VOL. III.

No. 5.

CHE gorgeous foliage which, during the past month, has played upon all the senses of the artistic soul, has already almost vanished. We know that the season of winter is at hand. As the forests have been stripped of that which was their greatest adornment, so the worlds of literature and theology have lost their greatest adornment. Oliver Wendell Holmes was the last of a line of writers which has no parallel during the latter years. England produced a Browning and a Tennyson; but America, during the same period, has given us Longfellow, Lowell, Whittier, Emerson and Holmes. The life of the last of these, in its span covered the greatest period of our history. Less than ten years elapsed between the death of George Washington and the birth of Oliver Wendell Holmes. The vigor of his intellect, the keenness of his humor, and the philosophical faculties of his mind, were unimpaired almost up to the very date of his death. His greater life has not gone from us. He will, through his writings, live to bless, brighten and inspire countless

numbers now unborn. What a monument he has builded! Can any amount of wealth, or can any success in the mercantile sphere of life, leave such a blessed memory, which will be ever renewed in the hearts of the readers of what this one has left to us?

can.

October 3d, Professor David Swing died. at his home in Chicago. He was the champion of all that is good and true and beautiful. No man was able to fathom the depths of the soul of this man. Without the gifts of oratory, he held us as no orator Plain and unassuming, in the pulpit his manner and expression riveted the attention of those who made up his audiences. His powers never moved with the force of a storm, but rather as the gentle but magnetic swell and sweep of mighty waves after the storm has passed. He was the poet-preacher; his soul was the incarnation of the good and the beautiful. He was the philosopher of the West, and one of the strongest men of his time, in his profession.

GENERAL BOOTH.

General Booth is now adding his personal power to the great work of the Salvation Army in this country. Is it not remarkable that one man could have originated such a

movement, and in a single generation witnessed such sweeping results? The work of the Salvation Army is enormous. The good that it accomplishes cannot adequately be measured. It deals first and chiefly with that element of humanity which most needs help and encouragement. No one who has even the faintest conception of what the Army is doing (and its work is being carried forward into almost every country), can but have the utmost respect for it, and wish it Godspeed. These Salvationists find their greatest joy in picking up the wrecks of humanity and somehow pulling them together and making new men and women out of them. Most of us are like the Pharisee, too clean in our own sight to go down into the slums and seek out these living wrecks of life which each day defile the image of their Maker. Men in high circles may be equally as guilty as these wayward ones. Let us not be ready to cast stones, but rather to lend a helping hand to every possible movement making for good.

THE LEWIS INSTITUTE.

The city of Chicago is soon to have another institution, which will attempt to follow out the lines of work which are being done by other organizations of similar character in the different cities. It will be located on the West Side, some two and a half miles from the lake, and be known as the Lewis Institute. About five hundred thousand dollars will be expended in the buildings, and one million is to be reserved as an endowment fund, the income of which will be used to pay instructors and the charges of maintenance. Dr. Gunsaulus is doing a great work at the Armour Institute. It is hoped that the Lewis Institute on the

West Side will secure a capable man, who will be wide-awake and progressive, and who will seek first to promulgate those interests which will be to the best good of the community at large.

A NEW DEPARTURE.

President Seth Low, of Columbia College, New York, has opened a very practical field of investigation and research to the students of Columbia College. A number of them are making a practical investigation into the social system of the tenement districts of New York City. The work will be under the guidance and supervision of the Department of Sociology. It is one thing to get the theory of things, and quite another to study the conditions as they really exist. There is probably more hopeful promise in the new departures which have been made in so many institutions of learning, all looking toward a deeper and a more thorough comprehension of sociological questions, than in any later development in our educational centers. In the department of Columbia College to which we have just referred, courses of instruction will be offered on pauperism, poor laws, methods, charity, crime penology and social ethics. New York offers as great opportunities, probably, as any other city in the country for the prosecution of such studies.

The result will be that all of this effort will tend to bring classes into closer relation; although they claim that there will be no sentiment in this department, there will undoubtedly be a broadening of sympathy and an expansion of the humanitarian element, not only in the life of the student, but in the life of the professors who conduct such departments.

NEWSPAPERS ASSUMING CONVENIENT FORM.

It is with great pleasure that we note the constant tendency, especially among religious papers, toward assuming a form which

The New York

is much more convenient. Observer, during the month, has changed its form from a huge sheet, which when opened covered almost a yard square, to a convenient size, two-column, 9 by 13 inches. We have in this country too long considered mere bulk and size. The daily papers must inevitably follow in this innovation. No one but the misguided editor feels proud of the forty or fifty page daily paper. They are a nuisance and an abomination, both as to size and bulk, and, we might add, as to their contents, for crime receives conspicuous notice. Many newspapers seem to think it their mission to tabulate the acts of criminals.

ALEXANDER III.

The Czar of the Russians has for years been the peacekeeper of Europe. It is an easy matter to criticise even an emperor, but to understand the conditions of his birth and environment, and the notion of his subjects, is quite another thing. Russia could have none other than an autocratic government. The wel fare of such a country depends largely upon its chief ruler, We have no evidence, that the Czar was resentful or revengeful; what we do know

is that he desired, above all things, peace. Had he been as ambitious for military fame as he has been ardent for peace, the past and the present would not have been as they He has furthered anything that would tend to maintain peace after his death.

are.

The Russians are fond of the French. They hate the Germans, and yet the Czarowitch will marry a German princess. These

family relations are of great moment often in the affairs of state.

The young man who will succeed his father as czar of all the Russians, is twentysix years old. He has done little to indicate that he will be a ruler such as his father. The same advisers will, it is hoped, be continued, and the same policy of peace maintained.

THE WAR IN THE EAST.

The Chinese have made two proposals for peace; whether in good faith or not, is another question. The Japanese have not slackened their endeavors, and seem determined to carry the conflict into the enemy's country. Meanwhile, the Emperor of China continues to strip Li Hung Chang of his honors.