Life — April 5, 1900 — page 9: what you’re looking at

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

* LIFE « SAMPLE OP TEDDY CROMWKLL'S HANDWHITING. the time should ever come—and it ought to come —when I am called up to the blackboard to rub out what is left of the good old Constitution, I shall expect to see every scholar in the school rise up and bless the name of Teddy the Great, Tom Masson, A Reasonable Affliction. T= great Cromwell revival which has saddened a reluctant public during the past winter appears to be more cocrcive in its character than even the great Napoleon revival which preceded it. These things are understood to come in waves, like blizzards and influenza, and to ingulf us whether we like them or not, We were fairly submerged by the Napoleonic flood a few years ago, and we are up to our chins jn the Crom- wellian billows now. The Century Magazine is giving promt- 269 nence to a graceful eulogy of the Protector by that indefati- gable enthusiast, Mr. John Morley ; and Governor Roosevelt is working up a similar apotheosis in Sertbner's;—handling bis subject in such an up-to-date fashion that we are a trifle un- certain as to whether Oliver distinguished himself most at Naseby, Vicksburg or Manila Bay. Meanwhile England is excited, and to some purpose, over a statue of Cromwell which has been presented to London, but which London really docsn’t want,—above all, doesn’t want in the sacred precincts of Westminster, facing the great Abbey, “the shrine of Throne, Church and Constitution.” Parlia- ment, mindful of evil treatment at the Protector’s bands, objects to the statue seriously. So does the unforgiving Establishment, which he snubbed. So do London citizens, who think they got along very comfortably without it. So do a great many Englishmen, who feel that the beatification of Charles and the exaltation of Oliver at one and the same time is not without its ludicrous aspect. However, nothing is so hard to get rid of as a statue which nobody wants, It sits—a stone incubus—upon a law-abiding Saxon community. The clever French persuade a mob to pull it down, but Saxons have never learned the useful manipu- lation of a mob. We upon whom Cromwell is weighing somewhat heavily at present—though but in print—can sym- pathize with London in her perplexity. Agnes Repplicr. HE Evening Post devotes much space in these days to reitcrations and proofe that Governor Roosevelt agreed to reappoint Dr. Truman Backhus as trustee of an insane asylum on Long Island and didn’t do it. It seems that the Governor intended to reappoint Dr. Backhus, and for some reason changed his mind, It is suspected that he made a mis- take, and is aware of it; still, it docs not seem to have been a vital mistake, nor one that proves him to be a scheming villain. To dwell so persistently on this one error, as the Post does, im- plies that good opportunities for finding serious fault with the Governor are rather scarce. Readers of the Post are in danger of suspecting that, except in that matter of Dr, Backhus where he slipped up, the Governor has been doing pretty well, This Map. HE black reprosents the English; tho groy the Koors, ‘Tho Boers aro only outnumbered about ton to ono, but this is not so bad for the British as one might suppose, for thoy aro constantly receiving reinforcements, But plucky Old England is not dis- couraged. Give herasmall enough country to fight with, and, by Jove!—she just sees it through, ‘ It soems to be admitted in England that ono Boor is moro than a mateh for seven Britons, Ten Britons, however, are too many for him, This fact even the British Generals have been able to discover and now tho campaign Is worked on those lines, ‘That {#, on the samo principle asa herd of bulls getting a small boy up a tree, Tho boy may have more brains than the bulls, but it is merely a question of time.