Van Nostrand Company, New York City. + +Notice also the care with which the author of the paragraph which +follows and explains the phonopticon states early in his treatment the +scientific basis for the operation of the machine, without knowing which +a reader would be hopelessly confused to understand how the machine +could possibly do what the author says it does. + + The element selenium, when in crystalline form, possesses + the peculiar property of being electro-sensitive to light. It is + a good or bad conductor of electricity according to the intensity + of the light that falls upon it, and its response to variations of + illumination is virtually instantaneous. + + This interesting property has been utilized in a wide variety + of applications, ranging from the transmission of a picture over a + telegraph line to the automatic detection of comets; but by far the + most marvelous application is that of the phonopticon.... It is an + apparatus that will actually read a book or a newspaper, uttering + a characteristic combination of musical sounds for every letter it + scans. + + The principle of operation is not difficult to understand. + A row of, say, three tiny selenium crystals is employed, each + crystal forming part of a telephone circuit leading to a triple + telephone-receiver. In each circuit there is an interrupter that + breaks up the current into pulsations, or waves, of sufficient + frequency to produce a musical note in the receiver. The + frequency differs in the three circuits, so that each produces + its characteristic pitch. Although the conductivity of selenium + is increased by intensifying its illumination, the electrical + connections in this apparatus are so chosen that while the crystals + are illuminated no sounds are heard in the telephone, but when the + crystals are darkened, there is an instant audible response. + + The apparatus is placed upon the printed matter that is to + be read, with the row of crystals disposed at right angles to the + line of type. The paper directly under the crystals is illuminated + by a beam of light. This is reflected from the unprinted part of + the paper with sufficient intensity to keep the telephone quiet, + but when the crystals are moved over the black printing, the light + is diminished, and the crystals lose their conductivity, causing + the telephone to respond with a set of sounds which vary with the + shape of the letter. Suppose the apparatus was being moved over the + letter V, the upper crystal would encounter the letter first, then + the middle one would respond, next the lower one would come into + action for an instant, followed by a second response of the middle + crystal and a final response of the upper crystal. A set of notes + would be sounded somewhat after this fashion: _me_, _re_, _do_, + _re_, _mi_. The sound combination with such letters as S and O is + more complicated but it is distinguishable. When we read with the + natural eye we do not spell out the words letter by letter, but + recognize them by their appearance as a whole. In the same way with + the mechanical eye entire words can be recognized after a little + practice. + + * * * * * + + Of course the phonopticon is yet in the laboratory stages, + but it offers every prospect of practical success, and its + possibilities are untold. It is quite conceivable that the + apparatus may be elaborated to such an extent that a blind man + may see (by ear) where he is going. His world may never be bathed + in sunshine, but he may learn to admire the beauties of nature as + translated from light into music.[61] + + [61] Taken from _The Century Magazine_ by permission of the + publishers, The Century Co. + + +Aids in Gaining Interest + +If mere clearness alone were the only quality to strive for, this kind +of writing might remain, however useful, eternally dull except to one +who is vitally interested in the facts, however they are treated. But +for this there is no need; no reason exists why you should not make +this kind of writing attractive. For you can, in addition to making a +machine clear, endow it with life; in addition to enumerating the steps +in a process, make it a fascinating adventure. Suppose that you are +explaining how to learn to swim--is not the thought of waving one's +arms and legs in dreamy or frantic rhythm as he lies prone across the +piano bench humorous? Why, then, exclude the humor? And is not the +person who is trying to learn much alive, with the pit of his stomach +nervously aware of the hardness of the bench? Why, then, make him a +wooden automaton, or worse, a dead agent? So long as you do not obscure +the point that the reader should note, all the life, all the humor of +which you and the process are capable should be introduced. Just so with +a machine. You can explain the engine of an airship so that the reader +will exclaim, "I see"; what you ought to do is so to explain the engine +that he will say, "I see, and bless you, I'd like to see one go!" You +ought to make the beautiful efficiency, the exquisite humming life of +the thing, its poise, its athletic trimness so take hold of the reader +that his imagination will be fired, his interest thoroughly aroused. + +Now this you cannot do by thrusting in extraneous matter to leaven the +lump. Webster in the Senate did not introduce vaudeville to enliven his +_Reply to Hayne_, but he found in the subject itself the interest. First +of all, then, study your machine, your process, your organization, until +you see what its quality is, its spirit, until you are yourself aware of +its life, and then make this live for your reader. A railroad locomotive +should be made thrilling with its pomp and power, a military movement +should be made an exquisitely quick piece of living constructive work, +a submarine should have all the craft and the romance of a haunting +redskin, the roasting of a goose should be made a process to rouse the +joys of gluttony forevermore. Now to do this will require exercise +of the imagination, and if you find yours weak your first duty is to +develop it. If it is strong and active, on the other hand, allow it free +play, only watching lest it may obscure the subject--for clearness is +always first. There need, however, be no discrepancy between the two +qualities. The following extract from an essay by Mr. Dallas Lore Sharp +illustrates the possibilities of both interest and truth. + +ANY CHILD CAN USE IT + +THE PERFECT AUTOMATIC CARPET-LAYER + + No more carpet-laying bills. Do your own laying. No wrinkles. + No crowded corners. No sore knees. No pounded fingers. No broken + backs. Stand up and lay your carpet with the Perfect Automatic. + Easy as sweeping. Smooth as putting paper on the wall. You hold + the handle and the Perfect Automatic does the rest. Patent + Applied For. Price ---- --but it was not the price! It was the + tool--a weird hybrid tool, part gun, part rake, part catapult, + part curry-comb, fit apparently for almost any purpose, from the + business of blunderbuss to the office of an apple-picker. Its + handle, which any child could hold, was somewhat shorter and + thicker than a hoe-handle, and had a slotted tin barrel on its + ventral side along its entire length. Down this barrel, their + points sticking through the slot, moved the tacks in single file to + a spring-hammer close to the floor. This hammer was operated by a + lever or tongue at the head of the handle, the connection between + the hammer at the distal end and the lever at the proximal end + being effected by means of a steel-wire spinal cord down the dorsal + side of the handle. Over the fist of a hammer spread a jaw of sharp + teeth to take hold of the carpet. The thing could not talk; but it + could do almost anything else, so fearfully and wonderfully was it + made. + + As for laying carpets with it, any child could do that. But + we didn't have any children then, and I had quite outgrown my + childhood. I tried to be a boy again just for that night. I grasped + the handle of the Perfect Automatic, stretched with our united + strength, and pushed down on the lever. The spring-hammer drew + back, a little trap at the end of the slotted tin barrel opened for + the tack, the tack jumped out, turned over, landed point downward + upon the right spot in the carpet, the crouching hammer sprang, + and-- + + And then I lifted up the Perfect Automatic to see if the tack + went in,--a simple act that any child could do, but which took + automatically and perfectly all the stretch out of the carpet; + for the hammer did not hit the tack; the tack really did not get + through the trap; the trap did not open the slot; the slot--but no + matter. We have no carpets now. The Perfect Automatic stands in + the garret with all its original varnish on. At its feet sits a + half-used can of "Beesene, the Prince of Floor Pastes."[62] + + [62] Dallas Lore Sharp: _The Hills of Hingham_, "The Dustless Duster." + Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston, publishers. + +Besides the devices that have been mentioned you can use that of making +the agents in the action definite, real persons, and you can make a +process seem to be actually going on before the eyes of the reader. You +can suffuse the whole theme with a human spirit, for everything has a +human significance if only you will find it. + +Finally, use tact in approaching your reader. Do not "talk down" to +him, and do not over-compliment his intelligence or wheedle him. Rather +regard him as a person desirous of knowing, your subject as a thing +capable of interest, and yourself as a really enthusiastic devotee. Take +this attitude, and as long as you make clear, so long your chances for +success will be good. + + +EXERCISES + + I. 1. Indicate other practical root principles beside the one + mentioned which a theme on any of the following subjects + might well try to express. + + 1. How to teach a dog tricks--the patience required. + + 2. How to learn to swim--the humor, or the grim determination. + + 3. How to manage an automobile--the cool-headedness required. + + 4. How to find the trouble with a balky engine--the careful, + patient, unangered searching. + + 5. How to make an exquisite angel cake--the delicacy necessary. + + 6. A steel mill--the power displayed. + + 7. The aeroplane motor--its concentrated energy. + + 8. The reaper and binder--the coöperation of parts. + + 9. The camera--its sensitiveness. + + 10. The adding machine--the uncanny sureness of it. + + 11. The United States Supreme Court--its deliberateness. + + 12. The feudal system--its picturesque injustice. + + 13. The college literary society--its opportunities. + + 14. The Grange--its sensible usefulness. + + 15. The Federal Reserve Board--its safety. + + 2. Make two or more outlines for each subject, choosing your + material to indicate different root principles. Wherein does + the difference in material consist? How much material is + common to all the outlines on the same subject? Is this common + material made of essential or non-essential facts? + + II. Find some simplifying device such as the one suggested for the + reaper and binder, for any of the following mechanisms, and + indicate how you would relate the parts of the machine to the + device. + + 1. A concrete mixer. + + 2. A derrick. + + 3. A vacuum cleaner. + + 4. A lawn-mower. + + 5. A rock-crusher. + + 6. A pile-driver. + + 7. A Dover egg-beater. + + 8. A hay-tedder. + + 9. A printing-press. + + 10. An apple-sorter. + + III. State, _in one complete sentence_, the nucleus from which a theme + treatment of any of the following subjects would grow. Be sure + that this sentence is sufficiently inclusive, has much meat. Mr. + Wilson, in writing of the National House of Representatives, + evidently had a sentence like the following in mind: "The House + of Representatives is an efficient business body the work of + which is accomplished largely through committees, and centralized + round a powerful speaker." + + 1. The operation of a sewing machine. + + 2. The explanation of a pulley. + + 3. The explanation of a cream separator. + + 4. The principle of the fireless cooker. + + 5. The principle of the steam turbine. + + 6. The principle of the bread mixer. + + 7. The principle of the piano. + + 8. The principle of the electric car. + + 9. The principle of the steel construction of sky scrapers. + + 10. The principle of the metal lathe. + + 11. The Interstate Commerce Commission. + + 12. The college fraternity. + + 13. A national political convention. + + 14. The Roman Catholic Church, or any other church. + + 15. The modern orchestra. + + 16. The Boy Scout Movement. + + 17. The International Workers of the World. + + 18. An American State University. + + 19. A stock exchange. + + 20. A national bank. + + 21. How to play tennis. + + 22. How to detect the tricks of fakirs at county fairs. + + 23. How to make a symmetrical load of hay. + + 24. How to run "the quarter." + + 25. How to pack for camping. + + 26. How to rush a freshman. + + 27. How to make money from poultry. + + 28. How to make a successful iron casting. + + 29. How to plan a railroad terminal yard. + + 30. How to use the slide rule. + + IV. The Track Layer (page 166). + + 1. In view of the fact that the text suggests avoidance of a + beginning list of parts of a machine, what is your opinion of + the list in this selection? Could the explanation have been + made as well without this list? Better? + + 2. Would this explanation be as well done if the author began + with hearing the machine at a distance, and then approached, + described the appearance of the machine, and finally stated + its principle? Does the method, the order, have any really + close connection with the value of the explanation? + + V. Write themes on the following subjects, bearing in mind that the + _facts_ of the subject remain constant even though the readers + may vitally differ and therefore need widely varying treatments. + + 1. The adding machine. + + a. For a business man who wishes to reduce expenses in his + office. + + b. For a woman who has worked painfully at figures in an + office for thirty years and regards the process of + "figuring" as sacred. + + c. For a person who says, "I just never could get figures + straight anyway!" + + 2. The typewriter. + + a. For a person who complains that people haven't brains + enough to read his "perfectly plain handwriting." + + b. For a person who thinks that the clicking sound of the + machine will be terribly disagreeable. + + c. For an old gentleman who for years clung to the use of a + quill, and has only within a few years brought himself to + use a fountain pen. + + 3. Fruit farming (limited to one kind of fruit). + + a. For a city man of not too robust health but of + considerable wealth who wishes a reasonably quiet + pleasant existence. + + b. For a young man who has just inherited 150 acres of fine + apple land but is half inclined toward becoming a bank + clerk. + + c. For a person who has read Burroughs and thinks that the + poetic appeal of fruit trees and birds must be delightful. + + 4. The Process of Canvassing for a Book. + + a. For a college student who wishes to make much money. + + b. For a person who always buys books from canvassers and + whom you wish to enlighten as to their methods. + + c. For a young man who possesses a glib tongue which he + wishes to turn to good financial use. + + 5. The Commission Form of City Government. + + a. For a man who wishes to improve the régime in his city. + + b. For a person who contends that our municipal government + is hopelessly behind that of European cities. + + c. For a politician of doubtful character who has served + several terms as mayor under the old system. + + 6. The Hague Peace Conference. + + a. For a person who declares that international coöperation + is impossible. + + b. For a person who is seeking a precedent for a "League to + Enforce Peace." + + c. For a militarist. + + VI. Compare the two selections which follow, and determine which is + the more interesting, and why. Would the kind of treatment that + the second receives be fitting for the first? Rewrite each, in + condensed form, in the style of the other. + + It will, I believe, be more interesting if, instead + of talking of launches in general, I describe the launch of + the great British battleship _Neptune_ which I witnessed + recently at the famous naval dockyard at Portsmouth. + + It will, however, be necessary to commence with + a short general explanation. As we already know, the keel + of a vessel is laid upon a row of blocks, and from the keel + it grows upwards plate by plate. As it thus gets higher and + higher it has to be supported laterally, in order to keep it + in an upright position, and for this reason strong props or + shores are placed along the sides at frequent intervals. Now + it is easy to see that the vessel cannot move until these + shores have been taken away, yet, if they are removed, what is + to prevent the ship from falling over? + + This dilemma is avoided by putting the vessel on + what is called a cradle. It is to my mind best described by + comparison with a sledge. A sledge has a body on which the + passenger or load is placed, while under it are runners, + smooth strips which will slide easily over the slippery + surfaces of the snow, and finally there is the smooth snow to + form the track. + + In the same way the ship, when it starts on its + first journey, rests upon the body of the cradle, which in + turn rests upon "runners" which slide upon the "launching + ways," the counterpart of the smooth snow. + + These "ways" are long narrow timber stages, one on + each side of the ship and parallel with the keel. They are + several feet wide, and long enough to reach right down into + the water. Needless to say, they are very strong, and the + upper surface is quite smooth so that the runners will slide + easily, and there is a raised edge on each to keep them from + gliding off sideways. Grease and oil are plentifully supplied + to these ways, and then the "runners" are placed upon them. + These, too, are formed of massive baulks of timber, and their + underside is made smooth so as to present as good a sliding + surface as possible to the "ways." Finally upon the runners is + built up the body of the cradle itself. Timber is again the + material, and it is carefully fitted to the underside of the + ship so that, when the weight is transferred from the blocks + under it to the cradle, it will rest evenly and with the least + possible strain; for it must be borne in mind that a ship is + designed to be supported on the soft even bed which the water + affords and not on a timber framework. There is a danger, + therefore, of the hull becoming distorted while resting upon + the cradle, so it is stayed and strengthened inside with + temporary timber work. + + So far all seems easy, but the weight of the ship + is still on the blocks, while the cradle is as yet doing + practically nothing. There remains the stupendous task of + transferring the weight of the ship, thousands of tons, from + one to the other. How can it be done? + + This is left until the morning of the day appointed + for the launch, and it is then done by a method which is quite + startling in its simplicity. The power to be obtained by means + of a wedge has been known for ages, yet it is that simple + device which enables this seemingly impossible work to be + accomplished with ease. + + Between the "runners," as I have termed them, and + the body of the cradle itself, a large number of wedges are + inserted, perhaps as many as a thousand. But of course they + cannot be driven one at a time, as a single wedge would simply + crush into the timber without lifting the cradle at all; they + are therefore all driven at once. An army of men are employed, + and they all stand with heavy hammers ready to strike. At the + sound of a gong a thousand hammers fall as one, and a thousand + wedges begin to raise the ship with the cradle on it. Then a + second sound on the gong, and a second time a thousand hammers + strike together; then again and again, until all the wedges + have been driven home and the weight of the ship has been + lifted partly off the blocks on to the cradle. + + Then the blocks are gradually removed, a proceeding + which is rendered easy by the fact that it has for one of the + layers which compose it a pair of wedges which can be easily + withdrawn so as to leave all the other timbers free. There are + an enormous number of these blocks to be removed from under + a big ship, and the operation takes considerable time. They + are removed, too, gradually, so that the whole of the weight + of the ship, which will ultimately rest upon the cradle, may + come on to it by degrees, and so if there should be anything + wrong--with the cradle, for instance--the operation of + removing the blocks could be suspended before it had gone too + far; for the engineer, though he sometimes does very daring + things, and none more daring than the launching of a big ship, + is really a very cautious man, and always likes to keep on the + safe side. + + At Portsmouth there is an old custom in connection + with the removal of the blocks from under the ship which + prescribes that the men shall sing at their work. + + This is a matter in which they take a pride, so that + while the blocks are being taken away sounds of excellent + male voice part-singing float out from the invisible "choir" + underneath the ship. + + The removal of the blocks is so arranged that it + shall be completed just before the time for the ceremony, + since when they are all gone the ship is all "alive," + straining, as it were, to get away down the slippery ways + into the water, and a very slight mishap would be sufficient + to bring about a premature launch. Indeed, during these last + moments the vessel is only held back by a few blocks left + under the bow--it must be understood that a ship commences its + career by entering the water _backwards_--and one timber prop + on each side, called the "dog-shores." + + These "dog-shores" are, in effect, huge catches + which keep the ship from moving, and which are released at the + right moment by the falling of two weights. + + The launch of the _Neptune_ took place at eleven + o'clock in the morning, and for an hour or so previously + spectators had been assembling. Picture to yourself a great + steel vessel--merely the hull, of course--500 feet long and + as high as a three-story house. Close to the bow is a gaily + decorated platform, crowded with people, while thousands + occupy stands on either side, and still more stand on the open + ground and on every point from which a view can be obtained. + On the bow of the vessel there is hung a festoon of flowers + with a bottle of wine concealed in it, while round the bow + passes a cord, the ends of which are supporting the weights + which hang just over the dog-shores. + + As the clock strikes, the lady who is to perform the + ceremony, a royal duchess, arrives upon the scene and takes + her place on the elevated platform close to the bow of the + ship. A short religious service is conducted by the chaplain + of the dockyard assisted by the choir of the dockyard church, + and then the duchess leans forward, takes hold of the wine + bottle suspended by the floral festoon, draws it towards her + and lets it go again. As the bottle swings back and dashes + to pieces against the steel stem of the vessel, she says, + "Success to the _Neptune_ and all who sail in her." + + Then an official steps forward with a mallet and + chisel. The former he hands to the lady, while the latter he + holds with its edge upon the cord. Now is the critical moment, + and among all the thousands of spectators not a sound is to + be heard. A few blows of the mallet upon the chisel and the + cord is severed; exactly at the same moment the two weights + fall, the dog-shores are knocked out of the way, and the + great vessel begins slowly and majestically to glide down to + the water. The few remaining blocks under the bow are pulled + over by the motion of the ship, and fall with a crash, which + is soon drowned by the cheers of the people and sounds of + patriotic airs played by the band. + + There are a large number of sailors and workmen upon + the ship, and as soon as she is in the water they drop the + anchors and bring her to rest, while tugs rush to her and take + her in tow to the dock where she is to be fitted up. + + But what becomes of the cradle? It is made in two + halves, the part on each side being connected to that on the + other by chains passing under the keel, and in these chains + there is a connection which can be released by pulling a cord + from the deck of the ship. When the ship has reached the + water, therefore, and the cradle has done its work, the cord + is pulled and the two halves of the cradle, being mainly of + timber, float off, to be captured and towed back to shore. + + The grease upon the launching ways and cradle is + melted by the heat due to friction, and much of it is to be + found floating upon the water immediately after the launch, so + numbers of small boats immediately put off and men with scoops + collect it.[63] + + [63] Thomas W. Corbin: _Engineering of To-day_. By courtesy of the + publishers, Seeley, Service & Co., London. + + * * * * * + + The word _head_ affords a good example of radiation. + We may regard as the central meaning that with which we are + most familiar,--a part of the body. From this we get (1) the + "top" of anything, literally or figuratively, whether it + resembles a head in shape (as the head of a cane, a pin, or + a nail), or merely in position of preëminence (as the head + of a page, the head of the table, the head of the hall); (2) + figuratively, "leadership," or concretely, "a leader" (the + head of the army, the head of the school); (3) the "head" of a + coin (the side on which the ruler's head is stamped); (4) the + "source" of a stream, "spring," "well-head," "fountain-head"; + (5) the hydraulic sense ("head of water"); (6) a "promontory," + _as Flamborough Head_, _Beechy Head_; (7) "an armed force," a + "troop" (now obsolete); (8) a single person or individual, as + in "five head of cattle"; (9) the "main points," as in "the + heads of a discourse" (also "notes" of such points); (10) + mental power, "intellectual force." + + Here again there is no reason for deriving any of + our ten special senses from any other. They are mutually + independent, each proceeding in a direct line from the central + primary meaning of head. + + The main process of radiation is so simple that it + is useless to multiply examples. We may proceed, therefore, to + scrutinize its operations in certain matters of detail. + + In the first place, we observe that any derived + meaning may itself become the source of one or more further + derivatives. It may even act as a center whence such + derivatives radiate in considerable numbers, precisely as if + it were the primary sense of the word. + + Thus, in the case of _head_, the sense of the "top" + of anything immediately divides into that which resembles a + human head in (1) shape, or (2) position merely. And each of + these senses may radiate in several directions. Thus from + (1) we have the head of a pin, of a nail, of a barrel, of an + ulcer, "a bud" (in Shakespeare); from (2) the head of a table, + of a hall, of a printed page, of a subscription-list. And some + of these meanings may also be further developed. "The head of + the table," for instance, may indicate position, or may be + transferred to the person who sits in that position. From the + head of an ulcer, we have the disagreeable figure (so common + that its literal meaning is quite forgotten), "to come to a + head," and Prospero's "Now does my project gather to a head," + in _The Tempest_. + + Sense No. 2, the "forefront" of a body of persons, + the "leader," cannot be altogether separated from No. 1. + But it may come perfectly well from the central meaning. In + every animal but man the head actually precedes the rest of + the body as the creature moves. At all events, the sense of + "leadership" or "leader" (it is impossible to keep them apart) + has given rise to an infinity of particular applications and + idiomatic phrases. The head of a procession, of an army, of a + class, of a revolt, of a "reform movement," of a new school of + philosophy--these phrases all suggest personal leadership, but + in different degrees and very various relations to the persons + who are led, so that they may all be regarded as radiating + from a common center. + + By a succession of radiations the development of + meanings may become almost infinitely complex. No dictionary + can ever register a tithe of them, for, so long as a language + is alive, every speaker is constantly making new specialized + applications of its words. Each particular definition in the + fullest lexicon represents, after all, not so much a single + meaning as a little group of connected ideas, unconsciously + agreed upon in a vague way by the consensus of those who use + the language. The limits of the definition must always be + vague, and even within these limits there is large scope for + variety. + + If the speaker does not much transgress these limits + in a given instance, we understand his meaning. Yet we do + not and cannot see all the connotations which the word has + in the speaker's mind. He has given us a conventional sign + or symbol for his idea. Our interpretation of the sign will + depend partly on the context or the circumstances, partly on + what we know of the speaker, and partly on the association + which we ourselves attach to the word in question. These + considerations conduct us, once more, to the principle on + which we have so often insisted. Once more we are forced to + admit that language, after all, is essentially poetry. For it + is the function of poetry, as Sainte-Beuve says, not to tell + us everything, but to set our imaginations at work: "La poésie + ne consiste pas à tout dire, mais à tout faire rêver." + + Besides the complexity that comes from successive + radiation, there is a perpetual exchange of influences among + the meanings themselves. Thus when we speak of a man as "the + intellectual head of a movement," _head_ means "leader" (No. + 3), but has also a suggestion of the tenth sense, "mind." + If two very different senses of a word are present to the + mind at the same moment, the result is a pun, intentional + or unintentional. If the senses are subtly related, so that + they enforce or complement each other, our phrase becomes + imaginatively forcible, or, in other words, recognizable + poetry as distinguished from the unconscious poetry of + language. + + So, too, the sudden re-association of a derived + sense with the central meaning of a word may produce a + considerable change in effect. _Head_ for "leader" is no + longer felt as metaphorical, and so of several other of the + radiating senses of this word. Yet it may, at any moment, + flash back to the original meaning, and be revivified as a + conscious metaphor for the nonce. "He is not the _head_ of his + party, but their mask"; "The leader fell, and the crowd was a + body without a _head_." + + Radiation is a very simple process, though its + results may become beyond measure complicated. It consists + merely in divergent specialization from a general center. It + is always easy to follow the spokes back to the hub.[64] + + [64] Greenough and Kittredge: _Words and Their Ways in English + Speech_. By courtesy of the publishers, The Macmillan Company, + New York City. + + Write a theme on any of the following subjects, adapting + your style to the character of the subject--formal or informal, + impersonal or personal, etc. + + In each of these subjects discover the root principle + which will serve as your controlling object, and state it in a + sentence. State also how you expect to make the theme interesting. + + 1. How to handle a swarm of bees. + + 2. How a publicity campaign is managed. + + 3. The process of inoculation. + + 4. The process of fumigation. + + 5. How an ingot of steel is made. + + 6. The physiological process of stimulation. + + 7. The process of reforming criminals. + + 8. How to break into society. + + 9. How to memorize a long sonata. + + 10. How to make a well. + + 11. The process of civilization. + + 12. How a locomotive is assembled. + + 13. How a torpedo is launched. + + 14. How good literary taste is acquired. + + 15. The process of naturalization. + + 16. The process of simplification in language. + + 17. The process of organizing a "clean up" campaign. + + 18. How big steel beams are put in place on the twentieth story. + + 19. The process of fertilization of land. + + 20. The process of inoculating land for alfalfa. + + 21. The process of making a trial balance sheet. + + 22. How to audit the accounts of a club, store, treasurer, or + organization. + + 23. The process of pasteurization. + + 24. The process of modulation in music. + + 25. How to fire a blast furnace. + + VII. Write the material contained in the explanations of the blow-pipe + and the hydraulic cartridge (page 161) in the more picturesque + form of a personal experience, showing how you, or some one, used + the mechanism for a particular purpose. Which method of treatment + is more effective? Why? Would you be willing to lay down a + general rule about the method of treatment? If not, why not? + + VIII. Use the method employed to explain dredges (page 170) to write a + theme that shall discriminate briefly the various types of the + following: + + 1. Valves. + + 2. Tractors. + + 3. Egg-beaters. + + 4. Styles in landscape painting. + + 5. Systems of bookkeeping. + + 6. Methods of learning a foreign language. + + 7. Churns. + + 8. Methods of packing apples. + + IX. In the following selection you will find an account of how an + engineering problem was solved. With this as a model, write an + account of any of the following: + + 1. The Shoshone, or Keokuk, or Roosevelt Dam. + + 2. The Panama Canal. + + 3. The Cape Cod Canal. + + 4. The Chicago Drainage Canal. + + 5. The Chicago Breakwater. + + 6. The Galveston Sea Wall. + + 7. The Key West Railroad. + + 8. The Mississippi Levees. + + 9. An Army Cantonment. + + 10. A Shipyard. + + 11. A Big City Subway. + + 12. Some Development in Your Own Town. + + The construction of the reservoirs and aqueduct for + bringing a daily supply of five hundred million gallons into + New York from the Catskill Mountains has involved engineering + work of great magnitude, and in some cases of considerable + perplexity and difficulty. As it turned out, the most serious + problem was encountered at the Hudson River, where the + engineers had to determine upon the best method for conducting + the water past that great natural obstacle. + + Four alternative plans were considered: first, to + lay steel pipes in trenches dredged across the river bottom; + second, to drive a tunnel through the glacial deposit in the + river bottom; third, to carry the aqueducts across the river + on a bridge; and lastly, to build a huge inverted siphon at + a depth sufficient to bring it entirely within the solid + underlying rock. The last was the plan adopted. + + To determine the depth and character of the rock, + fifteen vertical holes were drilled from the surface of + the river, and two inclined holes, of different degrees of + inclination, were driven from each shore. Six of the vertical + holes reached bed rock, and one of them in the center of the + river reached an ultimate depth of 768 feet, when it had to + be abandoned without reaching bed rock. This boring developed + the fact that the present Hudson River flows in an old glacial + gorge which has been filled up with deposits of silt, sand, + gravel, clay, and boulders to a depth of over 800 feet. + + Now it was realized that a deep-pressure tunnel, + to be perfectly reliable, must lie in absolutely sound and + unfissured rock; and since it was impossible to test the + rock by vertical borings made from scows anchored in the + river, the engineers determined to explore the underlying + material by means of inclined borings driven from either + shore. Accordingly, two shafts were sunk to a depth of between + two and three hundred feet, and from them two diamond drill + borings were started, which ultimately crossed at a depth of + 1500 feet below the surface of the river. A good rock was + found at that level. To make the survey more reliable, a + second pair of holes was drilled at a less inclination, which + crossed at a depth of 950 feet below the river surface. The + rock was found to be perfectly satisfactory, and such water + as was found was limited in extent and due to well-understood + geologic causes. + + It was therefore determined to sink the east and + west shafts to a depth of from 1150 to 1200 feet below ground + surface, and connect them by a tunnel 3022 feet in length at + a depth of 1100 feet below the river surface. The shafts have + been sunk, that on the West Shore to 1153 feet, the East + Shore shaft to 1185 feet, and the boring of the tunnel toward + the center of the river has made good progress, the easterly + section having advanced at the present writing about 260 + feet, and the westerly section 170 feet from their respective + shafts. Both the shafts and the tunnel will be lined with a + high grade of Portland cement concrete which will give them a + finished internal diameter of 14 feet. The aqueduct reaches + the Hudson River at an elevation of 400 feet above mean water + level. Hence the total head of water is about 1500 feet, and + the total pressure on each square foot of the tunnel is + 46 1/2 tons, which is balanced with a wide margin of safety by + the weight of the super-incumbent mass of rock, silt, and + water.[65] + + [65] "The Catskill Water Supply Tunnel," in the _Scientific American_, + vol. 104. By courtesy of The Scientific American Publishing + Company. + + X. In the following account of an emotional and mental process what + root principle do you find? Does the author show traces of + influence from the intended readers, the American public? Does + the author take too much for granted in the reader, or not + enough? Does she show tact in approaching the reader? Write + the account in an impersonal, abstract way, as if you were + reporting "a case" for a statistician, and then give your + estimate of the two. What light does your estimate throw upon the + advice to make the actors in a process specific? + + How long would you say, wise reader, it takes to + make an American? By the middle of my second year in school + I had reached the sixth grade. When, after the Christmas + holidays, we began to study the life of Washington, running + through a summary of the Revolution, and the early days of the + Republic, it seemed to me that all my reading and study had + been idle until then. The reader, the arithmetic, the song + book, that had so fascinated me until now, became suddenly + sober exercise books, tools wherewith to hew a way to the + source of inspiration. When the teacher read to us out of a + big book with many bookmarks in it, I sat rigid with attention + in my little chair, my hands tightly clasped on the edge of + my desk; and I painfully held my breath, to prevent sighs of + disappointment escaping, as I saw the teacher skip the parts + between bookmarks. When the class read, and it came my turn, + my voice shook and the book trembled in my hands. I could + not pronounce the name of George Washington without a pause. + Never had I prayed, never had I chanted the songs of David, + never had I called upon the Most Holy, in such utter reverence + and worship as I repeated the simple sentences of my child's + story of the patriot. I gazed with adoration at the portraits + of George and Martha Washington, till I could see them with + my eyes shut. And whereas formerly my self-consciousness had + bordered on conceit, and I thought myself an uncommon person, + parading my schoolbooks through the streets, and swelling with + pride when a teacher detained me in conversation, now I grew + humble all at once, seeing how insignificant I was beside the + Great. + + As I read about the noble boy who would not tell a + lie to save himself from punishment, I was for the first time + truly repentant of my sins. Formerly I had fasted and prayed + and made sacrifice on the Day of Atonement, but it was more + than half play, in mimicry of my elders. I had no real horror + of sin, and I knew so many ways of escaping punishment. I am + sure my family, my neighbors, my teachers in Polotzk--all + my world, in fact--strove together, by example and precept, + to teach me goodness. Saintliness had a new incarnation in + about every third person I knew. I did respect the saints, + but I could not help seeing that most of them were a little + bit stupid, and that mischief was much more fun than piety. + Goodness, as I had known it, was respectable, but not + necessarily admirable. The people I really admired, like my + Uncle Solomon, and Cousin Rachel, were those who preached the + least and laughed the most. My sister Frieda was perfectly + good, but she did not think the less of me because I played + tricks. What I loved in my friends was not inimitable. One + could be downright good if one really wanted to. One could be + learned if one had books and teachers. One could sing funny + songs and tell anecdotes if one traveled about and picked up + such things, like one's uncles and cousins. But a human being + strictly good, perfectly wise, and unfailingly valiant, all at + the same time, I had never heard or dreamed of. This wonderful + George Washington was as inimitable as he was irreproachable. + Even if I had never, never told a lie, I could not compare + myself to George Washington; for I was not brave--I was afraid + to go out when snowballs whizzed--and I could never be the + First President of the United States. + + So I was forced to revise my own estimate of myself. + But the twin of my new-born humility, paradoxical as it may + seem, was a sense of dignity I had never known before. For if + I found that I was a person of small consequence, I discovered + at the same time that I was more nobly related than I had + ever supposed. I had relatives and friends who were notable + people by the old standards,--I had never been ashamed of my + family,--but this George Washington, who died long before I + was born, was like a king in greatness, and he and I were + Fellow Citizens. There was a great deal about Fellow Citizens + in the patriotic literature we read at this time; and I knew + from my father how he was a Citizen, through the process of + naturalization, and how I also was a citizen, by virtue of + my relation to him. Undoubtedly I was a Fellow Citizen, and + George Washington was another. It thrilled me to realize what + sudden greatness had fallen on me; and at the same time it + sobered me, as with a sense of responsibility. I strove to + conduct myself as befitted a Fellow Citizen. + + Before books came into my life, I was given to + star-gazing and day-dreaming. When books were given me, I fell + upon them as a glutton pounces on his meat after a period + of enforced starvation. I lived with my nose in a book, and + took no notice of the alternations of the sun and stars. But + now, after the advent of George Washington and the American + Revolution, I began to dream again. I strayed on the common + after school instead of hurrying home to read. I hung on fence + rails, my pet book forgotten under my arm, and gazed off to + the yellow-streaked February sunset, and beyond, and beyond. I + was no longer the central figure of my dreams; the dry weeds + in the lane crackled beneath the tread of Heroes. + + What more could America give a child? Ah, much more! + As I read how the patriots planned the Revolution, and the + women gave their sons to die in battle, and the heroes led + to victory, and the rejoicing people set up the Republic, + it dawned on me gradually what was meant by _my country_. + The people all desiring noble things, and striving for them + together, defying their oppressors, giving their lives for + each other--all this it was that made _my country_. It was + not a thing that I _understood_; I could not go home and tell + Frieda about it, as I told her other things I learned at + school. But I knew one could say "my country" and _feel_ it, + as one felt "God" or "myself." My teacher, my schoolmates, + Miss Dillingham, George Washington himself could not mean more + than I when they said "my country," after I had once felt + it. For the Country was for all the Citizens, and I _was a + Citizen_. And when we stood up to sing "America," I shouted + the words with all my might. I was in very earnest proclaiming + to the world my love for my newfound country. + + "I love thy rocks and rills, + Thy woods and templed hills." + + Boston Harbor, Crescent Beach, Chelsea Square--all + was hallowed ground to me. As the day approached when the + school was to hold exercises in honor of Washington's + Birthday, the halls resounded at all hours with the strains + of patriotic songs; and I, who was a model of the attentive + pupil, more than once lost my place in the lesson as I + strained to hear, through closed doors, some neighboring class + rehearsing "The Star-Spangled Banner." If the doors happened + to open, and the chorus broke out unveiled-- + + "O! say, does that Star-Spangled Banner yet wave + O'er the land of the free, and the home of the brave?" + + delicious tremors ran up and down my spine, and I + was faint with suppressed enthusiasm.[66] + + [66] Mary Antin: _The Promised Land_. Houghton Mifflin Company, + Boston, publishers. + + Write an account of any of the following processes _as + processes_. + + 1. The high school "star" learns in college that other bright + people exist. + + 2. The first realization of death. + + 3. Becoming loyal to a school. + + 4. Discovering pride of ancestry. + + 5. Finding that classical music is interesting. + + 6. A despised person becomes, on acquaintance, delightful. + + 7. Becoming reconciled to a new town, or system of government, + or catalogue system in a library. + + 8. Learning that not everything was discovered by an American. + + 9. Becoming aware that there is a life of thought. + + 10. Becoming reconciled to a great loss of money or friends. + + 11. Deciding upon a new wall-paper. + + 12. Fitting into the town circles after a year away at college. + + 13. Discovering that some beliefs of childhood must be abandoned. + + 14. Perceiving that you really agree with some one with whom you + have been violently squabbling. + + 15. The literary person finds attractiveness in engineering and + agriculture--and vice versa. + + 16. Working out a practical personal philosophy of life. + + 17. Finding a serious motive in life. + + 18. Determining upon a tactful approach to a "touchy" person. + + 19. Acquiring the college point of view in place of the + high-school attitude. + + 20. Discovering one's provincialism. + + 21. Discovering one's racial or national loyalty. + + 22. Finding out that the world does not depend on any individual, + but goes ahead, whether he lives or dies. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +CRITICISM + + +Few of us pass a day without answering such questions as, "What do you +think of the Hudson car?" or, "How did Kreisler's playing strike you?" +or, "What is your opinion of the work of Thackeray or Alice Brown or +Booth Tarkington?" or, "Do you like the X disc harrow?" When we are +among intimate friends we give our opinions, based on our personal +reaction to the subject of inquiry or on our impartial estimate of it +as an automobile, a musical performance, a collection of books, or an +agricultural machine. Many of us give a large space in our conversation +to such estimates on all conceivable subjects. And, for purposes of +insignificant conversation, there is no reason why we should not. +Accused of making "Criticism" in the formal sense, however, many of us +should recoil with terrified denial. But that is exactly what we are +doing, whether we praise or blame, accept or reject, so long as we base +our opinion on sincere personal or sound principles, we criticize. _For +criticism is the attempt to estimate the worth of something--object +or idea--either abstractly on a basis of principles and relations, or +personally on the basis of our reactions to the subject of criticism._ +That is, we may, for example, criticize the roads of New York State on +the basis of what a road is for and how well these roads serve their +purpose, or we may take as basis the inspiration, the keen ecstasy that +we feel as we skim over the smooth boulevard. So long as our notions of +good roads are sound, so long as we react sensibly, with balance, to the +smooth rounding way, we make good criticism, we judge the worth of the +subject of criticism and find it either good or bad. + +It is to be noted that this criticism is something more than mere +comment, than mere off-hand remarks. The old saying is, "Anybody +can say _something_ about _anything_!" An off-hand utterance _may_ +tell the truth; we cannot be sure that it will. Only when we have a +well-considered basis of either principle or personal feeling can we be +at all certain of our opinions. + +Now the range in which our opinions, our criticisms, may be expressed, +is as wide as human thought and accomplishment. We sometimes think of +criticism as being confined to literature and art, and speak of literary +criticism, musical criticism, dramatic criticism, and art criticism, as +if these were all. The term criticism has actually been so restricted +in common practice that unless otherwise noted it is taken for granted +as applying to these subjects. But criticism is much more comprehensive +than such restriction indicates: any object or subject is capable +of criticism. Just as we might arrive at the conclusion that Booth +Tarkington's stories about Penrod are either good or bad, so we might +say that a make of piano, a type of bridle, a new kind of fertilizer, a +method of bookkeeping, a recipe for angel cake is good or is sufficient +or is valueless. We might have--in fact we do have--Engineering +Criticism, Carpenter Criticism, Needlework Criticism, Poultry Criticism, +and as many kinds as there are classes of subjects. In this treatment +we shall use the term in this broad sense and include all subjects in +our scope. Of course we are to remember that the criticism becomes of +more value as the subject of criticism is of more moment: criticism of +the drama is nobler, perhaps, than criticism of egg beaters and picture +hooks. We must also remember that the less high orders of criticism are +neither useless nor undesirable but often most helpful. + + +Requirements demanded of the Critic + +Since, then, the brand of the critic is on us all, since we practice the +habit, consciously or not, most of the time, and since the range is +so wide, no reason exists why we should be terrified at the thought of +writing criticism, of making formal estimate. Certain requirements are +demanded, to be sure; not every one can dive into the sea of criticism +without making an awkward splash and receiving a reddening smart. But +these requirements are in no way beyond the possibility of acquiring by +any one who will set himself to the task. + +_a._ _Ability to analyze_ + +In the first place, a critic must have the power to analyze. We have +seen that analysis consists in breaking a subject into its components, +in discovering of what it is made. This is the first great necessity +in criticizing. You wish, for example, to make a criticism of a new +rifle for your friends. It is not enough that you should with gusto +enunciate, "It's just great!" "Oh, it's fine, fine and dandy!" "Golly +but it's a good one!" Your friends are likely to ask "Why?" or to say, +"The gentleman doth protest too much!" If, on the other hand, you remark +that the rifle is admirable because of its sights, its general accuracy, +its cartridge chamber, its comparative freedom from recoil, then you +will be giving your friends definite and useful criticism, for you will +have analyzed the virtue of the object into its components. Now this +necessity for analysis exists in criticism of literature and art just +as in criticism of rifles. Before you can properly estimate the value +of a novel or a play you must divide the impression it makes into the +various heads, such as emotional power, convincingness in the message +of the book or play, truth to life, and whatever heading you may think +necessary. Until you do this your impressions, your judgments will of +necessity be vague and dim in their outlines, and though they may seem +to be comprehensive, will be found actually to be insufficient to give +your reader or listener a firm notion of the subject--he will have no +nucleus of thought round which his total estimate will center. As soon, +however, as you analyze, and make definite, so soon he will receive +real enlightenment. In the following account of the work of James +Russell Lowell at the Court of Saint James we find at once this careful +breaking of the subject into parts which can be treated definitely. Had +the writer merely uttered general impressions of the diplomacy of our +ambassador we who read should have been comparatively unhelped. + +To those who hold the semi-barbarous notion that one of the duties of +a foreign minister is to convey a defiant attitude toward the people +to whom he is accredited--that he should stick to his post, to use the +popular phrase, "with his back up," and keep the world that he lives in +constantly in mind that his countrymen are rough, untamable, and above +all things quarrelsome, Mr. Lowell has not seemed a success. But to them +we must observe, that they know so little of the subject of diplomacy +that their opinion is of no sort of consequence. The aim of diplomacy +is not to provoke war, but to keep the peace; it is not to beget +irritation, or to keep it alive, but to produce and maintain a pacific +temper; not to make disputes hard, but easy, to settle; not to magnify +differences of interest or feeling, but to make them seem small; not to +win by threats, but by persuasion; not to promote mutual ignorance, but +mutual comprehension--to be, in short, the representative of a Christian +nation, and not of a savage tribe. + +No foreign minister, it is safe to say, has ever done these things so +successfully in the same space of time as Mr. Lowell. If it be a service +to the United States to inspire Englishmen with respect such as they +have never felt before for American wit and eloquence and knowledge, and +thus for American civilization itself, nobody has rendered this service +so effectually as he has done. They are familiar almost _ad nauseam_ +with the material growth of the United States, with the immense strides +which the country has made and is making in the production of things to +eat, drink, and wear. What they know least of, and had had most doubts +about, is American progress in acquiring those gifts and graces which +are commonly supposed to be the inheritance of countries that have +left the ruder beginnings of national life far behind, and have had +centuries of leisure for art, literature, and science. Well, Mr. Lowell +has disabused them. As far as blood and training go, there is no more +genuine American than he. He went to England as pure a product of the +American soil as ever landed there, and yet he at once showed English +scholars that in the field of English letters they had nothing to teach +him. In that higher political philosophy which all Englishmen are now +questioning so anxiously, he has spoken not only as a master, but +almost as an oracle. In the lighter but still more difficult arts, too, +which make social gatherings delightful and exciting to intellectual +men, in the talk which stimulates strong brains and loosens eloquent +tongues, he has really reduced the best-trained and most loquacious +London diners-out to abashed silence. In fact, he has, in captivating +English society,--harder, perhaps, to cultivate, considering the vast +variety of culture it contains, than any other society in the world,--in +making every Englishman who met him wish that he were an Englishman too, +performed a feat such as no diplomatist, we believe, ever performed +before.[67] + + [67] Gustav Pollak: _Fifty Years of American Idealism_. Houghton + Mifflin Company. By courtesy of _The Nation_. + +_b._ _Knowledge of the General Field_ + +Besides the ability to analyze the critic must have some knowledge +of the general field in which the subject lies. For a man who has +never thought about musical form to attempt criticism of a sonata is +foolish--he can at best merely comment. It is this fact that vitiates +much of the cracker-barrel criticism of the country store--subjects are +estimated about which the critic is largely ignorant. When an uneducated +person makes shrewd comment, as he often does, on a play, he will +usually be found to have criticized a character such as he has known or +the outcome of a situation the like of which he is familiar with rather +than the play as a whole. Now perfect criticism would demand perfect +knowledge, but since that is impossible, a good working knowledge will +suffice, the wider the better. Knowledge of the general principles of +piano playing will enable a critic to estimate, in the large, the work +of a performer; he cannot criticize minutely until he has added more +detailed knowledge to his mental equipment. + +_c._ _Common Sense_ + +However much knowledge and ability to analyze a critic may have, he is a +will-o'-the-wisp unless he have common sense and balance. Since a critic +is in many ways a guide, he must guard as sacred his ability to see the +straight road and to refuse the appeal of by-paths, however attractive. +As critic, you must not be overawed by a name, be it of artist or +manufacturer, nor allow much crying of wares in the street to swerve you +from your fixed determination to judge and estimate only on the worth of +the subject _as you find it_. This is far from meaning that the critic +should give no weight to the opinions of others; you should always do +that; but, having examined the subject, and knowing your opinions, you +should then speak the truth as you see it. Your one final desire should +be to go to the heart of the matter accurately, and then to state this +clearly. And just as you do not blindly accept a great name, so do not +be wheedled by gloss and appearance, but keep a steady aim for the truth. + +_d._ _Open-mindedness_ + +Finally, this balance, this passion for the truth, will lead the critic +to strive always for open-mindedness. "I would rather be a man of +disinterested taste and liberal feeling," wrote Hazlitt, "to see and +acknowledge truth and beauty wherever I found it, than a man of greater +and more original genius, to hate, envy, and deny all excellence but my +own...." And he was right when he said it: the willingness to accept a +new idea or object if it is worthy, whether it go against the critic's +personal desires or not, is one of the great qualities that he will find +indispensable. "I never heard of such a thing!" is not a sufficient +remark to condemn the thing. In fact, almost a sufficient answer to such +an exclamation would be, "Well, what of it?" or, "'T is time you did." + + +Methods of Criticism + +Armed with open-mindedness, then, with balance and common sense, with +knowledge of the field, and with ability to analyze, you are ready to +begin. What method shall you pursue? Though no absolutely sharp line +can be drawn between kinds of criticism, we may treat of three that are +fairly distinct: the historical method, the method by standards, and +the appreciative. In most criticism we are likely to find more than one +method employed, often all three. You need not confine yourself to one +any more than a carpenter need refuse to use any but one tool, but for +purposes of comprehension and presentation we shall keep the three here +fairly distinct. We shall examine the three now, briefly, in the order +named. + +_a._ _The Historical Method_ + +Suppose that you are asked to criticize one of Cooper's novels, say +_The Last of the Mohicans_. You find in it red men idealized out of the +actual, red men such as presumably never existed. You may, then, in +disgust throw the book down and damn it with the remark, "The man does +not tell the truth!" But you will not thereby have disposed of Cooper. +Much better it would be to ask, How came this man to write thus? When +did he write? For whom? How did men at that time regard the Indian? In +answering these questions you will relate Cooper's novel to the time in +which it was written, you will see that before that time the Indian was +regarded with unmixed fear, as too often since with contempt, and that +at only that time could he have been idealized as Cooper treats him. You +would relate the novel to the whole movement of Sentimentalism, which +thought that it believed the savage more noble than civilized man, and +you would then, and only then, get a proper perspective. Your original +judgment, that Cooper's Indians are not accurate portraits of their +kind, would not be modified; for the whole work, however, you would have +a new attitude. + +In the same way, asked for an opinion of the old-style bicycle with +enormous front wheel and tiny trailer, you would not summarily reply, "I +prefer a chainless model of my own day," but would discover the place +that the old style occupied in the total development of the bicycle, +would look at it as related to the preceding absence of any bicycle, +and would see that, though it may to-day be useless, in its time it was +remarkable. Likewise you will discover that the old three-legged milking +stool has been in immemorial use in rude byres and stables, since three +points--the ends of the legs--always make a firm plane, which four +points do not necessarily do. And one hundred years hence, when a critic +comes to judge the nature faking of the early twentieth century, he will +relate this sentimental movement to the times in which it appeared, and, +though he may well finally be disgusted, he will understand what the +thing was and meant, how it came about, what causes produced it. + +Illustration of the value of this method is found in the following +historical account of the American business man. To a European this man +sometimes is inexplicable--until he reads some illuminating setting +forth of the facts as here. + + As long as the economic opportunities of American life + consisted chiefly in the appropriation and improvement of + uncultivated land, the average energetic man had no difficulty + in obtaining his fair share of the increasing American economic + product; but the time came when such opportunities, although still + important, were dwarfed by other opportunities, incident to the + development of a more mature economic system. These opportunities + which were, of course, connected with the manufacturing, + industrial, and technical development of the country, demanded + under American conditions a very special type of man--the man + who would bring to his task not merely energy, but unscrupulous + devotion, originality, daring, and in the course of time a large + fund of instructive experience. The early American industrial + conditions differed from those of Europe in that they were fluid, + and as a result of this instability, extremely precarious. Rapid + changes in markets, business methods, and industrial machinery + made it difficult to build up a safe business. A manufacturer or + a merchant could not secure his business salvation, as in Europe, + merely by the adoption of sound conservative methods. The American + business man had greater opportunities and a freer hand than his + European prototype; but he was too beset by more severe, more + unscrupulous, and more dangerous competition. The industrious and + thrifty farmer could be fairly sure of a modest competence, due + partly to his own efforts, and partly to the increased value of his + land in a more populous community; but the business man had no such + security. In his case it was war to the knife. He was presented + with choice between aggressive daring business operations, and + financial insignificance or ruin. + + No doubt this situation was due as much to the temper of the + American business man as to his economic environment. The business + man in seeking to realize his ambitions and purposes was checked + neither by government control nor social custom. He had nothing + to do and nothing to consider except his own business advancement + and success. He was eager, strenuous, and impatient. He liked the + excitement and risk of large operations. The capital at his command + was generally too small for the safe and conservative operation of + his business; and he was consequently obliged to be adventurous, + or else to be left behind in the race. He might well be earning + enormous profits one year and be skirting bankruptcy the next. + Under such a stress conservatism and caution were suicidal. It + was the instinct of self-preservation, as well as the spirit of + business adventure, which kept him constantly seeking for larger + markets, improved methods, or for some peculiar means of getting + ahead of his competitors. He had no fortress behind which he could + hide and enjoy his conquests. Surrounded as he was by aggressive + enemies and undefended frontiers, his best means of security lay + in a policy of constant innovation and expansion. Moreover, even + after he had obtained the bulwark of sufficient capital and more + settled industrial surroundings, he was under no temptation to quit + and enjoy the spoils of his conquests. The social, intellectual, + or even the more vulgar pleasures, afforded by leisure and wealth, + could bring him no thrill which was anything like as intense as + that derived from the exercise of his business ability and power. + He could not conquer except by virtue of a strong, tenacious, + adventurous, and unscrupulous will; and after he had conquered, + this will had him in complete possession. He had nothing to do but + to play the game to the end--even though his additional profits + were of no living use to him.[68] + + [68] Herbert Croly: _The Promise of American Life_. By courtesy of the + publishers, The Macmillan Company, New York City. + +In criticizing literature and art this method is often difficult, for we +must take into account race, geography, and other conditions. We must +see that only in New England, of all the sections of the United States, +could Hawthorne have written, that Tolstoi could not have written in +Illinois as he did in Russia, that Norse Sagas could not have appeared +among tropical peoples, that among the French alone, perhaps, could +Racine have come to literary power as he did. And in examining the work +of two writers who treat the same subject in general, as Miss Jewett +and Mrs. Freeman treat New England life, we shall find the influence +of ancestry and environment and training largely determining, on the +one hand the quaint fine sunshine, on the other hand the stern hard +Puritanism. We shall also have to learn what incidents in an author's +life have helped to determine his point of view, how early poverty, or +sorrow, or a great experience of protracted agony or joy have made him +sympathetic, or how aristocratic breeding and the early introduction +into exclusive circles have made him naturally unresponsive to some of +the squalor, the sadness of lowly life. We shall perceive that the early +removal of Scott to the country began his intense love for Scottish +scenery and history, that the bitter laughter of Byron's mother turned +part of the poet's nature to gall. In other words, when we are dealing +with the exquisitely fine products of impassioned thought we have a +difficult task because so many influences mold these thoughts, so many +lines of procedure are determined by conditions outside the particular +author or artist, all of which must be considered if we wish our work +to be really of value. The following illustration shows in brief space +the attempt to link a movement in literature to the times in which it +appeared, to show that it is naturally a product of the general feeling +of the times. + + Yet, after all, it is not the theories and formulæ of its + followers that differentiate the "new poetry"; the insistence upon + certain externalities, the abandonment of familiar traditions, + even the new spirit of the language employed, none of these are + more than symptoms of the deep inner mood which lies at the roots + of the whole tendency. This tendency is in line with the basic + trend of our times, and represents the attempt in verse, as in many + other branches of expression, to cast off a certain passionate + illusionment and approach the universe as it actually is--the + universe of science, perhaps, rather than that of the thrilled + human heart. This is the kernel of the entire new movement, as has + already been clearly pointed out by several writers on the subject. + + Everywhere in the new verse we are conscious of a certain + objective quality, not the objective quality of _The Divine Comedy_ + or _Faust_, which is achieved by the symbolic representation in + external forms of inner spiritual verities, but an often stark + objectivity accomplished by the elimination of the feeling human + medium, the often complete absence of any personal reaction. We + are shown countless objects and movements, and these objects and + movements are glimpsed panoramically from the point of view of + outline, color, and interrelation, as through the senses merely; + the transfiguring lens of the soul is seldom interposed or felt + to be present. To the "new poet" the city street presents itself + in terms of a series of sense-impressions vividly realized, a + succession of apparently aimless and kaleidoscopic pageantries + stripped of their human significance and symbolic import. They have + ceased to be signs of a less outward reality, they have become + that reality itself--reality apprehended from a singly sensuous + standpoint untainted by any of the human emotions of triumph + or sorrow, pity or adoration. Love is thus frequently bared of + its glamour and death of its peculiar majesty, which may now be + regarded as deceitful and fatuous projections of the credulous + soul, and not to be tolerated by the sophisticated mood of the + new and scientific poet, for it is exactly with these beautiful + "sentimentalities" that the analytic mind of science is not + concerned.[69] + + [69] From _Scribner's Magazine_, September, 1917. By courtesy of the + publishers, Charles Scribner's Sons, New York City. Copyright, + 1917. + +This method seeks, then, to place a work, whether of art or science or +industry, in its place in the whole course of development of such ideas. +It examines causes such as commercial demands, general prosperity, war, +and only after this examination gives the work its estimate of value. + +Now this method may seem uninteresting, dry, dull. Not always does it +escape this blame. For it is inevitably impersonal, it looks at the +thing perhaps coldly--at least without passion. But in so doing, and in +considering the precedents and surroundings of the object of criticism, +it largely escapes the superficiality of personal whim, and it avoids +silly reaction to unaccustomed things. Much of our empty criticism of +customs in dress and manners of architecture such as that of Southern +California, of other religions such as those of the Chinese and the +Hindoos, would be either done away or somewhat modified if we used this +method. One reason, perhaps, why the Goths destroyed the beautiful +art works of Rome was the fact that they had not the critical spirit, +did not relate these works to their development and race. Of course +there were other reasons. By linking the object of criticism to the +race as a whole, by seeing how and why it became created, the critic +is largely broadened and the reader is kept from superficiality. +Moreover, when this method is not too abstractly pursued, it gives to +things, after all, a human meaning, for it links them to humanity. That +it may be misleading in literature and art is obvious, for a creation +may be accounted for in an attractive way as the result of certain +forces that had their beginnings in sense and wisdom, and so be made +to seem admirable, whereas it really has little worth on a basis of +lasting usefulness and significance. But, properly and thoroughly used, +this method, even though it gives us an account of a work rather than +finally settling its value, scatters away the vague mists of superficial +generalization and drives deeply into causes and results. + +_b._ _The Method by Standards_ + +As the historical method is generally impersonal, objective, so is the +method of criticizing by standards. In using this method we try to +determine whether the object of criticism fulfills the demands of its +type, whether its quality is high or low. For example, we thus judge +a tennis court as to its firm footing, its softness, its retention of +court lines, its position as regards the sun. In all these qualities +an ideal tennis court would be satisfactory; the question is, is this +one. So a headache powder should relieve pain without injuring with evil +drugs; if this one does, we shall not condemn it. If the rocks in a +landscape painting look like those which the heroic tenor in grand opera +hurls aside as so much "puffed wheat," we must condemn the artist, for +rocks should look solid. An evangelist should have certain qualities +of piety and reverence, and should accomplish certain lasting results; +we shall judge Billy Sunday, for example, according to whether he does +or does not fulfill these demands. Likewise a lyric poem should have +certain qualities of freshness, grace, passion, by which we rate any +given lyric. + +In fact, we ask, in any given case, does this work do what such a +thing is supposed to do, does it have the qualities that such a thing +is supposed to have? And on our answer will depend our judgment. This +is the kind of criticism that business men use constantly; they rate +a cash system or a form of order blank or an arrangement of counters +in a store on the basis of the presence or absence of the qualities +that distinguish an ideal system, blank, arrangement. In the following +example we have a combination of the historical and the standards +methods, finally accounting for and judging the value of the common +kinds of cargo steamers. + + A trip round any busy seaport will show the reader, if he has + not noticed it already, that there are many different types of the + ordinary cargo steamer. The feature which displays the difference + most noticeably is the arrangement of the structures on the deck, + and it may be reasonably asked why there are these varieties, and + how it is that a common type has not come to be agreed upon. + + The answer to that question is that the differences are not + merely arbitrary, but are due to a variety of influences, and it + will be interesting to look briefly at these, as the reader will + then be able, the next time he sees a cargo steamer, to understand + something of the ideas underlying its design. + + The early steamers had "flush" decks, which means that the + deck ran from end to end without any structures of considerable + size upon it; a light bridge was provided, supported upon slender + uprights, for "lookouts" purposes, and that was all. On the face of + it this seems a very simple and admirable arrangement. It had many + disadvantages, however, as we shall see. + + In the first place, it permitted a wave to come on board at + the bow and sweep right along the deck, often doing great damage. + This was mitigated somewhat by building the ships with "shear," + that is, with a slope upwards fore and aft, so as to make the ends + taller than the middle. That, however, was not sufficient, so ships + were built with an upper deck, so that the bow should be high + enough to cut through the waves instead of allowing the water to + come on board. Owing, however, to the method by which the tonnage + of a ship is reckoned, as will be explained later, that had the + effect of adding largely to the tonnage _on which dues have to be + paid_ without materially increasing the carrying capacity of the + ship. + + The difficulty was therefore got over in this way. The bow + was raised and covered in, forming what is known as a "top-gallant + forecastle," which not only had the effect of keeping the water + off the deck, but provided better accommodation for the crew as + well. That did not provide, however, against a wave overtaking the + ship from the rear and coming on board just where the steering + wheel was, so a hood or covering over the wheel became usual, + called the "poop." Nor did either of these sufficiently protect + that very important point, the engine-room. For it needs but a + moment's thought to see that there must be openings in the deck + over the engines and boilers, and if a volume of water should + get down these, it might extinguish the fires and leave the + ship helpless, absolutely at the mercy of the waves. The light + navigating bridge was therefore developed into a substantial + structure the whole width of the ship, surrounding and protecting + the engine-and-boiler-room openings, and incidentally providing + accommodation for the officers. + + Ships of this type answered very well indeed, for if a wave + of exceptional size should manage to get over the forecastle, the + water fell into the "well" or space between the forecastle and + bridge-house, and then simply ran overboard, so that the after part + of the ship was kept dry. + + Then troubles arose with the loading. The engines, of course, + need to be in the center, for they represent considerable weight, + which, if not balanced, will cause one end of the ship to float + too high in the water. Thus the hold of the ship is divided by the + engine-room into two approximately equal parts, but out of the + after-hold must be taken the space occupied by the tunnel through + which the propeller shaft runs, from the engine to the screw. Thus + the capacity of the after-hold becomes less than the forward one, + and if both are filled with a homogeneous cargo such as grain (and, + as we shall see presently, such a cargo must always entirely fill + the hold), the forward part of the ship would float high in the + water. The trouble could not be rectified by placing the engines + further forward, for then the ship would not float properly when + light. + + Shipowners overcame this trouble, however, by raising the + whole of the "quarter-deck"--the part of the deck, that is, which + lies behind the after end of the "bridge-house"--and by that means + they made the after-hold deeper than the other. Thus the commonest + type of all, the "raised quarter-deck, well-decker," came into + existence, a type of which many examples are to be seen on the + sea.[70] + + [70] Thomas W. Corbin: _Engineering of To-day_. By courtesy of the + publishers, Seeley, Service & Co., London. + +In the following paragraphs Professor Thomas R. Lounsbury of Yale +University criticizes the use of final e in English words. You will note +that he uses a combination of the historical method and the method by +standards. + + There seems to be something peculiarly attractive to our + race in the letter _e_. Especially is this so when it serves no + useful purpose. Adding it at random to syllables, and especially to + final syllables, is supposed to give a peculiar old-time flavor to + the spelling. For this belief there is, to some extent, historic + justification. The letter still remains appended to scores of + words in which it has lost the pronunciation once belonging to + it. Again, it has been added to scores of others apparently to + amplify their proportions. We have in our speech a large number + of monosyllables. As a sort of consolation to their shrunken + condition an _e_ has been appended to them, apparently to make + them present a more portly appearance. The fancy we all have for + this vowel not only recalls the wit but suggests the wisdom of + Charles Lamb's exquisite pun upon Pope's line that our race is + largely made up of "the mob of gentlemen who write with ease." The + belief, in truth, seems to prevail that the final _e_ is somehow + indicative of aristocracy. In proper names, particularly, it is + felt to impart a certain distinction to the appellation, lifting it + far above the grade of low associations. It has the crowning merit + of uselessness; and in the eyes of many uselessness seems to be + regarded as the distinguishing mark of any noble class, either of + things or persons. Still, I have so much respect for the rights of + property that it seems to me every man ought to have the privilege + of spelling and pronouncing his own name in any way he pleases. + + The prevalence of this letter at the end of words was largely + due to the fact that the vowels, _a_, _o_, and _u_ of the original + endings were all weakened to it in the break-up of the language + which followed the Norman conquest. Hence, it became the common + ending of the noun. The further disappearance of the consonant + _n_ from the original termination of the infinitive extended this + usage to the verb. The Anglo-Saxon _tellan_ and _helpan_, for + instance, after being weakened to _tellen_ and _helpen_, became + _telle_ and _helpe_. Words not of native origin fell under the + influence of this general tendency and adopted an _e_ to which they + were in no wise entitled. Even Anglo-Saxon nouns which ended in a + consonant--such, for instance, as _hors_ and _mús_ and _stán_--are + now represented by _horse_ and _mouse_ and _stone_. The truth is, + that when the memory of the earlier form of the word had passed + away an _e_ was liable to be appended, on any pretext, to the end + of it. The feeling still continues to affect us all. Our eyes have + become so accustomed to seeing a final e which no one thinks of + pronouncing, that the word is felt by some to have a certain sort + of incompleteness if it be not found there. In no other way can + I account for Lord Macaulay's spelling the comparatively modern + verb _edit_ as _edite_. This seems to be a distinction peculiar to + himself. + + * * * * * + + In the chaos which came over the spelling in consequence of + the uncertainty attached to the sound of the vowels, the final _e_ + was seized upon as a sort of help to indicate the pronunciation. + Its office in this respect was announced as early as the end of + the sixteenth century; at least, then it was announced that an + unsounded _e_ at the end of a word indicated that the preceding + vowel was long. This, it need hardly be said, is a crude and + unscientific method of denoting pronunciation. It is a process + purely empirical. It is far removed from the ideal that no letter + should exist in a word which is not sounded. Yet, to some extent, + this artificial makeshift has been, and still is, a working + principle. Were it carried out consistently it might be regarded + as, on the whole, serving a useful purpose. But here, as well as + elsewhere, the trail of the orthographic serpent is discoverable. + Here as elsewhere it renders impossible the full enjoyment of + even this slight section of an orthographic paradise. Here, as + elsewhere, manifests itself the besetting sin of our spelling, + that there is no consistency in the application of any principle. + Some of our most common verbs violate the rule (if rule it can + be called), such as _have_, _give_, _love_, _are_, _done_. In + these the preceding vowel is not long but short. There are further + large classes of words ending in _ile_, _ine_, _ite_, _ive_, + where this final _e_ would serve to mislead the inquirer as to + the pronunciation had he no other source of information than the + spelling. + + Still, in the case of some of these words, the operation of + this principle has had, and is doubtless continuing to have, a + certain influence. Take, for instance, the word _hostile_. In the + early nineteenth century, if we can trust the most authoritative + dictionaries, the word was regularly pronounced in England as if + spelled hós-t[)i]l. So it is to-day in America. But the influence + of the final _e_ has tended to prolong, in the former country, the + sound of the preceding _i_. Consequently, a usual, and probably the + usual, pronunciation there is hos-t[=i]le. We can see a similar + tendency manifested in the case of several other adjectives. A + disposition to give many of them the long diphthongal sound of the + _i_ is frequently displayed in the pronunciation of such words as + _agile_, _docile_, _ductile_, _futile_, _infantile_. Save in the + case of the last one of this list, the dictionaries once gave the + _ile_ nothing but the sound of _il_; now they usually authorize + both ways. + + Were the principle here indicated fully carried out, + pronunciations now condemned as vulgarisms would displace those + now considered correct. In accordance with it, for instance, + _engine_, as it is spelled, should strictly have the _i_ long. + One of the devices employed by Dickens in _Martin Chuzzlewit_ to + ridicule what he pretended was the American speech was to have + the characters pronounce _genuine_ as _gen-u-[=i]ne_, prejudice + as _prej-u-d[=i]ce_, _active_ and _native_ as _ac-t[=y]ve_ and + _na-t[=i]ve_. Doubtless he heard such pronunciations from some + men. Yet, in these instances, the speaker was carried along by the + same tendency which in cultivated English has succeeded in turning + the pronunciation _hos-t[)i]l_ into _hos-t[=i]le_. Were there + any binding force in the application of the rule which imparts + to the termination _e_ the power of lengthening the preceding + vowel, no one would have any business to give to it in the final + syllable of the words just specified any other sound than that of + "long i." The pronunciations ridiculed by Dickens would be the + only pronunciations allowable. Accordingly, the way to make the + rule universally effective is to drop this final _e_ when it does + not produce such an effect. If _genuine_ is to be pronounced + _gen-u-[)i]n_, so it ought to be spelled.[71] + + [71] Thomas R. Lounsbury: _English Spelling and Spelling Reform_. By + courtesy of the publishers, Harper & Brothers, New York City. + Copyright. + +Now it is evident that unless the critic's standards are fair and +sensible, unless they are known to be sound and essential, his criticism +is likely to be valueless. If my ideas of the qualities of ideal tennis +courts are erratic or queer, my judgment of the individual court will +be untrustworthy. Your first duty as critic, then, is to look at your +standards. In judging such things as ice cream freezers, motorcycles, +filing systems, fertilizers, rapid-firing guns, and other useful +devices, you will find no great difficulty in choosing your standards. +When you come to literature and the arts, however, you find a difficult +task. For who shall say exactly what a lyric poem shall do? Or who +shall bound the field of landscape painting? No sooner does Reynolds +begin painting, after he has formulated the laws of his art and stated +them with decision, than he violates them all. No sooner did musicians +settle just what a sonata must be than a greater musician appeared who +transcended the narrower form. Moreover, in the field of literature +and the arts we often find great difficulty in surmounting the cast of +our individual minds; we like certain types and are unconsciously led +to condemn all others. The great critic rises superior to his peculiar +likes and prejudices, but most of us are hindered by them. One great +benefit to be derived from writing this particular kind of criticism +is in gaining humility--humility at the greatness of some of the works +of the past, before which, when we really look at them, we are moved +to stand uncovered, and humility at the lack of real analysis that we +have made before we attempt the criticism, and finally humility at the +tremendous effort we must make to write criticism at all worthy of the +subjects. But the difficulty of writing such criticism well should make +you exert yourself to the utmost to acquire skill before you attempt +this form. + +This method, like the historical, makes against superficiality, for +it necessitates real knowledge of the class to which the object of +criticism belongs, the purposes of the class, its bearings, and then +a sure survey of the individual itself. And in forcing the critic to +examine his standards to determine their fairness and soundness it makes +against hasty judgment. Properly used, this method should result in +something like finality of judgment. + +_c._ _The Appreciative Method_ + +There come occasions when you are not primarily interested in the +historical significance of the subject of criticism, and when you are +indifferent to objective standards, when, in fact, you are almost wholly +interested in the _individual_ before you, in what it is or in the +effect it has on you. You rather _feel_ toward it than care to make a +cold analysis of it; you are moved by it, are conscious of a personal +reaction to it. In such cases you will make use of what is called +appreciative criticism. This method consists in interpreting, often for +one who does not know the work, the value of the work, the good things +in it, either as they appear to one who studies or as they affect the +critic. After reading a new book, for example, or attending a concert, +or driving a wonderfully smooth running automobile, or watching the team +work in a football game, you are primarily interested in the phenomena +shown as they are in their picturesque individuality or in your own +emotional reaction to them. In the following example George Gissing +makes an appreciative criticism of English cooking, not by coldly +tracing the historical influences that have made this cooking what it +is, nor by subjecting it to certain fixed standards to which admirable +cooking should attain, but rather by telling us what English cooking is +and by giving us the flavor of his own emotional delight in it. + + As so often when my praise has gone forth for things English, + I find myself tormented by an after-thought--the reflection that I + have praised a time gone by. Now, in this matter of English meat. + A newspaper tells me that English beef is non-existent; that the + best meat bearing that name has merely been fed up in England for a + short time before killing. Well, well; we can only be thankful that + the quality is still so good. Real English mutton still exists, I + suppose. It would surprise me if any other country could produce + the shoulder I had yesterday. + + Who knows? Perhaps even our own cookery has seen its best + days. It is a lamentable fact that the multitude of English people + nowadays never taste roasted meat; what they call by that name + is baked in the oven--a totally different thing, though it may, + I admit, be inferior only to the right roast. Oh, the sirloin of + old times, the sirloin which I can remember, thirty or forty years + ago! That was English, and no mistake, and all the history of + civilization could show nothing on the tables of mankind to equal + it. To clap that joint into a steamy oven would have been a crime + unpardonable by gods and men. Have I not with my own eyes seen it + turning, turning on the spit? The scent it diffused was in itself a + cure for dyspepsia. + + It is a very long time since I tasted a slice of boiled beef; + I have a suspicion that the thing is becoming rare. In a household + such as mine, the "round" is impracticable; of necessity it must + be large, altogether too large for our requirements. But what + exquisite memories does my mind preserve! The very coloring of a + round, how rich it is, yet how delicate, and how subtly varied! The + odor is totally different from that of roast beef, and yet it is + beef incontestable. Hot, of course, with carrots, it is a dish for + a king; but cold it is nobler. Oh, the thin broad slice, with just + its fringe of consistent fat! + + We are sparing of condiments, but such as we use are the best + that man has invented. And we know _how_ to use them. I have heard + an impatient innovator scoff at the English law on the subject of + mustard, and demand why, in the nature of things, mustard should + not be eaten with mutton. The answer is very simple; this law has + been made by the English palate--which is impeccable. I maintain + it is impeccable. Your educated Englishman is an infallible + guide to all that relates to the table. "The man of superior + intellect," said Tennyson--justifying his love of boiled beef and + new potatoes--"knows what is good to eat"; and I would extend it to + all civilized natives of our country. We are content with nothing + but the finest savours, the truest combinations; our wealth, and + happy natural circumstances, have allowed us an education of the + palate of which our natural aptitude was worthy. Think, by the bye, + of those new potatoes, just mentioned. Our cook, when dressing + them, puts into the saucepan a sprig of mint. This is genius. No + otherwise could the flavour of the vegetable be so perfectly, yet + so delicately, emphasized. The mint is there, and we know it; yet + our palate knows only the young potato.[72] + + [72] Gissing: _The Private Papers of Henry Ryecroft_, "Winter." By + permission of the publishers, E. P. Dutton & Co., New York. + +Appreciative criticism may on the one hand approach criticism by +standards, since, for example, to praise a pianist for melting his +tones one into another implies that such melting is a standard. It may, +again, consist largely in telling what the thing _is_, as to say that +the Progressive Party was one that looked forward rather than backward, +planned reforms for the people, insisted on clean politics, etc. It +may, in the third place, consist in giving a transcript of the writer's +feelings as he is in the presence of the subject of criticism, as one +might picture the reaction of inspiration to a view from a mountain +peak, or express his elation in listening to a famous singer, or show +his wild enthusiasm as he watches his team slowly fight its way over +the goal line. In all three of these cases the criticism answers the +question, "What does this work seem to be, what do I find in it, and +wherein do I think it is good?" That is appreciative criticism. + +Now since you can adequately estimate in this way only when you are +aware of the qualities of the subject, the first requirement for success +in this kind of criticism is keen and intelligent sympathy with the +work, an open-minded, sensible hospitality to ideas and things. If I am +quite unmoved by music, I cannot make reliable appreciative criticism of +it. If I have no reaction to the beauty of a big pumping station, when +asked for criticism of it, I shall perforce be silent. If my mind is +closed to new ideas, I can never "appreciate" a new theory in science, +in sociology, in art or in religion. + +In the next place, I must refrain from morbid personal effusion. Certain +of our sentimental magazines have published, at odd times, extremely +personal rhapsodies about symphonies and poems. The listener has been +"wafted away," has heard the birdies sing, the brooks come purling over +their stones, has seen the moon come swimming through the clouds--but +the reader of such criticism need not be too harshly censured if he +mildly wonders whether the critic ought not to consult a physician. + +Sometimes this fault occurs through the endeavor to make the criticism +attractive, one of the strong demands of the appreciative kind. Since +the personal note exists throughout, and since you wish to make your +reader attracted to the object that you criticize, your writing should +be as pleasing as is legitimately possible. Allow yourself full rein to +express the beauties of your subject with all the large personal warmth +of which you are capable, with as neatly turned expression as you can +make, always remembering to keep your balance, to avoid morbidness in +any form. + +It is in this way that you will give to your criticism one of its +most valued qualities, appealing humanness. Less final, perhaps, in +some ways, than the historical method or the method by standards, the +appreciative is likely to be of more immediate value in re-creating the +work for your reader, in giving him a real interpretation of it. And +this method, like the other two, fights against superficiality. Such a +silly saying--silly in criticism--as "I like it but I don't know why" +can have no place here. One may well remember the answer attributed to +the artist Whistler, when the gushing woman remarked, "I don't know +anything about art but I know what I like!" "So, Madam, does a cow!" If +you guard against the morbid or sentimental effusive style, and really +tell, honestly and attractively, what you find good in the subject, your +criticism is likely to be of value. Note that in the selection which +follows, though the author feels strongly toward his subject, he does +not fall, at any time, into gushing remarks that make a reader feel +sheepish, but rather keeps a really wholesome tone throughout. + + To-day I have read _The Tempest_. It is perhaps the play that + I love best, and, because I seem to myself to know it so well, I + commonly pass it over in opening the book. Yet, as always in regard + to Shakespeare, having read it once more, I find that my knowledge + was less complete than I supposed. So it would be, live as long as + one might; so it would ever be, whilst one had the strength to turn + the pages and a mind left to read them. + + I like to believe that this was the poet's last work, that he + wrote it in his home in Stratford, walking day by day in the fields + which had taught his boyhood to love rural England. It is ripe + fruit of the supreme imagination, perfect craft of the master hand. + For a man whose life business it has been to study the English + tongue, what joy can there be to equal that of marking the happy + ease wherewith Shakespeare surpasses, in mere command of words, + every achievement of these even, who, apart from him, are great? + I could fancy that, in _The Tempest_, he wrought with a peculiar + consciousness of this power, smiling as the word of inimitable + felicity, the phrase of incomparable cadence, was whispered to him + by the Ariel that was his genius. He seems to sport with language, + to amuse himself with new discovery of its resources. From king to + beggar, men of every rank and of every order of mind have spoken + with his lips; he has uttered the lore of fairyland; now it pleases + him to create a being neither man nor fairy, a something between + brute and human nature, and to endow its purposes with words. Those + words, how they smack of the warm and spawning earth, of the life + of creatures that cannot rise above the soil! We do not think of it + enough; we stint our wonder because we fall short in appreciation. + A miracle is worked before us, and we scarce give heed; it has + become familiar to our minds as any other of nature's marvels, + which we rarely pause to reflect upon. + + _The Tempest_ contains the noblest meditative passage in all + the plays; that which embodies Shakespeare's final view of life, + and is the inevitable quotation of all who would sum the teachings + of philosophy. It contains his most exquisite lyrics, his tenderest + love passages, and one glimpse of fairyland which--I cannot but + think--outshines the utmost beauty of _A Midsummer Night's Dream_; + Prospero's farewell to the "elves of hills, brooks, standing lakes + and groves." Again a miracle; these are things which cannot be + staled by repetition. Come to them often as you will, they are + ever fresh as though new minted from the brain of the poet. Being + perfect, they can never droop under that satiety which arises from + the perception of fault; their virtue can never be so entirely + savoured as to leave no pungency of gusto for the next approach. + + Among the many reasons which make me glad to have been born in + England, one of the first is that I read Shakespeare in my mother + tongue. If I try to imagine myself as one who cannot know him face + to face, who hears him only speaking from afar, and that in accents + which only through the laboring intelligence can touch the living + soul, there comes upon me a sense of chill discouragement, of + dreary deprivation. I am wont to think that I can read Homer, and, + assuredly, if any man enjoys him, it is I; but can I for a moment + dream that Homer yields me all his music, that his word is to me as + to him who walked by the Hellenic shore when Hellas lived? I know + that there reaches me across the vast of time no more than a faint + and broken echo; I know that it would be fainter still, but for its + blending with those memories of youth which are as a glimmer of the + world's primeval glory. Let every land have joy of its poet; for + the poet is the land itself, all its greatness and its sweetness, + all that incommunicable heritage for which men live and die. As + I close the book, love and reverence possess me. Whether does my + full heart turn to the great Enchanter, or to the Island upon + which he has laid his spell? I know not. I cannot think of them + apart. In the love and reverence awakened by this voice of voices, + Shakespeare and England are but one.[73] + + [73] George Gissing: _The Private Papers of Henry Ryecroft_, "Summer." + By permission of the publishers, E. P. Dutton & Co., New York. + + +Practical Helps + +We have said that criticism of literature and art seems to be more +difficult than criticism of machines and buildings and commercial +systems. It is. Literature and art, as being the expression of the high +thought of the human heart about the world, man, and his relations to +the world, demand in a critic who attempts to estimate them at least +some underlying philosophy of life, at least some insight into the +affairs of the human soul. And such philosophy, such insight, does not +come without being eagerly sought or without much thinking. I can soon +tell whether a force pump is efficient; I may for some time pause before +I estimate a picture or a lyric poem. For the field of the pump is small +and definite, its relations are simple, whereas the lyric is intimately +bound up with the whole of life. + +But we need not, therefore, despair of writing criticism of literature +and art. The more sensible thing is to simplify our task. This we can +do, in large measure, by asking the famous three questions of Coleridge: +First, What did the author intend to do? second, How did he accomplish +his purpose, well or ill? third, Was the purpose worth striving for? +These three questions, sensibly considered and properly answered, will +make a by no means paltry criticism. + +Still the problem remains, how shall I write this criticism, whatever +method I may be pursuing. Certain points of advice may be of use. +In the first place, be sure of your attitude, that it is fair and +sincere, that it is honest and as unprejudiced as possible. Then do +not browbeat your reader into accepting this attitude. Allow him the +right to make final decision, and, moreover, credit him with the right +to some brains--he will be thus much happier. In the second place, be +sure that you know what you are talking about, that you are sure of the +_facts_, whether you treat literature or machinery or government or +rotation of crops. Without proper facts you can never reach a sound +conclusion. And "keep your eye on the object." In no kind of writing +is there a greater tendency to fritter off into related subjects which +are still not exactly the one in hand. Be sure that you write about the +subject, then, and not about some other. In the next place, since many +remarks apply equally well to a host of subjects, as, for instance, +that it is "efficient" or "inspiring," aim first of all, before you +write a word, to find the one characteristic that your subject possesses +that distinguishes it from others. Ask yourself wherein it is itself, +wherein it differs from other like things, what it is without which +this particular subject would not be itself. And having determined +this point, be sure to make your reader see it. Whatever else you do, +prize that characteristic as the jewel of your criticism's soul, and +so sharply define, limit, characterize that your reader's impression +will be not the slightest blurred. A student whose theme in criticism +received from the instructor the verdict that it was not distinguishing, +that it might apply as well to another poet, replied that the theme had +originally been written about another, and in the press of circumstance +had been copied with only a change in the title. The point is that the +criticism had not been a good estimate of the original subject. It was +worthless in both cases, because it was not distinguishing. + +Finally, when you come to the expression, be sure that what you say +means something, and that you know what it means. Ask yourself, "What +does this mean that I have written?" and, if you have to admit that you +do not know, in all conscience suppress it. Avoid the stock phrases that +are colorless. You can fling "interesting" at almost any book, or its +opposite, "stupid," just as you can apply "true to life," "good style," +"suggestive," "gripping," "vital," "red-blooded," "imaginative," and +hosts of other words and phrases equally well to scores of subjects. +The reviewer through whose mind a constant stream of subjects passes, +is forced to fall into this cant unless he be a genius, but you have no +business to do so. The trouble here, again, is in not knowing exactly +what you wish to say and are saying, lack of thorough knowledge of your +subject, for you do not know it until you have reached its heart. The +result of half-knowledge is always flabbiness and ineffectiveness. Be +careful, moreover, in making the structure of your total criticism, +especially in criticism by standards, that you do not make the form of +your work seem mechanical and wooden. Do not, for example, except in +a report, give a dry list of the qualities which the subject should +possess, and then one by one apply them to see if it will pass muster. +Such writing may be true, but it is awkward. The form of critical +writing should be as neat as that of any other kind of writing. + +And in all your attitude and expression try to treat the subject as far +as possible in its relation to humanity, to keep it from being a mere +abstraction, to make it seem of real significance to the lives of men, +if possible to the life of your reader. + +The value of writing criticism should by this time be apparent. It +forces our minds out of the fogginess of vague thinking, it makes us +see things sharply, it guides us away from the taint of superficiality, +it makes a solid base for our opinions. Through criticism we discover +why we are interested, and then naturally we desire more interest, and +by feeding grow to a larger appreciation and conception of the realm in +which our minds are at work. We thus do away with the mere chance whim +of like and dislike, and understand why we like what we do. In other +words, criticism increases our intelligent reaction to life. + + +EXERCISES + + I. Mr. Lowell's Work in England (page 193). + + 1. By what standards is the work of Lowell as United States + Minister to England criticized? + + 2. Do these standards exhaust the qualifications of an admirable + minister? + + 3. If not, what other standards would you suggest? + + 4. What is the _controlling purpose_ of the criticism? + + 5. In view of this _controlling purpose_, are the standards + which the criticism includes sufficient? + + 6. Write a similar criticism on any of the following subjects: + + The presidency of Theodore Roosevelt. + + The presidency of Woodrow Wilson. + + The work of Mr. Goethals on the Panama Canal. + + The career of Mr. Bryce as British Ambassador to the United + States. + + The career of James J. Hill, or of Cecil Rhodes, as + Empire-builders. + + 7. Write a historical criticism of Lowell's career in England, + _accounting for_ the attitude he assumed as determined by the + understanding of America which the English nation of the time + had, and by Lowell's character. + + II. The American Business Man (page 197). + + 1. Criticize any of the following by accounting for their rise + and their characteristics: + + The athletic coach in American colleges. + + The present-day university president. + + The "information" man at the railway station. + + The county adviser in agriculture. + + The reference librarian. + + The floorwalker in department stores. + + 2. Write an appreciative criticism of the American Business Man + as he might seem to an Englishman on his first trip to + America; as he might seem to Plato; to Napoleon; to the poet + Shelley; to Shakespeare; to a Turkish rug merchant. + + III. The "New Poetry" (page 200). + + 1. Is this criticism fair and unbiased? + + 2. What attitude does the author try to create in the reader? + How would the choice of material have differed had the author + desired an opposite effect? + + 3. Criticize, by relating to the times in which the subject + appeared, the following: Cubist Art, Sentimentalism, The + Renaissance of Wonder, The Dime Novel, The Wild-West Moving + Picture Film. + + IV. Cargo Steamers (page 203). + + 1. Criticize, by the method used in this example: Gang Plows, + Electric Street Cars, Football Fields, Art Galleries (their + architecture), Adding Machines, Systems of Bookkeeping. + + V. The English Language (page 205). + + 1. Criticize, by the method of standards, the following: + American Costumes as Candidates for Universal Use, The Metric + System, The American Monetary System, The Gary Schools, The + Civic Center Idea. + + VI. English Cooking (page 210). + + 1. If Gissing had been criticizing English cooking from the + point of view of a dietitian, what standards would he have + chosen? + + 2. Criticize modern American cooking by showing its rise and the + influences that have controlled it. + + 3. Write an appreciative criticism of any of the following + subjects: Thanksgiving Dinner in the Country, A "Wienie + Roast," The First Good Meal after an Illness, The Old + Swimmin' Hole, The Fudge that Went Wrong, American Hat + Trimming, The Florist's Shop, Grandmother's Garden, The Old + Orchard. + + VII. The Tempest (page 213). + + 1. Does Gissing here allow his natural bias as an Englishman to + sway him too much? Do you know as much about _The Tempest_, + from this criticism, as you would like to? + + 2. Criticize, _as an American_, with yet due restraint: + Lincoln's Addresses, Mr. Wilson's Leadership in Idealism, + Walt Whitman's "Captain, My Captain," MacDowell's "Indian + Suite" or "Sea Pieces" or "Woodland Sketches," St. Gaudens' + "Lincoln," O. Henry's Stories of New York, John Burroughs' + Nature Essays, Patrick Henry's Speeches, Mrs. Wharton's Short + Stories. + + VIII. Make a list of trite or often used expressions that you find in + criticisms in the weekly "literary" page of an American + newspaper. Try to substitute diction that is more truly alive. + + IX. When next you hear a symphony, listen so that you can write an + Appreciative Criticism. Then look up the history of symphonic + music and the life of the composer, and write a Historical + Criticism. Do this with any piano composition which you admire. + + X. Rock Drills. + + Tappet valve drills were the earliest design made for + regular work, and are now the only type really suitable + for work with steam, as the condensation of the steam + interferes with other valve actions. They have also special + advantages for certain work which have prevented them from + becoming obsolete. The valve motion is positive and not + affected by moisture in compressed air. The machine will keep + on boring a hole that may offer great frictional resistance + where some other drills would stick. + + Disadvantages. These drills cannot deliver a perfectly + "free" or "dead" blow. In other words, there is always + some exhaust air from the front of the piston, caught + between it and the cylinder by the reversal of the valve just + before the forward stroke is finished. In some ground this + is by no means a defect, for where the ground is dead or + sticky this cushion helps to "pick the drill up" for a rapid + and sure return stroke, preventing its sticking and insuring + a maximum number of blows per minute. The length of stroke + must be kept long enough for the movement of the piston to + knock over the valve. The valve on the Rio Tinto machine is a + piston, or spool valve; on other machines the valve is of the + plain D-slide valve type. The Rand "giant" drill has a device + to reduce the total air pressure on the back of the valve. + This of course makes the valve take up its own wear and form + its own bearing surface, thus reducing leakage. The seats + generally require periodical cleaning and are raised to give + material to allow "scraping up." + + Where the lubrication is deficient, as it generally is, + the coefficient of friction may reach 25 per cent, especially + in the presence of grit. Taking a valve area of 6 sq. in. + exposed to 80-lb. pressure, it might require a force of + 120 lbs. to move the valve. This means that the blow struck + by the piston is retarded to a corresponding degree, and in + some cases the valve tends to wear its seat into an irregular + surface. Some writers have contended that the turning movement + of the piston is also hindered; but as the blow of the tappet + occurs at the beginning and end of the stroke, while the + turning movement is a positive and continuous one along all + the length of the back stroke, this effect is not noticeable. + As the tappet is struck 400 to 600 times per minute, the wear + and stress is great. Specially hardened surfaces on pistons + and tappets are needed as well as large wearing surfaces, or + renewable bushings, for the tappet to rock on. When wear takes + place the throw of the valve is reduced; cushioning becomes + greater and the stroke is shortened. The resistance and + pressure of the tappet tends to throw increased and unequal + wear on the opposite side of the cylinder.[74] + + [74] Eustace M. Weston: _Rock Drills_. By courtesy of the publishers, + McGraw-Hill Publishing Company. + + 1. If you were writing an appreciative criticism of the working + of a rock drill, how would you change the style of writing? + + 2. Write a criticism by standards of the Water-Tube Boiler, of + the Diesel Engine, of Oil as Fuel for Ships, of one + particular make of Corn Planter or Wheel Hoe, or Piano, or + Motorcycle, or Machine Gun, or Mining Explosive, or of one + method of Advertising, or of the German Army, or of the + Dreadnaught as a Fighting Machine. + + XI. Jingo Morality. + + Captain Mahan's chosen example is the British occupation + of Egypt. To discuss the morality of this, he says, is + "as little to the point as the morality of an earthquake." + It was for the benefit of the world at large and of the + people of Egypt--no matter what the latter might think + about it, or how they would have voted about it--and that + is enough. Tacitly, he makes the same doctrine apply to the + great expansion of the foreign power of the United States, + which he foresees and for which he wants a navy "developed + in proportion to the reasonable possibilities of the future + political." What these possibilities are he nowhere says, + and he gives the reader no chance of judging whether they + are reasonable or not. But he speaks again and again of the + development of the nation and of national sentiment as a + "natural force," moving on to its desired end, unconscious + and unmoral. What he says of British domination over Egypt, + Captain Mahan would evidently and logically be ready to say of + American domination of any inferior power--that it has no more + to do with morality than an earthquake. + + Of course, this really means the glorification of brute + force. The earthquake view of international relations + does away at once with all questions of law and justice and + humanity, and puts everything frankly on the basis of armor + and guns. Finerty could ask no more. No one could accuse + Captain Mahan of intending this, yet he must "follow the + argument." He speaks approvingly of international interference + with Turkey on account of the Armenian atrocities. But has not + the Sultan a complete defense, according to Captain Mahan's + doctrine? Is he not an earthquake, too? Are not the Turks + going blindly ahead, in Armenia, as a "natural force," and is + anybody likely to be foolish enough to discuss the morality of + a law of nature? Of course, the powers tell the Sultan that he + is no earthquake at all, or, if he is, that they will bring + to bear upon him a bigger one which will shake him into the + Bosphorus. But if there is no question of morality involved, + the argument and the action are simply so much brute force; + and that, we say, is what Captain Mahan's doctrine logically + comes to. + + Another inadvertent revelation of the real implications + of his views is given where he is dwelling on the fact + that "the United States will never seek war except for + the defense of her rights, her obligations, or her necessary + interests." There is a fine ambiguity about the final phrase, + but let that pass. No one can suspect that Captain Mahan means + to do anything in public or private relations that he does + not consider absolutely just. But note the way the necessity + of arguing for a big navy clouds his mind when he writes of + some supposed international difficulty: "But the moral force + of our contention might conceivably be weakened, in the view + of an opponent, by attendant circumstances, _in which case our + physical power to support it should be open to no doubt_." + That is to say, we must always have morality and sweet + reasonableness on our side, must have all our quarrels just, + must have all the precedents and international law in our + favor, but must be prepared to lick the other fellow anyhow, + if he is so thick-headed and obstinate as to insist that + morals and justice are on _his_ side. + + This earthquake and physical-power doctrine is a most + dangerous one for any time or people, but is peculiarly + dangerous in this country at this time. The politicians + and the mob will be only too thankful to be furnished a + high-sounding theory as a justification for their ignorant + and brutal proposals for foreign conquest and aggression. + They will not be slow, either, in extending and improving the + theory. They will take a less roundabout course than Captain + Mahan does to the final argument of physical power. If it + comes to that in the end, what is the use of bothering about + all these preliminaries of right and law? They will be willing + to call themselves an earthquake or a cyclone, if only their + devastating propensities can be freely gratified without any + question of morals coming in. With so many signs of relaxed + moral fiber about us, in public and in private life, it is no + time to preach the gospel of force, even when the preacher is + so attractive a man and writer as Captain Mahan.[75] + + [75] Gustav Pollak: _Fifty Years of American Idealism_. Houghton + Mifflin Company. By courtesy of _The Nation_. + + 1. In the light of this criticism, write an estimate, on the + standard of high moral international relations, of Mr. + Wilson's policy toward Mexico. + + 2. Write a criticism by standards of the remark of Mr. Lloyd + George and Mr. George Creel that they are thankful that + England, that America, were _not_ prepared for war in 1914. + + 3. Write an appreciative criticism of Captain Mahan's doctrine + from the point of view of a man who thumps his chest and + cries "America über Alles!" Compare the sanity of your + criticism with that of the article above. + + 4. Would the criticism of Captain Mahan's doctrine be sounder + if he had been a German? + + 5. Criticize the statement that what young people need is + industrial education, something to teach them how to earn a + living. Then criticize the other statement that the necessary + thing is to make young people into fine personalities, into + true gentlemen and gentlewomen. + + XII. Vegetarianism. + + There is to me an odd pathos in the literature of + vegetarianism. I remember the day when I read these + periodicals and pamphlets with all the zest of hunger and + poverty, vigorously seeking to persuade myself that flesh was + an altogether superfluous, and even repulsive, food. If ever + such things fall under my eyes nowadays, I am touched with a + half humorous compassion for the people whose necessity, not + their will, consents to this chemical view of diet. There + comes before me the vision of certain vegetarian restaurants, + where, at a minimum outlay, I have often enough made believe + to satisfy my craving stomach; where I have swallowed "savory + cutlet," "vegetable steak," and I know not what windy + insufficiencies tricked up under specious names. One place + do I recall where you had a complete dinner for sixpence--I + dare not try to remember the items. But well indeed do I see + the faces of the guests--poor clerks and shopboys, bloodless + girls and women of many sorts--all endeavoring to find a + relish in lentil soup and haricot something-or-other. It was a + grotesquely heart-breaking sight. + + I hate with a bitter hatred the names of lentils and + haricots--those pretentious cheats of the appetite, those + tabulated humbugs, those certificated aridities calling + themselves human food! An ounce of either, we are told, is + equivalent to--how many pounds? of the best rump-steak. There + are not many ounces of common sense in the brain of him who + proves it, or of him who believes it. In some countries, + this stuff is eaten by choice; in England only dire need can + compel to its consumption. Lentils and haricots are not merely + insipid; frequent use of them causes something like nausea. + Preach and tabulate as you will, the English palate--which is + the supreme judge--rejects this farinaceous makeshift. Even + as it rejects vegetables without the natural concomitant of + meat; as it rejects oatmeal-porridge and griddle-cakes for a + midday meal; as it rejects lemonade and ginger-ale offered as + substitutes for honest beer. + + What is the intellectual and moral state of that man who + really believes that chemical analysis can be an equivalent + for natural gusto?--I will get more nourishment out of an + inch of right Cambridge sausage; aye, out of a couple + of ounces of honest tripe; than can be yielded me by half a + hundredweight of the best lentils ever grown.[76] + + [76] George Gissing: _The Private Papers of Henry Ryecroft_, "Winter." + By permission of the publishers, E. P. Dutton & Co., New York + City. + + 1. Write a criticism by standards of this appreciative + criticism. Is Gissing fair or sensible in his attitude? + + 2. Write an appreciative criticism of Feminism, Temperance, + Socialism, Open-Air Sleeping, The Bahai Movement in America, + Community Singing, The Moving Picture as Substitute for the + Novel, Drinks that Do Away with Coffee, Systems for Growing + Strong without Effort. + + 3. How far ought a writer to allow purely _personal_ reaction to + determine his judgment in criticism? + + XIII. Emerson's Literary Quality. + + Emerson's quality has changed a good deal in his later + writings. His corn is no longer in the milk; it has grown + hard, and we that read have grown hard too. He has now ceased + to be an expansive, revolutionary force, but he has not + ceased to be a writer of extraordinary gripe and unexpected + resources of statement. His startling piece of advice, "Hitch + your wagon to a star," is typical of the man, as combining + the most unlike and widely separate qualities. Because not + less marked than his idealism and mysticism is his shrewd + common sense, his practical bent, his definiteness,--in + fact, the sharp New England mould in which he is cast. He + is the master Yankee, the centennial flower of that thrifty + and peculiar stock. More especially in his later writings + and speakings do we see the native New England traits,--the + alertness, eagerness, inquisitiveness, thrift, dryness, + archness, caution, the nervous energy as distinguished from + the old English unction and vascular force. How he husbands + himself,--what prudence, what economy, always spending up, + as he says, and not down! How alert, how attentive; what an + inquisitor; always ready with some test question, with some + fact or idea to match or verify, ever on the lookout for some + choice bit of adventure or information, or some anecdote that + has pith and point! No tyro basks and takes his ease in his + presence, but is instantly put on trial and must answer or be + disgraced. He strikes at an idea like a falcon at a bird. His + great fear seems to be lest there be some fact or point worth + knowing that will escape him. He is a close-browed miser of + the scholar's gains. He turns all values into intellectual + coin. Every book or person or experience is an investment that + will or will not warrant a good return in ideas. He goes to + the Radical Club, or to the literary gathering, and listens + with the closest attention to every word that is said, in hope + that something will be said, some word dropped, that has the + ring of the true metal. Apparently he does not permit himself + a moment's indifference or inattention. His own pride is + always to have the ready change, to speak the exact and proper + word, to give to every occasion the dignity of wise speech. + You are bartered with for your best. There is no profit in + life but in the interchange of ideas, and the chief success is + to have a head well filled with them. Hard cash at that; no + paper promises satisfy him; he loves the clink and glint of + the real coin. + + His earlier writings were more flowing and suggestive, and had + reference to larger problems; but now everything has got + weighed and stamped and converted into the medium of wise and + scholarly conversation. It is of great value; these later + essays are so many bags of genuine coin, which it has taken + a lifetime to hoard; not all gold, but all good, and the fruit + of wise industry and economy.[77] + + [77] John Burroughs: _Birds and Poets_. Houghton Mifflin Company, + Boston, publishers. + + 1. Would you describe this as appreciative criticism or + criticism by standards? If it is appreciative, has it any of + the value that we commonly attribute to criticism by + standards? Why? If it is criticism by standards, does it + approach the appreciative? Why? + + 2. Criticize, in the method that Mr. Burroughs uses, the + literary quality and message of Carlyle, Walt Whitman, + William James, John Dewey, Macaulay, Hawthorne, Arnold + Bennett, and others. + + 3. Criticize, in the same manner, Beethoven's Fifth Symphony, + the Cathedral of Rheims, the Parthenon, the Capitol at + Washington, Michigan Boulevard in Chicago, the Skyline of + Lower New York, the Sweep of the Mississippi River, the + Quality of Niagara Falls, the Quality of Harold Bell Wright's + Works. Of course any other individual can be substituted for + any of these. + + XIV. Military Drill. + + A lettered German, speaking to me once of his year of military + service, told me that, had it lasted but a month or two + longer, he must have sought release in suicide. I know very + well that my own courage would not have borne me to the + end of the twelvemonth; humiliation, resentment, loathing, + would have goaded me to madness. At school we used to be + "drilled" in the playground once a week; I have but to think + of it, even after forty years, and there comes back upon me + that tremor of passionate misery which, at the time, often + made me ill. The senseless routine of mechanical exercise was + in itself all but unendurable to me; I hated the standing in + line, the thrusting out of arms and legs at a signal, the + thud of feet stamping in constrained unison. The loss of + individuality seems to me sheer disgrace. And when, as often + happened, the drill-sergeant rebuked me for some inefficiency + as I stood in line, when he addressed me as "Number Seven!" + I burned with shame and rage. I was no longer a human being; + I had become part of a machine, and my name was "Number + Seven." It used to astonish me when I had a neighbor who + went through the drill with amusement, with zealous energy. + I would gaze at the boy, and ask myself how it was possible + that he and I should feel so differently. To be sure, nearly + all my schoolfellows either enjoyed the thing, or at all + events went through it with indifference; they made friends + with the sergeant, and some were proud of walking with him + "out of bounds." Left, right! Left, right! For my own part, I + think I have never hated man as I hated that broad-shouldered, + hard-visaged, brassy-voiced fellow. Every word he spoke to me + I felt as an insult. Seeing him in the distance, I have turned + and fled, to escape the necessity of saluting, and, still + more, a quiver of the nerves which affected me so painfully. + If ever a man did me harm, it was he; harm physical and + moral. In all seriousness I believe that some of the nervous + instability from which I have suffered from boyhood is + traceable to those accursed hours of drill, and I am very sure + that I can date from the same wretched moments a fierceness + of personal pride which has been one of my most troublesome + characteristics. The disposition, of course, was there; it + should have been modified, not exacerbated.[78] + + [78] George Gissing: _The Private Papers of Henry Ryecroft_, "Spring." + By permission of the publishers, E. P. Dutton & Co., New York + City. + + 1. Draw up a list of the headings that might appear in a + criticism of military drill by standards, in a criticism by + the historical method, and in a less purely personal + appreciative criticism than the example here. Which of the + criticisms, as judged from these headings, would be of most + value to a reader of intelligence? + + 2. In a subject like this is so strong a personal reaction + justified? Is it possibly of real value? Does the criticism + prove anything about military drill? + + 3. Write an appreciative criticism of a thoroughly personal + nature of any of the following: Carpentry, Rug-beating, + Chapel-attendance, Memorizing Poetry, Repairing Automobiles + in the Mud, Fishing in the Rain, Cleaning House, Getting up + Early, Being Polite to People Whom You Dislike, Being Made to + Do One's Duty, College Politics. + + XV. National Sentiment. + + National sentiment is a fact and should be taken account of + by institutions. When it is ignored, it is intensified and + becomes a source of strife. It can be rendered harmless only + by being given free play so long as it is not predatory. But + it is not, in itself, a good or admirable feeling. There is + nothing rational and nothing desirable in a limitation of + sympathy which confines it to a fragment of the human race. + Diversities of manners and customs and traditions are on the + whole a good thing, since they enable different nations to + produce different types of excellence. But in national feeling + there is always latent or explicit an element of hostility + to foreigners. National feeling, as we know it, could not + exist in a nation which was wholly free of external pressure + of a hostile kind. + + And group feeling produces a limited and often harmful + kind of morality. Men come to identify the good with + what serves the interest of their own group, and the bad + with what works against those interests, even if it should + happen to be in the interest of mankind as a whole. This group + morality is very much in evidence during war, and is taken + for granted in men's ordinary thought. Although almost all + Englishmen consider the defeat of Germany desirable for the + good of the world, yet most of them honor a German fighting + for his country, because it has not occurred to them that his + action ought to be guided by a morality higher than that of + the group. A man does right, as a rule, to have his thoughts + more occupied with the interests of his own nation than with + those of others, because his actions are more likely to + affect his own nation. But in time of war, and in all matters + which are of equal concern to other nations and to his own, a + man ought to take account of the universal welfare, and not + allow his survey to be limited by the interest, or supposed + interest, of his own group or nation.[79] + + [79] Bertrand Russell: _National Independence and Internationalism_. + By courtesy of The Atlantic Monthly Company. + + 1. Write a criticism of any of the following, judging by the + results produced: School Spirit, Capitalism, Living in a + Small Town, National Costume, Giving up One's Patriotism, + Family Loyalty, Race Loyalty, Class Distinction, Restriction + of Reading to the authors of One Nation. + + 2. Would Mr. Russell's criticism be of more value if it showed + more emotion, if it were less detached? Can a writer + profitably criticize such a reality as _national sentiment_ + without introducing emotion? + + XVI. A constitutional statesman is in general a man of common + opinions and uncommon abilities. The reason is obvious. When + we speak of a free government, we mean a government in which + the sovereign power is divided, in which a single decision is + not absolute, where argument has an office. The essence of the + _gouvernement des avocats_, as the Emperor Nicholas called + it, is, that you must persuade so many persons. The appeal + is not to the solitary decision of a single statesman,--not + to Richelieu or Nesselrode alone in his closet,--but to the + jangled mass of men, with a thousand pursuits, a thousand + interests, a thousand various habits. Public opinion, as it is + said, rules; and public opinion is the opinion of the average + man. Fox used to say of Burke, "Burke is a wise man, but he + is wise too soon." The average man will not bear this: he is + a cool, common person, with a considerate air, with figures + in his mind, with his own business to attend to, with a set + of ordinary opinions arising from and suited to ordinary + life. He can't bear novelty or originalities; he says, "Sir, + I never heard of such a thing _before_ in my life," and he + thinks this a _reductio ad absurdum_. You may see his taste + by the reading of which he approves. Is there a more splendid + monument of talent and industry than the _Times_? No wonder + that the average man--that any one--believes in it. As Carlyle + observes: "Let the highest intellect, able to write epics, + try to write such a leader for the morning newspapers: it + cannot do it; the highest intellect will fail." But did you + ever see anything there that you had never seen before? Out + of the million articles that every one has read, can any one + person trace a single marked idea to a single article? Where + are the deep theories and the wise axioms and the everlasting + sentiments which the writers of the most influential + publication in the world have been the first to communicate to + an ignorant species? Such writers are far too shrewd. The two + million or whatever number of copies it may be they publish, + are not purchased because the buyers wish to know the truth. + The purchaser desires an article which he can appreciate at + sight; which he can lay down and say, "An excellent article, + very excellent--exactly my own sentiments." Original theories + give trouble; besides, a grave man on the Coal Exchange + does not desire to be an apostle of novelties among the + contemporaneous dealers in fuel,--he wants to be provided with + remarks he can make on the topics of the day which will not + be known _not_ to be his, that are not too profound, which + he can fancy the paper only reminded him of. And just in the + same way, precisely as the most popular political paper is + not that which is abstractly the best or most instructive, + but that which most exactly takes up the minds of men where + it finds them, catches the fleeting sentiment of society, + puts it in such a form as society can fancy would convince + another society which did not believe; so the most influential + of constitutional statesmen is the one who most felicitously + expresses the creed of the moment, who administers it, who + embodies it in laws and institutions, who gives it the highest + life it is capable of, who induces the average man to think, + "I could not have done it any better if I had had time myself." + + It might be said that this is only one of the results of that + tyranny of commonplace which seems to accompany civilization. + You may talk of the tyranny of Nero and Tiberius; but the + real tyranny is the tyranny of your next-door neighbor. What + law is so cruel as the law of doing what he does? What yoke + is so galling as the necessity of being like him? What + espionage of despotism comes to your door so effectually + as the eye of the man who lives at your door? Public opinion + is a permeating influence, and it exacts obedience to itself; + it requires us to think other men's thoughts, to speak + other men's words, to follow other men's habits. Of course, + if we do not, no formal ban issues; no corporeal pain, no + coarse penalty of a barbarous society is inflicted on the + offender: but we are called "eccentric"; there is a gentle + murmur of "most unfortunate ideas," "singular young man," + "well-intentioned, I dare say; but unsafe, sir, quite unsafe." + The prudent of course conform: The place of nearly everybody + depends on the opinion of every one else. There is nothing + like Swift's precept to attain the repute of a sensible + man, "Be of the opinion of the person with whom at the time + you are conversing." This world is given to those whom this + world can trust. Our very conversation is infected: where + are now the bold humor, the explicit statement, the grasping + dogmatism of former days? they have departed, and you read in + the orthodox works dreary regrets that the art of conversation + has passed away. It would be as reasonable to expect the art + of walking to pass away: people talk well enough when they + know to whom they are speaking; we might even say that the + art of conversation was improved by an application to new + circumstances. "Secrete your intellect, use common words, say + what you are expected to say," and you shall be at peace; the + secret of prosperity in common life is to be commonplace on + principle. + + Whatever truth there may be in these splenetic observations + might be expected to show itself more particularly in the + world of politics: people dread to be thought unsafe in + proportion as they get their living by being thought to be + safe. "Literary men," it has been said, "are outcasts"; and + they are eminent in a certain way notwithstanding. "They can + say strong things of their age; for no one expects they will + go out and act on them." They are a kind of ticket-of-leave + lunatics, from whom no harm is for the moment expected; who + seem quiet, but on whose vagaries a practical public must + have its eye. For statesmen it is different: they must be + thought men of judgment. The most morbidly agricultural + counties were aggrieved when Mr. Disraeli was made Chancellor + of the Exchequer: they could not believe he was a man of + solidity, and they could not comprehend taxes by the author + of "Coningsby" or sums by an adherent of the Caucasus. "There + is," said Sir Walter Scott, "a certain hypocrisy of action, + which, however it is despised by persons intrinsically + excellent, will nevertheless be cultivated by those who desire + the good repute of men." Politicians, as has been said, live + in the repute of the commonalty. They may appeal to posterity; + but of what use is posterity? Years before that tribunal + comes into life, your life will be extinct; it is like a moth + going into chancery. Those who desire a public career must + look to the views of the living public; an immediate exterior + influence is essential to the exertion of their faculties. + The confidence of others is your _fulcrum_: you cannot--many + people wish you could--go into Parliament to represent + yourself; you must conform to the opinions of the electors, + and they, depend on it, will not be original. In a word, as + has been most wisely observed, "under free institutions it + is necessary occasionally to defer to the opinions of other + people; and as other people are obviously in the wrong, this + is a great hindrance to the improvement of our political + system and the progress of our species."[80] + + [80] Walter Bagehot: "The Character of Sir Robert Peel," _Works_, vol. + III. Travelers Insurance Company, Hartford, Conn. + + 1. Apply Bagehot's criticism of the effects of a democratic + average to the fate of Socrates, Jesus, Columbus, Galileo, + Roger Williams, Benjamin Franklin, Abraham Lincoln. Do your + results justify Bagehot's statements? + + 2. If Bagehot's theory is true, how do you account for any + advance in a democracy, for woman suffrage, for example, + or the election of senators by popular vote, or the + inaugurating of an income tax? + + 3. Apply his remarks about literary men to the career of Thomas + Carlyle, Heine, Galsworthy, and others who have criticized + their times. + + 4. Does the Christian religion tend to make a man act on his own + original ideas? + + XVII. Do you believe the following statement by a well-known musical + critic? If the statement is true, how far is it possible to + extend it, to how many forms of art or business? + + While the lover of music may often be in doubt as to the + merit of a composition, he need never be so in regard to + that of a performance. Here we stand on safe and sure ground, + for the qualities that make excellence in performance are all + well known, and it is necessary only that the ear shall be + able to detect them. There may, of course, be some difference + of opinion about the reading of a sonata or the interpretation + of a symphony; but even these differences should be rare. + Differences of judgment about the technical qualities of a + musical performance should never exist. Whether a person + plays the piano or sings well or ill is not a question of + opinion, but of fact. The critic who is acquainted with the + technics of the art can pronounce judgment upon a performance + with absolute certainty, and there is no reason in the world + why every lover of music should not do the same thing. There + should not be any room for such talk as this: "I think Mrs. + Blank sang very well, didn't you?" "Well, I didn't like it + much." + + And there should be no room for the indiscriminate applause + of bad performances which so often grieve the hearts of + judicious listeners. Bad orchestral playing, bad piano + playing, bad singing are applauded every day in the course of + the musical season by people who think they have a right to + an opinion. I repeat that it is not a matter of opinion but a + matter of fact; and a person might just as well express the + belief that a short fat man was finely proportioned as to say + that an ill-balanced orchestra was a good one, and he might + as well say that in his opinion a fire-engine whistle was + music as to say that a throaty voice-production was good + singing.[81] + + [81] W. H. Henderson: _What is Good Music_? By courtesy of the + publishers, Charles Scribner's Sons, New York City. Copyright, + 1898. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +THE INFORMAL ESSAY + + +It is a fine thing to be serious, to draw one's self up to a formal task +of explaining a machine or analyzing an idea or criticizing a novel; +and it is just as fine, and often more pleasurable, to banish the grim +seriousness of business and take on pliancy, smile at Life--even though +there be tears--and chuckle at Care. Life is more than mere toil; there +are the days of high feast and carnival, the days of excursion, and +then the calm quiet days of peaceful meditation, sometimes even the +days of gray sadness shot through with the crimson thread of sacrifice +and sorrow. Often in the least noisy days we see most clearly, with +most balance, and with the keenest humor, the finest courage. Like an +athlete who cannot be forever in the life of stern rigor but must stray +at times into the ways of the drawing-room and the library, so we at +times take our ways into the realm of whim and sparkle and laughter, +of brooding contemplation, of warm peace of soul. "I want a little +breathing-space to muse on indifferent matters," says Hazlitt, and, +"Give me the clear blue sky over my head, and the green turf beneath my +feet, a winding road before me, and a three hours' march to dinner--and +then to thinking!" In such moods we look for a good friend to talk with, +and when the friend is not at hand--why, we may write informal essays +to make record of our thoughts and feelings. For the Informal Essay is +the transcript of a personal reaction to some phase or fact of life, +personal because the author does not regard life with the cold eye of +the scientific thinker, and because he does not, on the other hand, +insist, as does the reformer, that others than himself accept the views +he sets forth. He will not force his belief upon others, will not even +hold it too feverishly himself, but, if we cannot accept, will even +smile urbanely--though he may think we are quite wrong--and bow, and go +his own way. + +The greatest charm of the informal essay is its personal nature. +There is little, if indeed anything, personal about the analysis of +problems or situations, slight revelation of the author in a treatise +on dietetics or party politics or bridge building. This kind of writing +is essentially the writing of our business. "But what need of ceremony +among friends?" Lamb asks, and hits the heart of the informal essay. We +are with friends, and with them, if the mood is on us, we chat about the +delights of munching apples on snappy October mornings, or the humor of +the scramble for public office, or the romance of spanning a stream in +the hills, or, at times, the mysteries of life and death. And then the +chat is thoroughly personal, we feel no grim duty, but only the quiet +pleasure of uttering whatever we may think or feel, about things in +which we find our personal interests aroused. It is as the counterpart +in literature of such talk in living that the informal essay reveals +the personal note, is really the lyric of prose. For the informal essay +does not affirm, "This must be done!" or, "I will defend this with my +life!" or, "This is undeniable truth!" Rather it says, "This is how I +feel about things to-day," and if the essayist be aware that he has +not always felt thus, that he may even feel differently again, he is +unabashed. He will make you his confidant, will tell you what he thinks +and how he feels, will banish the cold front of business, and will not +be secretive and niggardly of himself, but only duly reticent. + +As soon as we turn to informal essays we find this personal note. Here +is Cowley's essay "Of Myself," frankly telling of his life. Our eye +falls upon Hazlitt's words, "I never was in a better place or humor than +I am at present for writing on this subject. I have a partridge getting +ready for my supper, my fire is blazing on the hearth, the air is mild +for the season of the year, I have had but a slight fit of indigestion +to-day (the only thing that makes me abhor myself), I have three hours +good before me, and therefore I will attempt it." Such intimacy, such +personal contact is to be found only in the informal essay. Only in a +form of writing that we frankly acknowledge as familiar would Samuel +Johnson write "The Scholar's Complaint of His Own Bashfulness." And once +in the writing, the author cannot keep himself out. Steele, not Addison, +wrote the words, "He is said to be the first that made Love by squeezing +the Hand"--honest, jovial, garrulous Dick Steele, thinking, perhaps, of +his "Darling Prue." + +If, then, you have some random ideas that interest you, if the memory of +your kite-flying days comes strong upon you, or of your early ambitions +to be a sailor or a prima donna, if you can see the humor of rushing for +trains or eluding taxes, or reciting without study, if you feel keenly +the joy of climbing mountains, or canoeing, or gardening, or fussing +with engines, or making things with hammer and nails or flour and sugar, +if you see the beauty in powerful machinery or in the deep woods and +streams and flowers, or the patient heroism--modest heroism--of the +men in "Information" booths at railway stations, if you find pathos +in the world, or humor, or any personal significance, and are able to +understand without being oppressed with seriousness or poignant reality, +even of humor,--if you remember or see or feel such things, and wish to +talk quite openly about them as they appeal to you, write an informal +essay. + +Now you can write a personal essay that will be enjoyable only if your +personality is attractive. And you cannot draw a reader to you unless +you have a keen reaction to the facts of life. Writing informal essays +is impossible for the man whose life is neutral, who goes unseeing, +unhearing through the world; it is most natural to the man who touches +life at many points and touches with pleasure. Those magic initials, +R. L. S., which the world, especially the young world, loves, mean to +us a personality that reveled in playing with lead soldiers, in hacking +a way through the tropical forests of Samoa, in pursuing streams to +their sources, in cleaning "crystal," in talking with all living men, +in reading all living books, in whiling the hours with his flageolet. +"I have," says Lamb, "an almost feminine partiality for old china." We +think, perhaps, of Bacon as a cold austere figure, until we know him, +but is he cold when, writing of wild thyme and water mints he says, +"Therefore you are to set whole alleys of them, to have the pleasure +when you walk or tread" of sniffing their sweet fragrance? And is a +man uninterested who writes, "I grant there is one subject on which it +is pleasant to talk on a journey; and that is what one shall have for +supper when we get to our inn at night"? When we consider the loves of +that bright flower of English young manhood, Rupert Brooke, we can the +more keenly feel the loss that the essay, as well as poetry, had in his +untimely death. + + These have I loved: + White plates and cups, clean-gleaming, + Ringed with blue lines; and feathery, faëry dust; + Wet roofs, beneath the lamplight; the strong crust + Of friendly bread; and many-tasting food; + Rainbows; and the blue bitter smoke of wood; + And radiant raindrops couching in cool flowers; + And flowers themselves, that sway through sunny hours, + Dreaming of moths that drink them under the moon; + Then, the cool kindliness of sheets, that soon + Smooth away trouble; and the rough male kiss + Of blankets; grainy wood; live hair that is + Shining and free; blue-massing clouds; the keen + Unpassioned beauty of a great machine; + The benison of hot water; furs to touch; + The good smell of old clothes; and other such-- + The comfortable smell of friendly fingers, + Hair's fragrance, and the musty reek that lingers + About dead leaves and last year's ferns.... + Dear names, + And thousand other throng to me! Royal flames; + Sweet water's dimpling laugh from tap or spring; + Holes in the ground; and voices that do sing; + Voices in laughter, too; and body's pain, + Soon turned to peace; and the deep-panting train; + Firm sands; the little dulling edge of foam + That browns and dwindles as the wave goes home; + And washen stones, gay for an hour; the cold + Graveness of iron; moist black earthen mould; + Sleep; and high places; footprints in the dew; + And oaks; and brown horse-chestnuts, glossy-new; + And new-peeled sticks; and shining pools on grass;-- + All these have been my loves.[82] + + [82] Rupert Brooke: _Collected Poems_. By courtesy of the publishers, + John Lane Company. + +Lamb's young Bo-bo was in the right of it, the right frame of mind, +when he cried, "O, father, the pig, the pig, do come and taste how nice +the burnt pig eats!" The true writer of informal essays can see that +Card Catalogues are humorous, that The Feel of Leather Covered Books is +sufficiently interesting to deserve treatment, that Shaving, and Going +to Bed Last, and Wondering if the Other Man Knows More, and Manners, +and Politeness, and The Effect of Office-holding upon Personality, and +Intellectual Deviltry, and The Humility of Sinners, and The Arrogance of +Saints, and The Joys of Calling Names, and City Chimney-pots, and The +"Woman's Page," and Keeping Up, and The Pleasures of Having a Besetting +Sin, and The Absurdities of Education, and When Shakespeare Nods, and +thousands of other subjects are all waiting to have their essays. Can +there be any possible interest in a carpet layer? Mr. Dallas Lore Sharp, +as we have seen,[83] finds it quite wonderful. Is he not to be envied +that his reaction was too keen to leave the tool lifeless? An informal +essayist would even, we think, find taste in the white of an egg. And +without this delight in life his essays will not be read, for they will +not present a pleasing personality, and the life of the essay is its +personal note. + + [83] See Chapter V. + +A personality that is quite alive and thoroughly interested in all sorts +of things almost necessarily sees the concrete. Most informal essays are +full of individual instances, of anecdotes and scraps from life. The +author of "The Privileges of Age" in the _Atlantic Monthly_ does not +vaguely talk about age in general. She begins, "I have always longed +for the privileges of age--since the days when it seemed to me that +the elderly people ate all the hearts out of the watermelons," and she +continues with the misfortunes of being young, "In coaching, our place +was always between the two fattest! O Isabella is thin! She can sit +there!" In sheer delight at the memory Hazlitt writes, "It was on the +tenth of April, 1798, that I sat down to a volume of the New Eloise, at +the inn of Llangollen, over a bottle of sherry and a cold chicken." So +Addison, when he will tell us of Sir Roger de Coverley, confides to us +his habit of standing up in church service, even in prayer time, to look +round him and see if all his tenants are there, or shows him calling out +lustily to John Matthews, "to mind what he was about and not disturb the +congregation" when John was kicking his heels for diversion. Concrete +again, is Sir Roger's remark at the theater, "And let me tell you ... +though he speaks but little, I like the old Fellow in Whiskers as well +as any of them." All such detailed bits of life the essayist relishes, +and in turn they enrich his personality and make him able to give the +personal note that is the heart of the informal essay. + +This mood of human interest is illustrated, of course, by other writers +than the informal essayists. The historian Parkman filled his volumes +with the intimate details of personal experience that keep them warm and +forever alive. As distinct from the dry-as-dust chroniclers, who eschew +all of the throbbing incidents of life, he was eager to include whenever +inclusion would help the reader's true imagination, such details as +that, back in colonial times, the thunderous praying of a member of the +General Court of Massachusetts, who had retired to his room for Heavenly +counsel, revealed the secret of the proposed attack upon the fortress +of Louisbourg to a landlady--and hence to all the world. Nor does he +fail to mention that when the Grand Battery at Louisbourg was captured, +William Tufts, of Medford, a lad of eighteen, climbed the flagstaff with +his red coat in his teeth and made it fast to the pole for a flag. As +we read Parkman's words, we can feel his heart glow with the joy of the +climbing lad, we know that in the historian there was beating the throb +of human love such as would have made him an admirable essayist had he +turned his hand to the form. + +If, then, you feel like confidential writing, what may your subjects +be? Essayists have written about three main classes of subjects: first +always, people, their glory, their pathos, their sadness, and their +whims; second, nature as it appeals to the writers in a personal way, +reflecting their joys and sorrows, or contributing to their sense of +pleasure, beauty, and companionship in the world; and third, matters of +science, industry, art, literature, as the essayists think these affect +the emotions of humanity. If you are in wonderment and desire to speak +of the bravery of men fighting the battle of life, you may write with +Stevenson the somber but inspiring "Pulvis et Umbra." If you are tempted +to smile at the tendency of people to announce beliefs militantly, you +may write with Mr. Crothers "On Being a Doctrinaire." If man's ceaseless +quest of the perfect appeals, you may write with Mr. Sharp "The Dustless +Duster." The interesting old custom of having an awesome "spare +chamber," the hurly-burly and humor of moving, the fascinating process +of shaving that Grandfather performs on Sunday, the ways in which +some people make themselves lovable, others hateful, others pitiful, +and still others ridiculous--these are your rightful field if you but +care to use them. The informal essayist loves humanity not blindly but +wisely. "There is something about a boy that I like," Charles Dudley +Warner wrote, and thereby proved himself worthy to write such essays. +Lamb, thinking of chimney-sweeps, cries out, "I have a kindly yearning +toward these dim specks--poor blots--innocent blacknesses." Nor is the +essayist restricted to the lives of others; the true informal essayist +never forgets his own boyhood. The swimming and fishing larks, the tramp +for the early chestnuts, the machines that you built at ten years, the +tricks you played on friends and enemies, human and four-footed--these +await your essay. Especially your grown-up self offers a fertile +meadowland of essays. What are your hobbies--and have you any follies? +If you can but poke fun at yourself, we will listen. Finally, if you +have an interesting acquaintance, a rosy corner grocer, or a maiden aunt +of the old school, or a benignant grandfather, or a quaint laundress, or +"hired man," or anybody who is worth the words--and who is not?--and who +really interests you, you may make a character sketch. Thus Stevenson in +"A Scotch Gardener," Leigh Hunt in "The Old Lady," "The Old Gentleman," +"The Maidservant," and John Brown in "Jeems the Doorkeeper." Remember +only one thing--you must, for some reason, see attractiveness in the +character, even the paradoxical attractiveness of repulsion. Remember +that Hazlitt wrote an essay on "The Pleasures of Hating." + +When people do not offer subjects, turn to nature, as Mr. Burroughs +and Mr. Sharp and John Muir have turned in our day, and as others +have turned at times ever since there was an essay. Do you admire +the cool deep woods, the songs of the thrushes, the clouds that roll +into queer shapes, the endlessly talking brooks, the bugs that strive +and fight and achieve, the queer hunted live things that you see +everywhere? There is your essay. Mr. Warner wrote a delightful series +about gardening in which he makes fun--partly of himself, partly of +nature. Richard Jefferies found a subject in "July Grass." Mr. Belloc +gives the spirit of the primeval currents of air that bore the ships of +our forefathers in his essay, "On a Great Wind." California sequoias, +red-eyed vireos, the pig in his pen, the silly hens in their yard, +friendly dogs, a group of willows, a view from a mountain-top, trees +that rush past as you skim the road in your car, there's hardly a phase +of nature that does not offer an essay, have you but the eyes to see +and the heart to warm. One caution must be given. This kind of essay +will try to lure you into words that seem poetic but really lie; beware +that you tell the truth, for a sunset, glorious though it is, is still +a sunset. For the higher imaginative flights we reserve our verse. On +the other hand, scientific analysis is not for the essay; it is too +impersonal. Nature, as seen in the informal essay, is the nature of +emotion that keeps its balance through humor and sanity. Do not, then, +write an essay about nature unless you are sure of your balance, unless +you are sure that you can tell the truth. + +But the essayist does not stop with the creations in nature; he goes on +to the works of man. He sees the exquisite beauty of a deftly guided +mathematical problem, the answer marshaled to its post in order, he +feels the exultation of a majestic pumping station, he knows the wonder +of the inspiration of artists. As you pass the steel skeleton of the +skyscraper, or see the liner gliding up the harbor, or thrill to the +locomotive that paws off across the miles, or stand in awe and watch +the uncanny linotype machine at its weird mysteries, you may find your +subject all ready for the expression. Mr. Joseph Husband finds the +romance of these.[84] Books, too, chats with your favorite authors, +trips through art galleries, listening to concerts, finding the wonders +of the surgeon,--all these, as they appeal to you, as you react to them, +as they disclose a meaning, are fit subjects for your essay. Thus Mr. +Crothers writes in "The Hundred Worst Books." + + [84] _America at Work._ + +Men, nature, things, all are at your beck if you but keenly feel their +appeal, if you have an honest thought about them. As you treat them do +not hesitate to use the word "I"; in the essay we expect the word, we +look for it, we miss it when it eludes us, for the great charm of the +informal essay is its personal note, its revelation of the heart of the +writer. + +Since the essay is urbanely personal, it does not take itself too +seriously. Our definition declared that the essayist will not try to +force his views upon his reader nor hold them too feverishly himself. +If you are militant about a subject, you should write, not an informal +essay, but a treatise or an argument in which full play will be given +to your cudgels. If you violently believe in woman-suffrage--as you +well may--so that you can be only dead-serious about it, do not write +an informal essay. For the essay aims at the spirit as well as the +intellect, hopes to create a glow in the reader as well as to convince +him of a truth. You should write an informal essay when you are in +the mood of Sir Roger de Coverley as he remarked, "There is much to +be said on both sides." This does not mean that you should write +spinelessly--not in the least; it means only that you should be an +artist rather than a blind reformer. Sometimes the mind wishes to go +upon excursion, to give play to the "wanton heed and giddy cunning" that +are in the heart. The essay, says Richard Middleton, "should have the +apparent aimlessness of life, and, like life, its secret purpose." It +may be mere "exuberant capering round a discovered truth," to borrow +Mr. Chesterton's phrase. Again, it may feel the length of the shadows, +the cold breath of the mists of the still, unpierced places. The essay +does not deny the shadows; it rather believes in riding up to the guns +with a smile and the gesture of courtesy. It sees the truth always, but +it also prefers not to be a pest in declaring the truth disagreeably. +"Therefore we choose to dally with visions." Many an informal essay has +been written on "Death," but not in the mood of the theologian. The +essay has about it the exquisite flavor of personality such as we find +in the cavalier lads who rode to feasting or to death with equal grace +and charm. The real essay ought not to leave its reader uncomfortable; +it leaves to the militant writers to work such mischief. + +Do not, therefore, ever allow your essay to become a sermon, for to the +sermon there is only one side. And do not try to wrench a moral from +everything. If you do, the moral will be anæmic and thin. Do not, after +watching brooks, be seized with a desire to have your reader "content +as they are." Nor, after the locomotive has melted into the distance +shall you buttonhole your reader and bid him, like the engine, be up +and doing! Better is it to play pranks with respectability and logic. +Stevenson's ability to write charming essays came partly from the fact +that, as Barrie has said of him, "He was the spirit of boyhood tugging +at the skirts of this old world of ours and compelling it to come back +and play." Mr. Chesterton often inspires us to do some really new +thinking by his ridiculous contentions. Where but in the essay could a +man uphold the belief that Faith is Nonsense and perhaps Nonsense is +Faith? + +In fact, humor is always present in the informal essay. It may be grave +or even sad, it is never really boisterous, it is best subtle and +quiet, but of whatever kind it should be present. Meredith said "humor +is the ability to detect ridicule of those we love without loving them +the less." Note, in the light of these words, John Brown's description +of his friend Jeems: "Jeems's face was so extensive, and met you so +formidably and at once, that it mainly composed his whole; and such a +face! Sydney Smith used to say of a certain quarrelsome man, 'His very +face is a breach of the peace.' Had he seen our friend's he would have +said that he was the imperative mood on two (very small) legs, out on +business in a blue greatcoat." Lamb had the gentle humor in exquisite +degree, kindly and shrewd. When the little chimney-sweep laughed at +him for falling in the street Lamb thought, "there he stood ... with +such a maximum of glee and minimum of mischief, in his mirth--for the +grin of a genuine sweep hath absolutely no malice in it--that I could +have been content, if the honor of a gentleman might endure it, to have +remained his butt and mockery till midnight." The humor is often ironic, +frequently dry and lurking, but kindly still, for the essayist loves his +fellow man. + +Since the essay is not super-serious, it need not be too conscientiously +thorough and exhaustive. It must, to be sure, have some point, some core +of thought, must meditate, but it need not reach a final conclusion. +It often believes, with Stevenson, that "to travel hopefully is better +than to arrive," and it spends its time on the pleasant way. It takes +conclusions about as seriously as we take them when we sit with pipe and +slippers by the fireside and chat. Its view of the subject is limited +also. It is not a piece of research, it need not cover the whole ground +with all the minutiæ. The essayist, first of all, will admit that he +does not say all that might be said. Very likely he will declare that he +is merely making suggestions rather than giving a treatment. Think how +endless a real treatise on old china would be, and then how brief and +sketchy Lamb's essay is. The beauty of writing an informal essay is that +you can stop when you please, you do not feel the dread command of the +subject. + +Just as the conclusion may be dodged, so the strict laws of rhetoric may +be winked at. De Quincey remarks, "Here I pause for a moment to exhort +the reader ... etc.," and for a whole page talks about a different +subject! But we do not mind, for, as has been said of him--and the +remark is equally true of many essayists--he is like a good sheep dog, +he makes many detours, may even disappear behind a knoll, but finally +he will come eagerly and bravely back with his flock and guide the +sheep home. Digressions are allowable, so long as safe return is made. +The formlessness of the essay is to be held by an invisible web that +is none the less binding, like the bonds of the Fenris wolf. We may go +round the subject or stand off and gaze at it, may introduce anecdotes, +bits of conversation, illustrations of various sorts, may even cast the +essay largely in narrative form, so long as at the heart of it there is +our idea. "You may tack and drift, only so you tack and drift round the +buoy." Hazlitt, in "On Persons One Would Wish to Have Seen," uses much +conversation. Thackeray, in "Tunbridge Toys," clings to the narrative +medium. + +Mr. Richard Burton, in the foreword to his _Little Essays in Literature +and Life_, sums up the informal essay thus: + + The way of the familiar essay is one, of the formal essay + another. The latter is informational, it defines, proves; the + former, seeking for friendlier and more personal relations with + the reader, aims at suggestion, stimulation. The familiar essay + can be an impressionistic reflection of the author's experience in + the mighty issues of living, or it may be the frank expression of + a mere whim. It should touch many a deep thing in a way to quicken + the sense of the charm, wonder, and terror of the earth. The + essayist can fly high, if he but have wings, and he can dive deeper + than any plummet line of the intellect, should it happen that the + spirit move him. + + It is thus the ambition of the familiar essayist to speak + wisdom albeit debonairly, to be thought-provoking without + heaviness, and helpful without didacticism. Keenly does he feel + the lachrymæ rerum, but, sensible to the laughing incongruities + of human expression, he has a safeguard against the merely solemn + and can smile at himself or others, preserving his sense of humor + as a precious gift of the high gods. And most of all, he loves + his fellow men, and would come into fellowship with them through + thought that is made mellow by feeling....[85] + + [85] Richard Burton: _Little Essays in Literature and Life_. By + courtesy of the publishers, The Century Company, New York City. + +And so we return to our definition: the essay is the transcript of +personal reaction to some phase or fact of life, not weighted with +an over-solemn feeling of responsibility, charged with never-failing +balance and humor and liberty to wander without necessarily arriving, +frankly individual in its treatment of life, life as it seems to the +writer, whether the essay be about people or things or nature. + +Of the length of the essay we may not be too definite. It may be only a +page in duration; it may cover fifty. When the writer has said what he +wishes to say, he blithely ceases, and leaves the work to the reader. In +style all the graces, all the lightness, the daintiness, the neatness +that he can command the author uses. He loves words for their sound, +their suggestiveness, their color. And since he is frequently expressing +a mood, he will, so far as he can, adapt the style to the mood. So +Lamb, in the exquisite reverie, "Dream Children," casts his vision into +the dreamy cadence that lures us into his very mood. So, finally, Mr. +Belloc, describing the wind, says: + + When a great wind comes roaring over the eastern flats toward + the North Sea, driving over the Fens and the Wingland, it is + like something of this island that must go out and wrestle with + the water, or play with it in a game or battle; and when, upon + the western shores, the clouds come bowling up from the horizon, + messengers, out-riders, or comrades of the gale, it is something of + the sea determined to possess the land. The rising and falling of + such power, its hesitations, its renewed violence, its fatigue and + final repose--all these are symbols of a mind; but more than all + the rest, its exultation! It is the shouting and hurrahing of the + wind that suits a man.[86] + + [86] Hilaire Belloc: "On a Great Wind." _From First and Last._ By + courtesy of the publishers, E. P. Dutton & Co., New York. + +THE PRIVILEGES OF AGE[87] + + [87] From The Contributors' Club. By courtesy of The Atlantic Monthly + Company. + + I have always longed for the privileges of age,--since the + days when it seemed to me that the elderly people ate all the + hearts out of the watermelons. Now it suddenly occurs to me that I + am at last entitled to claim them. Surely the shadow on the dial + has moved around it, the good time has come, and the accumulated + interest of my years shall be mine to spend. Have you not had the + same experience? For many years, as you may have noticed, the + majority of the inhabitants of the earth were old. Even those + persons over whom we were nominally supposed to exercise a little + brief authority were older than we, and we approached the dragons + of our kitchen with a deprecating eye. But now the majority has + moved behind us; most people, even some really quite distinguished + people, are younger than we. No longer can we pretend that our lack + of distinction is due to immaturity. No longer can we privately + assure ourselves that some day we, too, shall do something, and + that it is only the becoming modesty of youth which prevents our + doing it at once. + + One thing, willy-nilly, we have done,--or rather nature has + done it for us. She is like von Moltke. "Without haste, without + rest," is her motto, and knowing our tendency to dally, she quietly + takes matters into her own hands. Suddenly, unconscious of the + effort, we awake one morning and find ourselves old. If we can only + succeed in being old enough, we shall also be famous, like old + Parr, who never did anything, so far as I am aware, but live to the + age of one hundred and forty-five. + + In order properly to appreciate our present privileges, let us + consider the days of old and the years that are past. It was in the + time before motors, and we rode backwards in the carriage. We did + not like to ride backwards. In traveling, we were always allotted + the upper berths. There was no question about it. We couldn't + expect our venerable aunt, or our delicate cousin, or our dignified + grandmother to swing up into an upper berth, could we? And in those + days they cost just as much as lower ones and we paid our own + traveling expenses. How expert we grew at swinging up and swinging + down! Naturally the best rooms at the hotels went to the elder + members of the party. In coaching, our place was always between the + two fattest! "O Isabella is thin! she can sit there!" + + And what did we ask in return for these many unnoticed + renunciations? Only the privilege of getting up at five to go + trout-fishing, or the delight of riding all morning cross-saddle to + eat a crumby luncheon in a buggy forest at noon. We wondered what + the others meant when they said that the beds were not comfortable, + and we marveled why the whole machinery of heaven and earth should + be out of gear unless, at certain occult and punctually recurring + hours, they had a cup of tea. And why was it necessary to make us + unhappy if they didn't have a cup of tea? + + Young people are supposed to be mannerly, at least they were + in my day, but old people may be as rude as they please, and no one + reproves them. If they do not like a thing, they promptly announce + the fact. The privilege of self-expression they share with the very + young. Which reminds me, I detest puddings. Henceforth I shall + decline to eat them, even in the house of my friends. Mine is the + prerogative no longer to dissemble, for hypocrisy is abhorrent to + the members of the favored class to which I now belong. They are + like a dear and honored servitor of mine who used, on occasion, + to go about her duties with the countenance of a thunderstorm. + "Elizabeth," said I, once, reprovingly, "you should not look so + cross." "But Miss Isabella," she remarked with reason, "if you + don't _look_ cross when you _are_ cross, how is any one to know you + are cross?" + + Speaking of thunderstorms, I am afraid of them. I have always + been afraid since the days when I used to hide under the nursery + table when I felt one coming. But was I allowed to stay under the + table? Certainly not. All these years have I maintained a righteous + and excruciating self-control. But old ladies are afraid and + unashamed. I have heard of one who used to get into the middle of a + featherbed. I shall not insist on the featherbed, but I shall close + the shutters and turn on the lights and be as cowardly as I please. + + The two ends of life, infancy and age, are indulged in their + little fancies. For a baby, we get up in the night to heat bottles, + and there are certain elderly clergymen whose womenkind always + arise at four in the morning to make coffee for them. That is not + being addicted to stimulants. But the middle span of life is like + a cantilever bridge: if it can bear its own weight it is expected + to bear anything that can possibly be put upon it. "Old age + deferred" has no attractions for me. I decline to be middle-aged. I + much prefer to be old. + + Youth is haunted by misgivings, by hesitancies, by a + persistent idea that, if only we dislike a thing enough, there must + be some merit in our disliking it. Not so untrammeled age. From now + on, I practice the philosophy of Montesquieu and pursue the general + good by doing that which I like best. Absolutely and unequivocally, + that which I like best. For there is no longer any doubt about it: + I have arrived. I do not have to announce the fact. Others realize + it. My friends' daughters give me the most comfortable chair. They + surround me with charming, thoughtful, delicate little attentions. + Mine is the best seat in the motor, mine the host's arm at the + feast, mine the casting vote in any little discussion. + + O rare Old Age! How hast thou been maligned! O blessed land of + privilege! True paradise for the disciples of Nietzsche, where at + last we dare appear as selfish as we are! + +A BREATH OF APRIL[88] + + [88] John Burroughs: _Leaf and Tendril_. Houghton Mifflin Company, + Boston, publishers. + + These still, hazy, brooding mid-April mornings, when the + farmer first starts afield with his plow, when his boys gather + the buckets in the sugar-bush, when the high-hole calls long + and loud through the hazy distance, when the meadow-lark sends + up her clear, silvery shaft of sound from the meadow, when the + bush sparrow trills in the orchard, when the soft maples look + red against the wood, or their fallen bloom flecks the drying + mud in the road,--such mornings are about the most exciting and + suggestive of the whole year. How good the fields look, how good + the freshly turned earth looks!--one could almost eat it as does + the horse;--the stable manure just being drawn out and scattered + looks good and smells good; every farmer's house and barn looks + inviting; the children on the way to school with their dinner-pails + in their hands--how they open a door into the past for you! + Sometimes they have sprays of arbutus in their button-holes, or + bunches of hepatica. The partridge is drumming in the woods, and + the woodpeckers are drumming on dry limbs. + + The day is veiled, but we catch such glimpses through the + veil. The bees are getting pollen from the pussy-willows and soft + maples, and the first honey from the arbutus. + + It is at this time that the fruit and seed catalogues are + interesting reading, and that the cuts of farm implements have + a new fascination. The soil calls to one. All over the country, + people are responding to the call, and are buying farms and moving + upon them. My father and mother moved upon their farm in the spring + of 1828; I moved here upon mine in March, 1874. + + I see the farmers, now going along their stone fences and + replacing the stones that the frost or the sheep and cattle have + thrown off, and here and there laying up a bit of wall that has + tumbled down. + + There is a rare music now in the unmusical call of the + phoebe-bird--it is so suggestive. + + The drying road appeals to one as it never does at any other + season. When I was a farm-boy, it was about this time that I used + to get out of my boots for half an hour and let my bare feet feel + the ground beneath them once more. There was a smooth, dry, level + place in the road near home, and along this I used to run, and + exult in that sense of light-footedness which is so keen at such + times. What a feeling of freedom, of emancipation, and of joy in + the returning spring I used to experience in those warm April + twilights! + + I think every man whose youth was spent on the farm, whatever + his life since, must have moments at this season when he longs to + go back to the soil. How its sounds, its odors, its occupations, + its associations, come back to him! Would he not like to return + again to help rake up the litter of straw and stalks about the + barn, or about the stack on the hill where the grass is starting? + Would he not like to help pick the stone from the meadow, or mend + the brush fence on the mountain where the sheep roam, or hunt + up old Brindle's calf in the woods, or gather oven-wood for his + mother to start again the big brick oven with its dozen loaves of + rye bread, or see the plow crowding the lingering snowbanks on the + side-hill, or help his father break and swingle and hatchel the + flax in the barnyard? + + When I see a farm advertised for rent or for sale in the + spring, I want to go at once and look it over. All the particulars + interest me,--so many acres of meadow-land, so many of woodland, + so many of pasture--the garden, the orchard, the outbuildings, + the springs, the creek--I see them all, and am already half in + possession. + + Even Thoreau felt this attraction, and recorded in his + Journal: "I know of no more pleasing employment than to ride about + the country with a companion very early in the spring, looking at + farms with a view to purchasing, if not paying for them." + + Blessed is the man who loves the soil! + +THE AMATEUR CHESSMAN[89] + + [89] By Frances Lester Warner, from "The Point of View" in _Scribner's + Magazine_. + + I used to envy chess-players. Now I play. My method of + learning the game was unprincipled. I learned the moves from the + encyclopædia, the traditions from "Morphy, On Chess," and the + practice from playing with another novice as audacious as I. Later, + finding some people who could really play, I clove to them until + they taught me all that I could grasp. My ultimate ambition is, I + suppose, the masterly playing of the game. Its austere antiquity + rebukes the mildest amateur into admiration. I therefore strive, + and wistfully aspire. Meanwhile, however, I am enjoying the gay + excitement of the unskilled player. + + There is nobody like the hardy apprentice for getting pleasure + out of chess. We find certain delights which no past-master can + know; pleasures exclusively for the novice. Give me an opponent + not too haughty for my unworthy steel, one who may perhaps forget + to capture an exposed bishop of mine, an opponent who, like me, + will know the early poetry of mad adventure and the quiet fatalism + of unexpected defeat. With this opponent I will engage to enjoy + three things which, to Mr. Morphy, immortality itself shall not + restore--three things: a fresh delight in the whimsical personality + of the various chessmen; the recklessness of uncertainty and of + unforeseen adventure; the unprecedented thrill of checkmating my + opponent by accident. + + Mr. Morphy, I admit, may perhaps have retained through + life a personal appreciation of the characters of the pieces: + the conservative habits of the king; the politic, sidelong + bishop; the stout little roundhead pawns. But since his forgotten + apprenticeship he has not known their many-sided natures. To Mr. + Morphy they long since became subject--invariably calculable. + With a novice, the men and women of the chess-board regain their + individuality and their Old World caprices, their mediæval + greatness of heart. Like Aragon and the Plantagenets, they have + magnificent leisure for the purposeless and aimless quest. The + stiff, kind, circular eyes of my simple boxwood knight stare + casually about him as he goes. Irresponsibly he twists among his + enemies, now drawing rein in the cross-country path of an angry + bishop, now blowing his horn at the very drawbridge of the king. + And it is no cheap impunity that he faces in his errant hardihood. + My opponent seldom lapses. My knights often die in harness, all + unshriven. That risk lends unfailing zest. Most of all, I love my + gentle horsemen. + + My opponent, too, has her loyalties, quixotic and unshaken. + Blindly, one evening, I imperiled my queen. Only the opposing + bishop needed to be sacrificed to capture her. The spectators were + breathless at her certain fate. But my opponent sets high value + upon her stately bishop. Rather this man saved for defense than + risked for such a captive, feminist though she be, and queen. With + ecclesiastical dignity the bishop withdrew, and my queen went on + her tranquil way. + + Of all the men, the king reveals himself least readily. A + noncommittal monarch at best. At times imperial and menacing, my + king may conquer, with goodly backing from his yeomen and his + chivalry. Sometimes, again, like Lear, he is no longer terrible in + arms, his royal guard cut down. And at his death he loves always to + send urgently for his bishop, who is solacing, though powerless to + save. + + All this is typical of our second pleasure, the exhilaration + of incautious and unpremeditated moves. Inexplicable, for example, + this pious return of the outbound bishop at the last battle-cry of + the king. At times, however, a move may well be wasted to the end + that all may happen decently and in order. My opponent shares with + me this respect for ceremony. Together we lament the ruins when a + lordly castle falls. Our atrocities are never heartless; we never + recriminate. + + My opening moves, in general, are characterized by no mean + regard for consequences. Let my men rush forth to the edge of the + hostile country. Once there, there will be time enough to peer + about and reconnoitre and see what we shall see. Meanwhile, the + enemy is battering gloriously at my postern-gate, but at least + the fight is on! Part of our recklessness in these opening moves + consists in our confidential revelations to each other of all our + plans and disquieting problems. + + "This needn't worry you at present," I remark, planting my + castle on an irrational crag. "I'm only putting it there in _case_." + + That saves much time. My opponent might otherwise have + found it necessary to waste long minutes in trying to fathom the + unknowable of my scheme. Without this companionable interchange + chess is the most lonely of human experiences. There you sit, a + being solitary and unsignaled--a point of thought, a mere center + of calculation. You have no partner. All the world is canceled for + the time, except, perched opposite you, another hermit intellect + implacably estranged and sinister. Oh, no! As yet we discuss our + plots. + + Poor journeymen players of the royal game! Strange clues to + character appear around the friendly chess-board. There is the + supposedly neutral observer of the game, who must murmur warnings + or lament the ill-judged moves; without him, how would life and + chess be simplified? There is the stout-hearted player who refuses + to resign though his defeat is demonstrably certain, but continues + to jog about the board, eluding actual capture; in life would he + resign? There is the player who gives little shrieks at unexpected + attacks; the player who explains his mistakes and what he had + intended to do instead; the player who makes no sign whether of + gloating or of despair. Most striking of all is the behavior of all + these when they face the necessity of playing against the handicap + of past mistakes; a wrong move may never be retracted by the + thoroughbred. No apology, no retracting of the path; we must go on + as if the consequences were part of our plan. It lures to allegory, + this checkered board, these jousts and far crusades. + + Then, on to checkmate, the most perfect type of utter + finality, clear-cut and absolute. Shah-mat! Checkmate! The king is + dead. In most conclusions there is something left ragged; something + still in abeyance, in reserve. Here, however, is no shading, no + balancing of the scales. We win, not by majority, as in cards; + success or failure is unanimous. There was one ballot, and that is + cast. No matter how ragged the playing that went before, the end of + a game of chess is always perfect. It satisfies the spirit. Always + at last comes contentment of soul, though it be our king that dies. + +The following subjects are suggested as suitable for treatment in +informal essays. They can, in many cases, be changed to suit individual +experience, can be made either broader or more restricted. Perhaps they +will suggest other somewhat similar but more usable subjects. + +PEOPLE + + 1. The Pleasures of Selfishness. + + 2. Wondering if the Other Person Knows More. + + 3. Pipe and Slippers and Dreams. + + 4. Middle-aged Kittens. + + 5. Being "Tough." + + 6. Early Rising. + + 7. Scientific Eating. + + 8. The Joys of the Straphanger. + + 9. Vicarious Possessions in Shop Windows. + + 10. Shopping with the Bargain Hunter. + + 11. New Year's Resolutions. + + 12. The Gossip of the Waiting-Room (of a Railroad Station, Doctor's + Office, etc.). + + 13. The Stimulation of Closet Skeletons. + + 14. Planning Houses. + + 15. Keeping an Expense Book. + + 16. The Millinery of the Choir. + + 17. The Joys of Being Profane before the Consciously Pious. + + 18. "Darius Greens." + + 19. Tellers of Dreams. + + 20. Making the Most of Misfortunes. + + 21. The Moral Value of Carrying a Cane. + + 22. Souvenir Hunting. + + 23. The Person Who Has Always Had "The Same Experience Myself." + + 24. Prayer-meeting Courtships. + + 25. The Exhaustion of Repose. + + 26. "See the Birdie, Darling!" + + 27. Politeness to Rich Relatives. + + 28. "It must be so; I Read it in a Book!" + + 29. "Anyway," as Stevenson said, "I did my darndest." + + 30. The Moral Rigor of the Nightly Setting-up Exercises. + + 31. "Hooking Rides." + + 32. A Society to Forbid Learning to Play the Trombone (or Cornet or + Piano or anything else). + + 33. A Sophomore for Life. + + 34. Country Auctions. + + 35. The Virtues of Enviousness. + + 36. The Melancholy of Old Bachelors. + + 37. Village "Cut-ups." + + 38. Early Assurances of Doleful Dying. + + 39. Failing, to make Money, through Failure to make Money. + + 40. People who never Did Wrong as Children. + + 41. "Just Wait till I'm Grown-up!" + + 42. Philosophers' Toothaches. + + 43. The Morality of Stubbing One's Toe in the Dark. + + 44. The Dolefulness of Celebrations. + + 45. What to Do with Bores. + + 46. The Young and the Still-young Woman. + + 47. The Satisfaction of Intolerance. + + 48. The Struggle to be an "Intellectual." + + 49. Church Socials. + + 50. The Revelations of Food Sales. + + 51. White-haired Enthusiasm. + + 52. "I have It in my Card Index." + + 53. The Rigors of Shaving. + + 54. The Right to a "Beauty Box." + + 55. "Hopelessly Sane." + + 56. The "Job" After Graduation. + + 57. The Stupidity of Heaven. + + 58. The Boon Companions of Hell. + + 59. People Who Remember When You Were "Only So High!" + + 60. Being a Gentleman though Rich. + + 61. Great Men One Might Wish to Have Thrashed. + + 62. The Awful Servant. + + 63. Morality When the Thermometer Reads 95°. + + 64. The Technique of Teas. + + 65. Dangers of Criticism. + + 66. Starvation or a New Cook? + + 67. Superior Profanity. + + 68. The Logic of the Movies. + + 69. The "Woman's Page." + + 70. The Neatness of Men. + + 71. On Taking Off One's Hat. + + 72. Fashions in Slang. + + 73. Ambitions at Thirteen. + + 74. The Joys of Whittling. + + 75. Learning, without Education. + +THINGS + + 1. Individuality in Shoes. + + 2. Alarm Clocks. + + 3. Rail Fences. + + 4. Chimney Pots. + + 5. Illuminated Mottoes. + + 6. "Fresh Paint." + + 7. Social Caste of Tombstones. + + 8. The Lure of Banks. + + 9. The Witchery of Seed Catalogues. + + 10. Colonial Windows. + + 11. Fishing Tackle in the Attic in January. + + 12. The Invitation of the Label. + + 13. Stolen Umbrellas. + + 14. The Dolefuless of the Comic Supplement. + + 15. The Humorousness of Card Catalogues. + + 16. The Sweets and Dregs of Tin Roofs. + + 17. The Tyranny of Remembered Melodies. + + 18. Friendly Old Clothes. + + 19. The Age of the Pennant. + + 20. The Upper Berth. + + 21. Bills in Dining Cars. + + 22. Pound Cake. + + 23. The Toothsome Drumstick. + + 24. Cravats One Might Wish to Have Worn. + + 25. Spite Fences. + + 26. Personality of Teapots. + + 27. "All You Have to Do Is--" + + 28. Smoke on the Skyline. + + 29. The First Long Trousers. + + 30. The New Pipe. + + 31. The Old Springboard. + + 32. Drinking Fountains. + + 33. The Work-savers--now in the Attic. + + 34. Candlesticks. + + 35. The Cantankerousness of Gas Engines. + + 36. Weeds. + + 37. The Pride of Uniforms. + + 38. Leather-covered Books. + + 39. The Pursuit of Oriental Rugs. + + 40. Wedding Presents. + + 41. Bird Baths. + + 42. The Charm of Oil-Heaters. + + 43. The Coquetry of Gift Shops. + + 44. The Passing of the Hitching Post. + + 45. Names One Might Wish to Have Had. + + 46. Hall Bedrooms. + + 47. The Lure of Historic Tablets. + + 48. The Futility of Diaries. + + 49. Squeaking Boards at Midnight. + + 50. The Caste of Letter Heads. + +NATURE + + 1. Walking in the Rain. + + 2. Skylines. + + 3. The Personified Trees of Childhood. + + 4. Coffee in the Woods. + + 5. The Psychology of Hens. + + 6. The Humanity of Barnyards. + + 7. The Smell of Spring. + + 8. The Perfume of Bonfires. + + 9. The Sounds of Running Water. + + 10. Tracks in the Snow. + + 11. The Spectrum of Autumn. + + 12. The Mellowness of Gardens. + + 13. The Clamor of the Silent Stretches. + + 14. The Innocent Joy of Not Knowing the Birds. + + 15. The Rigors of the Sleeping Porch. + + 16. Inspiration of Mountain-tops. + + 17. Noises on Cold Winter Nights. + + 18. Cherries or Robins? + + 19. The Airedale Pal. + + 20. Snakes I Have Never Met. + + 21. The Exhilaration of Winds. + + 22. Spring Fever. + + 23. The Philosophy of Campfires. + + 24. Birds in a City Yard. + + 25. The Majesty of Thunderstorms. + + 26. The Music of Snow Water. + + 27. Hedges. + + 28. Mountain Springs. + + 29. The Deep Woods. + + 30. Summer Clouds. + + 31. The Companionable Birds. + + 32. The Dignity of Crows. + + 33. Trout Pools. + + 34. Muskrat Trails. + + 35. The First Flowers of Spring. + + 36. The Squirrels in the Park. + + 37. The Dry Sounds in Nature. + + 38. The Honk of the Flying Wedge. + + 39. The Pageant of the Warblers. + + 40. The Challenge of Crags and Ledges. + + 41. The White-birch Country. + + 42. Apple Blossom Time. + + 43. The Majesty of Rivers. + + 44. Old Orchards. + + 45. Dried Herbs. + + 46. Friendly Roadside Bushes. + + 47. The Exultant Leap of Waterfalls. + + 48. The Wind in Hemlock, Pine, and Spruce. + + 49. Tree Houses. + + 50. The Collection of Pressed Flowers. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +EXPOSITORY BIOGRAPHY + + +Biography is of three kinds. First there is the purely dramatic, such +as we find in the plays of Shakespeare, Barrie, and others, and often +in novels of the more dramatic kind, which sets the subject to marching +up and down before our eyes, with the gestures and the speech of life. +Such biography sometimes covers a whole life, more often only a fraction +from which we are to judge of the whole. From this kind of biography +we draw our own conclusions of the hero; the producer sweeps aside the +curtain, displays his people, bows, and leaves us to our comment. This +is a most stimulating form of writing. The reader vicariously treads the +Roman Forum, or fights under the banner of the great Alfred, or perhaps +jostles in the surge of politics, or dreams an artist's dream, or even +performs the humble chores of a lonely farmhouse. The personalities may +never have lived except in the writer's brain, yet who that has read of +Colonel Newcome ever lets fade from his list of friends that delightful +gentleman? Who that has once met Falstaff forgets the roaring, jolly +old knave? Stevenson gave witness that almost more than from any one +else his courage and good cheer in dark days had caught fire from the +personality of Shakespeare's heroine Rosalind. If these persons of the +imagination can stimulate, how much more ought the subjects of the other +two forms of biography to fire the brain, for they are usually taken +from real life, are people who have faced the actual problems such as +the reader is meeting, people who have perhaps flamed in a glorious +career from birth to death or perhaps have gone quietly all their +days. The second form of biography is purely analytical. It watches +its subject, follows him through life, and only after this study sets +down its words, which aim to state for the reader the meaning of the +life. Such biography is illustrated in the brief analyses of Mr. Balfour +and Mr. Hardy on page 148. Here the author is the logical thinker who +draws the conclusions of careful meditation and says: such was the +significance of this man, this woman. The third kind of biography, the +expository, the kind with which we are here concerned, attempts to +combine the other two, hopes to present the pageant of life which the +hero lived, and especially to make an estimate of its importance, its +significance. Some novels approach this form when the author stops, +as Thackeray often does, to comment on the meaning of his people and +their deeds. This kind of biography attempts to accomplish what Carlyle +thought should be attempted, the ability to say, "There is my hero, +there is the physiognomy and meaning of his appearance and transit on +this earth; such was he by nature, so did the world act on him, so he on +the world, with such result and significance for himself and us." + + +The Problem + +The primary object of expository biography is so to build up before the +reader's eyes the figure of the hero, so to cast against the background +of life the warm personality, so to recreate the lineaments and so to +give perspective to the whole that the reader will know the hero, will +be able to grasp his hand as a fellow human being with the game of life +to play, and will be aware of the significance of the personality to his +times and to the reader himself. To _paint the man_ is the pleasurable +adventure before the writer. Sir Christopher Wren bade us, if we wished +a memorial of him, to "look around" upon the arches and the high dim +places of his cathedral. So the writer of expository biography must +plant himself in the deeds and desires of his hero, must gaze steadily +into his eyes until he discovers the center of his being, and must then +set down the words, which, if well enough chosen, wisely enough fitted, +will outlast the toughest stone. It is in lack of true comprehension +of the hero's life that so many expository biographies fail to inspire +the reader, in the failure to remember that the writer is not merely +"silently expressing old mortality, the ruins of forgotten times," but +is trying to catch and record a living force, to live as long as men +understand it and are moved by it. + +The chief duty of the biographer, then, is to discover the life-problem +of his hero, to understand it, to learn how the hero came by it, how +he tried to solve it, and what its significance is. Now this is much +more easily accomplished with the personalities who have closed their +span of existence than with those whom we know still living, with +their answer to their problem yet incomplete. Few of us have what +Mary Lamb said she possessed, "a knack I know I have of looking into +peoples' real character and never expecting them to act out of it--never +expecting another to do as I would in the same case." All the facts of +personality, the hints and gleams and shadows, bewilder us at times with +our friends, and we regret the lack of perspective that reveals the +central life-problem. But when we turn to Julius Cæsar, to Jeanne d'Arc, +to George Washington, or to some humble dweller of past days, we can +see the life whole, can discover the heredity, the natural endowment, +the surroundings, the changing deeds and the shifting acquaintances and +friends that determined for the hero what the life-problem should be. +With the truly remarkable advantage, then, of this central conception, +we can fall into cadence with the stride of our hero marching against +his problem and can picture forth the struggle and its significance. + +In every biography there is this problem. Your hero is at "that game +of consequences to which we all sit down, the hanger-back not least," +as Stevenson called life, and the manner in which the hero perceives +the "imperious desires and staggering consequences" will determine the +flavor of his life. To turn to Stevenson himself we find a white-hot +flame of romance cased in a feeble wraith of a body, the heart of the +man daring all things, romping through life a deathless youth before the +problem of adjustment between body and spirit. Or take the compounding +of that tremendous figure, George Washington--adamant integrity, the +zeal which, if unchecked, would often have brought the house tumbling +about his ears, the endless capacity for indignation, and with these +the patience that left men well-nigh dazed and the self-control that +made him god-like. Set him in the midst of the hurly-burly of a young +nation as doubtful of itself as youth, as eager, as impetuous, as +contradictory, with the forces of the Old World pitted against it and +with many traitors in its fold. Then conceive the problem of forming +wise conjunction between vision and accomplishment, between desire +and restraint, and the life of the man is at once unified, centered, +illuminated, and made significant. + +The same result follows searching to the heart of any hero, high or low, +and failure thus to reach the heart causes the pallid uninteresting +heaping of details that mean nothing to the reader. No architect can +glorify the horizon with the silhouette of a cathedral, nor can he even +give a meaning to his accumulation of stone and mosaic and mortar, if +he heaps here a pile and there a pile, rears here a chapel, somewhere +else as fancy directs lays out an aisle, with no central problem of +relationship. Nor can you dignify your hero's nature with a mere basket +collection of the flying chips of life--a deed here, a word there, a +desire at another time. First, then, discover the problem that your hero +faced in the relation of his character to itself and to its times. + + +The Chief Aid in Solving the Problem + +To discover the problem, really to understand it, requires as your +chief tool imaginative sympathy. Without this your writing will leave +your hero as flat and shiny as any conscientiously laundered piece of +linen. You are to picture him in relief, in the round, to make him live +again, step down from his pedestal, and put his shoulder alongside +ours and speak to us. We read in a history that faces the necessity of +condensation how William the Conqueror "consolidated his domains"--and +it means nothing at all to us of stimulating individual value. We do +not think of the recalcitrant underlings whose necks he had to force to +bow, of the weary eyes that gladly closed at the end of a terrible day's +work, of the frequent desire, which at times must be suppressed, perhaps +at times gratified, to run a sword through an opposing subject. We +forget, in other words, that William was a man, a personality, a bundle +of nervous reactions and desires. But the writing fails, as biography, +unless we do remember these things. It is in the discovery and +understanding of these details and in combining them into a personality +that our sympathy is required. No one should set pen to paper in the +service of biography who has not a lively personal interest in his hero, +who has not an open, loving feeling for him--saint or villain whichever +he may be--and desires to make his reader, in turn, _feel_ the hero's +personality. The ideal biographer is he who can peep out through the +eyes of his hero at the sights which he saw, can feel the surge of +ambition, of love, of hate, the quickening of the heart at success, and +the cold pallor of defeat. We have seen a grown person watch with cold +eyes a child who wrestles with a problem of digging a ditch or building +a dam or making a harness for the dog, gradually lose the coldness of +indifference, forget the gulf of years, kindle to the problem, and +finally with delight catch up spade or leather and give assistance. +Until you feel a similar thrill of sharing experience with your hero, do +not write about him. + +Most of us really have this interest but we browbeat ourselves into +a belief that a biography, especially an expository biography, must +be dull. And, sad though we may be to admit it, most such biographies +written for courses in literature or history, are--well, plain stupid. +The lives are, to use Samuel Johnson's words, "begun with a pedigree and +ended with a funeral," and the dull stretch between is a mere series of +events which find unity only in that they all happen to the same person. +Such writing is, truly, inexcusable; it is like the railway journey of +the unfortunate soul who sees nothing but the clambering aboard and then +the folding of the hands for a long dull jouncing until lethargy can be +thrown off and it is time to clamber down again. Had the traveler but +the insight, or the inclination, he would perceive that his journey is +a high adventure spiced with a delicious flavor of challenge and reply. +Just so you may find that the writing of expository biography has the +charm of life itself. The patient clerk bends over his record sheet and +attests the arrival, the departure, of lifeless baggage tossed from hand +to hand, from car to car, piled up, taken down and set finally to rest +at its destination. But you deal not with lifeless baggage but with the +fascinating compound of flesh and blood, of desire and of will, that +changes the face of the world. No mere matter-of-fact attitude here, +but the perpetual wonder and joy at the turns and flashes of human +personality. Rather than be a matter-of-fact man Lamb wisely preferred +being a "matter-of-lie" man; the writer of expository biography finds +that his material is of such a nature as to be more interesting even +than lies. As Sir Thomas Browne said of his not remarkable life, "which +to relate were not a history but a piece of poetry and would sound to +common ears a fable." + +Most of us find that the most fascinating study for man is Man. Not +only do we believe that "man is a noble animal, splendid in ashes, and +pompous in the grave," but that while alive he is more alluring than +anything else. We might conceivably even argue that Socrates advised +"Know thyself" out of fear lest our curiosity about our fellows absorb +all our effort. But so great is our fear of the formality of biography +that we often belie our sympathy and think that only the large dim +figures of the past, kings and potentates, who stride through mighty +events, are possible for treatment. Our fear is false. Stevenson was +again correct in saying, "The man who lost his life against a hen roost +is in the same pickle with the man who lost his life against a fortified +place of the first order." No life ever existed--absolutely not +one--that was not capable of an absorbing expository biography. The true +biographer never takes the point of view of the philosopher who said, +"Most men and women are merely one couple more." Rather he knows that, +however slight in the sweeping cycle of time a stick of striped candy +may be, to the child who drops it into the gutter it is of more weight +than a royal scepter. He knows, too, that the ordinary, respectable +citizen, one of the "common people," though he never is subject to +scandal like a villain and never molds kingdoms like the great figures +of history, is nevertheless, in his quiet sphere, a fit hero for +biography. He sees that to such a person the gaining, through patient +years of toil, of a little homestead, is as great a victory as for an +emperor to conquer a country, that to be elected moderator of the town +meeting or president of the "literary club" is a large adventure. Barrie +had the imagination to see that the day when the six haircloth chairs +entered his mother's parlor as the culmination of a long campaign, was a +day to her of thrilling adventure, of conquest, of triumph. And yet we +are afraid that biography ought to be dull! + +Fear of the formality of writing is often the cause of our making +expository biography a mere combination of the succession of events +which history shows and a few dull comments about the subject, instead +of a real interpretation illuminated with the magic of sympathetic +understanding. With this fear upon us we write as awkwardly, as +lifelessly, as we deport ourselves at a reception where we forget the +pulse of humanity and are clutched by the fear of--we know not what. +Such a fear would palsy the hand of him who should attempt to weave +even the treasury of facts in the following statement with an estimate +of their significance. Writing of General Judah P. Benjamin, of the +American Civil War, Mr. Gamaliel Bradford says: + + Benjamin was a Jew. He was born a British subject. He made a + brilliant reputation at the Louisiana Bar and was offered a seat in + the United States Supreme Court. He became United States senator. + When his state seceded, he went with it, and filled three cabinet + positions under the Confederacy. He fell with the immense collapse + of that dream fabric. Then, at the age of fifty-four, he set + himself to build up a new fortune and a new glory, and he died one + of the most successful and respected barristers in London.[90] + + [90] Gamaliel Bradford: _Judah P. Benjamin_. By courtesy of The + Atlantic Monthly Company. + +But with fear thrown off, with enthusiastic desire really to understand +sympathetically, we find no lack of interest. To any one the terrible +storm in the harbor of Apia, when ships were wrecked like straws and +lives were spilled out by scores, would offer material because of the +horror of the events. But only with imaginative sympathy could we write +an expository biography of a humble "Jackie" on a United States boat +in the harbor. With such sympathy, as we read that after the gruelling +agony of long fruitless fighting against the storm the sailors of the +United States Steamship _Trenton_, which was pounding its wooden hull to +splinters on the reef, climbed into the rigging and cheered while the +more lucky British boat _Calliope_ steamed past on her way to safety +in the open sea, we are thrilled with the fact that of those gallant +seamen every one is worthy of record. Some quiet lad from perhaps a +white farmhouse tucked into a little valley, who was honestly doing his +duty and hoping for the glory of the time when he should be a petty +officer, now while the teeth of death are already bared gloriously lifts +up his young voice in gallant recognition of his more successful fellows +of the _Calliope_! And yet the official record of the event would imply +no possibility of finding romance in this humble individual life. + +The "meanest flower that blows" moved the poet's heart; we need not +be poets, but only sympathetic human beings, with the great gift of +comradeship, to be moved by even the lowliest man or woman. And the +objection that rises unbidden and declares us unfit to write expository +biography because we have not ourselves known great men is false. Quite +truly Carlyle demolishes such objection: "What make ye of Parson White +of Selborne? He had not only no great men to look on, but not even +men; merely sparrows and cockchafers; yet has he left us a _Biography_ +of these; which, under its title _Natural History of Selborne_, still +remains valuable to us; which has copied a little sentence or two +_faithfully_ from the Inspired Volume of Nature, and is itself not +without inspiration. Go ye and do likewise." Certainly if you face the +setting forth of the life of some large figure of the past you have +a fascinating pageant to unriddle, to centralize. And just as surely +if you turn to the familiar figures of your home town, of your family +history, and really lay your spirit alongside, you will find deep +significance for yourself and for your reader. For every human being has +its Waterloo. Sometimes we play Wellington, sometimes Bonaparte, but +whether winning or losing we all tread the same way, and the fight is +as significant to each as ever the victory or defeat of Waterloo was to +Wellington or Napoleon. + + +The Process of Solving the Problem + +With this great requisite of imaginative sympathy that sees value in +all human beings, then, we set out on our chief task, to find the +life-problem of our particular hero. This necessitates definition and +analysis. Somehow we must find the sphere in which our hero moved, the +group to which he belonged, and must then discover the qualities that he +showed in the group which made him a real individual. Such definition +and analysis will appear when we examine the character of the hero and +the events in his life. + +1. Defining the Character + +In placing the subject of biography in a group we must take care to +unify the character and at the same time to escape making him merely +typical. A biography is a portrait, and if it omits the peculiar +lineaments that distinguish the hero from all others, if it overlooks +the little details of personality, it is valueless, and certainly +uninteresting. The names of characters in old dramas, such as _Justice +Clement_, _Justice Shallow_, _Fastidious Brisk_, _Sir Politick +Would-be_, and of some of Scott's characters such as _Poundtext_, _Rev. +Gabriel Kettledrummle_, _Mr. Holdenough_, indicate the central point +of view of the characters but do not individualize them. Before we are +really interested in these people we must see the personal traits that +give charm. The unifying and centralizing of the character will be +accomplished through discovering the fundamental nature. When Cavour +wrote, "I am a son of Liberty, and it is to her that I owe all that I +am," he classified himself at once through revealing the inner heart +of his being. Mr. George Whibley gives both outward action and inward +attitude when he writes, "George Buchanan was the type and exemplar of +the wandering Scot." So a writer in the New York _Nation_[91] classifies +William James by finding the controlling motives of his life. "He was +a force of expansion, not a force of concentration. He 'opens doors +and windows,' shakes out a mind that has long lain in the creases of +prejudice. He is the most vital and gifted exemplar of intellectual +sympathy." Again, Mr. Bradford, in characterizing General Sherman, +writes, "Sherman is like one of our clear blue January days, with a +fresh north wind. It stimulates you. It inspires you. But crisp, vivid, +intoxicating as it is, it seems to me that too prolonged enjoyment of +such weather would dry my soul till the vague fragrance of immortality +was all gone out of it." And when some one asked Goldsmith, referring +to Boswell, "Who is this Scotch cur at Johnson's heels?" Goldsmith +replied, "He is not a cur, he is only a bur. Tom Davies flung him at +Johnson in sport, and he has the faculty of sticking." Each of these +characterizations classifies the subject; no one of them makes him a +distinct personality, for thousands have been wandering Scots, forces +of expansion, burs. The typifying is of great value in establishing the +central point of view of the subject, but it cannot be left to stand +alone in a real portrait. + + [91] Vol. 94, p. 363. + +It is necessary that we define our hero by determining the class to +which he belongs, but such definition brings a great danger, the danger +of making a warped interpretation. At once we must take care, when we +discover the type of a man, not to overwork the type qualities, not to +make everything conform to this inner core, whether the detail properly +fits or not. For example, once we have called a man a _liberal_ we +shall need to guard against denying the conservative acts which are +in themselves contradictory of the general nature though in the large +they fuse with it. Such a tag is likely, if not guarded against, to +make the writer the victim of a kind of color-blindness in character, +so that he can see only the crimson of _liberal_, the lavender of +_conservative_. In a sentence like the following there lurks the +possibility of overworking a point of view, of riding rough-shod over +details that do not immediately swing into line. Speaking of General +Hooker, "General Walker observes shrewdly, 'He was handsome and +picturesque in the extreme, but with a fatally weak chin' ... Bear it +in mind in our further study." Spontaneity of reaction to the hero is +in possible danger of extinction when the biographer has solidly set +down the class name. The same danger is at hand when we find and state +the controlling motive of the hero's life, as when we say that he was +primarily ambitious, or exhibited above everything else courage. We need +be careful lest trivial matters be made to appear ambitious, thrillingly +courageous, and lest we deny what seems contradictory. In the following +characterization of the historian Green by his friend the Rev. Mr. +Haweis we find no such cramping effect, but a welling forth of creative +impression that makes Green live before our eyes. + + That slight nervous figure, below the medium height; that tall + forehead, with the head prematurely bald; the quick but small eyes, + rather close together; the thin mouth, with lips seldom at rest, + but often closed tightly as though the teeth were clenched with an + odd kind of latent energy beneath them; the slight, almost feminine + hands; the little stoop; the quick alert step; the flashing + exuberance of spirits; the sunny smile; the torrent of quick + invective, scorn, or badinage, exchanged in a moment for a burst of + sympathy or a delightful and prolonged flow of narrative--all this + comes back to me vividly! And what narrative, what anecdote, what + glancing wit! What a talker! A man who shrank from society, and yet + was so fitted to adorn and instruct every company he approached, + from a parochial assembly to a statesman's reception! But how + enchanting were my walks with him in the Victoria Park, that one + outlet of Stepney and Bethnal Green! I never in my life so lost + count of time with any one before or since.... I have sometimes, + after spending the evening with him at my lodgings, walked back to + St. Philip's Parsonage, Stepney, towards midnight, talking; then he + has walked back with me in the summer night, talking; and when the + dawn broke it has found us belated somewhere in the lonely Mile + End Road, still unexhausted, and still talking.[92] + + [92] Haweis: _Music and Morals_. By courtesy of the publishers, + Longmans, Green & Co., New York City. + +But when we have inveighed as much as we need against the dangers of +classification, we must swing round to the first statement that for +unifying the character and giving it fundamental significance such +classification is of great importance. + +Merely to find the type to which a character belongs is not sufficient; +such a process leaves the character stamped, to be sure, but without +interest. We care for living people not chiefly because of their type +but because of their individuality, the little traits that set them +apart from their fellows. The next step, therefore, is to discover and +reveal the individuality. The type to which a character belongs is shown +by the large sweep of his whole life; his individuality is revealed +often most clearly in the slight incidents by the way. For this reason +the personal anecdote assumes importance as adding both interest and +completeness that consists in filling in the broad expanses of the +portrait with the lines of individual expression. This does not mean +that all anecdotes are of value for expository biography; only those +which are truly in the stream of personality, which help to establish +either the type or the individual. The whimsical nature of the little +incident which Mr. George Whibley[93] relates of the "scoundrel" Tom +Austin is of value not because it makes a picturesque note at a hanging, +but because it really helps to establish the full picture of the man: +"When Tom Austin was being haltered for hanging, the Chaplain asked +him had he anything to say. 'Only, there's a woman yonder with some +curds and whey, and I wish I could have a pennyworth of them before +I am hanged, because I don't know when I shall see any again.'" It +is easily said that Lincoln was a great democratic soul and a great +humorist. These are two useful tags. But when we know that to the +Englishman who remarked, "In England, you know, no gentleman blacks +his own shoes," he replied, "Whose does he black, then?" we feel the +peculiar tang of the Lincoln personality along with the type qualities +of democrat and humorist. After we have classified Washington as an +austere, cold, unemotional being, we find both corrective for a too +narrow classification, and insight into the peculiar qualities of the +man when we read how he swore "like an angel from Heaven" on the famous +occasion of the encounter with Lee. For the anecdote is, we see, really +in the main flow of Washington's nature. General Wolfe is tagged as a +romantic young warrior but takes on both interest and personality when +we read of his repeating Gray's "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard" +as his men silently rowed him to the battle on the Heights of Abraham. +The personality of Madame de Staël's father is largely illuminated when +we learn that though the little daughter sat primly at table as long as +her mother remained in the room, as soon as she retired, with a cry of +delight the child flung her napkin at her father's head. Anecdote is +highly useful so long as we remember that it is not for adornment but +for revelation, not primarily for interest--though that is an important +function--but rather for proving in dramatic particular the quality +which we claim for our hero. Properly chosen anecdotes should be the +high lights in the proof of qualities which the writer's exposition +establishes in more sober manner. And of course they also serve to show +the differentia which make the character an individual, and thus help to +complete the definition. + + [93] _A Book of Scoundrels._ + +2. Analyzing the Character + +_a._ _Heredity_ + +When once we have defined the character, have found its class and +to some extent its differentia, we can by analysis add to our +comprehension of it and to the distinguishing personal traits. We must +break up the character and see its manifestations and the results of +the influences that molded it. Heredity at once demands recognition. +It is not insignificant that Emerson was the descendant of a long line +of New England clergymen. The bravery of Stevenson is accounted for +partly by the doughty old builder of lighthouses, his grandfather Robert +Stevenson. Descent holds often, apparently, a guiding rein in directing +a character into its life-problem. Emerson's problem was comparatively +simplified, so far as personal integrity concerned him, for he was +by nature good. Lowell testified that it was perfectly natural for +himself to turn to literature, since in his childhood he had become +so accustomed to the smell of Russia leather in the bindings of his +father's books. The following sentence[94] shows the grip of descent +through the centuries which is not disguised by the man's name: "The +Mr. Balfour of those days has been altogether outgrown by the Admiralty +First Lord of the existing coalition, a Balfour in name only, in breadth +of shoulders, thickness of frame, heaviness of jaw, and proportions of +forehead a Cecil marvelously recalling, not only his illustrious uncle, +but that relative's Elizabethan ancestors." "Men are what their mothers +made them," says Emerson. "You may as well ask a loom which weaves +huckabuck why it does not make cashmere, as expect poetry from this +engineer, or a chemical discovery from that jobber." Partly, at least, +the life-problem is determined by the heredity; to each there is but one +future, "and that is already determined in his lobes and described in +that little fatty face, pig-eye, and squat form," to quote Emerson again +even though he lays undue stress, perhaps, upon the power of descent. In +the paragraph which follows you will find an interesting account of the +ancestry of O. W. Holmes, with a statement also of the essential quiet +of his life, which is nevertheless so often thought of as worthy of +biographical treatment. + + [94] T. H. S. Escott: _Great Victorians_. T. Fisher Unwin, London. + + Dr. Holmes came of this good, old, unmixed New England stock + that ran back to Hell on the one side in the severest orthodoxy + and up to Heaven on the other in large liberality. He discovered + that the title deeds were all in Heaven--while all other claims + were by squatters' rights outside the Garden of Eden. So Dr. Holmes + grew into a Unitarian and proceeded to cultivate the descent which + lies outside Paradise. His father was a minister, so beautiful in + countenance, Holmes tells us, that he could never have believed + an unkind thing, and his mother of different line was a Liberal + by descent. Holmes was born, too, to the conflicting traditions + of Yale and Harvard; but beyond being born, practically nothing + ever happened to him afterwards. He had a little group of friends + who were actually companions. During his whole life, except the + two years of medical study in Europe in the beginning of his + career, and the "hundred days in Europe" celebrated in one of his + later books, he was never further away from Boston, for the most + part, than Salem or Beverly, that Beverly, to which he referred + in replying to a friend who had addressed a letter to him from + "Manchester-by-the-Sea," as "Beverly-by-the-Depot." He went some + summers to Pittsfield where he had a summer house, and where the + sparkling Berkshire air seemed to suit his effervescent mind. + But he was never "quite at home beyond the smell of the Charles + River."[95] + + [95] Thomas R. Slicer: _From Poet to Premier_. By courtesy of the + publishers, The Grolier Society, London. + +_b._ _Interests_ + +Then when your hero grows up, what are his interests? To what profession +or kind of work does he turn? Where does he find the satisfaction for +his energy that searches an outlet? Does he, like Thomas Carlyle, try +one and another profession only to fail and be driven, finally, into +the one work in which he could find the answer to the life-problem that +his personality presents? When his profession is chosen, what are his +interests? Does he work out his problem in a narrowly restricted field, +or does he call in the powers of a wide range of significant pursuits? +No expository biography of Leonardo da Vinci can overlook the astounding +breadth of the man's activity, especially as shown in the remarkable +document which he presented to Ludovico Sforza arranging his attainments +under nine different headings in military engineering and adding a tenth +for civil engineering and architecture,--and finally throwing in, as a +suggestion, his worth as painter and sculptor! There were the compounds +of a life-problem sufficiently complex to satisfy the most captious. Or +if the hero never moves from a tiny hamlet, treads only one path--as +Pericles is said to have done between house and office during the great +days of his power--the fact is significant. The grasp of ideas within +whatever field the hero may choose is also important. The distinction +between the personality that is merely efficient in handling facts, and +the personality that dominates the facts and drives them at his bidding, +that shows real power, has direct bearing on the nature and the solution +of the life-problem. + +_c._ _Beliefs_ + +Nor can you overlook the hero's beliefs, whether in ethics or religion, +in politics, in the laws of society. In the analysis of Mr. Balfour, on +page 148, at once is apparent the large influence on his answer that is +caused by his sophistication. The bravery of the Stoic, the voluptuous +sentimentality of many religious people of modern times, vitally affect +the nature of the character which possesses them. If your hero is by +nature an aristocrat, if his sympathies are limited to the few choice +people of the world, his life-problem is radically different from that +of the natural democrat like Abraham Lincoln. Finally, whatever ideas he +may hold about the relation in society of man to man, of man to woman, +will inevitably influence his solution of his particular question, just +as his beliefs are themselves partly determined by his physical being. + +_d._ _Friends_ + +Closely allied with his beliefs will be his choice of friends. Has he +the gift of familiarity, or does he struggle in vain to break through +the bars of personality, or is he terrified at the gulf between himself +and another? Does he regard friends as useful instruments, as pleasant +companions, or as objects of devoted affection? And how do his friends +react to him? It is worth remembering that the boy Tennyson wrote, +in grief, "Byron is dead!"--not only the boy but the older poet is +illuminated by the words. Stephen A. Douglas holding Lincoln's hat +beside the platform while the Gettysburg Address was being delivered +showed not only the mellowness of his own nature but the commanding +power of friendship that Lincoln possessed. The number of friends and +the range of their activity--whether selected from all sections of human +activity or from the hero's own more limited field--are important. + +_e._ _Deeds_ + +Finally, the deeds of the hero are of the greatest significance in +indicating how he met his life-problem. Did he "greet the unknown with +a cheer" or did he like a doubtful bather shrink back from plunging +into the stream of activity? Were his deeds actuated by generous +motives, or by petty? "If," says Stevenson, "it is for fame that men do +brave actions, they are only silly fellows after all." Macbeth strode +through large events, as did Robert E. Lee, yet the dominating motives +were quite different, and these motives throw the utmost light on the +fundamentals of character. + +Before you write, then, first define your hero, find his type and his +individuality, and then analyze his character to determine his descent, +his intellectual interests, his beliefs, his friends, and his deeds. +And remember that these are not in water-tight compartments, separated +from each other, but that they fuse together to make the personality, to +create the life-problem, and to answer it. + + +The Use of Events in the Life + +Dramatic biography is almost wholly the moving events of life. The evil +of cheap fiction is partly that it will be nothing but events, that +only dust will be raised, no meaning found. Expository biography may +err in the opposite direction and exclude the "moving show," become +only abstract analysis and definition. You must guard against this, +because absence of events both complicates the writer's task and makes +his success with the reader more problematic. Moreover, since so largely +the positive personality of the hero will express itself in action, +since largely through events we shall discover what the life-problem is +and especially how it is met, to omit the flow of events is to lame the +interpretation. All readers, it is well to remember, have the child's +desire for more than mere information about the machine; they wish to +"see it go." The vitality of fiction is always increased by dramatic +presentation. Since you have a real character to make vital, bring to +your writing the devices that make characters real. Carlyle[96] well +characterizes the denatured style of treating living beings: + + [96] Thomas Carlyle: "Biography," in _Critical and Miscellaneous + Essays_. Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston, publishers. + + Those modern Narrations, of the Philosophic kind, where + "Philosophy, teaching by Experience," has to sit like owl + on housetop, _seeing_ nothing, _understanding_ nothing, + uttering only, with solemnity enough, her perpetual and most + wearisome hoo-hoo:--what hope have we, except the for the most + part fallacious one of gaining some acquaintance with our + fellow-creatures, though dead and vanished, yet dear to us; how + they got along in those old days, suffering and doing; to what + extent, and under what circumstances, they resisted the Devil and + triumphed over him, or struck their colors to him, and were trodden + under foot by him; how, in short, the perennial Battle went, which + men name Life, which we also in these new days, with indifferent + fortune have to fight, and must bequeath to our sons and grandsons + to go on fighting.... + +_a._ _Choice of Events_ + +The question at once arises, what events shall the writer select? The +total course is mapped for you: there is the pedigree, there the birth, +and finally there the funeral. These are inescapable. Just so, for most +heroes, marriage. But to choose only those facts that are common to all, +to make your hero do only the conventionally unavoidable things, will +leave him without personality. The question is, what did he do that was +peculiar to himself, what reaction to life did he alone, of all the +myriads, make? It is true that most men and women spend their time at +their profession or appointed task, whatever it may be, but what the +reader cries for is _how_ did they spend their time and energy? It is +not sufficient that you tell your reader that Robert Franz labored at +his profession of music. What you must do is to show how, in poverty, +which, but for the inexhaustible kindness of Liszt, would have been +unrelieved, with total deafness upon him, with his musician's-fingers +twisted and useless with paralysis, and with only slight recognition +from the world for his efforts, he quite beautifully subordinated +his own personality for the sake of his art and for years labored in +unremunerative love at the unwritten harmonies of Bach and Handel that +the public might have complete realization of the otherwise crippled +productions. When you tell that, your reader will understand _Robert +Franz_, not merely a somebody. Choose, then, the events that all share +in common if they are of value in giving a framework for your narrative +presentation, but especially choose those events that in their nature +illuminate the personality and complement your analysis. + +We think of events as being public. There is also the hero's private +life. Often, especially with the more humble heroes, the home life +is more important than the public deeds, brings out more clearly the +real man than any amount of marching in the market place or discussing +in the public square. The incident related of Robert E. Lee when he +was President of Washington College is more revealing, almost, of his +greatness of heart than a far more important deed of the great General. +When a sophomore to whom Lee had recommended more intense application +to work, with the warning of possible failure, remarked, "But, General, +you failed," Lee quietly replied, "I hope that you may be more fortunate +than I." To neglect either public or private life makes the biography +less valuable; light upon the personality from whatever honest source is +to be eagerly sought. + +_b._ _Relation of Events to Personality_ + +With your choice made, you yet face the difficulty of uniting events +and personality. It is not that you have parallel lines, one of action +and one of character; the two lines join and become one. You have the +choice of observing the personality through the medium of events, or +events through the medium of personality. Of the two, the latter is to +be preferred. To understand the personality we heed to know whether it +controls and directs events, or merely receives them. Into every life +a large measure of chance enters. Does the personality merely receive +the events, or does it master chance? Suppose that the following +analysis[97] of two widely different characters is correct, just: + + [97] Amiel's _Journal_. + + Mozart--grace, liberty, certainty, freedom, and precision of + style, and exquisite and aristocratic beauty, serenity of soul, + the health and talent of the master, both on a level with his + genius; Beethoven--more pathetic, more passionate, more torn with + feeling, more intricate, more profound, less perfect, more the + slave of his genius, more carried away by his fancy or his passion, + more moving, and more sublime than Mozart.... One is serene, the + other serious.... The first is stronger than destiny, because he + takes life less profoundly; the second is less strong, because + he has dared to measure himself against deeper sorrows.... In + Mozart the balance of the whole is perfect, and art triumphs; in + Beethoven feeling governs everything and emotion troubles his art + in proportion as it deepens it. + +Now we know that Mozart's attitude toward patrons was sweetly +deferential and graceful, whereas Beethoven rushed into the courtyard +of his patron Prince Lobkowitz, shouting, "Lobkowitz donkey! Lobkowitz +donkey!!" and when, in the company of Goethe, he once met an archduke, +though Goethe made a profound bow with bared head, Beethoven reached +up, jammed his hat down tighter upon his head, and, rigidly erect, +stalked by without recognition of rank. These actions of Beethoven are +emotionally tempestuous. We have our choice of interpreting them as +resulting from his personality or of determining his personality as +revealed by the deeds. In general it is better to view deeds and events +in the light of personality. + +_c._ _Relation to Society and Times_ + +Events happen to more than the hero alone; he is a member of society. +It is necessary, therefore, to link the events of his life to the +current of his times, to fit him into the background against which his +life was played. How was he affected, what influence did he exert, what +offices or positions of trust did he hold? Often, of course, estimate +of the personality will be considerably determined by his relations +with his contemporaries. You need to bear two cautions in mind: first, +not to misjudge a man because moral or social standards have shifted +since his times; and second, not to introduce so much matter about +his relationships as to obscure the outlines of his personality or as +to relegate him to less than the chief position. Imaginative sympathy +will be sufficient to prevent the first. If you really look through +your hero's eyes at the life that he saw, with his standards in mind, +though you may have to condemn his attitude from a more modern point of +view, you will be able to see that his deeds are quite comprehensible, +that perhaps, had you been in his place, you would have acted likewise. +We no longer decorate important bridges with the heads of criminals +set on pikes, as our ancestors did, nor do we burn supposed witches. +But though we condemn Edward the First of England for the one and the +Salem Puritans for the other, we can still love both Edward and the +Puritans--if we have imaginative sympathy. The second caution requires +simply that you make your hero dominate the scene. Now this is not an +easy task when you are reviewing, in many pages, the gorgeous pageant +of an age. We can easily imagine that if Parr had written the Life +of Johnson which he said would have been so much superior to that by +Boswell, and had included the threatened "view of the literature of +Europe," the poor old hero would have been roughly jostled away behind +the furniture. Mr. Barrett Wendell paid Carlyle a tribute of the highest +kind in writing of his _Frederick the Great_: + + Such a mass of living facts--for somehow Carlyle never lets + a fact lack life--I had never seen flung together before; and yet + the one chief impression I brought away from the book was that to + a degree rare in even small ones it possessed as a whole the great + trait of unity. In one's memory, each fact by and by fell into its + own place; the chief ones stood out; the lesser sank back into a + confused but not inextricable mass of throbbing vitality. And from + it all emerged more and more clearly the one central figure who + gave his name to the whole--Frederick of Prussia. It was as they + bore on him from all quarters of time and space, and as he reacted + on them far and wide, that all these events and all these people + were brought back out of their dusty graves to live again.[98] + + [98] Barrett Wendell: _English Composition_. By courtesy of the + publishers, Charles Scribner's Sons, New York City. Copyright, + 1891. + +Make your hero stand near the footlights, then, and take care that he be +not in the shadows of the wings. + +_d._ _Rhetorical Value of Events_ + +From a purely rhetorical point of view the inclusion of the events in +the hero's life is important because it offers a useful structural +scheme for the writing, the chronological order. The exact succession +of events need not be followed, surely; sometimes the intended effect +will demand a reversal of actual order, but the relation in time +will be found valuable for showing the growth of personality, of +intellectual grasp, of influence upon the world. Do not, then, neglect +the active life of your hero. By presenting it you will find the task +of composition lightened, you will help to establish the personality, +and you will give to the writing the dramatic vitality that is so much +desired by the reader. + + +The Problem of Telling the Truth + +However imaginatively sympathetic you may be in interpreting your hero, +however carefully you may try to find his life-problem, and however +well you may attempt to define and analyze his personality, you will be +confronted with one almost insuperable problem--how to tell the truth. +In no form of exposition is this problem more difficult. For we are +more moved by human personality than by anything else, more "drawn to" +a person than to a machine, more affected by the comparatively parallel +problem of another human being than by the inanimate existence of wood +and steel. Long observation and study of our heroes seems often to make +us even less fitted to estimate their worth, for we reach the state of +companionship with them where we resent any fact that does not tally +with our formed judgment, and are tempted to exclude it. Mr. Gamaliel +Bradford divides biographers into "those who think they are impartial +and those who know they are not." Partiality operates, of course, both +for and against personalities. To quote Mr. Bradford again, "Gardiner, +for all his fairness, obviously praises the Puritans because they were +Puritans, the Cavaliers although they were Cavaliers." Adulation and +damnation are the logical extremes which result from a too operative +blind spot on the retina of judgment. You must remember and cling to the +fact that no man is perfect and no man wholly bad. Much as Boswell loved +Johnson he had the good sense to write, of his biography, "And he will +be seen as he really was, for I profess to write, not his panegyric, +which must be all praise, but his Life; which, great and good as he was, +must not be supposed to be entirely perfect." George Washington has +terribly suffered in the estimates of later times because of the desire +to make him perfect. The true expository biographer will conceal nothing +that is significant, whether he wishes, in spite of himself, perhaps, +that it did not exist. + +The best cure for the errors of falsity from over-love or +over-condemnation is still sane imaginative sympathy. Stevenson made +perhaps the greatest personal triumph in his portraiture when he drew +Weir of Hermiston, the dour old "hanging judge" who so outraged by his +life all the author's feelings and is yet so presented that the reader +loves him despite his inhumanity, really perceives that an honest, +even if tough, heart beat in his breast. Another safeguard is absence +of desire to make rhetorical effect. An aureole is picturesque, horns +and hoofs add piquancy; the hand itches to deck the hero as saint +or to fit him out as devil. But you must subordinate any such cheap +desire, must write with the restraint that comes from seeing your hero +steady and seeing him whole. Balance is the golden word. "This thing +is true," wrote Emerson, "but that is also true." The vulgarity of the +superlatives of political campaigns has no place in your pages. + +This imaginatively sympathetic attitude must not rely on itself alone, +but must employ the other safeguard against untruth, must passionately +pursue facts, and facts, and still facts to make the conception of the +hero complete and to give the writing that so much desired quality of +fullness. The very greatest care is necessary to determine what facts +are true and what are fallacious. You are largely at the mercy of your +second or third or tenth-hand sources when you write of historical +characters. When your hero is a living person you must challenge the +report of your own senses and general experience lest you admit what is +false or omit what is significant. + + +The Danger of Making a "Lesson" + +And when you have assembled all your facts, and have determined upon +your interpretation of the hero, take the greatest caution that you +do not try to make the life a "lesson." Presumably a child never more +earnestly desires to commit murder than when some little Willie or Susie +has been held up as a model. If Willie and Susie escape with only kicked +shins, they may count luck benevolent. Your duty is to understand and +love, not to preach about the character. You are to give us an estimate +of the great adventure of this person through life, and leave to us to +make the moral, if any is to be made. If the life has a message, the +reader will catch it; if it has not, silence is virtuous. + + +The Rhetorical Form + +Finally, the rhetorical problem of forming your material presents +itself. First of all do not forget that all the charms of style +of which you are capable should be summoned to your aid. Since you +deal with the fascinating subject of human personality your writing +should not be dull. All too many biographical essays begin stupidly. +When a first sentence reads, "Augustine was born at Tagaste, near +Carthage (about forty miles south of it), North Africa, November 13, +A.D. 354, seven years after the birth of Chrysostom," a reader +hardly finds a warmly inviting gleam in the writer's eye; he continues +to read only if he brought determination with him. But when Mr. Charles +Whibley begins, of Captain Hind, "James Hind, the Master Thief of +England, the fearless Captain of the Highway, was born at Chipping +Norton in 1618"; or of Haggart, "David Haggart was born at Canonmills, +with no richer birthright than thievish fingers and a left hand of +surpassing activity"; or of Sir Thomas Overbury, "Thomas Overbury, whose +haggard ghost still walks in the secret places of the Tower, was born a +squire's son, in 1581,"--when he uses such sentences to introduce the +hero to the reader, the ejaculatory "Eh?" takes voice and the reader +canters down the new delightful lane where a finger beckons. Whether you +use anecdote, or quotation, or important fact, or statement of birth, or +description, let your beginning invite and not dismay. + +The chief structural problem is, without doubt, to fuse the analyzed +elements of deeds and friends and interests and others into one organic +whole. If you use the chronological sequence of events, which has +already been discussed, showing how each event or group of events +indicates the character, you will have an easily followed plan. Such +a plan, or that of treating the whole life from the point of view of +the central, controlling motive, is the ideal method. If you choose to +unify the whole by showing how events, friends, interests of various +kinds, and the other manifestations of the hero's life all establish +the central motive, you will have a more difficult, though more elastic +form. With this plan you can distribute the details in the points +where they will be of most value, can, for example, indicate a change +in the hero's nature by approaching through an event, a friendship, a +turning of tastes in reading or in general interests. The difficulty +here lies in the tendency toward such dispersion of details as to +destroy unity even though to gain this is the chief intention. In the +face of this difficulty you may use a third method, which is likely +to be less pleasing, less artistic, but more easily applied. You can +divide your material under the headings "events," "friends," "heredity," +"interests," and then can treat each group, by itself, from the central +point of view. This is a useful method, and in complicated lives it is +sometimes the only method that is reasonably easy to handle. Closely +similar to this method is that of dividing your material under the +headings of the ways in which your hero affected his times, the ways in +which he was known. Thus you might treat of the reputation as converser, +as organizer, as literary man, as public servant, as friend of the poor, +or whatever heading your hero's life affords. + +Whatever method you may employ, you should remember that a human life +does not appear in separate, distinct phases, that a man does not seem +to be now this, now that, but rather all details, of whatever nature, +mingle and fuse into a unit, however complicated it may be. You should +attempt, then, to make one main thread, of however many colors it may +be woven, rather than a series of parallel threads. Note how Thackeray +neatly unites various phases and forms of interest in Goldsmith's +life,[99] so neatly that as you casually read you are not aware of the +diversity of material--though it is there--but think rather of the total +effect. + + [99] At the end of the chapter. + +If, then, you assume the attitude of imaginative sympathy, and study +your hero until you know what his particular life-problem was, what +his type and what his individuality, and with love and yet restraint +make your estimate, aiming at truth to character and to facts of his +life, you will produce writing that will be more than a mere scholar's +document, writing that will warm the heart of your reader to a new +personality and will be a friend of a winter evening fireside. + +OLIVER GOLDSMITH[100] + + [100] William Makepeace Thackeray: _The English Humorists of the + Eighteenth Century_. Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston, + publishers. + + "Jeté sur cette boule, + Laid, chétif et souffrant; + Étouffé, dans la foule, + Faute d'être assez grand; + + "Une plainte touchante + De ma bouche sortit. + Le bon Dieu me dit: Chante, + Chante, pauvre petit. + + "Chanter, ou je m'abuse, + Est ma tâche ici-bas. + Tous ceux qu'ainsi j'amuse, + Ne m'aimeront-ils pas?" + +In these charming lines of Béranger,[101] one may fancy described the +career, the suffering, the genius, the gentle nature of Goldsmith, and +the esteem in which we hold him. Who of the millions whom he has amused +doesn't love him? To be the most beloved of English writers, what a +title that is for a man! A wild youth, wayward, but full of tenderness +and affection, quits the country village where his boyhood has been +passed in happy musing, in idle shelter, in fond longing to see the +great world out of doors, and achieve fame and fortune; and after years +of dire struggle and neglect and poverty, his heart turning back as +fondly to his native place as it had longed eagerly for change when +sheltered there, he writes a book and a poem, full of the recollections +and feelings of home; he paints the friends and scenes of his youth, +and peoples Auburn and Wakefield with remembrances of Lissoy. Wander he +must, but he carries away a home-relic with him, and dies with it on +his breast. His nature is truant; in repose it longs for change,--as +on the journey it looks back for friends and quiet. He passes to-day +in building an air-castle for to-morrow, or in writing yesterday's +elegy; and he would fly away this hour, but that a cage and necessity +keep him. What is the charm of his verse, of his style and humor?--his +sweet regrets, his delicate compassion, his soft smile, his tremulous +sympathy, the weakness which he owns? Your love for him is half pity. +You come hot and tired from the day's battle, and this sweet minstrel +sings to you. Who could harm the kind vagrant harper? Whom did he ever +hurt? He carries no weapon save the harp on which he plays to you and +with which he delights great and humble, young and old, the captains +in the tents or the soldiers round the fire, or the women and children +in the villages, at whose porches he stops and sings his simple songs +of love and beauty. With that sweet story of "The Vicar of Wakefield" +he has found entry into every castle and hamlet in Europe. Not one of +us, however busy or hard, but once or twice in our lives has passed an +evening with him, and undergone the charm of his delightful music. + + [101] For translation, see page 296. + +Goldsmith's father was no doubt the good Doctor Primrose, whom we all +of us know. Swift was yet alive, when the little Oliver was born at +Pallas, or Pallasmore, in the county of Longford, in Ireland. In 1730, +two years after the child's birth, Charles Goldsmith removed his family +to Lissoy, in the county Westmeath, that sweet "Auburn" which every +person who hears me has seen in fancy. Here the kind parson brought up +his eight children; and loving all the world, as his son says, fancied +all the world loved him. He had a crowd of poor dependants besides those +hungry children. He kept an open table, round which sat flatterers and +poor friends, who laughed at the honest rector's many jokes, and ate the +produce of his seventy acres of farm. Those who have seen an Irish house +in the present day can fancy that one at Lissoy. The old beggar still +has his allotted corner by the kitchen turf; the maimed old soldier +still gets his potatoes and buttermilk; the poor cottier still asks his +honor's charity and prays God bless his reverence for the sixpence; the +ragged pensioner still takes his place by right of sufferance. There's +still a crowd in the kitchen, and a crowd round the parlor table; +profusion, confusion, kindness, poverty. If an Irishman comes to London +to make his fortune, he has a half-dozen of Irish dependants who take a +percentage of his earnings. The good Charles Goldsmith left but little +provision for his hungry race when death summoned him; and one of his +daughters being engaged to a Squire of rather superior dignity, Charles +Goldsmith impoverished the rest of his family to provide the girl with a +dowry. + +The small-pox, which scourged all Europe at that time, and ravaged +the roses off the cheeks of half the world, fell foul of poor little +Oliver's face when the child was eight years old, and left him scarred +and disfigured for his life. An old woman in his father's village +taught him his letters, and pronounced him a dunce. Paddy Byrne, the +hedge-schoolmaster, then took him in hand; and from Paddy Byrne he was +transmitted to a clergyman at Elphin. When a child was sent to school, +in those days, the classic phrase was that he was placed under Mr. +So-and-So's _ferule_. Poor little ancestors! it is hard to think how +ruthlessly you were birched, and how much of needless whipping and +tears our small forefathers had to undergo! A relative--kind Uncle +Contarine--took the main charge of little Noll; who went through his +school-days righteously doing as little work as he could, robbing +orchards, playing at ball, and making his pocket-money fly about +whenever fortune sent it to him. Everybody knows the story of that +famous "Mistake of a Night," when the young schoolboy, provided with a +guinea and a nag, rode up to the "best house" in Ardagh, called for the +landlord's company over a bottle of wine at supper, and for a hot cake +for breakfast in the morning,--and found, when he asked for the bill, +that the best house was Squire Featherstone's, and not the inn for which +he mistook it. Who does not know every story about Goldsmith? That is +a delightful and fantastic picture of the child dancing and capering +about in the kitchen at home, when the old fiddler gibed at him for his +ugliness, and called him Æsop; and little Noll made his repartee of:-- + + "Heralds proclaim aloud this saying: + See Æsop dancing and his monkey playing." + +One can fancy a queer, pitiful look of humor and appeal upon that little +scarred face, the funny little dancing figure, the funny little brogue. +In his life and writings, which are the honest expression of it, he is +constantly bewailing that homely face and person; anon he surveys them +in the glass ruefully, and presently assumes the most comical dignity. +He likes to deck out his little person in splendor and fine colors. He +presented himself to be examined for ordination in a pair of scarlet +breeches, and said honestly that he did not like to go into the Church +because he was fond of colored clothes. When he tried to practise as a +doctor, he got by hook or by crook a black velvet suit, and looked as +big and as grand as he could, and kept his hat over a patch on the old +coat. In better days he bloomed out in plum-color, in blue silk, and in +new velvet. For some of those splendors the heirs and assignees of Mr. +Filby, the tailor, have never been paid to this day; perhaps the kind +tailor and his creditor have met and settled their little account in +Hades. + +They showed until lately a window at Trinity College, Dublin, on which +the name of _O. Goldsmith_ was engraved with a diamond. Whose diamond +was it? Not the young sizar's, who made but a poor figure in that place +of learning. He was idle, penniless, and fond of pleasure; he learned +his way early to the pawn-broker's shop. He wrote ballads, they say, for +the street-singers, who paid him a crown for his poem; and his pleasure +was to steal out at night and hear the verses sung. He was chastised by +his tutor for giving a dance in his rooms, and took the box on the ear +so much to heart that he packed up his all, pawned his books and little +property, and disappeared from college and family. He said he intended +to go to America; but when his money was spent, the young prodigal came +home ruefully, and the good folks there killed their calf (it was but a +lean one) and welcomed him back. + +After college he hung about his mother's house, and lived for some years +the life of a buckeen,--passed a month with this relation and that, a +year with one patron, and a great deal of time at the public-house. +Tired of this life, it was resolved that he should go to London, and +study at the Temple; but he got no farther on the road to London and the +woolsack than Dublin, where he gambled away the fifty pounds given him +for his outfit, and whence he returned to the indefatigable forgiveness +of home. Then he determined to be a doctor, and Uncle Contarine helped +him to a couple of years at Edinburgh. Then from Edinburgh he felt that +he ought to hear the famous professors of Leyden and Paris, and wrote +most amusing pompous letters to his uncle about the great Farheim, Du +Petit, and Duhamel du Monceau, whose lectures he proposed to follow. If +Uncle Contarine believed those letters; if Oliver's mother believed that +story which the youth related, of his going to Cork with the purpose +of embarking for America, of his having paid his passenger money and +having sent his kit on board, of the anonymous captain sailing away with +Oliver's valuable luggage in a nameless ship, never to return,--if Uncle +Contarine and the mother at Ballymahon believed his stories, they must +have been a very simple pair, as it was a very simple rogue indeed who +cheated them. When the lad, after failing in his clerical examinations, +after failing in his plan for studying the law, took leave of these +projects and of his parents and set out for Edinburgh, he saw mother and +uncle, and lazy Ballymahon, and green native turf and sparkling river +for the last time. He was never to look on Old Ireland more, and only in +fancy revisit her. + + "But me not destined such delights to share, + My prime of life in wandering spent and care, + Impelled, with steps unceasing, to pursue + Some fleeting good that mocks me with the view + That like the circle bounding earth and skies + Allures from far, yet, as I follow, flies; + My fortune leads to traverse realms alone, + And find no spot of all the world my own." + +I spoke in a former lecture of that high courage which enabled Fielding, +in spite of disease, remorse, and poverty, always to retain a cheerful +spirit and to keep his manly benevolence and love of truth intact,--as +if these treasures had been confided to him for the public benefit, +and he was accountable to posterity for their honorable employ; and a +constancy equally happy and admirable I think was shown by Goldsmith, +whose sweet and friendly nature bloomed kindly always in the midst of a +life's storm and rain and bitter weather. The poor fellow was never so +friendless but he could befriend some one; never so pinched and wretched +but he could give of his crust, and speak his word of compassion. If +he had but his flute left, he could give that, and make the children +happy in the dreary London court. He could give the coals in that +queer coal-scuttle we read of to his neighbor; he could give away his +blankets in college to the poor widow, and warm himself as he best might +in the feathers; he could pawn his coat, to save his landlord from jail. +When he was a school-usher he spent his earnings in treats for the boys, +and the good-natured schoolmaster's wife said justly that she ought to +keep Mr. Goldsmith's money as well as the young gentlemen's. When he +met his pupils in later life, nothing would satisfy the Doctor but he +must treat them still. "Have you seen the print of me after Sir Joshua +Reynolds?" he asked of one of his old pupils. "Not seen it! Not bought +it! Sure, Jack, if your picture had been published, I'd not have been +without it half-an-hour." His purse and his heart were everybody's, +and his friend's as much as his own. When he was at the height of his +reputation, and the Earl of Northumberland, going as Lord Lieutenant +to Ireland, asked if he could be of any service to Doctor Goldsmith, +Goldsmith recommended his brother and not himself to the great man. +"My patrons," he gallantly said, "are the booksellers, and I want no +others." Hard patrons they were, and hard work he did; but he did not +complain much. If in his early writings some bitter words escaped him, +some allusions to neglect and poverty, he withdrew these expressions +when his Works were republished, and better days seemed to open for +him; and he did not dare to complain that printer and publisher had +overlooked his merit or left him poor. The Court's face was turned +from honest Oliver; the Court patronized Beattie. The fashion did not +shine on him; fashion adored Sterne; fashion pronounced Kelly to be +the great writer of comedy of his day. A little--not ill-humor--but +plaintiveness--a little betrayal of wounded pride which he showed +renders him not the less amiable. The author of the _Vicar of Wakefield_ +had a right to protest when Newbery kept back the manuscript for two +years; had a right to be a little peevish with Sterne,--a little angry +when Colman's actors declined their parts in his delightful comedy, when +the manager refused to have a scene painted for it and pronounced its +damnation before hearing. He had not the great public with him; but he +had the noble Johnson and the admirable Reynolds and the great Gibbon +and the great Burke and the great Fox,--friends and admirers illustrious +indeed, as famous as those who, fifty years before, sat round Pope's +table. + +Nobody knows, and I dare say Goldsmith's buoyant temper kept no account +of, all the pains which he endured during the early period of his +literary career. Should any man of letters in our day have to bear up +against such, Heaven grant he may come out of the period of misfortune +with such a pure, kind heart as that which Goldsmith obstinately bore in +his breast! The insults to which he had to submit were shocking to read +of,--slander, contumely, vulgar satire, brutal malignity, perverting +his commonest motives and actions. He had his share of these; and +one's anger is roused at reading of them, as it is at seeing a woman +insulted or a child assaulted, at the notion that a creature so very +gentle and weak, and full of love, should have to suffer so. And he +had worse than insult to undergo,--to own to fault, and deprecate the +anger of ruffians. There is a letter of his extant to one Griffiths, a +bookseller, in which poor Goldsmith is forced to confess that certain +books sent by Griffiths are in the hands of a friend from whom Goldsmith +had been forced to borrow money. "He was wild, sir," Johnson said, +speaking of Goldsmith to Boswell, with his great, wise benevolence and +noble mercifulness of heart,--"Dr. Goldsmith was wild, sir; but he is no +more." Ah! if we pity the good and weak man who suffers undeservedly, +let us deal very gently with him from whom misery extorts not only tears +but shame; let us think humbly and charitably of the human nature that +suffers so sadly and falls so low. Whose turn may it be to-morrow? What +weak heart, confident before trial, may not succumb under temptation +invincible? Cover the good man who has been vanquished,--cover his face +and pass on. + +For the last half-dozen years of his life Goldsmith was far removed from +the pressure of any ignoble necessity, and in the receipt, indeed, of +a pretty large income from the booksellers, his patrons. Had he lived +but a few years more, his public fame would have been as great as his +private reputation, and he might have enjoyed alive part of that esteem +which his country has ever since paid to the vivid and versatile genius +who has touched on almost every subject of literature, and touched +nothing that he did not adorn. Except in rare instances, a man is +known in our profession and esteemed as a skilful workman years before +the lucky hit which trebles his usual gains, and stamps him a popular +author. In the strength of his age and the dawn of his reputation, +having for backers and friends the most illustrious literary men of +his time, fame and prosperity might have been in store for Goldsmith +had fate so willed it, and at forty-six had not sudden disease taken +him off. I say prosperity rather than competence; for it is probable +that no sum could have put order into his affairs, or sufficed for his +irreclaimable habits of dissipation. It must be remembered that he owed +£2000 when he died. "Was ever poet," Johnson asked, "so trusted before?" +As has been the case with many another good fellow of his nation, his +life was tracked and his substance wasted by crowds of hungry beggars +and lazy dependents. If they came at a lucky time (and be sure they +knew his affairs better than he did himself, and watched his pay-day), +he gave them of his money; if they begged on empty-purse day, he gave +them his promissory bills, or he treated them to a tavern where he had +credit, or he obliged them with an order upon honest Mr. Filby for +coats,--for which he paid as long as he could earn, and until the shears +of Filby were to cut for him no more. Staggering under a load of debt +and labor; tracked by bailiffs and reproachful creditors; running from a +hundred poor dependents, whose appealing looks were perhaps the hardest +of all pains for him to bear; devising fevered plans for the morrow, new +histories, new comedies, all sorts of new literary schemes; flying from +all these into seclusion, and out of seclusion into pleasure,--at last, +at five-and-forty death seized him and closed his career. + + * * * * * + +The younger Colman has left a touching reminiscence of him: + +"I was only five years old," he says, "when Goldsmith took me on his +knee one evening whilst he was drinking coffee with my father, and began +to play with me,--which amiable act I returned, with the ingratitude of +a peevish brat, by giving him a very smart slap on the face: it must +have been a tingler, for it left the marks of my spiteful paw on his +check. This infantile outrage was followed by summary justice, and I +was locked up by my indignant father in an adjoining room to undergo +solitary imprisonment in the dark. Here I began to howl and scream most +abominably, which was no bad step toward my liberation, since those who +were not inclined to pity me might be likely to set me free for the +purpose of abating a nuisance. + +"At length a generous friend appeared to extricate me from jeopardy; +and that generous friend was no other than the man I had so wantonly +molested by assault and battery. It was the tender-hearted Doctor +himself, with a lighted candle in his hand and a smile upon his +countenance, which was still partially red from the effects of my +petulance. I sulked and sobbed as he fondled and soothed, till I began +to brighten. Goldsmith seized the propitious moment of returning +good-humor, when he put down the candle and began to conjure. He placed +three hats, which happened to be in the room, and a shilling under each: +the shillings, he told me, were England, France, and Spain. 'Hey, presto +cockalorum!' cried the Doctor; and lo, on uncovering the shillings, +which had been dispersed each beneath a separate hat, they were all +found congregated under one! I was no politician at five years old, and +therefore might not have wondered at the sudden revolution which brought +England, France, and Spain all under one crown; but as also I was no +conjuror, it amazed me beyond measure.... From that time, whenever the +Doctor came to visit my father, 'I plucked his gown to share the good +man's smile; a game at romps constantly ensued, and we were always +cordial friends and merry playfellows. Our unequal companionship varied +somewhat as to sports as I grew older; but it did not last long: my +senior playmate died in his forty-fifth year, when I had attained my +eleventh.... In all the numerous accounts of his virtues and foibles, +his genius and absurdities, his knowledge of nature and ignorance of the +world, his 'compassion for another's woes' was always predominant; and +my trivial story of his humoring a forward child weighs but as a feather +in the recorded scale of his benevolence." + +Think of him reckless, thriftless, vain, if you like,--but merciful, +gentle, generous, full of love and pity. He passes out of our life, +and goes to render his account beyond it. Think of the poor pensioners +weeping at his grave; think of the noble spirits that admired and +deplored him; think of the righteous pen that wrote his epitaph, and of +the wonderful and unanimous response of affection with which the world +has paid back the love he gave it. His humor delighting us still, his +song fresh and beautiful as when he first charmed with it, his words +in all our mouths, his very weaknesses beloved and familiar,--his +benevolent spirit seems still to smile upon us, to do gentle kindnesses, +to succor with sweet charity; to soothe, caress, and forgive; to plead +with the fortunate for the unhappy and the poor. + + +EXERCISES + + I. List the chief qualities that you find in some historic figure, + such as Oliver Cromwell, Louis XIV, Alexander Hamilton. Then make + a chronological list of the dates in the life. Compare the two + lists and determine how many members of the second list need to + be included to make an expository account intelligible. Do you + find other members which, though not really necessary, are so + interesting as to be worth including? Can you establish any + final general law about the relation of dates and qualities? + Make the same experiment upon the life of some one of your + acquaintances. + + II. What was the character of Michael Henchard, the chief figure in + Thomas Hardy's novel _The Mayor of Casterbridge_, that enabled + him to write the following as his epitaph? On the basis of the + epitaph write a life of Michael Henchard. + + _Michael Henchard's Will_ + + That Elizabeth--Jane Farfrae be not told of my death, or made + to grieve on account of me. + & that I be not bury'd in consecrated ground. + & that no sexton be asked to toll the bell. + & that nobody is wished to see my dead body. + & that no murners walk behind me at my funeral. + & that no flours be planted on my grave. + & that no man remember me. + To this I put my name. + + Michael Henchard. + + III. Write an obituary notice of an acquaintance of yours; of the + political "boss" of your town, county, state; of Abraham Lincoln; + of Ulysses S. Grant before he awoke to his opportunities, in the + Civil War, and another of him at the time of his death; of + Theodore Roosevelt before he formed the Progressive Party and + another of him after the election of 1916. Try in each case to + give the reader a knowledge of the character and of the events in + the life. + + IV. How much basis have you for making an estimate of the people of + whom the following were said, if you limit your knowledge to the + remark? + + 1. "To know her was a liberal education." + + 2. "He was the homeliest man that came up before Troy." + + 3. "No man ever came out of his presence without being braver + than when he went in." + + 4. "He never said a stupid thing and never did a wise one." + + 5. "He was a very perfect gentle knight." + + 6. "I never knew him to do a mean act." + + What conclusion do you draw as to the usefulness of general + remarks about character? + + V. What relation do you find between personality and character? On + which can you more surely depend for making a just estimate? + Which do contemporaries of a subject for biography usually + emphasize? + + VI. Explain how the mistake was possible by which Daniel Webster's + celebrated _Seventh of March Speech_ was interpreted at the time + of delivery as a betrayal of Webster's principles, although later + it was regarded as a speech of real integrity. + + VII. Explain how a man like Thomas Jefferson can be regarded by many + as a great statesman and by others, such as Mrs. Gertrude + Atherton for example, as a disgustingly vulgar person, almost a + rascal. What light does your explanation throw upon the duties + and dangers of writing biography? + + VIII. What light do the following remarks throw upon the speakers? How + much justification would you feel in using the remarks as basis + for biographical estimate? + + 1. "I would rather be right than President!" + + 2. "The state? I am the state!" + + 3. "The public be damned!" + + 4. "If they appoint me street scavenger I will so dignify the + office by dutiful service that every one will clamor for it." + + 5. "Gentlemen, I am an unconscionable time a-dying." + + 6. "When you find something that you are afraid to do, do it at + once!" + + 7. "I never asked a favor of any man." + + 8. "We haven't begun to fight!" + + IX. Make the outline for an expository biography of one of the large + figures of history, including the important events and showing + the relations with contemporaries and the effect upon them. Then + make a similar outline for the biography of some comparatively + humble person of whom you know who has affected a more restricted + group of contemporaries. Compare the two with a view to making + this statement: As the great man was to his large group, so the + lesser man was to his smaller group. What light does this shed on + the individual life without regard to station in society? + + X. Write a life of Napoleon from the point of view of Wellington, of + Prince Metternich, of Louis Philippe; a life of Robert Burns from + the point of view of a country parson, of François Villon + (supposing that Villon knew Burns), of William Shakespeare; a + life of Michael Angelo from the point of view of an art student, + of a humble worshiper in St. Peter's; a life of Richard Croker + from the point of view of a ward boss, of a widow who has + received coal for years from Tammany Hall, of an old-time + gentleman in New York City; a life of Andrew Carnegie from the + point of view of a laborer in the steel mills, of a spinster + librarian in a small quiet town, of a college senior who is a + member of the I.W.W., of a holder of shares in the steel trust; + a life of Edison from the point of view of an artist who prefers + candles to electricity, of a farmer's wife who no longer has to + clean a multitude of lamps; a life of Jane Addams from the point + of view of a political gangster, of a poor Italian woman whom + Miss Addams has befriended, of a college girl who has a vision of + woman's larger usefulness. + + XI. Write the life of a man who has just been elected to some office + of prominence, such as a seat in the state senate or perhaps to + the national house of representatives, and who is expected + by all his friends and acquaintances to make a brilliant record. + Then write another of the same man who has ignominiously failed + to meet expectations and who has come back to his home town with + a ruined reputation. Try to take the point of view of a person + who does not know that the career is to fail, and then see how + you will modify the whole account in the second life. + + XII. What is the central motive in Goldsmith's life as found by + Thackeray? How does he bring out his conception of Goldsmith? + Make an outline of the article in which you will list the + various events in Goldsmith's life. Make another outline to + show wherein the character and quality of the man are shown. + Is enough given in each case to make sufficient knowledge on + the reader's part? Do you think that Thackeray overemphasizes + the sentimental appeal of Goldsmith's weaknesses and his mellow + kindness? Do you find any element of information about the + man conspicuously lacking, as, for instance, a statement of + Goldsmith's friendships, his effect upon his times, or his + beliefs? Is there any lack of imaginative sympathy on the part of + Thackeray? Suppose that an efficient business man had written the + article, would Goldsmith's lack of responsibility have escaped so + easily? In the light of your answer to the preceding question do + you think that the article is really fair? + +_Translation of Béranger's poem_ (page 285) + +Cast upon this ball, plain, insignificant and suffering; choked in the +crowd, through not being tall enough; my lips utter a piteous complaint. +God says to me, "Sing, child, sing." To sing, or I mistake, is my task +here below. Will not all those whom I thus amuse love me? + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +THE GATHERING OF MATERIAL FOR WRITING + + +Two main sources exist from which you can get the material for +expository themes: books, including magazines and papers; and lectures +or interviews of any kind. Libraries differ greatly in the degree of +convenience, and some lecturers are much more readily intelligible than +others, and their lectures much more easily codified in notes. Even +the most conveniently arranged library, with the most accommodating +librarian, is rather formidable unless one knows the method of approach. +And until one has thought out the problem of taking notes from lectures, +even the most intelligible speaker presents great difficulties. Perhaps +a few words here will be of some use in unriddling the mysteries. + +First of all a word needs to be said about the greatest slavery of +modern times--slavery to the printed word. "I read it in a book!" +is still for many people sufficient reason for believing anything, +however untrue, illogical, impossible it may be. It is well to remember +that nearly everybody writes books and yet very few of us are wise. +Obviously, not everything can be authoritative, especially when it is +contradicted in the next book. A reader without a good steadying sense +of balance, a shrewd determination to weigh what he reads and judge +of its value for himself is as helpless as a man in a whirlpool. You +need not be too stiff-necked toward a book, need not deny for the mere +sake of denial, but you do need to stand off and regard every book with +reasonable caution. Sometimes you can see for yourself that what is +said is not true. Sometimes you can at once feel that the spirit of the +book is unsafe, wild, unthinking. Sometimes you will detect at once a +blinding prejudice. Then be cautious. If the subject is unknown to you, +so that you have no safe basis for judgment about it, you are, to look +the matter squarely in the face, at the mercy of the book. But shrewd +inquiries as to the author's reputation, his opportunities for knowledge +of the subject, and an ever-watchful eye for reasonableness and good +judgment, will save you from many mistakes. And always remember that the +mere fact of a statement's being in print does not make it more true +than it was when merely oral. Don't, then, believe a printed statement +which you would hotly deny if you heard it from the lips of some one. It +is a matter of intellectual self-respect to read and judge, not to read +and blindly swallow. + +Whether you read or listen, you will need to make notes. It would be +delightful if our flattering feeling that we can remember whatever we +read or hear were true--the trouble is, it is not. It is better to play +safe and have the record in notes, than to be too independent and find a +blank in your mind when time to write arrives. + +The chief virtue in note-taking is economy. Economy saves time, space, +effort. The three interweave and are inextricable, in the total, but +may be somewhat distinguished. As to time: there is no virtue whatever +in slaving for hours over notes that need only a few minutes. Notes +are tools: their object is temporary, to be of service for composition +or future reference; they are not an object in themselves. Do not +worship them. On the other hand, since dull tools will not cut, don't +slight them. No greater pity can exist than for the pale student who +wrinkles her brow--it usually is _her_ brow--and attempts to make of +notes a complete transcription of a lecture or a book, with each comma +and every letter in proper sequence joined--only to pack the notes +away in a box in the attic--or perhaps burn them! A builder who should +have too meticulous care for his scaffolding is in danger of never +seeing his building completed. Notes seek essentials, and therefore +time should not be wasted on non-essentials. But, since slovenly, +ill-assorted, illegible notes require extraordinary time for deciphering +and arranging, it is of the greatest importance that you conserve +your future minutes by making your notes neat, ordered, legible. Any +abbreviations that you can surely remember are most useful. A complete +sentence--which really has no special need for completeness--that you +cannot read is worthless, but a few words that indicate the gist of +the thought, and are immediately legible, are most valuable. Moreover, +if you take time enough for every word, you are in danger of becoming +so engrossed in penmanship as to lose the broad sweep of the lecture +or book. Notes must drive toward unity and away from chaos. Your first +principle, then, should be to set down neatly what will be of real +service, and let the rest go. + +As to space--any one who has made manuscripts from notes has learned +how irritating, how bewildering a huge mass of material can be. Some +subjects require such a mass, and in such a case the note-taker will use +as much space as he needs. But economy, which is the cardinal virtue, +will require as little diffusion, as great concentration as possible. If +you can succeed in including everything of value on one sheet, instead +of scattering it over several, you are to be congratulated. Only, be +sure that you do not neglect something of real value. You can often +save much space and effort and the use of stores of connecting words +and phrases if you will indent and subordinate sub-topics so that the +eye will show the relation at once. Such practice is admirable mental +training, also, for it teaches the listener or reader to keep his brain +detached for seeing relationships, for grasping the parts in relation to +the whole and to each other. If interesting remarks which do not bear +directly upon the main subject attract with sufficient intensity to +make record worth while, set them down in brackets, to indicate their +nature. Remembering, then, that a concentrated barrage is of more value +in attack than scattered fire, use as little space as may suffice for +the essentials. That is the second principle. + +As to effort, remember that the old sea-captain whose boat was so leaky +that he declared he had pumped the whole Atlantic through it on one +voyage would have entered port more easily with a better boat. If you +do not take time and pains for grouping and ordering as you make your +notes, be sure that you will have much pumping to do when the article is +to be made. Grouping and ordering require concentration in reading or +listening--but there is no harm in that. You ought to be able to write +one thing and listen to another at the same time. Watch especially for +any indication in a lecture of change in topic. And don't be bothered by +the demands of formal rhetoric: if a complete sentence stands in your +way, set your foot on it and "get the stuff." And, of course, avoid a +feverish desire to set down every word that may be uttered; any one who +has seen the notebooks of students in which reports of lectures begin +with such records as "This morning, in pursuance of our plan, we shall +consider the topic mentioned last time, namely,--etc." become aware of +the enormous waste of energy that college students show. Essentials, set +down in athletic leanness--that is the ideal. + +In taking notes from books, people differ greatly. Some use a separate +slip for each note, and much can be said in commendation of this system. +Some are able to heap everything together and then divine where each +topic is. In any case, strive for economy, catch the "high spots," +and as far as possible keep like with like, notes on the same topic +together. It is always well, often imperative, to jot down the source of +each note, so that you can either verify or later judge of the value in +the light of the worth of the source. + +Note-taking, in other words, is a matter of brains and common sense: +brains to see what is important, and sense to see that neatness and +order are essential to true economy, the great virtue of notes. + +With the best of intentions, then, you enter the library. Since each +library is arranged on a somewhat individual scheme, and different +collections have different materials, you will need to examine the +individual library. A wise student will inquire at the desk for any +pamphlet that may help to unriddle the special system. Librarians are +benevolent people, do not wish to choke you, and are glad to answer any +reasonable question. If your questions are formless, if you really do +not know what you want, sit down on the steps and think it over until +you do, and then enter boldly and politely ask for information. Don't, +if you wish to learn about ship subsidies, for example, stroll in and +inquire for "Some'n 'bout boats?" The complimentarily implied power +of reading your mind is not especially welcome to even a librarian +who is subject to vanity--and incidentally he may think that you are +irresponsible. Any one who has been connected with a college library +knows that the notorious questions such as "Have you Homer's Eyelid?" +are not uncommon--and seldom bring desired results. + +Since you have entered for information, summon all your resourcefulness +to try every possibility before you agree that there is no help for +you there. You can use the Card Catalogue, the Reference Books, the +Indexes, Year-Books and Magazine Guides, and finally, if every other +source fails, can lay your troubles before the librarian--but not until +you have fought bravely. Too many students are faint-hearted: if they +wish for information about, let us say, employers' liability, and do +not at once find a package of information ready-wrapped, they sigh, +and then smile, and then brightly inform the instructor, "The library +hasn't a single word about that subject!" The Card Catalogue does not +list employers' liability, let us say, and you do not know any authors +who have written on the subject. Do not despair; look up _insurance_, +_workmen_, _accidents_, _social legislation_, _government help_, and +other such titles until your brain can think of nothing more. Only then +resort to outside help. + +The Card Catalogue will contain a card for each book in the library: +if you know the title, look for it. If you know the author but not the +title, look for the "author card." If you know neither author nor title, +look for the general subject heading. For each book will usually have +the three cards of subject, author, and title. If the subject is a broad +one, such, for example, as _Engineering_, do not set yourself the task +of looking through every card, but, if you wish for a treatise on the +history of engineering, look for the word _History_, in the engineering +cards, and then examine what books may be collected under that heading. +If you find cross references, that is, a recommendation to "see" other +individual cards, or other subject headings, do not overlook the chance +to gain added information. + +Most of us too often forget the encyclopædias. If the catalogue has been +exhausted, then see what the encyclopædias may contain. Look in the +volume that contains the index, first, for often a part of an article +will tell you exactly what you wish, but the article as a whole will +not be listed under the subject that you are seeking. The _Encyclopædia +Britannica_, the _New International_, the _Nelson's Loose Leaf_ will +be of service on general topics. For agriculture consult _Bailey's +Encyclopædia_. For religion see the _Encyclopædia of Religion and +Ethics_ (Scribner), the _Jewish Encyclopædia_, the _New Schaff-Herzog +Encyclopædia of Religious Knowledge_ (Funk and Wagnalls), the _Catholic +Encyclopædia_ (Robert Appleton). + +For dictionaries you will find the _Murray's New English Dictionary_, +often called the _Oxford Dictionary_, _The Standard Dictionary_, _The +Century_, _Webster's New International_, _Black's Law Dictionary_ and +others. + +Often you will wish to find contemporary, immediate material. The +magazines are regularly catalogued in the _Reader's Guide_, month +by month, with a combined quarterly and yearly and then occasional +catalogue, with the articles listed under the subject and the title or +author. Use your resourcefulness here, as you did in the card catalogue, +and do not give up. _Poole's Index_ will also help. + +Many annuals are of value. The _World Almanac_ has a bewildering mass +of information, as does the _Eagle Almanac_ for New York City and Long +Island especially. The _Canadian Annual Review_, the _Statesman's +Year-Book_, _Heaton's Annual_ (Canadian), the _New International Year +Book_, which is "a compendium of the world's progress for the year," +the _Annual Register_ (English), the _Navy League Annual_ (English, +but inclusive), and the _American Year-Book_, among others, will be of +service. Often these books will give you the odd bit of information that +you have hunted for in vain elsewhere. For engineering, the _Engineering +Index_ (monthly and collected) is useful. + +For biography you will find Stephen's _Dictionary of National Biography_ +useful, and Lamb's _Biographical Dictionary of the United States_. +Do not forget the _Who's Who_, the _Who's Who in America_, and the +corresponding foreign books for brief information about current people +of note. + +For what may be called scattered information you can go to the _American +Library Association Index_ to general literature, _The Information +Quarterly_ (Bowker), _The Book Review Digest_ (Wilson), _The United +States Catalog_ (with its annual _Cumulative Book Index_), and the +(annual) _English Catalogue of Books_. + +In using a book, employ the Table of Contents and the Index to save +time. For example, you will thus be referred to page 157 for what you +want. If instead you begin to hunt page by page, you will find that +after you have patiently run your eyes back and forth over the first 156 +pages, your brain will be less responsive than you would wish when you +finally arrive at page 157. Moreover, there is all that time lost! + +Often individual libraries have compiled lists of their own books on +various subjects. If you can find such lists, use them. + +In other words, the search for material and the taking of notes is a +matter of strategy: it requires that the seeker use his wits, plan his +campaign, find what is available, and in the briefest time compatible +with thoroughness assimilate whatever of it is of value. Caution and +indefatigable zeal and resourcefulness--these are almost sure to win the +day. + + + + +INDEX OF ILLUSTRATIVE SELECTIONS + + + Amiel's _Journal_, "Mozart and Beethoven", 277-278 + + Antin, Mary, _The Promised Land_, "The Making of an American", + 186-189 + + _Atlantic Monthly_, The Contributor's Club, "The Privileges of + Age", 245-247 + + Aumonier, Stacy, "Solemn-Looking Blokes" (_Century Magazine_), + 29-33 + + + Bagehot, Walter, _Works_, vol. III, "A Constitutional + Statesman", 227-229 + + Belloc, Hilaire, _First and Last_, "On a Great Wind", 244 + + Bradford, Gamaliel, _Confederate Portraits_, "Judah P. + Benjamin", 264 + + Brooke, Rupert, _Collected Poems_, "The Great Lover", 234-235 + + Bullard, F. Lauriston, _Famous War Correspondents_, "A + Definition of the Correspondent", 78 + + Burdick, Francis M, _The Essentials of Business Law_-- + "Definition of the Clearing-House", 76 + "Definition of Sale", 105 + + Burroughs, John, _Birds and Bees_, "An Idyl of the Honey-Bee", + 48-55 + Outline of "An Idyl of the Honey-Bee", 64-66 + _Birds and Poets_, "Emerson's Literary Quality", 224 + _Leaf and Tendril_, "A Breath of April", 247-249 + + Burton, Richard, _Little Essays in Literature and Life_, "The + Nature of the Informal Essay", 243-244 + + Butler, Samuel, _The Note-Books of Samuel Butler_, "A Group of + Definitions", 109 + + + Cannon, J. G, _Clearing-Houses_, "Classification of + Clearing-Houses", 140 + + Carlyle, Thomas, _Essay on Biography_, Selection from, 275-276 + Sartor Resartus, "The Entepfuhl Road", 40 + + _Century Magazine_, "The Hydraulic Cartridge", 161-162 + "The Phonopticon", 171-172 + + Corbin, John, _An American at Oxford_, "How to Handle a Punt", + 163-164 + + Corbin, T. W, _Engineering of To-day_, "Cargo Steamers", 203-205 + "The Oxygen Blow-Pipe", 161 + "Launching the Neptune", 178-181 + + Cram, R. A., _The Heart of Europe_, "Definition of the Heart", 104 + + Croly, Herbert, _The Promise of American Life_, "The American + Business Man", 197-199 + + + Dilley, Arthur U, _Oriental Rugs_, "A Classification of Rugs", + 119-122 + + + Eliot, George, _The Mill on the Floss_, "The Scenery of the + Rhone", 124-125 + + Emerson, Ralph Waldo, _Conduct of Life_, "Fate", 27-28; 36-37 + _Nature, Addresses, and Lectures_, "A Definition of + Conservative and Innovator", 93-95 + _Society and Solitude_, "Definition of Civilization in + America", 98-99 + + Escott, T. H. S, _Great Victorians_, "Balfour", 271 + + + Gardiner, A. G., _Prophets, Priests, and Kings_, "Balfour", 148 + "King Edward VII", 148-149 + "Lord Morley", 19 + "Thomas Hardy", 149-150 + + Garland, Hamlin, _A Son of the Middle Border_, a sentence from, 45 + + Gissing, George, _The Private Papers of Henry Ryecroft_-- + "Apples for Diet", 21-22 + "A Definition of Art", 7 + "A Definition of Poverty", 84-85 + "English Cooking", 210-211 + "Military Drill", 225-226 + "The Sportswoman", 128-129 + "The 'Tempest'", 213-214 + "Vegetarianism", 222-223 + + Green, J. R., _Short History of the English People_, "Estimate + of the Character of Elizabeth", 122-123 + + Greenough and Kittredge, _Words and Their Ways in English + Speech_, "The Process of Radiation", 181-183 + + + Haweis, Rev. Mr., _Music and Morals_, "The Character of J. R. + Green", 268-269 + + Hawthorne, Nathaniel, _Our Old Home_, "English Weather", 126-128 + + Henderson, W. H., _What is Good Music_-- + "Criticism of Musical Performances", 230 + "The Modern Orchestra", 152-153 + + Howells, W. D., _A Boy's Town_, "The Difference Between Boys + and Men", 107 + + Hungerford, Edward, _The Personality of American Cities_, + "Boston", 68-69 + + + Judy, A. M., _From the Study to the Farm_, "The Farmer's + Life", 150-151 + + + Lounsbury, T. R., _English Spelling and Spelling Reform_, + "Final e", 205-208 + + Lucke, C. E., _Power_, "The Mechanical Engineer", 98 + "The Problem of Power Machinery", 137 + "Water Power", 151-152 + + + Masefield, John, _Gallipoli_, "The Horror of the Fight", 69-70 + + Morley, John, _Miscellanies_, vol. I, "The Distinction Between + the Poetic and the Scientific Spirit", 105-106 + + Morman, J. B., _The Principles of Rural Credit_, + "Amortization", 85-86 + + + Pollak, Gustav, _Fifty Years of American Idealism_-- + "Jingo Morality", 220-222 + "Lowell at St. James", 193-194 + "Moral Atmosphere", 91-93 + "Responsible Statesman", 87 + + Prelini, Charles, _Dredges and Dredging_, "The Operation of + Dredges", 170 + + + Royce, Josiah, "Nietzsche" (_Atlantic Monthly_), 131 + + Russell, Bertrand, _National Independence and Internationalism_-- + "National Sentiment", 226-227 + "State and Nation", 89-90 + _Why Men Fight_, "Impulse and Desire", 132-135 + + + Sainte-Beuve, "Definition of a Classic", 91 + + _Scientific American_, "The Catskill Water Supply", 185-186 + + _Scribner's Magazine_, The Point of View, "The New Poetry", 200-201 + + Sedgwick, H. D., _The New American Type_, "Honor", 108 + + Shakespeare, William, _King Henry IV_, "Bardolph on + 'Accommodate'", 81-82 + + Sharp, Dallas Lore, _The Hills of Hingham_, "The Carpet + Layer", 173-174 + + Shaw, G. B., _Dramatic Opinions and Essays_-- + "The Odds Against Shakespeare", 116-117 + _Sanity of Art_, "Definition of Artist", 103 + "Indispensability of Law", 153-156 + "Passion", 146-147 + "Pattern Designers and Dramatic Composers", 111-112 + _Society and Superior Brains_-- + "Ability that Gives Value for Money", 85 + "Superiority of Status", 109-110 + + Slicer, T. R., _From Poet to Premier_, "O. W. Holmes", 272 + + Standard Dictionary, Definition of "Correspondent", 78 + + Stevenson, R. L., "Pulvis et Umbra", 55-57 + "The sun upon my shoulders", 45 + + + Talbot, F. A., _The Making of a Great Canadian Railway_-- + "The Stone Boat", 165 + "The Track Layer", 166-168 + + Taylor, B. L., _The Line o' Type Column_, "Highbrow," etc., 102 + + Thackeray, W. M., _The English Humorists of the Eighteenth + Century_, "Oliver Goldsmith", 285-294 + + + Warner, Frances L., "The Amateur Chessman" (From The Point of + View, _Scribner's Magazine_), 249-252 + + Webster's New International Dictionary, Definition of "Art", 6 + A series of definitions, 100-101 + + Wendell, Barrett, _English Composition_, "Carlyle's Frederick + the Great", 279-280 + + Weston, E. M., _Rock Drills_, "Hammer Drills", 115-116 + "Tappet Valve Drills", 219-220 + + Wister, Owen, _Quack Novels and Democracy_, "The Quack Novel", 88-89 + + + + +INDEX + + + Ability of the critic to analyze, 192-194. + + Adaptation of treatment to subject, 6. + + Addison, Joseph, 233-236. + + Aids in gaining clearness in Mechanisms, Processes, and + Organizations, 169-172. + + Aids in gaining interest in Mechanisms, Processes, and + Organizations, 172-175. + + Aids in solving the problem in Expository Biography, 261-265. + + Amiel, Frederic, 277. + + Amount of expository writing, 2. + + Analysis, 8, 113-143; + definition of, 113; + enumeration as one kind of informal analysis, 129; + equation as one kind of informal analysis, 130; + formal analysis, 118; + informal analysis, 129-137; + kinds of analysis, the two, 115-118; + kinds of informal analysis, 129-137; + object of informal analysis, 124; + the principles of analysis, 138-143; + relationship as a form of informal analysis, 131; + statement of a problem as a form of informal analysis, 136; + statement of significance as a form of informal analysis, 130; + the two virtues of analysis, 114. + + Analyzing the character in Expository Biography, 270-275. + + Antin, Mary, 189. + + Appreciative method of criticism, 209-215. + + Aumonier, Stacy, 29. + + + Bagehot, Walter, 229. + + Balfour, Arthur James, 273. + + Barrie, Sir J. M., 241, 263. + + Beethoven, Ludwig van, 278. + + Belloc, Hilaire, 239, 244. + + Biography, Expository, 257-296; + aid in solving the problem of, 261-265; + analyzing the character of the hero, 270-275; + beliefs of the hero, 273; + choice of events in hero's life for, 276-277; + defining the hero's character, 266-270; + deeds of the hero, 274; + events in hero's life, use of, 275-280; + friends of the hero, 274; + heredity of the hero, 270-272; + interests of the hero, 272; + kinds of, 257; + lesson, danger of making one, 282; + life problem of the hero, 258-260; + object of expository biography, 258; + problem, the chief, of expository biography, 258-261; + problem of telling the truth, 280-281; + process of solving the problem, 266-274; + relation of events to personality, 277-278; + relation of hero to society and times, 278-280; + rhetorical form of expository biography, 282-285; + rhetorical value of events, 280. + + B. L. T., 102. + + Boswell, James, 267, 279, 281. + + Bradford, Gamaliel, 264, 267, 281. + + Breadth of interest in writer of Informal Essays, 233-234. + + Brooke, Rupert, 234. + + Brooks, Sidney, 43. + + Brown, John, 238, 241. + + Browne, Sir Thomas, 262. + + Bullard, F. Lauriston, 78. + + Burdick, Francis M., 76, 105. + + Burroughs, John, 40, 41, 47, 224, 238, 247. + + Burton, Richard, 243. + + Butler, Samuel, 109. + + Byron, Lord, 200, 274. + + + Cannon, J. G., 140. + + Carlyle, Thomas, 40, 258, 265, 272, 275, 279. + + Catalogs, use of, 301-302. + + Cause for stupidity in expository writing, 4, 25. + + Cause, method of showing, in definition, 97. + + Cautions about definitions, 80. + + Cavour, 266. + + Centralization, finding the root principle in mechanisms, etc., + 159-162. + + Chesterton, Gilbert, 240, 241. + + Cicero, 12. + + Classification, 8, 117. + + Clearness: + aids in gaining, 169-172; + in explaining mechanisms, etc., 157, 162. + + Coleridge, Samuel T., 215. + + Comparison and contrast, method of in defining, 86. + + Controlling purpose: + definition of, 16; + emotional reaction to, 26-33; + practical use of, 39-47; + proper use of, 33-38; + source of, 16-26; + source of in reader's attitude, 22-25; + source of in subject, 16-18; + source of in writer's attitude, 18-22; + stated in one sentence, 37; + value, relative, of sources for, 25. + + Cooper, James F., 196. + + Corbin, John, 164. + + Corbin, T. W., 161, 181, 205. + + Cowley, 232. + + Cram, Ralph Adams, 104. + + Critic, the: + ability to analyze, 192-194; + common sense, 195; + knowledge of the general field of criticism, 194-195; + open-mindedness, 195-196. + + Criticism, 190-217; + ability to analyze, possessed by the critic, 192-194; + common sense of critic, 195; + criticism and comment, 91; + definition of, 190; + diction in, 216-217; + knowledge of general field, possessed by critic, 194-195; + methods: + appreciative, 209-215; + historical, 196-202; + standards, 202-209; + open-mindedness of critic, 195-196; + practical helps for writing, 215-217; + range of criticism, 191. + + Croly, Herbert, 129, 199. + + Crothers, S. M., 237, 240. + + + Da Vinci, Leonardo, 273. + + Deeds of hero in Expository Biography, 274. + + Defining the character of the hero in Expository Biography, + 266-270. + + Definition of analysis, 113; + of criticism, 190; + of informal essay, 231. + + Definition: 8, 73-112; + cautions, general, about, 80; + definition of, 73; + differentia and genus, 77; + difficulty in discovering genus, 74; + methods of defining: + of comparison or contrast, 86; + of division, 90; + of elimination, 95; + of illustration, 83; + of repetition, 93; + of showing origin, cause, and effect, 97; + process of definition, 74; + restricting the genus, 77; + two classes of, 78. + + Demosthenes, 12. + + De Quincey, 242. + + Dictionaries, use of, 302. + + Dilley, Arthur U., 122. + + Douglas, Stephen A., 274. + + + Economy, in note-taking, 298-299. + + Edwards, Jonathan, 27. + + Elimination as a method in definition, 95. + + Eliot, George, 124-125. + + Emerson, Ralph Waldo, 1, 27, 93, 95, 98, 224, 271, 282. + + Emotions, the, and the controlling purpose, 26-33. + + Encyclopædias, use of, 302. + + Enumeration as a form of informal analysis, 129. + + Equation as a form of informal analysis, 130. + + Escott, T. H. S., 271. + + Essay. _See_ Informal Essay. + + Events in hero's life for expository biography, 275-280. + + Exposition: + amount of, 2; + answers questions, 1, 2; + causes for stupidity in writing exposition, 4, 25; + emotions and exposition, 27; + problem, the, in writing, 11; + success of, 12; + task of, 9-10; + truth of, 7. + + + Formal analysis, 118. + + Franz, Robert, 276. + + Freeman, Mrs. M. E. W., 199. + + Friends of the hero in expository biography, 274. + + + Gardiner, A. G., 19, 148, 149, 150. + + Garland, Hamlin, 45. + + Gissing, George, 7, 21, 84, 103, 128, 209, 214, 223, 226. + + Goethe, Johann, 270. + + Goldsmith, Oliver, 267, 284, 285. + + Gray, 270. + + Green, J. R., 28, 268. + + Greenough and Kittredge, 183. + + + Hardy, Thomas, 294. + + Haweis, the Rev. Mr., 268. + + Hawthorne, Nathaniel, 126. + + Hazlitt, 195, 231, 232, 236, 238, 243. + + Henderson, W. H., 153, 230. + + Henry, Patrick, 12. + + Heredity in expository biography, 270-272. + + Historical method of criticism, 196-202. + + Holmes, O. W., 271-272. + + Howells, W. D., 107. + + Humor in the informal essay, 241-242. + + Hungerford, Edward, 69. + + Hunt, Leigh, 238. + + Husband, Joseph, 239. + + Huxley, Thomas, 44. + + + Illustration as a method of definition, 83. + + Imaginative sympathy in expository biography, 261-265. + + Informal analysis, 123-138. + + Informal Essay, 231-244; + breadth of interest in author of, 233-234; + definition of, 231; + humor in, 241-242; + nature as subject for, 238-239; + not too exhaustive, 242; + not too serious, 240-242; + not too rhetorically strict, 242-243; + people as subjects for, 237-238; + personal nature, 232-233; + range of subject, 237; + things as subjects for, 239-240. + + Interest in writing, 2; + aids to gain, in mechanisms, processes and organizations, + 172-175; + of two kinds, 3; + relation to underlying thought, 8. + + Interpreting and reporting, 5. + + + James, William, 4, 44, 266. + + Jefferies, Richard, 239. + + Jewett, Miss S. O., 199. + + Johnson, Dr. Samuel, 81, 233. + + Judicial criticism, here treated as criticism by standards, + 202-209. + + Judy, A. M., 151. + + + Labouchere, Henry, 9. + + Lamb, Charles, 6, 26, 232, 235, 242, 262. + + Lamb, Mary, 259. + + Lee, Robert E., 274, 277. + + Libraries: + catalogues of, 301-302; + dictionaries, 302; + encyclopædias, 302; + use of, 301-304. + + Lincoln, Abraham, 2, 16, 87, 269, 270. + + Liszt, Franz, 276. + + Lounsbury, Thomas, 205. + + Lowell, J. R., 271. + + Lucke, C. E., 98, 137, 152. + + + Masefield, John, 69, 70, 71. + + Materials: + ordering of, 41-47; + selecting of, 39-41. + + Mechanisms, 157-175; + aids for gaining clearness, 169-172; + aids for gaining interest, 172-175; + cautions, 158-159; + centralization, 159-162; + expression of root principle in one sentence, 160-161; + necessity for clearness, 157-158; + orders to be followed, 164-168. + + Meredith, George, 241. + + Methods, in criticism: + appreciative, 209-215; + historical, 196-202; + standards, 202-209; + in definition: + comparison and contrast, 86; + division, 90; + elimination, 95; + illustration, 83; + origin, cause, and effect, 97; + repetition, 93. + + Middleton, Richard, 240. + + More, P. E., 115, 123. + + Morley, John, 18, 105-106. + + Morman, J. B., 85. + + Mozart, W. A., 277. + + + Notes: + care in taking, 300; + economy the chief virtue, 298-299; + methods of taking, 300; + space of notes, 299-300. + + + Order of Material, 41-47. + + Organizations: 157-162 (general discussion), 168-169; + aids to clearness, 169-172; + aids to interest, 172-175. + + + Parkman, Francis, 236. + + Parr, 279. + + Partition, 8, 117. + + People as subjects for informal essays, 237-238. + + Pericles, 273. + + Poe, E. A., 12. + + Pollak, Gustav, 86, 93, 194, 222. + + Prelini, Charles, 170. + + Problem, statement of a, in informal analysis, 136. + + Problem of expository biography, 248-261. + + Processes: 157-162 (general discussion), 162-164; + aids to gaining clearness in, 169-172; + aids to gaining interest in, 172-175. + + + Relation of events to personality in expository biography, 277-278. + + Relation of hero to society and times in expository biography, + 278-280. + + Repetition as a method in definition, 93. + + Reporting vs. interpreting, 5. + + Reynolds, Sir Joshua, 208. + + Rhetorical strictness absent in informal essay, 242-243. + + Rhetorical value of events in expository biography, 280. + + Royce, Josiah, 131. + + Russell, Bertrand, 90, 135, 227. + + + Sainte-Beuve, 91. + + Scott, Sir Walter, 200. + + Sedgwick, H. D., 108. + + Selection of material, 39-41. + + Shakespeare, William, 12, 60, 81, 257. + + Sharp, Dallas Lore, 173, 174, 237, 238. + + Shaw, G. B., 85, 102, 110, 112, 117, 146, 147, 156. + + Sidney, Sir Philip, 9. + + Significance, statement of, as form of informal analysis, 130. + + Slavery to printed word, 297. + + Slicer, T. R., 277. + + Smith, Sydney, 241. + + Socrates, 263. + + Sources of the controlling purpose, 16, 26. + + Standards, criticism by, 202-209. + + Steele, Richard, 232. + + Stevenson, R. L., 6, 41, 45, 55, 58, 66, 237, 238, 241, 257, 259, + 260, 263, 271, 274, 281. + + Strategy, the problem of, in writing, 11. + + Sympathy, imaginative, in expository biography, 261-265. + + + Taft, Wm. H., 46. + + Talbot, F. A., 165, 168. + + Taylor, Bert Lester, 102. + + Tennyson, Alfred, 26, 274. + + Thackeray, Wm. M., 258, 284. + + Truth, as related to interest, 7-8. + + + Unification, 13-14. + + + Warner, C. D., 238, 239. + + Warner, Frances L., 249. + + Webster, Daniel, 173. + + Weston, E. 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Folie % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % %% % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % %% % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % %% % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % \begin{document} \begin{frame} \frametitle{Web Mining \\ 1. "Ubung} -\textbf{Gruppe:} +\textbf{Gruppe 22:} \begin{itemize} \item Ulf Gebhardt \item Victor-Philipp Negoescu @@ -77,7 +76,10 @@ Gesammelte Trainingsdaten k"onnten nun entsprechend dieser Zuweisung in die pass \begin{frame} \frametitle{1. Aufgabe \\ L"osung} \textbf{Einsatz des gelernten Klassifikators in der Praxis:} - +\begin{itemize} +\item Unbekannte Texte, welche durch einen Vorverarbeitungsschritt als passend zu einem gegebenen Produkt erkannt wurden, k"onnen in die definierten drei Klassen eingeteilt werden. +\item Diese Methode k"onnte die Bewertung der "Offentlichkeit eines bestimmtes Produktes oder einer Marke quantitativ beschreiben, obwohl keine explizite quantitative Bewertung vorgenommen wurde. +\end{itemize} \end{frame} % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % 2. Aufgabe % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % %% % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % @@ -94,31 +96,40 @@ Schreiben Sie ein einfaches Programm, das eine sortierte Liste der in einem Text \begin{frame} \frametitle{2. Aufgabe \\ L"osung} +Untersuchte Texte: +\begin{itemize} +\item {[}1{]} William Lewins. \textit{A Histroy of Banks for Saving in Great Britain and Ireland} (http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/42583) +\item {[}2{]} Amanda Minnie Douglas. \textit{A Little Girl in Old San Francisco} (http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/42582) +\item {[}3{]} James Curl. \textit{Expository Writing by Mervin} (http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/42580) +\item {[}4{]} Goswin Uphues.\textit{ Einf"uhrung in die moderne Logik. Erster Teil} (http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/24172) +\end{itemize} \end{frame} \begin{frame} \frametitle{2. Aufgabe \\ L"osung} +\begin{figure} +\noindent\includegraphics[height=5.5cm,keepaspectratio]{grafiken/a2_abb1.png} +\caption{Auflistung der 30 h"aufigsten W"orter (Texte {[}1{]} {[}2{]} {[}3{]})} +\end{figure} \end{frame} \begin{frame} \frametitle{2. Aufgabe \\ L"osung} +\begin{figure} +\noindent\includegraphics[height=5.5cm,keepaspectratio]{grafiken/a2_abb2.png} +\caption{Auflistung der 30 h"aufigsten W"orter ohne Stoppw"orter (Texte {[}1{]} {[}2{]} {[}3{]})} +\end{figure} \end{frame} \begin{frame} \frametitle{2. Aufgabe \\ L"osung} +\begin{itemize} +\item Liste der 30 h"aufigsten W"orter besteht fast ausschließlich aus Stoppw"ortern +\item Somit eignet sich die Liste der Stoppw"orter f"ur eine Spracherkennung +\item Nach Entfernung der Stoppw"orter bleiben noch einige generisch verwendete W"orter (\al banks\grqq, \al savings\grqq) "ubrig mit welchen man die Dom"ane der untersuchten Texte erkennen kann. +\end{itemize} \end{frame} -\begin{frame} -\frametitle{2. Aufgabe \\ L"osung} -\end{frame} - -\begin{frame} -\frametitle{2. Aufgabe \\ L"osung} -\end{frame} - -\begin{frame} -\frametitle{2. Aufgabe \\ L"osung} -\end{frame} % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % 3. Aufgabe % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % %% % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % %% % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % %% % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % @@ -135,36 +146,63 @@ Die Auftrittswahrscheinlichkeiten von Worten in Texten folgen einer sogenannten \begin{frame} \frametitle{3. Aufgabe \\ L"osung} +\begin{figure} +\noindent\includegraphics[height=5.5cm,keepaspectratio]{grafiken/a3_abb3.png} +\caption{Absolute Worth"aufigkeit (y) "uber Wortrang (x), beide Achsen linear} +\end{figure} \end{frame} \begin{frame} \frametitle{3. Aufgabe \\ L"osung} +\begin{itemize} +\item Auftrittswahrscheinlichkeit der W"orter nimmt zu schnell ab +\item Somit keine annehmbare Visualisierung mit linearer Achsenskalierung m"oglich +\item Y-Werte sammeln sich nahe dem Nullpunkt und konvergieren schon sehr fr"uh gegen null +\end{itemize} \end{frame} \begin{frame} \frametitle{3. Aufgabe \\ L"osung} +\begin{figure} +\noindent\includegraphics[height=5.5cm,keepaspectratio]{grafiken/a3_abb4.png} +\caption{Abs. Worth"aufigkeit (y) "uber Wortrang (x), beide Achsen logarithmisch} +\end{figure} \end{frame} \begin{frame} \frametitle{3. Aufgabe \\ L"osung} +\begin{itemize} +\item Durch logarithmische Skalierung beider Achsen ergibt sich eine ann"ahernd linear fallende Kurve der Auftrittswahrscheinlichkeiten +\item Dies ist typisch f"ur die Zipf-Verteilung +\item Es entspricht einem stark negativen exponentiellen Wachstum der Y-Werte +\end{itemize} \end{frame} \begin{frame} \frametitle{3. Aufgabe \\ L"osung} +\begin{figure} +\noindent\includegraphics[height=5.5cm,keepaspectratio]{grafiken/a3_abb5.png} +\caption{Anzahl der W"orter mit einer bestimmten Frequenz, Achsen linear} +\end{figure} \end{frame} \begin{frame} \frametitle{3. Aufgabe \\ L"osung} +\begin{figure} +\noindent\includegraphics[height=5.5cm,keepaspectratio]{grafiken/a3_abb6.png} +\caption{Anzahl der W"orter mit einer bestimmten Frequenz, Achsen logarithmisch} +\end{figure} \end{frame} \begin{frame} \frametitle{3. Aufgabe \\ L"osung} + F"ur die Anzahl der W"orter, die sich eine bestimmte Auftrittswahrscheinlichkeit teilen ergibt sich ein "ahnliches Bild wie zuvor gesehen. Je seltener ein Wort gebraucht wird (x -> 0), desto (exponentiell-)gr"oßer ist die Wahrscheinlichkeit, dass ein anderes Wort genauso oft vorkommt. \end{frame} @@ -179,36 +217,58 @@ Modifizieren Sie das Programm, so dass es nicht Worte sondern Buchstaben und Buc \begin{frame} \frametitle{4. Aufgabe \\ L"osung} +\begin{figure} +\noindent\includegraphics[height=5.5cm,keepaspectratio]{grafiken/a4_abb7.png} +\caption{10 h"aufigsten Buchstaben und -paare (Text {[}1{], englischer Text)}} +\end{figure} \end{frame} \begin{frame} \frametitle{4. Aufgabe \\ L"osung} +\begin{figure} +\noindent\includegraphics[height=5.5cm,keepaspectratio]{grafiken/a4_abb8.png} +\caption{10 h"aufigsten Buchstaben und -paare (Text {[}2{], englischer Text)}} +\end{figure} \end{frame} \begin{frame} \frametitle{4. Aufgabe \\ L"osung} +Die beiden vorherigen Abbildungen zeigen, dass sich f"ur englischsprachige Texte "ahnliche Verteilungen der Buchstaben und Buchstabenpaare ergeben. Dies "andert sich bei der Analyse eines deutschen Textes (nachfolgende Folie). \end{frame} \begin{frame} \frametitle{4. Aufgabe \\ L"osung} +\begin{figure} +\noindent\includegraphics[height=5.5cm,keepaspectratio]{grafiken/a4_abb9.png} +\caption{10 h"aufigsten Buchstaben und -paare (Text {[}4{], deutscher Text)}} +\end{figure} \end{frame} \begin{frame} \frametitle{4. Aufgabe \\ L"osung} +\begin{figure} +\noindent\includegraphics[height=5.5cm,keepaspectratio]{grafiken/a4_abb10.png} +\caption{Abs. Buchstabenh"aufigkeiten (y) "uber Rang (x), Achsen logarithmisch (Text {[}1{])}} +\end{figure} \end{frame} \begin{frame} \frametitle{4. Aufgabe \\ L"osung} +\begin{figure} +\noindent\includegraphics[height=5.5cm,keepaspectratio]{grafiken/a4_abb11.png} +\caption{Abs. Buchstabenh"aufigkeiten (y) "uber Rang (x), Achsen logarithmisch (Text {[}4{])}} +\end{figure} \end{frame} \begin{frame} \frametitle{4. Aufgabe \\ L"osung} +Aus den vorherigen Betrachtungen wurde deutlich, dass die h"aufigsten Buchstaben sich in verschiedenen Sprachen (hier: englisch und deutsch) unterscheiden. Betrachtet man nun die Verteilung des Verlaufs der Auftrittswahrscheinlichkeiten, ergibt sich daf"ur sowohl im englischen als auch im deutschen Text erneut die Zipf-Verteilung. \end{frame} diff --git a/ss2013/1_Web Mining/Uebungen/1_Uebung/latex/solution.toc b/ss2013/1_Web Mining/Uebungen/1_Uebung/latex/solution.toc index 65db4b5c..323526e4 100644 --- a/ss2013/1_Web Mining/Uebungen/1_Uebung/latex/solution.toc +++ b/ss2013/1_Web Mining/Uebungen/1_Uebung/latex/solution.toc @@ -2,5 +2,5 @@ \select@language {ngerman} \beamer@sectionintoc {1}{1. Aufgabe}{2}{0}{1} \beamer@sectionintoc {2}{2. Aufgabe}{7}{0}{2} -\beamer@sectionintoc {3}{3. Aufgabe}{15}{0}{3} -\beamer@sectionintoc {4}{5. Aufgabe}{31}{0}{4} +\beamer@sectionintoc {3}{3. Aufgabe}{12}{0}{3} +\beamer@sectionintoc {4}{5. Aufgabe}{28}{0}{4} diff --git a/ss2013/1_Web Mining/Uebungen/1_Uebung/u1-u4/Solution.pdf b/ss2013/1_Web Mining/Uebungen/1_Uebung/u1-u4/Solution.pdf new file mode 100644 index 00000000..18232d81 Binary files /dev/null and b/ss2013/1_Web Mining/Uebungen/1_Uebung/u1-u4/Solution.pdf differ diff --git a/ss2013/1_Web Mining/Uebungen/1_Uebung/u1-u4/task2.py b/ss2013/1_Web Mining/Uebungen/1_Uebung/u1-u4/task2.py index c70e8804..45bb009a 100755 --- a/ss2013/1_Web Mining/Uebungen/1_Uebung/u1-u4/task2.py +++ b/ss2013/1_Web Mining/Uebungen/1_Uebung/u1-u4/task2.py @@ -58,7 +58,7 @@ def printWordCounts(countToWords, maxCount = -1): if breakOuter: break -basedir = "C:/Users/Victor/Dropbox/Uni/Web Mining/Ex 1/" +basedir = "/Users/Michael/Uni/allgemeiner Git/college/ss2013/1_Web Mining/Uebungen/1_Uebung/u1-u4/" file0 = "A History of Banks for Savings in Great Britain and Ireland by William Lewins.txt" file1 = "Expository Writing by Mervin James Curl.txt" file2 = "A Little Girl in Old San Francisco by Amanda Minnie Douglas.txt"