The New York Times — 1900

Fellow-Physicians Honor Dr. Jacobi

Nearly 400 of his fellow-physicians united in honoring Dr. Abraham Jacobi at a banquet at Delmonico's last night on the occasion of his seventieth birthday.

The large banquet hall was used, and among those at the guests' table were Dr. Joseph D. Bryant, who presided; Seth Low, ex-Secretary of the Treasury Charles S. Fairchild, Carl Schurz, Daniel S. Lamont, Dr. E. J. Janeway, Charities Commissioner John W. Keller, Dr. William H. Thomson, Dr. John S. Billings, Joseph Laroque, and Dr. William Osler.

At other tables were William Dean Howells, I. N. Seligman, Dr. D. B. St. John Roosa, Dr. J. A. McCorkie, Simon Sterne, Dr. F. H. Markee, Dr. G. F. Shrady, Dr. L. L. Seaman, Mr. P. F. Sondern, and Horace E. Deming.

Dr. Jacobi sat between Dr. Bryant and Carl Schurz under a cluster of American flags. A large number of women occupied the gallery.

The menu cards contained an etched vignette of Dr. Jacobi. Dr. Jacobi was born in Hurtum, Westphalia, on May 6, 1830. He was educated at Goettingen and Bonn. He enlisted in the “Young German” army in 1848, and served three years in prison for treason. He came to New York in 1853.

DR. BRYANT'S EULOGY

Dr. Bryant, in opening the post-prandial talks, said of Dr. Jacobi, among other things:

“Fortunate, indeed, it is, in the affairs of this life, that worthy and well-directed efforts addressed to the securing of personal and public betterment, frequently beget, though ofttimes somewhat tardily, the sentiments of abiding confidence and esteem for those who prudently proclaim their importance and diligently labor for their attainment.

“It should be recognized at the outset that the observances of the evening are not devoted more to the learned gentleman whom we so delight to honor, than to the recognition of those ennobling virtues of which he is the embodiment.

“The notable examples of the beneficient labors of our esteemed friend in the exercise of his professional skill and fraternal devotion are singularly akin to each other in their inception and in their spirit.

“In the one example he dedicated through various channels of bounty, the full measure of his professional sagacity and fervor to the alleviation and cure of the suffering incident to the freedom of individual birth. In the other we are taught by the history of his fatherland that he bestowed a like measure of patriotic zeal to liberty's cause, fostering the birth of individual freedom.

“To the former service the ripe abundance of his years has been given, to the latter the richness of his youth was well-nigh sacrificed; with both, his name is indelibly recorded as the wise physician and the uncompromising patriot.

“Medical thought and medical progress, here and abroad, bear abundant evidence of the potent influence on their status of the products of his studious, logical mind. Thousands of physicians, while students in medicine and at bedside consultation, have gained of inspiration and comfort from his teachings and advice in a degree equaled only by that of the fortunate recipients of his professional ministrations.”

DR. MITCHELL'S POEM.

Letters were read by Dr. Sondern from universities, professors, and distinguished medical men in all parts of the world — from Bonn, Berlin, St. Petersburg, Constantinople, Barcelona, London, Leipsic, Weisbaden, and most of the large cities of the United States, including a letter from Dr. S. Weir Mitchell, the following poem by whom was read by Dr. R. U. Johnson:

ABRAHAM JACOBI.

Medicus, Magister, Amicus.

No honors hath the State for you whose life From youth to age has known one single end. Take from our lips two well-won titles now, “Magister et Amicus” — Master, Friend.

From the gray summit of attainment you Look on the rugged path you knew to climb. Take, with our thanks, for high example set The palm of honor in this festal time.

Constant and brave, in no ignoble cause, The hopes of freedom armed thy sturdy youth; As true and brave in the maturer years Thy ardent struggle in the cause of truth.

Nor prison bars, nor yet the lonely cell, Could break thy vigor of unconquered will; And the gray years which build as cruel walls Have found and left thee ever victor still.

Ave Magister! take from us to-night The well-earned praise of all who love our art For this long lesson of unending work, For strength of brain and precious wealth of heart.

Your busy hand gives much; but, oh, far more, The gallant soul that teaches how to meet Unfriended exile, sorrow, want, and all That crush the weak with failure and defeat.

We gave you here a home; you well have paid With many gifts proud freedom's generous hand That bade you largely breathe a freer air And made you welcome to a freer land.

Ave Amicus! if round this board Are they who watched you thro' laborious years, Beyond these walls, in many a grateful home, Your step dismissed a thousand pallid fears.

That kindly face, that gravely tender look, Thro' darkened hours how many a mother knew! And in that look won sweet reprieve of hope. Sure that all earth could give was there with you.

Ave Magister! Many be the years That lie before thee, thronged with busy hours! Ave Amicus! take our earnest prayer That all their ways fair fortune strew with flowers.

ESTIMATES OF HIS WORK.

Dr. Thomson, responding to the first toast, “Dr. Jacobi, the Physician,” said that he knew of Dr. Jacobi's work on the diseases of women and children before he came to this city, thirty-eight years ago. His first impression of him on hearing him address an audience was that he was a stray archangel. He spoke of the doctor's great benignancy, and of his qualities as a diagnostician. Dr. Thomson said he had worked with Dr. Jacobi for many years, and one of the characteristics of the man which had most impressed him in the sick room was his careful observation of cases. Then reference was made to Dr. Jacobi's advance through the stages of development in the medical science, notably in that of micro-organisms.

Dr. Osler treated of “Dr. Jacobi, the Scientist,” dwelling upon his adapting himself to the intellectual processes in the changes of time. Dr. Osler spoke of some of Jacobi's writings, laughingly saying that he had been able to go through all of them in two weeks, while it would take two months to go through the mass of works of younger men, intimating very strongly that there was more to be learned in two weeks' reading of some works than in a longer period devoted to certain other writings.

President Low of Columbia spoke of “Dr. Jacobi in Relation to Medical Education.” He referred to Dr. Jacobi's relation to the College of Physicians and Surgeons, which was a part of Columbia University, and said that he was very sure that the Trustees would not allow the year to pass without recognition of Dr. Jacobi's thirty-five years of brilliant and faithful service. He referred to Dr. Jacobi's declining an invitation from the University of Berlin, saying that here he had received his opportunities, and to this country he would give his labors.

CARL SCHURZ'S ADDRESS.

Carl Schurz, responding to the toast, “Dr. Jacobi as a Citizen,” said:

“Of Dr. Jacobi's friends assembled here, I am, no doubt, the oldest — probably the oldest in years, and certainly the oldest in friendship — for that friendship can look back upon just a half century of uninterrupted, and, I may add, unclouded duration. It was in the year 1850 in the German University town of Bonn, on the Rhine, that we first met. He was then still a student of medicine in regular standing. I was already an exile, but had recently come back to Germany, engaged in a somewhat adventurous enterprise connected with the revolutionary movements of that period — an enterprise which made it necessary to conceal my whereabouts from those in power, with whom my relations were at the time, to speak within bounds, somewhat strained. I had the best reasons for

desiring to avoid persons whose ill-will or indiscretion might have brought me into touch with the constituted authorities. It was then that a mutual friend introduced Jacobi and me to each other.”

Mr. Schurz talked principally of those early days, and then of his knowledge of Dr. Jacobi as a fellow-citizen in the new world.

Dr. Arpad G. Gerster then made the presentation to Dr. Jacobi of the “Festschrift,” a magnificent volume containing contributions from the pens of fifty-three medical men of note. Dr. Jacobi hugged the volume and kissed it as Dr. Gerster made the presentation address, saying:

“Mr. Chairman, permit me through you to ask Dr. Jacobi to accept this volume as kindly as it is offered. Let it serve as the outward token of our affectionate regard. Permit me also to extend to him the sincere wish for his long-continued health and happiness. May it be granted to him to enjoy the sunny afternoon of a useful life in the mellow atmosphere of philosophical contentment, surrounded by those whom he loves best. Vivat, crescat, floreat!”

DR. JACOBI'S REPLY.

Dr. Jacobi was much moved when he arose to speak. He said:

“I wish I could proceed from man to man and in silence press your hands. For words of mine do not suffice for the throng of feelings that swell my heart.

“I take it for granted that I am expected to speak, in part, I suppose, on the topic of the evening — myself. But how? And what? I have been eulogized as if I were dead. Not being quite dead yet, I should not join in the praise. On the other hand, to speak derogatorily of my doings would be discourteous to those who expressed their good opinions.”

Dr. Jacobi found for his subject the record of the advance in medicine since he came here, nearly half a century ago, touching in turn upon medical literature, the growth of the societies and schools, hospitals, and dispensaries. Touching upon his own work as a physician he said:

“In accordance with me democratic schooling, I was fortunate enough to have respect for the individual. That is why I found it easy to imagine myself in the place of a patient and to spare his feelings if I could not preserve his life. Where you cannot save you can still comfort. I never told a patient he had to die of his illness, and I hope I shall never be so careless or so indolent as to do so in future. The magnetic needle of professional rectitude should, in spite of occasional deviations, always point in the direction of pity and humanity. Another lesson I learned early was this, that my patient had to be treated, and not the name of his disease.”

In conclusion, Dr. Jacobi said:

“And this ‘Festschrift!’ These last weeks I wondered many a time, and I do so now, that I should be the receiver of that honor. When many years ago heroes like Virchow and then, again, Henoch were to be held up for the admiration of the medical world on both occasions I had the privilege of co-operating in the expression of the estimation in which they were held. This distinction is rare even in the country of my birth.

“That the country which adopted me and gave me a peer among peers, opportunities to work, should in true cosmopolitan spirit adopt this method, rare enough in Germany, of raising a man to the greatest possible height of distinction and make him shine above all men — and this man I — is far, far beyond what was the culmination of all my possible hopes.”

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Anti-Imperialists in Mass Meeting

The mass meeting held last night in Cooper Union under the auspices of the Anti-Imperialist League of New York for the purpose of advocating an anti-expansion policy started with a large and somewhat quiet audience. As the evening wore on the audience diminished, but the enthusiasm increased so that when the last speakers had finished the auditorium was only half full, but almost every one in the audience was cheering at the top of his voice. The speakers of the evening were Carl Schurz, George S. Boutwell of Massachusetts, and Capt. Patrick O'Farrel of Washington, formerly of the Sixty-ninth Regiment.

Mr. Boutwell read a long speech in which he attempted to show that the action taken by the American Government in the Philippines was a direct violation of the provisions of the Constitution. He also cited at some length several of the arguments advanced in favor of the expansion policy and attempted to show that they were fallacious. He accused President McKinley of resorting to pretexts in order to lead the country into a war, and said that he alone was responsible for the condition of affairs in the Philippines.

CARL SCHURZ'S APPEAL.

Mr. Schurz in his speech urged his hearers to put an end to the war in the Philippines by the overthrow of the Republican Party at the next election, and declared that the United States had broken its faith in its dealings with the Filipinos. His speech aroused a great deal of enthusiasm, and he was forced to stop speaking several times until the applause should subside.

Capt. O'Farrel, who came last on the list, addressed only half the audience that had assembled at the beginning of the meeting. He made a hit, however, by an attack on President McKinley, and kept his audience cheering and shouting all through his speech.

At the close of the meeting a set of resolutions was adopted censuring the imperialistic policy of the Government, advocating the cessation of the war and the recognition of the right of the Philippines to independence on the same basis as that of the Cubans.

Ernest H. Crosby, who presided, opened the meeting with a speech, in which he said that the Filipinos would derive anything but benefit from the spread of the American industrial system.

“Better that the islands be robbed by Spain,” he said, “than by a friend of Senator Beveridge. People with delicate nerves may fear that the anti-imperialist party will be identified with the silver party. They need have no such fear. There is no silver question this year. It is only a Nebraska delusion. If Washington were alive to-day, I think that he would feel more at home with Aguinaldo than in our army. What an opportunity President McKinley has lost!”

MR. BOUTWELL'S SPEECH.

When Mr. Crosby mentioned the President's name he was interrupted by a chorus of hisses. When they had subsided he introduced the first speaker, Mr. Boutwell, who was greeted with a great burst of applause. His speech was in part as follows:

“I have set before myself the task of specifying some of the errors in which President McKinley and his Administration have indulged in regard to the Constitution of the United States, and I shall then mention some of the pretexts that have been resorted to as apologies or excuses or shields for what has been done.

“Of many propositions that may be laid down concerning the Constitution of the United States, no one can be more worthy of universal acceptance than this, namely: The Constitution cannot, of its own force, apply to territory that is not of the United States.

“A second proposition, which seems to justify itself without argument, is this: The Constitution by its own force applies equally and everywhere and always to every part of the United States.

“Following the preamble to the Constitution, and standing at the head of all things and of all declarations else, are these words: 'All legislative powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and House of Representatives.' Hence it follows that Congress must find authority in the Constitution for each and every of its legislative acts.

“We have the right to acquire territory, but we must govern it under the Constitution. Any further attempt is a criminal usurpation.

THE POWER OF CONGRESS.

“The power of Congress to legislate over acquired territory is so limited that the duties, imposts, and excises must be the same in the newly acquired possessions as in the pre-existing States and Territories. The claim that Congress can extend the Constitution over Porto Rico or the Philippines is an assumption of arbitrary power that must prove fatal to our republican system. A dissenting opinion has been given by Mr. Whitelaw Reid.

“America has caught the land-grabbing disease from England. The speeches of the President indicate that he is going to ask us to vote for what we know is wrong and that he will adopt various pretexts to conceal his own wrongdoing. Was not the statement that the war was ended and that civil rule was to be established a pretext designed to mislead this country?

“Nothing more brutal could have occurred than the assassination of twenty-four Filipinos last March after one of our officers had been killed. [Cheers and hisses.]

“There will be an inquiry, investigation, scrutiny upon the question of the fitness of President McKinley for his office.

PRESIDENT'S RESPONSIBILITY.

“There are those who admit the badness of the President's policy and who yet exonerate the President. If the President is a man of ability, as I think he is, then he alone is responsible for his policy. If, as some assume, the President is a weak man and under the influence of bad advisers, then, manifestly, his rule in office ought not to be extended. If the President's policy is a bad policy, it is immaterial whether the policy originated with the President or with advisers by whom he has been misled. In either case he is thereby unfitted for the office of President.

“Has any one from the President along the line of imperialists taken upon himself the responsibility of the assertion that the condition of the United States, or its fortunes present or prospective, have been improved by the acquisition of a paper title to the Philippine Islands?

“There are supporters of the Administration who are not content with the possession of the Philippines, but who advocate a warlike undertaking to extend our trade into China.

“Russia has gained more in the last five years by peaceful means than England has gained by war in the closing quarter of this century. The British Empire in India is now embraced in the arms of Russia.”

REFERS TO MR. HANNA.

Mr. Boutwell closed by saying:

“In the year 1895 or 1896 a man emerged from the obscurity of unrecognized citizenship, and in the intervening time he had advanced himself to the head of the Republican Party, and without delay he became the apparent director of its policy.

He contributed most largely to the nomination and election of President McKinley.

“Following the inauguration, he secured a seat in the Senate by the enforced retirement of a statesman who, in an experience of forty years, had never before yielded to the menaces of those in power, nor been misled by vain promises. During the three years now ended this man, so recently unknown, has stood before the country as the author of our public policy. This may be error, but in the month of April, 1900, he announced the renomination of President McKinley, and predicted his re-election.

“At the same time the Republican Party waited in submissive silence for his utterance in regard to a candidate for the Vice Presidency. All this appears to have been the outcome of immense energy in one man, combined with unlimited resources in money. For the moment the combination is supreme in the Republican Party.

“And thus a party that became historically great for its victories in war and for its achievements in peace bows in subserviency to a self-created dictator.

“What is the remedy? The party must be overthrown, and in its downfall the dictatorship will disappear, and in a quadrennial period, or in a decade, the party, regenerated, may come again to the head of affairs in the Republic.”

WELCOME TO CARL SCHURZ.

Carl Schurz, who was introduced next, was greeted with a roar of applause that lasted for several moments. He opened his speech by saying that he felt convinced that if the imperialistic policy was submitted to a popular vote on its merits it would be indignantly rejected by the American people. Its defenders are aware of this, he said, and make special efforts to mislead the intelligence of the people by pretending that their opponents were afraid to meet the responsibilities devolved upon the country by the late Spanish war.

“We went into the war for the purpose of helping the Cubans in their struggle for liberty,” he continued. “Then came Dewey's victory at Manila Bay. The case of the Philippine Islands was in all respects similar to Cuba. But the Filipinos had a stronger claim on us than the Cubans. They acted most efficiently as our allies. We permitted them to believe that in fighting on the same side with us they were fighting for their own independence. We permitted them to believe this until we had troops enough on the field to make us masters of the situation.”

“WAR OF CONQUEST.”

“Thus we deliberately turned our loudly-vaunted war of liberation and humanity into a shameless war of conquest.

“Then the conflict wantonly provoked by the President's order came. We destroyed by force the Government the Filipinos had set up — a very respectable Government, as all competent witnesses testify — a far better Government than the insurgent Cubans ever had. We carried death and devastation into the towns and villages of our late allies. We killed many, many thousands of them, and still go on killing them at the rate of 1,000 to 1,500 a month, for no other reason than that, as we call it, they refuse to submit to our sovereignty; but, as it may in truth be called, for no other reason than that our former allies object to being sold and bought like a herd of cattle, and that they still demand that liberty and independence to which by the principle we ourselves had affirmed in the case of Cuba they are rightfully entitled.

“I have always believed that the republic of Washington and Lincoln should and would always recognize it as the first and highest responsibility to give to the world an example of good faith and perfect justice in the recognition of the rights of others, be they ever so humble. Unless I am altogether wrong in this belief, our true responsibilities in the case of the Philippines demand not that we regard it as a mere academic question how we got them, or that we should keep the stolen goods under the sanctimonious pretense of benevolent purposes, but that, as an honest and righteous people, we should restore them to their rightful owners.

“Our imperialists, determined to make the Philippine Islanders our subjects, find no end of reasons to show that those people cannot be their own masters. It might even be shown in the same way that the people of New York City, or of Philadelphia, or of Chicago have proved themselves unable to govern themselves.

ON THE CUBAN FRAUDS.

“The fine pretense that we must subjugate them in order to teach and secure to them honest government is probably not as proudly insisted upon to-day as it was a month ago. It is not too much to say that the recent disclosures in Cuba have advertised our disgrace in that respect to the whole world more glaringly than it had ever been advertised before. Nor can we flatter ourselves with the belief that the Cuban instance is an isolated one. Some time ago Gen. Otis issued an order against evil practices in our administration of things in the Philippines, which clearly indicated that our service there was honeycombed with corruption.

“The declaration of the Administration leader in the House of Representatives that we want to make all the money we can out of the Philippines and the equally brutal appeals to greed put forth by the Denbys and the Beveridges are by this time generally taken to reveal the true spirit of the enterprise.”

“What the American people really think,” concluded Mr. Schurz, “they will soon have an opportunity for declaring, and I know that an overwhelming majority of the American people will show themselves eager to demonstrate their moral soundness by washing their hands of this bloody iniquity, and by thus making it manifest that the Republic of Washington and Lincoln still lives.”

THE RESOLUTIONS.

Mr. Schurz's speech being concluded, the Chairman partially stopped the exodus that followed by reading the following set of resolutions:

Resolved, That when our present National Administration turned the war against Spain which had been by a solemn resolution of Congress commended to the approval of the American people and to the good opinion of civilized mankind as being solely a war of liberation and humanity, into a war of conquest and “criminal aggression,” it committed a flagrant breach of faith and most seriously discredited the profession and the character of the Republic in the eyes of the world.

Resolved, That the imperialistic policy of subjugating foreign countries and populations to our sovereignty and arbitrary rule is absolutely subversive of the primary principles upon which this Republic is founded, and utterly repugnant to the political ideas, beliefs, and traditions which so far have been the pride of the American people as well as to the spirit of our Constitution; and that if that policy be persisted in, it will inevitably bring about the overthrow of our democratic institutions.

Resolved, That the attempt to subjugate the Philippine Islands to the sovereign rule of the United States is especially heinous and disgraceful in view of the fact that the Filipinos had to all intents and purposes been our allies in our war with Spain, and had rendered valuable service as such; that while accepting such service and profiting from it, we permitted our Filipino allies to believe that they were fighting for their own independence; that without allowing them to be heard in our peace negotiations with Spain, we enacted and obtained from Spain the cession of sovereignty over the country rightfully belonging to our allies, which sovereignty we know Spain did no longer possess and could not deliver; that the President, even before the peace treaty had acquired any legal force by the assent of the Senate, by flagrant usurpation of power, ordered the navy to enforce that sovereignty which amounted to a declaration of war against the Filipinos striving for independence; that when the Filipinos refused to submit, we killed many thousands of them and devastated their homes in order to subjugate them by force, and that this betrayal of our allies constitutes one of the basest acts of perfidy and cruel inhumanity every perpetrated by any tyrant in the history of the world.

Resolved, That it is the plain duty of the American people to stop the bloody war against the Philippines, to recognize their right and title to freedom and independence on the same basis on which we have recognized the right of the Cubans, and to withdraw our armed forces from those islands as soon as they may no longer be needed to assist and protect the people thereof in setting up and maintaining an independent Government.

Resolved, That the question of imperialism overshadows in importance all other public questions; that the approval or disapproval of the imperialistic policy pursued by the present Administration should be the supreme issue in the coming National election, and that all American citizens having the good name and the best interests of our country and the integrity and perpetuity of our free institutions at heart should unite in an earnest effort to secure the condemnation of that policy, and the sternest possible rebuke of its authors and promoters by a decisive popular vote.

CAPT. O'FARREL'S SPEECH.

Capt. O'Farrel, the last speaker, found his audience already aroused to a state of enthusiasm. He said in part:

“The thing that McKinley is doing has a religious side to it. There are 7,000,000 Catholics in the Philippines, and the Friars there own 20,000,000 acres of land. McKinley wants to restore it to them. (Hisses).

“He wants to end the war before the next election, but he won't do it. He's a wobbler. One day he goes and preaches to the boys in a Catholic Summer school about the flag, the next week he's down in Asbury Park preaching to a Methodist Sunday school there, and the next week he's making a treaty with a heathen Sultan, recognizing polygamy and slavery.

Then you'll see him the next day on knees to the Pope of Rome.

“I'm a Catholic myself,” concluded Capt. O'Farrel; “but if I had a chance I would take that land away from those friars. I don't believe in joining the State and the Church, and I think that Mr. McKinley is the worst and most dangerous man we could have in the Presidential chair.”

Capt. O'Farrel sat down amid general applause, and the audience, after unanimously adopting the resolutions that had been read, dispersed.

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Mr. Winston Churchill's Capture

I turned and ran between the rails of the track, and the only thought I achieved was this: "Boer marksmanship." Two bullets passed, both within a foot on either side. I flung myself against the banks of the cutting. But they gave no cover. Another glance at the figures: one was now kneeling to aim. Again I darted forward. Movement seemed the only chance. Again two soft kisses sucked in the air, but nothing struck me. This could no endure. I must get out of the cutting - that damnable corridor. I scrambled up the bank. The earth sprang up beside me, and something touched my hand, but outside the cutting was a tiny depression. I crouched in this, struggling to get my wind. On the other side of the railway a horseman galloped up shouting to me and waving his hand. He was scarcely forty yards off. With a rifle I could have killed him easily. I knew nothing of white flags and the bullets had made me savage. I reached down for my Mauser pistol.