Some Leading Events in the Current Story of the World

RETRIBUTION. BY W. J. SLOAN.

Some men's sins are open beforehand, going before to judgment; and some men they follow after.

The time and place of birth are of little consequence to the story; sufficient to say, that the character herein described was born of goodly parents, reared in a Christian home, and taught to fear God and keep his commandments. His training in youth differed but little from that of those with whom he associated. Exposed to the many temptations which beset a young man in a large city, yet he broke no great commandment, and committed but few

of the smaller follies of youth. Thus was life passed until the age of twenty-five years. A temptation came, not entirely a new one, but one in stronger form; was overcome; added strength seemed to come with the it

victory, and he felt to thank God for it. A few weeks later, with renewed force, the enemy returned to be defeated again. Once more it returned, and then .Was it a moment of thoughtlessness concerning a life's teachings, or of sudden and overpowering weakness? A thousand times in after life, he asked himself these questions. A few hours, and a realization of his wrong began to dawn upon him, and with it came a feeling of horror. If he could only right the wrong, undo what had been done? yet he knew full well such was impossible. Then came the thought, the law if discovered, !

the result, the disgrace, misery, perhaps prison. For the first time in his life, he found himself arranging to defend a wrong. The

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import of the first law of nature rushed upon him as it had never done before. Days became weeks, weeks months, each hour bringing its fear of detection; no words can describe the feelings of heart and mind during those days of mental anguish. He felt that every eye that gazed into his must read his secret; he feared to meet his friends lest they would shun him and thus let their actions say, they understood. A sense of relief came at the close of day, when he could retire to the privacy of his own room and think — and yet, would that memory was such that we could forget that which we wish not to remember. Sleep, until outraged nature refused longer to submit, refused to come, even then it brought but little rest, being broken by dreams and thoughts such only as the wrong doer can feel and understand. At last, a feeling that the danger was passed, came, no fear of detection need longer be nursed. But peace and happiness refused to return. from the hour of his Years rolled on, and yet, wrong, three words seemed to ring in his ears, until it seemed to

him that they were burned into his heart and soul for life and from Sinai, "Thou eternity. They were the words of God thundered

shalt not." Only too well did he remember the remaining words of for thousands the commandment, which at times he felt had waited others were ofyears to hurl its full force at him. He knew that in the thought, only as guilty as he, yet he found no comfort pity for them.

Wealth and honor was his to command, And a spotless woman gave him her hand.

He was a kind husband, a loving father, and a much respected Yet the ghost of the past refused citizen, for the world knew not.

to And as the silent messenger be shattered, refused to leave him. hovered over the aged and sunken form, he was heard to mutter: before to judgment; "Some men's sins are open beforehand, going and some men they follow after." command he had As the spirit took flight to the Maker, whose shook heads, "Sick- broken long years before, those who heard their

they whispered. ness has made his mind wander," God is merciful, but the evil which men do is unrelenting.

SOME LEADING EVENTS IN THE CURRENT STORY OF THE WORLD. BY DR. J. M. TANNER.

Inauguration of President McKinley.

President McKinley is the eighth in the long line of illustri-

ious presidents of the United States who has received a second and consecutive term of office. The fact that he succeeded himself in that distinguished position made it possible to accord him a more magnificent inaugural than would have been possible had someone at the same time been going out of office, and perhaps carrying with his retirement the pangs of defeat. In this case, all parties joined in the inauguration with more or less freedom and natural patriotic sentiments. It is the universal verdict that this has been the most brilliant inauguration ever witnessed in Washington, and there are certain reasons for this. In the first place, a successful war had been concluded and the military spirit at Washington is more or less prevalent, and at the same time is part of the patriotic sentiment of the country. For that reason, the procession could be made up of three parts military and one part civilian, without exciting any very great criticism throughout the country, and without a notion that we were giving to the military department of our country undue consideration. One of the incidents of the inauguration was the battalion of Porto Rican soldiers who formed a part of the procession. While all of our territories recently annexed were not represented, the Porto Ricans served to emphasize the fact that we have already become a world power. Perhaps in future inaugurations, we shall enjoy fantastic military and official displays from all of our possessions beyond the seas.

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This may really be said to be an era of good feeling throughout the country. Whatever may be said of President McKinley from a partisan point of view, and by way of impeaching his judgment, no one has questioned the strong patriotic sentiments with which he is endowed. Along with him there was inaugurated into office our new military hero, Vice-President Roosevelt. Roosevelt is altogether a striking character. We have perhaps never had in any executive chair of our nation a man who represented so generally and universally the elements of our national life. In the first place, Roosevelt is a scholar and an eminent author; he is a man of affairs, and has been an indefatigable worker. He is familiar with all departments of our federal government, municipal, state and national. He is a military hero and represents the army; he is at home in the east in her great universities and public in-

stitutions; he is familiar with the west, and sympathetic with the westward march of empire. Whether in our mountains or traversing our prairies, he finds interest and profit. There is in him something which all parts of the nation may claim, and the ceremonies attending his induction into office have perhaps never been accorded any other Vice-President of the United States. More and more, the inauguration of the President of the United States is becoming a national fete. It is everywhere beginning to display our national grandeur, and giving expression to our wealth as well as to our commercial, military and diplomatic achievements. Whatever may be said in other parts of the country of

the general democratic character of our people and institutions, it is certainly evident that Washington, on inauguration day, is

rapidly approaching similar ceremonies to those practiced in the great capitals of the world. Wealth and rank, on these occasions, take the foremost place.

The War in South Africa. Lord Kitchener, we are informed, has just granted general Botha of the Transvaal army an armistice. This temporary suspension in the war, it is said, is for the purpose of entering negotiations respecting the surrender of the Boers. Whether Dewet, who is leading the Orange Freestaters, will feel bound by any negotiations which General Botha may carry on with the Transvaalers,

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we are not informed. The raids of Dewet have been carried on in Cape Colony with great tact and military foresight. He has pervaded again and again the English army at the most critical junc-

tures, and is making a reputation equal to that acquired by the early Boer heroes of the war. The difficulty which confronts the English in South Africa is

found in the enormous stretch of country and its mountainous character. It is fervently to be hoped that the struggle is practi-

cally at an end, and that the English will manifest as liberal a disposition to treat the Boers as their heroism, bravery and former position in that country, entitles them to. The Boers have at least achieved this, that they have prevented their republics from sinking into the position of British colonies without first giving to the world the assurance of their possibilities to become a glorious and powerful nation. Some day they will be heard from again.

The Algoma Central Railroad. The great railroad projects by which the people in the United States, in the last sixty days, have been greatly startled, and upon which we look with wonder and deep concern, causes us, in a large measure, to lose sight of the great undertakings in railroad construction which are going on elsewhere. For more than twenty years, there have been plans and schemes and public agitation looking to the construction of a great railroad from the shore of some one of the great lakes to the Hudson Bay, through the province of Ontario. What has long been a railroad ideal, the faintest possibility, is now to become an established fact. The Algoma Central Railroad, as it is to be called, is already under construction. It will leave Sault St. Marie, on the shore of lake Superior, near the conjunction of lakes Michigan, Superior and Huron. More than a month ago, twenty-five miles had already been constructed, and the builders were plunging into the forest at the rate of half a mile a day. This road will extend through hundreds of miles, and it is intended to open an empire of wealth, not only to Canada, but to the United States. Its mountains of copper and iron, its solid beds of gypsum, eight miles in length, and valuable ores, it is plain, will make the road an extremely valuable one to investors. The products, however, which promise so much to the interest of

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the United States, are to be found in the great forests. Lumber is not only growing scarce in the United States, but it is extremely

expensive. British America, and the country adjoining the Hudson Bay, contain greater forests than have ever been known in this country. Who has not looked at the beautifully polished curlybirch and wished that it could be bought for less than forty dollars a thousand? In the region to be penetrated by this railroad, it can be had for forty cents a cord. Our elm wood, that now costs us twenty-five dollars a thousand, can be had for ten cents a cord, and the forests of this timber, it is said, are practically limitless. Another feature of the new road which seems most picturesque will be found in the summer resorts on the shores of the Hudson Bay. Hotels are already in the process of construction; both game and fish are plentiful; and the wilds of a region heretofore untraversed, except by the red man, will yield to invention, accumulated capital, and their force in civilization. The marvels of the road will be found in the enormous equipments of engines and cars. Eighty-five pound steel rails are to be used, rails much heavier than the largest found anywhere in our state. The enormous locomotives are said to weigh one hundred and thirty-five tons.They are so large that railroad corporations refuse to carry them over their bridges from Chicago, and they are therefore shipped by water. This road is constructed, it is said, largely by means of capital raised in the United States. This certainly looks as though capital is becoming adventurous. The Algoma railroad is undoubtedly one of the wonders that shall characterize the beginning of the twentieth century.

Royalty in Great Britain.

The induction of King Edward VII into office has, by the unfolding of many of its medieval ceremonies, attracted very general attention to the forms and traditions of royalty as they existed hundreds of years ago. The quaint dresses, the bugle calls, the forms and chivalry, the antique ceremonies, all remind us that royalty is tenacious of these forms which constitute a part of its prerogatives, even when the substance has largely faded away. As a rule, they are all harmless, and have been entertaining to those whose

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curiosity and love of novelty led them to take delight in quaint ceremonials. There is, however, one feature, though understood generally to be a harmless insinuation, that might very well be buried with many other kingly trappings of the past; it is the oath which the king subscribes to and which does not commend itself to the spirit of the age. It is a relic, purely a relic, and should go into the cabinet of medieval curiosities. Think of such an oath as follows, taken at the dawn of the twentieth century: "I do solemnly and sincerely, and in the presence of God, profess, testify, and declare: I do believe that, in the sacrament of our Lord's supper, there is not any transubstantiation of the elements of bread; and wine into the body and blood of Christ at, or after, the consecration thereof by any person whatsoever, and that the invocation or adoration of the Virgin Mary, or any other saint, and the sacrifice of mass, as they are now used in the church of Rome, are superstitious and idolatrous." This is the oath taken in a kingdom where there are ten million Catholics. Such an oath will not help to pacify the Irish and, even in th6 opinion of many Protestants, ought to be abolished.

Relief of the Legations in Pekin —the Other Side. From the time the allied powers met at the mouth of the Pei Ho river, and wantonly destroyed the Taku forts, and savagely murdered three hundred innocent coolies, reports of the barbarities of the soldiers of the European armies, and some of the Japanese, have been reaching this country from one source or another. There have been frequent outbursts of indignation, and people generally throughout the world have come to suspect that the allied forces, or at any rate some among the allied forces, are guilty of outrageous conduct towards those whom we have been pleased to style heathens. No writer has created such a profound sensation throughout the world, respecting these excesses, as Mr. Dillon in his correspondence to the Contemporary Review. His articles are headed, "The Chinese Wolf and the European Lamb." From his writings, I make some extracts, in order that the reader may take another view of the question which has aroused throughout the civilized world such ill feelings towards the Chinese. Almost daily, the papers bring us the news of additional demands which the powers are making for the heads of the leading Chinese, in the

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revolution led by the Boxers. It might seem ironical, and yet there would be a sense of justice in a demand on the part of the Chinese for the heads of certain European generals. In this work of barbarism, Russia is credited with first place; France, Germany and Japan, the second; and England and America are usually exonerated. Mr. Dillon opens his correspondence with the following introduction:

To take but a sample: Wilhelm II, who is undoubtedly the shrewdest statesman of our times, declared war on China one day; made it officially clear another day that war with China was the very last thing

he contemplated, and then sent a very wisely worded telegram to the Imperial Son of Heaven. During the war which was waged, but not formally declared, no quarter was given to Chinese regular soldiers; in battles and skirmishes, no prisoners were taken, and after easily-gained victories, wounded enemies, instead of being cared for, were put to death like venomous reptiles; nay, thousands of defenseless and well-meaning Chinamen were slaughtered in cold blood, and not always, it is said, with minimum of physical pain with which the man of the swiftness of the average humanity would snuff out the life of a wild beast. In Tung Chow and Pekin, Chinese girls and women of all ages, were raped first and bayonetted afterwards, by men whose governments were wrapping themselves up in the soft wool of Mary's little lamb. A Christian crusade against the heathen Chinee was publicly preached by one of the highest of the German clergy, and a large part of the press of Europe re-echoed the pious sentiments, which, however, were listened to without any unseemly ecstacies of delight by the heathen and atheistic Japs who formed the valiant vanguard of the chosen troops in this holy war. These events will, as the German kaiser said, mark the beginning of a new era in history, but an era, one may hope, in which strenuous efforts may be put forth to infuse humanity into war, and Christianity into European diplomacy.

It will be remembered that when the allied powers undertook the relief of the foreign ministers at Pekin, their first act was the wanton destruction of the Taku forts, and the allies then proceeded up the Pei Ho river to Tien Tsin, and had to be towed in barges up the river in the direction of the Chinese capital. Mr. Dillon gives a most vivid description of the scenes that followed the march of the forces of civilization. If the following is exaggerated, I am not aware of any specific denial to that effect. The following

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isa most awful arraignment upon the great powers, and it is a wonder that some of the more enlightened among them did not turn their guns upon those Christians who insisted on extending their civilization at so horrible a cost:

The doings of some of the apostles of culture were so heinous that even the plea of their having been perpetrated upon wild savages would not free them from the nature of crimes. I myself remember how profoundly I was impressed when sailing on one calm summer's day up to the bar of Taku towards the mouth of the river Pei Ho. Dead bodies of Chinamen were floating seawards, some with eyes agape and aghast, others with brainless skulls and eyeless sockets, and nearly all of them wearing their blue blouses, baggy trousers, and black glossy pigtails. Many of them looked as if they were merely swimming on their backs. Hovering over each was a dense cloud of flies, and higher still, in the hot, heavy air, unclean birds of prey wheeling round and round, but never once descending. They had long been fattening on shore, and had grown squeamish. The sky was stagnate with heat; the air quickened to fire, and quivered till its vibrations were visible to the eye. There was not a breath of wind to stir the leafage of the willows on the distant banks. Away out in the offing one could descry the heads of men swaying from side to side with a motion very different from drifting. On drawing nearer and looking through the glasses, I became aware that scores of Chinamen, scattered over the space of many miles, were up to their necks in water. Each and every one of these toilers of the sea were standing upon stilts fishing for soles, and holding a net which he worked with both hands. Their heads were imperfectly shielded from the sun's blistering rays, by the coils of their plated hair, and their bodies, up to their necks, had been soaking thus in brine since early morning. These men were working for the surviving members of their families. Far as they were from each other, they were still more distant from the shore, the nearest stretch of which was some

three miles off. Now, none of these busy fishermen ever moved away from the bodies of their townsmen, which kept floating slowly past, each accompanied by its black cloud of flies, and infecting the air for many a rood around. Those wretched helots, who thus left the dead to bury their dead, had little of the magic power that excites fellow feeling. And it would have stood them in poor stead if they had possessed it. Yet they sorely needed solace; for their souls were as completely steeped in misery as their bodies were in water. "Funny fellows, the Chinese; heartless brutes," was the only comment I heard as we sailed past, and other scenes gradually unrolled themselves to our eager gaze.

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The next picture that engraved itself upon my memory had for its frame the town of Tongkew. The contrasts there were specially striking. Vessels of every kind, steam launches, barges, sampans, junks and sailing boats, commanded by the culture-bearers of the world, and manned by the Chinese barbarians, were passing each other on the winding river. Now and again one of the civilizers would strike one of the uncivilized in the ribs or on the back, eliciting naught but a mild conciliatory smile. The narrow creeks which here cut far into the land are spanned by picturesque bridges over which Chinamen were coming and going with seeming unconcern. On the right bank, naked children were amusing themselves in the infected water, which covered them to armpits, dancing, shouting, splashing each other, turning somersaults, and intoxicating themselves with the pure joy of living. A few yards behind them lay their fathers, mothers, sisters, brothers, dead, unburied, mouldering away. On the left bank, which was also but a few yards off, was the site of Tongkew; a vast expanse of smoking rubbish heaps. Not a roof was left standing. Hardly a wall was without a wide breach; formless mounds of baked mud, charred woodwork, and half -buried clothes were burning or smouldering still. Here and there a few roofless dwellings were left as if to give an idea of what the town had been before the torch of civilization set it aflame. Every one of these houses, one could see, had been robbed,wrecked and wantonly ruined. All the inhabitants who were in the place when the troops swept through had been swiftly sent to their last account, but not yet to their final resting-place. Beside the demolished huts, under the lengthening shadows of the crumbling walls, on the thresholds of houseless doorways, were spread out scores, hundreds of mats, pieces of canvas, fragments of tarpaulin, and whisps of straw which bulged suspiciously upwards. At first one wondered what they could have been put there for. But the clue was soon revealed. In places where the soldiers had scamped their work, or prey birds had been busy, a pair of fleshless feet or a plaited pigtail, protruding from the scanty covering, satisfied any curiosity which the passer-by could have felt after having breathed the nauseating air. Near the motionless plumage of the tall grass, happy children were playing. Hard by an uncovered corpse, a group of Chinamen were carrying out the orders they had received from the invaders. None of the living seemed to heed the dead. Altogether it was one of those sights which burn themselves into the memory for a lifetime. Here was the scene less of a battle than of a massacre, more grim and gruesome than that which had once taken place in the hall of theNibelungen; streams of blood had watered the parched earth, given moisture to the dry air, and mingled