John Nagle's philosophy : a compilation

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JOHN NAGLE'S
PHILOSOPHY

JOHN NAGLE'S
PHILOSOPHY

A COMPILATION

MANITOWOC, WISCONSIN

PUBLISHED BY SYDNEY T. PRATT

1902

FST1S1

ENTERED ACCORDING TO THE ACT OF CONGRESS, IN THE YEAR 1901,

IN THE OFFICE OF THE LIBRARIAN OF CONGRESS, AT

WASHINGTON, BY SYDNEY T. PRATT

All Rights Reserved

O £- -x-1 I
Bancroft Library

Contents

TRAVEL

PAGE

COMPILER'S NOTE 9

As TO THE AUTHOR - n

FOREWORD - 13

CALIFORNIA 19

THE CHINAMAN - 26

NEW MEXICO AND ITS INDIANS - 30

PIKE'S PEAK - - 35

THE GRAND CANON - 39

A TRIP THROUGH THE GREAT WEST - - 42

YELLOWSTONE PARK 48

THE BAD LANDS - 62

RED RIVER VALLEY 64

UTAH AND SOME WESTERN CITIES - - 66

MEMPHIS - 70

NEW ORLEANS • 74

JACKSON, MISSISSIPPI 82

VlCKSBURG - 83

BATON ROUGE - -86

A TRIP TO MONTGOMERY - 88

EN ROUTE TO SAVANNAH - 91

THOMASVILLE, GEORGIA - 95

THE INDIAN TERRITORY - 97

TEXAS - - 100

"THE NEW SOUTH" 109

3

4 Contents

PAGE

MAMMOTH CAVE - 120

LONE GRAVE - 122

FLORIDA - 124

MlNNEHAHA FALLS 141

STURGEON BAY, WISCONSIN - - 142

PESHTIGO FALLS, WISCONSIN - 144

MOBILE - - 146

GRANDEUR AND BEAUTY - 148

ON EDUCATION

OUR COMMON SCHOOLS - 151
THE CULTURE WHICH THE COMMON SCHOOL

GIVES - 168

TRAINING SCHOOLS FOR COUNTRY TEACHERS 183

THE COUNTRY SCHOOL TEACHER - 190

How ENTHUSIASM DIES - 197

A FAULT IN TEACHING • 198

MORAL TRAINING 200

SOME NEEDS OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE - 203

ENGLISH COMPOSITION 205

OUR SCHOOL SYSTEM - 207

COUNTRY SCHOOLS 210

FUNCTION OF EDUCATION - 240

THE PRACTICAL IN EDUCATION - 244

THE PUBLIC SCHOOL - - 247

GEMS OF THOUGHT

CHRISTMAS-TIDE - 251

RELIGION is LOVE - 253

GOOD IN ABSTENTION ... 254

Contents 5

PAGE

MOTHERING SUNDAY - - - 255

AN OLD-TIME PICNIC 257

THE FROST KING - 259

Music THAT is ETERNAL - 260

THANKSGIVING DAY - - 262

SPRINGTIME 264

NEW-YEAR'S DAY - 265

A GIRL'S EDUCATION 267

MIDSUMMER - - 268

DUTIES OF PARENTS 269

THE POWER OF LOVE - - 271

THE CHILD BEAUTIFUL - 272

AUTUMN - - 274

THE MANLY BOY - 276

FOUNTAIN OF PIETY - - 277

THE GENIAL GERMANS - 278

THE INDUSTRIOUS STUDENT - - 280

WOMAN'S AFFECTION 281

SANITY OF WORK - 282

GONE 284

DANCING - 285

SLANG 286

THE VIOLIN - - 287

HOME is WOMAN'S SPHERE 288

KNOWLEDGE is POWER - 290

THE BOOK OF NATURE - 292

PREPARATION FOR EASE - 293
GOOD ADVICE •? 296

INDIVIDUAL DEVELOPMENT - - 297

A COUNTRY BOY'S SUNDAY 298

ORIGIN OF SOME HOLIDAYS - - - 299

6 Contents

PAGE

THE LESSON TAUGHT BY CHRISTMAS 301

SECULAR FEATURE OF CHRISTMAS - 303

FALSTAFF - 306

MAY - - 308

THE HARVEST MOON 310

THE HIGHEST PLEASURE - - 311

THE FARM AND THE YOUNG MAN 312

MOTHER - 313
ARBOR AND BIRD DAY ... 314

EFFECTS OF A COLD DAY - - 316

LAKE MICHIGAN IN SEPTEMBER - - 318

SOCIAL REFORMS - 320

THE FARM 323
HOG ISLAND - ... 325

LABOR DAY - 326

LIFE - - 328

WOMAN'S FUTURE - 329

HOUSE-CLEANING TIME - - 331

SELF-RESTRAINT - 332

"PROF." VERSUS "MR." - 333

INDIAN SUMMER • 334

CITY LIFE VERSUS COUNTRY LIFE - 335
THE HOLIDAY THAT REVIVES OLD FRIENDSHIPS 337

SENTIMENT - 339

ABRAHAM LINCOLN 340

JAMES G. ELAINE - 342

CARPENTER 345

HENRY WARD BEECHER - 347

TILDEN 350

DICKENS AND CARLYLE - - 352
GLADSTONE AND HOME RULE FOR IRELAND 354

Compiler's Note

This enlarged edition of John Nagle's Phi-
losophy was undertaken and has been issued for
the purpose of supplying the students in school
and out of it with the observations of a philoso-
pher who draped his thoughts in poetic diction.
In the work of compilation C. E. Patzer, an
old-time friend of Mr. Nagles, has rendered
service of unusual value, and this opportunity is
taken to publicly attest the worth of his assist-
ance in the preparation of this volume.

SYDNEY T. PRATT.

As to the Author

John Nagle was born at St. Catharine's, On-
tario, Canada, July 4, 1848, and when but a few
weeks old was brought to Manitowoc County,
his father, Dennis Nagle, settling on a farm in
Meeme. In boyhood Mr. Nagle attended the
country school, where he gained a rudimentary
education, completing his broader culture, how-
ever, in the University of Life. It was said of
him, "He studied not only the details of educa-
tion, but its philosophy," hence did he derive
the grace and power manifested in his writings,
which the subsequent pages prove conclusively.
In 1870 be obtained a state teacher's certificate,
authorizing him to teach in any school in the
state of Wisconsin. He taught at Maple Grove,
Two Rivers, and Sauk City. For ten years he
was superintendent of schools of Manitowoc
County. Later he became editor of the Mani-
towoc Pilot. During his career as a newspaper
man he was elected president of the Wisconsin
State Press Association. While still an educator
he occupied the presidency of the State Teach-
ers' Association. At one time Mr. Nagle
studied law. He was a widely traveled man,

9

io As to the Author

whose intelligent observations are preserved in
this book as a perpetual attestation of his fine
mind, his philosophic insight, his uncorrupted
morality, his optimism, and his inspiration. He
died March the twenty-first, in the year of nine-
teen hundred.

Foreword

SEC. MER. How is this man esteemed here in the city?
ANGELO. Of very reverend reputation, sir,
Of credit infinite, highly beloved,
His word might bear my wealth at any time.

SHAKESPEARE.

Such was John Nagle. A succinct analysis of
his character, and withal a keen insight into the
motives guiding him, are found in the words of one
who knew him intimately:

"It might be difficult to say what was included
in Mr. Nagle's conception of character. It would
not be difficult to indicate some things that cer-
tainly were not included in it. His standard
rejected absolutely the man who needlessly wounded
the feelings of a child; the man who allowed him-
self to use indelicate language in the presence of a
boy, or girl, or woman; the man who shirked duty
or responsibility because to meet it might cause
him inconvenience or loss, or subject him to dan-
ger; the man who betrayed a trust, or a friend;
the man who denied an obligation which rested
solely in parole, and to which there was no wit-
ness but himself and the person who demanded
performance; the man whose word was not his
bond in any matter whatever in which it was
pledged ; the man who extended his hand when you

ii

12 Foreword

were prosperous, and who looked the other way
when he passed by in your day of adversity

"When measured by these tests, which he him-
self applied to others, or by any test that may
reasonably be applied, it is fondly and confidently
believed, by those who knew him and loved him
and mourn him and will hold him in remembrance
while life lasts, that in his own phrase, and in its
broadest and fullest meaning, John Nagle was a
man of character. ' '

John Nagle early in life evinced a love for litera-
ture, making good books his lifelong companions.
History, philosophy, science, and poetry had equal
fascination for him, and each contributed its moiety
to his expanding intellectual vision. Men and
women about him afforded him opportunity for
observing character, which he quickly seized, and
the columns of the old Pilot tell the story of his
masterful analysis of human motive. The plummet
of his reasoning sank deep into the souls of men,
giving him gauge of impulse and action. Below
the surface he discovered the passions that sway
and the virtues that restrain. His was the school
of life, in which he studied until the twilight came.
Then when the horizon darkened, he closed his
eyes upon a useful career, and fell into a peaceful
slumber, out of which no sound of time or place
shall wake him.

Mr. Nagle wrote to make life purer and sweeter.
He understood the besetting traps laid to snare the
young from paths of rectitude, hence, in no uncer-

Foreword 13

tain language did he show his solicitude for them.
The impress of his personality, example, and writ-
ings is evident.

Testimony is frequent: "I consulted John Nagle
and am the beneficiary of his counsel." The youth
sought his advice and profited by it. The reason
Mr. Nagle attained wide influence is found in the
application of his own philosophy to his own life.
He was a man of strong convictions, and his oppo-
sition to social sham and veneer was implacable.

As a writer, beauty characterized his diction.
His power of expression was not surpassed by
writers whose names adorn the Temple of Fame.
The loom of his subtle intellect spun sentences
which for grace and lucidity are models of English.
Language was an art with him; he knew words,
their force and tenderness, and could call them to
his service at will. He joined in indissoluble union,
poetic expression, and profound thought, bringing
about this literary marriage by rigorous adherence
to pure Anglo-Saxon. His unvarying rule in
writing was the use of simple idioms; no straining
after effect is anywhere noticeable, and this fact
constitutes his first charm. His sentences flow as
easily as a rivulet, one following the other in
sequence until the end is reached; then it would
be defacement to add or take away a word.

The purpose of this volume is to preserve the
literary gems which had their origin and form in
the mind of Mr. Nagle. His personality brought
him into a unique relationship with the community

14 Foreword

where his active life was spent, and the compiler
believes that, in thus collating some of the best
specimens of his writing, the excerpts will be read
and reread by those who knew John Nagle, with
kindly remembrance of the man who caused the
genial rays of a sunny and optimistic mind to
brighten, for many years, their hours of relaxation,
when his paper brought to them the doings of rest-
less life. He gave to his readers, however, more
than contemporary news, the mere gossip of the
drawing-room; he gave them an uplifting philoso-
phy, as noble in conception as it was exquisite
in its development. "Make man happy," he wrote,
"and his life is a paean of praise. And what is the
source of happiness? Judicious enjoyment of the
things that are. " Let this principle be universal,
and you solve the vexatious and ever-recurring
asperities engendered by the unequal distribution
of wealth and social position.

His philosophy would make men happy whatever
their situation, yet he was not indifferent to material
and intellectual progress. He knew, however, that
sinister jealousies, aroused by envy, retard advance-
ment, invite gloom, and end in retrogression, and
he would obviate such catastrophe, in individual or
collective life, by living in the light.

In the pages which follow no word of politics is
found. The scheme of the book is to reveal that,
in Manitowoc, a master of English phraseology, a
poet of no mean order, and a philosopher once
moved among the people. The pulse of genius

Foreword 1 5

throbbed within his brain, and the seed of his reflec-
tions has been sown with prodigality, bearing fruit-
age in many lives here and elsewhere.

And now, in yielding the succeeding pages to a
more gracious pen, the compiler wishes to acknowl-
edge his indebtedness to the man who gave felici-
tous expression to lofty ideals. It is inexpressibly
delightful to be brought into touch with a mind so
free from dissimulation, intellectual trickery, and
ambiguity, and in this inadequate way to perpetu-
ate his memory. THE COMPILER.

Travel

California

Extended travel is a "weariness to the flesh,"
and frequent baths in the old Pacific in the
month of May are by no means conducive to a
state of physical or mental activity. Bathing in
the surf and a side trip to Lower California sub-
ject to the ocean breeze have proved too much
for me at least, and for the last few days I have
been luxuriating in aches and other symptoms
of bodily distress. California is a paradise, more
or less, but it has a variety of climate which is
bewildering and quite apt to enforce a lesson of
caution.

While crossing the Mohave Desert one cannot
help feeling that he has passed beyond the con-
fines of inhabitable territory. Indeed the valley
of the Colorado is a fitting introduction to a
desert as it is a desert itself, though irrigation
has made it tolerably productive. But the
Mohave is a lava-field, hemmed in by mountains,
rainless, waterless, and devoid of vegetation,
excepting the sage-brush and grease-wood, which
seem to flourish best where other plants find it
most difficult to live. Californians dislike to
have the Mohave credited to their state. The
fogs which blow over San Francisco are known

19

20 John Nagle's Philosophy

as " Oregon fogs." The hot winds are " Arizona
winds." Every unpleasant feature of climate or
soil or anything else has its paternity outside the
state. There never was, and there is not, greater
loyalty to any state than that of the Californian
to his. And there is reason for it, as it is an
empire in itself, both in extent, variety of indus-
try, and enterprise. Southern California is an
orange country and a flower-garden. It was
originally a desert, and would be so to-day but
for irrigation, one of the most important move-
ments of the age. Probably no section of Cali-
fornia better illustrates the possibilities of
irrigation than Riverside. It is impossible to
describe this city, which is what William Penn
desired to make Philadelphia — "a greene coun-
try towne." It covers an area of fifty-six square
miles, and the streets are luxuriant with tropical
vegetation. It is an endless drive through
orange groves bordered with eucalypti, century
plants, and pepper-trees. If the court of the
hotel in Coronado Beach appears in the evening
like a creation of the Genius of Aladdin's Lamp,
Riverside is a glimpse of Paradise itself. The
people speak of Magnolia Avenue as ending in
heaven, and indeed it seems a fit roadway to
eternal joy.

There is an old mission a few miles from San
Diego, away among the mountains. The mis-

John Nagle's Philosophy 21

sion was established in 1769 by an old priest who
had the enthusiasm which carried civilization into
remote sections under difficulties which nothing
but religious fervor could overcome. This mis-
sion house was destroyed by the Indians soon
after it was built. It was rebuilt, but was after-
wards destroyed by an earthquake. The ruins
remain. A mission school for the Indians has
been built near the old mission. Myself and a
friend set out for this historic spot while others
were busying themselves with things more mod-
ern and more interesting from the tourist's
standpoint. The drive over the old road was
interesting. Fording the mountain streams was
in no sense dangerous, but it was a novel experi-
ence. The old place was reached some time
before sundown. The school has one hundred
and nine pupils, all Indian children. Nothing
is taught but English, though Spanish is the
language of the playground. The ages of the
children range from four to seventeen. The
devotion of the children to the sisters in charge
is one of the finest examples of the power of
moral force I ever witnessed. There never was
a time when I did not respect the noble women
who have given their lives to charitable and
benevolent work, but never did their self-devotion
appear more grand than in this isolated moun-
tain valley amid the ruins of early effort, working

22 John Nagle's Philosophy

in the interests of a race having nothing to give
in return, and whose extinction is anticipated
with pleasure by those who shape the sentiment
which governs the age. The young Indians who
attend this school are civilized in the best sense
of that term. The large room in which they
sleep is cared for by themselves, and is kept
scrupulously neat. They are tasty in their dress,
very truthful, the sisters assured us, industrious,
and obedient. All have Spanish names, which
are sweet to the ear. The sisters are well edu-
cated, and their conversation has the charm of
naturalness which seems in keeping with their
surroundings. They stood with us among the
ruins of the old mission until the stars came out
and the frowning hills seemed to shut in the
valley from the outside world. One of them
slipped away and soon the children were singing
an old Spanish hymn. It was inexpressibly
sweet, and as the notes were echoed from the
mountains, it seemed as if unseen spirits were
joining in the melody. If there is religion
worthy of the name it nowhere finds better ex-
pression than among those grand old hills, amid
which the old Spanish priests worked most faith-
fully for their Master. Nor can better exponents
be found than those sisters, whose good work
has in it no element of selfishness and no hope
of earthly reward, and who care not whether the

John Nagle's Philosophy 23

world knows the good they are doing, except in
so far as knowledge of it may aid in enlarging
the measure of its beneficence.

The ride homeward was enjoyable because of
its novelty. The night was moonless, and it
was soon found that neither of us had the faint-
est idea of what course we should take, both
believing that we would return before daylight
died out. Fortunately the owner of the horse,
alarmed somewhat at our long absence, set out
to meet us, and before we experienced much
difficulty, encountered us and guided us home.

California is divided by mountains and ranges
into a series of transverse valleys. Each valley
is noted for a particular product, and land varies
in price from two hundred dollars to one thou-
sand dollars per acre. The purely agricultural
section is in the hands of a comparatively few
men, an evil which the people of the state deeply
deplore as it has created a landed aristocracy.
The valley of San Bernardino, one of the most
fruitful in the state, which includes an area of
one hundred and twenty thousand acres, was at
one time owned wholly by a Spaniard. He made
nothing out of it, even when he sold it by piece-
meal. The property is now worth from three
hundred dollars to five hundred dollars per acre.
The industries are so varied and comprehensive
that it is really a country in itself. The public

24 John Nagle's Philosophy

questions which attract the attention of the people
are purely local, if the term can be made appli-
cable to environments so broad. Irrigation,
Chinese, Nicaraugua canal, and hydraulic min-
ing overshadow all thoughts of tariff, negro
question, prohibition, or woman's rights. On
the question of hydraulic mining interests are
divided. The agricultural classes, whose lands
lie below the mines, are opposed to this system,
and have secured an injunction against mining
by this means. Those interested in mines had
arranged an excursion for the editors to a large
mining section. The injunction was temporarily
removed, and for a few hours the whole thing
was in operation. The terrific reports of the
dynamite used to loosen the earth were at first
startling. The streams of water directed against
the hills wear them away, and the detritus went
down the current in sluiceways where the gold-
dust settled. Nothing was omitted, and the
work of an hour yielded a bar of gold worth a
couple of hundred dollars, which was presented
the association to be put in a gavel. There are
thousands of acres among the mountains washed
away to a depth of seventy-five feet by this pro-
cess of mining. It is placer mining on a large
scale. The mine owners naturally want to prose-
cute their work and ask that the government
construct some kind of a dam which will catch

John Nagle's Philosophy 25

the detritus and thus prevent the filling of the
river beds and consequent overflow of surround-
ing territory. A trip to Nevada City brought us
to the oldest quartz mining section in California.
Here is where the forty-niners started in, and for-
tunes were made in this section. A large number
of mines owned by wealthy capitalists are operated
in this section. The process of extracting the
precious metal is simple. Even the stamp mill
is a simple affair.

The Chinaman

The Chinaman presents a problem no less
difficult for the people of the Pacific slope to
solve than is the negro for the Southern people.
Whoever thinks the Chinaman is patient and
long suffering has not studied him on his native
heath. He is shrewd, calculating, and persist-
ently, though quietly, aggressive. He has
become the laborer of the Pacific slope, and is
slowly but certainly driving all other labor out.
But the Chinaman is not content with common
labor and laundry. There are shrewd business
men among them whose check for many thou-
sands would be accepted as readily as that of
Jay Gould. The pork market, the garden pro-
ducts, and the poultry interests of the Pacific
slope are in the hands of the Chinese. It is
asserted by some that the pork interests are being
wrested from them, but this is denied.

It is generally believed that San Francisco is
the Chinese Mecca, but in proportion to its
population it has less Chinese than many other
cities in 'the West. There is no city there that
has not its distinctive Chinese quarters. In San
Francisco, where the Chinese colony numbers
about thirty-five thousand, the territory occupied

26

John Nagle's Philosophy 27

covers not much more than four blocks. It is
China to all intents and purposes. By a tacit
understanding among themselves, in dealing
among themselves, in punishment of crime and
minor offenses, their own system of jurispru-
dence prevails. Many a murder is committed
there, followed by the punishment prescribed by
the laws of China, which the regular authorities
know nothing of. These colonies by no means
act as though they felt their existence is toler-
ated simply. They are aggressive, and the people
have the insolent taciturnity of conscious superi-
ority of race. On the street the Chinaman is
always neat unless on the rare occasions when he
adopts the Caucasian dress, and then he is a
greasy roustabout. They are wonderfully stoi-
cal, but furtively watchful. Scarcely a move-
ment of an interloper escapes them, though to
detect this watchfulness it is necessary to feign
as complete indifference as your stealthy observer
does.

Many of the Chinese live like rats, in the
sense that hundreds of them will find accommo-
dations in one small house. The underground
houses are not as numerous as formerly, but a
sufficient number of them are left to give a full
idea of what life was in these holes. The bunks
in these places are arranged like berths in a sleep-
ing-car, and are filled with Chinamen. No pro-

28 J°hn Nagle's Philosophy

vision seems to have been made for ventilation
or light, and still the places are not as filthy as
the conditions would seem to make imperative.
One gets a sort of uncanny feeling while wend-
ing his way through the narrow passages leading
to these dens which serve as a habitation for so
many people. There is no place so small that
it will not serve as a home for a Chinaman of
the lower class. A few boards nailed together
covering a re-entrant angle in a wall excited
some curiosity, and on exploring it, it was found
to be the sleeping-place of a Chinaman, a cob-
bler who had a two-by-four shop near by.

At least nine of every ten Chinese smoke
opium. The pipes used are peculiar, and the labor
necessary to secure a few whiffs is proof either of
the fascination the drug has or of the diligence of
the heathen. An elevated platform covered with
a rug, something resembling a footstool on which
to rest the shoulders, a little lamp and a pipe of
fine workmanship with the drug itself constitute
the complete outfit. The fumes of opium
become suffocating in close quarters.

There are comparatively few Chinese women
and fewer Chinese children so that the Chinese
population is maintained by immigration. Look-
ing at the Chinese matter superficially even on
the ground where intelligent observation may be
had, the first thought is that the Chinaman is a

John Nagle's Philosophy 29

not undesirable acquisition. But you cannot fail
to become a convert to restrictive measures when
you observe more closely. Nor is it a wholly
groundless alarm when the prediction is made
that the West is likely to be overrun by the Mon-
golian. It is not a question of which is the
superior race and trusting to the survival of the
fittest. The couplet

"Ask of thy mother earth why weeds are made
Taller and stronger than the flowers they shade."

suits the Chinese question. It is not the persist-
ence of the race as much as it is the force of
inertia which threatens to give the Mongolian
predominance west of the Rockies.

New Mexico and Its Indians

When New Mexico is reached, either the pre-
conceived notion or the real condition of affairs
gives the impression that a country different from
any other portion of the United States is reached.
There is a flavor of ancient civilization in the air,
and even the mountains seem to treasure historic
secrets. The climate is simply perfect, but the
broken hills resemble ruins, and the hot air shim-
mering over the arid plains seems to bear messages
from the prehistoric dead. The adobe buildings
heighten the illusion of being in a foreign coun-
try or rather justify it, as New Mexico and Ari-
zona are foreign countries, though the railroads
are bringing them into affinity with the United
States proper. The villages of adobe houses,
low, illy ventilated, in many cases without win-
dows, irresistibly carry the mind back to a period
of primitive simplicity. The contrast between
the mud hovels, for such they are, and the
towering mountains is indescribable and makes
the former appear more insignificant than they
really are. The adobe house is rarely more than
one story in height. The walls are enduring,
however, and withstand time and weather. A
Catholic church, made of adobe at an Indian

30

John Nagle's Philosophy 31

mission near Albuquerque, is three hundred
years old, and is still in good condition. It is
the material most used here, almost exclusively
except where modern ideas have been imported
by means of the railway.

The arid plains, on which the sun beats with
steady intensity, are made fertile where irrigation
prevails. It is a relief to the eye to pass on these
patches of dark green, after wearisome contem-
plation of sterility. New Mexico is largely inter-
ested in sheep-raising. The people here claim
that fully half the wool raised in the United
States is produced in New Mexico. Cattle-rais-
ing is also an important industry, and the pic-
turesque cowboy is a feature of the land. Las
Vegas is one of the most important shipping-
points in the state, and is a town which has a
future. Its citizens are enterprising and hopeful
because active. The town is divided into two
parts, one the progressive, pushing, railroad-
built town, the other the old town built by the
Mexicans and still occupied by them. The
Mexican is lazy, and is not ashamed of being so.
There is more of the Indian than there is of the
Spanish blood in his veins, and he has the char-
acteristics of both. There are a few who seem
to have preserved the Castilian blood uncor-
rupted. There is not much that is picturesque
in the Mexican and very little that is interesting

32 John Nagle's Philosophy

except his taciturnity, or what Mrs. Follette
would call his " exhilarating reserve." I saw a
young Mexican at Albuquerque play at faro,
betting every time the full limit. He was cool,
calculative, and watchful. The presence of a
party of strangers in no way disconcerted him or
drew his attention from the game. The dealer
exhibited no nervousness at the run of luck the
young Mexican had. Every once in a while
some person, evidently a laborer from his dress
and appearance, would plank down a twenty-
dollar gold piece only to see it vanish in a min-
ute in the cash box of the bank. These side bets
never once drew the attention of the Mexican
from the board. His long fingers moved the
chips deliberately, and when satisfied with his
winnings, he cashed his chips, treated the crowd,
and left. Gambling-houses are licensed in many
places in New Mexico, and are run as open as
the stores.

The Pueblo Indians own a number of cattle
ranches, and also cultivate the soil. They are
said to be the most industrious Indians in the
West. Many of them are Catholics and support
churches. A number of the young men go East
to be educated. Possibly contact with civiliza-
tion may elevate a portion of these Indians, but
it will be at a fearful cost to the majority. It is
hazarding an opinion on a very slight amount of

John Nagle's Philosophy 33

knowledge, but it seems that for the one Pueblo
who has been elevated by contact with civilized
ways, hundreds have degenerated. There is no
Indian more mean or despicable than the one who
has lived in the neighborhood of the white man.
He is apt to be a liar, a beggar, and a thief, as
well as possessing other vices more reprehensible.
The Pueblos may be making progress in some
lines, and some of them may be making progress
in all, but most of them are making progress in
degeneracy. The Walapis are as dirty and hide-
ous a race as the mind can conceive, and they
are inveterate beggars. Their cupidity is so
great as to be disgusting. They work on the
curiosity of people unaccustomed to seeing Indi-
ans, and will offer glances at their dirty little
papooses for a fee of ten cents. They are
painted hideously, and as it seldom rains in Ari-
zona, one can fancy the dearth of cleanliness
they exhibit. The Apaches are dirty and im-
provident, but they are not devoid of spirit.
Cruel as they are, treacherous as they have
proved to be, they are not as mean as the Indi-
ans who are denominated "friendly." There is
something in their appearance indicative of dig-
nity; tall, lean, and broad-shouldered, they are
more inclined to look at you defiantly than to
beg for favors.

All the Indians in New Mexico and Arizona

34 John Nagle's Philosophy

speak Spanish. A young woman, one of the
Pueblos, was being badgered by many of the
editors, and finally losing her patience, said to
the crowd, "Procedo Inferno." The words had
a little classic flavor and their import could
easily be gathered by one familiar with the Eng-
lish only. On inquiry I learned that all spoke
the Spanish patois, and can understand far more
English than they are willing to admit, thus
slyly profiting by remarks that may be made
within their hearing. The Indian who is good
is a bad Indian.

Pike's Peak

Colorado Springs is a health resort mainly
because of its proximity to Manitou Springs. It
is the home of many millionaires, who are attracted
by the salubrity of its climate and its general
cleanliness. The mesa road leads to the Garden
of the Gods and a drive over it is a sort of intro-
duction to the beauties of which one gets a view
in making the ascent of Pike's Peak. The Garden
of the Gods is noted more for the fantastic char-
acter of its formation than for any special feature
of grandeur. It is one of the thresholds of the
Rocky Mountains, and one is lost in admiration
of beauties which would not receive a passing
notice when what lies beyond has burdened the
senses with their colossal grandeur and detail of
beauty.

One can easily fancy himself among the ruins
of titanic architecture. The mind can hardly
deal with the present while contemplating what
seems to have been the work of prehistoric men,
and there comes a weird feeling of being set back
to some age of which geology has no knowledge,
where man had the power of nature and put intel-
ligence in his work. There is, together with the
evidence of creative purpose, an expanse of deso-

35

3 6 John Nagle's Philosophy

lation which is oppressive. The towering battle-
ments which rise abruptly and extend upward
with mathematical exactness, inclose a court
in which the sculptor seems to have exhausted
his ingenuity in statues which are scattered
about.

Manitou Springs nestles at the foot of Pike's
Peak. Its site is a gorge just as it merges into
the valley. The mountain streams have lost
their turbulence, but their liquid purling is as
enchanting to the ear as their glinting waters are
charming to the eye. Manitou Springs is dwarfed
by the mountain. One sees no beauty that is
not fashioned by nature's hand. A mountain
city borrows no beauty from its surroundings.
It has no identity distinct from them, and is
swallowed up by their overshadowing magnifi-
cence. There is no Manitou Springs, as a city,
in one's recollection. It is the mountain which
the imagination pictures, with this one speck of
beauty added, which brings it more in touch
with our experience.

A peculiar thing in connection with travel
here is that while going up the ascent to the foot
of the mountains you cannot get over the illusion
that you are descending. The streams appear
to flow uphill, and even their rapid current can-
not cure the mind of this peculiar hallucination.
I found myself stumbling along the road as the

John Nagle's Philosophy 37

movement of my feet was controlled by what
the sense of sight conveyed. No one is free
from this illusion, even those who reside there
walk down hill, according to the sense, while
making the muscular effort required by the ascent.

The ascent of Pike's Peak is made by means
of a cog-wheel railway. There are other means,
but they are laborious. The ascent requires two
hours. The track follows the cafton through
which rushes a mountain stream, beautiful of
itself, but indescribably so because of its environ-
ments. Through this canon one catches at times
glimpses of the valley. It seems a glance at
paradise, and when a sudden bend in the road
shuts out the view, the majesty of the towering
cliffs but poorly compensates for what they by
their interposition have taken from us.

The pulse beats fast when the summit is
reached. The head swims, and the Eustachian
tube is so filled with air that one is tempted to
puncture the ear-drum to secure relief. The
least physical exertion is wearying. It is an un-
pleasant sensation to grow weary on this great
height, as it seems you are on the verge of a total
collapse. The government'station appears lonely,
though it affords facilities for instant communi-
cation with the world below.

The " queer feeling" prevents one from ap-
preciating fully the grand panorama spread out

38 John Nagle's Philosophy

before him. The magnificent valley which
stretches out in the direction of Denver has its
inequalities of surface softened by distance. The
Garden of the Gods, with its castellated peaks of
terra-cotta, lies at the foot as if offering homage
to this magnificent creation. Manitou is in the
shadow, beautiful in its voluntary subservience.
Colorado Springs and Colorado City are toy cities
in the distance. Fringes of green mark the river
courses, and the mesas appear like gentle undu-
lations. The sunlight on the valleys, viewed
from a great height, has an inexpressible charm.
In other directions mountains tower as if in rivalry
of this scarred monster of the aerial heights,
whose summit has never felt the softening touch
of verdure. Off in the distance Cripple Creek
comes within the line of vision, nothing more
than a white speck in this wilderness of stupendous
creations. In the descent openings in the canon
reveal the valley bathed in its loveliness. Viewed
from the darkened recesses of this mighty fissure,
the valley seems suspended in the air, and the
overlying atmosphere seems tinted. The sun-
light has lost its glare and the shadows of clouds
moving on lazily give one the impression of gaz-
ing on a dissolving view.

The Grand Canon

The Denver and Rio Grande is very appropri-
ately called the ' ' Scenic Line of the World. ' ' It
well deserves the distinction. A narrow gauge
road runs from Salida to Grand Junction, a dis-
tance of over two hundred and fifty miles.

The scenery of the section traversed by the
narrow gauge road is the grandest in the world
accessible by rail. The road follows the Gun-
nison River in its course through the mountains,
one of the grandest pathways of which mind can
conceive. When the Black Cafion was reached
an observation car was put on as these towering
cliffs cannot be seen to their full height from the
windows of an ordinary coach. One may as well
attempt "to paint the lily or gild refined gold"
as to give a description of this cafion at all com-
mensurate with its magnificence. The cliffs rise
precipitously to a height of two thousand five
hundred feet. Their configuration prevents
their becoming monotonous, and their munifi-
cence of color deprives them of the gloom usu-
ally attendant upon creations of indescribable
power. One looks upon these mountains of rock
with awe, and the imagination runs riot in pic-
turing to itself the fearful convulsions which were

39

40 J°hn Nagle's Philosophy

the source of the dynamic power which reared
these mighty columns. For miles and miles you
are whirled through scenes which defy descrip-
tion until you feel oppressed by their magnifi-
cence, and are almost terror stricken by evidences
of power so far beyond comprehension that con-
templation is almost agonizing. Then comes the
climbing of the pass, loop after loop, until the
serpentine course brings you to the summit where
the rarefied air makes your ear-drums crack as if
your head were filled with explosives.

The Rio Grande and Western runs through
portions of Utah and Colorado, and has done
much to develop the country. It likewise runs
through a picturesque section and through the
fertile valley in which Salt Lake City is located.
Polygamy has created a prejudice throughout the
country against Utah, which is groundless. There
is not a more promising section of country west
of the Rockies, and though it is indisputable
that politics of this state will be determined by
the Mormons, it is likewise true that they are
enterprising, public spirited, and have lost in
large measure their hostility toward the Gentiles.

The Rocky Mountain states are young, and
are proceeding in a tentative way to test their
agricultural resources. The results are more
than satisfactory. They are now more noted at
home for the products of the soil than of the

John Nagle's Philosophy 41

mine. Early reputation clings to them, and
outside they are known as mining states with
that conception of desert waste which attaches
to mining regions. The people have pressed
their mining interest on the public notice with
too much assiduity, and have thereby aided in
perpetuating a false impression.

The ^West should take up irrigation as its
battle-cry. Upon that depends largely its agri-
cultural development, and its possibilities in this
direction pass the limit of belief when the circum-
scribed area of arable land is considered. The
wealth which the mountains hide in their bowels
is incomparable to that which they pour into the
valleys, which await but the quickening touch of
industry to shower rewards on him who has faith
in their productiveness. These lands look arid
to one whose eyes are accustomed to the green
fields of the" Mississippi Valley. But they are
made rich with mountain denudation, and they
are enduring. The magnificent climate supple-
ments the fertility of the soil. Water is the
genius which makes active these potentialities.
The white metal is scarcely a circumstance com-
pared with the question of how best and cheapest
to make available the torrents which sweep down
the mountain sides and combine to form the
stately rivers.

A Trip through the Great
West

To any one having "the instinct of the soil,"
northern Illinois is a paradise, rich in soil, in
produce, and in that beauty which is the reflec-
tion of prosperity. A farmer in this section is a
monarch, one to be envied for his independence,
respected for his success, and extolled for his
wisdom. Nature placed her treasures near the
surface and pours out wealth in return for labor.
A richer soil the sun does not shine upon, a
more prosperous farming community, enjoying
all the facilities which give marketable value to
productions, is not known. Wealth and content
dwell here in harmony and make the tiller of the
soil a veritable lord of creation.

As the Father of Waters is approached the
soil grows poorer, but the eye, grown wearied by
the vast expanse of productive and unbroken
lands, finds relief in the greater diversity of sur-
face here presented. The bluffs have not a
grandeur in keeping with that of the historic
stream whose course they direct. The railroad
bridge over which the Milwaukee and St. Paul
runs from Savanna to Sabula, claims the atten-

42

John Nagle's Philosophy 43

tion of the traveler, a colossal structure represent-
ing a fortune in itself.

Iowa is a repetition of Illinois until the water
shed between the Missouri and Mississippi breaks
the monotony of the seemingly illimitable prairie.
The farms are not so highly cultivated as in Illi-
nois, and one is impressed more by the possibili-
ties of the future than the realities of the present.
There are larger farms, however, it being no
unusual thing to find a farmer owning from ten
hundred to fifteen hundred acres, all under culti-
vation except portions for pasturage. Climb the
bluffs north of Coon Rapids, and when the sum-
mit is reached, if the prospect then presented to
your gaze does not thrill you with indescribable
delight, make your home within some walled city,
for your soul is made for conventional pleasures.

The grove is an invariable accompaniment of
each farm-house in this section. That this has a
utilitarian rather than an aesthetic object is clearly
indicated by its name, "wind-break." Those
vast, treeless prairies must be simply terrible in
the storms of winter, and no doubt, a person
who has received the favorable impression that a
summer visit will not fail to give, will be disen-
chanted by a winter sojourn. Wagon roads are
poor throughout Iowa. The deep, black soil is
too yielding for heavy and continuous travel.
There are very few gravel pits — the railroad com-

44 J°hn Nagle's Philosophy

pany through this part have used crushed stone
for ballast — and so Iowa must plod on with
unimproved roads.

A casual observer would say the soil of Iowa
is similar to the black loam of Wisconsin. But
it is so only in appearance, having more of the
silica and less of the vegetable matter. It is by
no means so easily worked, is pulverized with
more difficulty, and will not withstand a drouth
so well. The river valleys are an exception and
particularly the Missouri bottoms and the Sioux
valley, two of the richest sections of the state,
the soil being a mixture of mold, clay, etc., river
deposition.

Council Bluffs is the gate of the Great West.
The number of railroads having their western
termini here may be appropriately summarized
in the oft-used expression — too numerous to
mention. Five different trains on five different
roads leave Chicago at the same time, and pur-
suing their different and divergent courses, after
twenty-two hours, arrive simultaneously at the
Union Pacific transfer depot — a circumstance
which presents forcibly to the mind the almost
perfect system to which railroading is reduced.
Truly, the railroad and the telegraph are mar-
vels, beneficent not only in a commercial sense,
but molding into homogeneity what would other-
wise be diverse elements. Omaha fronts Council

John Nagle's Philosophy 45

Bluffs ; the former on the threshold of what is
the new West, the latter the limit of the old.
But the telegraph, the railroad, the newspaper,
make intercourse throughout the broad land
general, and what would be conflicting interests
of discordant sections are the varied ones of a
large nation. The Pacific slope had no interests
in common with the Atlantic Plain, prior to the
building of the Union Pacific. But now these two
sections and the Mississippi Valley are one. Cali-
fornia and Maine are sister states, and standing
at the transfer depot where ends the east and
begins the west, one cannot help feeling that here
is the great motor nerve which moves the muscle
of the whole country and harmonizes feeling.

The Missouri bottoms are devoted largely to
grazing. One cannot fail to be impressed with
the traditional peacefulness of pastoral life from
hurried glimpses of large droves of cattle, the
herdman either lounging on the grass or "prick-
ing across the plain," in true frontier equipment.
At Sioux City the majestic flow of the Missouri
challenges admiration. Perhaps nowhere in its
course is it more grand as a river. Broad, deep,
and uniform it seems an impersonation of Power.

In running to Canton on the Sioux City divis-
ion of the M. & St. P., not enough of Dakota is
seen "on which to base an intelligent opinion/'
The interminable prairie stretches out in all direc-

46 John Nagle's Philosophy

tions, its vastness being the sole feature of sub-
limity. The full significance of the word * 'space,"
impresses itself on the mind. All fear of over-
population is instantly banished, and considera-
tions of the Malthusian doctrine is relegated to
the ages yet to come. The unpeopled prairie
oppresses by its immensity. If divided into
farms and cultivated, there is a resting-place, as
it were a gradation of the infinite. A brook, a
clump of trees, anything that breaks the monoto-
nous reflection that man is an atom, is a relief.
So when eastern Minnesota is reached the oak
openings are a haven of rest to the mind.

St. Paul, St. Anthony Falls, and "The
Laughing Waters' ' are natural attractions. Do
not hasten to mark a solecism in ranking St.
Paul as a natural attraction, for natural beauty
surpasses architectural elegance to such an ex-
tent as to make this city one of nature's most
beauteous works. The nervous energy of the
West is here found in its highest development,
and it is a city of activity, culture, and progress.

No life is long enough to master the cardinal
points of the compass in St. Paul. The business
part is circular, having the principal street for a
periphery. It is a place of uncertainties, and
the "older inhabitants" are lop-sided from walk-
ing in a circle. You stumble over paradoxes at
every step. The sun himself is in a maze, and

John Nagle's Philosophy 47

skips around in the clear heavens shedding his
beams from points supposed to be inaccessible to
a well-regulated luminary. A straight line is not
the shortest distance between two points, and all
other mathematical laws have no application
here. Start from the Metropolitan and travel
direct, and without deviation from a straight
line, your way will lead you back to the starting
point. People burdened with years have lived
their entire lives in St. Paul because they have
been unable to find their way out. Egress from
the Happy Valley of Rasselas was not more diffi-
cult, and the Abyssinian prince had no more
lovely place in which to sigh for the freedom
that lies beyond the inclosing hills.

Yellowstone Park

The National Park is 65 by 55 miles in extent,
and has an area of 3,575 sq. miles. It is in Wyom-
ing mainly, and includes that portion of the
Rocky Mountains whose peaks are the loftiest.
It is possible to visit the principal objects of
interest with the exception of Mt. Washburn, by
carriages. A number of the guides have been
cowboys, a class of men rude in appearance, fear-
less in everything, but as meek of human kind-
ness as true men can be. At least such we found
Jim O'Neill to be, an excellent guide and a
gentleman whose code of etiquette came from
a good heart. Jim was born in Ireland, but
spent his life in the Wild West. He hates a rail-
road as cordially as Ruskin did, and is going to
1 'move on" to get beyond the reach of this mod-
ern civilizer. But to return to the park.

The principal objects of interest are the Mam-
moth Hot Springs, the Norris, the Lower, the
Middle, and the Upper Geyser Basin, Yellow-
stone Lake, the Upper and the Lower Falls, the
Caflon, Mt. Washburn, and the Fossil Forest.
The roads are constructed by the United States,
but the man on horseback can cut off many
detours by following mountain trails. The

48

John Nagle's Philosophy 49

spouting geysers are to be found in the Lower
and Upper Basins. Fully half the tourists are
satisfied with visiting the geysers ; comparatively
few see Mt. Washburn.

Mammoth Hot Springs

Just inside the northern limit of the park is a
large hotel near the Mammoth Hot Springs, the
first of the boiling springs. In this place were
at one time many geysers, but they have now
subsided into boiling springs. But they reared
terrace upon terrace, mountains of magnesian
limestone, sulphur, and silicious rock. The
ascent is laborious, but reveals wonders. The
water holds so many and so much mineral ingre-
dients in solution that anything placed in it
becomes coated in three days with a silicious
deposit.

Norris Geyser Basin

A long and tiresome ride brings you to the
Norris Geyser Basin. There is nothing of note
on the way, because by this time you are wearied
of mountains. The clouds of steam as you
approach the basin gives the spur to your expec-
tation, and you apply the same instrument to the
animal you bestride. The hollow sound which
the tramp of the horse's hoof gives out shows the
volcanic nature of the ground over which you

$0 John Nagle's Philosophy

travel. The scene presented baffles description,
and as this is the first it is also the last of these
grand phenomena of which this section is so pro-
lific. The water seethes in about one hundred
different basins. The whole area of about eighty
acres is a vast sea of volcanic formation, the
deposit of the water driven through the rents in
the crust. There is a roar from these rents
almost deafening, and the escape of steam from
the smaller apertures is almost identical with the
sound given by a locomotive when the safety
valve is open. You can hear the beating of
waves of superheated water beneath the crust on
which you stand, and in the larger basins the
waters boil and toss as if the infernal regions
furnished the power. Stand in the middle of
the area and you hear a multitude of sounds, like
the splashing of paddle-wheels, the roar of the
sea, the rumble of thunder, and the sharp hiss of
steam escaping from a heavy pressure. The
steam is heavily charged with sulphur, and every-
where the water is depositing the minerals held
in solution.

The Lower Basin

A number of geysers are found in the Lower
Basin, but none active to a sublime extent. A
number of large paint-pots are found here. They
consist of clay of various colors, which is of the

John Nagle's Philosophy 51

consistency of oat-meal mush, boiling with the
peculiar sound of viscous fluids. Occasionally
the large globose ejections of the pasty mass are
sent to a height of ten feet. I was fortunate
enough to see the largest geyser of this place in
action. It is vastly inferior to most of those in
the Upper Basin, but being the first I watched
it with considerable interest. First the water in
the pool became violently agitated; soon it
boiled to the height of thirty feet. It was not
an ejection but a literal boiling to that height.
After this fearful convulsion it fell into such a
state of quiescence that not a ripple appeared in
the limpid pool.

Middle Geysers

A ride of four miles takes you to the Middle
Geysers, one of which, the Excelsior, is said to be
the grandest in the world. To only a few is a
sight of this in action vouchsafed. Its spoutings
can be heard a distance of six miles, and its
action is so energetic that it casts out large
stones; the ejections are so plentiful that it
makes the stream which flows near it overrun
its banks. It was simply a boiling pool of limpid
purity when I saw it, its surface being some thirty
feet below the volcanic deposit which covers this
section. To one who loves quiet beauty, exquis-
ite shading, and an almost perfect arrangement

^2 J°hn Nagle's Philosophy

of prismatic colors the lake near this geyser com-
pletes his ideal. It lies between the stream and
the hills which, as if to be in harmony with the
rare loneliness at their feet, rise in majestic con-
tour, clothed with the dark green of the moun-
tain pine. The lake is about four hundred feet
long and about half that extent in width. It is
on quite an elevation which is terraced with an
almost geometric regularity. The material is the
peculiar mineral formation of this place. But
as the lake is approached the coloring reminds
one of Oriental magnificence. Here is a band
of red, shading into orange, then to yellow,
purple, and gray. Water, tepid in temperature,
is trickling over the surface. The silicious
deposit near the lake is not indurated, and you
feel that the print of your boots is a sacrilege.
Advantage of the wind must be taken so as to
avoid the steam. The rim of the basin is a most
exquisite piece of workmanship, so delicate in
structure, so artistic in design, that you at once
ascribe it to some one greater than history has
known, whose conception of the beautiful was
the essence of beauty itself. The coloring of the
spongy terraced rocks which inclose the lake is
repeated in the waters of the lake sweeping
around its circumference in vivid bounds until
the blue of the interior of the lake is reached, a
placid, heated body of water clear as the ether

John Nagle's Philosophy 53

whose infinite depths form the azure vault of
heaven. Two streams flow down the declivity
from the lake to the river in well-defined beds
through the rocky deposit. The rock banks are
beautifully embossed and gorgeously colored.
The water is red, orange, blue, yellow, or purple
in different parts of the stream's course, borrow-
ing its color from that of the bed. The banks
are laminated in colors, positive and clearly
defined. The whole thing is grander than mind
can conceive; beautiful beyond description; a
realization extending far beyond the realms of
fancy.

Upper Geyser Basin

A ride of eleven miles brings you to the Upper
Geyser Basin, the Mecca of tourists within the
park. It is full of geysers, all intermittently
active, and generally at regular intervals, but
many are ceasing to be reliable. Old Faithful
never disappoints the pilgrim to this wonderland.
Every hour its stream ascends with the most
remarkable fidelity. Its crater is the least inter-
esting in the basin, and its waters when qui-
escent are not visible. When the time for
eruption approaches, you can hear the rumbling
of its waters ; a few preliminary splashes are sent
up, giving the observers warning to retire to a
safe distance. Soon with a roar the waters are

54 J°hn Nagle's Philosophy

sent up in a volume to a height of one hundred
and fifty feet. The noise is deafening; the
momentum such that the winds cannot make the
water vary in its perpendicular ascent. It
descends in a shower of spray, and its silica and
carbonate of lime form an addition to the fields
of rock in the center of which this geyser of re-
markable constancy is located. So clear is the
water ejected that when it collects in little pools
in the white rocks it is perfectly transparent, and
often you thrust your hand into hot water when
about to pick up a pebble from what you fancied
an empty receptacle.

Most of the geysers have a walled up crater
of solid rock, receiving their names in these
instances from fancied, and in some cases real,
resemblances to architectural or natural objects.
Others are quiet pools of most unimaginable
purity until lashed into action by the subterra-
nean heat. The crater walls of some rise to a
height of fifteen feet, the long diameters ranging
from twenty to four feet, the transverse from two
to ten feet. Those with elevated crater walls
are rarely quiet, although the grand eruptions
of most are infrequent. The large geysers are
surrounded by smaller ones, called " indica-
tors, "their activity being a premonition that
those to which they are subsidiary are about
to work.

John Nagle's Philosophy jj

Caution is necessary in walking around, and
should you be enveloped in a cloud of steam
because of a sudden shifting of the wind, all
movement should cease, or you are likely to step
into a pool of water and be instantly cooked "to
a turn." It is the custom to get Old Faithful
to do some laundry work by throwing into the
crater soiled garments a short time preceding an
eruption. They usually are cast out well cleansed.
In my case he construed the act as an indignity,
and my wardrobe was lessened to the extent of
my confidence in his integrity.

I saw Faithful spout five times, and several
smaller ones each once. Just when about to
leave the basin one of the largest, "Splendid,"
began to work. The horses were galloped toward
it and we got as near as safety would counsel when
it was at its best. It sends up a volume about
ten times that of Faithful, equally high, and
lasting ten minutes. The roar is deafening, the
vibration reaches the ground on which you stand,
but spellbound with admiration, you have no
thought of fear. When the eruption ceases the
crater is empty, and where once was a pool of
blue water, is a hollow receptacle lined with orna-
mented rock. Neighboring pools have also been
despoiled of their water, and one cannot help
fancying that this is a period of utter exhaus-
tion, following the terrible convulsion which

j6 John Nagle's Philosophy

resulted in the magnificent column of water just
beheld.

The springs are of marvelous purity, of a sap-
phire blue, and many " deeper than ever plummet
sounded." The sides of the basin are seen
clearly through the transparent water while the
refraction gives the whole the appearance of
being gorgeously tesselated with shimmering
squares. They are of most indescribable beauty,
and somehow their limpid depths give you the
impression that the water is ice cool. It is not
so warm as to be in a state of agitation, and there
lie these pools of such complete transparency that
they have not the power of reflection while the
murmuring rills from them, over the tufaceous
deposit reminds one of Milton's "Silva's brook
that flows fast by the oracle of God." One
peculiarity of this country is when you come to
a stream you must touch its waters to determine
whether it is hot or cold. I had one foot
blistered by the heat while crossing a stream,
for neglecting to take this precaution.

One leaves these basins with singular feelings.
Here in close proximity are the eternal snows
and the fires that quench not. The streams
come down the hills cool with the icy breath of
the mountains and mingle with the heated waters
which seem to be the fevered sweat of a demon
in agony. The sun beats down pitilessly on

John Nagle's Philosophy 57

the sojourner in the valley, but the wanderer
on the hill feels the breath of the Ice King.
It is a land of contradictions, of wonders, and
hardships.

Yellowstone Falls and Cation

And now for the falls and canon. You pass
the "divide," skirt mountains of sulphur, gallop
through beautiful parks inclosed by mountains,
and having covered twenty-five miles, you reach
the Yellowstone. Though near its source, the
lake of like name, it is here a stream of consider-
able volume. As it nears the Upper Falls the
current grows rapid, and is lashed into fury by
obstructing rocks. It is not the quiet majestic
flow of Niagara. Here is a rush to destruction,
a tumult preceding the leap. The waters fall on
a submerged rock and rebound. The turbulent
character of the stream below the falls reminds
one of the rapids below Niagara. But when the
Lower Falls are reached you stand spellbound.
The water goes over in a steady stream, a shelv-
ing rock giving majesty to the leap. Down the
waters go a distance of three hundred feet into
the canon. A footpath takes you right to the
head of the falls, and a substantial railing quiets
what nervousness you might otherwise feel in
looking into the terrible abyss. The falls are
grand, but the canon absorbs the attention. The

j8 J°hn Nagle's Philosophy

cliffs rise to a height of eight hundred feet, and
display the most varied and gorgeous coloring.
Here are minarets of red, there towers of yellow
and everywhere a harmonious blending of colors.
The great depth mellows the sunlight, and seems
to soften the touch of nature's brush. There is
a delicious coolness in this mighty gorge, and the
immensity of the cliffs does not overpower
because of the chastened beauty of their orna-
mentation. Were these towering sides not soft-
ened by color and invested with a mellowed
radiance they would oppress by their sublimity.
As it is the soul seems to love in this opulence
of beauty while quickened by the immensity of
the scene. The river is compressed into a rill
of blue set in the mighty framework of the stu-
pendous sides. Its onward movement is not
apparent from this great height, and it seems
held by enchantment. Drop a stone from the
top of the falls and so long is it in its descent
that you fancy it is resting on the spray.

By following a trail one mile you reach a crag
which juts out into the cafton from which you
get a front view of the falls looking up the caflon.
Soon you will hear the flap of an eagle's wings
and its notes of anger. At quite a distance
below and nearer the center of the cafion rises a
stately shaft of basaltic rock, and on the summit
of this is the eagle's nest. The scream of this

John Nagle's Philosophy 59

king of birds is grand in this lonely place, and
you envy him the power of flight as he floats
over the mighty chasm.

I visited the falls unaccompanied. On reach-
ing the platform at the head of the falls I became
aware of the presence of a young lady, seated on
a bench writing a letter. She was clad in moun-
tain costume. Her hair was cut rather close,
curled gracefully, and her little silk cap lay beside
her. She evidently had been some time in the
mountains, as her face was browned by the sun
and air. Her manner indicated culture and her
face intelligence. Her dress bespoke wealth, for
though of strong material, it was costly. She
was the picture of health and decidedly hand-
some. Some lines of Scott's ' ' Lady of the Lake"
ran through my mind as I gazed on this moun-
tain nymph, and I became curious to know how
she came to these vast solitudes " claiming kin-
dred" with the hills and seeming to have her
claim allowed. I found her to be an excellent
conversationalist, well informed on the topog-
raphy of the park, and quite willing to give infor-
mation. She had come from Philadelphia with
her father and the "rest of the family." They
had their own outfit, tents, horses, servants,
and supply teams. This was the second summer
they had spent in the park. The whole family
preferred this nomadic life to spending the sum-

60 John Nagle's Philosophy

mer at the fashionable watering-places, which
they had tried and disliked. I afterward found
that the young ladies could ride horses at a
breakneck speed over mountains and always sat
their beasts astride. My conversation was
arrested by the arrival of the rest of the party.
Soon the lightning began to play on the moun-
tain peaks, and the thunder reverberated in the
valleys. The wind blew in gusts, and threatened
to sweep us over the falls. The party quit
hastily for the camp. I climbed the cliffs to
make a short cut, but the mountain maid wrapped
her plaid around her, sought the shelter of a cliff,
and braved the "god of storms, the lightning,
and the gale."

Mt. Washburn

From the falls we crossed the mountains,
taking a trail with the intention of visiting Mt.
Washburn on the way. We ascended Mt.
Washburn with horses until they became an
encumbrance, and then myself and a Brooklyn
clergyman pushed ahead on foot. Here were
immense snow-drifts, and above them in clear
patches bloomed the flowers. It was a singular
companionship. On little shelves could be seen
where animals had rested, and everywhere were
evidences of the inhabitancy of the Rocky Moun-
tain sheep. The head swims before the summit

John Nagle's Philosophy 61

is reached, and well it might, because this peak
is ten thousand feet above the level of the sea.
The top is flat, the gale piercing, the flowers
many and beautiful, though the frosts are still
there, and what a beautiful panorama is spread
before you ! Clear around in an unbroken circle
sweep the mountain peaks, their banks of snow
glistening in the sunlight. What were somber
pine forests when you rode through them are
mellowed into a beautiful dark green, the inequal-
ities being wholly hidden from the eye. The
blue waters of Yellowstone Lake rise into view,
and the patches of meadows look like well-kept
farms. The whole park is beneath you encircled
by a chaplet of snow. It is a grand sight, not
quickly forgotten, and repays one fully for the
weariness of the ascent.

The Bad Lands

Dakota is a broad land, and much of it is fer-
tile. These northern prairies, however, do not im-
press one by their immensity as do those of Iowa.
Their rolling surface brings the horizon too near
the beholder. He has not the idea of expanse in
its completest sense. The rapidity with which
the region near Dawson seems to be settling up
is astonishing. There seems to be no one point
from which settlement radiates, but everywhere
clear up to the Bad Lands the hardy pioneer dots
the vast prairies with marks of his industry. But
the little home on these vast treeless plains must
offer insufficient shelter in the winter when the
storm is at its fiercest. The struggle for exist-
ence seems more clearly defined and more uncer-
tain of success on the prairie than where the
forests hold sway. Man seems the merest atom
on the prairie, and his work the labor of pigmies.
But he brings these broad lands under subjection,
small as the beginning is, and small indeed it
appears in the Empire of the Plains.

The Bad Lands lie in the western part of
Dakota and the eastern part of Montana. They
are now known by the more euphonious name of
Pyramid Park, though the first is more appropri-

62

John Nagle's Philosophy 63

ate. These hills are a queer formation. Rising
abruptly from the plains, barren, bleak, and stu-
pendous, they give the surrounding country the
appearance of being blighted by a curse. They
are a mass of clay, without life, without vegeta-
tion, a corpse of clay with no hope of a future.
Their appearance is an explanation of their origin,
volcanic eruption ; a boiling without an outbreak,
as uninviting a piece of work as ever nature
fashioned. Some of the scrubby trees common
to this section started a sickly growth on the
uninviting sides of these hills. But the inhos-
pitable soil did not afford them means of life and
they perished. A vigorous tree on the Bad
Lands would be the marriage of Death and
blooming Life. The eastern ridges of the Rocky
Mountains are the Bad Land Hills on a more
stupendous plan. Bare, barren, snow-clad, and
forbidding, they frown on the valleys at their
feet. Distance does not soften their rugged
features and their sides and summits are devoid
of verdure. Their ragged crests cut the blue sky
sharply and the snow glistens in the sunlight.
But one turns from the view with anything but
a feeling of pleasure. The valleys even are not
fertile, and seem a fit complement for the sterile
hills. Colonies of prairie dogs sit on their
haunches and look unconcernedly at the passing
train.

Red River Valley

The Red River Valley is known everywhere
for its fertile soil. It is prairie with the excep-
tion of a narrow strip of woodland on either side
of the river. It is a magnificent valley, and to
the summer visitor it has all the features of an
earthly paradise. The soil is rich, deep, and
easily worked, not readily exhausted as it has a
clay subsoil with all the essential elements of
productiveness. It is prairie right up to the
immediate river valley. The course of the Red
River is traced by the rill of green which rises
above the level prairie in its tortuous course.
Anything which breaks the monotony of the
prairie is attractive to the eye, and nothing is
more pleasing than woodland. This narrow belt
of forest winds off into the far-away prairie, mel-
lowed by distance until it seems a dark green
cloud which kisses the horizon.

In a stroll one day I encountered a farme
engaged in putting a hoop on a refractory pail.
I lent my assistance until the honest granger
begged me to desist, as my aid was a hindrance.
In return for my courtesy he furnished me facts
which detract a great deal from this valley, which
to-day might pass for the famed one of Cashmere.

64

John Nagle's Philosophy 65

" Friend," said the man with the dilapidated
pail, "this is a fine soil and a grand country if
we only had climate. Yes, nice enough to-day
and yesterday, but a cold wave might sweep
down from the north to-night and destroy every-
thing. Nothing certain about vegetables except
that they are apt to be killed by early frosts.
Wheat and oats are the only crops you may rely
upon, and there have been times that frosts killed
these in August. Won't average more than
twenty-five bushels of wheat to the acre. Yes,
land is high. This," pointing to a farm just
outside the city limits, "cost two hundred and
twenty-five dollars per acre. This is a big place
according to the newspapers, and would be but
for the climate." Whether my friend was
Diogenes with a pail instead of a tub I will not
say. Certain it is his statements seemed a libel
on the place which gave promise to "smile in a
harvest if tickled with a straw."

The valley is about forty miles wide at Moor-
head, but widens toward the north into the cele-
brated Manitoba Valley, to which the inhabitants
of that place expect sometime to have the pleas-
ure of annexing the United States.

Utah and Some Western
Cities

Railroads have brought Salt Lake City into
jostling proximity with the Mississippi Valley,
and to write of this New Zion seems like dealing
with a subject so close to the experience of all
that what is said must appear trite.

And yet there is something in this famous
valley with its mystic sea which stirs the imagi-
nation. It is ancient in suggestion, though not
in history, and it seems as if the haze which
bathes the mountains has mystery in its depths.
The clouds move on as if pregnant with tradition,
and the valley slumbers as if wearied with historic
lore. Some years ago when I first looked down
on this valley from one of the heights which
encircle it, prejudice against Mormons dropped
from me "as scales from the eyes of Paul."
Their history appeared scriptural and ancient,
written upon the purple hills and scarcely less
modern than they. The flight of Israel from the
land of Egypt and the house of bondage has a
setting of historic adornment and the interest of
antiquity to commend it to our imagination.
But how insignificant the flight, how dwarfed

66

John Nagle's Philosophy 67

the purpose when compared with that of the
Mormons ! There was no manna showered down
from heaven for these people in their long and
weary march over mountains which seemed to be
barriers set by nature against man's further pro-
gress westward. No evidence of divine guidance
was vouchsafed them. No promise of a land
rich in earthly blessings.

They planted the seeds of an empire after
having conquered the mountains, and did not
lapse into degeneracy because of isolation. It is
one of the greatest achievements known to our
history, and should receive the recognition it
merits. Prejudice blinds us to the glory of this
hegira of our own age, and of a part of our ow.n
people, of this wonderful self-reliance which wel-
comed separation from the civilized world while
not discarding the methods of civilization.
They took with them their brains and their
hands, and without outside assistance, scorning
commercial and social intercourse with the world
of which they were a part, but not of it, they
built up a state which challenges admiration.

Nature has done much for Utah. It is the
repository of the richest gifts of the geologic ages
when prodigality was the rule, though discrimi-
nation as to locality also governed. Utah has
all the precious metals and many of those whose
value lies in their contributing directly to the

68 John Nagle's Philosophy

needs of man. Its valleys are fertile, and irriga-
tion is not difficult. Its agricultural interests are
diversified, and all are in a healthy state. Ogden
and Salt Lake City are cities of commercial
importance. One is apt to imagine the latter, in
the light of its origin, as more unique in its fea-
tures than enterprising in its activity. It is a
bustling city, alive to all the interests which give
a city pre-eminence. There is nothing suggestive
of conservatism in anything pertaining to the
city. It has the vim of the West with much of
the stateliness of the East, and wears an air of
conscious strength which makes one feel it can
command the future.

On the trip homeward Glenwood Springs,
Leadville, Buena Vista, and Cafton City were
visited. Glenwood Springs is a delightful resort.
The hotel there is a magnificent one, while its
surroundings are beautiful in the extreme. The
place is restful and elegant, suggestive of wealth
without a feature of pretension. The bathing
pool, fountains, vapor caves, flower beds, and
the dreamy restfulness of everything, nestle into
one's recollections as do the thoughts of wood-
land paths of early days.

Leadville is a wicked mountain city where
neither "the spirit of man" nor anything else is
divine. It is a mining city, and its surroundings
are honeycombed with shafts. The sulphurous

John Nagle's Philosophy 69

fumes of smelting works flavor the mountain air
disagreeably, and the inconstant weather mingles
the seasons confusedly. Leadville is wicked, but
begins to feel the mellowing touch of age, and
virtue is making inroads on its athletic obduracy.

Cafion City is a promise of the future of
Colorado when it turns its attention to the pro-
ducts of the soil. It is one of the most produc-
tive fruit sections of the United States. The
valley in which Cafion City lies is specially
adapted to the growth of apples, pears, and
grapes. It is difficult to realize the bearing
capacity of fruit in this section. The trees are
not only propped up, but have platforms erected
to bear their maturing burdens.

The West is an interesting country to us of
the plains, because of its surface configuration,
and the grand scenery to which this gives rise;
but it is bound to us by the ties of common
interest, and it is well that we form the acquaint-
ance of its people. We can learn much from
them, not the least of which is the cheery wel-
come and the absence of tiresome conventionality.

Memphis

It is cold to-day (February 24th, 1900), a raw
wind blowing, which makes a heavy overcoat
pleasant to have when making short excursions
from the cars. It was extremely warm in Memphis
yesterday, but the change during the night has
given the native an opportunity of offering the
invariable explanation given in the South of any
untoward circumstance calculated to injure the
climatic reputation of the place, viz., "the worst
in fifty years." The magnolias, with their pulpy
leaves of clean, rich green, are pleasant to the
eye after long months of divorce from nature's
choicest color. The cotton-fields are scraggy
with the wasted stems of last season's crop, and
give but little promise of the beauty which
crowns them when in blossom.

The people of Memphis have the true South-
ern hospitality. They have the courtesy of
refined sentiment and the practicality of thorough-
going business men. I received my impression
of Memphis from the virulent nature of the yel-
low fever which prevailed there some twenty-two
years ago, and credited its sad experience then
to obstacles to proper sanitary measures which it
would be difficult, if not almost impossible, to

70

John Nagle's Philosophy 71

overcome. But it is "a, city on a hill," beauti-
fully and healthfully located, and offering a point
of view which makes the Father of Waters pic-
turesque as well as being a channel of commerce.
Its very immunity from disease because of its
natural surface drainage must have resulted in
neglect to take the ordinary precautions for
cleanliness. It profited by its terrible expem-
ence, and there is no city in the United States
which now presents an appearance exceeding that
of Memphis in the matter of cleanliness. It is
said to be one of the best sewered cities in the
world, and even Paris engineers have visited the
city to study its system and profit by its excel-
lence. The surrounding country is beautiful,
and the country roads are well-nigh perfect.
They are all macadam.

Memphis is one of the Southern cities which
early broke the limitations of local prejudice. It
had sufficient conservatism to exclude the boom
feature, so that reverses from an overstimulated
growth have been avoided, and every bit of
growth has developed from a legitimate cultiva-
tion of resources. The solidity resulting from
this is apparent on every hand. One feels there
is permanency in everything and tinsel appears
nowhere. This characteristic appears in the
bearing of the people. There is soundness of
judgment, frankness of expression, and independ-

72 John Nagle's Philosophy

ence of action which give an added expression of
pleasure to the acts of courtesy which is one of
the charms of the South.

Memphis, Nashville, and Atlanta are develop-
ing on parallel lines, quick to take advantage of
conditions without vulgar exhibition of greedi-
ness, and not neglecting this cultivation of social
graces while progressive in the line of business.

Memphis is a great cotton market, though its
lumber interests are being pushed with consider-
able vigor. Cotton is king again this year. The
advance in the price has made the people happy.
The advance averages about eighteen dollars per
bale, the weight of a bale being from four hun-
dred to five hundred pounds. This advance has
made the people jubilant, though the growers of
cotton, as a rule, sold a little too early to profit
by it. A business man of Memphis informed
me that he never before knew of a more perfect
feeling of satisfaction among the people. The
advance has given them money beyond their
expectations, and he says it is not unusual to
see people, proverbially hard up, now with a wad
of money, and meeting all their obligations
promptly.

Granada, Mississippi, was reached early in the
morning. It is quite an old city, and had but
little "wah" experience. I walked to the depot
from where we had breakfast with Tom Cunning-

John Nagle's Philosophy 73

ham. Tom is always in search of information,
and noticing a large building outside the city, of
considerable architectural pretension, and occu-
pying a commanding site, he asked a little negro
boy what building it was.

"A college," was the reply.

"A college!" Tom said, " what 's its name?"

" Pay College, " replied the lad, innocently.

"A queer name for a college," replied his
interlocutor.

"You see," the lad answered, "dem who
goes there must pay."

He didn't mean it as a joke, but the genial
ex-secretary thought it one on him.

The lady students were at the depot to bid us
good-by. They wore the conventional gown of
the olden time, and had a regular college yell.

New Orleans

New Orleans is a union of the old and the
new. The old is persistent and almost irrecon-
cilable. It is unyielding and is being replaced,
not modified. The French residents of New
Orleans never acquiesced in spirit to the sale of
Louisiana and the hostility to American customs
and American dominance is inherited by their
descendants. The crossing of a single street
brings you from the new to the old, though the
tentacles of the former are penetrating the
French quarters. It is invasion, not the hand of
welcome, which is responsible. It is said there
are many French people who have never crossed
Canal Street — the line of separation. It is a
sullen rather than an active form of antagonism.

New Orleans has been called the Paris of
America. Certain it is that much attention is
given to etiquette. The guests at the chief hotel
dress in conformity with the dictates of fashion,
changing regularly so as to meet social require-
ments. Intellectually there is no aristocracy.

New Orleans is a great city, a type of itself.
The wharves are a busy place, and the river in
their immediate neighborhood is crowded with
boats almost as much as the East River in New

74

John Nagle's Philosophy 75

York. They are the scene of constant bustle and
activity. Pandemonium reigns there at times.
The shouts of the officers of the boats, the tramp
of freight handlers, the rattle of heavy wagons,
the screech of whistles and various other noise-
producing things make a din almost indescribable,
but it is a sound of industry and stirs you with
the desire of doing. And yet great, fat negroes
sleep on cotton bales throughout this turmoil.

One cannot notice in New Orleans that the
surface of the river is above the level of the city
as the levees are continued into the streets so
that the grade is hardly perceptible.

All the old streets are narrow, and are paved
with large blocks of granite about eight inches
thick, the surface being not less than four square
feet. These frequently become tilted and in
places give the street the appearance of a stone
pile. The surface has become polished by attri-
tion, a circumstance which adds to the woe of
the poor mule, as a heavy load is rarely started
without repeated falls on his knees on the rocky
pavement, followed by punishment for the reli-
gious posture inflicted by the negro driver, who
has no more sympathy with "flopping" than
Jerry Cruncher had.

Broad boulevards are common in New Orleans.
The center of these boulevards is used by the
street car lines. They do not greatly mar the

76 John Nagle's Philosophy

beauty of the "grass plat," as beauty in this
respect is lacking. Canal Street is the principal
street of the city, and is the line of demarkation
between old and modern New Orleans. The
transition is abrupt, and the change is apparent
in the general appearance and the veriest details.
Canal Street is so called because through it at
one time ran a canal, which was filled up years
ago. It is a unique street as it is the heart of
the city. Every street car line in the city starts
from this street, there being four tracks on it for
its entire length. A track runs from here
through every intersecting street, and the car
returns after its journey is complete, to set out
again after traversing a portion of Canal Street.
One can fancy the procession of street cars there
is. It is bewildering, and those familiar with
city ways, but not with those of New Orleans,
cross this street with precipitation or a degree of
caution which would by no means ward off dan-
ger if the motormen were not skillful and ex-
tremely careful.

Asphalt streets are being put in now, and the
large and unsightly blocks of granite will soon be
a thing of the past. Lake Pontchartrain lies a
few miles beyond New Orleans. The interven-
ing land, though heavily timbered, is a swamp.
But a beautiful shell road extends all the way.
There are mountains of oyster shells piled up near

John Nagle's Philosophy 77

some of the wharves as material for road building,
and they solve the question very satisfactorily.

New Orleans is not a dirty city. The open
sewers are flushed thoroughly every morning,
and the streets are thereby thoroughly cleansed.
The open sewer is giving way to the underground
sewer, and the asphalt street will do away with
the mud which oozes out through the crevices
which separate the granite blocks.

The cemeteries of New Orleans are objects of
great interest to the stranger. They are veri-
table cities of the dead. There are no under-
ground interments, except in the case of poor
people, and in the potter's field. The body is
placed in a vault or sarcophagus which is sealed
up. These houses for the dead are of various
styles of architecture, many of them beautiful.
The old cemeteries in the French section are not
pretentious. Many of the vaults in these ceme-
teries are made of brick. The first tenants have
in many instances had their "claims jumped"
by later candidates for burial. The aperture is
opened by tearing away the bricks, which are
replaced after the body is deposited. Metairi is
the name which the finest cemetery in the city
bears. Its site was at one time a race-course.
The Jockey Club was the most aristocratic in
the city. One of the presidents of the Louisiana
State Lottery, a man of immense wealth, sought

78 John Nagle's Philosophy

admission to this club, and was blackballed
because of the character of his business. He
nursed his revenge, and through some means
secured possession of the race-course and pre-
sented it to the city for a cemetery.

One has a queer sensation while wandering
through this cemetery. The idea of death is not
stamped on the place. It seems that you are in
a city of shadows — in the midst of a phantasm —
that existence has not ceased for those who dwell
here. There is a feeling that you are intruding
upon the privacy of others. The song of birds
seems to be meant for those whose homes are
here. The rows of costly but diminutive houses;
the evidences of taste; the winding streets clean,
and bordered with flowers, increase the illusion.

It is the way to bury the dead. One does
not lose the sense of companionship in the death
of a relative. Open ground burial is a necessity
in New Orleans as the ground is saturated with
water. It should be a sentiment where necessity
does not govern.

A singular custom among the French Italians
and some others is the issuance of placards
announcing deaths of relatives and containing an
invitation to attend the funeral. One which I
secured from a telegraph pole read as follows:

John Nagle's Philosophy 79

Perrilliat

"Died last night, Monday, February 19, 1900,
at 10 o'clock, aged 78 years, Mrs. Widow Vic-
tor Perrilliat, ne'e Marie Louise Blanc.

"Her friends and acquaintances, also those of
the Perrilliat, Blanc, and Lubalut families and
those of her sons, Charles, Emile, and Arsene,
are respectfully invited to attend her funeral
which will take place this afternoon, at 4 o'clock
precisely, from her late residence."

Telegraph poles have large numbers of such
notices.

Jeff Davis and Jackson are New Orleans
heroes. Chalmette, where Jackson won his
great victory, lies a few miles outside the city,
down the river. Statues of Jackson are numer-
ous. Davis has no statue, but every public place
is filled with mementoes of him, and they are
cherished. The finest monument in the city is
that of Lee. It is in "Lee Circle," an expan-
sion of St. Charles Street. While gazing at this,
the splendid tribute paid this greatest man of
his age by G. W. Cable came to mind. He
stands with folded arms, and the beholder can
easily fancy that he wears the crown of manly
dignity and heroic achievement. The great,
silent soldier who did not wince at defeat or
even utter a syllable of complaint. Great in

80 John Nagle's Philosophy

action, eloquent in silence, those whom he fought
now glory in his fame.

The state and federal courts are on the French
side in old but commodious buildings. While
court is in session the adjacent streets are not
open to traffic, and ropes are strung across them
to prevent the passage of teams. This is neces-
sary, as the character of the paving is such that
street noises drown everything.

No one visits New Orleans without visiting the
French market, the most complete thing of its
kind in the United States. Here everything for
the table may be purchased. Carts from truck
farms arrive every morning. Game of all kinds
is temptingly displayed. You may make a pur-
chase and have it cooked right there if you feel
disposed. Up to ten o'clock of each forenoon
the place is crowded with purchasers. The place
is clean notwithstanding the variety of its wares.
The same thing cannot be said of the vendors.

New Orleans has good water now. It is Missis-
sippi River water filtered. The water in its natural
state is filthy, almost opaque with dirt. It is not
" clean dirt " either. One shrinks from washing
in it. Its color is a brownish yellow. But it
is drunk by people there with relish — those who
do not have filtered water. They say agitation
has purified it and that it is not unhealthy. I
closed my eyes and tried to take a swallow of it

John Nagle's Philosophy 81

by way of experiment ; but my gorge rose at it,
and it would not down.

The city has many old buildings solidly built,
but decidedly antiquated — narrow halls, low ceil-
ings, and windows with heavy iron shutters.
The Hotel New Orleans has a history. It was
built one hundred and seventeen years ago, and
had many celebrated men as its guests. It was
a fine hotel, and is yet in a good state of repair.
There are oil paintings of celebrated men and
portraits in mosaic on the walls. The rooms are
spacious and rich in fine old furniture. Another
hotel, the Royal, covers a block, and is of gran-
ite. It is no longer in use. In the basement is
the room in which slaves were sold. The block
is still there on which the negroes and the
auctioneer stood. An old bar at the opposite
side where "the bargains were found" still
stands. The room is dimly lighted, and was no
doubt the scene of many tragic events.

Jackson, Miss.

A day spent at Jackson, the capital of Missis-
sippi, has no pleasing reminiscence except it be
the recollection of hospitable entertainment — a
feature of Southern life which would make reiter-
ation burdensome if acknowledgment was always
forthcoming. Jackson is what it was in point of
material development at the close of the war.
It is beautifully located, but it has interest only
for the historian. The capitol is a relic, rapidly
falling into decay ; indeed it has reached the limit
of utility, or lack of it. The narrow stairway
leading to the two chambers creaks under your
weight, and the steps are almost worn through by
the erosion of footsteps. The old building is his-
torical, but it is soon to be torn down, and the new
structure which is to supersede it will have an-
other site — that of the present state penitentiary.

Jackson has stood still through the slow pro-
cess of disuse. There is evident no sign of
improvement, and yet there is no indication of
hopelessness. Socially, the town is tingling with
life, and its citizens insist that a commercial
renaissance is near its birth. There exist no
reasons why there should not be business rehabili-
tation as resources are by no means lacking.

82

Vicksburg

Vicksburg is a city with a history, but it is
interesting even without the associations of the
past. It, like Memphis, is on a plateau — the
term being used relatively and not in its geo-
graphical sense. The approach to the river from
all points is on an incline so great that those who
have attained the conservatism proper to middle
age, proceed with cautious footsteps. It is a
flourishing city, and though all cities with ambi-
tion have a "future," Vicksburg has substantial
foundation for its claim.

A city whose capture marked the begin-
ning of fortune's ebb in the affairs of the Con-
federacy claims attention chiefly because of
its war record on a first visit. We visited the
National Cemetery on Sunday, which is just
outside the city limits on the bluffs which were
so strongly fortified, and which disputed the
passage of gunboats down the Mississippi in
front of Vicksburg. They constitute a natural
fortification. Beyond these, on the opposite
side of the river, was Grant's army, and it
was to make these bluffs ineffective that he
sought to change the course of the Missis-
sippi. On these bluffs now over sixteen thou-

83

84 J°hn Nagle's Philosophy

sand Union soldiers "sleep the sleep that knows
no waking."

I chanced to meet General Stephen E. Lee
under somewhat amusing circumstances, and he
kindly volunteered to show us the points of
interest. He was a brigadier-general in the
Confederate army at the time of the siege, but
mentions his participation (which was highly
creditable) only when the course of the narrative
requires it. But as to the manner of my meeting
him : Tom Cunningham and myself were in con-
versation while standing on a little terrace within
the cemetery, when a splendid looking specimen
of physical manhood entered the cemetery. He
was apparently about sixty years old, but stood
so straight that he "leaned backward." He was
dressed in exquisite taste, but this comported so
well with his bearing that the harmony was
pleasing.

We approached him, and were received with
Chesterfieldian grace. But his brogue was so
rich there was no mistaking his nationality.
After answering several questions, and volunteer-
ing considerable information, he pointed out a
large man, quite gray, slightly stooped with age,
but vigorous, and said, "There is one of the
greatest living generals of the Confederacy."

With an Irishman's propensity to take things
wrong, Tom said, "And he's buried up there, is

John Nagle's Philosophy 85

he?" waving his hand in the direction indicated
by the Irish Beau Brummel.

"What the divil would they bury him for an'
he alive?" said the Irish Adonis. "There he is
up there, walking."

We sought out Lee, but had him only for a
short time to ourselves, as he was soon surrounded
by eager questioners, to all of whom he gave a
most patient and courteous hearing.

This cemetery is the most picturesque of any
of the national cemeteries I have seen, and I
have seen most of them. It overlooks the river,
which stretches far away to where Grant and his
army spent weary months of soldier's toil. The
course of the river has changed, and islands have
formed through which the waters glint. The
western sun sheds its warmth on the groves
which dot the slopes and seems to make it an
ideal resting-place for those for whom "life's fit-
ful fever is o'er. " The Bermuda grass forms a
soft cushion so that no rude footsteps jar upon
the ear, and "all the air a solemn stillness holds."

The clay here has a wonderful consistency,
and a vertical embankment will not wash away.
Sods of Bermuda grass nailed on these slopes will
stick and grow. The government is improving
the park, and it will soon be a thing of beauty.

Baton Rouge

Baton Rouge was a surprise to me, as are all
the cities on the Mississippi, in that it is on an ele-
vation and commands the Mississippi. We spent
the night at Baton Rouge, and saw only little of
the city, but I was favorably impressed with
what I did see. We left at six Monday morn-
ing. Just before starting out, and while lying in
my berth, the negroes were going to their work
on the wharves and on the plantations, and in-
dulged in their matin of song. It was inex-
pressibly sweet, the individual voices which rose
above the chorus seeming to have in them the
"ecstacy of woe." I recalled Garfield's remark
that slavery had put pathos into the melody of
the negro. But slavery has given way to vice,
and the notes still bear a burden of sorrow.
There is exultation in song as a rule, but there
was no note of triumph or of thanksgiving in the
voices which stirred my emotions as I lay list-
lessly susceptible to outward impressions and took
on the melancholy of which the song I heard was
the impression. What is in the negro to whom
the boon of freedom has brought reversion to
government by animal instincts that his song
should have the potency of prayer through the

86

John Nagle's Philosophy 87

appeal it breathes? Is the soul yet clouded by
the shadow of slavery which makes "sorrow's
memory a sorrow still"? Or has nature, with
merciless kindness, implanted a sense of limitations
within him which makes his possibilities seem poor
when measured with his perception of what is,
and what might be, if he did not bear the stamp of
a race for whom "servility has been a badge."

There is no finer section of land in the world
than lies between Baton Rouge and New Orleans.
It is devoted exclusively to the cultivation of
sugar-cane. It is the richest soil I ever saw. It
is the "ole plantation" improved. Almost every
plantation has a sugar mill of its own, and refin-
eries are numerous. The old plantation house
has not fallen to ruin. It is modernized, en-
larged, and usually nestles in a grove of live oaks
and magnolias. The negro quarters form a vil-
lage on each plantation, consisting of two rows of
cottages, separated by a narrow street. The
cottages seem to be neatly kept, and pickaninnies
are numerous. The negro and the mule are the
industrial instruments. There is no other sec-
tion of the South that I have visited which
shows such signs of prosperity as this does. The
Mississippi winds through it, the levees rising up on
the dead level like large breastworks. The levees
are quite high and broad, and their upper surface
makes a fine promenade which is in regular use.

A Trip to Montgomery

Breakfast at Manitowoc, supper at St. Louis,
shows the rapidity of travel in modern times.
Space is practically annihilated by the speed of
the iron horse and climatic change, so far as it is
affected by latitude, is now under the absolute
control of the individual.

Aside from the fertility of the section there is
not much of interest to the traveler between
Chicago and St. Louis. It is a garden, both in
fertility and cultivation. Farm-houses are inferior
to those of Wisconsin, and lack of diversity of
surface makes the trip monotonous.

St. Louis has ceased to be a rival of Chicago.
The Father of Waters has grown to be common-
place and has been shorn of its glory by the rail-
road. It has become a prosaic stream, hedged in
by the rigorous demands of commerce. St. Louis
has wealth and taste, but can no longer pretend to
compete for anything approximating supremacy.
The resident portion of the city, that occupied
by the four hundred, is beautiful indeed. In
this respect it has its once rival at a positive dis-
advantage. Nature has saved it from the monot-
ony of dead level, and has given it charming
environment. It has the convenience of a union

88

John Nagle's Philosophy 89

depot, that is reached by a tunnel which passes
through the heart of the city, after the road
crosses the famous bridge.

The Louisville and Nashville road gives one
access to several states with comparatively little
travel. A rush through Illinois, a breath of
Hoosierdom, and soon one can "see the sun shine
bright on the old Kentucky home. " The imagi-
nation is quickened by the Kentucky atmosphere.
It may be because of the romance in which the
past of the state is bathed, and the brilliancy
which centers in it. But there is a lightening of
the heart and a freer play of the emotions when
on Kentucky soil.

The trip across the mountains was made dur-
ing the night, and Montgomery was reached in
the early morning. There is no more winter, and
overcoats are a burden. The sun climbs high in
this latitude at this season, and we have antici-
pated its arrival in Wisconsin by several weeks.

Montgomery is a manufacturing city of con-
siderable note. The smoke invests it closely and
prevents its being a desirable place for residence.
The old state capitol, in which the ordinance of
secession was passed, still serves the state. It
is a modest structure, antique in its style of
architecture, and perched upon a gentle emi-
nence. The capitol square has a monument to
the Confederate dead, the offering of affection,

90 J°hn Nagle's Philosophy

and the result of contributions at a period when
the South was prostrate.

Alabama is not unlike Georgia in general char-
acteristics. It is in the line of progress, and its
people are intent upon the development of its
resources. It seems strange that states so old
should have possibilities which have so long
awaited the enlivening touch of industry. The
New South is a term of much broader significance
than attaches to it as we use it, having in mind
only the political situation.

En Route to Savannah

The Mississippi Valley is to sections less
favored, in an industrial sense, what the life of
the industrial, painstaking man is to that of him
who does not always respond to the call of duty.
There is variety in abundance in the daily life of
him who thinks the hard lines of duty should not
always be followed, though want be one of its
features. Chicago, with all its architectural
monstrosities as well as beauties, has not a tithe
of the interest to the traveler that is called out
by the splendid setting of the Cumberland River
as it breaks through the mountains, and the com-
mercial uproar of the metropolis does not speak
in such sympathetic tone to our industrial sense
as does the beautiful blue grass region of Ken-
tucky. This region is devoted to grazing and
every farm is a stock farm. It is the section in
which Daniel Boone flourished and Henry Clay's
eloquence was nurtured. It is as beautiful to the
eye in its gentle undulations and wooded hills as
its climate is salubrious. There is but little
grain raised, and only sufficient fodder for
domestic use. But it is to this place the pure
bred horse traces his origin.

91

92 John Nagle's Philosophy

East Tennessee

East Tennessee is a country which has made
but little progress, It is the moonshiner's para-
dise— he regards it as his empire, and will not
hesitate to fight to the death to maintain his
rights. He is a veritable Ishmaelite, and if his
fastness is invaded even by the curiosity-seeker,
the mountaineer acts upon the hint that dead
men tell no tales. It is a picturesque country,
and peculiarly well suited to the business of illicit
distilling. The mountains have mineral wealth
which in time will change conditions and bring
under subjection the hardy mountaineer who
dares the wrath of the government, and neither
asks quarter from, nor gives it to those who are
inimical to his business. The manner of dispos-
ing of the liquor exhibits some of the old style
of primitive honesty which nature and not reli-
gion taught: a jug, with fifty cents, is left on a
stump, and the party retires. He soon returns,
the money is gone, but the jug is filled with
"mountain dew."

Perhaps the moonshiner is receiving more than
his share of attention in this description, but he
deserves it because of the romance attached to
him. He is more picturesque than the train
robber because his calling is hereditary. He is

John Nagle's Philosophy 93

more interesting than the smuggler because he is
more persistent, and flourishes despite the war
made upon him.

Savannah

Savannah has the air of antiquity, not in the
sense of being sleepy, but in a sort of dignified
way which impresses you with the idea that it
has attained growth through historic action. It
is not a beautiful city, and still it is an attractive
one. There is nothing about it which leads to
the belief that it is on exhibition. It is no par-
venu, and even that in it which is shabby has not
a note of apology in its appearance. The streets
are wide and very sandy where they are not
paved. The monuments which adorn the public
parks are of the Revolutionary period. The cli-
mate in December is truly magnificent, being
about what ours in Wisconsin is in mid-June.
There is just a suggestion of the ocean in the air,
which blows here in the afternoon, and its cool-
ing touch is grateful.

I attended a negro church this morning, more
from curiosity, I must say, than from piety. It
was a surprise to me, and exemplified Gold-
smith's words that "those who went to scoff,
remained to pray." I had no such sinister pur-
pose in attending, nor was the reformation so

94 J°hn Nagle's Philosophy

complete that the "bursting heart eased itself in
prayer." But the preacher talked good sense,
and understood his subject fully. Not only this,
he understood what his audience needed, and
gave them just that. The full, rich voice of the
preacher seemed to appeal more to the emotions
of his hearers than his arguments to their reason,
but the two were supplemental.

Thomasville, Georgia

For healthfulness and pleasant surroundings
Thomasville, Georgia, is without a peer. Had
Ponce de Leon, in his search for the Fountain of
Youth, trended in his course more to the north
and west until Thomasville was reached, he might
with propriety have concluded that the search
had proved as successful as the limitations of
mortality would permit. The resinous breath of
the pine "has healing in its wings," and the soft
winds are caressing in their tenderness. Many
of the old plantations are covered with a second
growth of pine, and the woodland roads traverse
what were the cotton-fields of the olden time. The
inequality of surface gives the drives delightful
variety, and the old mansions slumbering in the
sunlight seem relics of that past so near in time,
so distant in the change wrought in the interval.
The present and the past, to the eye, seem to
jostle each other over the intervening space ; but
the "dead past has buried its dead," and no note
of the olden time is heard, nor "touch of a van-
ished hand" felt in the current of the new life.
The negro quarters are gone, and the old man-
sions no longer echo the voices of their hereditary
masters, but instead the prattle of piccaninnies

95

96 John Nagle's Philosophy

and the deep tones of the musically gifted
negro.

Many Northern people have purchased prop-
erty in Thomasville and its surroundings, and
have built houses for residence during the
winter. Most of the improvements made are
due to these men, and the improvements are such
as to merit praise. There is no other place in
the South in which the tourists were so hospit-
ably received, and this is saying much, where
hospitality is the rule. Nor is there any place
of which the recollection is more pleasing.

The Indian Territory

Description gives no adequate idea of the
extent of our country and its boundless resources.
Number to most of us is largely an abstraction
having concrete qualities only in comparison.
The hackneyed expression "must be seen to
be appreciated" is peculiarly pertinent when
applied to the United States in reference to its
geographical extent, its varied interests, diversity
of soil and climate, scenic features, and social
conditions. The word "empire" is too limited
in its significance to be aptly expressive of what
the country is.

Travel is the only medium through which a
comprehensive idea of the greatness of the coun-
try can be gathered. Travel impresses one fact
most strongly upon the careful observer, which
is, that the natural resources of the country are
so vast that the possibilities of the future make
the progress of the past appear almost insignifi-
cant in comparison. In passing through the rich
agricultural districts of Illinois, one feels that the
industry of man has here turned the fertility of
nature into channels conducive to the greatest
public good. Missouri pays less tribute to the
genius of labor, though it has a soil which is pro-

97

98 John Nagle's Philosophy

ductive and enduring. Occupying that border-
land between the North and the once mystic
South, this state has a peculiar interest to people
of the North. There is always a feeling of exal-
tation in turning the face to the South, as if there
remained in our being a shred of the old sun-
worship which the children of nature bestowed,
and like "Old Shady," the going home is toward
that place where the sun woos with greatest fervor.
The development of the Indian Territory is
hindered by reservation rights, a species of entail
which is as foreign to American polity as it is
repugnant to enlightened ideas. There is no
class of people in the world whose average indi-
vidual wealth equals that of the Indians of the
territory. A tr'bal right is worth from seven
thousand dollars to eight thousand dollars, and
this right every person a member of the tribe
enjoys. By no means are all the Indians shift-
less. Many of them have fine farms and have
added largely to their inherited wealth. A
majority of them lease their lands to the whites,
and these secure tribal rights for their children
by intermarriage with the natives. The towns in
the territory along the line of railway are by no
means insignificant, though the whites are squat-
ters5 interlopers, and subject to expulsion, except
such as have "taken unto themselves wives"
from among the dusky maidens.

John Nagle's Philosophy 99

There is no section of the United States the
agricultural possibilities of which exceed those
of the Indian Territpry.

It has also mineral wealth in liberal measure.
It furnishes the pleasing variety of woodland and
prairie, rugged slopes, and gently undulating
valleys. It is well watered and the climate is
salubrious. It is not lacking in picturesque fea-
tures. The gilding of the hills by the slowly
sinking sun gives the valleys the charm of dreamy
repose which is inexpressibly soothing, and the
wooded slopes seem to grasp the shadows as if
they were the mantle of the coming darkness.

The Indian Territory will not long remain the
anachronism it is how. It is too fertile a section
to remain permanently in the hands of people
lacking the enterprise and diligence to improve
opportunities here offered freely and for which
people elsewhere are in constant search. Besides,
the banditti who find an asylum here have by
their lawlessness given an impulse to the demand
which has been steadily growing insistent, that
opportunity be given for the settlement of the
reservations by those who can and will enforce
the laws.

Texas

"Texas has everything," said an enthusiastic
citizen of that state; "fertile soil, good climate,
enterprising people, deserts, tarantulas, rattle-
snakes, and desperadoes." The Wisconsin pil-
grim saw nothing of the undesirable features
which on the doctrine of compensation, if not on
the testimony of its people, must be supposed
to have place in that great state. Texas is
essentially an agricultural country, but its re-
sources are by no means limited to this species
of industry. Its future for a long time will be,
as its past has been, best subserved by attention
to its agricultural interests. The soil is exceed-
ingly rich, except in the western part. But
there are vast tracts favorably located, which are
as yet untouched by the plow. A good quality
of hay is made from the native grass, but the
yield is insignificant compared to what would
result from cultivation. When one looks over
these vast stretches of country, pleading for the
husbandman's prolific touch, he is lost in wonder
that the storm-wrenched prairies of the Dakotas
should have been peopled while these fertile
plains were left untouched by the hand of pro-
ductive labor.

100

John Nagle's Philosophy 101

Cotton is king in Texas, but it asserts its
prerogative mildly. And compared with the
possibilities it might make active, it is a very
unpretentious sovereign. "The state is new,"
is the explanation offered when surprise is ex-
pressed at the vast areas of tillable land with its
virgin soil untouched. It is said that four coun-
ties in Texas can, with their resources taxed,
produce as much cotton as is now produced in
the United States. The industries springing up
by reason of cotton culture are numerous. There
is not a particle of the cotton plant which goes
to waste. Cotton-seed oil is now a recognized
article of commerce, and is invading the domain
of the dairy. The hulls are used for feed, and
the seed, after the oil is extracted, makes the oil
cake. The stalks are cut up on the land and are
used for fertilizing. One gets the impression
that the grower of cotton finds it the least profit-
able of all who handle it. Possibly this explains
why there are not more white fields in this broad
expanse.

The Texas steer will soon be a thing of the
past. Cattle with more beef and less horn are
taking his place. Ranges are becoming circum-
scribed, and cattle are now fed and fattened off
the range. The cattle and sheep industry con-
stitutes a great portion of the wealth of Texas.
Northern Texas is devoted largely to grain-rais-

102 John Nagle's Philosophy

ing; in consequence, Dallas is one of the great-
est distributing points for farm machinery in the
United States. Irrigation is a question of grow-
ing importance in this state. There is but a
comparatively small portion of the state which
is rainless, but wherever agricultural interests are
paramount, man wants to control conditions on
which he is largely dependent. It is doubtful
whether the streams at all places afford a suffi-
ciency of water for this purpose. But artesian
wells may be made available.

Texas has no large cities ; that is, attaching
the significance to the adjective which it bears
with us of the North. But it has many medium-
sized ones which are growing, enterprising, and
prosperous. The growth of many within the last
few years has been rapid, but wholly in response
to increased facilities, or in harmony with the
development of tributary country. Each city
has the local coloring of its environments. Here
it is wool ; there cotton ; and again grain. This
does not mean isolation, though it might have
been so before the advent of railroads. There
is among the several cities a community of pur-
pose which speaks well for the future of the
state.

John Nagle's Philosophy 103

Galveston

When Clay, in the rapt attention of prophecy,
said with reference to the West, "I hear the
footsteps of the coming multitudes," he uttered
a prediction which would now be none the less
true of Texas. It is to be a great state, and the
question soon to attract attention, and possibly
provoke rivalry, is what place shall be the em-
porium of this territory when its fertility shall
minister to the wants of commerce? Galveston
is now the chief seaport. It is the Manhattan
of the state, but it does not enjoy conceded
supremacy. Its foreign trade is large, and while
nature has done much for it, it has left much
undone. The genius of man and the liberality
of the national government are elements to be
considered in forecasting the future of Galveston.
Nature was prodigal in dealing with the city, but
it worked too kindly, and the sand plains are
projected into the bay, making the service of
lighters and barges necessary in unloading and
loading ocean vessels. The system of jetties is
being tried here, confidently by the government
engineers, with doubt by those devoid of techni-
cal knowledge who view the wide expanse of
water between the piers known as jetties.
They do say that these jetties have already
deepened the water. If this be true, the hopes

104 J°hn Nagle's Philosophy

of the people of Galveston will be realized, and
it is destined to be one of the great cities of the
continent, because the sluiceway of commerce
on the Gulf is certain to gather the unearned
increment. Galveston has wealth greater than
that of Houston. Its enterprise is inferior, and
the city at the head of the bayou may yet claim
precedence of the island city upon whose borders
the surf of that great inland sea beats with the
incessant roar of repressed power.

San Antonio

There is a suggestion of aridity in the coun-
try surrounding San Antonio. It is a tentacle
of the desert which lies beyond. Glimpses of
sage-brush, stretches of chaparral, and the unctu-
ous, fleshy leaf of the cactus remind one of the
Farther West where civilization made its earlier
conquests, but failed to keep up the unequal
struggle. There is no more interesting city in
Texas than is San Antonio. The ancient is
hemmed in by the modern, but it remains true
to the antique. The church of the Alamo, which
had a baptism of blood which will ever make it
an object of historic interest, is now surrounded
by business, but it seems to stand alone in the
epic grandeur of its associations. The missions
lie quite a distance outside. They are always
visited by tourists. The rooms in which the

John Nagle's Philosophy 105

mass was celebrated are the only ones not pro-
faned by being made to supply a home for some
shiftless Mexican who asks alms with professional
ease. They toil not, neither do they spin, and
are far removed from the loveliness of the lily,
though their raiment is almost as scant. A
wrinkled old woman who stood at the church
door and pleaded for alms in speech almost as
sweet as the " bastard Latin of the South," told
her age by raising her ten ringers seven times and
the fingers of one hand once. English was an
unknown tongue to her, as it is to most of this
vagabond race outside the cities in Texas.

The school fund income of Texas is, per
capita, about three times that of Wisconsin.
There is some reason to fear that the attention
given to private institutions of learning dwarfs
the public schools. But of that I am unable to
speak confidently. That is a defect which, if it
exists, a "bold peasantry" will soon remedy with
the means at their disposal. Judging from the
appearance of the school buildings, there is no
parsimony in the conduct of the people toward
their schools.

We of the North are more interested in the
politico-social conditions of the South than in any
other of its features. I have had opportunities,
limited in time, though ample in extent,
of studying personal and sectional character-

io6 John Nagle's Philosophy

istics of the South and its social phases.
Industrial life is now national in its pulsa-
tions, and local environments no longer im-
press the character to any greater depth than
habit, worn loosely. The Southern cities, and
those of Texas are no exception, are as cosmo-
politan as those of the North. There is greater
homogeneity in the South because assimilation
is more rapid and perfect. The preponderance
of party strength is due largely to this fact;
there are no factions either national or religious,
and no intolerance because the people are one in
national spirit, and there are no questions of
origin. The enforcement of local laws is much
more strict than in the North. " Pardon me,"
said a gentleman raising his hat to me as I stood
smoking a cigar near a cotton wharf in Galveston,
"I see you are a stranger; but smoking is pro-
hibited here and an officer may arrest you any
minute."

It must be understood that Texas is no longer
a frontier state, and that lawlessness no longer
goes unwhipped. The urbanity of the people of
the South is proverbial, and of this there is no
occasion to speak. Civility here is not devotion
to forms ; it is inbred, and form is but its expres-
sion. Progress in the South radiates from the
cities and they are progressive in everything.
Life is as safe in Texas as in any state, and

John Nagle's Philosophy 107

speech as free. They are a warm-hearted, gener-
ous people, quick in their sympathies, and
prompt in granting favors.

Texas is a state unique in its political evolu-
tion. The Texas Rangers won an empire by
their prowess, and offered the fruits of their vic-
tory to the country in which their cradles were
rocked. Strange fatuity of statesmanship! the
offer was reluctantly accepted and barely escaped
rejection. When one travels over this magnifi-
cent state to-day, an empire in extent and in
achievement, with a future so full of promise
that present prosperity merely serves as an index
of what is to be, he cannot help thinking that
the United States came nigh "throwing away a
pearl richer than all its tribe. " And the glorious
history which has descended to us by reason of
this acquisition — the struggles of the early pio-
neers; the war of independence, not less glorious
than our own; the Alamo, well named "the
Thermopylae of America"; the missions whose
battered walls speak of the past, when war was
the handmaid of religion, and whose dank rooms
bear testimony to the somber character of the
religion of the early day.

Texas has been misunderstood by the people
of the North. It has within its confines every-
thing essential to a nation's well-being. Its
people are not typical Southerners, as they have

io8 J°hn Nagle's Philosophy

a dash of Western breeziness which gives pi-
quancy to the chivalrous courtesy of the South.
Texas is as great a state as California, though it
has not been as self-assertive in its claim for
position, nor has it that comity of political inter-
ests which would prompt state pride to challenge
comparison with the world. Its resources are
without limit, and there is a growing spirit of
enterprise which is sure in time to utilize them.

"The New South'

The words made Grady famous, but their full
import can be felt only by visiting the section he
loved, and which has honored him by a statue in
the principal street of the city in which he labored.
The New South is a revelation to Northern peo-
ple who cling to the old tradition, that Mason
and Dixon's line fixes the limits of two distinct
forms of civilization, antagonistic, almost irrecon-
cilable. Whatever the differences of the past
have been, in individual characteristics as well as
in political and social ideas, they no longer exist.
The railroad of to-day molds all the people of
the nation into homogeneity, and the "New
South" has no distinctive meaning further than
it is a term applicable to a geographic section
whose hopes and fears and purpose are identical
with those of the other sections which together
constitute a solidified nation. The sentiment pre-
vailing in any particular section is truly indexed
in the commercial metropolis of that section, as
it is there ideas originate, and from there spread to
all the tributary surroundings. No Northern city
could outdo the city of Atlanta in its display of
the starry banner in the decoration preliminary
to the opening of its industrial exposition. No

109

no John Nagle's Philosophy

expressions of loyalty could be more numerous
or more readily responsive to challenge than
were those of representative people of the South
in their intercourse with the members of the
Wisconsin Press Association on the occasion of
their recent journey through a portion of the
South.

The route was from Chicago to Louisville over
the Louisville, New Albany and Chicago Rail-
road; thence to Nashville over the Louisville and
Nashville Railroad; from this point to Chatta-
nooga over the Nashville, Chattanooga and St.
Louis Railroad ; and to Atlanta over the Western
and Atlantic. These lines constitute the chief
trunk lines of the South, and are known as the
"Monon Route." The line takes the traveler
through that portion of the South in which the
historic and picturesque are blended, making the
journey one of unbounded pleasure and absorbing
interest. James Barker, the general passenger
agent of the road first mentioned, was formerly
an official of the Wisconsin Central. He accom-
panied the party and won the hearts of all by his
untiring attention and geniality. He is a cyclo-
pedia of general information, and there seems to
be no limit to his good nature. Added to his
social qualities he is a thorough master of all
things pertaining to transportation.

John Nagle's Philosophy

Louisville

Louisville, though on the threshold of the
North, seems less responsive to progressive North-
ern ideas than any other Southern city visited.
There is an air of conservatism pervading the
place, which seems to affect even the electric cars,
and they move with provoking deliberation at
times. Freight wagons are supplied with two
teams, and the negro driver rides one of the
wheel-horses, as his father did before the "wah. "
The main streets are wide, the intercepting
streets narrow. Business appears to move on
with just sufficient momentum to overcome
inertia. And still the volume of business is large
though lacking in "rush." The inbred cour-
tesy of the people and their hospitality are genu-
inely Southern.

The Louisville and Nashville road passes
through a rich agricultural section. A short dis-
tance south of Louisville the country is broken,
almost mountainous. Through the valleys Mor-
gan's daring band made many raids. This is the
beginning of that fatal borderland which was
devastated by the war. From Louisville to
Atlanta the beautiful scenery fails to absorb the
attention because of the demands made upon it
by fruitful historic incident.

John Nagle's Philosophy

Nashville

Nashville is a city of about eighty thousand
inhabitants. The people of the South never use
a magnifying glass when looking at the census
reports. The census figures are given without
the percentage of increase which is an invariable
appendix "up North." Nashville is something
more than a city with a considerable number of
people. It is one of the most progressive cities
of the Union. It is instinct with fervent life in
all the lines of progress. On the basis of popu-
lation it exceeds any city of the North in the
number of its higher educational institutions.
Here as well as elsewhere in Kentucky and Ten-
nessee separate schools are provided for the
races. All are supported at public expense.
There is no commingling of white and black in
the schools, and it is evident there never will be.
It is not a prejudice; it is a conviction, and as it
relates to what the people hold most dear — the
implanting of correct moral principles and high
ideals in their children — it cannot be overcome.
To no question but that as to whether co-edu-
cation is possible is there a note of indignant
defiance in the response which is so emphatic
that discussion is deemed inadvisable. Fisk
University is an institution for colored people.
Its influence is apparent among the negroes of

John Nagle's Philosophy 113

Nashville. The Maxwell House (a hotel, by the
way, which was used during the war as a barrack)
has many of the students of this university as
waiters. The excellence of the service is a sur-
prise to every one until it is learned that the
waiters are students. Vanderbilt College is a
splendidly equipped institution. Its grounds
cover an area of seventy-five acres, and it is so
liberally endowed that it is never pressed by
need.

The celebrated Belle Mead farm lies just out-
side the city. It is the largest stock farm in the
United States, and has descended from father to
son for three generations. A battle was fought
just in front of Nashville. R. H. Johnson, of
the Wausau Central, who was one of the party,
took part in this battle. He was then a lad of
sixteen. He revisited the old place and vainly
sought a family who had done him a kindness
while he was sick. He had fallen out of the
ranks while in retreat, being unable to continue
the march. He was tenderly cared for by a
Southern mother who had a son in the Rebel
army, and through her he was enabled to reach
his company, though he was within the Con-
federate lines.

Everything in Nashville is done with a vim
and heartiness which finds a parallel in but few
cities of the North. The hospitality of the people

ii4 J°hn Nagle's Philosophy

is so profuse that it would be burdensome if it
was not offered with a suavity which puts the
recipient at his ease. The badge of the Wiscon-
sin Press Association was an open sesame to
everything. An inquiry as to the whereabouts
of any point of interest was invariably answered
by a tender of a conveyance in charge of an
escort who could furnish all the information
desired. The privileges of club rooms were freely
extended. Delegations attended the tourists
when they went in a body to any place to fore-
stall any attempt at paying for anything, and to
extend such courtesies as strangers might need.
Chattanooga and Marietta were likewise prodigal
in their hospitality. The prediction of President
Heg, in his formal announcement of the outing,
that the earth and the fullness thereof were ours
if we chose to take it, seemed to be literally
verified.

Chattanooga

Chattanooga is beautifully situated in a valley
among the mountains of southern Tennessee.
The mountains which encircle it bear no frown-
ing aspect, and even the bold front of the point
on Lookout is softened by the glory of its sur-
roundings. The Tennessee, with its blue waters,
would be to the poet a smile from the valley it
enriches, and the glorious Southern sunshine

John Nagle's Philosophy nj

bathing all presents a paradise to the eye. Just
below Lookout Point on a plateau midway on
the mountain was the scene of the " Battle above
the Clouds." From a good point of observation
it seems scarcely more than half a mile from the
heart of the city. It is five miles off. What a
spectacle it must have been to those who could
observe it! Winding about the mountain after
having crossed the river under cover of a fog,
Hooker suddenly appeared on this plateau,
above the clouds which encompassed the valley.
The contest was necessarily brief at such close
quarters. Mission Ridge shuts in the valley of
Chattanooga on the south and east. The whole
ridge was the scene of a bloody battle. One can
hardly realize while standing on the lofty crest
where Bragg had his headquarters that flesh and
blood could endure to climb that lofty elevation
in a charge upon breastworks from which issued
a shower of death. The great generals of the
war were here pitted against one another.
Chattanooga occupied a commanding position,
and the struggle for its possession was deter-
mined, protracted, and bloody. The tide of
battle surged southward, and almost every gap
and mountain peak to Atlanta has a niche in the
historic lore of the country. The traces of battle
are less obliterated in Kenesaw Mountain than
elsewhere. The breastworks here remain unmo-

n6 John Nagle's Philosophy

lested. The mountain was fortified clear to its
summit. Kenesaw rises abruptly from the
plain and commands the surrounding country.
Up this mountain the Union troops charged
upon the breastworks behind which were the
troops commanded by Cleburne. They were not
simply beaten back; they were annihilated.
Looking down now from the spot where "Pat"
Cleburne, as all the Southern people call him,
shouted "Now, boys, fire!" and in those words
sealed the doom of over a thousand Federal sol-
diers, one can hardly realize that the plain over
which the shadows are quietly creeping, and the
slumberous cotton-fields inviting peace and lan-
guor, could be the scene of tumult and bloodshed.

With but few exceptions the tourists were
relic hunters. Bullets from the battle-fields were
most eagerly sought for. Secretary of State
Cunningham bought three Mini£ bullets from a
little negro on Mission Ridge, and then with
malice prepense told a number of people he had
picked them up "over there." About fifty
people proceeded at once to explore "over
there," much to Tom's amusement.

At this point an old man, stooping with age,
though still vigorous in intellect, was met. On
inquiry it was learned that he is the Colonel
Sellers made famous by Mark Twain, though he
may with justice lay claim to celebrity on

John Nagle's Philosophy 117

grounds more substantial than being the hero of
Mark Twain's narrative. He is a scholarly old
gentleman, an excellent civil engineer, and a
great collector of curiosities. He is very sensi-
tive regarding the notoriety given him by Twain,
and wants no allusion made to the subject. Mr.
Barker, who had a kodak with him, surrepti-
tiously secured a picture of the old man while
others engaged him in conversation, so that his
attention might be directed from the " kodak
fiend." The old gentleman is strongly averse to
having his "picture taken." He lives on Mis-
sion Ridge, in what he calls his "den," which is
crammed full of mathematical instruments and
curiosities.

Chattanooga is destined to become a large
manufacturing city. The surrounding country
is simply a mass of iron ore. The soil is iron
ore, impure of course, but significant of what
may be found in the hills. Lying close and run-
ning parallel with the Cumberland Mountains are
immense coal deposits. The proximity of these
interdependent sources of wealth means prosper-
ity to the cities which will utilize the bounty of
nature. The impulse toward industrial activity
in the cities of Nashville and Chattanooga is
easily interpreted. Neither is content with being
a market-place for agricultural products. Both
are cultivating the rich field of manufacture under

n8 John Nagle's Philosophy

conditions which insure success. The cotton-
field, the corn-field, and the sugar-plantation had
reached the limit of their development, and the
cities which relied upon them for support sank
into the somnolent state ever attendant upon
discontinuance of effort. There are other sources
of wealth open to Nashville and Chattanooga,
but industry and intelligence are needed for their
development, and these places are responding
with alacrity and hearty enthusiasm to the need.
Education comes with this tingling life of activ-
ity, and ideas are broadened by commerce with
the world. Nashville and Chattanooga have
grown cosmopolitan because their industries have
ceased to be local. Their battle-fields are but
memories, cherished as they should be, but not
binding the living to the past. They are in the
current of progress, not simply floating, but
bending their efforts to the consummation of a
purpose to be great American cities.

Georgia is a "dry state." Local option pre-
vails, and the law is enforced. In the cities in
which liquor is sold the traffic is hedged in by
the strictest regulations. The large negro popu-
lation makes this a positive necessity. There
are very few saloons in Atlanta, most of them
being in the negro quarters. The business houses
in this quarter are primitive, and during the
evening the sidewalks and saloons are a mass of

John Nagle's Philosophy 119

black humanity. Even without the test of age
one can readily distinguish the free-born negro
from the former slave. There is a reserve and
touch of melancholy in the former slave which
offer quite a contrast to the shallow volubility
and pertness of the free-born.

Can a man with safety express his political
opinions? Nowhere in the United States is
political discussion less attended by angry alter-
cation. No people could be more tolerant of the
opinion of others or less inclined to resent criti-
cism. Indeed politics is by no means discussed
there to the extent it is with us. Other sections
of the South may differ from that visited in this
respect. The "New South" is an industrial
South, but money-making has not yet destroyed
the suavity of manner and hospitable nature of
the Southern gentleman.

Mammoth Cave

Mammoth Cave is very appropriately classed
as one of the wonders of the world. The party
visited it during the night, but within the cave
all seasons are night. The surrounding country
is cavernous and mountainous. The cave is
simply a broad underground arch, devoid of any
special features of beauty, and awe-inspiring
because of its immensity. All its ramifications
have never been fully explored. The guides say
that two hundred and fifty miles have been
explored, but the guides know less about the
caves than does the careful reader of magazines.
From the main gallery there are chambers lead-
ing into other galleries, which descend to a
greater depth into the bowels of the earth. At
the lowest level there is a river, " unheard, save
by its own dashing." The floor of all the gal-
leries is strewn with broken rock which has been
removed sufficiently to form a broad path for the
convenience of those visiting the caves. Each
state has a sort of cairn within the cave built by
each visitor depositing a fragment of a rock on a
pile bearing the name of that state of which he
is a resident. The little huts built by the con-
sumptives who thought the uniform temperature

120

John Nagle's Philosophy 121

of the caves would be beneficial, still remain
intact. The consumptives are all dead, their
death being hastened by withdrawal from the
sunlight. In the "long ago" saltpetre was
manufactured in the caves, when the exigencies
of war made the manufacture of gunpowder in
large quantities necessary. The "pits" are still
there. The height of the ceiling varies ; in some
places it is forty feet; it is seldom less than
twenty, except in the chambers leading from one
gallery to another. The stalactites and stalag-
mites are such only in name. What are called
such are simply portions of the original rock
which resisted the erosive power of the current,
for no one visiting the caves can doubt that it
was worn out by subterranean streams. Thou-
sands of bats congregate in the cave, but they are
not found further than a quarter of a mile from
the entrance. When about two miles inside the
cave, all the torches were quenched, so that the
intensity of the darkness might be realized.
The feeling is such as to inspire terror. Vision
is absolutely cut off, and it requires an effort to
suppress an exclamation of horror even though
conscious that the darkness is temporary.

Lone Grave

A few miles south of Marietta, Georgia, close
to the railroad track is a grave. A soldier's
body had been found there and buried by rail-
road hands. Not only was his name unknown,
but it is not known on which side he fought.
The grave is cared for by railroad employees. It
is marked by a simple slab bearing the inscrip-
tion, "He Died for the Cause He Thought Was
Right." The place is known as "Lone Grave" ;
it is in sight of Kenesaw Mountain, where thou-
sands died, but not even the National Cemetery
at Marietta or at Mission Ridge attracts the
attention which this lone grave among the hills
of northern Georgia does. The train was stopped
and the grave was soon surrounded. Then was
shown the sympathetic nature of woman, who
shares the sorrows of the distressed, and mingles
her tears with those who have cause to weep.
As Mr. Barker arranged his kodak to take a time
picture of the grave, a lady stepped forward, and
tearing her bouquet of flowers from her breast,
placed it on the marble slab which marked the
soldier's grave. Her example was followed by
others, and the grave was covered with flowers.
The solitary grave appealed to them as all the

122

John Nagle's Philosophy 123

"trappings of woe" could not, and no heartier
tributes of respect were ever showered upon the
tomb of a monarch than those laid by gentle
hands on the grave of the unknown dead who
sleeps in a lonely mountain pass in northern
Georgia.

Florida

The east coast of Florida is the pleasantest
part of the state, and the most productive as
well, if the term can with propriety be applied
to any section of the state. The railroad skirts
the western bank, or shore rather, of the Indian
River, a broad stream with frequent openings
into the ocean through the narrow tongue of
land which prevents it from losing its identity
in the broad bosom of the ocean. The Indian
River is the paradise of fowl which skim along
its surface or wade in its shallow stretches.

The character of the vegetation changes after
St. Augustine is passed. It becomes more pro-
nounced in its tropical features. The multi-form
palm adds to its varieties. The cocoanut claims
precedence over the palmetto, and pineapple
plantations dot the slopes. Orange orchards
become more frequent. The lemon, the banyan,
and pawpaw attract attention, and even the palm
known as the traveler's tree may be seen.
Though bananas do not grow in abundance,
plantations are to be found here. The pineapple
needs only sand and protection from frost.
Florida provides the first requisite in unstinted
measure, and the second with but rare exceptions.
124

John Nagle's Philosophy 125

Occasionally frost does almost incalculable
damage to the fruit industry in this state. The
discouragement to the people is more serious
than the loss from a business standpoint. There
seems to be no power of immediate recuperation.
It is only within a comparatively recent time that
the people of eastern Florida relied upon any
system of sustained industry for the means of
livelihood. They adopted in a large measure the
system of the aborigines — fished, hunted, and
stretched out their hands for the fruits which
nature furnished. Even now "sick Yankees"
are relied upon to a much larger extent than
honest toil. The cultivation of the pineapple
gives promise of prosperity if it be prosecuted
with industry, which seems to be asking more
than the gods are disposed to grant.

The cultivated spots in Florida are just about
sufficient to spare it from the undesirable classifi-
cation of a waste and barren place. Climate
makes up for the deficiencies of the soil. If
white sand can be made to yield the luscious
pineapple, all that is needed is industry to make
Florida what it is in imagination, productive and
blooming. There are tongues of land amid the
wastes of pine barrens known as hammocks.
These are readily recognized by the native growth
of live-oak and a jungle of underbrush. They
contain marl deposits, and are highly productive.

126 John Nagle's Philosophy

A few acres of such land make its owners com-
fortably well off.

The discovery of large deposits of phosphate
will do much toward making Florida productive.
This fertilizer will do for this state what irriga-
tion is doing for the West.

There is much in the social amenities of the
South that we might with profit adopt. It is
not formal courtesy as much as it is inherent
breeding, and lacking the affectation of mechani-
cal procedure its naturalness is truly enjoyable.
But while we may gain from association with the
people of the South, it is not to be understood
that the advantage is not mutual. To be
"graced with polished manners and fine sense"
does not complete the fullness of life. The
sterner duties of life claim precedence, and in
these the people of the South could profitably
accept Northern tutelage. Agricultural interests
requiring yearly tillage are wholly in the hands
of the negroes, and are consequently either in a
state of retrogression or at a standstill. The
negro's advanced state is, naturally, the Cauca-
sian's primitive condition, and he has not the
stimulus of example, even though he had the
disposition, to progress. To abdicate in favor
of the negro in that line of industry in which are
bound the traditions and the past effort of the
South is suicidal. It is a surrender, and no new

John Nagle's Philosophy 127

line of policy can be successful which is prefaced
by failure. The fruit industry of Florida is in
no way commensurate with its possibilities, nor
is any line of business pushed with that degree
of energy whose aim is the consummation of large
purpose. Capital and enterprise would make
Florida a great state. Even ordinary industry
coupled with natural resources would transform
the state into a garden. The orange groves are
so productive, the quality of the fruit so superior,
the facilities for transportation are so ample, that
surprise is caused by failure of the people to im-
prove opportunities. There is wealth in the
South which will come for the bidding; but it
will hardly respond to the tickling of the soil by
a single mule with a nigger holding the plow.
Fine orange groves in Florida are oases, when
the country might be one vast stretch of unbroken
productiveness. Irrigation, fertilizers, and the
sweat of honest toil would make Florida a para
dise, and realize the wealth for which the old
Spaniards searched with such diligence. It is a
paradise in climate, and its sunny skies and soft
breezes bring the blush of beauty to its flowers,
and luscious maturity to its fruit, while its rivers,
lakes, and sub-tropical luxuriance of tangled
forest complete the realization of beauty and
grandeur. It is the practical rather than the
sentimental which this state needs. It is vener-

128 J°hn Nagle's Philosophy

able in its history, but almost virgin to the virile
touch of progress.

Until within a comparatively short period
Florida had no railroads. Now it is well sup-
plied. That it feels the pulsation of new life its
invitation to the Wisconsin Press Association is
proof. The hospitality extended was simply the
inbred courtesy of the people, which can no more
be checked than the singing of the bird. But
the ovations had a significance deeper than cour-
tesy extended to guests. It was a challenge to
Northern opinion as to Southern resources under
the cover of affability which could not be dis-
carded if desired. There is a promise of much
better things in the desire to advance, but a
seeming disinclination to make the best use of
means native to the place. There is something
intangible and evanescent in the prosperity grow-
ing out of the interest of temporary visitors.
But Florida is building its hope of the future
largely upon its winter resorts. It needs immi-
gration, tillers of the soil, the hardy class of
foreigners who will not succumb to poverty nor
scorn to work. They would teach lessons of
thrift and industry, and dignify labor by its suc-
cess. The vast capital invested in palatial hotels
does more to demoralize than to inspire. Intel-
ligent labor is what the South needs, so that
industry may become contagious and drive out

John Nagle's Philosophy 129

shiftlessness and indolent waiting for the gifts
which nature bestows through the soil.

Should the Nicaraugua Canal become an ac-
complished fact there is no other state in the
Union in a position to profit by it to the extent
that Florida can, through the magnificent port of
Tampa. It is much nearer the proposed canal
than New Orleans, and is more accessible. The
industrial possibilities of Florida are largely
dependent upon the energy and enterprise of its
people. It can be made to blossom as the rose,
but not by the languorous condition supposed
to be attendant upon soft breezes and sunny
skies.

Silver Springs and the Suwanee

The characteristic feature of Georgia and
Florida forests is the Spanish moss. It drapes
everything vegetable, and hangs in graceful fes-
toons. The old cemetery outside Savannah has
a truly funereal aspect because of this moss. It
seems to be a fitting emblem of mourning when
in the city of the dead. Its gray, shroud-like
outline is seldom swung from its pathetic droop
by the gentle breeze, and it presents a picture
which is "a very sigh for its sadness." Along
the Florida rivers there is a restful suggestion in
the appearance of this moss, and it gives the
appearance of density to the forests. The mag-

130 John Nagle's Philosophy

nolia and live-oak must give way to the parasite
in challenging the interest of the stranger.

Florida rivers are peculiar. They appear
like bayous, though all have a current, and their
waters are as clear as crystal. Silver Springs, an
affluent of the Ocklawaha, which is a tributary
of the St. Johns, is very appropriately named.
The river springs into sudden being at its
source — if the upper end can with propriety be
so called — and has a depth of sixty feet. The
water is so clear that the minutest object can be
seen at the bottom. Refraction heightens the
beauty of everything, and you seem to float over
a beautiful picture. It is a dream for its novelty,
a poem for its beauty. It is the Fountain of
Youth for which De Leon sought. If purity had
healing properties, then Silver Springs might well
claim the potency which the old Spanish cavalier
believed in.

There is no place where song appeals to the
heart and stirs it in sympathy with the infinite
tenderness of which song is the language that
the Suwanee River is not known through the
matchless melody which bears that name. The
degradation of slavery, and the hardships attend-
ant upon it, appear like trivial evils when under
the shadow of the great grief of exile from the
''old plantation." The pathos of this song
exceeds that of ''Home, Sweet Home," while

John Nagle's Philosophy 131

the burden of its sorrow is sweeter in its sim-
plicity, and more earnest in its tender longing. It
is despair finding voice in the universal language
which reaches the consciousness through the
heart, and which speaks with the fervor of
instinct.

There is music in the name, and it was selected
for this reason, but the author made no mistake
in so far as the poetic inspiration of the place is
concerned. The current is rapid, but not turbu-
lent, and moves noiselessly as if it hid a sorrow.
The waters are dark, the banks rocky, and the
"soft southern sky" seems to meet in tenderness
as it smiles on the quiet scene. It might have
been wholly the song, though I choose to attrib-
ute part of it to the surroundings, which stirred
me in presence of this river with some such emo-
tions as pilgrims feel when some historic spot in
Holy Land is reached. I felt that many a heart
had its impulse of unselfish sympathy enshrined
on this spot, and that it was rendered holy by
the thoughts which it inspired and the love of
the old home which it vivified. The longing for
"de ole plantation" is something in which all
have a common part, and it is a bond of kinship
which makes the world one.

John Nagle's Philosophy

Palm Beach

The route we took to Palm Beach is not far
from the eastern limits of the Everglades. The
marsh stretches are the tentacles thrown out by
this royal swamp. The people say they do not
breed malaria. They certainly do not during
this delightful season when the sun's rays beat
down with the gentle fervor of our most pleasant
Indian summer days, while the healing ocean
winds have lost their harshness by contact with
the Gulf Stream. The odor of vegetation would
be heavy if it were not dissipated by the ocean's
breath, and thus sweetened by the dilution.
One is not annoyed by insects in the winter
time. It is otherwise in the summer. One can
easily gather this from the reluctant admission of
those interested in having it appear that Florida
is a paradise. In the interior, what is known as
the fresh water lake region, the backbone of the
state, I am assured insects are not troublesome,
and that summer heat is not excessive. On the
coast the summers are not "severe," if one can
properly use a qualifying word in this connection,
which with us has reference to the opposite con-
dition of temperature. Winter weather is cer-
tainly balmy here.

Palm Beach is not far from the southern ex-
tremity of Florida. It is located on Lake Worth,

John Nagle's Philosophy 133

which is really an arm of the sea. The hotel at
this place is one of the many palaces built by
the multi-millionaire Flageler. It is a beautiful
place, the hotel being within a grove of cocoanut
trees. Beautiful villas are built along the shores
of the lake, and care has resulted in beautiful
lawns, upon which are a profusion of tropical
plants. No plant known to the torrid zone is
missing. In the rear of the villas are orchards,
and back of these the native jungles which extend
close to the beach upon which the ocean waves
break with unceasing roar. Palm Beach is not
the only winter resort. There is Ormond, also a
lake town, and also the site of a grand hotel.
Its surroundings are not devoid of beauty. Day-
tona is a beautiful place, its trees plentifully
festooned with Spanish moss, and its streets made
splendid with coatings of sea-shells. These
places are on the banks of the Halifax, a stream
answering all the conditions of the Indian River.
There are Rockledge, New Smyrna, and a host of
other places — all supported by Northern capital.

Tampa and Tampa Bay

A delightful summer climate is what this sec-
tion of Florida has to offer at the height of the
winter season. The temperature is about seventy
degrees, and though this is ordinarily the rainy
season, the skies are cloudless, and the sun beats

J°hn Nagle's Philosophy

down with gentle fervor. The night dews are
heavy and cooling, and the drops sparkle in the
early morning as if they were scintillations of
the sub-tropical foliage. Florida is not a land
of beauty aside from its climate, but this gives
man his opportunity, and wealth enables him to
improve it.

Tampa is a city of twenty thousand inhabi-
tants. It is not on the bay which bears the same
name. The bay is extended inland in lagoon
form, which may be called an estuary, though
the rivers of Florida are largely arms of the sea.
Tampa is nine miles from the bay proper. It is
the metropolis of southern Florida, and being a
seaport, has no inconsiderable amount of com-
merce. Its trade with Cuba is large. The old
Spanish town known as Ybor is a part of Tampa,
and has a population almost exclusively Cuban.
It is celebrated for its cigar factories. One em-
ploys five hundred hands — all Cubans. They
are a mercurial class, inclined to be suspicious of
Americans, and somewhat addicted to gambling.
Gambling is a species of industry which flourishes
in Tampa, and professionals are by no means
rare. Northern people who spend the winter
here find amusement in " daring the hazard of
the die" and contribute in this way to the pros-
perity of the city.

The chief attraction of Tampa is the Tampa

John Nagle's Philosophy

Bay Hotel, a palatial structure built by Mr.
Plant, who is almost the sole owner of the Plant
Railway System. It is evident the intention was
to determine what money could do in the way of
uniting magnificence and comfort. The hotel is
more costly in its equipment than in its architec-
ture. It is Oriental in all its appointments so
that the antique might add to the splendor of
modern achievement. Besides Egyptian design
has voluptuous suggestion, which adds to the
pleasure of sensuous gratification. One is not
overwhelmed by the magnificence which sur-
rounds one, as the richness has in it an element
of repose which like pity makes all the world kin.
Tampa Bay means something more than the
port of Tampa. A large pier runs out into the
bay for a distance of a mile, at the end of which
are large warehouses. Here connection is formed
with the steamship lines. The pier has been
called the Venice of America, because a city,
limited in extent of course, is built upon it.
But here all the necessaries of life, and many of
the luxuries, can be had. Indeed there is ample
opportunity for the indulgence of many of the
excesses. The waters are shallow for a long
distance, so that bathing is attended with no
dangers, not even from sharks. Pelicans and
wild ducks haunt the place, and are wholly with-
out fear, as the use of firearms is strictly pro-

ij6 J°hn Nagle's Philosophy

hibited. Fishing from the piers is a favorite
amusement. The beautiful Spanish mackerel is
found in these waters, and it makes the heart of
a Northern man glad to draw out one of these
beauties.

St. Augustine

The initial sentence in everything descriptive
of St. Augustine is, "St. Augustine is the oldest
city in the United States/' There is not much
left that has the interest of antiquity, and such
as there is, is overshadowed by the magnificence
of modern architecture. Some of the old build-
ings remain intact, but they are not even pictur-
esque in contrast with the magnificence by
which they are confronted. The three great
hotels, Ponce de Leon, Alcazar, and Cordova,
remind one of the "White City," the recollec-
tion of whose splendor will ever be a monument
to the enterprise of Chicago. These hotels, each
of which has a court of its own, inclose a plaza.
The streets are narrow, purposely so to create
the allusion of antiquity. As grandeur is hardly
consonant with republican simplicity, the purple
flag of Spain floats with obtrusive suggestion.
The Ponce de Leon is the finest hotel of the
three. The others appear poor in comparison,
though standing by itself each would challenge
admiration. And still there is more of show

John Nagle's Philosophy 137

than comfort in these grand hostelries; that is,
the magnificence which appeals to the eye does
not extend to the things which minister to crea-
ture comforts. The proportion is not maintained,
though the man who would find fault must indeed
be difficult to please.

The old fort still overlooks the bay. It is
more a relic than a coast defense, even if it could
withstand modern artillery, as it is not well located
to meet the exigencies of modern warfare. It is
still in a fair state of preservation, but it does not
strike you as an anachronism. The repairs speak
too plainly of the present. The dungeons are
interesting, but the "hireling" who represents
Uncle Sam, and who assumes to dictate what
shall be seen, and how it shall be seen, has too
much regard for that "little brief authority" to
permit one to dream the dreams that Irving did
among the ruins of the Alhambra. This military
prodigy asserted with that degree of confidence
which is a mark of either ignorance or conceded
knowledge, that the air of the dungeons would
not permit exploration. When a few stealthily
crawled through the narrow arched passage and
lit matches to dispel the impenetrable darkness,
they found the air all right. The dungeons were
explored with a paper torch. They were dis-
covered on their return, and the hero of the foul
air was becomingly indignant. Then it was frag-

ij 8 John Nagle's Philosophy

ments of shells from which we had just escaped
imminent peril, as a spark from the extempo-
rized torch might have sent us all sky-high. I
was the unfortunate torch-bearer, and the
heinousness of my offense almost overpowered
me. There wasn't powder enough in the dun-
geons to make a firecracker, but the gallant ser-
geant, having had his bad air bugaboo exploded,
turned deftly in self-defense to another explosion
which could not be disproved.

The walls are heavy — over four feet thick, and
made of coquino, an artificial conglomerate made
of shells, of which there is a heavy deposit in
Anastalia Island. The ' 'sea-wall," which ex-
tends along the bay on which the fort is built, is
of the same material, made into large and regular
blocks. What this wall was built for no one
knows, though it is the work of the United States
government. It protects nothing, contributes to
nothing, and is no more a thing of beauty than
of utility.

There is some of the old wall left which
protected the ancient town. The old streets
are very narrow, so much so that two teams
cannot drive abreast. The old, old houses are
not an object of reverence. Nothing of this
kind is unless it has history attached to it.
Curio stores are numerous, and the shops open-
ing on the streets without the intervention of a

John Nagle's Philosophy

sidewalk make them curious, particularly to the
women, who examine everything and then pur-
chase a paper of pins.

Boating is quite an amusement here, the land-
locked bay making it comparatively safe, though
often the storm is fierce where it opens into the
ocean. I remember having taken a boat ride on
this bay in 1893, when it was perfectly calm,
though the breakers were heavy on the sea coast.
A young man from Dakota was my companion.
He persisted, against the remonstrance of the
boatman, in getting a little ocean experience. I
was assured privately that no danger would be
incurred, and relying upon the boatman's advice
and discretion, felt comparatively safe. But the
other " land lubber" begged, prayed, and moaned.
His fears were heightened by the boatman's tale
that we were in the midst of sharks. My Dakota
companion thought me fearless, not knowing that
I was in the confidence of the boatman, and that
it was a conspiracy to teach him a lesson. I was
as much relieved as he when we returned to quiet
water.

The piccaninnies run about barefooted. They
haunt the hotels, selling chameleons. The
little fellows have caught the spirit of the
place, and look upon visitors as lawful prey.
There is none of the proverbial Southern cour-
tesy in St. Augustine. The spirit of gain has

140 John Nagle's Philosophy

driven that out. There is absolutely nothing
more vulgar than the desire to make money when
it is overmastering. It infects every place where
the multitude gathers for recreation and display.
I have my doubts as to the salubrity of the
winter climate of Florida. It is too enervating to
be conducive to vigorous health. It has not de-
prived me of my propensity to catch cold on the
slightest provocation. Still it seems difficult,
with open doors, parties seated on piazzas smok-
ing, and barefooted children romping on the
streets, to realize that the rigors of winter are
being felt in Wisconsin.

Minnehaha Falls

Minnehaha Falls are not high, nor is there a
great volume of water, but they have a quiet
beauty which charms one. The brook — it is not
much else — sings through its whole course below
the falls until it is swallowed up by the river to
which it is tributary, a restful melody. The
current is swift, but the stream never brawls.
The rocky valley through which it plows is in
perfect harmony with the rippling stream whose
murmurs are gladsome sounds. The hills have
no rugged features; they are softened with foli-
age, and the whole place is pregnant with calm
beauty and restfulness. These laughing waters
and their surroundings will bring to any one once
a country lad the most pleasing recollections of
woodland streams and forest paths. I never
visited a place more conducive to restfulness,
pleasing recollections, or complete vanishment of
worldliness. There is nothing approaching sub-
limity. Everything takes quiet possession of the
heart in a gentle way, and you are inextricably
in love without having felt the approach of this
nature cupid.

141

Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin

A trip around the bay on a steamer would
seem to be devoid of pleasing features to any one
who lives within hearing of the lapping waves of
the lake. Nothing but the actual experience can
remove that false impression. The scenery is
unusually fine here, as nature blended gentleness
with her stern features, and her powers have
caught the impress of a flitting smile. Sturgeon
Bay is as beautiful a sheet of water as nature
ever fashioned. The setting might be more
imposing as there is only a suggestion of gran-
deur in the hills which envelop it. The bay is
a vast rent in the magnificent strata of rocks
which form the peninsula and make Death's
Door a place to be dreaded by the expert
navigator.

You cannot relieve yourself of the impression
that it is a mighty river flowing with irresistible
force toward the waters of the sea, and claiming
tribute from the lands which its beauty graces.
The commerce of the bay and canal will surprise
any one not familiar with its extent, "As the
gallant ships go on" not to the "harbor under
the hill," but to the broad bosom of the lake,
their number gives some idea of the value to lake

John Nagle's Philosophy 143

commerce of the ship canal connecting Sturgeon
Bay with the lake.

Idlewild is on the east shore of a promontory
which makes the mouth of Sturgeon Bay more
beautiful than the celebrated Golden Gate of
San Francisco harbor. It is an inchoate summer
resort offering all the advantages possible, but
not having had its beauties advertised. It is a
superb camping-place, and the fishing is excel-
lent. Sturgeon Bay is itself an arm of Green
Bay. Idlewild is embraced by Green Bay, Stur-
geon Bay, and in addition, a little bay of its own,
an arm of Sturgeon Bay. The promontory rises
boldly out of Green Bay, the rocks having the
appearance and regularity of fine masonry. But
there are places where one can reach the water's
edge by natural stairways, and then you are on
bathing grounds which "old Atlantic" himself
cannot surpass.

Peshtigo Falls, Wis.

Nature has seldom fashioned a river more
beautiful than is the Peshtigo. It has quite a
volume of water, and its bed is the archaic rocks.
Its current is so rapid that it is never sullen, and
it is frequently broken into rapids, cascades, and
falls.

The falls are as grand a sight as can be seen
anywhere. There is not the volume of Niagara
nor the height of the Yellowstone, but for beauty
it is not excelled by either. There is a series of
three falls. At the head the waters are com-
pressed and attain a fearful velocity. The
inequalities of the bed are reproduced on the
water's surface, though the flow is unbroken,
and thus is presented the rare sight of hummocks
of swiftly gliding water uncrested by foam and
leaping with cohesive force to the plunge which
shatters it into boiling turbulence. Again it
gathers momentum and again plunges into seeth-
ing reaction. Before the third plunge is taken a
bend in the river causes the water in the outer
arc to pile up and the rare spectacle is presented
of water dashing onward with centripetal banks
of air. It is a singular sight — water pressing in
a wall against the thither shore, its own might

i44

John Nagle's Philosophy

sustaining it on the other side, where there is a
backward current of water seemingly disinclined
to take part in the mad rush. There is a whirl-
pool as at Niagara, below the falls, and here the
river bends at right angles and then flows with
majestic force between hills, which might not
inaptly be termed mountains. The roar of these
falls can be heard for miles, faint at times, and
then suddenly swelling into instant recognition
by its insistent thunder.

Mobile

Southern Alabama has many of the features of
the Mississippi Valley. The stimulating example
of the lumber industry is quite sensibly felt. In
no place is this more marked than in Mobile,
which is now awakening from the slumber of
indolence. It has been a sleepy town with many
evidences of slipshod elegance. Surface sewers
remind one of the mountain cities of the West,
but the waters lack the limpid purity of the
mountain streams. Where the streets are not
paved they appear to be impassable. One-half
the population is negro. About forty per cent
of the remainder are Dagoes or the lower order
of French. Though Mobile is progressing, it is
not yet capable of rising to an emergency. The
advantages it has in a commercial sense are
attracting Northern and English capital. Its
trade with Cuba and Central American states is
very large, and it already claims rivalship with
New Orleans. Its claim is not unfounded.
Mobile is destined to be a large city, but
there must first be a cleansing of the Augean
stables. Its prosperity will come through its
harbor, the proximity of coal-fields, and the
lumber industry. It is building large hopes on

146

John Nagle's Philosophy

the Nicaraguan canal. All the Southern sea-
ports are.

The Mobile and Ohio Railroad has poured new
life into Mobile. It is the exciting cause of
activity and purpose. Its officials are active and
are intent upon building up the country through
which their lines extend. They will succeed
without doubt, and Mobile will yet be one of the
great cities of the United States.

Grandeur and Beauty

All the lake cities are beautiful. Nature was
in a pleasant mood when she blended grandeur
with quiet beauty along the shores of these great
inland seas. The islands which break the broad
expanse of water in northern Lake Michigan are
a feast to the eye, with their dark wooded slopes.
They seem to absorb the sunshine in their lan-
guorous depths, and invite the mind to dreamy
drowsiness. But the waters are treacherous, as
the scattered wrecks testify. There is no cap-
tain who does not breathe a sigh of relief when
the labyrinth channel through reefs and shoals is
passed on the way out from Escanaba, Michigan,
and the undisturbed swell of the great lake is
felt.

148

On Education

Our Common Schools

Popular education has a twofold purpose: (i)
To furnish the individual with an instrument
whereby he can contribute to his own personal
good ; (2) That he may act intelligently on pub-
lic matters, thereby discharging his duty as a
citizen and as a member of society.

Education is primarily a parental duty. The
incompetency or inability of the parent to prop-
erly give technical instruction induces him to
employ those who have the necessary qualifica-
tions. The desire that education be general, and
conducted with due regard to efficiency, has
made the state assume it, though not to the ex-
clusion of the parent, who still remains the chief
factor, whether for good or bad. The parent
and the home are never supplanted, are not even
made secondary. The school, used in its re-
stricted sense, is an auxiliary. The teachings of
the home are stamped upon the character and
have the force of heredity. The home molds;
the school only directs.

Together with the purpose to make education
general, the state undertakes it, that it may be
so conducted as to offer a guaranty of good citi-
zenship. The perpetuation of a government by
'51

J°hn Nagle's Philosophy

the people requires intelligent action on the part
of those who have the conduct of government —
in a republic, the people.

Self-preservation is the first law of nature with
nations as well as with individuals. If the right
of the state to exist is conceded, it becomes a
duty to employ means to make existence not
only possible, but certain. It is, then, the duty
of every one to foster popular education, a duty
cheerfully recognized by our people in providing
means for carrying on this work.

In the evolution of society certain forms of
government have become practically extinct.
They fell before the spread and growth of intel-
ligence. Emancipation from ignorance was
always antecedent to emancipation from despot-
ism. But power vested in a people incapable of
properly exercising it, is anarchy, the invariable
precurser of despotism, as a strong hand and
centralized power are required to deal with ele-
ments of disorder and destruction.

The Chicago riots led to a dangerous assump-
tion of power — court despotism, but it was made
necessary by a perversion of the idea of the
extent of personal rights. The introductory
step was treated as an incident; that which
naturally followed, as a menace; and yet the
danger was in the cause and not in the effect,
which had no evil but that of precedent. There

John Nagle's Philosophy

is no patriotism of a higher order than that
which comes from the cool reflection of a discip-
lined mind habituated to recognizing reciprocal
rights. The man who reasons, rarely indulges
in those excesses which frequently mark and mar
the impulsive action of the multitude. Reason
is always a safer guide than enthusiasm, which
often rises or sinks to frenzy, and is the parent
of the mob spirit. Reflection generally pre-
vents hasty and impolitic action; and as edu-
cation consists of collecting facts, arranging
them with system, so that their interdepend-
ence and relation may lead to just conclusions,
the habit of reflection becomes a necessary part
of it.

Intellectual activity engenders moral force
because the intellect cannot be properly culti-
vated without inculcating habits which have a
reflex action upon all departments of the mind.
Development is always symmetrical because the
mind is not composite. Education in its true
sense will not admit of a qualifying term except
as to its extent. If we conceive its purpose to
be to construct a man, the means will harmonize
with the end in view and produce it with uner-
ring certainty. The purpose is the first concep-
tion; the means should always be subsidiary to
it. That purpose should be centered inviolable,
unchangeable, general. The technical skill

J°hn Nagle's Philosophy

should be the application of the means so that
power is not wasted.

It strikes me that the chief defect in our com-
mon-school system is that we reverse the relative
importance of these two elements. We have a
mass of means without vitality, and purpose
weakened by indefiniteness. Purpose should be
the center, and means the radius by which the
circle of attainment is traced.

Common schools should look toward the reali-
zation of completeness in the work they do, no
matter how limited the means or circumscribed
the field. There should be no attempts at seg-
ments of a larger circle than it is possible to trace
in its completeness.

Education is not preparation. It is right
living, and consequently right thinking. It
deals with the duties of the present, and through
their proper discharge gives strength and resolu-
tion to deal with those of the future. Strength
is organic rather than cumulative. It is a growth,
not an accumulation. It manifests itself at once
in dealing with the affairs of life, and adds to
itself by its own exercise. It is this force with
which the child is to be endowed, and when
properly directed it is education, complete,
though not as full as the college gives. It is for
this completeness that I plead.

There is no form of education which should

John Nagle's Philosophy ijj

bear the mark of a preface. The child's life
should be as sacred from the intrusion of the
demands of maturity as his heaven should be
guarded against the clouds that come when the
spring-time of life has passed. There is no vice
in a child more deplorable than that which is
beyond his years. There is no virtue he can
assume with grace or value that is not fitting for
his age. The best promise of a good man is in
the boy who cultivates the field in which nature
placed him. The best preparation is, doing what
the present demands as thoroughly as if it were
a final result.

Each school has a work of its own. These
rivulets all lead to broader streams, but each
rivulet, in the economy of nature, has a higher
purpose than that of losing its identity in the
larger body. I am aware that to preach that
our schools shall not be recruiting stations for
volunteers to serve in the higher institutions of
learning is regarded as an educational heresy.
But I insist that the fruits of labor should go to
enrich that soil which gave the harvest. The
country school is the college of the masses. It
should be conducted solely with reference to
those for whose welfare it was instituted. Its
influence should have a local flavor, and should
be pushed with all the ardor of local pride. To
strive to make that which is in hand the best, is

156 John Nagle's Philosophy

always a wiser course than to long for that which
is not within immediate reach. The country
school should be conducted as if it was the sole
and highest educational agency attainable.

I am not decrying higher education, nor seek-
ing to check those aspirations which lift the
country boy out of his narrow environments.
But fulfillment should keep pace with ambition
until the limit of the proper resource of the
country school is reached, so that this activity
may be felt locally and give impulse to the stag-
nant.

I am dealing with education as a matter in
which the state or society is interested, rather
than as it pertains to the individual ; not that the
quality is different, but the selfishness which has
in mind the improvement of society has the
general good in view. It is this consideration of
self which actuates the state in educational mat-
ters. The more general the diffusion of intelli-
gence, the greater the safeguards the state has
erected. Intelligence is the standing army
which guards the liberty of the people in a repub-
lic. Its loyalty cannot be tampered with; its
devotion cannot be shaken; nor its sense of duty
impaired.

In whom is this great principle of loyalty to
be implanted ? Who are ultimately the guardians
of the public peace? To whom do we turn as

John Nagle's Philosophy 157

the arbiters of a nation's fate when a great prin-
ciple is at stake ?

In the answer, learn in whose education the
state should take the deepest interest, and the
grade of education it should most dearly foster.

The framers of the Constitution gave prece-
dence to the elementary education which the com-
mon schools give. That was the "firstling of
their heart." One turns with reverence to the
incipience of a commonwealth not because of
the worldly knowledge exhibited by those who
laid the foundation, but for their earnestness,
conscience, and disinterested regard for the pub-
lic weal which seemed to endow them with pro-
phetic vision, as it did with benevolent purpose.
The education of the masses was their chief
concern, because they had no preference, pre-
judice, or pet measure which militated against
the public good. It was that broad sympathy
for mankind, which makes philosophers and
philanthropists of men in public life, in which
was conceived the purpose to make man better
by increasing his intelligence. It was not the ele-
vation of a few that was contemplated, it was the
uplifting of all to that higher plane where reason
governs and the voice of the demagogue is still ;
where the question of right and wrong is calmly
considered, and passion seldom joins in counsel.
I frequently have my doubts that there is any

John Nagle's Philosophy

people in the world fitted for popular government
to the extent that the personal rights secured
compensate for the evils inflicted by ignorance
of a citizen's duty. If there be such a people,
it is the common school which has raised them
to that standard of patriotism. You, my friend,
who are planning to give your child college train-
ing, should not forget that the backwoods boy
carries a " sovereignty under his own hat" which
may become a menace or a blessing to you and
to others, just as it may be exercised. You have
a selfish interest in that backwoods boy, in the
ragged urchin whose sum of happiness would not
be a moment's pleasure to your darling. There
are potentialities in those two which years will
make active, and will constitute a force to sustain
or destroy.

I again repudiate any feeling of hostility to
the higher institutions of learning. I speak of
the neglect visited upon the common schools,
and the folly of it, viewed from the standpoint of
consideration for the public good. I go further,
and assert that this craze for what is, in many
instances, the veneer of higher education is crush-
ing out the culture of the common branches in
all the schools. Give me the boy with a knowl-
edge of the " three R's," secured by honest
effort, and in the attainment of which he has
formed habits of system and logical procedure, a

John Nagle's Philosophy 159

perception of the relation of means to the end,
and I will show you a boy of more profound
education than the college graduate who but
"sips of a sweet and then flies to the rest." The
most valuable element of education is the proper
manner of doing things. Intelligence is the
handmaiden, but habit governs. Knowledge is
power only as the manner of its acquisition gives
discipline, from which comes strength.

It is the general intelligence of the people in
which the state is chiefly interested, not the
average of extremes. It is the function of the
common schools to furnish means for the attain-
ment of this knowledge. Are they fulfilling
their mission satisfactorily, and increasing their
efficiency in proportion to the increased partici-
pation of the humbler citizens in public affairs?
It must be understood that to-day the voice of
the people reaches the halls of legislation much
more easily than it did forty years ago, and that
we are approximating, in fact if not in form, a
pure democracy — the highest form of government
to those prepared for it, the most dangerous to
those who are not. Are we preparing for this
change which is pushing on with the slow move-
ment of uncertain purpose, but with the perti-
nacity of awakened and conscious power?

We are not. Our common schools are grow-
ing weaker rather than stronger in purpose, and

160 J°hn Nagle's Philosophy

interest in popular common education is on the
decline. I am aware that this statement will be
indignantly denied, and improved facilities cited
in refutation. The country school has been
robbed of the feeling of responsibility, and is
assuming the tame spirit of an underling. I
admit the better appliances, better system of
instruction, better output in the matter of ac-
quirement, better supervision, but must confess
to the loss of spirit which is life. Educational
sentiment has put on aristocratic features, and
blushes at the thought of rusticity. The coun-
try tradesman, the blacksmith, shoemaker, tailor,
once important country personages, have van-
ished at the appearance of the large manufacturer.
This is in accord with the law of progress. But
educational sentiment like moral teachings should
know no centralization. Their force and value
lie in diffusion. They should obey the law of
radiation, and not convergence.

People are apt to ask, "What do you suggest
as a means of improving the country schools?"
It is impossible to give specific directions. The
remedy must be a constitutional one. Normal
conditions must be restored. With the proper
spirit governing the people, the proper means
will be adopted. It is not the means which are
to be furnished that deserve attention ; it is the
willingness to use them which must be culti-

John Nagle's Philosophy 161

vated — a willingness so hearty that means will
be created if not supplied. In pioneer days the
country school was as much an object of devo-
tion as the church. With such material con-
ditions to-day, such teachers, such limited
conception of education, a school could not be
held together a week. But back of all these
limitations was that large purpose animating
everything — a force which beat down every
obstacle, and produced results which to-day
would be deemed impossible under such unfavor-
able circumstances.

That purpose restored, localized, unyielding,
is what we need to properly utilize the means
with which we are supplied. Country-school
sentiment must be vivified. It must be centered
at the cross-roads where the little red schoolhouse
stands. It must not be diluted with a touch of
vagrancy or a suggestion of disloyalty.

The country school is the most difficult to
understand because it is not amenable to techni-
cal regulation. Our idea of the term "school"
is not sufficiently comprehensive when rural
conditions are considered. There is no school
superior to the good country school. I simply
postulate this proposition to save argument.
But such a school includes more than the teacher,
the pupils, and the customary appliances. There
is healthful, local sentiment pervading everything

1 62 John Nagle's Philosophy

and giving resultant direction to every educa-
tional movement. The school has no creative
power. It must use the instruments furnished
it and work in subordination to the influences
surrounding it. It may strive to modify these,
but it cannot, as an independent factor, as an
entity distinct from the community it serves.
The school is a part of the community, and
hence proper educational conditions necessitate
consideration of the surroundings.

The country school, then, must not be re-
garded so much an agency as a part of the com-
munity. It should be an intellectual center
fixed by a community of purpose. The patron
is a part of it, having a sense of personal obliga-
tion and the feeling of family loyalty toward it
which makes the parent believe his own child is
the best. The country school, in pioneer days,
was the best thing in sight, and local pride was a
stimulus to activity which gave vitality to local
sentiment. It is not a bad thing that the hori-
zon has been extended, but accompanying it the
circle of local effort should be enlarged, not cir-
cumscribed. There should be no abridgement
of local opportunity because of opportunity else-
where, as that is a transfer of allegiance — always
a sign of decay in the thing abandoned.

City schools welcome the country pupil who
has broken through the narrow environments of

John Nagle's Philosophy 163

his home life. If he is an inspiration to the city
schools, what would not his aspirations and pur-
pose be to the school he deserted? In the early
days he forced the school up to his standard.
Now by deserting it he attaches to it the standard
of mediocrity. This process of segregation is sap-
ping the life blood of the country school. The
ambitious and worthy are withdrawing from it
before their time, and their influence is lost where
it is most needed. The process of elimination is
on the increase, and the spoliation is heralded
as a sign of progress. The parent who desires
to give his child educational advantages beyond
the ordinary, rarely seeks to create these advan-
tages at home, but takes those offered elsewhere,
and his purpose has in it no contribution of local
benefit.

I have looked into the heart of the country
school with the eyes of sympathy and affection
and can perceive that it feels the neglect which
a stepchild experiences. The country school is
talked about in a perfunctory way, but there is
no ardor in the attention bestowed upon it. It
is made to feel the taint of provincialism and the
want of fellowship. Its good work has become
a subsidy offered to other schools, and it is work-
ing without recognition, and receiving no credit
for what it does. What it receives is in the char-
acter of alms, because the heart does not go with

164 John Nagle's Philosophy

the offering. We are killing with neglect what
we should foster with affection. Our dearest
care is no longer the sheet anchor of our political
institutions. It is the capsheaf now which
absorbs the attention.

You and I are to blame for this condition.
Our sympathy has not gone out with that spon-
taneity which gives it value. It is not material
means the country school needs. It is a general
recognition of its value and importance which
will filter into every home and inspire devotion.
I have said the patron is a part of the school.
It is true ; and while the school will rise above
the level of his attainments, it rarely does above
the height of his conception of what the school
should be. Here, then, is the point for the
application of force for uplifting, the point
generally overlooked in schemes designed for the
improvement of the common schools. It is the
atmosphere created by the prevailing sentiment
which determines the character of the school.
The occupation of country people is not condu-
cive to high educational ideals. They should be
aided in forming them. The deprivation the
Irish immigrant suffered in matters of education
gave him an exaggerated idea of its importance,
and he was an enthusiast in its advocacy. It is
this enthusiasm which is now the crying need of
the country school. It exists now, but in iso-

John Nagle's Philosophy 165

lated cases, and with reference to individuals
merely. It should pervade the community, even
though its diffusion should weaken its individual
intensity, to the end that community of feeling
may tend toward local improvement.

Free trader though I am, I believe in that form
of protection which insists that the raw material
in every school district should be developed in
the home factory to that state of perfection
which will warrant the assurance of ability to
deal intelligently with the affairs of life and the
duties of citizenship. No country school should
stop short of affording opportunities for such an
education, and no patron should seek it for his
child outside of the home school. When the
limit is reached, the cradle home may be left
without discrediting it, and without detriment to
the other nestlings. There is no school which
can do better work in the line of practicality than
the country school and it should not be robbed
of its function. The school should conserve and
organize the best impulse and purest motive of
the people and lead the way to higher ideals.
Good country schools do this. I have, while a
boy, felt the responsive thrill of pleasure which
stirred the hearts of the people by a victory of
our school. Our daily life was made to tingle
with the fervor of expectation and the hope of
performance felt by the community. The school

1 66 John Nagle's Philosophy

was not hedged in by the walls of the rude build-
ing. It was everywhere, even in the home of
illiteracy, but happily sanctified by a purpose.

There are teachers in the state of Wisconsin
earning the miserable salary of nineteen dollars
per month. The question is not what they can do,
but what is the status of public opinion regarding
education in these communities. A good teacher
will hardly do better work than those employed
unless he has the force to change conditions.
The people must first be educated to a perception
of duty, not in the selfish sense of investing the
child with something whereby he can "make his
living easily," but in giving an appetite for good
things as the drunkard has for bad, so that the
craving cannot be easily appeased. Our policy,
unfortunately, has been to superimpose rather
than incorporate, and duty is not felt to the extent
that its discharge becomes a natural function.

One can perceive the forceful influence of
community of purpose in the contiguity of a few
strong teachers. By means of their associations
and other agencies for mutual advancement they
create an atmosphere which envelops the com-
munity, and lifts the people from the sluggish-
ness of indifference. That mutuality of interest
existing between teacher and patron should be
strengthened. It is an important factor in edu-
cation.

John Nagle's Philosophy 167

To summarize:

1. The creation of right conditions among
the people which make the desire to educate and
be educated a purpose approaching second nature.

2. To understand the means whereby educa-
tion is possible, and in what education consists.

3. Loyalty to the home institution which will
make it equal to the demands of a good practical
education, and thus preserve for local fertilizing
the ambition which had local origin and which
should have the fullest development possible
amid the surroundings in which its first aspira-
tions found voice.

4. Good teachers and proper appliances will
follow as naturally as the flower opens to the sun,
and good citizenship will be the harvest.

The Culture Which the
Common School Gives

We who are engaged in educational work
delight to deal in generalities, and flying from
the particular, our philosophy is apt to become
tainted with idealism. The child is to be the
beneficiary of the clarified product of our discus-
sions, and it is proper he should be a factor in
the problem whose result is the manhood of which
the child is the promise. But too often the prin-
ciple is followed and the child forgotten. Ask
the artisan what the finished product of his initi-
ated work is to be and he can answer you with
precision. Ask the teacher what his work is
designed to accomplish, and he will at once take
refuge in the haven of generality. The stock
answer is "a good citizen." But this is a very
indefinite person. The protectionist thinks the
free-trader a very bad citizen, and the free-trader
repays the debt in the coin of opinion at a liberal
rate of interest.

And yet the object of education should be as

definite as the purpose the workman has in mind.

Nay, more; its accomplishment should be as

certain. The means employed should shape the

1 68

John Nagle's Philosophy 169

child to the mold of manhood as certainly as does
the artist's chisel produce the outward form.
The common schools have no contract to raise
good citizens, further than good citizenship is an
attribute and incident of good manhood. To
forget the child in the search for the citizen is to
put beyond our reach the thing sought. You
may float the starry banner from every housetop,
and let its folds grace the rooms of every home,
but its influence is less potent than the knowledge
which makes it the emblem of power and justice.
If we deal with the child with reference to his
own future in matters which affect him individu-
ally, our efforts will be directed by intelligent
purpose, because when the object to be attained is
definite, the means employed will have pertinence
to that end. If we create the material from
which society is formed the proper adjustment is
inevitable. We have no concern with the state
except in so far as it may profit by the quality of
the product we furnish. But the interests of the
state are best conserved by being wholly subordi-
nated to the claims of the child. We build the
child that he may command his own future,
trusting to intelligent self-interest to dictate his
course with reference to the public affairs in
which it is presumed he will take part. We
give our attention exclusively to developing the
particular thing, man, and thereby best serve the

170 John Nagle's Philosophy

general thing, society. The child's future is his
own property — the kingdom in which he wields
the scepter of manhood, the promised land in
which his aspirations are to be realized. We
must cultivate him for his own needs.

If we can agree on limitations which will bring
our work within the realm of practicality without
prejudicing those interests which many deem
paramount to the individual, we get the benefit
of concentrated effort and lose nothing in scope.
If the prize is the same, the mark at closest range
is the one at which we should direct our shaft.
Man in his relation to society is a complex
being — too complex for the common school to
attempt his evolution unless through the inter-
mediary stage of man with capacities developed
for his own good. There is nothing selfish or
narrow in this view. Man never rises above
human nature except through its aid. Gener-
osity is selfishness purified, and public spirit has
its source in personal enterprise. Respect for
law, order, purity has its root in self-respect ; no
one loves his neigbor who does not love himself.
The man who knows his own rights and " know-
ing dare maintain" is least likely to disregard
the rights of others. Those who are competent
to take care of themselves make the best citizens,
and no one may be safely trusted with public
interest who neglects his personal affairs.

John Nagle's Philosophy

If we consider the function of the school, then,
to be to strengthen the individual for his own
good, we have purpose and means in close prox-
imity, and the danger of waste is reduced to a
minimum. We teach those subjects which are
intrinsically valuable in a business sense, and in
such a manner as to enlarge the powers of the
person taught. First, knowledge; second, dis-
cipline ; that is, the purpose is bent toward secur-
ing knowledge of present and prospective value,
and in doing so discipline is not only a part of
the process, but constitutes an important result.
If the proper steps are taken to acquire the
knowledge, the effort made is discipline, but the
object for which the child reaches is knowledge.
It is confidence, not chance, which guides the
hand when the object sought is near. This may
seem like superrogatory reasoning, and so should
I myself regard it did I not know that this co-
ordinate quality of knowledge and discipline, the
former only being within the child's conception,
is not recognized in many of our schools, and it
is due to this fact that so many failures are
recorded. Let me illustrate:

When the child has learned to recognize words
at sight, he has his vocabulary in a new form.
The lessons which he reads have in them matter,
which, for the purposes of education, may be
called knowledge ; that is, the child reads to get

172 John Nagle's Philosophy

the thought through the medium of these words.
It is his incentive to the desired intellectual
activity. If he does get the thought he is under-
going a regimen of discipline through which he
acquires the power of actual knowledge-getting
from the printed page. There is no intrinsic
value in what he reads, but the interesting story
supplies the motive for intellectual effort. Fol-
lowing the facts and connecting them into a
continuous whole give the discipline, and the
recital of the story in his own words is the proof.
But too often the teacher defeats the object of
the recitation by failing to realize that discipline
comes through the child's effort to get the facts
and translate them into his own ideas. The test
of questioning to determine whether the sub-
stance has been grasped, and thus ascertain
whether the mind has been actively recipient,
has either not been applied at all, or in such
manner as to make the pupil rely upon the
teacher to glean the thought from his perfunc-
tory utterance. The trouble in such cases is that
the teacher expects some general result and fails
to see that discipline comes in reaching for knowl-
edge within the range of the child's capacity.

The substance of what the child in the middle
form reads has but little value aside from the
labor of getting it. It is a sort of sweetmeat
knowledge, the task of which gives him appetite

John Nagle's Philosophy 173

to trace the relation between words and ideas.
There is discipline to the child in collecting the
toothsome facts; there is mental dyspepsia in
feeding them to him. The evil consequences of
his false teaching are sensibly felt when the child
reaches that stage of progress in which he is to
gather available knowledge from what he reads.
The bad recitation in grammar is not always
because the pupil "has not studied his lesson."
It had its origin in the faulty teaching of the
second reader, when the habit to look for thought
in words should have originated. And that
second reader must be taught in fact, if not in
form, before the child will have the ability to
study grammar. You can omit nothing in the
mental growth of the child without wholly check-
ing his progress. There are no leaps in the path
through which the mind travels to maturity.
Every inch must be covered with the toiling
foot ; every deficiency must be made good, or
we wander in the jungle of obscurity. It is our
past which makes our present and shapes our
future.

Our error, in this respect, can be readily traced
to ignoring the particular in our anxiety for the
general result. Our eyes are fixed on the dim
future, when we should be regarding the con-
ditions which beset our present. Let us see
whether the final result is not attained with more

Nagle's Philosophy

certainty by being wholly ignored, apparently,
when tributary results are not yet realized.

The common school sends from its portals a
boy approaching the threshold of manhood, with
knowledge sufficient to meet all ordinary require-
ments, and with character strengthened by whole-
some discipline. There are three stages in the
order of his development : First, teaching him
the language of sight; second, teaching him how
to use that language so as to be able to gather
knowledge with it ; third, training him to gather
knowledge by means of it. Each has a definite
end which at once becomes an instrument of use
in the higher plane to which the child has raised
himself. There is nothing complex in this phil-
osophy of the common school, if we deal with the
parts which make up the trinity and unite in one.
If the distinctive feature of the method of any
one invade the territory of the other, there is
confusion. But there is a merging of qualities
on the confines which will perplex unless the
purpose of each is clearly comprehended. They
are not parallel forces, the resultant of which is
the educated boy. Each carries its own burden
and transfers it to the new. It is a succession of
related forces. In teaching the child, each stage
must be treated as having within itself "all the
promise and potency" of completeness. Having
thus by division circumscribed the field of labor,

John Nagle's Philosophy 175

we are prepared to give attention to matters
which are subsidiary, but which yield immediate
returns. In solving a problem we obtain the final
result by treating the intermediate steps, for the
time, as ends in themselves. The temporary end
becomes a means toward attaining what is desired.
In teaching, the object pursued is that nearest
the child, and the relevancy of purpose makes the
recitation an end which, when accomplished, is
immediately transformed into a means with ten-
dency toward the final result. When we
analyze the problem of education, and outline a
course of procedure in harmony with the condi-
tions, we find the first step in the operation to be
the recitation. It is the thing nearest to the
child, and is designed to meet his immediate
wants. It is apparent that if it is improperly
performed, through misconception of its purpose,
or lack of tact in the teacher, the whole solution
is seriously thrown out of joint, and there is a
patching up of omissions and an expunging of
errors which destroy the symmetry of the work
and break its continuity. The problem is not
difficult of solution if analysis precedes operation.
The different stages of development, and the pre-
paratory character of the first two being under-
stood, the attention may be directed mainly to
the recitation. Thus we get labor and its results
in such close relation that responsibility must be

176 John Nagle's Philosophy

felt and cannot be avoided without an admission
of neglect. When a long time intervenes between
the seed-time and the harvest, the weather is
made responsible for a great deal of bad hus-
bandry.

Fortunately for the cause of education, that
masterpiece of theory and practical vagary, of
making the common schools a feeder of the
higher institutions of learning, has been
abandoned. What I mean is, there is no longer
an attempt made to divert the course of training
from its legitimate and beneficent purpose of
educating the common people, to being a recruit-
ing agency for colleges. The common school
works for those who must fight life's battles
unaided ; it is the college of the poor, and does
battle with ignorance in its strongholds. It is
the missionary of intelligence seeking converts
to the doctrine it preaches even in squalid homes
where neglect almost shuts out the light of rea-
son. It is no far-off Mecca toward which the
devotee hurries his eager steps. It comes to the
unwilling and leads him to the light; to the
despondent and gives him hope ; to the weak and
gives him strength; and to all it gives the cour-
age to meet difficulties, and the discipline to over-
come them. It should not be made to bend the
knee of homage to any one. In grandeur of
unselfish purpose and achievements, it o'ertops

John Nagle's Philosophy 177

them all, and the proudest may well bow with
reverence to the common school.

But in doing its own work the common school
best serves the college. I have attempted to
show that we must simplify the work and have
the object to be attained center in the child's
immediate wants to make the teaching effective.
Otherwise effort is dissipated through want of
fixity of direction. There is no knowledge
where there is no understanding, and there can
be no discipline gained unless through seeking
knowledge. If the ordinary teacher does not
keep in mind the concrete thought of ministering
to the child's needs as he perceives them in the
living entity before him, the law of oppositeness
fails to direct, and the work degenerates into
groping. What is the higher institution of learn-
ing to do with the callow mind untrained to think
to any purpose? whose wavering thought has
cropped the herbage of facts "with charter broad
as the wind" ? Let me make a statement, which
depends neither upon information nor personal
knowledge, and comes to me solely as a conclu-
sion of my premises : The normal schools experi-
ence more difficulty with new arrivals in their
inability to think closely, connectedly, and deter-
minately, than from their lack of equipment in
dormant facts; and if the honest judgment of the
teachers was spoken, it would be to the effect

178 John Nagle's Philosophy

that they would rather accept a student deficient
in so-called knowledge, but with a habit inwoven
in his character of doing well what he attempts,
than one who " remembers a mass of things but
nothing distinctly."

If we would educate we cannot omit from our
calculations the culture of the common school.
It directs the primal steps in systematic knowl-
edge-getting. It brings the desultory thought
of the child under the guidance of intelligent
purpose, and teaches him that thought is not
complete when not productive, and labor with-
out intelligence is largely wasted. It is in the
school-room the child is first confronted with the
serious aspect of duty under limitation of time
and specific performance. His future is largely
dependent upon the courage and fidelity with
which he obeys her edicts. He forms character
through the medium of habit. It is no veneer;
it is the woof woven into the warp of nature, and
makes "the child the father of the man." What
preparation for the future can promise better
results than doing the simple duties of the pres-
ent, particularly in the "morn and liquid dew of
youth," when the root of habit strikes deep in
the plastic mold? To do well the lesson of to-
day in the line of specified activity or forbearance
is to direct the energies to the task which con-
science assigns, and thereby secure the incre-

John Nagle's Philosophy

ment whose sum is character. In youth there is
moral culture in labor or abstention, when a sense
of duty goes with the act, and intellectual cul-
ture is suiting the means to the end to be
attained. The solution of a problem in arith-
metic has, in miniature, all the features of the
most difficult question with which the most
mature mind must grapple in practical life. A
certain thing is to be accomplished with certain
material at command. The mind maps out the
course for the mechanical labor which is to fol-
low. The child who laboriously seeks to bring
the separated subject and predicate into sensible
contiguity, is not only learning to interpret the
involved thought of Milton, but unconsciously
acquiring the power of penetrating sophistry, and
finding truth though hidden in a well. Even the
despised art of penmanship has a value beyond
the legible transcription of thought ; it trains the
hand to do with neatness and precision what the
mind conceives. There is not a common school
branch which, when taught properly, is not an
element of culture.

If we consider moral development, can com-
mon sense — well called the genius of humanity —
suggest anything better calculated to strengthen
moral fiber than doing conscientiously the duties
of the present? I do not choose to touch upon
forbidden subjects, though the disposition is

180 J°hn Nagle's Philosophy

strong, under provocation to which the preten-
tious, self-constituted guardians of "true" moral-
ity would yield, to draw comparisons and exhibit
contrasts which would be by no means to the
disadvantage of the public school as a moral
agent. The discipline to which the child is sub-
jected in the common school is rational. He
has a motive for activity, a reason for restraint ;
and his impulse is taught to yield to the bidding
of conviction. The searching questions of the
recitation put the stamp of meanness upon neg-
lect of duty and make pretended knowledge
assume its real shape — an acted lie. The acqui-
escence in rules demanding self-restraint from a
sense of present obligation to the little commun-
ity— the school — induces the habit in adult life
of " rendering to Caesar the things which be
Caesar's, and to God the things which be God's."
There is moral sluggishness where there is intel-
lectual or physical indolence. It is the manner
of performing the duties of the present which
touches the life of the child whether for good or
evil. His moral nature must be strengthened
by his own acts, which must be in response to
his own volition. Hence he must have motive,
and the demands of the present are more likely
to arouse this than any beckoning from a misty
vision of the future. The school which enforces
its rules through the sentiment of its pupils is

John Nagle's Philosophy 181

educating men and women to honor life and be
worthy of heaven. The boy who is held respon-
sible to himself for himself may not be more
exemplary in his outside conduct than one who
is held accountable to outside authority, but the
good he does has its source in himself, and the
fountain is deepened and broadened by every
bad impulse checked, or good one indulged. I
have always thought that the country boy has a
decided advantage over his city cousin in the
chores which fall to his lot. Through them he
learns early in life the necessity of doing the duty
of the hour — something of an education in itself.
Though we may picture the ideal school in
which the discipline conduces to practical moral-
ity and intellectual strength, there may be some
doubt as to our ability to realize it. That the
common school fails to reach perfection is no rea-
son why we should abandon effort to approximate
it. No one argues that Christianity is a failure
because it has not yet introduced the millennium.
While the common school by no means reaches
the limits of its possibilities the measure of its
efficiency is constantly on the increase. We
must understand its functions and realize its par-
tially latent capacities before we can get it in the
path of continuous progress and retain each
year the advancement of preceding years. We
must have a body of principles in harmony with

1 82 John Nagle's Philosophy

a body of facts. Method is of but little value
unless it is the manner in which conviction acts.
There can be no method where there is no pur-
pose. The course of instruction for country
schools does not speak its full meaning to him
who has not referred its provisions to the philoso-
phy of mental development, and by this I do not
mean the philosophy learned from books, but a
sympathetic understanding of the child's wants.
There is no teacher greater than our own past ;
there is no system of pedagogy equal to those
backward flights of the mind to the paradise of
childhood, whence we were driven by growing
years and life's troubles. If we were privileged to
return, could we not, with the knowledge which
years have brought, give a surer trend toward
manhood to the acts of that period? And can
we not, in a measure, place ourselves beside this
later child, a child with him, and lead him to that
higher plane of which true manhood is the
summit?

Training Schools for
Country Teachers

As preliminary to a discussion of the advisa-
bility of organizing training schools for country
teachers a few propositions may be offered which
will receive general acceptance from those whose
interest in common school education enables them
to understand the conditions prevailing.

1 . The great need of the country schools is a
stimulant to public sentiment regarding them,
and particularly with reference to patrons, so that
their real value as a part of our educational sys-
tem may be properly appreciated.

2. A proper estimate of their worth would
beget a demand for qualifications in teachers
commensurate with the results expected.

3. While good results are accepted and often
appreciated, the means for securing them are
more largely left to chance than to intelligent
scrutiny of those employed. Economy is more
active as a rule than intelligent discrimination.

4. No instrumentality for the improvement
of the country school has been added to those
employed when popular education was in its
primitive stage. New forces have been added

183

1 84 J°hn Nagle's Philosophy

to those impelling the higher institutions forward
in step with the progress in all other lines of
human activity, but those in high places seem
to think the harvest in rural neighborhoods may
still be gathered by means of the antiquated
reaping-hook and that cast off clothing is suitable
to backwoods' surroundings.

The pride of being the object on which force
is directly applied to insure better conditions is
a local stimulus to which the country school has
long been a stranger, when the force was not of
local creation. When it is local, it is isolated
and transitory, as all movements are which are
wanting in general characteristics.

The country training school is a recognition
of the country school, not in the usual way of
being a paring from the fruit designed for the
more favored institutions. It is for the country
school as an entity in itself, and for its own good,
without reference to its being subsidiary to other
agencies. The title to it is in the patrons of
these schools. Its support is dependent upon
them. Its output is their property. Its influ-
ence is direct and centered. Their duty toward
it is direct and almost unshared. It has the
steadying influence which responsibility gives.
Its existence is a sign that the state takes an
interest in the country schools and is willing to
second local effort for their improvement.

John Nagle's Philosophy 185

It is the establishment of these schools, of
course, which stimulates sentiment in the man-
ner suggested. Their establishment requires
activity, and that is what we need to make inter-
est active and general. It is apathy, or misap-
prehension of the possibilities of the country
schools we want removed as the first step neces-
sary to their improvement. If the state discredit
these schools by ignoring them the people will
soon lose confidence in them, and will treat them
as being designed only for the most elementary
form of education. If the state concedes their
importance to the extent of providing a special
means for their upbuilding, an enhanced idea of
their importance will be entertained, and they
will be treated with more liberality and receive
greater consideration.

The country school has been lost in the almost
exclusive attention given to advanced education.
The neglect has filtered through until it has
reached the country school patron. His thought
was turned to the schools which receive the con-
sideration of those whose position made them
competent to determine what schools merited
attention. The result was, the country school
was denied local sustenance because it was unde-
serving of public recognition.

So much for training schools, with reference
to their influence on local sentiment in restrain-

1 86 John Nagle's Philosophy

ing it from the vagrant habit into which it was
rapidly falling, and restoring that loyalty to the
local institution which is as essential to its suc-
cess as is devotion to the home to domestic
happiness.

With an institution whose function it is to
train teachers for their work in country schools,
a sentiment demanding preparation for the work
to be entered upon will be created. The graded
and high schools demand not only evidence of
scholarship on the part of their teachers, but
scarcely without exception some proof of success
in teaching or opportunities which are equivalent
to successful experience. In the country school
it is the exception and not the rule to inspect the
record of the applicant.

There are training schools for high school
teachers, and this fact as much as any other
leads to inquiry as to whether preparation has
been made for doing properly the work sought.
The existence of a school which gives professional
training tends to create a professional spirit, and
gives character to the calling in whose interests
it exists. No one will say country school teach-
ing is a profession, as it is lacking in the essential
of preparation, is without permanency, stability,
or promotion. It can be entered upon too easily
to have any professional feature.

There are teachers of country schools who, by

John Nagle's Philosophy 187

individual effort and improving every opportunity
offered, are teachers in the true sense, equal if
not superior to the best product of these training
schools under the most favorable conditions.
But they have brought into competition with
them the callow youth who has quit the country
school form to accept that badge of sovereignty,
the country school ferule. The poorer always
drives out the better material if the poorer is
tolerated, and the country school is no exception
to this rule of economics.

The business of teaching is lowered by the
entrance of every incompetent or inexperienced
person as a teacher. The character of the coun-
try school suffers by the work of such a person,
and with loss of reputation comes diminution of
support, which soon sinks into neglect.

The ease with which the position of teacher
can be secured lessens the value of the position
both to the teacher and the community. The
only obstacle in the way is the certificate, and
this is not always a bar to incompetency. It is
the only mark of professional fitness rquired in a
majority of cases. There is no other test pro-
vided unless it comes through the inquiry of a
school board having some appreciation of qualifi-
cations beyond that of technical scholarship.
The influence of the few who make inquiries
never extends to others as it is deemed a per-

1 88 J°hn Nagle's Philosophy

sonal quality and hence inimitable. But the
habit of inquiry would be inculcated by the
operation of a school which prepared teachers
for their work, and qualifications would receive
much more attention than they do now.

Our best country school teachers come from
our best country schools. It is not that nature
has done more for those sections than for others.
Superior opportunities are responsible for the
improved output. Increase the opportunity and
the product will be improved. The country
training school will be professional as well as
academic, and will give country school teaching
a standing which it sorely needs.

It is almost a crime against intelligence to
permit a wholly inexperienced and barely com-
petent person, educationally considered, to take
charge of a school and train children how to
think — the most important function a man is
called upon to perform. This is from the teach-
er's standpoint, as the average parent perceives
no connection between right thought and "book
learning." The country teacher is left to his
own resources. He receives no assistance except
what his own ingenuity provides, and when it
serves his purpose it does not remain an aid for
others. It dies with the use he has made of it,
and the same laborious research must be taken
up by those who follow. The young and inex-

John Nagle's Philosophy 189

perienced teacher cannot create the means for
improvement. The successful teacher has not
blazed out the path he has traveled in search of
professional knowledge. The path to the train-
ing school is direct and there is found in its
entirety what otherwise would have to be gath-
ered in driblets and with serious waste of time.

The Country School
Teacher

The teacher's duties are of a complex nature,
and cannot be satisfactorily performed unless
thoroughly comprehended. The power to do in
season what is proper, as well as the strength to
resist inclination or temptation to do wrong, is
not imparted through any occult virtue in the
subjects taught. The teacher can strengthen
the child only by inciting in him activity in doing
or resisting. The potentiality is in the child,
not in the subject taught, and it is by cultivating
his powers, and not in feeding him the husks of
knowledge, that he is developed morally and
intellectually. There is no soul or power in
words unless they are a declaration of a truth
which is felt or a purpose which is formed. The
value of what the child learns or does lies chiefly
in his mental or moral attitude during the pro-
cess of acquirement or performance. The moral
and intellectual forces in the child are to be
directed by the teacher who furnishes opportu-
nity for their exercise. The power to do or the
willingness to abstain in opposition to the pres-
sure of inclination cannot be bestowed upon the
190

John Nagle's Philosophy 191

child ; it cannot be taught him ; it is the attribute
of no form of knowledge; nor is the secret of
imparting it, with the passive acquiescence of the
person to be invested, known to any philosopher
or priest. The skilful teacher directs the activi-
ties of the child into channels of development,
and the pupil gains strength to overcome the
difficulties which the future may bring by meet-
ing bravely and conscientiously those which the
present offers.

The first requisite of good teaching is to realize
fully that the instruction given is to aid in the
mental and moral growth of the pupil. The
next, to understand that this growth comes
through activity of mind and conscience. To
think and act for the child is to train him to be
a weakling; to accept hasty or imperfect work
is to educate him to be shallow in his thought,
indifferent in his investigations, and reluctant to
fully discharge any obligation resting upon him.
There must be form, substance, and complete-
ness in what the child thinks and does or he
becomes a delinquent mentally, and the canker
of dishonesty soon reaches his moral nature.
Moral teaching as well as mental consists in
having the child act and feel, and not in having
him repeat. The feeling of accountability can
in no other way be so well implanted as by hold-
ing the child to strict, thorough, prompt, and

192 J°hn Nagle's Philosophy

conscientious performance of the task assigned
him. The character of the future man and
woman is largely fashioned in the school-room.
There he is first taught that the indulgence of
individual preferences must yield to the higher
demands of public good, and there a sense of
duty is substituted for the truant feeling of irre-
sponsibility. If this is done wisely and with tact
every act will bear the stamp of enlightened con-
science, and the growth toward maturity will not
be in years alone.

The teachers we want are those whose concep-
tion of the work to be done includes something
more than imparting a knowledge of the common
school branches with reference to their value in
a commercial sense. This idea of mere utility
is the commonly accepted one by patrons as the
object of the school. But to the true teacher it
is more an incident than an end. The discipline
is what he regards as the valuable product of the
work done under his supervision. The word
"discipline" in this connection must be divested
of its cant significance and all-absorbing general-
ity. What discipline does for the child may be
outlined as follows:

1. Teaches him to recognize the claims which
duty has on him.

2 . Binds the ' ' flighty purpose" to work toward
the attainment of a certain end.

John Nagle's Philosophy 193

3. Teaches him to analyze carefully the nature
of that which he intends to perform, and to
master in detail the difficulties it presents.

4. Teaches him to study conditions with a
view to employing means suitable to their re-
quirements.

5. Teaches him to be methodical and logical
in all his operations so that the efforts made will
have direction toward the end sought.

6. Inculcates habits of honesty in thought,
word, and deed; insures recognition of duty
toward society, and aids in withstanding temp-
tation to do anything unmanly or mean.

It is evident that discipline is not secured when
the teacher's purpose is limited to dealing out
fragments of knowledge simplified to a degree
which makes digestion unnecessary, or in such
crude form as to make digestion impossible. But
the school board often assumes that the back-
wardness of the school is a measure of the qualifi-
cations of the teacher needed, and the trained
teacher who can draw out the faculties of the
child, and strengthen them by exercise, must give
way to the novice who can " teach reading, writ-
ing, and a little arithmetic — all that we want in
our school." There is nothing stimulating in
the work of a teacher whose qualifications are
dependent upon the lack of scholarship in the
school to be taught. Good teaching consists in

194 J°hn Nagle's Philosophy

the manner in which instruction is given, the
purpose which it is intended to serve, and its
adaptation to the ends sought. The ratio of
adaptability to the subject is constant in all
grades, and the purpose should be no less sen-
sibly felt in the lower than in the higher grades
of schools.

There are many teachers in this county who
lift their pupils from the level of shallow pretense
by insisting upon the full measure of intellectual
effort, and who open avenues of truthfulness by
pruning the outcroppings of deceit; for the child
is guilty of deception when he pretends to know
what he has not learned. Let no man say his
morals are not fixed by his daily practice, or that
the habits of his childhood do not govern his
daily life. Much less let him say that any sys-
tem of education which tolerates dishonesty in
mental effort on the part of the child will mold a
character which will adorn his adult life. The
child is building his character with every con-
scious act of his. When he learns words which
have no meaning to him, he is attaining pro-
ficiency in hypocrisy ; when he pretends to know
what he does not, he lies to himself, to whom
only the most depraved are untruthful; when he
partially performs a task which is not beyond his
strength and time to complete, he is guilty of
theft. What moral teaching can mitigate the

John Nagle's Philosophy 195

evil inevitable in such a course of training? The
teacher is innocent of any intentional wrong, but
in bestowing a little knowledge he has done
incalculable harm. Truly, a little learning is a
dangerous thing.

Now turn to the work of the competent
teacher: The thought precedes the words, there-
fore they are truthful. Pretense is at once laid
bare, and its exposed deformity disgusts the
child. The incomplete task is pronounced a fail-
ure, and there is no escaping the obligation.
The spoken word is always stamped with truth,
and thought becomes honest that the spoken word
may be. No morality in this teaching? Let
the completed product be the answer.

If the reader may suspect me, as I suspect
myself, of having come to the defense of the
public school against the charge of immorality,
I can only plead in extenuation that the times
demand it. The province of the public school
is to educate, and education includes morality.
Having spent all my life in more or less intimate
relations with public schools — a connection now
nearing its close — I may be pardoned for assum-
ing to know something of the purpose and spirit
of the public school. That the purpose is not
fully realized is due to the infirmity from which
nothing within our limited realm of knowledge is
exempt. But if there is anything of a public

196 John Nagle's Philosophy

character which the people should hold more
sacred, guard more jealously, or defend more
determinedly, I have failed to discover it. There
is no person to whom the public owes more than
to the teacher of the school at the country cross-
roads. He is poor; you have kept him so. He
is not influential; his duties forbade it. He is
anxious to change his occupation ; his necessities
drive him to it. He is not always equal to the
proper discharge of his duties; your parsimony
invited him there. He is slightingly referred
to ; his defenseless condition is responsible. But
he has done more for your children than you
have done yourselves. Wipe out his work, and
notice the vacuum created. Is it right, is it just
to traduce him or belittle his work? Give him
the credit which is his due, and deal generously
with him as he deserves.

How Enthusiasm Dies

How Enthusiasm Dies, is the subject of an
article in a late educational journal. That enthu-
siasm does die out in the educational field the
experience of every one who has done work in
the field will bear ample testimony. There are
many causes, not the least of which is human
nature. Enthusiasm is a fire which feeds on
vitality, and cannot be sustained; and then it
leads to new things, discoveries which require
constant battle for their reception. Parents
want their children to make improvements that
are visible, and the best teachers will not do this.
Everything which takes deep root is slow of
growth, but when the time for bearing fruit
comes the yield compensates for the delay.
America is a country given to rush. To climb
to the top is the ambition of every one, and not to
make preparation so that reaching the top is a
certainty. Teaching must conform to this de-
mand, and hence there must be false teaching.
There can be no enthusiasm in a lie, and many
teachers who know better, teach so as to please
the people rather than satisfy their own con-
science.

197

A Fault in Teaching

Many people who look to the future and
observe the tendencies of the present have
become somewhat alarmed at the drift on the
part of young people away from employment
which is productive. Not a few look upon this
state of affairs as a fault in the mode of educa-
tion, and particularly that portion of it which the
common school gives. But the evil lies mainly
in the direction given to the purpose of the child
by the parent. The education outside the school-
room, particularly in cities, gives the child false
ideas of the purposes of life and of the dignity of
labor.

The boy educated in the country has duties
outside the school, and grows into the belief that
there is nothing servile in labor, and gains strength
in resolution and power to do from the responsi-
bility early thrust upon him. The school training
is only supplementary to the more important
training he receives in the school of life, and when
he reaches man's estate he is not helpless or
weighted with the idea that he has a special call
to enter one of the professions or win his daily
bread without the work of his hands or the labor
of his brain. Not one boy in twenty who receives
198

John Nagle's Philosophy 199

his education in a city school has any thought
that his daily bread is to be won by toil. Not
until want prompts him does he rely upon him-
self to earn a livelihood. And so we find the
young man in the city being educated into the
belief that it is only the country louts who are
to be producers. Manual labor is necessary to
the physical, the mental, and the moral develop-
ment of every one. It inculcates right ideas,
good purposes, and is essential to a proper reali-
zation of life and the duties it imposes. No
man can be symmetrically developed without it.
No ordinary man has the fullest control of his
powers unless he has " learned to labor." It is
the foundation principle of the highest vocation
and absolutely essential to the completest suc-
cess. In the country it is unsystematic, often
trifling, but never without its influence on devel-
oping character. In the city it is often entirely
lacking. It is because this essential element in
education is wanting that there is at present such
a demand for industrial education. But in
assuming control of this the school is usurping
the prerogative of the parent. Besides, manual
labor to be valuable must be real, and called
forth by some necessity, so that the brain and
hand work in harmony. When it bears the
aspect of play it ceases to operate on character.

Moral Training

Complaint is often made that our modern
system of education educates the intellect and
totally neglects the will, and the charge is not
wholly untrue. The passion for possessing that
which is without ourselves has predominated
while the cultivation of the inner spiritual man
has been almost entirely neglected. The delu-
sive idea that religion and intellectual training
can make moral beings has too long prevailed,
and its mischievous results are seen in the exist-
ing condition of society. Education is three-
fold, moral, intellectual, and religious. Each is
supplementary to the others, but none can take
another's place. Were it different, clergymen
would commit no crimes, and Macaulay's scath-
ing impeachment of Lord Bacon would never
have been written. The great aim in all moral
education is to lead the child to self-control. To
do this requires the guiding hand of a wise master
and the constant controlling influence of a moral
being. The trainer of children should be a
student of ethics ; he should know the principles
upon which society is founded, should recognize
that principle which knows no distinction of sex

200

John Nagle's Philosophy 201

or age, and which regards the rights of children.
The treatment hundreds of children receive in
every land is vicious in its effects; it regards the
trainer, whether teacher or parent, as a king exer-
cising divine right over a subject without a soul.
The convenience of the educator is consulted and
the moral welfare of the child is neglected. The
little disagreeable acts which children sometimes
perform are not owing to what is commonly called
willfulness, but are due solely to the weakness of
their natures, to the automatic action of their
organisms, and to the lack of attractiveness in
what they refuse to perform. Supply the proper
motives and they will be guided aright. Think
of their moral needs and ignore your own tempo-
rary comfort and you will train a model child.
Adhere to the principle of equal rights, to that
law which the child can feel, which if adhered to
for a few generations would make morality
organic. Moral precepts will not do. Precept
is obeyed only under the influence of fear.
Example is powerful to secure followers in its
train. Then the treatment the child receives
should be such as to reflect from him those traits
we wish to develop in him. It is not enough
that he sees its operation between others. He
himself must be a partner to its influence; he
must receive in order to reciprocate. Then will
trainers of children remember that their system

202 John Nagle's Philosophy

must be humane; that moral suasion must be
their force; that their method must be founded
on a permanent principle of moral philosophy;
and that they themselves should be true mirrors
of manhood and womanhood.

Some Needs of the English
Language

The English language is somewhat like its
alphabet — redundant and defective. There are
so many synonyms that a repetition of ideas in
most cases does not require a repetition of lan-
guage, and the English in consequence is a pleas-
ing language to the ear and requires some culture
to insure elegance of expression. But a person
frequently is at a loss for a word to express an
idea, and is driven to circumlocution or ambigu-
ity. A personal pronoun in the singular, com-
mon gender, is a crying want, and the English-
speaking people are driven through this want to
violate the rule of syntax governing the agree-
ment in number of a pronoun with its antecedent
or to the abolition of feminine gender — something
unsafe in this age of woman's rights.

But there are other wants. For instance we
have no word opposite in meaning to "magnify"
unless we use the inelegant "minimize." "Be-
little" is not a full opposite, and when used in
that sense is often misleading. "Minify" is
better, but is not sanctioned by authority,
although Blame made use of it in the sense of
203

204 J°hn Nagle's Philosophy

" minimize," and it is occasionally encountered.
" Minify" would not be a bad word to introduce.
It has a pleasing sound and etymologically is well
descended. "Emulsify" is another word fre-
quently coined to assert the act of which
"emulsion" is the sign of the idea. The English
needs a little pruning and a little growth. If
slang expressions are sometimes commended for
their force, "minify" and "emulsify" should be
welcomed for their use.

English Composition

So much has been said of the difficulty of get-
ting pupils unfamiliar with English to do any-
thing with composition work, that a composition
written by a pupil whose only knowledge of
English is what he picked up in school during
the time spent in reaching the second reader, and
who has been trained only two months in com-
position writing is here given. The little boy
cannot talk English with any degree of readiness,
but his little essay shows originality, and with the
effort he makes it is quite certain he will soon
overcome the difficulties he now has to contend
with. He wrote on the hackneyed subject
" Spring" as follows:

"In spring the snow will smalt and the ice
will smalt, the roads will be moody ; it will be wet
from the ice and snow in spring. We can plant
corn and patoes and wheat and barley and oats
and pase and have ags in spring. The birds come
back and the trees get green and the gras get
green."

Now, can any teacher suggest more difficulty
in the matter of command of English, and can
any teacher ask for more in the way of the pro-
duct of the child's own thought? Many would
205

206 John Nagle's Philosophy

postpone composition writing until the child
would have a more perfect command of the
language, but this teacher, who, by the way, is
teaching her first term, is giving this child com-
mand of the language by having him use it in
expressing his thought. There was no excuse
that the little boy could not talk English. He
was induced to talk the English that he knew,
and not only gained more confidence, but was
taught to look for the proper form of words in
the only way that a deep impression can be
made — by using the words. How many teach-
ers are there who would get such results, which
are a promise of better things, from a child with
a vocabulary so limited? That child is learning
language through his own industry, and grammar
from his use of language. The teacher did not
despair, but started out to work with the material
the child had, and is giving him strength and
purpose.

Our School System

It seems singular that a system in which so
many interests are bound up, should receive so
little attention from eminent writers as does our
public school system. It is very seldom the
subject of a magazine article, and when it is so it
is not treated broadly.

Our school system has outgrown its period of
infancy, and should no longer be looked upon as
an institution which is to give education suffi-
cient only for the business affairs of life ; that is
education to the extent of a convenient thing for
its possessor. An effort should be made now to
implant principle. The dry details of school
work have their value, but they have not the
power of development, and that is what the
times demand. There is no longer much danger
that many native born American citizens will not
secure mastery of reading and writing. But the
school should aim to endow them with moral and
physical force.

The school must keep pace with the progress
of the times. People are now dealing with social
and economic problems themselves. They
should have the power of interpreting signs cor-
rectly. The schools must give this power, and
207

208 John Nagle's Philosophy

it must come through a wider culture and more
flexibility in method and programme. Inde-
pendent thought under competent supervision
must take the place of directed thought through
narrow channels. When the people deal directly
with questions of tremendous import to the pub-
lic good, they should have the power to deal with
them intelligently. A change is needed in our
methods of popular education, not a violent one,
but one in harmony with existing conditions. It
is simply keeping pace with the evolution of
society.

The demands made upon the general intelli-
gence of the people by a general movement which
can only be interpreted as a desire to bring gov-
ernment closer to the people, are frequently too
great for action consonant with the public good.
But these demands increase rather than diminish,
and though they may result in retrogression for
the time being, they are the signs of coming pro-
gress. To make them blessings and not evils
they must be interpreted properly. The new
forces must be properly disciplined, otherwise
they will become the tools of the self-seeking — a
menace to popular government instead of its
sturdiest support.

A demand for a share in government is a laud-
able one. But those making it should be pre-
pared to deal properly with public questions.

John Nagle's Philosophy 209

Our schools are the agencies by which this is to
be accomplished, and to them public attention
should now be directed. It is no longer a ques-
tion of how best to carry an election, but how
best to educate the people so they can share in
the affairs of the government.

Country Schools

The school can trace its paternity to that
admirable system which, confessing limitations
upon human power, recognizes special aptitudes,
and is known as division of labor. It has grown
into form in response to the needs of progressive
society. Neither professional training of the
highest degree, nor the supremest sense of re-
sponsibility can be deemed even a tolerable sub-
stitute for maternal affection, when affection only
can guide the child safely in acquiring that early
knowledge which through life must bear the
stamp of instinct. During that period of child-
hood there can be, and there is, no delegated
trust. The mother is the school, the fountain
of knowledge, the world, and with such tender
solicitude for the child's future does this first and
best teacher impart her instruction that it is
never forgotten though it may go unheeded as
time wears off the feeling of dependence.

But the mother's cares multiply, and the
child's needs grow beyond the province of imme-
diate affection ; the school then assumes duties too
complicated or too burdensome for the home. It
becomes a parent de facto, and to meet expecta-
tions must perform a parent's duties. Understand

John Nagle's Philosophy 211

the mother's hopes for her child, and you realize
the functions of the public school. Not that
patrons should dictate the manner of training, as
this presupposes a degree of technical knowledge
by the general public of the science of teaching
superior to that possessed by the person chosen
as instructor because of his special qualifications
in this respect. But conception of the end to be
attained is fully as important as familiarity with
the means to be employed, and the idea of the
finished product of good training we obtain in
most complete fullness from the parent's hope.
Eliminate the natural weakness of parental solici-
tude and pride, often misleading, obstructive, and
sometimes antagonistic to that which is essen-
tial, though for the moment harsh, and in the
parent's hope and expectation you find the fruit
of that labor which is directed by good purpose,
sound philosophy, and under discipline so rigid
as to find its excuses only in the character it
develops and without which it would be cruelty.
The doctrine of compensation is broad as the
world, deep as life. It is old as the primeval
curse, which is a blessing to those who interpret
it aright and who resolve to give life the sweet-
ness which is earned and not bestowed. Every
increment of character must be purchased at the
expense of effort. There is no royal road to
anything worth the having, and every act bears

212

John Nagle's Philosophy

its legitimate fruit. When this fact is recognized
and acted upon it is education. The knowledge
comes not easily, but it is indispensable to the
teacher. The parent may appreciate the value
of severe training but recoils from subjecting his
child to the hardships incidental to it. He
rejoices when the child overcomes a difficulty:
the short-sighted one because of the immediate
relief to the child or the intrinsic value of that
which incited activity; but the judicious parent
sees the value accruing to the child from the
sustained effort, and the result is enriched with
increased significance.

The first-mentioned parent is constitutionally
disqualified to give training. He might furnish
the instruments of learning, but not the ability
to use them. Parental sensibility too often inter-
poses to smooth the rugged path of discipline or
modify the decrees of judgment. So the parent
incapacitated largely from infirmity of purpose in
acting upon his convictions in the training of his
child, and realizing that mental and moral growth
can attain to the healthful maturity of well-devel-
oped character, enlightened conscience and active
faculties, only by that training which has for its
object the development of the child into this
well-organized, conscionable, intellectual being
known as man, surrenders the trust to a person
whose qualifications are vouched for largely by

John Nagle's Philosophy 213

his willingness to assume the responsibility. The
teacher is supposed to answer this description.

The child is an animal with potential mental
and moral qualities. These are to be made
active, cultivated, strengthened, spiritualized by
a process which enables the child to grow into
the intellectual life. The growth must be from
within. There can be no veneering in this early
stage. No hiding the primitive animal by the
pedant embellishments of the college or the aping
proclivities of the high school. The training can
be hung on no convenient peg to be donned as
apparel when convenience or display may suggest
its exhibition to attract admiration or challenge
envy. The training which, by a process of dif-
ferentiation in the laws of human progress, has
devolved upon the country school, and others of
like grade, enters into character in its formative
period. It helps to form the mold in which the
child's future life is cast. It dislodges heredity
or unites with it and gives force to inherited
traits. As easy is it to deny the appetite for
opium as to divest the character of habits incor-
porated with it during the period of development.
Tendencies become shoots of character by indul-
gence. Predisposition may be lopped off. by
habitual restraint. In later life the severest dis-
cipline might weaken, it cannot eradicate well-
fixed early habits. And these with a small

214 J°hn Nagle's Philosophy

installment of formal knowledge are what the
country school gives. It does not give to the
high school, the college, or to active life the fin-
ished product; but no longer the material in
plastic mold ; not Prometheus bound ; not the
boy with purpose set, but yet with inclination
bent and bearing a stamp which prohibits any
one from saying "thou art mine and thus I win
thee." The country school, or these agencies
which through the weakness of the country
school have usurped its functions, have given his
path its trend through life. "Use can change
the stamp of nature," says the Bard of Avon;
but it is use when the mind is impressible. The
indurated rocks bear the early footprints though
ages have rolled by and added to their mass.
But the impress was made when the rocks were
forming.

The conceded importance of early training
makes proper the securing of the best means
which experience can devise for this purpose.
The common school is the best agency at present
possible. We reverence the institution more
from an appreciation of its functions than from
admiration of their efficient discharge. Its in-
competency is painfully apparent, but this is
made endurable for the reason it seems to be
irremediable. I speak of the common school
without reference to the detailed work of those

John Nagle's Philosophy 215

who immediately discharge its functions, not of
the wisdom which provided — in conception — this
estimable means of diffusing intelligence. But
the fountain cannot be higher than its source,
and the school cannot be far in advance of the
sentiment of that community whose intellectual
wants it is designed to supply. The word
''wants" is to be interpreted as here used with
very sweeping limitations, as descriptive of the
people of those school districts which maintain
school mainly for the purpose of complying with
the law. None of the early saints intent upon
"mortifying the flesh" were more abstemious in
things related to the appetite than are those
people in intellectual matters. We whose ac-
quaintance with the country schools makes us
familiar with what they are, hear with amusement
the laudatory language of those whose sanguine
thoughts are never modified by actual knowledge
of the existing condition of things, or by the phil-
osophic reflection of Dickens's cherub patriarch
that "what might have been is not what is."
Here we represent a constituency great in num-
ber, moderate in demands, but with wants which
invoke not the fulsome periods of gratulation,
but the common sense which is never blind to
imperfections, and ever willing to apply a cure.
We voice the needs which we see, not which they
feel, and in the unwonted fashion of formulating

216 John Nagle's Philosophy

our appeal to meet their sense of justice, but
without the insistence of united petition, for the
people do not think they have cause of complaint.
But you should respond to other things than
importuning. "Take care of the minutes and
the hours will take care of themselves," said
some philosopher. Deal generously, intelligently
with the common schools and the benefit will be
reflected on the higher institutions of learning.
Give no thought to elementary instruction, and
you can close the high schools and colleges.
The common school should be the " firstling of
our heart and hand," and treated as a judicious
parent treats his child, not pampered with lavish
praise, nor "yet checked like a bondsman, all its
faults observed, set in a note-book, learned and
conned by rote, to cast into its teeth." Not
this! And still the truth should be acknowledged,
and when necessary a corrective applied, speed-
ily, fearlessly, and intelligently.

The public school is a necessity: (i) because
in the present state of society success in the
ordinary affairs of life requires a certain amount
of formal knowledge, and also that faculties be
trained to apprehend quickly and act intelli-
gently; (2) because the heads of the families are
unable, from different causes, to give this training
or bestow this knowledge. Clearly comprehend-
ing the functions of the public school we can

John Nagle's Philosophy 217

fully estimate the qualifications demanded in the
person who assumes the duties of teacher. It
should be the aim of every one who, in school
matters, speaks as having authority, and of every
agency through which it is designed a good influ-
ence may be extended upon the schools, to im-
press upon the teacher an abiding sense of the
responsibility resting upon him because of the
nature of his duties. The saving fear of unfit-
ness is the beginning of wisdom in the profession
of teaching, because it implies a realization of
the trust, without which there can be no com-
mensurate effort to meet it. Give the teacher
this sense and he will work out methods which
will meet the requirements of the most exacting
philosophy. Give him method, theory, and edu-
cation, so-called, but without implanting this
sense and you are not doing much more than
ornamenting a statue. To what are we to ascribe
the sublime confidence with which the young
teacher takes charge of his first school? To
nothing more than a conviction that the duties
of a teacher are a mere bagatelle. He is not
filled with an idea of his own importance; he has
hardly the shadow of an idea of the importance
of the work he undertakes. ''Fools rush in
where angels fear to tread."

Would the same boy show equal audacity in
performing a surgical operation? By no means.

2i 8 John Nagle's Philosophy

He would be deterred by a feeling of responsi-
bility and fear of the consequences. Some of us
know, or at least we say we do, that it requires
as skilled a practitioner to deal with the mind as
with the body. But it has not the force or the
universality of a tradition. Sentiment considers
the presumption violent and revolutionary, and
we will call sentiment a fool, and then supinely
yield to it, and make to-day a teacher of the
child who yesterday sang "Here we go round
the mulberry-bush," but refuse to call the boy
from the plow to perform an amputation. If it
were not for the fanatics what a conservative old
world we would be!

That man of majestic mien, an inhabitant of a
planet where death is unknown, who was allowed
to visit this earth, but with the condition that
he could not return to his native planet, and
would be subject to all the infirmities common
to us, learned, incidentally, that mortality was a
condition of our nature, but that it was in his
power to make it a prelude to a degree of happi-
ness theretofore unknown to him. Thereafter
life had no duty discharged with more fidelity
than preparation for the future; nor had it a
mystery more inscrutable than the indifference
of the children of earth for that momentous
event which ushered in an eternity of happiness
or suffering. The celestial visitor might express

John Nagle's Philosophy 219

scarcely less surprise did he know of the delicacy
of the duties incumbent upon the teacher of the
common school to perform, and the alacrity with
which a callow youth undertakes them, and the
ready acceptance of his services by those whose
duty it is to secure competent instructors.

Ask our teachers what object they have in
view as a result of their labors, and a majority
will answer, to teach the children to read, write,
and cipher, and it may be a knowledge of such
other branches as may be included in the com-
mon-school course. Some may have caught the
cant of the institutes, and repeat the words, "to
make children good citizens." To teach these
branches is to educate; but probe farther for the
idea which is the root of the thought "teach,"
and we find what a stunted plant it is in the
garden of the mind. It offers ready plucked the
shriveled fruit, which has no seeds of growth,
and each child is to shuffle forward to receive his
stated allowance. With this idea of what edu-
cation is, there is nothing deplorable or repre-
hensible in the rush for schools by those who
feel equal to the task of teaching the a, b, c.

Let us dignify the public school by investing
it with its proper attributes. Without these it
has no place in the economy of social develop-
ment. These generally recognized, emphasized
at every proper occasion, would give pause to

220 John Nagle's Philosophy

the invasion of the schools by the army of incom-
petents. True, many of our schools would go
without teachers, but while this might limit the
diffusion of the "three R's," the deprivation
would be more than compensated for by the
immunity from false training. The schools of
this state include not a few which would better
answer the purpose of their existence by being
empty, for it is not true that any kind of train-
ing is better than no training at all.

What is there arniss in having the teacher
clearly understand that the knowledge which to
the pupil is the appreciable result of his labor, is
acquired by adherence to a system which incul-
cates habits of thought, which make the knowl-
edge an active, progressive factor in life? That
what is termed discipline is not imposing tempo-
rary restraint for a specific and immediate
purpose, though it secures that end, but
strengthening the virtue of forbearance, implant-
ing the idea of personal accountability, impress-
ing the necessity of making concessions and
teaching recognition of the rights of others?
Why should not the teacher understand that
"preserving order" should develop habits of self-
denial which are not cast off when the pressure
of authority is removed ; habits of order which
prevent waste of effort ; and habits of work which
are persistent and effective without being boister-

John Nagle's Philosophy 221

ous or obtrusive? Why should not the teacher
realize that the conduct which is thought proper
for the school-room may be required in such a
way that its observance will be persisted in when
the child feels that he is only under the censor-
ship of his own consciousness of right and wrong?

An exalted estimate of the school, but the
only one which justifies its existence, because the
process of knowledge-getting may weaken the
force of mind by bad precedent, and discipline
may show the facile but dangerous expediency
of temporizing.

The training is the supreme consideration ; and
common sense would suggest, if experience did
not make clear, that training can best be secured by
teaching properly these things which are directly
available in the affairs of life, and that no dis-
cipline can have a greater prospective value than
that which meets the requirements of the present.
To teach the child to do the duties of the present
is to receive a bond that those of the future will
not be neglected when the time comes for their
performance. It should not be " don't do this
now, and you will be a good man when you grow
up." It is now with the boy, and there are cer-
tain things which he should do or should not do,
because they are right or wrong now. The boy,
not the prospective man, should be addressed.

Some years ago G. S. Albee, president of the

222 J°hn Nagle's Philosophy

Oshkosh State Normal School, in speaking
to me of a mutual friend, pronounced him one
of the best educated men he had ever met. The
person spoken of had never been to any but a
common school. While a boy he found it neces-
sary to work hard to keep up with his classes.
He acquired the habit of doing to the best of his
ability everything he attempted, and never to
make a pretense of knowing what he did not.
The habit spread its influence to every act,
thought, and word of his; and that constitutes
his education. Mark the fruits: Wherever he
is known his word receives absolute belief.
When he accepts a trust it is felt it will be dis-
charged even to its minutest requirements. His
opinion on a disputed matter is generally accepted
as conclusive, because it is known to be the result
of careful examination, and expressed in the spirit
of truth. I know not whether Mr. Albee spoke
of the habit or divined the education from a per-
ception of its results. Can you conceive of an
education higher, nobler, better than that which
had its germ in the formation of one good habit
in a boy debarred from superior school advan-
tages?

The branches prescribed for the common
school have this double adaptation — they furnish
a working capital in the affairs of life, and the
process of this acquisition gives the training

John Nagle's Philosophy 223

without which they are lumber. The funda-
mental fault in our schools is that attention is
given to the knowledge as an end and no thought
to the mental attitude of the pupil in the process
of acquisition. Draughts of knowledge are bitter
to the mental taste when they should be sweet.
Inquisitiveness leads to acquisitiveness, and pre-
vents labor from becoming wearisome or distaste-
ful. When children are interested in a subject
we may be assured it is being taught properly.
A child is more pleased to do a thing than to see
it done, and will quit the top which hums — a
costly Christmas gift — to spin the one he has
whittled from a spool. There is education in the
sports of children if we who are to give guidance
would deign to see it by emerging from the
unsympathetic atmosphere of authority by which
we are too closely enveloped.

The question is not which is the more valu-
able, mental discipline or the knowledge which
the school imparts. They are inseparable. The
acquisition of the one in proper form is through
the exercise of the mind, which is discipline.

The common-school curriculum is above criti-
cism. The teacher is what we, the people, make
him. It is idle to utter panegyrics upon the
teachers who appreciate the nature of their duties
and perform them in the true spirit. Our work
is with the inefficient, the irresponsible. The

224 J°hn Nagle's Philosophy

first step in building up is to make them cogni-
zant of their faulty ideas. Without this, instruc-
tion in methods is building on quicksand — the
treacherous foundation will forever preclude
stability. With a proper conception of the
nature and purpose of school work every valu-
able suggestion will be assimilated and become a
part of the teaching organism. We all have
seen valuable methods which we thought could
not be prostituted to machine purposes, assum-
ing that very character in the hands of the
unskilled teacher, and we have had the opposite
and more pleasing experience of seeing the
merest hint made pregnant with life in the prac-
tice of the true teacher.

A clear perception of what is to be accom-
plished should be the first principle in teaching.
I may have made this tiresome by reiteration,
but I attach so much importance to it that I feel
like making it exclude the consideration of all
minor things pertaining to the science of teach-
ing. I feel that we justify incompetency by
demanding no further special fitness than is
requisite to give mastery of the mechanism of
reading, writing, and arithmetic, and that we
invite the girl or the boy who wishes to earn a
little money with which to secure admittance to
the roller-rink, to seek employment in our schools,
when it is easy to meet expectation. I want to

John Nagle's Philosophy 225

see the common school placed beyond the reach
of the groveling and sordid ; a sacred temple not
to be polluted by profane or unworthy hands;
lifted above the aspiration of those who do not
see merit in probation and growth in labor. I
would willingly drive out one-third of the teach-
ers, close up an equal number of the schools, and
let the shut doors attest the high character of the
profession, and the exalted purpose which must
actuate those who seek to enter it.

A desperate remedy, but only in seeming.
For the treadmill work of some of our schools is
destructive of mental strength, fatal to powers
of concentration, and utterly subversive of the
end desired to be obtained. Who that has read
Romola will despise the day of little things, or
feel that a predisposition to a weakness of char-
acter if encouraged will not wreck a life? And
who that has inventoried his own powers has not
discovered the origin of strength or weakness in
the contraction of some early habit? And what
habits are more obtrusive than those connate
with early duties? And this is why a boy re-
ceives better training in chopping wood than in
a poor school. Every stroke has due relation to
a well-directed purpose, and the completed task
is the product of effort in harmony with design.
Is not this education? In the poorer school the
child learns to read without manifesting a spark

226 John Nagle's Philosophy

of interest in the acquirement, and without voli-
tion except in so far as the will is held in servi-
tude by the authoritative repetition of routine.
It is not surprising that he often wonders what
it all means and where it is going to end. The
child receives no consideration. The ability to
call words is forced into him by a process which
ignores him as a sentient being. Suffer little
children not to come to such a teacher, for they
will suffer without good coming to them through
it. Is this education?

If not, where is the deprivation to the child
in shutting up such a school and giving him em-
ployment in manual labor, in which he can see
the relation between effort and result? The cord
of wood is a definite, tangible result. The value
of the solved problem is incomputable to the
youthful student, but should not be to the
teacher. Would the experienced axeman in-
struct the novice to put up that cord of wood by
gathering limbs which require no labor to fit
them for the pile, or teach him how to use the
axe so that the labor of shaping the first pile has
given him the power to shape a second and a
third unaided? Aye, even the power to fell the
mighty forest, which would defy the pigmy effort
of the gatherer of dried branches. Go to the
laborer, thou blind trainer of the youthful mind ;
consider his ways and be wise.

John Nagle's Philosophy 227

You who assemble annually at meetings to
compare notes on the principles of teaching,
realize how limited is the sum of your learning on
the subject, and how vast the region still unex-
plored by you ; how far short of the profound
depths of the philosophy of teaching the plum-
met of your best thought can sound ; how cir-
cumscribed your most earnest effort in the field
whose vast expanse your conscience apprehends.
But the little girl with a limited certificate has
no fears. If she knew of your deliberations she
would laugh at your obscurity of vision which
prevents you from seeing what to her is so clear;
or rather at your magnifying a difficulty which
to her is so simple. She could master it with
her eyes shut. Poor child, she does not know
what teaching is. Her eye can sweep the nar-
row field whose horizon extends not beyond the
hillocks of the three R's. "What are they?"
said Mr. Viebahn one day to a simple fisherman
in Manitowoc, who was sorting out some pebbles
to sink his nets. The inquiry was simply a sug-
gestion to the mineralogical sense which the
peculiar appearance of the pebbles attracted.
"Them, them is stones," was the reply; and
they were nothing more to him. No doubt he
was astonished at the philosopher's obtuseness.
Can we not quicken the little girl's conscience
while extending her field? When we have

228 John Nagle's Philosophy

cleared away the mists which make a false hori-
zon, can we not inspire a purpose to make the
labor worthy the field?

The common school gives elementary instruc-
tion; the high school elaborates upon this; and
the technical schools give the special training
suited to professional life. The common school
deals with the child, who must be endowed with
a settled purpose. As the training at this time
is more important so does it involve more
responsibility in that the teacher must aid in
creating the purpose as well as directing it when
formed. These considerations make it impera-
tive upon us to give chief thought to these ele-
mentary schools. The slow gradations by which
little faults develop into bad habits require a
nicer discrimination of motive and a keener
insight of character than does the detection of a
bad habit so mature as to leave its unmistakable
impression upon acts. The teacher of the ele-
mentary schools must deal with the former, of
the higher school with the latter. The teacher
of the common school must, then, understand
child nature. I do not say should be familiar
with the principles of psychology, because I
would not drive the teacher to the text-book for
a knowledge of that which he can get within
himself and by observing child life with that
degree of interest his calling demands. What I

John Nagle's Philosophy 229

insist is proper and indispensable is the exercise
of good common sense, not the speculations of
philosophers. We want no expert testimony on
the mind in sentences so involved that the sense
is lost in a tangle of words; no waste of thought
on these refined distinctions upon which astute
philosophers love to dwell; nothing which will
divert the mind from the child to the book to
learn of the child. I know of no text-book better
than the child, read in the light of our own
experience. Each of us is a complete volume of
psychology without its truths and principles
printed in language which we can easily compre-
hend. To understand what is to be done and to
know how to do it constitutes the sum total of
science and art. First let the teacher under-
stand what training is, and what it is to develop.
Then and not till then is he prepared to take
steps to give that training which will attain the
end designed. Has ever a man by his own
efforts been successful in the accomplishment of
anything and remained ignorant of the steps which
led to it? The whole world is kin, in that in all
of us the same causes produce similar effects.
If we are yielding we become irresolute, without
exception ; if we are firm we become strong, all
of us. The child of to-day is in no sense differ-
ent from the child of the preceding generation,
and each one of us is the product of his own

230 John Nagle's Philosophy

labors. The mature mind and the stable charac-
ter are not inheritances. When we observe the
child with that degree of interest our position
enjoins we are children with him. The imagina-
tion annihilates the past. The child's hopes and
fears are ours. His eager curiosity is shared by
us. Things old become new and interesting,
and our sympathetic wonderment at his discover-
ies, old as our lives though they be to us, is not
wholly simulated. We have put on childish
things and are traveling over the paths of long
ago with those who tread them now for the first
time, that they may pluck no flower whose petals
hide the seeds of evil. The path is familiar to
us, and our companionship valuable to him. We
know the poison weed and the healthful berry,
and our young companion shall be warned in
time. When added years bring graver duties to
him we are with the boy when he wrestles with
new difficulties; we know just how he should
manage so as to overcome them and be strength-
ened by the victory, and we know we could spare
him pain and labor, but he would yield to the
next when perhaps no one was near to encourage
or assist; and as we are intent upon the boy's
good we act as our good will towards him sug-
gests, and our knowledge of what is proper,
learned from experience; and we do not rob him
of a victory. And when the boy quits the

John Nagle's Philosophy 231

school he parts from his companion teacher who
walked with him in the paths of knowledge in
the early spring when the buds were bursting, and
now bids adieu when the blossoms are scattered
and the fruit is forming. This may not be
psychology, but is it not philosophy?

Teachers do not need instruction in methods
of teaching as much as to understand that
method is a means of procedure in conformity
with well-organized principles. To illustrate:
A teacher should not be instructed to teach
primary reading according to the word-method
unless she is convinced it is more in consonance
with the natural order of development than is
teaching the alphabet. The art of teaching is
the application of well-known principles which
are a part of the teachers' experience. Method
is the means of applying these principles so as
to produce the result which the teacher's experi-
ence and observation lead him to expect will
naturally follow. "Know thyself" becomes an
essential factor in the professional requirements
of the teacher. Know the child follows as a
corollary. I ask, is there any theory of teaching
in the thoughts suggested?

When we thus place the teacher in the atti-
tude of investigation, a work on theory and art
may profitably be read, because he follows the
line of thought pursued by the author which

232 John Nagle's Philosophy

brought him to the enunciation of these prin-
ciples, and then the methods follow naturally
and necessarily. A teacher may have a bad
method of applying a good principle. But the
advantages of a superior method are instantly
recognized when presented because its better
adaptation to the purpose is felt. Such a teacher
derives great benefit from an institute or teach-
ers' meeting, and no valuable suggestion is lost
upon him. But the teacher whose methods are
vagaries, entirely disconnected from principles,
quits the institute as did Cassio the festal board,
"remembering a mass of things but nothing dis-
tinctly," promptly falls back into the old rut of
machine-teaching, and wonders why people make
such an ado over such stupid things as institutes.
Let us be frank. The teacher is not wholly
to blame for it; the conductor shares in the
responsibility. We would not expect a person
unfamiliar with the fundamental rules of arith-
metic to give much heed to or be at all bene-
fited by a neat solution of an arithmetical
problem. He must first understand what is
required to be done and then have the capacity
to understand the successive steps of the solu-
tion. Then he is struck by the relation the
solution bears to the requirements and how every
step tends toward the desired end. Does not
this hold good in methods of teaching as well as

John Nagle's Philosophy 233

in processes of solution? We must be satisfied
at institutes that the work is continuous and
upward from bottom principles. No structures
can rest on air.

When the course of instruction for country
schools was perfected and sent out on its mission
of reformation, every one felt that its excellences
would secure its instant adoption by every school
in the state. But years have passed, and still
it is a sealed book to many of the schools.
Every one whose duty it was to urge it feels that
he has bent his best efforts in its behalf. One-
half the schools which work under it have only
made a semblance of its adaptation and utterly
ignore its spirit. Still others proceed under it
in a tentative, half-hearted way. I assert with-
out fear of successful contradiction that in a
comparatively few number of the country schools
will the course of instruction be found adopted
except in form. I know this not from personal
knowledge of the fact, but from personal knowl-
edge of the average country teacher, which pre-
cludes all possibility of believing otherwise. I
know the average country teacher is not educated
up to an appreciation of the course, and I know
a perfunctory adoption in deference to authority
is a delusion and a snare. I speak not to cast
discredit upon reports, ''but here I am to speak
what I do know," and I say it with all the con-

234 J°hn Nagle's Philosophy

fidence of conviction. I do not choose to say
anything in deprecation of the storm of wrath
which it is reasonable to presume will follow the
statement that those highly colored reports of
superintendents attesting the successful working
of the schools under their charge in compliance
with the requirements of the course are mis-
leading, and not in accordance with the facts.
Not only this, but that in a number of the
schools which have ostensibly adopted the course,
it has not improved their condition a tittle, and
that many of the teachers have not even read it
with care.

Pause before making heated answer to these
allegations, and let the still small voice of con-
science be heard remonstrating against a denial
of the truth of the charges here made. Make
these questions a cud for reflection to chew on,
and then answer with coolness and reason : What
was the character of the work before the course
of instruction was introduced by these teachers
now most successful in dealing with it? Do not
the young teachers who have worked with marked
success manifest that degree of intelligence
which warrants the belief that they appreciate
the nature of education? Has the course in any
single instance supplied the want of intelligent
appreciation of the purpose of school work? Do
you honestly feel that a considerable number of

John Nagle's Philosophy 235

your schools are doing what they should do, or
as well as you had reason to expect from the
attention you have given this matter as superin-
tendent?

And again I say, the teacher is not to blame,
wholly. The fault lies not in the people, whose
objections can easily be removed. Lay the
blame at the door of the superintendent. And let
not the institute conductor wash his hands of all
responsibility, they are stained with the sins
of omission and commission.

What was the need which called into being
this admirable scheme known as the Course?
Was it because there seemed to be a lack of class
records and reports that the procrustean bed
of grading was demanded in the best interests of
the country school? Or that formal graduating
was needed to keep our schools from languish-
ing? If so, many of our institutes are conducted
in the proper spirit, and when particular stress is
laid upon keeping records and rigid classifying,
the spirit of the course speaks through the lips
of the conductor. How lost some of our con-
ductors would be in a country school!

If, on the other hand, the course is designed
to fill a want caused by methods of procedure
not being in harmony with principles, that effort
is dissipated by not being properly applied, that
classifying, as thoroughly as circumstances will

236 John Nagle's Philosophy

permit, and class records are an important aid in
carrying out this scheme, then, not all who con-
duct institutes bear true testimony. Under which
king, Bezonian?

But admirable as the instruction is at some
institutes in elucidating the principles and ex-
plaining the methods of the course, it fails to
take that root in our schools which the effort to
plant it would warrant. Why? The soil is not
prepared. The teacher finds no use for it in
carrying out his ideas of education. And this
difficulty confronts us at every step, and will
until we root it out. Of what value can that
course be in aiding a teacher to hear a child spell
through the first reader? put down a string of
figures until in the arithmetic of chance the
answer is struck? to listen to the stately line of
words which convey the information that a
"verb is a word which expresses action, being, or
state" ? Who of you would care to study up any
elaborate system to perform such a simple duty
acceptably to your patrons and satisfactorily to
yourself? Many a time I have heard it said in
the most guileless manner, " There is no use of
my teaching according to the course because I
have only one form in my school." Certainly if
classifying is the determining quality, such
a school may well be entered in the category of
those having adopted the course.

John Nagle's Philosophy 237

I well remember the buoyant expectation with
which I set out, the first year of my service as
superintendent, to introduce the course in every
school under my charge. Often since I have
wallowed in the ''Slough of Despond" and laid
my mouth in the dust. I think I know more
than I did, at least I know that growth requires
time and patience, and that we must not polish
error, but apply the axe to the root.

Those whose work this course of instruction
is, no doubt assumed that teachers understood
what school work is designed to accomplish, and
furnished a plan beyond all praise to carry out
the purpose which in every true teacher is to go
through the routine of tasks from nine until four,
mount the tread-power the following morning,
and keep up the interminable grind until the con-
tract is filled by the lapse of time. The projec-
tors of the course did not take into their calcu-
lations this species of "purpose," because it is
not a legitimate one. But it has being, even a
habitation and a name. I have found it where
petitions and not scholarship appeal for certifi-
cates, and where it is well understood how short
a school term the state permits. I have found
it in schools where pupils in the third reader
receive not a thought from the printed page
through which they stumbled, and could not
express it in English if they had. Why do you

238 John Nagle's Philosophy

allow this state of affairs? How can I prevent
it? I have made district officers go from house
to house as mendicants, pleading for funds with
which to pay the salary of incompetent teachers
when they durst not use the public funds for that
purpose. I have refused certificates when every
resident of the district petitioned, and still I have
teachers able to earn certificates in any county
who would earn their salaries better if they never
entered the school-room.

The difficulty is they interpret ability to earn
a certificate as synonymous with an invitation to
go forth and teach the children of the earth, and
they find justification of what they do in the
certificate they hold. How to disabuse them of
the impression? Weeding them out as rapidly
as circumstances will permit is the only cure for
the desperate cases when the disease has become
organic; instruction in the institute less subjec-
tive in character, and directed against the griev-
ous faults which cry for correction; intelligent
instruction at every teachers' examination on the
theory and art of teaching having direct relation
to faults observed ; and in dealing with the course
avoiding the mistake of the heroine in "She
Stoops to Conquer, " of disposing of the husband
before securing the lover; the diploma, the cer-
tificate, the classification, the record book, all
being postponed until the manner of teaching

John Nagle's Philosophy 239

based upon a knowledge of what teaching is per-
meates every fiber. It will no longer then be
the ''hand of Esau but the voice of Jacob," for
seeming and reality will have clasped hands, and
the class record will tell the truth.

Function of Education

To one practically engaged in educational
work the silence or apathy of the leaders of pub-
lic opinion, on questions affecting the growth of
mind and the building of character, seems strange.
Liberal as the public often is in providing school-
houses and apparatus, it is niggardly in its outlay
for the actual work of education, and miserly in
yielding the time for pupils to become informed
for the work of life. People's notions must be
radically false or the leaders in educational circles
have been fatally in error since intellectual Athens
became the guide and inspiration of the lover of
knowledge and culture. Guizot, in his History,
tells us that one dominating thought pervaded
each of the civilizations of antiquity. It was
now military, now monarchical, now theocratic,
and each left its impress on the social organism.
Our own age seems to have its powerful deter-
mining characteristic. It may be called the
materialistic age. A scramble to gain wealth
and distinction among the perishable products of
man's labor seems to be assuming the propor-
tions of a national trait. Selfishness rules the
human breast; the desire for gain too often
makes people oblivious of their higher interests.
240

John Nagle's Philosophy 241

It not only rules the individual, but its baleful
influence creeps into every branch and fiber of
the social organization. Every element of physi-
cal and intellectual power is now made subser-
vient to man's passion for gain and is turned into
a producing agent at the earliest possible day.
The learned professions are entered now by the
merest novices in learning. Persons are classed
as lawyers, who scarcely know the functions of
government or the elementary facts of history;
persons are called physicians, without a smatter-
ing of general scientific education; persons are
called teachers, to whom psychology is a mys-
tery, and the simplest principles of pedagogy
vague or meaningless ; persons are often ordained
to show the Way and the Truth without an
acquaintance with society or a disposition to drop
the plummet to sound the depths of human pas-
sion ; and the vast army of children is withdrawn
at an early age to learn trades or earn bread at
some form of manual labor.

Public opinion should be educated and directed
against this tendency. There should be a more
vivifying spiritual atmosphere to breathe. The
long recognized function of education is to give
man control of his inner forces, to make him
cognizant of the laws of the material and spiritual
world, and to render him able to comprehend
and apply them for his own liberal advancement.

242 John Nagle's Philosophy

A properly educated person is not a child view-
ing certain facts and occurrences as aberrations
of nature. On the contrary, he learns to reduce
all events to a few higher denominations called
the laws of the universe, while he still looks with
wonder and admiration upon these laws them-
selves, his soul swelling with emotion and longing
for a glimpse at the unexplainable power that
produces order where the ignorant mind sees
only chaos. This is the theoretical and desirable
function of education, no matter what the char-
acter of the school, no matter what the subject
of instruction may be. If it teach history, it is a
failure unless it bring forth the great principles
that move and guide the masses of men. If it
teach geography, it fails unless the laws of human
wants are considered. If it teach mathematics,
it fails of the highest purpose unless the sharp
distinctions between the true and the false are
made to permeate and govern the human soul.
And if it teach religion, it misses its grandest aim
unless it inculcate into the minds of our youth
the sublime principle of the brotherhood of man.
Without this conception and this aim education
will never extend beyond the three R's, and they
will be cultivated not to broaden the horizon of
thought, not to purify the intellectual eye, not
to give rise to the sublime emotions of a culti-

John Nagle's Philosophy 243

vated soul, but simply to enable man to avoid
the snares set by business competitors while they
fail to give him the virtue that would teach him
to set no snares for other men.

The Practical in Education

One of the commissioners of the board of
education of New York City objects to educating
children in " vague theories which will be of no
use to them," but demands that they ''be filled
with a knowledge that will be of use to them in
the ordinary employments." The advocates of
higher education, and those who demand that
education be practical and largely rudimentary,
have each some right and some wrong in their
views.

Graded schools are not as successful in giving
that practical education, or indeed in giving their
pupils that mental grasp, which contributes so
much to success in life, in proportion to the
facilities they enjoy, as country schools are.
And why? The graded school as a rule has bet-
ter teachers, and being able to put in practice
division of labor have an advantage which should
give their work pre-eminent superiority. But
the best disciplined minds come from the com-
mon schools where there is little or no apparatus
and seemingly not much to stir the child's
ambition.

The fault lies largely in a prescribed course of
study including some of the higher studies which
244

John Nagle's Philosophy 245

can be reached only by slighting the elementary
branches and thus forming a vicious habit of
doing superficial work. The child is forced to
take up studies for which he has no aptitude, and
to keep pace with the one whose taste makes the
mastery of that particular branch a comparatively
easy task. In the country school, the child is
made to feel that it is not his prime duty to pass
the grade examination, but to understand the
subject, and because he is not " graded" he has
given him the time which his slower comprehen-
sion required. Besides, if he does take up any
of the higher studies, it is because his proficiency
in the elementary branches makes it proper that
he should, and not because it is a part of the
regular school work which it is incumbent on him
to perform.

To complete the course is the ambition of the
"graded" pupil; to learn something that is of
value is the purpose of the boy at school near
the cross-roads. Each one refers the work he
does to the object to be attained to determine
how far it goes to the accomplishment of the end
sought. Can there be any question as to which
gives the better descipline? Besides the country
child has duties to perform which give him a feel-
ing of responsibility that must exercise an influ-
ence on his school work. He develops inde-
pendence of character, and not having his course

246 John Nagle's Philosophy

marked out for him in detail, is compelled to
make an inventory of mental stock to determine
what he is best qualified to do. The higher edu-
cation is good if it is sought after the child is well
grounded in the elementary branches.

The Public School

The public school, by performing its legiti-
mate work properly, develops character, and by
strengthening good purpose and teaching recog-
nition and performance of duty, gives a moral
tone to character which cannot be imparted by
dabbling in precepts. The trouble with our
clergy generally is, that they do not understand
child nature. The child is incapable of reason-
ing, and never directs his conduct by the reli-
gious teaching he receives. He is guided largely
by the direction of others until habit comes in as
second nature to give trend to his actions. The
true teacher sees that the child does promptly
and in an orderly manner what it is proper he
should do. The discipline of the school teaches
him that a certain amount of self-denial on his
part is made obligatory for the good of the little
community in which he lives for a certain num-
ber of hours each day. Action is always ante-
cedent to the formulation of the principle
which is but an expression of what has been
done. The public school teaches the thing by
practicing it, both in its moral and intellectual
features — one fortifying the other and making it
complementary.

247

Gems of Thought

Christmas-Tide

The holiday season comes when Mother Earth
has least warmth in her heart for us, when the
winds have lost their voluptuous softness, and
heaven's blue its tender depths. The early
frosts, that mellowed Nature's loveliness ere
destroying it, have deepened in intensity, and
clutch with chilling grasp where before they
touched with gentlest though blighting caress.
The clouds sweep on wings of chilling blasts
with sinister motion, while the Alpine piles on
the horizon seem like mausoleums of vanished
summer. Nature has ceased to smile, and we
must turn to the heart of friendship for the
warmth which the soul covets and which gives
buoyancy and hope to life.

It is winter in the heart which knows not
love. Selfishness is a misery at this season, when
to live within one's self is to bar out the spirit of
good will whose fruitage is the Christmas gift.
Those deft fingers which have fashioned the
offerings of affection for some loved one have
been the active agent of a kind heart centered on
a benevolent purpose. That gift is a visible
token of regard — pure, unselfish, holy; typifying
the divine precept, "It is more blessed to give
251

252 John Nagle's Philosophy

than to receive." Evil cannot be joint tenant
in the mind that harbors generous thoughts.
Regardless of our belief or disbelief in the
divinity of the Child whose first draught of life
was poverty, as deep as his sympathy for the
sorrows of the children of man, that birth has
been the beacon-light of charity. The Star of
Bethlehem which guided the Chaldean shepherds
may no longer direct the faithful to the true God ;
but the fitful gleam of benevolence shines out
with steady light at this time, and leads to a
higher plane of humanity — a realization of the
favored Utopia. Man, seek not thy brother by
the light of creed when good will has made all
the world kin. The symphony of love through
the lips of laughter and the voice of kindly greet-
ing, the prayer of gratitude which speaks through
the kindling eye and the warm hand clasp, have
no formulae of words to provoke contention.

Religion is Love

Religion in its true sense, divorced from
malignant persecution of what is deemed error,
purified of intolerance, superstition, and pretense
of exalted goodness, is love pure and simple.
There is no promise of the future that makes it
so blessed as the hope that love has an existence
which extends beyond the grave. The love of
friends is the purest and most exalted element of
life, the essence of the soul. It is unshaken by
prosperity, it is triumphant over misfortune and
makes existence sweet. The mother who mourns
a child can have no conception of heaven higher,
purer, holier, than a place where she will meet
"the loved and lost again."

What in life is worth its survival except it be
love? Hope at best is but a wish wedded to
faith. But there is solace in the thought that
the flower of sweetest fragrance is nourished by
the tears which affection sheds, and blooms
"where sorrow may not enter." If this life is
but a preparation for another, higher and better,
then the best and purest attribute of this should
be allowed entrance into that realm whose gates
of pearl it has opened. Love makes heaven
possible and earth pleasant. It is the great
253

2 54 J°hn Nagle's Philosophy

heart of the universe, whose pulsations are char-
ity and good will ; the life which is immortal, the
hope that endureth.

Good in Abstention

The man who discontinues some expensive
and useless habit is benefited, whether he does
so in response to the promptings of his moral
nature, or because decreased income suggests
retrenchment. Man is always in danger when
he can satisfy every wish. If things come easily
to him he loses diligence and his character is
weakened. There is always good in abstention,
whether voluntary or forced.

Mothering Sunday

Mothering Sunday, in the times gone by, is
said to have been a festival, and the custom to
which it was sacred should give perpetuity to the
day. Then it was the practice to pay homage
and respect to the old mother at the old home,
around which clustered the fondest recollections.
It must have been a day devoted to feelings
more holy and ennobling than Thanksgiving Day
brings forth, because in Thanksgiving there is
always a feeling of self, which keeps it from being
entirely divorced from the bustling, busy, every-
day life. Mothering Sunday was designed solely
to bring happiness to the mother whose life had
been deprived of that fountain of joy, the pres-
ence of her children. It offered a guaranty to
her that, although the duties of mature life
might have put a check upon the affection of her
children for her, that affection still glowed with
all the old-time warmth.

The adult children turned to the "light of
home" on that day, bringing with them some
token of love. The mother was the person to
whom homage was paid. She was the lode-
stone who drew the fragments of the family
together and made it again "one and indivisible."
255

256 John Nagle's Philosophy

She was queen of the day — the old mother
antiquated in dress, and perhaps uninformed in,
at least heedless of, modern ideas of etiquette,
but still the queen of the day, assuming those
prerogatives which derive their charter from
maternal love, and are guided by the promptings
of the heart rather than by the grammar of for-
mal etiquette. It would be a splendid thing to
revive Mothering Sunday. It would be a delight
to the mother and a blessing to the child, who
needs often to recur to the simplicity and unself-
ish affection of the old time when love taught
him duty.

An Old -Time Picnic

The picnic of the olden time has fallen into
disuse. It came then at rare intervals, and left
no evil in its track. It was marked by innocent
jollity and a feast in the green woods. The
viands might not of themselves have been tempt-
ing, but keen appetites and genial fellowship lent
their aid to make of a frugal spread a rare sym-
posium. The boys and girls were just what the
words mean, and knew how to appreciate a holi-
day from the very rarity of the occurrence.
The whole crowd could not by pooling their
capital get cash enough to purchase one glass of
beer. Swings were made of the masts of the
basswood, and these took the place of the dance
of older gatherings.

The picnic nowadays has a bar as an invari-
able accompaniment. Yes, and the catgut
squeaks, or the brass band brays, and the feet
keep time to these measured sounds.

The boys are young men, the girls young
ladies, carrying fashion's trappings to the extent
of being decorously blase. The bare-legged,
collarless boy is no longer an attendant upon
picnics, and yet it seems as if there is getting to
be a void up in that adult plane of true manhood
257

258 John Nagle's Philosophy

because that bare-legged boy has quit his former
haunts. That bare-legged little rascal has quit
the country school, and somehow that school has
grown weak in real strength, though its tinsel
dress has put it more in accord with the times.
The girl with coarse cloth dress and heavy shoes
has gone, too, and there seems to be but few
recruits for the army of womanhood. That hap-
py borderland, where the young life expanded
into genuine adult maturity through responsi-
bilities and habits which properly belong to that
period, has been given over to the keeping of the
stilted formalities of social demands.

The Frost King

Last week was a return of the old-fashioned
winter when time was young in this land. The
snow came down fast and furious, but remained
where it fell, and the country roads were smooth,
glassy, and level, a delight to the traveler.
There is between Meeme and Schleswig, Manito-
woc County, Wisconsin, a forest, the most ex-
tensive in the county, the surface broken with
deep ravines and rugged hills. A good road
runs through this wood, and a ride over it
were worth ten years of humdrum life. At
a distance, it looked like an immense orchard
in blossom, and one could almost fancy the
winds were laden with the fragrance of May.
Every twig was wreathed with garlands of
filmy snow, with a delicate bordering of em-
broidery gathered from the humid atmosphere
by the fairy touch of the Frost King. The ever-
greens drooped beneath their loads, forming
beautiful canopies, fitting bowers for some fair
Titania. There was a suggestion of peace in the
whole scene, of purity, and an expression of
beauty now seldom encountered since "the flow-
ers of the forest" are "a wede away."

259

Music that is Eternal

There is no person who is not, to some degree,
a lover of music, and in all stages of civilization
musical instruments of some kind have soothed
troubled feelings or aroused passions. But it is
a singular fact that those melodies which become
most popular have in them something that
touches the deeper emotions. A humorous song
is short lived. It may amuse, but it leaves none
of that indescribable thrill that may properly be
called the ecstasy of the soul. A song must
have "soul" to be immortal. The plaintive airs
of the negroes, as touching in their sadness as
they are beautiful in their simplicity, will last as
long as melody has the power to please. The
words may be, indeed generally are, a meaning-
less jumble, but the music is of such exquisite
beauty, so clearly a product of the heart, that it
has the power of touching that organ and making
an impression, which, like the memory of the
dead, is sweet from its sadness. Men instinc-
tively reverence those airs whose inspiration is
from the depth of the soul. Vicious men, and
those merry in their cups, will sing humorous
songs, but never one of the character under dis-
cussion. It would seem sacrilegious, a wanton
260

John Nagle's Philosophy 261

effort, to injure feelings peculiarly sensitive to
impropriety.

The Irish are a people, though of a mercurial
nature, subject to fits of despondency. Their
airs are the language of the soul and are impreg-
nated with melancholy. There are none sweeter,
none more lasting. Scotch airs have also a sug-
gestion of tears in them, and gain immensely by
the touch of sorrow. A patriotic song may stir,
a lively one may amuse, but there is none that
will sink so deeply in the heart as that which is
born in sadness.

Thanksgiving Day

The heart that does not throb with a quick-
ened impulse on Thanksgiving Day must long
have beat time to sorrow's measure. It is purely
a secular holiday, borrowing no feature of solem-
nity from " fears of what is to be." It thaws the
frost of selfishness from the heart, and quickens
sluggish life with the instinct of good will. It crys-
tallizes prayer into good acts, happy thoughts, and
generous promptings. The busy, bustling world
is shut out from the family group; a truce is
called, and the soldier in the battle of life, every-
where, enjoys the brief respite.

Why should not this pleasurable feature be an
element of all holidays? At what higher purpose
can religion aim than to bring joy to the heart of
a child, rest to the troubled soul of the anxious
parent, and to all that elevated sentiment of
kindly feeling, regard, and charity which always
attends pleasant companionship? The prayer
which agony wrings, which fear inspires or self-
ishness dictates, may have an intensity of ear-
nestness, but it does not gladden the heart.
Make man happy, and his life is a paean of praise.
And what is the source of happiness? Judicious
enjoyment of the things that are. Oh, sad-eyed
262

John Nagle's Philosophy 263

parent ! look at the merry group which surrounds
you to-day, and ask yourself if you have not
found a surer way to the confidence and hearts
of your children than through gloomy, lifeless
precepts, with which you have clogged their
minds, shutting out the genial warmth of parental
solicitude, and establishing a censorship where
should be loving guidance. Man of the world,
when acting the devotee of that exaggerated
fashion of giving large donations to ostentatious
charities, have you at such times felt that expan-
sion of soul which you now experience in being
one of a group which numbers no sad hearts?
And conscientious church-goer, has the clergy-
man, as in studied phrase he addressed the throne
of the Most High, inspired you with that feeling
of "good will to men" that has taken possession
of you while you aid in passing around the well-
filled plates? The ear that has never been attuned
to any but doleful sounds, the eye that has never
looked upon any but gloomy pictures, the lips
that have never syllabled any but sorrowful
words, have naught to do with the melody, the
sunshine, and the sweet communion of this
world. Their hosannas are choked with sobs;
their hearts are fountains of bitterness.

Springtime

There is something in the vigorous march of
springtime, sweeping over the meadows in luxu-
riant depths of living green, flinging out the
banner of fragrant blossoms from fruit trees
to kiss the wooing breeze, which recalls the
springtime of life, when the spirit was buoyant,
hope strong, and the future covered with the
sheen of bright promise. "The tender grace of
a day that is gone" may be brought back by an
aimless ramble through the country one of these
bright days. Nature is never more amiable.
She woos you with a profusion of flowers, and a
melody as rich and dulcet as it is varied ; the air
is sweet with the fragrance of buds and blossoms,
and the woods, in the fragile beauty of the tender
leaves, are as lovely as a tinted transparency.
The bobolink at this season, a trill of joyous
song in flight, is everywhere; the robin's note is
never still; the catbird's voice is heard at inter-
vals; and the blackbird's whistle sounds sweet in
this symposium of song. Go out for a ramble,
and come back happy with having tasted some
of the sweets of life more worthy of search than
the things of ambition.

264

New-Year's Day

There is something in the sound of these
words expressive of that "good will" of which
Christ's coming was the promise. There is no
mourner so disconsolate that a glint of sunshine
does not warm the heart, no feeling of desolation
so dreary that it is not irradiated by a touch of
that benevolent impulse peculiar to the season.
No prayer has greater efficacy than that unsyl-
labled one to which every heart gives utterance
in philanthropic beats. For one brief week
God's great church — mankind — is united; no
conflicts over creeds ; no discordant shouts over
rival doctrines. Forms are ignored, and the
spirit of harmony and kindly feeling envelops
humanity, suppressing what is sordid, and stimu-
lating by genial warmth all that is generous and
ennobling.

The old year, which was ushered in with
manifestations of joy, has added one more link
to the cycle of time. The old, old story, "The
king is dead; long live the king," will soon
undergo its annual repetition. The stream of
time will flow unobstructed over the imaginary
border which separates the Old from the New,
bearing on its surface chaplets of laurel or wreaths
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266 J°hn Nagle's Philosophy

of cypress, jewels of hope or tears of sorrow.
Ambition will seek the "chamber of the gifted
boy"; Discouragement will wait upon the foot-
steps of the timid ; Industry and Indolence will
claim their votaries; and sighs and laughter will
be strangely commingled in that jumble of incon-
gruities known as life. But all those who bore
the burden of sorrow, and those who trod the
table-land of success, will at the next recurrence
of this festival join in hailing the advent of the
new year and speeding the departure of the old.
This life runs on until infinity is reached. Im-
mensity stretches beyond the blue heavens, but
Reason cannot follow Imagination beyond the
precincts of this life. We are hedged in as Ras-
selas was in the Happy Valley, and know not
what lies beyond. The canker of discontent
may eat into our hearts, but neither hope nor
fear can pierce the mystery which circles the
horizon of life. We have to do with this world
and with this life; what lies beyond is but a
corollary of these. Whether pinched by poverty
or blessed with wealth, burdened with misfor-
tune or crowned by success, we owe a duty to
mankind which, if properly discharged, will add
to the pleasurable emotions inseparable from this
season.

A Girl's Education

Girls have their future in their own hands.
Fathers are too busy with affairs of business, and
in planning for the future of their sons, to reflect
that girls have a future, which includes some-
thing besides marriage or the prim acerbity of old
maidenhood. Mothers have too much concern
for the requirements of the present to demand
anything practical in the education of their chil-
dren. To dress with taste, appear well at a
party, be attractive and properly religious, are
the summum bonum in the early life of a girl,
according to the mother's idea. But there are
not a f r— girls whose eyes rest on the future, and
who have a purpose beyond social pleasures and
the delights of youthful love-making. They are
not striving to cast off all feelings of responsi-
bility, but they are acquiring strength to be able
to discharge life's duties as become women.
These are the true women, the leaders of a fash-
ion which sinks deep into the current of life and
develops the womanhood which has not frivolity
as its chief characteristic. The education which
dignifies life with a purpose has the elements of
real beauty. Culture must reach character. A
girl who has learned to sew well has given evi-
267

268 John Nagle's Philosophy

dence of a higher conception of life's duties than
one who has received a "polish" which precludes
all knowledge of domestic accomplishments.

Midsummer

There is rare beauty in the woods in midsum-
mer, which no one can fully appreciate but he
whose memory is a storehouse of pleasant recol-
lections gathered in that early period when "life
was love." The patches of sky seen through
the rents in the green curtain of nature's weav-
ing, flecked with shreds of fleeting clouds, bring
to mind the heaven of childhood, which needed
not doctrine or philosophy for its revelation.
The winds seem to have a softness and fragrance
which lull the spirit to rest and thus blot out the
harshness of life. Rest, now, has no feature of
languor, and the vigorous, happy life with which
one is surrounded is inspiriting. There is no
prescription that can match the woods for
efficacy.

Duties of Parents

Paternity brings duties which it is a crime to
ignore. Children may be instructed in doctrinal
points of belief, and may have a superficial coat
of piety, but they need the affectionate watch-
fulness of parents until character is fully formed.
But that injudicious affection which constantly
indulges every wish of a child, which takes pride
in curtailing childhood, and making women of
girls and men of boys before age or experience
fits them for the position, is more fatal than the
repression that comes from dislike. It is now
the fashion for girls, before the innocence of
childhood has ripened into the experience of
womanhood, to ape the flirtations of young
ladies, in years at least, attend balls, receive the
attentions of boys who assume the habits of
young men, and enter into paths beset by dan-
gers. The mother will allow her child of fifteen
to play the young lady without a thought of the
consequences, but would be shocked if the child
manifested a disinclination to attend church.
The mother exercises no supervision over the
literature her child may read, though the coun-
try is flooded with the most pernicious kind, but
requires constant attendance at Sunday school.
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John Nagle's Philosophy

Seemingly, to bring a child up in some religious
denomination makes unnecessary any precaution
to prevent the formation of bad habits, and
relieves the fear of evil associations. It is wise
to give religious instruction, but without the
much more impressive lesson taught at the fire-
side, it brings forth but indifferent fruit. The
lessons taught in church are, in point of effect,
second to those learned from a mother's lips.
Home should throw its sacred influences around
youth and guard it from evils which appear
seductive.

The Power of Love

There is no higher force than love. It has
inspired the lovers of humanity in all ages and
countries. The love of country has caused the
patriot to leave his blood-stained footprints on
the sands and snows of a thousand fields. The
love of home and family causes the hard hands
of the toiler to struggle for the necessaries of life.
The love of humanity produced the sacrifices of
the Howards. The love of truth sustained the
constancy of the martyrs of science and liberty,
and causes the privations and sacrifices of the
explorer who faces death amid arctic snows and
cold and ice. Yes, all the tears that have been
shed, all the prayers that have been offered, all
the kisses given by the rosy lips of health to the
ashen face of death, all the fond hopes expressed
amid clouds and mists, have sprung from the
great fountain of human affection — love.

271

The Child Beautiful

A child is beautiful — beautiful for its inno-
cence and confiding trust in the good intentions
of all with whom it comes in contact. The
parent, the school, the church, can have no higher
mission than to guard the beautiful child from
the evils the )'ears may bring. The bloom on
the cheek will fade. Trouble will trace its indel-
ible lines on the face, but the unstained character
will look out through the clear eye with all the
loveliness of younger days.

The growing years of children make renewed
demands on our care. Now is the time to
inculcate habits which will be a safeguard against
the attacks of vice. Do not seek to make chil-
dren men and women by allowing them to indulge
in amusements suited to adult age. Many
amusements proper for grown persons are vices
for children. Let them not be taught to look
for pleasure in excitement. The child who lives
in an excitable atmosphere is taking poison into
his moral system. The little girl who takes part
in kissing games or anything of that nature is
applying the ax to the root of her virtue, the
boy grows up to sneer at propriety in the inter-
course of ladies and gentlemen.

John Nagle's Philosophy 273

There is no better safeguard than reading, and
that at home; look to the child who never turns
to a book with pleasure. That child will seek
amusements in places where character is blasted
and the seeds of immorality are sown. Guard
your child by giving him good habits as a talis-
man against vice. When the seeds of vice are
sown early they are not easily eradicated, and
when the flower of virtue receives early attention
it is not readily blighted.

Autumn

There is something in the approach of autumn,
the border-land of summer, that is depressing,
just as if the shadow of death were brooding over
the future. There are dark clouds in the sky
which cut off the sunshine; there is gloom in the
heart which darkens hope and makes life " scarcely
worth living." The wind has a mournful
cadence, and the trees sway as if the motion
were a sigh of sorrow. Everything seems to
harmonize with the prevailing spirit of sadness,
and animate nature moans forth a dirge. Dew-
drops seem like tears, and the evening breeze is
a sigh. The moon itself seems to wear a garb
of grief, and flits among the clouds, a tear-stained
Diana. It is a season for men to grow mad, for
anguish to gnaw at the heart, and for melancholy
to usurp the throne of reason. The retina receives
only dark impressions, the tympanum transmits
none but doleful sounds. One is feasted on
dismal thoughts on every hand until it becomes
a regular symposium of sorrow. Those imps,
the blues, that feed one on dejection, are in
their heyday, implacable as a Nemesis, persist-
ent as a devil. They revel in gloom and drag
one down to the Slough of Despond. Work is
274

John Nagle's Philosophy 275

performed mechanically, and what in its nature
is amusement is now a bore. One " sucks melan-
choly from a song as a weasel sucks eggs," and
longs for night that he may seek forgetfulness in
sleep — the twin sister of Death. A miserable
world this, when the year is falling "into the
sear and yellow leaf," and there is a lingering
wish that the shadows which come from the
west would bring that icy breath that gives for-
getfulness and rest.

The Manly Boy

Just as one predominant trait is an index of
character, so the upbuilding of character in a
school is evidence of the excellent training that
is given. Tom Brown's manly boyhood, full of
faults, though not grievous ones, the result of
an excess of animal life and impulsiveness, is a
field for the imagination of the youthful reader.
It is the growth of healthy sentiment in a boy,
this strengthening of the moral fiber amid per-
plexities and under conditions which might lead
to ruin, that gives inspiration and arouses feelings
of hopefulness. Tom Brown at Rugby is a liv-
ing personage because of the human sympathy
which gives life to the story. No boy is good
at all times. Tom Brown teaches that a boy
may be good and still be a boy of many faults.

276

Fountain of Piety

The heart which is surcharged with charity to
all is the fountain of true piety, and raises man
to the uplands of practical religion. Prayer is
but the expression of thoughts which fill the
soul, and deeds, not words, are its proper expo-
nents. Jesus the son of man is a light to the
skeptic no less than Jesus the son of God is the
hope of the Christian who relies for salvation on
the blood which was shed for man's redemption.
Lofty church spires may not invoke piety in one
whose heart will melt in ready sympathy in the
presence of suffering. Christ ate with Publicans
and Pharisees; modern Christians persecute
opposite sects; Christ wept over the dead Laza-
rus; Puritans enjoyed the suffering of tortured
witches; but that " peace on earth" which was
heralded by Christ's coming is daily gaining
strength and tolerance; charity and good will are
extending their sway over humanity.

277

The Genial Germans

No one can appreciate the sturdy character of
the Germans, their liberality, good fellowship,
and freedom from bigotry, unless he mingles
with them. No man, no matter what his nation-
ality or his creed, can ever say that, socially or
politically, he suffered at the hands of Germans
because of his nationality or creed. But to one
on the outside the appeals of the demagogues to
the dominant race in this country naturally cause
a prejudice which is wholly undeserved so far as
the Germans are concerned. Their societies are
wholly different from those of other nationalities.
Nationality is no bar to admission. In all social
relations there is an inborn courtesy which pre-
vents any reflection on any nationality. The
"outsider" who mingles with them is not made
to feel that he is a trespasser. He is received
openly and cordially, and if he does not feel at
home it is his fault. These things are not known
to those who do not mingle with the Germans.
They are not susceptible of flattery, nor super-
sensitive to criticism, but the demagogues think
they are, and employ the one and avoid the
other, not for the good of the Germans, but with
the mistaken notion that their favor may be
278

John Nagle's Philosophy 279

thereby won. The best way to win the respect
of any nationality is to be independent and
manly, never withholding criticism when the
occasion demands it, and never indulging in obse-
quious adulation.

The Industrious Student

The industrious student rarely has occasion to
complain of the hours spent in study. He has
educated himself into the habit of giving atten-
tion to the matter in hand, and his powers are
concentrated on the task. The complaint of
over-study comes from the student who wastes
time in permitting other subjects to share his
attention while engaged in the performance of
duty, and dallying with a task, cultivates irreso-
lution by his methods of work. The worry inci-
dent to a conscious lack of preparation, the time
spent in listless endeavor, the mental disquietude
induced by patchwork effort, and the bodily
sympathy with mental inertia, are indeed symp-
toms of overwork. The writer has known
parents to attribute every little sign of lassitude
in their daughters to over-study, when the real
cause was lack of thought and need of work.
Physicians cloak their ignorance, and flatter
parents by their promptitude in discovering the
source of difficulties in the severe exactions of
the school, when in a majority of cases the pre-
scription which would bring relief would be to
advise the student to work more earnestly and
dawdle less.

280

Woman's Affection

Woman clings to life, not because her fear of
death is stronger than that of man, but because
she is more affectionate, truer to duty, and less
beset by despair. Man's best qualities are re-
vealed by the very activities in which he is en-
gaged, but the depth of a woman's purpose, her
strength of feeling and capability for sacrifice,
are never revealed until some emergency calls
them out. There is much that is noble and good
hid behind frivolities which belie woman's nature,
and frivolity is readily discarded when a demand
is made on those womanly qualities which are
much more common than we suppose. A
woman's friendship is not easily won, but when
it is, its roots find a place in her soul. With
capacity for suffering, she has acquired the
strength to bear it more uncomplainingly than
man.

281

Sanity of Work

We hear much of the evils of overwork, and
"breaking down" is often mistakenly attributed
to severe mental or manual labor. Nervous
excitability and anxiety, when accompaniments
of labor, weaken the body and affect the mind.
It is proper to distinguish these from labor, and
to avoid their debilitating influence, but it is not
wise to suggest cessation of work. The body
inured to labor, and the mind accustomed to
discipline, can best cast off the evils which beset
them. Thought may bring weariness, and bodily
labor exhaustion, but these are natural condi-
tions, and nature provides a cure. It is when
thought runs in forbidden channels, when imagi-
nation occupies itself with unwholesome pic-
tures, when desires run to excess, that the
weakness ensues which permanently impairs
bodily and mental vigor. Those who fancy they
suffer from overwork receive more injury from
the character of the rest they take than from the
labor they perform. The avenues through which
weakness reaches the mind are the emotions.
These are quite active in young people, and their
abuse invariably results in that unhealthy mental
condition which vanity ascribes to a worthier
282

John Nagle's Philosophy 283

cause. Can healthy exercise of body and mind
be carried to extremes? Rarely; because
strength to withstand comes with increase of
exercise. Good plain food is seldom — very, very
seldom — indulged in to excess. The depraved
appetite always longs for that which injures, and
grows in weakness with increase in desire. As it
is with exercise, so it is with mental activity, and
when overwork is complained of, it is wiser to
correct the perversion than to discontinue labor.
Very few people are injured from this cause
which is described as if it were a national epi-
demic. Many suffer from want of wholesome
employment.

Gone

Bob Flosbach is gone. Death, which is a
serious thing to most people, is full of a sort of
grim kindness in Bob's case. Bob didn't have
much volition in the matter, but his death stands
out in solitary prominence as the one worthy
deed in his career. Bob was on familiar terms
with every one. He should have lived in the
time of the reign of the sans culotte of France.
His badness had in it that steady, uninterrupted
flow which failed to attract attention. There
was no redeeming trait to mar the exquisite har-
mony of movement. But set down one thing to
Bob's credit: he never pretended to be good.
Bob was a bad man for boys to associate with;
but he never tried to appear otherwise. When
he attacked the citadel of virtue, he wore no
mask and carried the black flag. He practiced
no wiles; but on his face was the ineffaceable
inscription written in the deep characters of habit,
"I'm bad."

He was bad, but the current of his deeds
flowed on to the great ocean of vice within the
sight of man. There was no underground cur-
rent. No flowers to deck the horrid form of sin ;
no religious coloring to soften the hard front of
284

John Nagle's Philosophy 285

vice; no mask to cloak the design of a perverted
heart. Bob was bad; bad in purpose; bad
in action; bad in the end sought; bad in
appearance; bad in everything, in seeming as
well as in reality, with the one glorious excep-
tion that he never tried to appear otherwise.
This is Bob's monument; the one single ray
which issues from a life of rare and distinguishing
barrenness; the one solitary spark of negative
virtue ; the merit of not being a hypocrite.

Dancing

Dancing is not wrong in itself. It is a form
of amusement which, indulged in properly, has
high value as a recreation. But it should not
invade the domain of duty. When it does, it is
an evil. Any form of amusement which tres-
passes on duty, or makes duty irksome, has
reached the realm of dissipation, and is fraught
with danger to the participants. When dancing
is sought with such eagerness that duty receives
but fugitive attention, it becomes a vice, and the
more dangerous if it has parental approval. That
is a test which every parent can apply, and the
remedy should be quick on the heels of percep-
tion.

Slang

The persistent use of slang is an evidence in
most cases of mental inertness. When it is the
fashion to use a saying only expressive because
of its novelty, a great many yield to it as they
do tc fashion in clothes, while refusing to express
approval. But such persons tire of the silly
utterances, and return to rational words to ex-
press the ideas for which the slang was a stereo-
typed form. The slang expression may be used
with effect by one who rarely uses it in conver-
sation or public speech, but one cannot help
deploring the tendency toward slang. The fact
is, our young people are getting to use a sort of
gypsy dialect, and have sentences ready framed
to express a thought, without the necessity of
thinking. Conversation has no charms, for the
reason that there is nothing new in it, simply a
rearrangement of the patent sentences prepared
in the slang factory. And yet society would be
shocked with an oath, something less censurable
than the addiction to slang, because it does
not, in conversation, serve as a subject for
thought. The words ''chestnut" and "rats" in
their brief run were a greater aggravation than

286

John Nagle's Philosophy 287

all of the profanity since swearing was invented.
The person who uses slang habitually should be
made to wear the cap and bells.

The Violin

There is something in the music of a violin
when touched by a master hand beyond the
power of description. It is more than melody.
It has the fervent feeling of spiritual emotion and
the deep pathos of human feeling. It is the
unsyllabled language of the soul — a vibrant
beauty whose touch is exalting. No other
instrument has the sympathetic fervor, the
capacity for sounding the most profound depths
of the human heart, awakening its most delicate
susceptibilities. It is a fountain of delicious
sounds, playing with the abandon of inexhaust-
ible resource.

Home is Woman's Sphere

The shop-girl's training and her constant sur-
roundings are not such as to elevate her ideal of
life, and she is doomed, at best, to a miserable
existence while unmarried. When she becomes
mistress of her own home, she is a stranger to
its duties, and her tastes unfit her to make home
pleasant or cheerful. The girls who work as
domestic servants receive, as a rule, wages fully
up to their demands, and the training they
receive is an excellent preparation for the home
in which they themselves are to govern in the
future. They are laboring in woman's proper
sphere — a field that their whole antecedent edu-
cation should prepare them to improve and
beautify by their intellectual acquirements as
well as by their discipline in the household.
Much of the misery now prevalent among women
has been incurred by their seeking to fill the
positions of men, and those who preach equality
for both sexes in all fields of labor are the
authors of the mischief that has been done.
Housekeeping is a high art. It will never be
usurped by men. It will always remain woman's
field. How, then, can it be properly cultivated
in all homes, if the heresy that woman should be
288

John Nagle's Philosophy 289

allowed to compete with man in all work is to
prevail? This pernicious philosophy has been
advocated by women whose hopes for a reign in
a domestic circle were blasted, and the acerbity
of whose tempers has given a wrong direction to
their aspirations.

Knowledge is Power

Bulwer, in his " Varieties of English Life,"
devotes a chapter to the refutation of the maxim,
"Knowledge is power." The many inventions
of the nineteenth century, all useful, many curi-
ous, give to the industrious student a power
transcending that of the mightiest potentate.
The seemingly idle speculations of profound
thinkers often crystallize into that which pro-
motes the cause of civilization to a greater degree
than do the labors of a generation of states-
men. The closet has done more toward the
advancement of the interests of mankind than
have legislative halls. Fast upon the splendid
results which came from a knowledge of the
properties of steam came the inconceivably quick
transmission of messages through the agency of
electricity. The telephone with its miraculous
reproduction of tones makes the wonders of the
telegraph seem commonplace. The phonograph
appears next on the scene, with its seemingly
incredible capacity of conserving sounds, to give
us almost unbounded faith in the omnipotence
of science. A membrane, a grooved cylinder,
and a stylus are endowed by the intellect of man
with a faculty which heretofore has been pecu-
290

John Nagle's Philosophy 291

liar to nature's most perfect organism, and
makes the fable of Frankenstein seem a reality.
With the wonderful achievements of science
before us, Tyndall's labors to discover the prin-
ciples of life should not be prejudged as the fruit-
less efforts of an enthusiast. The miracles which
science performs to-day are great enough to win
belief in the divinity of man.

The Book of Nature

How sad to think of a man living threescore
years and ten never for one moment considering
a simple law governing the world ! This in a
country that pretends to give people an educa-
tion. But once open the book of nature, and
what an endless source of enjoyment is exposed
to the intellectual view. The world would no
longer be looked upon as a finished product ; the
vulgar conception of the few years of its exist-
ence would expand into untold millions, and the
apparently finished beings would be seen to be
the work of hidden forces operating through end-
less ages that have lapsed.

The study of nature not only gives enjoyment,
but furnishes food for thought which never need
be dug from a stagnant pool. This is an age of
science, and the application of it, and conse-
quently its study, should be made a part of the
training of every child.

292

Preparation for Ease

The tendency of the age is toward higher
education, not for the pleasures incident to intel-
lectual culture, nor for that strength of character
proceeding from the philosophy which mental
acquirements breed. This is because education
enlarges opportunities for the acquisition of
wealth, enables one to rise above the necessities
of manual labor, and brings a certain amount of
praise which is at best nothing but flattery with
a gloss of refinement. Every motive, hope, and
aspiration has in it something of the earth
earthy; a base of selfishness, a framework of
cupidity with an ornamentation of honorable
ambition. Law, medicine, and theology, the
three great professions which attract genius, are
departments in which that genius glorifies itself;
the benefit to mankind, if any accrues, or the
fuller exposition of principles, if such is the
result, is but an incident of this preoccupying
purpose. This is the loftiest purpose which ani-
mates people in the honorable professions. The
fame which learning brings is the incentive "to
scorn delight and live laborious days," and not
the purely intellectual pleasure of overcoming
those difficulties which obstruct the pathway of

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294 J°hn Nagle's Philosophy

the mind to the uplands of thought, or that
benevolent purpose of giving light that man may
be happier.

Of the many young men attending school,
how very few realize that the education they are
receiving is designed to fit them to be better
members of society, to enable them to discharge
with more efficiency the duties they owe them-
selves, and to recognize those complex mutual
relations which society imposes. The graduate of
the high school feels as if the modicum of learning
of which he has become the possessor raises him
above the level of common humanity, and that
his destiny is to be carried out in the battle-field
of life where mind, and not muscle, contends. A
difference in the means of supplying bodily wants
is, to his understanding, the line of demarcation
between the aristocracy of intellect and the com-
monalty of labor. Indigence with uncalloused
hands is preferable to plenty without the social
distinction of being above manual labor.

With three-fourths of the boys and young
men between the ages of four and twenty look-
ing forward to the presidency, a large percentage
of the remainder more modestly ambitious, but
hoping that their "lines may be cast in pleasant
places, ' ' where are our producers to come from ?
With the misconception which obtains of the
object of scholastic knowledge, are we not edu-

John Nagle's Philosophy 295

eating too much? If the inevitable result of
schooling beyond the rudiments is to raise a
young man above himself and produce a distaste
for labor, is not ignorance preferable? It is evi-
dent the fault is not in education. There is no
labor which intelligence will not dignify. But it
is the purpose for which education is sought ; the
false aspirations which have their birth in the
many dissertations on the "advantages of educa-
tion," which verify the proverb that a "little
learning is a dangerous thing."

Good Advice

"Keep your children in at nights." These
were the last words addressed to parents by
Henry Ward Beecher. They are wise and
timely. The conditions that called them forth
exist in all cities. There are parents so indulgent
and forgetful as to permit their girls, attending
school, to enjoy the company of callow youths
who put on airs and perambulate the streets with
their "girls" by their sides. Young people ape
the virtues and adopt the vices of their elders at
too early a date, and it may well be questioned
which are more destructive of character. If the
vices of drinking, smoking, and social dissipation
seem unavoidable, they should, if possible, be
postponed until the physical organism can better
withstand their evil tendencies, and until judg-
ment is so clarified that moderation will not
interfere with the recuperative forces of nature
or make the person a victim of a slavish habit.
Parents should recognize that certain phases of
virtue, when too easily acquired, are not one
whit less injurious than a vice, for they, too,
often lead to a vice.

296

Individual Development

No reform was ever instituted having preju-
dice for its corner-stone. To teach that a man
who is successful is to be hated is to teach that
persistent effort, industry, and frugality are
vices, and that personal ambition is to be dis-
couraged. The work of reform, if it is to be
successful, must be prosecuted with the instru-
ments at hand. No community was ever made
better by sudden revolution, and no man was
ever fired by manly resolution to better his cir-
cumstances while repining at his lot and giving
heed to the teachings that his distress is wholly
due to causes outside of himself. When a man
rallies his own forces and makes them active in
his own behalf, he seldom finds it necessary to
demand that the progress of his neighbor be
checked so as to preserve equality. He can do
more by exercising his own forces than he can
by an attempt to hinder others from acquisition,
so that in the general distribution of what chance
gives his share may be increased. Improvement
in society comes through the improvement of the
individual. It is a better cause to warn people
against their own faults than it is to influence

297

298 John Nagle's Philosophy

them against those of others. No man is made
better by having his attention constantly called
to the harm others are doing.

A Country Boy's Sunday

There is a genuine pleasure in that day-dream
which brings up visions of green woods, the cool
stream, the joyous crowd of boys with no remem-
brance of the past, with no thought of the future,
nothing to mar the pleasures of the present.
There is glory in realized ambition; there is
satisfaction in amassed wealth ; there is gratified
vanity in becoming famous; but for real unadul-
terated pleasure, the honest, simple-hearted coun-
try boy's Sunday, untrammeled by convention-
ality, has in it a degree of pleasure which wealth
and honor cannot give.

Origin of Some Holidays

The origin of holidays, such as New-Year's,
Christmas, and Thanksgiving, seems to be very
obscure, although one will find any number of
persons ready to offer a full and lucid explana-
tion. All-Fools' Day is a quasi-holiday which no
one knows what it is intended to commemorate.
Thanksgiving is an old feast day, but at what
time it came to be observed it is difficult to say.
We have an indistinct recollection of having read
"long ago" that it was a feast of the December
month, and that mince pie was then as promi-
nent a feature of the day as roast turkey now is.
But some interdiction was placed upon the use of
mince pies at that particular season, and the date
of the feast day was changed so that gorman-
dizing might not be interfered with. President
Lincoln was the first one to make it a national
holiday — a day of thanksgiving and prayer, as
well as of feasting. The custom has been ob-
served by all succeeding presidents, and is now
as well established as the inaugural address.

Christmas is designed to commemorate the

nativity of Christ, but the best authorities agree

that the date is far from being correct, and that

Christ was born in October and not in December.

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300 John Nagle's Philosophy

In the early days of Christianity, when custom
among the heathens was hard to overcome, super-
stition was made to promote the cause of the
cross, and many of the practices prevalent as
religious rites were given a sacred character by
being made commemorative of some epoch in the
life of Christ, or as representative of something
sacred. Mysticism was essential to true doctrine
in the estimation of those who worshiped the
gods of Olympus. The Saturnalia of the Romans
was a feast where everything ran to excess and
riot, something entirely inconsistent with that
spirit of the new religion, which was austerely
simple and inculcated sobriety in conduct and
temperance in appetite. But habit was strong,
and there needed to be an anniversary kept at
this season to direct the thoughts of new con-
verts from old and familiar scenes. The substi-
tution of ceremonies which inculcated morality
instead of license justified a change in the time
when the anniversary of Christ's nativity was to
be celebrated, and the old Saturnalia became a
thing of the past.

The Lesson Taught by
Christmas

The holiday season comes upon us during the
blending of the old and new. There is no vio-
lent transition. The dying breath of the old
year quickens the pulsations of the new. We
feel the thrill of new life in the showered bless-
ings of good will which mark the close of the old
year. And so we change without deserting, and
welcome the new in the words the old has taught
us, thus bearing in our hearts what time has con-
signed to the past. The lessons which the
Christmas teaches are priceless. They are not
taught, they are impressed — not impressed, but
developed from the germ of goodness within us.

There are "tidings of great joy" now as there
were when the humble birth at Bethlehem marked
an epoch in the progress of the world toward a
higher civilization. Man studies himself during
the holidays not with a view to his own advan-
tage, but to discover and bring within the scope
of present action that element of sympathy within
him which must have expression to bring him in
kinship with the world at this time. There is no
ostracism during this season that is not self-im-
301

302 John Nagle's Philosophy

posed by refusal to let the heart expand. The
heart has sunshine which no cloud can dim if
only the glad spirit of the time be permitted to
touch it with enlivening fervor.

It seems strange that a child should be made
the cynosure of man's moral nature; that a birth
under circumstances which would ordinarily
awaken only pity should inspire devotion.
Bethlehem is greater than Gethsemane during
this season of rejoicing. The child is again
enthroned and rules the hearts of men, bringing
the gladness of his young life to sweeten the
domination he exercises, and spreading happiness
by its radiation from himself.

Secular Feature of Christmas

The holidays which mark the close of the old
year and the beginning of the new, have to a
great extent lost their distinctively religious fea-
ture, and now give occasion for the impulse of
humanity, rather than the observance of reli-
gious ceremony, though the latter is by no means
discontinued; nor should it be, as it marks an
epoch in civilization. When the old Jewish doc-
trine of an eye for an eye gave way to the benevo-
lent behest "Love thy enemies," it was the
genius of humanity declaring the birth of a new
era. There is no such thing as sudden revolution
in human development. An idea which had
been crystallizing for years found fit expression
in the gentle nature and benevolent disposition
of the Christ. It was a reaction against the
"wild justice of revenge," and the apotheosis of
strength. The Messiah was the embodiment of
this change, its exemplar and exponent, and
thus founded a religion in consonance with prin-
ciples of justice and mercy. The Christian reli-
gion, based upon what seemed a revelation of the
duty of men to "love one another," has kept
pace with the moral growth of mankind, wedded
to form, as it was inevitable it should be, and
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304 J°hn Nagle's Philosophy

claiming for itself the progress it initiated and to
which it has always contributed.

The secular feature of the Christmas holiday —
such in the sense of being unmindful of, if not
divorced from, the divine feature of which the
day is commemorative — claims some attention at
this time when the phrases " Merry Christmas" or
"Happy New Year" are coined in the heart,
though they may not bear the stamp of faith.
These greetings are not formal though stereo-
typed. They have the ring of sincerity, and as
such are prayers which the recording angel can-
not fail to note if there be a place where good
will to men reigns in spiritual supremacy.

What is there of good in human nature unless
it be active in doing good? The cup of cold
water is a prayer, active though unsyllabled. The
good predominates in people though it may
remain latent until the occasion calls for its exer-
cise. There is more charity in humankind than
appears on the surface, and the Christmas time
brings it out, perhaps in response to tradition,
possibly in harmony with that mystic concep-
tion when the essence of divinity assumed the
garments of flesh and lived and died as man did,
that man might be redeemed.

Whatever the cause, the Christmas time is
sacred — made so by generous motive and unsel-
fish impulse. It is a time when the hard front

John Nagle's Philosophy 305

of business is relaxed, and the smile of hearty
greeting beams in every eye. There may not be
religious fervor in us all at these times, but there
is moral renovation, a closer weaving of the ties
which bind us to our fellowmen, and a broader
humanity. These things come to us as some
compensation for the cherished mysteries with
which Christmas was invested in the long ago.

Falstaff

Professor Freeman, of the University of Wis-
consin, evidently accords to Shakespeare the full
measure of untutored genius with which those
not critical students invest him, and as well with
that intellectual power of the recluse who studies
motive in the abstract. He makes the character
of Falstaff too allegorical to suit the impression
made on first acquaintance and for which any
philosophic creation is a poor substitute. One
feels inclined to make the same plea for the reten-
tion of the flesh and blood Falstaff he does for
himself in the character of the Prince when the
latter personates King Henry. One cannot ana-
lyze Falstaff without losing the flavor of charming
rascality deprived of malice, shrewdness to meet
an emergency without ulterior purpose, and con-
fession of error through the medium of miti-
gating circumstance. To the ordinary reader
Falstaff is the incarnation of bad habits wholly
disconnected from evil purpose. He levied
tribute upon mankind only when his needs
necessitated. He never lost his good humor, and
never planned for the future except as the future
was the immediate outcome of present develop-
ments. He had the genius of a great general
306

John Nagle's Philosophy 307

which he prostituted to supplying in the readiest
way the indulgencies which he never combated.
Shakespeare understood human nature, and had
learned in the hard school of experience what
deprivation was. He saw how men sank to vice
without the element of criminality. Shakespeare's
marvelous comprehension of human nature typi-
fies vice which is not at war with virtue and
which makes one "pity though not embrace."
Is it not to this grasp which is beyond our com-
prehension, which is instinctive rather than philo-
sophic, to which we owe the creation of Falstaff?
Shakespeare was not a philanthropist. He
created because he felt ; he was in sympathy with
humanity only to the extent of feeling every
impulse by which it was swayed. He evolved
no systems by laborious research. He was the
creature of completeness, the exponent of nature.
He had no good purpose in the creation of Fal-
staff— perhaps he has served none by it. There
is no benevolence in Nature, though purity comes
from the associations it offers. The writer formed
this conception of Shakespeare at a time when
reading had no purpose of profit in it. It was
then but an unsyllabled impression. It is an
illusion no doubt, but it has served no bad pur-
pose, while emphasizing Herbert Spencer's idea
"that there is a spirit of good even in things that
are evil."

May

The early and unusually warm spring is one
of the olden time when youth made summer of a
gleam of sunshine and the heart gave quick
response to promise of reviving nature. The
present May seems to be a dream of the past,
when the wooded hillside, bursting out in early
verdure and sweetening the soft winds with the
odor of its wild-flowers, made school appear a
prison. A country boy is happy in his depriva-
tions when Nature is at her best, because then
his soul can lave unstinted in her beauties, and
his whole being becomes photographed with her
charms — sympathetic with her moods. The song
of the bobolink has in it for him more than the
pleasure of melody. It quickens the imagination,
and awakens every slumbering susceptibility of
youth. The blue of heaven is but a screen which
hides from mortal vision the abode of the blessed,
and the shimmering beams of sunlight are angels'
smiles. The delicate blossoms of the wild-plum
rise before him as things of beauty, not as a
promise of the fruitage it will be later his privi-
lege to despoil, and the bursting buds of elms,
fragilely beautiful, are trysting-places for the
winds and sunlight in their wooing.
308

John Nagle's Philosophy 309

This spring is one of the olden kind, and it
has annihilated the intervening years. Have
you not noticed that the birds' songs are sweeter,
that they are happier as they leap from bough to
bough, that they are more numerous and of
greater variety than they have been for years?
Have you not been tempted to look for birds'
nests? And in your day dreams do not the
forest paths, the deep dells and babbling streams
come before you as a benediction from that Dead
Past in which lie buried all that was sweetest in
our lives?

The Harvest Moon

Star-gazers may, with pleasure to themselves,
turn their attention to the moon these evenings.
It is the harvest moon, and nowhere can this be
seen as favorably as on the shores of a large lake
such as Lake Michigan. The harvest moon may
be seen at its best when about on the decline. As
it rises from the lake, a glowing ball, it forms
but a small angle with the horizon, and seems to
skim along the surface of the water which shim-
mers with ripples of silver. From the bluffs
along the shore, the moon can be best observed,
and as there is but a comparatively short interval
of time between its successive risings, there is no
need of late hours to witness this fine sight.

In England the harvest season occurs when
the orbits of the earth and moon form the least
angle and the days are lengthened by the inter-
vention of the moon. Its presence was wel-
comed with the song of the reapers in the harvest
fields, and it thus received its name. It meant
longer hours of labor, but it occurred at a season
when long hours were desired. It seems hal-
lowed now with the sentiment of cheerful toil and
the song of men gladdened by its cheering beams.
Look for the harvest moon when the curtains of
310

John Nagle's Philosophy jn

the night are drawn, and look for it on the beach,
where the path of shimmering light seems to
bring you in touch with its beauties.

The Highest Pleasure

If heaven ever touches earth it is when mortal
man finds pleasure in bringing happiness to
others ; when the spirit of charity is abroad cast-
ing out the demon of selfishness from the hearts
of men.

The Farm and the Young
Man

The fact that agriculture and stock-raising
offer inducements of a financial character far in
advance of other kinds of business has stopped
the tide of departure from the country to the
city. Young men are apt to get the notion that
any position in a city which does not demand
manual labor is far preferable to the life of a
farmer. A man in a subordinate position in a
city becomes a very cipher, while the young
farmer grows in wealth, in independence of char-
acter, and in public estimation. If nine-tenths of
the young men whose salaries enable them to live
and "put on style" suitable to the position which
they imagine they fill in society, if that number
would discard fashionable frivolities, purchase a
piece of wild land, and in time move onto and
work it, they would be laying a basis for future
respectability and independence. It is a mis-
taken notion to believe that manual work is the
only kind that is tiresome. The weary muscle is
far preferable to the tired brain. Physical weari-
ness makes rest enjoyable, but mental exhaustion

John Nagle's Philosophy 313

makes repose impossible. There is nothing
equal to the farm, young man, and well for you
if you realize that fully.

Mother

There is no injunction which appeals more
strongly to man's affection than that which reads,
"Honor thy father and thy mother." When a
man thinks of what his mother has endured for
him, the affection she has lavished on him, the
sacrifices she has made for him, the faith she has
in him, he must be worse than a brute if the
warm current of his love does not center in her,
no matter what her faults.

Arbor and Bird Day

State Superintendent Harvey has issued the
Annual for Arbor and Bird Day, the date of which
for this year is May 12. There is something
suggestive of young life in the month, and the
forms of life which the observance of the day is
designed to preserve and protect have intimate
association with that period of life when care sat
lightly on us. The boy who does not love the
forest is a boy only in years. All of us can
recall a favorite tree, a shady nook in which
dreamy reflection took possession of us, when
the flitting and the song of birds was the move-
ment and the voice of nature. And we are the
better that we can recall these experiences, as
they are resting-spots for the mind when op-
pressed by the shallowness of life.

There is no child who has formed friendship
with nature who has not thereby injected some
purity into his life. And the fountain is ever
fresh with the waters of content when our imagi-
nation takes us back to the early time when
nature spoke to us in the language of the soul.
There is no day set apart for special observance
which should appeal to us more strongly than
Arbor and Bird Day. It should not be observed
3*4

John Nagle's Philosophy

in noisy demonstration or formal ceremony.
The heart should guide the conduct, and the
thoughts of the past should sanctify the purpose
and bring us in touch with nature through her
representatives, the birds and trees.

Effects of a Cold Day

Sudden and severe cold weather always adds
to the discomfort if it does not actually bring
with it suffering to the poor, and for that reason
it is not desirable. But a real cold day has the
effect of waking up mankind, and naturally forces
it to move about lively — imbues it with a snap
and energy that is pleasant to see. The most
staid citizens pull their caps down to their very
noses and step along the pavement with an
energy that belies their years. Children going
to school never loiter on the way as they do in
summer when, under the influence of a warm sun
and bright sky, outdoor life seems doubly
attractive to them. Even the horses are impa-
tient at delay, and seem to have drawn fresh
energy from the frosty air, while the slowest
teamster jumps from his sleigh with an alacrity
that denotes a desire to get somewhere else at
the earliest moment. A biting atmosphere puts
new life into everything capable of moving, and
the effect seems to follow into the cozy dwelling
and the warmed workshop and add more vim to
the occupants thereof, accompanied by a desire
to accomplish the greatest amount of labor in
the shortest possible time. An occasional frost-
316

John Nagle's Philosophy 317

nipped ear or nose is one of the undesirable
results of an encounter with a Manitoba wave,
but it is seldom regarded as a sore affliction, and
the unlucky one is quite willing to admit that
the ''cold snap" has some desirable features.

Lake Michigan in September

The lake offers an occasional reminder of the
flitting of summer and the "advent of fall. The
forests have not yet put on the hue preliminary
to the season of the ''sear and yellow leaf,"
though the leaves rustle with a premonition of
change. The placid mirror of water in the bay
is ruffled occasionally, and the reflected sky is
corrugated with frowns, and the dancing ripples
of gentle liquidness frequently swell into the
ominous roll of the agitated sea. The soft mur-
mur of gently undulating waters, which was like
the whispered breath of loved assurance, now
thunders in the evening, at times, like blasts of
defiance. South Point still juts out in all the
serenity of vernal calm, with its crown of foliage
untouched by the coming change which man's
instinct feels as the bird of passage does. Two
Rivers Point stretches its dreary, dreamy, deso-
late waste lakeward with the abandonment of
hazy accompaniment and the enchantment of
illusive distance; the waters of the bay, with
changeful mood, lie between and smile with fitful
placidity or roar with truculent emphasis.

The mobile waters are never irresponsive to
change, and roll in unison with the speeding of
318

John Nagle's Philosophy 319

the winds or take the mood of lowering or of
sunny skies. The finger of change works no sud-
den transformation in the leaf, and so the umbra-
geous depths of the forest are still eloquent of the
leafy luxuriance of summer, while the beating of
the surf seems to chant a requiem. It is the
border-land of the past and future, each woo-
ing— one with the clinging grasp of farewell, the
other with the tactful touch of welcome.

Social Reforms

The frequent returns of hard times followed
by brief periods of industrial prosperity must
have a cause not merely local, not merely tem-
porary, but must be due in some way to the
organization of society. What is the cause of
this poverty and crime which stalks forth and
shows its naked front? What is the signification
of these various schemes for the regeneration of
society? Are the evils which exist to be attrib-
uted solely to the ignorance and improvidence of
the masses? Are the enlightened free from
error, and has their prosperity been the result of
a wise adherence to what alone is proper? Or
has society as a whole been drifting in the wrong
direction? Has the selfish in man's nature kept
pace with his intellectual progress, and is his life
still a struggle for existence? Is might still right,
though wisdom fails to guide? Henry George and
his disciples attribute crime and poverty to private
ownership of land. Abolish this and you have
the panacea at once. Communists and socialists
would supplement the theory by discontinuing
individual competition. They would reward the
leech as well as the honest laborer with an equal
share of the fruits. Man is what his environ-
320

John Nagle's Philosophy 321

ments have made him, but his desires and pas-
sions are too organic to be eradicated by a sweep-
ing reform. Had our visionary theorists been pres-
ent when differentiation began, they might have
given a wise direction to affairs. But civilization
so-called has advanced too far to now permit of
reversal to any ideal scheme. Yet there is an
important element of truth in the theories of
social reformers. If man is to live independent
of other men he has no claim to a position as a
social being. The cave of the anchoret is his fit
abode. If he wishes to be a social being he
must make a sacrifice of himself for the interests
of society. He must enter into the sympathies
of men, must let them be sharers of the powers
which God has given and nature developed in
him. Is he an inventive genius, he should not
demand too much for his labor, should not de-
mand pay for all that nature gave him. Is he
gifted with great intellectual powers, his strength
belongs partly to society. Until the truth of
the impeachment made against this sordid, sel-
fish spirit is recognized, until education can
reach the heart of men and cause them to look
in upon themselves, look out calmly and sympa-
thetically upon their neighbors, and recognize that
they are the elements of a great organism, society
reform in any other direction is futile. The true
scientific spirit which can look impartially at

3 22 John Nagle's Philosophy

society must prevail, and reform must begin from
within. Without these and with reform men
might start anew, but they would be organically
unfit for the new situation, and things would
soon move on as they did before.

The Farm

A reaction has set in against the tendency
toward quitting the farm. The agricultural col-
leges have done much toward dignifying the
business of farming. They are relieving it of the
feature of drudgery by imparting intelligence in
the conduct of its affairs. Young people are not
attracted as much by the money-making possi-
bility of a calling as by the respectability attach-
ing to it. They are forgetful of the fact that
character can dignify labor, no matter what its
nature, and that intelligence has opportunity for
exercise in any department of industrial activity.

The trouble with farming has been that the
doctrine of manual labor has overshadowed the
opportunities for intellectual activity. But
the latter are developing, and agricultural pur-
suits are growing in dignity. The poetry in
rural life is an asset of rare value. The aesthetic
feature of farm life has been lost in the prosaic
round of mechanical duty. But things are
changing under the guidance of intelligent action,
and young farmers are beginning to learn that
"love lightens labor." Thought robs labor of
its servile feature and invests it with the beauty
of sentiment. The fields of golden grain yield
323

324 J°hn Nagle's Philosophy

not less profit because they give pleasure to the
eye as well as appeal to the sense of gain.

There is no small investment which pays better
than the farm. The money invested in a farm
yields more if industry accompanies than when
put to any other use. The chance of great
wealth is not involved, but neither is the proba-
bility of failure. A little labor will make sur-
roundings pleasant and give all the comforts of
city life amid the beauties of the country. A
farmer worth fifteen thousand dollars is a man of
distinction. A resident of the city worth that
sum is not regarded as being " comfortably well
off." The average young man who deserts the
farm shows as much good sense as the boy who
is captivated by the glamour of the circus. The
farm is what its owner makes it. If it is solely
a workshop it has only material value and appeals
only to the sense of acquisition. But it need
not be such.

Hog Island

Hog Island is a name applied to a rock-ribbed
hill enclosed by a cedar swamp in the western
part of Eaton, Wisconsin. It is noted prin-
cipally for hogs, dogs, rocks, thatched roofs, and
a class of people who stare with open-mouthed
wonder at the poor wayfarer who dodges stones
and lean dogs with teeth ready-whetted for a
meal on man's flesh. Hog Island is an anachro-
nism. In its type of life and general appearance
it belongs to the early part of the age of mam-
mals, but has not yet fossilized so as to be entitled
to geologic classification. The dwelling-houses
are of the most primitive kind, and when one
crosses the swamp which makes this unique hill
an island, the impression that time has rolled
backward seizes him with irresistible force. He
must run the gauntlet of dogs which bark and
bite and refuse to come to any terms of ac-
commodation. The Island was formerly the
abode of Yankees, whose coat sleeves reached to
the elbow and the pants legs within a few inches
of the tops of the boots. As civilization
hemmed in the Island these settlers sought more
harmonious surroundings, and the Island is
now in possession of foreigners.
325

Labor Day

Labor Day is a legal holiday in this state, and
in thirty-four others and the District of Colum-
bia. It was voluntarily observed for some time
before it had legal sanction. It had its origin in
New York City, in 1882. On September 4th of
that year was the first parade of laborers. Its
success led to the recognition of the day by the
legislature of that state, and its action was fol-
lowed by similar action in other states. When
labor is thoroughly organized the day is observed
with a degree of ceremony exceeding that of any
other festival.

Its original purpose was to impress the people
with some idea of the number of men who toil.
When laborers acted without organization each
was wholly at the mercy of his employer, and in
large concerns the individual was an insignificant
particle. Enlargement of concerns through con-
centration of capital operated to reduce the indi-
vidual still more as an industrial factor. What
wealth had been doing the laborer was compelled
to do, and he soon outdid wealth in perfection
and efficiency of organization. Labor Day is
intended to show this solidarity so as to serve as an
object lesson to those not familiar with its power.
326

John Nagle's Philosophy 327

Labor organizations have done labor invalu-
able service. Without them serfdom would be
a condition of the men who toil for wages. It is
true that labor becomes tyrannical at times, and
is not always sufficiently mindful of the rights of
employers. But this condition is more incidental
than general. It is rarely that an organization
does not abuse its power even to the extent of
injuring itself. Exercise of power to the extent
of being oppressive is becoming more rare.
When forces designed to work in harmony are in
balance there is less friction and more mutuality.
Labor Day is not intended for carousal nor
excess of any kind. Its purpose is to show fel-
lowship, discipline and regard for the proprieties.
In this view it deserves the heartiest commenda-
tion.

The man is to be pitied who does not recog-
nize the dignity of labor. The workman's blouse
should always beget respect as it is a mark of
character. It is evidence of a willingness to earn
a living by the sweat of the brow and not to seek
it through chance or the exercise of wit. The
honest laborer is no parasite. All he asks is a
chance to toil at remunerative wages. The toiler
is no lawbreaker. When he feels he is wronged
his indignation may lead him to excesses. He
does not choose to live on the labor of others.
He is averse that others should live on him.

328 John Nagle's Philosophy

When he does break out in seeming hostility to
order, in his mind there is a basis of justice in
what prompts him to wrong-doing.

Life

Life is a union of joys and sorrows, of passing
clouds and flitting sunshine. Its pathway is
sometimes beautified by pleasant flowers and
again darkened by somber shadows. The mother
who bends with loving solicitude over the cradle
of her child has a fountain of joy in her maternal
affection. But the love-light in her eyes is often
quenched in tears and her affection brings forth
a fruitage of sorrow. Grief is a parasitic plant
which feeds on love, and the smile of to-day is
often but a prelude to the tears of to-morrow.

Woman's Future

The young women of America are demon-
strating their ability to live independent lives,
and are practically exploding the theory that
industry, advancement, and responsibility are
masculine prerogatives. There are many women
whose nurture, from birth up to maturity, sys-
tematically eliminates every germ of womanly
worth, and they are molded into creatures of
fashion, fit companions for man who loves beauty
without a soul, and are "ordained to flutter and
to shine and cheer the weary passenger with
music." But this is training, and not a devel-
opment of inherent traits. It is a distorted
woman ; the growth of false ideas ; a misconcep-
tion of beauty ; a flower made neutral to please
the eye at the expense of its worth.

Man born to wealth, or reared with the same
disregard for future usefulness that characterizes
the training girls receive, is as worthless a mem-
ber of society; of as little consequence in the
progressive world as the gay belle who has no
thoughts beyond personal adornment and fashion-
able enjoyment. Every thoughtless, giddy girl
can be matched by a brainless, worthless fop.
While her virtues^are negative, his vices are posi-
329

328 John Nagle's Philosophy

When he does break out in seeming hostility to
order, in his mind there is a basis of justice in
what prompts him to wrong-doing.

Life

Life is a union of joys and sorrows, of passing
clouds and flitting sunshine. Its pathway is
sometimes beautified by pleasant flowers and
again darkened by somber shadows. The mother
who bends with loving solicitude over the cradle
of her child has a fountain of joy in her maternal
affection. But the love-light in her eyes is often
quenched in tears and her affection brings forth
a fruitage of sorrow. Grief is a parasitic plant
which feeds on love, and the smile of to-day is
often but a prelude to the tears of to-morrow.

Woman's Future

The young women of America are demon-
strating their ability to live independent lives,
and are practically exploding the theory that
industry, advancement, and responsibility are
masculine prerogatives. There are many women
whose nurture, from birth up to maturity, sys-
tematically eliminates every germ of womanly
worth, and they are molded into creatures of
fashion, fit companions for man who loves beauty
without a soul, and are " ordained to flutter and
to shine and cheer the weary passenger with
music." But this is training, and not a devel-
opment of inherent traits. It is a distorted
woman ; the growth of false ideas ; a misconcep-
tion of beauty ; a flower made neutral to please
the eye at the expense of its worth.

Man born to wealth, or reared with the same
disregard for future usefulness that characterizes
the training girls receive, is as worthless a mem-
ber of society; of as little consequence in the
progressive world as the gay belle who has no
thoughts beyond personal adornment and fashion-
able enjoyment. Every thoughtless, giddy girl
can be matched by a brainless, worthless fop.
While her virtues[are negative, his vices are posi-
329

332 John Nagle's Philosophy

he pays his subscription to the paper, and looks
as if there was no happiness this side of the Ely-
sian Fields equal to that of not having a home
to which he must go. It is house-cleaning time.

Self-Restraint

In avoiding prudery, people should not run to
the opposite extreme of license, and young per-
sons cannot afford to defy decency, or dare the
condemnation of people of staid habits and
approved judgment. The ordinary rules of
politeness should be observed at all times, and
being one of a large assemblage in no way justi-
fies that remissness which leads to vulgarity.
Society should interpose restraints, not incite
laxity. To be boisterous at gatherings is to be
ungentlemanly ; to chatter incessantly is to be
undignified and discourteous.

"Prof." versus "Mr.

55

Educational men, even people who occupy
chairs in colleges, refuse to be dubbed "profes-
sors." There is no other word in the English
language that has become so degraded on account
of the character of the persons who wear it as an
appendage to their names. Tramps, cracksmen,
gormands, fasters, fools, and cranks are "profes-
sors." When a man is unfit for anything else he
becomes a "professor" and wears his hair long.
Women are not so made as to fit the name so
they become partial to "mademoiselle." No
one ever saw a man in tights who was not a
"professor." If he manages an educated pig he
tacks on some French to supplement the "pro-
fessor." Every organ-grinder is a "professor,"
no matter whether he is mutilated or not. The
crop of professors is simply enormous. They
are poor and undeserving young men, old men,
monagamous, polygamous, divorced, and in
every form in which man appears. If the pro-
fessor would only organize he would be a power
in politics. The plain "Mr." is rapidly coming
into favor, and will soon be used in contradis-
tinction to "Prof."

333

Indian Summer

People often express curiosity regarding the
name by which the sunny days of November are
known. Why should Indian be used as a quali-
fying word? Parenthetically, it may be said that
what is popularly called Indian summer is not
the season. It is not the dreamy days of Sep-
tember or October, nor has it calendar limitation.
It is that portion of the fall when pleasant sun-
shiny days follow a cold and stormy period which
is a reminder of winter. It may come in October,
most likely in November, sometimes in Decem-
ber, and may not come at all.

It derives its name from Indian sloth. It is
well known that the Indian's industry comes
from necessity. He does not hunt until hunger
prompts him, and never does to-day what can
be put off until to-morrow. So it was in gather-
ing his corn. While the weather remained pleas-
ant he postponed the work. When he had a
reminder of winter in a few stormy and disagree-
able days, he utilized the warm, sunshiny days
which generally follow, in gathering his harvest.
The white settlers named the period the Indian's
summer. It would more appropriately be named
the Indian's harvest.

334

City Life versus Country
Life

The people of an adjoining county are going
to wrestle with the old, old question: Resolved,
that city life is preferable to country life. It is
a subject as old as language, and like a child with
measles, every debating society must have it.
What a false glamour there is to that city life!
Politeness is a form, respectability a rut, and
good breeding a formula. The honest-hearted
country boy, awkward and frank and manly, is a
boor, and the mustached, perfumed simpleton
who bends his body according to rule, a gentle-
man. Of course city life is preferable, and the
aimless, drifting waifs who "ask their bread of
chance and not of toil," and crowd the cities,
prove it. The independent, energetic farmer
can't dance gracefully, can't bow with just the
proper inflection of the body, and can't be taught
that propriety and true politeness require that
the movements of the hat be adjusted by rule.
Yes, let us have picturesque poverty and depend-
ence and city life. We never knew a debating
society that didn't settle this question, but like
Banquo's ghost it keeps popping up to tangle
335

336 John Nagle's Philosophy

the brains of embryo orators. The country with
its manners and customs and labor which hardens
the hand and destroys the suppleness of the body
should be abolished.

The Holiday that Revives
Old Friendships

Thanksgiving is a holiday avowedly sensual
but incidentally an occasion for the manifestation
of the noblest sentiments. It may not "knit new
friendships," but it prepares the heart for the
revival of old ones. It is not sacred in the sense
that it bears the stamp of religion. It is not
purely secular as it commemorates no event in
profane history. It rears a platform for mankind
in whose construction credo finds no place. Its
birth is not shrouded in antiquity nor the issue of
apocryphal goodness. It is a holiday "of the
people, for the people," and delves deep to the
fountain of thankfulness by opening a way to
happiness. Fifty millions of people are called
upon to express gratitude for the general pros-
perity, and what more likely than that the boun-
teous past will gild the promise of the future,
and that the beauteous flower of hope will bloom
more sweetly because the atmosphere is one
of joy.

To-day the heart may be full, but it may be
grief that holds carnival. While the hand of
plenty is held forth to some, ashes are strewn on
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338 John Nagle's Philosophy

the heads of others. The past may have noth-
ing but regrets, the future nothing but despair.
It mocks distress to be called upon to give thanks
for prosperity in which it had no share. To the
old, the new life which they are nearing, brighten
it as you may with the effulgence of divinity, is
a place of exile, whose paths are beaten by the
tottering steps of fear. Regrets for vanished
youth cloud the visions of future bliss, and grati-
tude gives place to reminiscences sad as "the
memory of buried love." As the years creep on
they bring pleasure and pain. The one lights
the eye but transiently, while the other leaves
scars that time fails to heal.

It is well that custom has superseded procla-
mation as to the manner in which the day is to
be observed. The cross which every life must
bear until its Calvary is reached is not laid aside
for fasting and praying. From the gospel of
love and friendship and quiet content the true
philosophy of life is preached. There is much
gained if even for one brief day we snatch respite
from care, anxiety, and toil. The sybarite is
not a whit less wasteful of life than the anchoret,
and the revel which to-day marks many a festal
board is far more conducive to correct living and
to that charity "which thinketh no evil" than is
that solemnity of visage and bitterness of heart
that come from religious contemplation of the

John Nagle's Philosophy 339

world's wickedness and one's individual trials. If
the present offers pleasures let not their enjoy-
ment to-day be marred by painful memories of
the past nor fruitless concern for the future.
Let thanks be uttered by the voice of mirth, and
prayer be syllabled by the lips of joy.

Sentiment

No one wants to stay the hand of progress;
but enterprise should sometimes yield to senti-
ment. The song of the bird is sweeter to the
ear than his morsel of flesh is to the palate. Man
has a heart as well as a stomach, and the demand
of the latter should not forever crush out the
longings of the former.

Abraham Lincoln

The character of Lincoln broadens with the
passage of time. Whether it is that people make
him a center for attributes of greatness which
every one desires to see in concrete form, or
whether the perspective of time enables us to
view and judge him better than could be done
when his qualities were displaying themselves, is
of no consequence. He is one of the nation's
idols, and a nation without an idol is a nation
without ideals.

Men like Lincoln, who are regarded as he is,
elevate the standard of humanity — more in con-
templation of the virtues they are credited with
having possessed than in what they did. And
still men who are in popular estimation invested
with the attributes of perfection, were great in
life. Death has removed all possibilities of exhi-
bition of human weakness and their character is
viewed in the light of their greatness and their
frailties are eliminated.

No such man as Washington is popularly sup-
posed to have been could be made of flesh and
blood, and the great Lincoln, if he appeared in
life before us to-day, would soon be divested of

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John Nagle's Philosophy 341

many of the qualities it gives us pleasure to think
of having been his.

The creative faculty of imagination is strong
in mature people as well as in children. It lifts
the race to higher planes of moral susceptibility.
There is no intelligent citizen who will not gather
inspiration from viewing the grand figure of Lin-
coln as it appears to him. All that is best in
man finds expression in Lincoln, and no matter
how faint the desire to emulate, it stirs to some
activity the moral forces in us.

If Lincoln did not understand the great heart
of the people, he would not be deemed great
himself. He could look through selfishness,
contention, and jealousy and perceive the good.
He could find

" Books in the running brooks,
Sermons in stones, and good in everything";

and this was the foundation of his greatness.

James G. Blaine

The nation lost one of its great men in the
death of James G. Blaine. It is not the great
party leader whom the people mourned, but the
man whose forceful character and intense human-
ity gave us the highest type of manhood. With
all his ambition, with all the strife which he wel-
comed, and shared in with the confidence of con-
scious strength, there was an element in his
character which won devotion much more deep
than that which admiration for brilliant gifts
could inspire. Blaine coped with great men for
the glory which would attach to his prowess; he
fed the partisan flame for the political advantage
which might result to him ; he was inexorable in
passionate denunciation of political opponents,
and insensible to mercy in forensic strife ; yet the
hostility he provoked as a party leader was never
directed at him personally. For a time Blaine
usurped the place of party as a target for the
shafts of the opposition ; his personality blotted
out all discernment of party, and its traditions
gave way to his magnetic leadership. He wel-
comed the combat, though it was one man against
a well-organized, well-disciplined party, and
under circumstances which would make the
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John Nagle's Philosophy 343

party, whose functions he had assumed, blench.
He did not come out of the contest victorious;
neither was he defeated, but his continued
supremacy was assured. The point of attack
was Elaine, but it was not Elaine whom it was
sought to injure. His popularity suffered no
diminution either as an individual or a party
leader.

Audacity, tenacity, magnetism, intellectual-
ity, persuasiveness, eloquence, and good fellow-
ship were united in him in such a degree that
any one, to the same extent, in another indi-
vidual would give him prominence. Here was a
man with something in him which every one
could admire, though it might be coupled with
something which might meet with disapproval.
Such exuberance of strong features could not
fail to enchant, and make of Elaine a man
destined to be a leader until death had cut him
off.

Elaine's statesmanship qualities were allowed
development when the conviction was forced
upon him that the presidency was beyond his
reach, or rather that he had reached beyond it
and had not the power to shorten his extent of
grasp. He had made too much preparation for
the prize he coveted and went beyond it in his
efforts to make its possession secure.

This country has produced few men greater

344 J°hn Nagle's Philosophy

than Elaine. If he erred it was because his mind
had too expansive a reach to examine closely
what appeared little things to him. He was
mourned by the people as a great man should be.

Carpenter

The sorrow felt at the death of Senator Car-
penter was something more than regret at the
extinguishment of genius. The people of Wis-
consin admired their senator for his transcendent
ability. They loved him for his manly qualities.
When Sumner died a nation mourned for the
man of conspicuous ability. The same regret was
felt for Carpenter, but it was deepened by the
affection which the people had for him.

No public man had a greater hold on the
people of his state. It was not the result of
shrewd management on his part. He was no
demagogue. He never courted popularity, or
did aught inconsistent with a manly spirit to win
the applause of the people. It was worth which
exacted homage from a people who had learned
to appreciate it. It was the appreciation of that
rare nobility too genuine to attempt to conceal
faults. That generosity which was inherent and
sufficiently comprehensive to embrace all men
without regard to station. These were the ele-
ments of Carpenter's popularity, which made him
more beloved the better he was known.

In these days of intense partisanship it is diffi-
cult to find a public man whose victories in politi-
345

346 J°hn Nagle's Philosophy

cal warfare leave no trace of bitterness among
rivals or opponents. Carpenter was so im-
measurably superior to his competitors for honors
among his political associates, that he was never
an object of their envy. Pride in his ability and
love for the man among his political opponents
took the sting from defeat when the chaplet
encircled the brow of Carpenter. No man in
the senate, elected on party issues, more truly
represented his state, in contradistinction to the
party of his state. The heartfelt sorrow shown on
every hand at the announcement of his death is
a monument to his worth and a tribute to his
memory.

Henry Ward Beecher

There is no spot in the civilized world where
the news of Henry Ward Beecher's death did
not bring regret. There never lived a man in
whom sympathy for mankind more completely
broke down the barriers of prejudice, which in
turn won him the regard of all denominations, of
all classes, of all peoples. Beecher was bold as
the devoted parent is, because his love could
dare anything. He broke through forms which
fettered the catholicity of his mind and submit-
ted everything to the test of its power to con-
tribute happiness. He did things which would
be classed as sensational in other men, but with
him they were the natural outgrowth of broad
humanity and enlightened liberality. A man of
the people in the midst of aristocrats, he preached
the gospel of equality, not in the manner of
intellectual analysis or to win notoriety by start-
ling prejudice, but naturally as became the color
of his thought, and because the doctrine had its
roots in his soul.

Beecher's power came through the heart, and
he had as warm a one as ever beat in the human
breast. He was eloquent because he had feel-
ing ; he ignored convention because he was guided
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348 J°hn Nagle's Philosophy

by sympathy too strong for form to govern ; and
he stood ready to follow the banner of charity
though it led forever from the line of precedent.
Love was his theology, and to him it seemed as
if it was God's chief attribute. With the strength
of strong impulse he denied the existence of a
hell, because the very thought was a libel upon
his God. Every fiber of his being was so repel-
lent that he set his impulse against the authority
of the church and felt that humanity was a safer
guide than doctrine. And this was Beecher in
everything.

He defied everything which ran counter to
humanity and justice; not with bravado, not
with affrontery, nor with affectation of heroic atti-
tude, but as a man whose very soul is stirred with
the conviction that he is right. Whether plead-
ing the cause of the negro or the Irishman, his
advocacy was not the less earnest because he had
prejudice to contend against, nor did his courage
flinch from championing the lowly and oppressed
when he met in the lists the powerful and the
haughty. His powers did not come from con-
scious strength, but from impulsive benevolence
which never counts the cost or the odds.

Measured by the good he has done in a line
in which heroism is scarce, Henry Ward Beecher
deserves to rank with the great men of the world.
Intellectually he had few superiors, but one loses

John Nagle's Philosophy 349

sight of these powers in admiration of the work
of which they were the instruments. His emo-
tional nature controlled his intellectual and gave
us a philanthropist whose powers were exercised
for the good of man. Otherwise he would be a
man whose thoughts were intellectual gems, the
delight of scholars. As a man he was the friend
of man — and as such history will know him.

Tilden

Tilden's name is a synonym for shrewdness,
sagacity, and statesmanship. The history of the
world does not furnish a parallel for Tilden's
silent leadership. It was unquestioned and
almost absolute as it was also discreet and unsel-
fish. No man was ever better prepared for
political life before assuming its burdens. He
seemed invincible because he had made ample
provision for every contingency of the future,
which he prepared with the glance of a prophet.
His mind had that wonderful power of concen-
tration by which he could weld facts together
and draw conclusions which were inevitable and
the wisdom of which the event always justified.
His political papers were read with a kind of
superstitious reverence, as if their author had the
power of peering into futurity and advertising
the decrees of fate.

He was a man of broad statesmanship, and
history would have found much to deal with in
his administration had he been allowed to serve
the people in the high station to which they had
called him. Tilden's nature was wholly of intel-
lectual fiber. He was a great man, scarcely
second to Alexander Hamilton, but he was not
350

John Nagle's Philosophy

a man whom the people could love, though they
could not but admire him. Had he been allowed
the opportunity he would have done them infin-
ite service, but as a statesman, not as a philan-
thropist.

Dickens and Carlyle

One cannot read a sketch of the lives of
Thomas Carlyle or Charles Dickens without a
feeling of indignation at the abuse which their
wives received. Dickens's was deliberate cruelty,
driving out from his heart the woman he had
promised to cherish, and making her life a wreck,
because her intellect did not keep pace with his.
When we read some of his beautiful passages on
child-life and woman's love, knowing how un-
manly realized ambition made him, we cannot
help believing that the divine sympathy, which
he painted so eloquently, was nothing more than
sentiment cast off in the intercourse of practical
life. This discarded wife appears in the back-
ground, and in the eloquence of sorrow, hardship,
and suffering takes the coloring out of his beau-
tiful words.

Carlyle was cruel, but unconsciously so. His
wife was a superior woman, not equal to her hus-
band in intellectual force, but vastly so in all the
qualities that give beauty to life. But she lived
alone. She was not the confidant of her hus-
band, though worthy of being so by virtue of a
well-cultivated mind and a tender solicitude for
which its object was unworthy. She admired
352

John Nagle's Philosophy 353

rather than loved the intellectual giant with
whom her life was linked, and he was more
intent in adding to his own literary fame than in
contributing to her happiness, and this when she
had voluntarily resigned everything for his sake,
when every thought was for him, every deed an
act of love or kindly ministration. From the
fame the man has acquired, we are apt to lose
sight of the neglected woman yearning for the
society of her husband, and made to feel that a
woman's highest duty is to toil for the man she
marries. Neither wealth nor fame can compen-
sate for the love of a true, pure woman, and
Carlyle, in requiring affection without recognizing
or returning it, lays himself justly open to the
imputation of cruelty and disregard of man's
highest duty. The affection of his wife was
worth more to him than the praise of the world,
and he would deserve the latter more had he
had more consideration for the woman whose life
he made unhappy.

Gladstone and Home Rule
for Ireland

The fall of Gladstone in the magnanimous
effort to lift up an oppressed people is well cal-
culated to put civilization backward. There was
grandeur in the attitude of this magnificent
statesman who had led a nation from groveling
devotion to musty traditions to that high plane
where the rights of man are considered. His
giant blows were leveled at the last strong for-
tress in which prejudice had taken refuge. His
success was to be the crowning act of a life
devoted to the cause of humanity. It required
no slight amount of courage to invite the con-
test. There were wealth and position and years
of barbaric prejudice to contend with. In oppo-
sition to these, Gladstone had his own mag-
nificent powers, and a public conscience ever
quickened by wrongs done Ireland. He went
down to defeat, but history will invest him
with a halo of glory for the grand purpose, well
nigh attained by the supreme effort of a man
whose days had passed far beyond the allotted
span of life.

But hardly less grand was the, little Irish con-
354

John Nagle's Philosophy

tingent. The defeat of the bill was more than
defeat to them. It was brushing away the fruits
of a life work. It was a consuming fire sweeping
through the fields in which they had labored and
turning everything to ashes. But in this supreme
moment of agony their thoughts were for the
statesman who had espoused their cause, lifted
it up to the dignity of ministerial approval and
support, and who had gone down with them in
crushing defeat before the charge of those who
deny that "all men are created free and equal."
The little phalanx forgot everything but grati-
tude, and the cheers which greeted Gladstone's
defeat were drowned by the cheers which spoke
praise for his devotion to right.

Only one who has Irish blood in his veins can
feel the bitterness of this defeat. For centuries,
Ireland has been pleading and struggling for
justice. Every movement, whether one of force
or diplomacy, has ended in disappointment, but
never in despair. Misgovernment has left its
marks on the race, transmitted as characteristics.
Self-depreciation, want of self-assertion, and a
weak fear of authority are the hereditary bonds
with which every Irish child is handicapped in his
struggle with the world ; and besides, that unac-
countable prejudice which he encounters because
he is of an unfortunate race. The Irishman has
become improvident through no fault of his.

J°hn Nagle's Philosophy

The sufferings he has endured are a matter of
history, but through all he has never abandoned
hope. Self-government would bring to activity
all the latent powers of the race and this
the leaders see. No movement promised more
than that directed by Parnell. Step by step it
progressed. Determinedly, devotedly the men
kept on the way, cheered by the hope that their
great labors would be rewarded. But just as the
light began to dawn, when these men, worn out
with labor and oppressed with care, felt that the
fruits of their toil were within reach, a cloud
shuts out the dawn, and the fruit turns to ashes.
This is what defeat has done.

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