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ment.

The article blames the Government, however, for the failure to work out these ideals without allowing that a part of the failure may be due to the age and character of the immigrant.

The point is made that the immigrant is discouraged in his first reception, and delayed and discomfited beyond reason, but the fact must not be lost sight of that it is neither economical nor good management to provide quarters and an inspection force sufficient to handle in a few hours the widely separated rushes, when these same quarters and men will be idle for months between the chance arrival of several ships at the same time.

It is true that a very large percentage of the uneducated aliens crowd into colonies of their own race. Those who come here for the first time generally come alone for the purpose of making enough money to repay their borrowed passagemoney, to support those left at home, to provide a little capital, and finally to pay. for bringing their families to them. That is the primary reason why so much of the alien's money is sent abroad, and why they go to the community where they can exist at the least expense. If our millions go abroad, we receive full value in labor here, and that labor is to a great extent of the sort that our own people are not physically or mentally fitted to do.

For years, while superintending construction-gangs of Italians, Poles, Hungarians, and Bohemians, I was admitted to their friendship and a knowledge of their troubles. Among other things, they came to me to send their remittances home, and in few cases was it sent out of this country for other than the reasons given above. I often asked the older men why they came to our work instead of go

ing to the farms, and their answers were always the same. They were too far along in life to learn a new language quickly, and if one must be away from home, why be entirely alone on a farm when one can make more and spend less, and have many friends who speak your tongue and think your thoughts, by living in the colonies or camps? And the work with shovel and a hoe was much the same whether in a foundation or a field.

Many go back to the old country in the end, but they are the older men who have no families or children with them. It is the nature of all of us to want to spend our old age in the place we remember with the most pleasure, and the alien of more than middle age naturally thinks back to the scene of his younger days as the best

place to pass his final years. It is the young

and the second generation who will take up citizenship; but those who come to prepare the way for the rest of the family cannot be hurried into this advance either by law or outside effort. If, as Mr. Creel suggests, the Federal Government will adopt a system by which a large number of one race may be given land in the same locality and monetary help, there are thousands who may be benefited, and the land I will be in the hands of some of the best intensive farmers on earth.

With the German and English races it is quite different. Few of them come to us who are of the peasant class or are uneducated. They make good citizens in that they are sober and industrious, but comparatively few of them have become citizens, and such a crisis as the present quickly shows that the welfare of their adopted country is a secondary consideration when compared with the interests of the country of their birth.

If our Government fails to make over aliens into good citizens, the failure is not with the poor and uneducated, but with the well-to-do and well-educated foreigner who comes into our business world, taking all and giving nothing.

With such unlikely foreign help, the aid of young and wealthy adventurers in the East and West, the active coöperation of General Wilkinson, the credit of the rich Allston family of South Carolina, into which his daughter had married, and last, but not least, assistance from the priests of Texas and Mexico, he would take his seat upon the throne, make his daughter chief lady of the empire, his son-in-law heir presumptive, Wilkinson general-inchief, and Blennerhasset minister to England. The scheme is as grotesque as any nightmare, and this final touch encourages the suspicion that Burr was playing upon personal vanity and enjoying his own sardonic joke. He was a knave, but no fool, and the idea of the gullible Blennerhasset in the rôle of ambassador to anything could never have entered a sane man's plans. But there was no harm in raising hopes; and he went his charming, insinuating way, scattering his poison and relishing the antics of his victims.

His desire for the help of the priests made necessary marked attentions to the Catholics of New Orleans. Always alive. to the dramatic contrasts of his position, he set himself to win their favor with a keen delight in the situation. In view of his reputation as a libertine and his late. prominence as a murderer, it especially pleased him to visit the chaste ladies of the Ursuline convent in company with the reverend bishop. He wrote his daughter a detailed and lively account of the visit.

We conversed at first through the gates; but presently I was admitted within, and I passed an hour with them, greatly to my satisfaction. None of that calm monotony which I expected. All was gaiety, wit, and sprightliness. Saint A. is a very accomplished lady. . . . All except two appear to be past thirty. They were dressed with perfect neatness, their veils thrown back. We had a repast of wine, fruit, and cakes. I was conducted to every part of the building. . . . At parting I asked them to remember me in their prayers, which they all promised with great promptness and courtesy-Saint A. with earnestness. I will

ask Saint A. to pray for thee too. I believe much in the efficacy of her prayers.

Burr's vague hints met with astonishingly cordial response. One resident of New Orleans promised $50,000 toward the enterprise. But to rail at conditions in the exaggerated and sometimes profane manner of the Southwest was one thing; it was quite another to follow words with action. The American privilege of free speech, bought and paid for, was easy to exercise while Burr sat opposite, listening with the absorbed interest that was his subtlest flattery. But after the fumes of wine had passed and the hypnotic charm of Burr's presence was removed, it was a more serious matter to count the cost of treason.

Burr returned to the East, very possibly duped by the dupes he had made, a not uncommon form of auto-suggestion. August, 1806, saw him again journeying westward, this time accompanied by his daughter. But sane and loyal men had had time to rally, and seeing the connection between Burr's plot and old jealousies of East and West, as well as old border resentments still smoldering against France and Spain, they denounced him in the newspapers. A few of his partizans. were active. Blennerhasset set about a noisy attempt to raise a force of Ohioans, and Jackson, who should have seen under the tempter's mask by this time, called out the militia of western Tennessee, ready to invade either Florida or Mexico, though the United States was at peace with Spain. But even his impetuous eagerness could not overlook certain dark hints, and he demanded assurance of Burr's loyalty.

Society in the Southwest made much of the Burrs, but the authorities began to deal blow after blow. In Kentucky, Burr's name was twice presented to the grand jury for treason. Henry Clay, a young and already distinguished lawyer, acted as his counsel. Though successful in this case, a doubt lingered in Clay's own mind, and he, like Jackson, demanded a statement of intentions, which Burr cheerfully furnished. One after another

the men Burr had counted upon as supporters ranged themselves against him. General Wilkinson, having sounded his subordinate officers and found them hopelessly loyal, took the next logical step for a man of his caliber and turned informer. Jefferson, deeming the time ripe at last for Federal interference, issued a proclamation for Burr's arrest. He had been in possession of some facts and many suspicions as early as January, 1806, but thought the enterprise too fantastic for government action. "It is," he wrote, "the most extraordinary since the days of Don Quixote," "so extravagant that those who know his understanding would not believe it if the proofs admitted doubt." At that time he was inclined to leave it to be dealt with by the state authorities.

The President's proclamation was answered from all parts of the country by military organizations offering their services. The document itself, traveling westward from post to post, overtook Burr near Natchez as he was dropping down the Mississippi with the flotilla Blennerhasset had collected for him. These boats were supposed to contain settlers and supplies for the Bastop lands. Burr slipped his chests of arms overboard, surrendered gracefully to the acting governor of Mississippi, gave bonds, then vanished in disguise into the Indian country. A reward of two thousand dollars was offered for his capture, and a month later he was taken into custody near the Spanish border in Alabama.

On his arrival in Richmond, where the trial took place, he found himself overburdened with social attentions. He invited his daughter to visit him in jail.

friends and acquaintances of both sexes are permitted to visit me without interruption, without inquiring their business, and without the presence of a spy. It is well I have an antechamber or I should often be gêné with visitors. If you come I can give you a bedroom and parlor on this floor. The bedroom has three large closets and is a much more commodious one than you ever had in your life.

Released on bail, he accepted hospitality outside his hundred-foot suite, and ChiefJustice Marshall, who was to preside at the trial, found himself one day at the same dinner-table, to his manifest great embarrassment and the prisoner's covert glee.

The attention of the whole country centered upon Richmond, and the nation's most famous men crowded the courtroom; the younger aspirants to political honor eager to see and take note, the older men bringing with them their burden of experience and their personal liking or distrust. Witnesses were summoned from far and near, for, as Jefferson picturesquely expressed it, Burr's crimes had been "sown from Maine through the whole line of western waters to New Orleans." Andrew Jackson was one of these witnesses. If Chief-Justice Marshall had had his way, President Jefferson would have been another; but he refused to do more than send his papers. The right of a President of the United States to the custody of his own executive papers was a by-subject of discussion. Clad in black, with queue and powder, Burr was once more a model of correct dignity, and conducted his own case with consummate skill, the four eminent counsel he had retained being thrust quite into the background. The verdict of not guilty was reached after a trial lasting two weeks. It was proved that Burr had not waged war against the United States or adhered to its enemies, and that the levying of men that actually occurred had not taken place in the State where the trial was held. Politics, of course, entered into it at every turn. It was claimed that the Federalists