Life — August 16, 1900 — page 4: what you’re looking at

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

“ While there ia Life there's Hop: VOL. XXXVI. AUGUST 16, 1900, 19 West Tuikty-Pinst St., New Yore. ear extn. single current copies, Weents. Rack numbers, after three months from ate of publication, 2 cents, No contribution will be returned unless accompanied by stamped and 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. HESE be great times in the making of history. No week, hardly a day even, goes by without its chango in the maps of the world or the make-up of governments. Small things and little people are not get- ting their customary share of the calcium light. A son of Queen Victoria, himself a king- let in business on his own account, has passed away without attracting great cttention outside of his own immediate circle. Were the world less busy this event would have claimed much space and much minute description in the daily prints. The Boxers are the star performers in the public gaze and are doing every- thing in their power to make the Heavenly Kingdom the reverse of heavenly for folks with white skins. Our own people in the South are doing much the same thing for persons with black skins. Great Britain is rapidly simplifying the map of Africa, and shortly its whole southern end will be tinted one uniform shade of crimson. The Anarchists have claimed another royal victim for their vanity, and, take it all around, this year of the Christian era promises to give the encyclopedia makers considerable work. All these things may be making for the cause of human progress and the elevation of the human race, but they do not for one instant divert the es- teemed Mark Hanna from his task of LIFE # saving the country from Bryan. He has left his happy home in Cleveland, Ohio, for the Republican party, and has left his business affairs in the hands of his hired men. He has become a commuter, passing his days in New York and his nights in Jersey, so he may be nearer his job. Is there not a lesson in this for the youth of our land? Such devotion to his duty as he sees it, such unselfish patriotism and such untiring industry in a good cause are valuable as an example to tho young. 'HE Kaiser Wilhelm is a boon to humanity and a well-spring of gaiety to the nations. Had the An- archists made him their target instead of the lamented Humbert, we might have been less surprised, but we should miss him more from the world’s arena. The latest exhibition of his abilities as a lightning-change artist is well calcu- lated to fill ordinary minds with amazement. Of a Sunday morning we have him addressing his troops and telling them that theirs is a mission of vengeance, and they must give no quarter and take no prisoners. Of the same Sunday, but in the afternoon, we have him delivering a sermon to the crew and passengers on his yacht Hohenzollern. His subject is the effi- cacy of prayer, and his text is from Exodus xvii, 2, He wound up this portion of the day with an impassioned prayer of his own composition. In anyone but the Emperor this demand for vengeance and almost simultaneous appeal to the throne of mercy might seem inconsistent. With William it is only a commonplace occurrence. He will never find his proper place ‘in history until his reign has been summed up by Messrs. Gilbert and Sullivan. «¢QPHERE OF INFLUENCE” as bandied about in the newspapers nowadays is, in a general sense, supposed to be a claim laid out in China by a World Power, which not only does not permit of the encroach- ment of any other Power, but isa kind of protectorate, a species of supervision which the Power exercises over the territory within the “Sphere.” In reality a “sphere of influence” is about as follows : A band of capital- ists, backed up, of course, by their home government, conclude that a railroad through certain determined Chineso territory, will be profitable. Tho Chi- nese Government allows them to build the road, with certain conditions, one of the most important being that the native population shall be taught to run it, and two companies are formed, a home and a foreign company. The home company usually manages the finances, while the foreign company builds and helps run the road. Of course the understanding is that no other nation shallcompete in this territory, which is henceforth a “ sphere of influence.” ‘They exist by good wil! of the Chinese Government, which takes usually a lion's share of the profits, and until China, as was the case in South Africa, issettled by a formidable number of foreigners, it does not seem probable that “spheres of influence "’ will be of any special political value, except as a prior claim in case of a future partition of the Empire among the Powers. Then they would become all-important, ECENTLY there was started in this city The American Society for the Prevention of Premature Burial, which has for its humane purpose the establishment of a system of positive evidence that death has really come. Doctors will be required to make cer- tain conclusive tests, that all doubt may be set at rest. This seems a desirable thing to do, but were this Society ever so lax in its methods there would be no way of finding it out. People who are buried alive are not likely to make complaints. A useful adjunct of this Society might be a bureau for defunct politicians, to ascertain whether they are really dead or alive.