The crucial test

Front matter

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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

THE CRUC1ALTEST

Preface

The Crucial Test is written to influence the professional men, the business men, the farmers and the workingmen to stand for the rights of humanity, an honest government and to maintain Americanism, as enunciated by Dr. Gunsaulus at the Chicago University, July 4, 1899, who, in explaining the five principles of Americanism, said : “Let me mention as the first the Fatherhood of God and the Brotherhood of Man. Tell me what a man prays to and I will tell you what he is. If he prays to a spirit of anarchy he is a law-breaker ; if he prays to a God of brute force he is of the lower development.

“The next principle is a new concept of liberty. Christ was the greatest statesman, and the Lord’s Prayer is a treatise on political economy. Until this principle is diffused throughout the world revolutions will continue. Lastly, we recognize the principle that there is an absolute equality of men under God. Americanism was born on Calvary, when Jesus dropped precious blood and drew all men unto him.”

The basis of the solution for problems confronting us, proposed in Chapter XIII of this book, is advopreface.

cated by Dr. Frank Crane of Trinity Methodist Church, Chicago, in a pulpit editorial published in the “Chicago Record” of March 27, 1899. Dr. Crane says : “The only possible way to make the individual take hold of politics is to make politics take hold of him. All the corruption of politics arises from and is founded upon the indifference of the average citizen. To claim that politics is too evil to be entrusted with larger duties is to argue in a circle. It is evil simply because its duties are so narrow as to appeal directly to the personal interest of only a small class of citizens.”

In an editorial, July 11, 1899, headed “Dr. Rogers on Civic Duties,” the “Chicago Tribune” says: “Though President Henry Wade Rogers of Northwestern University did not call his Sunday discourse at Trinity Methodist Church a sermon, it contained some political and moral truths of more value than many a doctrinal sermon. While he believes that the uplifting force in our government must come from the educated men, he refuses to lay the blame for our governmental errors upon the slums and those that dwell therein. It would be a blessing if all educated men could be roused to take part in municipal and national reforms and to act upon Dr. Rogers’ ideas.”

In an article on “The Misgovernment of the Modern City,” in the Philadelphia Saturday Evening Post, Mayor Harrison explains the causes of the political evils which confront us: “Public apathy, cor-

PREFACE.

rupt city legislators, prejudiced legislators from the country and bribe-giving corporations.” The practical solution for these questions suggested by Chicago’s chief executive is “to educate the masses to understand existing laws, to influence all to take a deep concern in the acts of legislatures, common councils, public officials, and to attend the primaries with the same fidelity as the polls.”

Mr. Henry Davies of Yale University, in an article on “University Settlements and the Social Question,” says : “The keenest observers of things social are rapidly coming to the view that social reorganization needs the religious inspiration ; that discontent is but the natural reaction against materialism, and that the newer synthesis into which we are coming must secure, for basis, the life that is built on faith and service.

“It is by cultivating the broadest sympathy with the new methods whereby the spirit of man is seeking self-realization that our own life grows more rich and true-seeing. Society is still an Inferno, but every clear voice of poet, philosopher and prophet bids us look ahead, not back, to the ‘life the undiminished man demands.’ It is only of the future that we can say in the glowing words of Lowell :

“What man would live coffined with brick and stone, Imprisoned from the influence of air,

And cramped with selfish landmarks everywhere,

When all before him stretches, furrowless and lone,

The unmapped prairie none can fence or own?”

Table Of Contents

PAGE.

Chapter I. Tennessee

" II. Marcella 17

" III. Nashville 23

“ IV. Beechcroft 35

*' V. New Orleans 45

" VI. » Maryland 62

“ VII. Detroit 73

“ VIII. Omaha 91

IX. World’s Fair 101

“ X. Des Moines 117

“ XI. Chicago 137

" XII. Columbiana County, Ohio 144

“ XIII. Boston 159

“ XIV. Toledo 185

" XV. Louisville 202

Address — T he Views of the Present Generation on the Solution of the Questions Confronting Us 215

CHAPTER I.

TENNESSEE.

“Her air, her manner, all who saw admired;

Courteous, though coy, and gentle, though retired;

The ioy of youth and health her eyes displayed,

And ease of heart her every look conveyed.”

— Crabbe.

Nestled amid the hills of Middle Tennessee is a dreamy little town, typically southern, called New Springfield. It is surrounded by beautifully cultivated plantations, whose owners possess all the old-time southern hospitality. Local history tells us that the residents of the town had a “misunderstanding” with the builders of the Louisville & Nashville Railroad about right-of-way or the measure of help that should be extended to the enterprise. As an agreement could not be reached the road was made to pass through the country two miles south of the town, cutting through the fertile acres of the wellknown Ewell Stock Farm.

This latter consisted of 5,000 acres of land, within which were included the varying characteristics of the topography of this section of Tennessee. Near the picturesque entrance to this hospitable home was located Ewell Station. About the occupants of Ewell

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Farm was a halo of romance that tended to increase the widespread admiration for them which was primarily justified by their boundless hospitality, and the interest they manifested in the well-being of all who came within reach of their ministrations.

When a young lady, the daughter of Judge Campbell, one of Tennessee’s most noted statesmen, who was chosen by President Monroe to represent this country at the court of the Czar, was affianced to Richard Stoddard Ewell. The latter was a warm-hearted southerner who had been graduated from the United States military academy at West Point, and held a commission in the army as lieutenant of dragoons. Ewell was breveted captain, for gallant and meritorious conduct in the Mexican War. Captain Ewell and Miss Campbell were cousins, and though deeply attached to each other, through fear of inimical results from a too closely consanguineous alliance, the engagement was broken off. Captain Ewell, seeking to mitigate the pain incident to separation from one so dear to him, resigned from the army and went to Europe, where he remained until recalled by the clarion of war.

He tendered his sword to the Confederacy, and for bravery and gallantry of action General Ewell stood with those interesting soldier characters, Generals Robert E. Lee and “Stonewall” Jackson.

In course of time Miss Campbell became the wife of Mr. Brown, a wealthy planter, who, after a few years

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if of wedded life, died, leaving his widow and two children a vast fortune. Mrs. Brown was gifted with unusual business capacity and was devotedly attached to the cause of her people. She gave a large portion of her fortune to the Confederacy and equipped a regiment for her only son, Major Campbell Brown. . But this was not the limit to which the spirit of patriotism carried her. The sufferings of the wounded who had bared their breasts in defense of the cause she loved so well appealed to her sympathies' and she went into the southern hospitals as a nurse.

General Ewell, with Generals Lee and Longstreet, commanded the divisions of Lee’s invading army.

In action, before the battle of Gettysburg and during that memorable conflict, the division of the Confederate army commanded by General Ewell took the most active part in the terrible struggle which was the decisive action of the war. In the main battle of Gettysburg General Ewell was grievously wounded. In the hospital at Richmond he was nursed by his former sweetheart, Mrs. Brown, and when he had sufficiently recovered his health they were married.

When hostilities were over General and Mrs. Ewell returned to Tennessee to take up the burden of rescuing the remnant of their property from the ravages of war. This they set about doing with the same fortitude that both had previously manifested, the one in the forefront of battle and the other in the hospital

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ward. Their efforts were successful in making their estate one of the most prosperous and their home one of the most interesting and inviting in the entire South.

Half way along the charming country road that connects Ewell Station with New Springfield was located Beechcroft School. It occupied an old southern residence, remodeled, and to reach its main portal one passed, by a broad avenue, through a dense grove of magnificent beech trees.

On a particular November afternoon a company of happy girls from Beechcroft School had gathered at the station and were awaiting a belated train that was to bear them, with scores of other joyous southerners, to Nashville, to participate in a ratification of the first president of their own political faith who had achieved success at the polls since the terrible ordeal of the Civil War. In this group of girls was one who was particularly noticeable. She was tall and lithe, with that in her movements to indicate a superabundance of nerve force. She was fair, with a complexion suggesting the bloom of youth. The shapely head was crowned with golden hair and the regular features of the face were lighted up with large, earnest blue eyes. While seemingly imbued with the warmth of the southerner, this young girl was of a mold distinct from her companions. This was explained when a young gentleman, who was in charge of a party from Ewell

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Farm, who were to participate in the Democratic rejoicing at Nashville, came up to the group of girls and said to one of them, Rebecca Nicholson :

“Miss Rebecca, pardon me, but you have a stranger in your party — ‘a star-eyed goddess' — if I may be permitted to so call her. May I not know her ?”

“Assuredly, and why not? And you want my assistance ?”

“I knew in advance that I might count upon that,” was Mr. Polk’s reply.

“But we are all ‘star-eyed goddesses,’ ” said Rebecca, “or if we are not it would be unkind to cause us to think otherwise.”

“Your claim is indisputable, Miss Rebecca, and your merit — ”

“Oh, forbear, do, please. I know whom you mean and will comply with your request.”

Approaching the group, Marcella was singled out and the formalities of an introduction were gone through with, Rebecca saying in conclusion : “Miss Allen is a resident of Chicago, and is the first northerner to commit herself to the tender mercies of Beechcroft.”

“I trust there may be no limit to the mercies,” said Mr. Polk, addressing Marcella, “and I scarcely think you need the assurance that you are among friends. As a preliminary to our better acquaintance, I presume I ought to ask you how you are impressed with the South?”

H

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“I can say, without mental reservation of any sort, that I am charmed with the South, and, to the limit of my experience, have nothing but words of praise.”

“Well, I’m glad of that. We like to impress people pleasantly.”

I conclude from the fact of your being where you now are, that you are going to Nashville to rejoice with us. Am I correct?”

“In the main, yes,” responded Marcella. “You are a Democrat, of course, Mr. Polk?”

“Yes, I am a Democrat, but not of the school that holds to the opinion that whatever is indorsed by a democratic convention is right, and that whatever is indorsed by the opposition is everlastingly and eternally wrong, though I confess the school I refer to is numerically strong and, I presume, eminently respectable. I am a partisan, but not a gudgeon.”

“And what is a gudgeon, pray tell?”

“Well, to be candid with you, I don’t know, beyond the fact that it is a fish, so careless of its future prospects that it will greedily absorb almost any bait that is thrown to it. The sea of politics is alive with these fishes, only valuable when they happen to rise to the lure of someone who is superior to partisan aims.”

“That is a sad reflection upon American citizenship,” said Marcella, but I assume it is correct. Still the schoolmaster is very much abroad in this land of ours; the modern printing press is doing wonders in

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the way of sharpening the wits of the people, and in due course we will become a nation of thinkers, able to weigh theories of government in the balance, and act upon our own conceptions of what is best.”

“That is as it should be, of course, and I trust your high hopes may find fruition in the years to come. The election of Mr. Cleveland justifies hope, for I think it shows the disintegration of blind partisanship. He gave evidence of strength as governor of New York, and I believe as chief executive of the nation will rend the shackles of party, to the extent at least of relegating the mere partisan politician to his proper place, which is nowhere.”

“The unfortunate utterance of the Reverend Doctor Burchard in the speech of welcome to Mr. Blaine, in New York, will assist in ringing the death knell to a period of narrow prejudice.”

“That remark was unfortunate for Mr. Blaine,” said Marcella ; “he did not hear the fateful words, 'Rum, Romanism and Rebellion,’ his mind was occupied with other matters. He supposed Dr. Burchard was making only an ordinary address of welcome.”

“But who will undertake to measure the ways of Providence? As a nation we have progressed so rapidly and attained such brilliant achievements, that a character with Mr. Cleveland’s firmness will tend to steady us, as we approach the closing decade of the i6

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nineteenth century, during which so many kaleidoscopic changes have occurred/’

The whistle of the belated train that was to bear them to Nashville here cut short the discussion between Marcella and her new acquaintance. As Mr. Polk took his departure to rejoin his friends, he said to Marcella that he was glad to have found in their midst a northerner who could rejoice with them and was to bear them company to Tennessee’s capital, there to participate in the first democratic presidential ratification that has occurred in that city since the time when marshaled hosts in Federal uniforms tramped the streets of Tennessee’s capital.

Chapter II. Marcella

“Oh, why should the spirit of mortal be proud?

A flash of the lightning, a break of the wave,

Man passes from life to his rest in the grave.’’

— Lincoln’s Favorite Poem.

The air was fragrant with the perfume of flowers, which, responsive to the ardor of the May sun, were in bloom, this early June morning. Within a small gothic house of prayer, beautifully decorated with a wealth of lilies, ferns and palms, friends awaited expectantly the appearance of the bride, she whose future was to be entrusted to the loving care of another and with whom her fate was to be bound up by the closest tie known to human life. Presently, as the organ pealed forth the joyous notes of Mendelssohn’s Wedding March, an elderly gentleman of commanding appearance came in and upon his arm leaned a young girl, clad in white silk, with bridal veil held by orange blossoms, a bride as fair as the lilies which beautified her surroundings, on this eventful morn. Her favorite sister Doley was escorted by a fine-looking young man, he who was to assume the responsibility of caring for this young bride. Upon the completion of the ceremony, amid the congratulations of friends, EJla Winship, who had become Mrs. Johnston Allen, returned with the bridal party to the home of her father, which stood facing the comparatively empty campus of the now famous University of Michigan, in the town which nature had been so prodigal with, in the matter of natural advantages.

While completing his course in law at Ann Arbor Mr. Allen had won the affections of one of the town’s most charming daughters, and now he had returned to claim her as his bride. Following the wedding was the bridal tour, and after a few pleasant months spent in California and the West the happy husband brought his bride to his quaint, old-fashioned home in Ohio, cozily nestled amid the hills of Columbiana County, with an outlook at one side over the beautiful scenery that makes this section of Ohio so attractive, and on the other showing a sweep of the world’s most traveled highway, the Pennsylvania Railroad. Here, with naught to disturb the quiet of nature, a delicate little girl made her advent into the world, apparently with every assurance that the sunshine of heaven would long lighten her pathway through life. But with this little one, as with so many others who traverse this world of ours, which at best is but a vale of tears, afflictions came early, long before she could realize the weight of the hand that had been laid upon her. When she was but three months of age, God, in his inscrutable wisdom, saw fit to take her mother to Himself. The bereaved father followed the remains of his loved

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one up the winding road to her last resting place in the cemetery of New Waterford, and who could blame him if he bitterly questioned the decree that had made his life, but a few short months before so full of happiness, so wretched?

On account of the mother’s delicate health, the little girl had remained nameless, so the father supplied the omission by calling this mite of humanity, who was to sail out upon life’s tempestuous waters without the guidance of a mother, Marcella. Mr. Allen had acquired landed interests in Iowa, that demanded his attention, and to give them the attention they required was a relief, taking him, as it did, out of himself and away from thoughts and surroundings that unfitted him for a continuance of the battle of life. He loved his little daughter dearly, though she was the guiltless and unconscious cause of his misery, but it was not possible for him to have her with him, when resuming the duties of an active business life : therefore, upon his departure for the West, Marcella was left at the Allen homestead, where she had been born, under the care of her Aunt Doley, her mother’s sister. Here the earlier years of her life were spent, and in her semiloneliness — for she was without a mother, whose place no one else could fill — imbibed ideas that were to influence her to devote her energies to an effort to help others. She led a dreamy life, communing with nature, and absorbed notions that, while not impairing

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a naturally joyous temperament, relieved her of the impulsiveness common to childhood. She was fond of animal life and lavished her young affections upon all who suffered, and were oppressed, and those whose environments invited pity.

Her aunt, when Marcella was ten years of age, became the wife of a distinguished officer of the United States army, having headquarters at Chicago, and as Mr. Allen, Marcella’s father, with his varied interests in the West, was unable to give his daughter the home and surroundings her tender years required, he w as glad to avail himself of the proposition of the aunt, within whose affections Marcella had made for herself a warm place, which was that the child should accompany her to Chicago. In this wise Marcella became a resident of Fort Sheridan, which is a military post contiguous to the westerti metropolis. In her occasional visits to the large city she caught a glimpse of some of the miseries that infest vast communities of people closely assembled. She got something of an idea of the fruitless struggle that was going on among the masses to escape the ever-present misery of hunger. She saw the pinched and hungry looks of countless ill-clad children, and within her breast the thought took root that the evil was of man’s devising, for she never doubted God’s love for His children.

She was a strange child, in that she developed an active interest in matters not usually absorbed by the

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youthful mind. She acquainted herself with prevailing political thought, which incited her to a study of the nation’s history, and through the kindness of her uncle, who was disposed to look upon her as a unique sort of person, she was permitted to accompany him to the national Republican and Democratic conventions that were held in Chicago in 1884. Marcella took great interest in the characteristics of the two famous Americans who were chosen to head the rival tickets — Blaine, the magnetic, who later asked that a tree that had been shattered by lightning, might mark his last resting place, as significant of his wrecked life, and Cleveland, the sturdy, for whom fate destined such wise achievements, who steered the ship of state with wisdom, despite the rocks and shoals of our rapidly developing nation, who displayed the indomitable courage of a Jefferson and the iron will of a Jackson, and who will grow in honor and in the love of his fellow countrymen with the growth of years.

The demands of the service made it necessary for Marcella’s uncle to remove to Fort Whipple, Prescott, Arizona. Captain Turtle was to be accompanied by his wife, so it was suggested to the father that Marcella, who by this time had developed into a strikingly attractive young woman and was in need of the companionship of those more nearly her own age, from which she had been debarred by circumstances, be permitted to attend a private school in

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Tennessee, with the principal of which her Aunt Doley was intimately acquainted, the two having been pupils together at Georgetown Convent, Washington. Mr. Allen being nothing averse, Marcella became enrolled as a scholar at Beechcroft School, New Springfield, Tenn.

Chapter III. Nashville

“Liberty and Union, now and forever, one and inseparable.”

— Daniel Webster.

The dim-burning lamps and the dull rumble of the train were having a soporific effect upon the company of excursionists who were returning to their homes from Nashville after having participated in the Democratic ratification ceremonies there. There had been boundless enthusiasm, and enthusiasm is wearing. For any mental exuberance, there must be physical compensation, not differing materially from the compensation demanded by nature for an expenditure of muscular force. Fatigue results from either and recuperation comes only with rest.

In the main it was a somnolent crowd. Marcella was seated with her friend Rebecca, and, having exhausted as a topic of conversation the experiences of the evening at the capital city, they were anticipating the school duties of the ensuing Monday, and Rebecca was wondering whether it would not have been as well to have foregone the fatigues of sight-seeing and applied themselves to the absorption of the knowledge that is contained in school books.

While thus engaged, Mr. Polk, who had been elsewhere in the train, made his appearance. He said to 23

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the two young ladies: “Someone, who spoke as though he knew what he was talking about, has said that apples contain phosphate, hence are excellent food for the brain. I have enlisted the services of the train boy, with his apple basket, and I invite you to discuss its contents.” Marcella and Rebecca availed themselves of the opportunity offered and warmly thanked Mr. Polk for his thoughtfulness. The latter said: “By the way, Miss Marcella, let me ask you, as a northerner, what you think of the way the Democrats of Nashville gave vent to their enthusiasm over the election of our new president? I hope you both enjoyed the ratification ceremonies?”

“To be frank with you,” said Rebecca, “I did not see much to enjoy, for we reached the city so late. Marcella was so quiet that I presume she felt as I did, that we would have been more comfortable if we had remained at home and given needed attention to our lessons for next Monday.”

“You shall not speak for me, Rebecca,” said Marcella, “for what you have said does not outline my feelings. I was quiet because I was much impressed by the first sight that greeted my eyes upon the streets of Nashville, the sentiment, in huge letters upon the floats, ‘No North, no South, no East, no West.’ I feel rather ashamed to have to admit that the sentiment in the North is not so broad, and very many of our politicians feel impelled to dilate upon ‘the solid

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South.’ The influences of my life have led me to believe in the Republican party, but I love our whole country so well that I am glad a Democratic president has been elected, since the southerners, in their hour of victory, avail themselves of the opportunity to give expression to such generous sentiments. In the North I have heard it declared that the election of a Democratic president would precipitate another armed conflict between the sections, whereas, in the South I find that it only calls forth the strongest sentiments ofdoyalty to the Union.”

“I am deeply pleased to have a northerner find by actual observation that the South accepts the results of the terrible contest, which came near to rending our nation asunder, which bathed our country in blood, consumed our treasure and wrecked our material interests,” said Mr. Polk. “Our fathers defended what they believed were their constitutional rights with as much courage as was ever displayed by men, and it was not until every resource had been exhausted and they were crushed by an accumulation of evils, the full measure of which their enemies knew not of, that they acknowledged as lost the cause for which they had battled. We southerners of to-day willingly accept the conditions which the circumstances of our fathers’ lives made it so difficult for them to bear. We believe it was misguided agitation that brought on the terrible crisis that drank up the blood of more than half

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a million men — of those of the South who bared their breasts in defense of their rights and of those of the North who fought for the preservation of the Union. If politicians had spent the same energy in solving the slavery question that was expended by them in denouncing the South and stirring up dissensions, the war would have been avoided. If our statesmen had been imbued with the same noble, generous sentiments of Lincoln, a compromise would probably have been effected by which the South would have been paid for her slaves and the balance in the population would have been adjusted by distributing the negroes throughout the states. The government would have given the negroes the opportunity to better their condition and become as strong citizens as their inherent capacity would permit. A plan of this kind would have been eminently beneficial to civilization and to commerce and would have cost the nation in taxation only a small amount compared with the expenses of the war, which sacrificed so many brave lives and left such terrible after effects. The death of Lincoln, whose kind heart felt such sympathy for all people, whose strong mental faculties planned for the welfare of the whole nation, may be said to have been the culmination of the cross purposes of forty years of politics. Earnestly do I hope that the terrible price we paid for a lack of wisdom in settling the slavery problem may incite us to the acquirement of higher intel-

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ligence in grappling with other great questions that will confront us as a nation. But I may be consuming your time in a discussion of topics in which you find little interest?”

“As for myself,” said Marcella, “I am interested in all questions that relate to the life of which we form a part. Some time ago I read about Jefferson and Monroe getting up at night and meditating, while they held huge folios. I admired these two wise and broad-minded statesmen so much that I had a desire to emulate them. I took a large book to my room and as I was about to retire Aunt Doley came in and desired to know what I was going to do with it. I told her, but her advice was that I do more sleeping and less thinking, if I hoped to grow strong. She wanted to take the book, but I insisted on carrying out my idea. Toward morning I awoke, and seating myself on the edge of the bed, turned to my book. The result did not meet my anticipations, for all that I could think of was that I was sleepy. At breakfast I was asked how my experiment had succeeded and I was forced to confess that I had reached a conclusion that I could never hope to save the country, for I found it quite ‘impossible {to sit up at night and think. I was laughed at but told not to become discouraged, so I have continued to take an interest in affairs, though I have sometimes wondered why I should have thought about the saving of the country when there was no apparent reason for saving it.