"SANTA FE ROUTE,"

HERE AND THERE.

THE MOTHER HOUR.

O little ghosts beside the fire,
Dear little ghosts with wistful eyes,
Who come when at the even-time

The other children's happy cries
Fill all the ruddy air with mirth,
And make it summer round the hearth!
Dear little souls come home again
With the large wisdom in your gaze
That penetrates the farther skies
And knows the light of wider ways,
I will not think that you are sad
To see the other children glad!
Around their mother's neck they hang,
Their heads upon her shoulder rest,
They say their prayer beside her knee,
Their hair by her slow hand caressed;
She laughs at their familiar quipe,
She kisses them with her warm lips.
But you, O darlings, feel no pang,
Since your clear eyes may see the trace
Beneath the smile, beneath the rose,
Your going left upon her face;
You only would that she might know
Your joy in hovering round her so.
The grave is deep, the grave is cold-
It matters nothing now to you
Who found your pathway long ago
Beyond the sun, beyond the blue,
Yet come with unforgetting flight
To add your blessing to the night.
And though her arms are full of them,
Singing old songs full sweet and low,
And all the other golden heads

In the soft firelight bloom and glow,

O tender little souls and true,

You know her heart is full of you! -Harriet Prescott Spofford, in Harper's Bazar. Every bicyclist should have a stick of Dixon's Cycle

Lubricant. By sending 15 cents to the Joseph Dixon other places of historic and picturesco Division of the

Crucible Company, Jersey City, N. J., a package will be mailed to you.

in Special Pullman Vestibuled Trains of Sleeping,
Dining and Composite Library-Observation Cars.
Ample time will be devoted to all the leading cities and
interest in Mexico,
including the Wonderful
Mexican Central Railway, a Week in the City of
Mexico, and a Four-Days' Trip over the Vera Cruz
Railway.

Barbara, San Francisco, Monterey, etc., will be visited.
In California, San Diego, Los Angeles, Pasadena, Santa

The return tickets may be used from California on Any Regular Train until June 30, or with any one of Nine Parties under Special Escort, with a Choice of

Send for free copy of profusely illustrated book,

TRADE

"TO CALIFORNIA AND BACK,"

C. A. HIGGINS,

713 Monadnock Building, CHICAGO.

D. L. DOWD'S HEALTH EXERCISER. For Gentlemen, Ladies, Youths; athlete or invalid. Complete gymnasium; takes 6 in. of floor room; new, scientific, durable, cheap. Indorsed by 100,000 physicians, lawyers, clergymen, editors and others now using it. Illustrated circular, 40 engravings, free. Address D. L. DOWD, Scientific, Physical and Vocal Culture, 9 East 14th Street, New York.

The only way to cure catarrh is to purify the blood. Hood's Sarsaparilla purifies the blood and tones up the whole system.

Florida and Cuba and Florida only, and the SandTours to California, Mexico, omitting California, wich Islands.

Send for descriptive book, mentioning the particular
RAYMOND & WHITCOMB,

Sister-If you are so dreadfully in love with her, tour desired. why don't you propore to her?

Brother-She gives me no encouragement. Sister-Nonsense! Only yesterday I heard her advise you to let your mustache grow, because shaving it so much would make it stiff.-New York Weekly.

"Every work requires a proper method." Half the trouble of house-cleaning results from lack of common sense means. Use SAPOLIO. It is a solid cake of Scouring Soap. Try it.

20 South Tenth Street, Mutual Life Ins. Bldg., Philadelphia

Shall I send you

A BOOKLET

Telling all about

Electropoise

TRADE MARK

For the treatment of Epilepsy, Paralysis, Brain and NerVous Diseases in all their forms. The only Paralytic Insti tute in the United States. Consultation free. Patients Ro- boarded, nursed and cared for. Office treatment if desired. Send for circulars.

Volume XVIII, Number 6

Thursday, 7 February, 1895

[From Tuesday, January 29, to Monday, February 4, inclusive.] Editorial

President Cleveland's special message to Congress on the financial situation has given the press of the Summary country a specific text for comment on the finan cial question such as it has not had since the President's annual message to Congress two months ago. The conditions have changed considerably within the past two months, and the attitude of the various parties and factions in Congress is better understood now than then. The present conditions and the immediate questions of the day, as viewed by the President and his supporters, are definitely set forth in the special message. One result is that the newspapers of the country that have been hesitating and vacillating for the past month or more in regard to the position which they should take on the pending questions, have now been brought by this direct appeal to array themselves squarely upon one side or the other. This fact will command unusual attention for the extended symposium of newspaper comment upon the message which we reproduce in this issue. Whatever Congress may or may not do, the comment upon the message will remain equally applicable and pertinent, as embodying the press sentiment of the country. The reader will find it interesting and suggestive, moreover, to compare the comment in this issue with that in the issue of December 13 upon the President's annual message and the Carlisle plan.

During the past week Treasury officials have been in close conference with New York bankers and representatives of English capitalists with a view to floating another loan. It is expected that another fifty or one hundred million dollars of bonds will be offered for sale in a few days. In view of the assurance given by the message and these negotiations that the country will be kept on a gold basis, there has been a marked revival of confidence in money circles. To say this is simply to state the fact; although the opponents of the Administration policy deny that the fact is at all reassuring from the standpoint of the general industrial interests of the country, and still maintain that permanent relief and justice to all must be sought in some other line of action. The Springer bill for carrying out the President's plan has been favorably reported, with some amendments, to the House by the Committee on Banking and Currency, but even should it pass the House it is thought certain to be defeated in the Senate. Meantime many commercial bodies in the larger cities of the North and central West and some in the South, as well as many business men individually, are vigorously urging upon their representatives in Congress the adoption of the President's plan, substantially if not in detail.

In a letter sent to the Senate yesterday in response to a resolution of inquiry, Secretary Carlisle estimates that for the calendar year 1895 the Government revenues will exceed the ordinary expenditures by $22,500,

000.

The article on the business situation which we reprint this week is particularly apt for its comparison of the course of business in the month of January, 1895, with that of preceding months and years.

The financial situation still overshadows all other public questions. The action of the House Committee on Commerce in substituting the House Nicaragua Canal bill for the bill passed by the Senate is thought to insure the defeat of both bills. The Japanese treaty, ratified by the Senate last week, has heretofore been treated fully in these columns. There is some doubt as to whether Japan will agree to the change in the treaty made by the Senate.

President Cleveland's Financial Message.*

DEMOCRATIC PRESS COMMENT.

New York Times: The message will rank among the best, in every light, of all President Cleveland's State papers. We know that the President's recommendations command the hearty support of the sound business men of the country. It is now for them to make that support effective upon Congress. Let them see to it that every Representative and every Senator is made to know clearly the sentiment of the business men of his own District and State. Let that sentiment be expressed, not merely in the resolutions of commercial bodies, but by letter, by telegraph, or by personal communication. When Congress knows directly and beyond all mistake what the business men want and that they want it now, it will be granted.

Brooklyn Eagle: The message is strong, patriotic and elevated. It will have the effect in history of placing the blame for inaction or for wrong action on Congress. Effect of right action, either by this Congress or the next, it will not have, in the Eagle's judgment. The new Congress will doubtless first act as wildly, whether insanely or knavishly, as its predecessor did and has continued to do; but it can be kept in session continuously, if need be, and, if in session when the nearing crash come, it could be made the compulsory instrument of right action. One party is as wild as a hawk and the other is as crazy as a bedbug on the silver question. Both parties have sown to the wind of silver madness in their platforms. The Nation is likely for a while to reap the whirlwind of virtual gold repudiation with the consequent loss of the confidence of the world in its issues and of the desire of the world for its investments. When neither party is a corrective of the other, adversity becomes schoolmaster to both. Then men return to the laws of morals in money for a while, until votes can apparently be gained and Presidencies won by dickering with the devil in platforms some more. These lessons last this Nation about twenty years, and the nineteenth year since the lesson was last taught is well nigh over.

New York World: Senator Teller berates the Administration for not paying demands on the Treasury in silver. Whose silver? The Treasury statement issued Friday showed that the Government holds only about $14,000,000 in free silver. The rest of the silver in the Treasury is held for the redemption of silver certificates and Treasury notes Would the Colorado Senator have the Government appropriate and disperse the security for its currency? There would be a short and hard name for this sort of thing if practiced by a bank-with a penitentiary at the end of it.

Cincinnati Enquirer: The message was not intended for Congress. Congress will pay no heed to it. The next Congress will give just as little heed. No gold bonds will be issued. No duties will be made payable in gold. There is plenty of good money in the Treasury. The revenues only fall short of the expenditures seventy millions a year, and there is now nearly twice that amount in the Treasury-only it is not in For a summary of the message see the last issue of PUBLIC OPINION,

gold. The Government can go right along and pay all its bills. It can also redeem in silver all the notes presented.

It

Indianapolis Sentinel: The country understands the situation. understands that the free coinage of silver has absolutely nothing to do with the relief of the Treasury from the network of absurdities in which the present law entangles it. The silver monometallists are simply using the embarrassing situation of the Treasury as a club to force the legislation they demand. They must be met on their own ground and beaten if possible.

Chicago Herald: The Springer bill is not satisfactory to silver fanatics, of course; but in every essential particular it is much more satisfactory to all who favor a sound and safe currency than any other that has been formulated for Congressional action up to this time.

Chicago Times: The President's plan is a plan for converting a noninterest-bearing debt into one bearing interest, for clothing the Secretary of the Treasury with almost unlimited power to issue bonds, for still further discrediting silver and setting the golden calf on a still higher pedestal. We do not think that such a plan can possibly find favor in Congress or among producers.

Detroit Free Press: What President Cleveland has said in his message will meet the approval of the business and other thinking men of the country.

St. Paul Globe: The President makes a strong appeal to the patriotism of Congress. He draws the situation in strong outline; he lays the duty of help on all alike; he strips off the pretense of party obligations and leaves the partisan without cover.

Omaha World-Herald: Let the people arouse themselves to a realization of what the gold policy means-bonds, bankruptcy and disaster indefinitely continued. Let the Nebraska legislature now in session place on record its denunciation of the President's proposition. Nebraska, the United States, the people of all nations are interested in retaining the use of silver as a standard money. Civilization itself is at stake.

Louisville Courier-Journal: The situation is most critical and should be dealt with promptly by Congress, but we have no hope that it will be. The plan of the President is practicable and the reasons which he gives are conclusive. But we have no faith either in the patr otism or common sense of Congress.

Wheeling Register: Congress must act, and that speedily, on the line laid down by the President, or confess its hopeless incapacity.

Nashville American: For the United States, already a debtor nation, to enter into this senseless scramble for gold with the creditor nations of the Old World, when it is known and universally conceded that the supply of gold is limited and many times less in quantity than is absolutely essential to serve as a basis for the interchange of the commerce of the world, it does seem that it is little short of criminal. The message of Mr. Cleveland will only complicate and cannot possibly help the situation. Memphis Commercial Appeal: The message is very unpleasant reading, and one might well conclude that it was better calculated to create distrust in the ability of the United States Government to meet its obligations than to assist in the solution of the financial problems now confronting the Treasury. But the message has been written and delivered, whether in good taste or bad taste, and Congress, out of a spirit of patriotism, should lose no time in coming to the relief of the Treasury.

St. Louis Republic: It would seem that Congress, if it is unable to decide upon a reform of the currency, could at least authorize a form of bonds suitable to the present conditions-especially when the new form would give the common people a chance to use the bonds for investment. New Orleans Times-Democrat: Meantime Congress ought most undoubtedly to relieve the Treasury of its temporary embarrassment by adopting either the suggestions which Mr. Cleveland made in his annual message and practically repeats in yesterday's, or some other plan of its own. Birmingham (Ala.) News: The President's recommendations as embodied in Mr. Springer's bill seem to be the only remedy at present. Will Democrats stand idly by and compel a Democratic President to call together in extra session a Republican Congress to relieve the country? Let's see.

Atlanta Constitution: President Cleveland now asks that the Treasury Department be "authorized" by law to go into the bond issue business on a more extensive scale than formerly. What's this? And pray, why Is it necessary to pass a law to authorize the perpetuation of the bond outrages which have been resorted to without regard to law? We shall next hear of some of the Western train brigands asking for an act to legalize highway robbery.

Savannah News: The impression that seems to prevail in Washington and in the East is that the South and West are almost unanimously in In favor of the free and unlimited coinage of silver. It is a wrong one. the South, and it is pretty safe to say, in the West, business men are against free silver coinage. They are willing that all the silver that can be coined safely shall be coined, that is, all the silver that can be put into circulation without driving gold out of circulation. They are satisfied that the free and unlimited coinage of silver would force the country to a silver standard, and they are confident that a silver standard would have a disastrous effect upon every interest.

Florida Citizen: The public opinion of the Nation can force the Congress of the Nation to do its duty and enact the legislation that is required. It is necessary only that this public opinion should be brought to bear. The first duty of the hour in every community throughout the land is to evoke this tremendous force, now so generally latent, and to concentrate it upon Congress. Every citizen should do his share in this work.

REPUBLICAN COMMENT.

New York Tribune: The President proposes too much. A simple provision for current necessities until the Congress just elected can have time to act would have been timely. But nobody can say how violent a contraction of the note circulation might immediately follow the offer of interest-bearing gold bonds in place of $500,000,000 of notes to be canceled and not reissued. This one element of grave uncertainty, if there were not others, makes the President's proposal dangerous in a practical sense, and will deprive it of the favor of multitudes who will warmly commend his courage in urging an issue of gold-bearing bonds. His difficulty is that he has lost touch with the people, and instead of propos ing what they want and what suits their practical necessities, has offered his latest idea of a theoretical remedy.

Boston Advertiser: President Cleveland's message breathes an entirely' needless and an exceedingly mischievous panic spirit. Public confidence in the ability and purpose of the Nation to redeem all its obligations in letter and in spirit has not been shaken, as he, in his terror, implies. As for passing a law to substitute for the non-interest-bearing obligations of the Government, amounting in all to something like three-quarters of a billion dollars, interest-bearing obligations, and transferring to National banks all the privileges and profits to the people now inhering in the issue of paper currency by the people's Government at Washington—this Congress will not do it, and there is no present ground for believing that any Congress will ever do it.

Boston Journal: President Cleveland's message is clear-sighted, vigorous and patriotic. It shows an accurate perception of the causes of the existing evils, and a high degree of courage in dealing with them. The suggested requirement that duties be paid in gold seems to us unwise and dangerous. To give gold a use which is denied to other forms of currency is to instantly increase its value. The real question before Congress is not whether bonds shall be issued to keep up the gold reserve and to maintain the National credit, for authority adequate to that purpose already exists, and the President is pledged to use it, but whether the borrowing shall be done on the most favorable terms and under conditions most to the credit of the Nation.

Hartford Courant: The message is just such another serious, solid document as the message of August 7, 1893. Now, as at the opening of the extraordinary session, Mr. Cleveland's sense of the importance of what he is saying to Congress shows itself in the unusual simplicity and directness of his language. Now, as then, he temporarily sinks the Democratic politician in the American President.

Philadelphia Inquirer: Patriotism and statesmanship are needed now -a combination to meet the silver cranks and defeat them. Partisanship should be dropped. The bill should be passed by both Republican and Democratic votes. The President had to rely on the Republicans to repeal the silver purchase act. He now calls upon the Republicans to save the credit of the Nation. No honest-money Republican should hesitate.

Cleveland Leader: The Government is primarily in need of more revenues. That is really the trouble with the Treasury, but the financial crisis at Washington can be relieved only by the application of an immediate and radical remedy. The only way in which the reserve can be protected is by retiring the legal tenders. That was the object at which the President and Secretary Carlisle aimed when they proposed to change the National banking system so as to substitute legal tender for bonds as a security for the circulation of such banks. The failure of

that plan has compelled them to resort to another expedient. There can be no doubt that the President's proposition will in the main meet with the approval of the advocates of sound currency and honest money everywhere.

Indianapolis Journal: At last, aud slowly, but, it is to be hoped, not too late, the President has reached a wise conclusion. A fair and candid judgment of the message compels the admission that its prevailing spirit is one of devotion to sound financial principles and an earnest desire to adopt right methods, regardless of party or political considerations. If this Congress fail to pass the Springer bill or one embodying the same general features the President should call an extra session of the next Congress and trust to their patriotism and intelligence to rescue the Government from its perilous position.

Milwaukee Sentinel: President Cleveland's message recommends a policy which is likely to meet the approbation of all but the silver fanatics and the fiat money crowd. It is a creditable production, bold and earnest in its tone. But there is little hope that the present Congress will take any action either in the direction recommended or in any other.

Minneapolis Tribune: President Cleveland's message is a patriotic appeal to the patriotism of Congress for prompt action to maintain the credit of the Government and relieve the country from financial distress. The President's present plan is sound, and it is the only feasible plan that will insure immediate relief.

Des Moines Register: Mr. Cleveland wants to take up the greenbacks and other outstanding obligations in this manner. The sentiment of the country will hardly sustain the President to this extent. For the meeting of current expenses, however, the three per cents are to be preferred. This can only be tolerated as a makeshift. The correct way is still for the country to collect tariff duties enough to pay its expenses and thus avoid the spectacle of borrowing to get along.

Omaha Bee: The condition described by the President is familiar. All the facts contained in the message have been communicated to the public through Treasury statements and fully commented upon in the press. Everybody will agree with the President that the emergency is very serious and appeals to the best wisdom and the highest patriotism of Congress, but outside of Eastern banking circles there will not be a very general sentiment in approval of the plan suggested by Mr. Cleveland.

Topeka State Journal: Wholly impervious to the demands and necessities of an overburdened and impoverished people, Grover Cleveland has made a demand on Congress for authority to plunge the country deeper in debt to the extent of half a billion dollars. Wheat is now worth but 50 cents a bushel in Chicago. If the President's suggestion shall be enacted into law we may look to see it come down to 25 cents a bushel.

Topeka Capital: The President has taken advantage of the close of the Hawaiian debate to force the issue of financial relief and the people stand behind him in the main object if not in the method he outlines.

Kansas City Journal: The President's message to Congress is no less than a threat that no proposition for aid to the Treasury that carries with it the restoration of silver shall be countenanced. Rather than save the Nation's credit at the expense of his copartners in the gold business, he will see a repetition of the panic by which his administration was ushered in.

St. Louis Globe-Democrat: The message presents the facts in a plain and forcible way. The matter is placed before Congress [in the Springer bill] for immediate consideration; and there is no doubt about the fact that prompt action is necessary to avert impending disaster.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer: An issue of bonds is not "the only way left open" for procuring gold. The first and better way would be to take Immediate steps to increase the revenue by at least $100,000,000 annually. This may be done by a horizontal raise of 15 or 20 per cent on all imports now charged with duty, restoration of the former duty on wool, lumber, coal, etc., and a specific tax on beer and spirits. If after the revenues are so adjusted as to meet current obligations, the drain of gold continues, it will be time, perhaps, to consider the subject of further bond Issues.

Boston Transcript: Senator Peffer, the bearded Populist, of Kansas, yesterday said, "gold bonds were out of the question, but coin bonds might not be." Senator Teller [Rep.] says that the President's bond is a gold one, and would weld the gold standard upon the Nation. That is what, under existing circumstances, sound-money advocates everywhere desire.

INDEPENDENT AND OTHER COMMENT.

New York Journal of Commerce: At the verge of utmost danger, President Cleveland brings a great National relief. His proposals meet all the salient points of danger and in a true and direct fashion. His measure is much broader than has been expected. The most potent feature of the message is the unqualified proposal that the bonds to be issued shall be, in every sense, gold bonds. This is an assertion of a broad conservative principle fundamental to the credit of the Nation. The enactment of such a measure would be as important for what it implies as for what it proposes. The world would regard such a loan as the most significant commitment to the gold basis that the United States has ever made; and from that point of view the dangers of our silver agitation would appear insignificant. Taking the document as a whole, it is a great saving pronouncement. The President has withdrawn the Nation back from the verge of a precipice to solid ground.

New York Nation: The message has exactly the right tone. There may be differences of opinion as to details here and there, but the main proposition is so sound that it constitutes a rallying-point for all the defenders of the public credit and for all the believers in an honest dollar. This proposition is that the dollar is 25 8-10 grains of gold of standard fineness, that the Government's paper of all kinds must be redeemed in it, and the Government's debts of all kinds must be paid in it or its equivalent. This proposition, we say, is now the rallying point for all the friends of sound money. Moreover, it is something that they cannot avoid or shirk, because business considerations will overtop politics in spite of all the partisans and the harlequins (of whom the New York Tribune [Rep.] is a type) who are dancing around the bonfire of the public credit. The first thing to be done is to sell gold bonds. We want gold; therefore, we ought to promise gold.

Philadelphia Times: The message is so strong, so clear and so earnest, it is impossible to believe that it will fail in effect. It is worse than foolish, it is criminal, to prate about the revenue laws, when it is not a deficiency of revenue, but simply a distrust of the ability of the Government to maintain its currency on the gold standard, that has brought about the present crisis.

Washington Times (Labor): There are two ways out of the present financial dilemma. One is to stop gold payments and adopt a silver basis, and the other is to sell gold bonds and redeem and cancel the outstanding legal-tender and Treasury notes. At another time, when there was a substantial gold reserve and when prosperity made it impossible for an extraordinary demand on our Treasury to create a financial depression, free coinage of silver and the adoption of a silver basis would not jeopardize business interests. But now, when our gold reserve is rapidly vanishing, when the country is on the verge of a panic, and when financial and tariff agitation has disturbed business interests and stagnated trade, a refusal to make gold payments would bankrupt and destroy thousands of business enterprises. Congress can render no greater service than by the immediate passage of the new [Springer] financial bill.

Indianapolis News: The message does its author great credit. If Congress does not respond to his forcible and patriotic appeal it will be because it does not represent the people of the country, who are overwhelmingly on the side of the President in the pending controversy. To be sure, there is manifest a disposition to exaggerate the dangers which threaten the country, and such phrases as "business disaster," ""universal distress," and "disastrous conclusion," must be charged up to a somewhat perfervid rhetoric which the President no doubt felt it was necessary to employ in order properly to impress the exceedingly unimpressionable body to which his words are addressed. But after making every deduction, the fact remains that the country is confronted by serious evils. If the sound-money men in both the old parties have the patriotism to respond to the President's manly appeal, they can crush the life out of the silver contingent. Is it too much to hope that this will be done? There are indications that the Republicans may do their duty. The bill can be passed if they are willing to help. They cannot refuse to help without inflicting a serious blow upon their party.

Chicago Record: Until the time when a monetary commission or another Congress can perfect a new banking and currency plan, some means of relief is absolutely necessary, and the measures proposed by the President appear to be as good as any. If the Republicans, Democrats and Populists in Congress refuse to co-operate with the President in applying these remedies they will be striking a blow at the National credit and public prosperity.

Denver News (Pop.): There is an audacity about the demand of the goldites for $500,000,000 more bonds that would add plumage to the crest