The San Francisco Examiner from San Francisco, California • 14

SAN TRANCISCO TRIDAY AUGUST 8, 1902. WILLIAM IMH00LPH HURST. xammer -41 Likely to Happen, the Way Things Look Now 5 LONDON TOLERATES A flOST SHOCKING SACRILEGE (Copyright, IVC. hf W. B.

Hnrtt.) Words Arc Good if They Arc Backed Up By Deeds, and Only So BY ALAN DALE HE Iowa Republican Convention's platform lias given a frhock of alarm to the leaders and organs of the party. The Iowa platform declines to regard the DinRlcy tariff as a sacred thing, criticism of which should be punished as blasphemy. LONDON, July idea of what ti not moral, or not sacrilegious, ls to ludicrous, Is abnormally grotesque, that you ftl a wild longing to take a peep at tbe strange, uncanny thing called Red-ford, tbe censor, who deals out licenses according to some occult, Inscrutable system of bis own. Redford does such excruciatingly unpre-ce4ented things that he would make the hit of bis life as a comic opera comedian. And I respectfully call the attention of Mr.

Harry D. Smith to Redford. With sll due deference io Harry, he has never "created" any body half so entertaining as this Censor, who Insenses so persistently, I'm a callous person, and If I don't wear bsrd shell, It Is cot due to any lack of experience. But I confess right here that when I went to Mrs. Langtry's Imperial Theatre yesterday to see tbe Elizabethan Stage Society's presentation of the "old morality play" written In the early part of the flftewnth century and called "Every-man," I gasped at what appeared to me to be the most shockingly audacious bit of sacrilege I have ever witnessed.

We talk glibly for and against the Pas sion May. and argue plausibly as to tbe "We favor any modification of the tariff schedules that may be required to prevent their affording shelter to monopoly," say the resolutions, which also declare for legal action, of the Roosevelt kind, to curb the trusts. And further: "We favor such amendment of the Interstate Commerce act as will more fully carry out its prohibition of discriminations in rate-making." The importance of this Republican pronouncement does not lie in any real hope it inspires for national party action against the trusts, through reform of the tariff and regulation of the railroads, but in the confessions it makes. The Iowa Republicans admit that the tariff shelters monopoly, and that railroad discriminations foster the trusts. The Republican party, in possession of both houses of Congress, the Ptesidency and all departments of the Federal Government, with full power to revise the tariff, to strengthen the Interstate Commerce Commission and to proceed in the courts against the trust monopolies as criminals, has done none of these thinfs.

By necessary inference the Iowa Republicans confess that the Democrats are right when they arraign and condemn the Republican party for refusing to legislate against the trusts and in the interest of the pillaged people. It is that confession which alarms the leaders of the dominant party. They are affected much as the captain and mates of an old-time pirate brig would have been had the news conic from the forecastle that a portion of the crew had held a meeting and passed resolutions in favor of honest commerce and against buccaneering. The politicians who controlled the Iowa Convention would not this year, as last, have exclaimed against the trusts and discriminating railroads, and spoken for tariff reform, were it not that upon these subjects a large proportion of their constituents think and feel as Democrats rather than as Republicans. There is nothing that the Republican leaders dread more than an agitation for tariff reform, and they especially dread any signs of such an atritation springing un anywhere within the party.

From President advisability of presenting the Nazarene on tbe stage, but ln America honest judgment Is not smothered by one puny censor, and the right thing generally happens. Thanks to American outspoken-ness, and thanks-thousands of thanks to an unmuzzled press we get at tbe sentiment of the community, and that sentiment establishes Itself. As I have often said, I bold that a presentation of religious plays for money-gain Is an obnoxious Ides, and that managerial 't venality when it touches this question should be ruthlessly balked and nipped. "Everyman," however, is by no means a Bible presentation, and It would have been tcry easy if the censor had censed to make it one of the most beautiful and touching events of tbe season. For It is an admirable allegory of tbe "Pilgrim's Progress" brand, and it need not have been sacrilegious bad a little care been exercised.

was quite all right Redford bad guarsn teed that it was quite the thing for England. Would you like to hire this "gent" to make morality prescriptions for New York? The story of "Everyman" Is an ad-mlrsble one that could have been told without presenting the Almighty. The entire scene In which God summons his "mighty messengers," Death, and tells him to proceed to Everyman and take hlra on a pilgrimage could have been omitted. The Almighty's message would have been just as pungent minus the Almighty. This ls the story.

God delivers this message to Death played by an actor who has "blacked up" and wears a semblance of skull. Death immediately seeks out Everyman and tells him of tbe pilgrimage that he must take. Everyman pleads that be is not ready that he was not prepared that he needs time. And Everyman, let me say right here, is exquisitely played by a young woman called who resembles Julia Marlowe, and whose voice ls so charming and so sympathetic that London doesn't rave over ber one of these days I shall be much surprised. Everyman determines to take some ot his friends with nun, and Death ls willing that be should "prove bis friends if be can." First' he tries Fellowship, a sporty boy with whom be has had many a rollicking time.

But Fellowship respectfully declines tbe pilgrimage. He will do a good deal for Everyman, but from this test, he turns. Then come Kynrede and Cosin. two cherished associates, who also intimate to Everyman that be Is asking too much. Goodes (Property), who Is represented as a fat, chuckling, chirking old person, in a sort of guichet, tells Everyman that he cannot help hlra.

Goodes devotes bis attention to this world, and not to any other. At last Everyman tries Good-Deeds. And you see Good-Deeds ln au anaemic and prostrated condition at tbe other side ot tbe stage. Good-Deeds is feminine, and she lies cold and bound up ln Everyman's sins. But she is willing to help him and calls ber sister, Knowledge, to aid him in making "that dredful rekenyng." Knowledge summons Confession, who gives Everyman a talisman called ''penance." Beauty, Strength, Discretion and tbe Five Wits (who are all bound and pretty) appear, and the last Journey begins.

Good-Deeds has grown strong and lusty, for Everyman Is treating her well. And as the play ends the voices ot angels are board welcoming a ransomed soul. And finally an angel descends to carry it heavenward, and a doctor cornea on and epitomizes the lesson. All this would have been admirable for it was remarkably well and reverently acted by tbe Elizabethan society had it not been for tbe unnecessary and audacious scene in Heaven. How London could stand it, I don't know, for, after all, we have inherited a certain amount of sentiment.

We do not cultivate it. It is born ln us. To see an amateur actor posing as God and drawling forth words in a pronouueed London accent, Is to my mind utterly revolting. When my sense of the ridiculous is squelched as It was most effectively yesterday you can Imagine that there is something rotten in tbe state of Denmark. Stephen Phillips' idea of Hell, with Its lost souls was amusing enough, in its mortal Imagery.

But the "old morality's" view of God and Heaven encroached upon too much. The idea of paying half a guinea for a "stall' from which to view Jehovah in his celestial regions seemed to me nauseating. But what can one expect from a censor a man who prohibits Maeterlinck's beautiful "Monna Vanna" as I have already told you and licenses this. And keenest irony of all it occurs at Mrs. Langtry's theatre.

Hell was comfortably "put on" at Her Majesty's; Heaven was admitted to Mrs, Langtry's portals. Perhaps tbe ex-Jersey Lily thought it a pious idea to get as near to it as she could. I could scarcely believe my eyes or credit my ears, or realize that I was In twentieth century England, as the "old morality play" began. I must state that it is given at matinees only; that it is presented by unfledged actors and actresses, and that it ls "under the direction" of Ben Great and William Pool. The is merely "set" Roosevelt down they are against meddling with the tariff.

Why? For the good reason that the trusts, with all the other protected interests backing them, want the tariff to remain as it is. AND AS TlIK TRUSTS OWN TIIK REPUBLICAN PARTY, IT IS OBVIOUS THAT THE REPUBLICAN PARTY WILL DO NOTHING THAT THE TRUSTS DO NOT WANT DONE. In order to keep the votes of the farmers of the Middle West, the Republican politicians of the region will adopt the Iowa plan of TALKING tariff reform and war upon the trusts, but while the Republican party remains in power at Washington there will be no genuine tariff reform no changes in the Dingley schedules to which the trusts refuse in the Elizabethan style, and the surround ings are those that we saw at New York at Mr. Franklin Sargent's exploitation of "miracle play" at the Empire Theatre. All sorts of "sensations" strayed over me, as I beheld on this stage a presenta tion of the Almighty, sitting under a can YV opy and wearing a red robe trimmed with silver, whiskers and a full beard.

The scene represented Heaven. I have already, since my arrival in London, seen Hell, In Mr. Stephen Phillips' "Ulysses" When the It Will Go Hard Strenuoslty Limited With the Handcar Comes Along, so that I should have been prepared for the change. Jehovah sat on his throne beneath his canopy and surrounded by ecstatic figures. assent.

The denial of justice to Cuba by a Republican Congress at the command of the beet sugar lobby and the Sugar Trust proves the baselessness of any hope that there can be obtained from the Republican party "any modification of the tariff schedules that may be required to prevent their affording shelter to monopoly." The purpose of the Republican tariff is to afford shelter to monopoly. The Iowa Republicans may TALK tariff reform, but the national bosses at Washington will take very good care that no harm shall come to the trusts through the action of a Republican Congress. Talk is cheap. As President Roosevelt says: "Words are good if they are backed up by deeds, and only so." And that well-stated truth applies to Mr. Roosevelt, summer trust-Vuntcr, with no less force than to, his trust-owned party when it talks about depriving monopoly of the shelter of the tariff.

How about the FOOD TRUST, for example? THE QUESTION OP SUPPORT BY OPIE READ He was looking down upon the sinful world, and he had Just perceived that the "hero," Everyman, "lyved after his own pleasure" and took no heed of the Instability of human life. And then God spoke, with a strong London accent and a drawl. IN St. Louts a preacher refused to per- advance which he expected has not come, had a household graced by five daughters, form a marriage ceremony because the 11 nas even Deen hinted that he is not so One of them married and it was not long be- man could not prove that he was able 88 he was- Marriage has not stlm- fore the old man had a son-in-law to sup- tTTTnnnrf his intellect nor has it quickened his port. After a while another young man support a wife.

And It Is said that there energles. Indeedf he appearg t0 be more came t0 hm and a6ked hm Is forming an association of ministers eager for quitting time to come. He does one of the remaining girls adiptinn as a constitution a determine- not dress so well as he once did. and this "TW rt not dress so well as he once did, and this I watched the house. It was not crowd ed and most of those present were women.

Near me was a lady who had limped nnl tr. i b-, urn mau, appears to lessen his value. Cares come "but I hsv arinntpd In on crutches. They all watched the stage carefully, but nobody appeared to be in tbe slightest degree startled. It was the first time ln my life that I had Though the whole country called for a removal of the tariff duties which shelter the worst monopolies from competition, there was no response from President Roosevelt, and the Republican Congress strangled the bills, introduced by Democrats, that, if passed, would have at once relieved the American people from the Food Trust's robbery.

TALK IS CHEAP. ever seen a stage presentation of God, and-HMld though you may think It It gave me the creeps. I can scarcely describe my sensations. It seemed to me that I was assisting at a sacrilege, that I was aiding and abetting one of the most brazen "morality" efforts that I could have imagined. But it had been licensed by Redford naturally.

It less the bridegroom-fleet can produce evi- strolling to meet him; they peep out from and bylaws since my other girl was married, dence of his fitness as a husband. This 0dd corners and leer at him. His wife is as See that bull whip up there? Well, I have is drawing the lines close, and In many sweet as she ever was, she Is affectionate, decided to give my girls to any feller that Instauces may seem severe, but It is not but of course she cannot avoid noticing that asks for 'em, but! I am going to Investigate more than Just. Tho divine passion of she Is not so well dressed as Borne of her every month, and if the feller ain't makin' love Is one thing and the butcher's bill friends. Then they begin to feel their pov- a good llvin' I am going' to wear out that Is another.

When the evening twilight erty, and it is true that love can battle whip on him. Thar are my gals out thar in falls how sweet is the guitar among against poverty It can darn socks and wear the other room. Golnan'helpyo'self." the vines! Above the trembling blossom patched garments, but the overtaxing of all The young fellow and the girl had agreed the humming bird chants an aeeotnpani- strength results in weariness, and affection that they could live on love and they were ment, and in the elm tree mar by the has nerves; and It has been known to possess married; and at the end of the first month widowed dove cooes the melancholy close temper. It is comparatively easy for one the old man went round with his whip. The of a heart-heavy day.

The music ceases; sIJe ot love t0 "uspect that the other side crop was In the grass, weeds were growing in the breeze murmurs amid the vines. ls not doing Its duty. the corners of the fences and the husband Through the orchard there comes a flood The basls of love Bhoul1 be reason. But got the whip. This was a savage procedure, of light; the moon is rising, and In the unfortunately the majority of marriages but it was effective.

It made a good farmer upper gloom circles the black bat. like a 'ake Place before reason has had time to de- 0f the young fellow, and It is said that whirling patch of night. It Is then that velop- In poetry ls charming; In fathers and mothers of shiftless sons strove the young man and the beautiful girl murriuKe 18 unfortunate. It Is true that to marry! them into the old man's family, agree that they can live on love. From of men mftrry ta Poverty and work The story goes that eventually all of the the garden comes a mil sniff of onions, thelr way t0 ProsPprlty.

but viewed in the girls were married, and that years afterward but these young lovers smell naught save lpht tbe mlllU)n8 who Btrtve ln valn t0 government commissioner of agriculture Concerning the Bribing Of Walking Delcgat es THE MELANCHOLY AUTHOR BY AMBROSE BICRCE HOSI-: who dislike labor unions and detest walking dele ERSONS who regard literature as a up. a 13 game to be played for prizes," said Rates are very much given to one particular statement. When they have talked loftily and patriotically about "flic riht of every man to earn a living." about the sacred right of capital to swell up to twice its original size, about the Melancholy Author, with uncommon au the violet and the blossom, dripping dew from above. In the history of the world there have been loves, but never a love like their own. Ami Into a beuutlful little cottage they would take their love and live there with it forever.

The evening would be an ode, the sunrise a flashing ballad. Mrm-i men I'ummiuu is uauserous e- passing tnat community wa struck with pcrlment. "Marry for love and work for the universal aspect of prosperity, riches," ls a good old farm-hcise saying Down in Tennessee a couple appeared be- and to the altar it has led many an lndis- fore a Justice of the peace and said that cretlon. Buckle noted the fact that there they desired to be united. The Justice were more marriages during years of pros- looked at the slim youth and said- "Why perity, and a corresponding Increase of di- JOu ain't strong enough to support a wife vorces during hard times.

don't have to be?" the youth replied "What would you say if I should tell you "Jest look at thi cflr the helplessness of labor without capital, and so on, they usually conclude with a statement of this kind: "I know positively that a walking delegate WAS BRIBED." They seem to think that this settles for ever and ever, amen, the entire question of union labor. They believe that if they can show that one walking delegate actually took a bribe no honest man will have anything to do with union labor after that. They were married; they look for the cot- that I am thinking of getting married?" "All richt." the imstir mining tage and at last take a flat. And on his said a poor young man to an old philosopher, court wants it distlnctlv nner.tJ small salary they are happy-there is no "I should say that you were-a fool," the marriages are. performed here unless one question of that fact.

But somehow he has philosopher replied. nary is able to s.mnort th othni not continued to work his way upward. The A powerful old fellow In North Carolina no difference which." AT A DISCOUNT SORDID. A GOOD RESOLUTION For the sake of argument, and further because it is perfectly true we shall accept the statement that walking delegates have been known to take bribes. The walking delegate is an energetic workman, unusually popular trusted by his fellows-on the whole, a superior representative of the men for whom he works and by whom he is trusted.

His pay is small, and his responsibilities are large. We sincerely believe that his average of honesty Is as high as that of any class of men in the country. But we know that United States Judges and other Judges have been bribed. We know that Mayors of great cities. Governors.

ftffirt divert his attention from the unworth of his fellow creatures to the worth of himself by asking why he had not brought his own great poetical powers to tbe concetjtion. "What! Sir, it Is unthinkable. I should consider that I had been guilty ot the grossest sacrilege. I would as soon thing of engaging in a prayer-contest. Poetry is too high and holy a thing to be flung into the mud of the arena to be made an 'exhibit' In a fair.

A prize so won shames the winner. Fancy me, ME, asking the Muse, not for a glorious inspiration, but for a profitable one; not to help me to a fine, great thought useful to the world and meriting the veneration of posterity, but to a 'decision' to the favor of an Is thy servant a baseball player that he should do this thing?" The Melancholy Author made a gesture of deprecation with the right hand and the left. "Sir, could you respect me If you knew that my famous 'Ode to Spring' had been written. In the hope of beating another poet? Would not the well-known lines, 'Hail, genial season of the bird and bee, Of verdant mead and equally so seem less noble, less uplifting, if known to have drawn a cash prize in a literary lottery?" The reporter candidly confessed that the lines in question would have had little charm for him if written for any other reason than their intrinsic loveliness. "Moreover," resumed the Melancholy Author, "the judges of the game are always Incompetent or disqualified.

All who have a knowledge of poetry cherish an invincible prejudice against unknown poet3, and all others write poetry themselves and are biased. Sir, I would rather submit my verses to the arbitrament of the dice. For it is indubitably true, as I say in the often quoted thirty-seventh stanza of my" At this stage of the interview the reporter had the unhappiness to recollect an engagement with a gentleman from Saturn. sterity, "must, if they Judge by results of the competition, regard it also as a game that is not worth playing. The prize poem, or the prize story, may, however, suit these unhappy folk; I should suppose it would.

And doubtless It is right that those to whom so much is denied should be granted the gratification of their humble taste. Some of them, I am told, are estimable citizens." The reporter ventured to inquire if the Melancholy Author had. in mind any particular instance of competitive writing. "A leading newspaper has recently obtained by that method a poem on the battle of Gettysburg. It is not easy to understand why another poem on the battle of Gettys-" burg should be thought desirable; Thompson's incomparable lines suffice.

He has made the field bis own, and mighty indeed should be the bard who dares dispute his title. The result of this competition has only accentuated his primacy. Mr. John Harrison Mills, the 'successful is not a mighty bard, but he ls a mighty poor one. My friend, that poem of his would make a pig squeal! "I am told that one thousand poets entered themselves for this race.

Think of it! one thousand persons who believe they can write poetry! This is in a country of only eighty million inhabitants! If all had been apprised of what was going on we should probably have had fifty thousand contestants for the prize. It is very, very sad." The Melancholy Author was so deeply affected that the reporter hastened to y- I 5 i army, many policemen, some ministers of the gospel a crowd of critics, have been bribed. KrWt many Jti. a Wa Irnnw that in pvorv lino bnmnn bribes have been onVro that they have sometimes been accepted, and more often refused i jo, vi i-uuiaf, i-Eiiuiu mat wHiKing delegate have taken bribes, that Supreme Court Judges have taken them, and that office bovs hav t.k.'.i. But what has that to do with tho cause of union labor'-What has Benedict Arnold's moral character to do with the lying the American Revolution? spim under' Incidentally, what of the man who bribes the walking delegate' He is a businees man, a respectability.

He Is rich, one of th Yet he uses his money to bribe a poorer man, and he bribes that man 'in nrrt to persuade him to betray and swindle men even poorer than if If a walking delegate is bribed occasionally, that fact has no bearine what ever on tbe merits of the labor union system. 1 It simply proves what did not need proving that there are snni CASHIER I can't accept this bill. It's THE PARSON I trust that you see a counterfeit. temptible curs among the prosperous respectabilities who denounce uninn i I lfll, mntlvoo ncdnollv KrfK. 1..

uuOH laDOr u. us icyi tnrough criminal THE SKEPTIC Aw, what's in this game of golf, anyhow? THE CADDIE Fifty cents an hour. ine error ot your ways. THE CONVICT BeteWlife I do. Next time I'll have better sense dan ter hire DEPOSITOR Yes, I know, but bein's it's such a clever imitation couldn't ye give me a little somethin' on it! "ine examiner paid circuiatioa ls greater than tne comDinea circulations the "Call" and "Chronicle." "The Examiner's" books are open to advertiser.

a cneap lawyer..