which, could the artist execute it, would bring him fame. By the side of such work was ranged in his mind the other painting, already in his brain before his love for Nubia,-"Mary Magdalen before her Fall."

The noon-hour was the only time in the day that the tree was deserted. As soon as Heinrich had dined with mother and daughter, notwithstanding the heat of the sun, he returned to the tree. He liked to sit upon the edge of the basin and to gaze upon the Virgin's reflection in the calm, dark water.

He was sitting thus one day when Nubia approached him. He had not heard her footsteps, and started as, glancing at Nubia's face in the water, he suddenly heard her voice:

"Mother sent me after you because you ate nothing again at noon. Mother is afraid you are ill, and it seems to me as if you had changed. What do you see in the water, into which you are gazing so earnestly?»

Heinrich turned from the beautiful creature to her reflection in the spring. Drawing a deep breath, and without changing his position, he replied:

"I am looking at the picture of the Virgin in the water, and I wonder if the Celestial Being, could she see her reflection, would know that she is beautiful.»

More surprised at the tone than at the meaning of his words, which she scarcely understood, Nubia said:

"How should the Virgin have such thoughts? Look at her! What does she know how she looks?—why does she need to know?»

Heinrich repeated after her:

"Why does she need to know?"— and, raising his eyes to Nubia's with an almost wrathful expression, said: "A human creature is being devoured before her eyes by passion and anguish, and she does not even see it."

He paused, but continued to look at the girl, who now looked at him with an air

half of astonishment, half of fear. For an instant they gazed at each other as if spellbound. Suddenly Heinrich seized Nubia's hand and drew her toward him so violently that she was forced to lean far over the basin.

"Look at yourself," cried he passionately; "look at the reflection of your beauty, which is distracting one before your very eyes, and you do not even notice it!"

He clasped her unresisting in his arms, and was about to press her to his wildlythrobbing heart, when he saw in the clear water close to Nubia's beautiful pale, but calm countenance his own, ashen, with glowing eyes, distorted by passion, filling him with horror of himself and causing him to release the maiden with a groan. Covering his face with both hands, as if to hide it from Nubia, he sank by the side of the basin.

Incapable of moving, Nubia stood beside him. All the blood had left her cheeks; she was more like a statue than ever. She saw her mother's guest lying upon the ground, struggling with a grief of which this daughter of the wilderness knew nothing. She heard him stammer unintelligible words; she heard him breathe his love for her; heard him call her name, as if she were the Virgin herself; heard him groan as if he were dying. But she could not stir, she could utter no sound, she could scarcely turn her eyes from him. They fell upon her own face in the water, and she stared at herself. She saw her beauty and that it had driven her mother's guest to distraction. Then beauty must be a curse. She began to feel that something strange, incomprehensible, was taking place within her, something which inspired her with horror.

Her own face was distasteful to her; her eyes sought the holy picture under the tree. She was stricken dumb! For the Virgin wore her features! For the first time she recognized her own face; severely and darkly it looked down upon her, with angry, reproachful eyes.

Meeting of Congress

In the meeting of the Fiftysixth Congress the interest of politics for the time being has centred. We could wish that, in the popular House at least, it was a meeting of the best minds of the country, brought together to confer disinterestedly on the great political problems of the time, rather than, in large measure, on the small issues and petty rivalries of the party game.

The composition of the Senate is happily relieved from any reflection of this kind; since few will deny the high character of the upper Chamber and its superior fitness, in heart and brain, for the worthy work of national legislation. To it, as high authority vouches, the nation ever looks for wise counsel at need. It is little use, perhaps, to rail at an elective Presidency; but here again the wisdom of the Fathers, much as we may properly venerate the past, is not conspicuously obvious; at least if we credit that wisdom with prescience and the power of forecasting the political convulsions and other grave evils that, at oft-recurring intervals, vex the nation with its machine system and other sinister methods and devices for nominating and electing our chief executive officer. On the present occasion, the political disturbance to the nation has, however, been light, since partyism for the nonce was concerned, not with the choice of a President, but with the nominating and installing in the chair of the chief presiding officer of the House. The office-we say it with all courtesy toward the head for the time being of the nation-is in many respects perhaps the more important of the two. We know at least what its influence has been under such athletes of the legislative arena as Blaine, Carlisle, and Reed. Students of practical politics who are interested in the office of the Speaker, and wish to know the command he has of the opportunities for legislation and his control of procedure in the House, should read the thoughtful article on the Speakership in the present issue (page 415) of SELF CULTURE. To what autocratic heights General

Henderson will elevate the office we shall ere long doubtless know. Faction, we should like to think, has little hold upon the new Speaker, though he is, as all know, a staunch Republican, albeit of the purer section of the party. He has the advantage of having had long experience in the House and of being favorably known to both sides of it. That he will discreetly use his special prerogatives, and be fair as well as dispassionate in his maintenance of the rules and discipline of the House, all friends of orderly and helpful legislation will certainly hope. When parties, as they are at present, are much more evenly balanced in the House, the policy of fair play toward political opponents. will be obvious.

Interest in the opening of the session. was enlivened by the rejection of the claims of a representative from Utah to be sworn a member of the House. To have seated a polygamist in the national legislature would hardly have added to one's respect for the body; though, as a wit has observed, to have admitted a man with reminiscences of a plurality of wives would doubtless, on occasion, relieve the monotony of debate. Aside from the moral aspect of Mr. Roberts's. case, and as a matter of abstract right, it would possibly have been more constitutional to have first admitted the elected member and then judged the case on its merits by a jury of his peers. · This, however, is a matter of individual opinion, though we note that it was the line taken in the House by a number of Representatives. If the objectionable member is guilty of the offences with which he is charged, there should be no paltering with his case; and certainly, in the nostrils of the nation, Utah is not in sufficiently good odor to justify leniency toward an infractor of the national laws.

The business of the House seriously be-gan with the promulgation of the President's Message. This year the document is of inordinate length. Its interest, in many respects, is unusual, since it deals

with many weighty topics of both national and international moment. The Message can hardly be said to be the product of high statesmanship, nor is it the utterance of a notably vigorous, independent mind, courageous as well as sound in its convictions.

In matters of vital moment, which are at present dividing the opinion of the country, it shows a disposition to evade responsibility, and, above all, an eagerness to shield the Administration from criticism. Nevertheless there is not a little in the Message that is stimulative of thought, together with some recommendations for deliberate action that must commend themselves to the wisdom and patriotism of Congress. Its optimism, in view of the present general prosperity, is tactical; though we must beware of increasing public expenditures in dubious imperialist ways at the bidding of those who would commit the country to heady notions of national expansion. In the past two years the pace has been rapid of our money-spendings, and we are yet far from being done with the financial burdens and other perplexities of the protracted Philippine war. The march of destiny is for this country, as it is for all aggressing nations, a costly as well as an embarrassing one; and though we enjoy the glory of figuring as one of the world's great Powers, there is much, nevertheless, to qualify our ambitions and to keep modest the militant aims of the nation.

It is satisfactory to note that the Message has been well received abroad. This is practical proof that our relations with, foreign governments are harmonious, and that on industrial and financial questions, and especially as to the maintenance of the gold standard, which closely affects foreign markets, this country is pursuing sound and assuring paths. We are now no inconsiderable factor in international politics, and it is gratifying to find abroad so many and sincere evidences of favor and good will evoked by Mr. McKinley's exhaustive and instructive Message.

Affairs in the It would appear that we Philippines have not yet seen the end of the insurrection in the Philippines. For some time past we have been told that our troubles in Luzon were about over, that the "rebellion" had collapsed, and that Aguinaldo was in full flight, some said to the northward, while others again surmised that he was about to be

coralled in the neighborhood of his old home at Cavité. We should like to think that one or more of these intimations could be trusted, and that there was real and early prospect of ending the campaign, and of releasing from its many and serious hardships the large force of brave and uncomplaining men- both soldiers and sailors-who have for so long been engaged in the perilous and thankless work of suppressing insurgency in the disease-breeding swamps of lawless and unfriendly Luzon. Again we ask, Is the game worth the candle? Is it worth the cost and risk of sending out 75,000 good and brave men to do scouting and police duty merely, in a country where it would seem impossible to prosecute any effective organized movement or to conduct military operations to any practical, welldefined, and decisive issue? Many things, we of course admit, have been accomplished, but at what direful and depressing hazard. The campaign has, in the main, been a desultory one, conducted against brigands and cutthroats, in a country without roads, or towns capable of defensive and offensive operations, and in the midst of a community which it would seem impossible to bring and keep within the protecting arms of a nation whose people are of two minds as to what, in the final issue, to do with them, or what degree of civil rights and political status to grant them.

We have, we may say, gone all over this before, and it is an ungracious task to have to use once again the old arguments, and to set anew before the reader the seamy side of aggression. And yet it is difficult to be optimistic in writing of the situation, or to recognize the wisdom of pledging the honor and the resources of the nation in pursuing the will-o'-thewisp of extra-continental expansion. We are of course thankful for what has been done, under great and manifold disadvantages, by the combined arms of the nation. Whatever future we accord the Philippines, no patriot heart will be unmindful of the strenuous effort which, rightly or wrongly, has been put forth to bring the Tagals into subjection and to pacify the country. For the measure of success our arms have attained we have, we trust, the gratitude of a citizen as well as the admiration of a soldier. We at least know at what cost the successive hard-earned gains have been won. The

war authorities of few countries, there is little doubt, could have got few troops to have undergone such hardships and done such fighting, throughout a long and harassing campaign, and that so unflinchingly and uncomplainingly, as the brave fellows under such dauntless leaders as Lawton, McArthur, and Young. May speedy success soon now reward their gallantry and self-sacrifice and atone for all they have endured and suffered !

of Samoa

The Partition An arrangement of a satisfactory character has at length been come to between Great Britain and Germany, with the approval of the United States, whereby the sovereignty of the Samoan Islands has been vested in this country and in Germany. By the agreement the United States is confirmed in the possession of Tutuila, with its fine harbor and coaling station of Pago Pago; while the other two important islands, Savaii and Upolu, with Apia, the capital, fall to Germany. For the abandonment of her claims Great Britain receives from Germany two islands, Choiseul and Isabel, of the Solomon group; and, by way of further indemnification, Germany also cedes to Britain her claims to the Tonga and Savage Islands, which lie adjacent to the Fiji group, already a possession of Great Britain. Though the United States, in the agreement come to, has not shared very generously, it must be said that our political interests in the South Pacific are almost nil and our commerce small in Polynesia. In extending our trade to the British colonies of Australia and New Zealand, Tutuila is, however, a convenient port of call, via Hawaii, from San Francisco; while, whatever its value, it is of obvious advantage to get rid of the irksome tripartite protectorate, which was a constant menace to harmonious international relations. Had a plébiscite been taken, what ownership the Samoans themselves would have preferred need hardly now be considered. What is of moment is that Germany is happy in her acquisition of the islands she has long coveted, and that we are her near neighbors. The agreement, obviously, has been in the nature of a compromise, and, like all compromises among reasonable nations and individuals, the result has to be pleasantly acquiesced in.

The Kaiser's Emperor William, the great English Visit personality of the European continent, has been paying England a visit and has been received with much magnificence at Portsmouth and with marks of high distinction by Queen Victoria at Windsor. The visit, which seems to have been chiefly a family one, was brief, though it included a reception by the Prince of Wales at Sandringham, besides a grand banquet at Windsor, the accounts of which read like a chapter out of the "Arabian Nights"; for, on the occasion, one hundred and fifty guests sat down to a dinner served, we are told, on gold plates worth ten million dollars! From the scenes of this magnificence the Prime Minister was regrettably absent, owing to the death of Lady Salisbury and his own indisposition, which, we notice, prevented him from being at the funeral of his estimable and devoted wife. State matters appear, however, to have been talked over with Mr. Chamberlain, if we are to judge by that statesman's subsequent reference, in his impulsive speech at Leicester, to an Anglo-Saxon Bond. The dynastic ties and racial and religious kinship of the two nations naturally draw England and Germany together; but that there was anything like a Pan-Teutonic alliance talked of in the informal conference, or aught beyond a provisional understanding, possibly on colonial and. commercial matters, we do not believe. A discussion on colonial matters with England's able colonial minister, presumably, however, could not fail to interest Germany's versatile monarch, and doubtless be of service to Count von Bülow, the Emperor's astute Minister of Foreign Affairs, who appears to have been present at the interview. Germany, it is obvious, is now bent on possessing colonies; and the visit to England at this juncture, when the latter has need of all the moral support in her war with the Boers of South Africa which she can enlist on her behalf, may not be without advantage to her, besides promoting very friendly relations with a great Continental Power; while it may substantially further Germany's aims in extending her colonial possessions and in increasing the area of German industry and commerce. Hence the warmth as well as the éclat given to the reception, and the opportuneness of the visit, which, it is said, will ere long be returned by England's queen.

Alliance

The Anglo Saxon The Kaiser's English visit, to which we have just referred, gave occasion to the British Colonial Minister, in a significant speech delivered at Leicester, England, on November 30 last, to hail with eager friendliness the good feeling existing not only between the two great Teutonic nations in Europe, but between the two great branches of the Anglo-Saxon peoples-England and the United States. Some sensitiveness has arisen in the public mind in the three countries in which there now happily exists a marked degree of international good feeling, as to the nature of the compact or mutual understanding which Mr. Chamberlain rather effusively extolled and made the subject of real exultation. Mr. Chamberlain's enthusiasm need hardly worry any sane and wellbalanced mind, since, manifestly, what he wished to express was his unfeigned satisfaction with the cordial relations that now exist among the three great Teutonic nations that lead the world of our timerelations that are of so close and friendly a character and so happy in their mutual understandings as to amount almost to "a new triple alliance." The term "alliance," it may be admitted, is, in a diplomatic sense, subject to misconstruction, and therefore had perhaps better not have been used; but all that the English Colonial Secretary meant by it, popularly speaking, was that natural drawing together of peoples, largely of the same. ethnic stock, who have many sympathies and interests in common, and in their national and individual character are governed by the same high principles of justice and right. Hence it was, as he stated, that they had in large degree abandoned their former isolation and were now tending toward a fraternal union and understanding which he deemed a guarantee of the peace of the world. The speech was in the main so admirable in tone and matter that it met with a large degree of public approval, and properly so, since it undoubtedly interprets the mind of the mass of the people in the several allied countries and depicts a situation which is largely true in fact as well as in sentiment. There may be an excess of enthusiasm and an over-emphasis in expression in much of the speech, and in regard to France perhaps an indiscreet and impolitic censure of the unfriendly attitude of the people toward England at the pres

ent time and an especially acrid notice of the scurrilous abuse by French journals of England's queen; but there is much, at the same time, that is true and frankly put and indicates the trend of popular feeling.

A contributor in our present pages (p. 418) meets well the objection to the notion of an alliance, and shows how strong in each of the interested countries is the national idea, which would stoutly oppose the rivetting of any bond that would impair the freedom of individual national action. Commercial rivalry, not to speak of former jealousies or the soreness that results from tariff discriminations, would be adverse to anything in the nature of a formal diplomatic agreement. On the other hand-and it is this that Mr. Chamberlain so exuberantly rejoiced in—welcome should be every sign of increasing amity between great States that make for civilization and modern progress, and pleasing to the statesman, as well as to the people and the heads of these States, every approach to a condition of hearty coöperation and straightforward dealing among nations that are bound to exercise a great and beneficent influence on the world.

A Threatened Upheaval in France

France seems once more on the eve of convulsion. A few Sundays ago 250,000 people paraded the streets of Paris, defiantly flaunting what to the saner minority in the capital is deemed the obnoxious and illegal red flag. Members of the Republican government were, it is said, to have addressed the assembled workmen, and among those present was M. Loubet, the President of the Republic. On seeing the terrible symbol of revolution so ostentatiously paraded by the crowd, the President, it appears, indignantly withdrew, though no effort was made by the police and civil guards, who were present in force, to assert respect for the law by ordering the hated banner to be furled or put away. Public authority for the time being seemed paralyzed, as no action was taken or even any rebuke administered to the lawless menace of the parading thousands. What this denotes, in a country subject to recurrent fits of frenzied passion, with brief lucid intervals marked by grapeshot restraint if not by returning reason, the student of French history at least will know. Ultimate victory for the