Life — August 3, 1899 — page 4: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

“ While there is Life there's Hope.” XXXIV, AU , 108, 19 West Tunery. Priest St., New York. #500 m year in ad- untries In the Psrtal Single current copies, after three months from nts, Published every Thureaa mtribition will be returned unless accompanied by stamped aul addressed envelope, The illustrations in Live are copyrighted, and are not to be reproduced without special arrangement with the publishers, Prompt notification should be sent by sub- scribers of any change of address. T no time since Gen- eral Alger became Secretary of War has Lire disguised its conviction that he was an unsuitable person to hold that office. There were excelent and notorious rea- sons why that piace, of all places. should not go to him, and many ex- = cellent reasons have since ap- peared why be should not continue to hold it. It is a good thing that he has at last been induced to let go; a good thing for the President, for the country, for the army, and probably also for General Alger himself, for it was impossible that he should ever make himself comfortable as Secretary of War, and he might better be at work on some new job that he has some chance to do better in. Gcneral Alger’s ambition to shine in public life seems a curious thing. He is said to be an amiable man, agreeable in company, to whom his friends and his family are greatly attac He has been exceedingly successful in business, and, so far as appears, lhe stands well with the people of his own State, But for years high political preferment has had great charms for him, He has tried, with some success, to be a candidate for President. He has been Commander of the Grand Army of the Republic, and has seemed to fcel that he was entitied to niuch Digger places than that if only he could get them. But neither political arts nor money bas availed to gratify his “DOPE. * aspirations. He has aimed bigher than he could reach, and goes out of the Cab- inet rather a pathetic figure. No doubt he has been maligned. No one man could have done as many bad accused of duing be- tween March and October of last year. The real quarrel with him has been that he forced himself into an office that be was not fit to fill, and admin- istered it like a politician. He wanted that particular office for per- sonal reasons, to vindicate some past actions which marred bis record. The whole arrangement was a seltish one, in which the public interests were not con- sidered. It has damaged everyone con- cerocd in it, the President, the Secre- tary—all, For that we really ought to be thankful, for the precedent is salutary und may do good. lige newspapers tell of a curious misfortune that haa overtaken Mr. Archie H, Brower of Bonesteel, South Dakota, Mr. Brower was part owner of a tent show, whercof an important attraction was an animal which the show. man declared to be the missing link. They laid stress on the inability of any observer to determine whether the crea- ture was a monkey or a man, Unfor- tunately, this missing link got fractious the other day, and Brower, losing paticnce, hit it so hard on the head with a club that itincontinently died, Now Lrower is sure it was only a monkey, but the authoritics of Bonesteel doubt his competence as an anthropologist, and have beund him over under charge of murder to await the judgment of the grand jury. Uncle Sam and all of us are in a posi- tion to sympathize heartily with Mr. Brower. We have had a missing link in our show for nearly a year now, and for months past he hus been fractious, and we have been pounding him on the head in the effort to make bin behave, squabbling all the time among ourselves as to his standing as a creature. We must hope that our missing link, which has more lives than Brower’s, will sur- vive the discussion ; but, in any case, we ought to be thankful that no grand jury is likely to pass upon our actions. ae V E have been getting a great deal of news from Manila. The most important item that has come for a long time is the round robin of the newspaper: correspondents, who protest that the ifews is censored out of their despatches, and that they are forbidden to send home such information as is printed in the newspapers of Manila, The object of this kind of censorship is, apparently, not to keep the enemy in ignorance of military plans, but to shut off informa. tion from the voters at home. Thut is of doubtful benefit to the Administration, for most of us are anxious to clean up the mess in the Philippines, and the better we understand the situation the more efficient our codperation is likely to be. —_& HERE is some discussion whether General Otis is the best man for the place he fills, but the gist of the situa- tion scems tobe that Aguinaldo’s soldiers are fighting pretty well, and promise to keep on indefinitely; that, though we can thrash any given lot of Filipinos with the troops that are now in Luzon, we cannot induce them to stay thrashed without a much larger force than we now have on the ground. So, many more troops are poing out, which is very well; but, after all, it is a good deal like detailing policemen to watch ant hills, It can be done, but the question is sure to come up—Does it pay? Nothing is happening in the Philip- pines that was not forctold a year ago by the very few men who knew the islands, It will take from fifty thousand to one hundred thousand men to pacify and hold the islands by force, and they are not worth anything like so much trouble or so much money. If diplo- macy could accomplish something it would be a great saving, and, possibly, it might be well to enlist a couple of regiments of diplomatists and send them out. Commercial travelers, of whom a great number are said to have been lately thrown out of employment by the spread of trusts, would be available for this service. comicbooks.com