ciates, rather than his advisers and servants, confirmed by the Senate, which never refuses its approval except for causes of the most scandalous nature, or for reasons of extreme partisan feeling; the Speaker of the House of Representatives, who is elected as such by his fellow-congressmen at the dictation of a clique, or as the result of a compromise between the factions and the personal ambitions of the dominant party; the Chairman of the Standing Committee on Appropriations, and the Chairman of the Standing Committee on Ways and Means, both appointed by the Speaker, leading men in Congress, and generally his rivals for the Speakership." "This grave conflict between actual practice and constitutional theory," he attributes to the working of the rules of Congress; and referring the reader to Mr. Woodrow Wilson's book on Congressional Government for further analysis of it, goes on to speak more specifically of the Secretary of State, who "by hasty action, by an intemperate or ill-timed insistence on national or individual rights, by even a want of tact or a hasty word. . . may embroil us with other powers, may involve us in the political complications of other continents, or may bring upon us all the evils of a foreign war. By an ignorance of precedent, by an act of good nature, or in an impulsive moment, he may give up rights that we have jealously claimed for a century . . . By the negotiation of a treaty he may .. draw the country into a scheme of annexation, saddle us with a colony, or the protectorate of a distant country. In fact, our Secretaries of State have been habitually very cautious, but "the possibilities of what an enterprising and inexperienced Secretary, ignorant of foreign countries, might do for us, unless he were sur rounded by thoroughly trained and skilled subordinates, are such as to make this branch of our government worthy of special study." One Secretary, whom the author names only as "the one who remained the shortest time in office," but who is easily recognizable, in the six days of his incumbency changed the majority of this corps of subordinates, for "new and inexperienced men, appointed solely for partisan political services "--to the disaster of the service. The importance of the "thoroughly trained and skilled subordinates" is thus as apparent as that of a competent Secretary. This is especially important in the foreign representative corps. No one can be appointed to the British consular service, unless he has passed an examination showing an accurate knowledge of the English language, a fluent command of French (the common language of European diplomacy), a fair knowledge of the language in use at the port to which he is going, of British mercantile and commercial law, and of such arithmetic as is necessary for making up his tables and reports. He must, in most cases, remain at least three months in the Foreign Office, to learn its methods; and he is expected, besides, to give evidence of courtesy, tact, decision, and to have knowledge of the law of nations. For admission to the French consular service, one must be French, between twenty and twenty-five years of age; "must have a diploma as bachelor of arts, science, or laws," or else be a graduate of one of nine specified technical schools, or hold the commission of an officer in the active army or navy. He must then pass examination on the governmental systems of France and other countries; general principles of international, commercial, and maritime law; the history of treaties, and political and commercial geography; the elements of political economy, and English or German. After three years' service he must pass another examination of the same nature, for promotion. Other governments exact like preparation. For a United States consul, it is not even required that he should be able to read and write the English language correctly; and as may be easily imagined, our national dignity is sometimes seriously wounded by the inability of some consul-appointed entirely without. qualification, for partisan services-to appear with decent credit beside those of other nations at the same port. Not only our failure to exact any preparation for the service, but our inadequate re muneration, puts the national dignity at a disadvantage as compared with other nations. From the Secretary of State down, the salaries in our service are such as make it impossible to preserve the appearances that are expected of the position. It is becoming notorious that, since it has become necessary for the Secretary of State to offer so much hospitality, it is impossible for any one to take the place who is not able and willing to supplement his salary of $8,000 from his independent fortune. Consuls-general receive from $2,000 to $6,000, consuls from $1,000, with permission to engage in business, to $4,000 (only one receiving $4,000, and $2,500 being a high average). Most ir regular fees are now abolished, and the regular fees are counted on the salary; so that, in fact, the expense of the service was, until last year, more than covered by the fees. In 1883 the government received a surplus of nearly fifty-six thousand dollars, and in 1884 of over thirty-six thousand. The British service costs about three hundred and fifty thousand dollars more than ours: be sides salaries from $5,000 to $12,500 to consuls-general, and sometimes as high as $6,000 and $7,500 to consuls, it gives permanent tenure of office, and prospect of promotion and of pension. Thus any young man may enter upon the service, with reasonable hope of coming to the highest salary and best position in time, if he shows himself competent; and the result is a most desirable and efficient corps. It will be seen that a little more liberality, and an extension of civil service examinations to this department (with a requirement of good English, of French, of the necessary knowledge of arithmetic, of commercial and international law, of treaties, of our own government, and of the language and government of the country to which the candidate wishes to go) would not only raise the efficiency and dignity of the corps greatly, but would also open an honorable and safe career to many young men, and put a stop to the hordes of consulateseekers at Washington that now supply abundant material for newspaper scoffing. ETC. WE find it necessary to repeat at intervals an announcement that was made at the outset of the present series of THE OVERLAND, viz: that one object of its existence was to furnish a free forum for expression of opinion upon subjects of public policy. A newspaper, on most public questions, has its own side, and no other; it is the advocate of one party or policy, and its own editorial pleas on its own side constitute nearly all the reader can find on the subject. Rarely, communications backing it up are added; still more rarely, an occasional communication controverting its position. But the position of a magazine is totally different. Its editorial expressions are, at most, only a small fraction of those given currency in its pages. Of the four representative magazines of the country, the "Atlantic" publishes nothing but book notices editorially; "Harper's Monthly" confines editorial comment to literary and social topics of a general sort; the "Century" and the OVERLAND only occasionally take editorial position upon some controverted point, when it either is of so great importance as to need the union of all voices possible as the civil service reform-or calls for the expression of some view overlooked by both, or all, the discussing parties. The long intervals at which a magazine is published are of themselves sufficient to rule it out of the field of editorial controversy; it could be answered thirty times before it could answer again. On the other hand, it is the natural vehicle of comprehensive articles upon matters in discussion--such articles as require considerable time for preparation, and are so far a complete presentation of the argument as to be entitled to more permanent form than the daily or weekly can give them. In England, we find a very considerable and influential part of political discussion, upon measures of large importance, thus carried on in the "reviews" and magazines. There is, perhaps, less of it here, but it forms a proper and considerable part of a magazine's function. The OVERLAND announced at the outset that it offered a forum-otherwise wanting in this State--for the hearing of both sides of any public question not of a party nature; provided, of course, the papers offered were, in intelligence, in literary quality, in temper, and so forth, suitable. This was consistently our course in the matter of the Chinese exclusion discussion, and we had supposed it thereby so well defined that we have been a little surprised to find the OVERLAND commented on as having "taken sides" in the Riparian Rights controversy, by publishing, over the signature of the author, without any expression of editorial opinion, a contributed article upon the subject. Let us repeat, again, we accept no responsibility for the views of our contributors, beyond that implied in our having judged them worthy of a reasonable hearing. Our issues of May and June, 1885, show that we have given such hearing to several sides of the Riparian discussion, and probably shall to more, as occasion offers. THE experience of the San Francisco Boys' High School is a matter of considerable importance to the civilization of the community, and calls for some comment here. It was certainly sufficiently mortifying that for two years this high school-nominally the principal one in the State-should have been admitted with doubt and reluctance into the number of those privileged to graduate their pupils directly into the University. Most of our readers are aware that the privilege was given this year only with a published statement from the University of the marked deficiencies which must be corrected before there could be any great probability of its being retained. This rebuke was merely an unmistakably emphatic assertion of what was already well known-that the school was in a bad condition, and fallen well to the rear among the high schools of the State. It is not worth while to try to fix the blame for this state of affairs upon any one it was partly due to political faction in the administration of school affairs, partly to wrong placing of excellent men. The thing that is now of most importance is to note that the public has, since the reorganization of the school, good and sufficient assurance that it will be managed with energy and system, and will doubtless soon regain its place, as far as the technically efficient administration of a high school goes, among the foremost schools of its grade in the State. THIS is good-excellent—as far as it goes. But whether we are to look for anything better than this from the new administrators of this great moulder of our future citizens, remains to be seen. That they have the power to impart to the school that higher educational spirit which has always been so wanting in San Francisco schools-the impulse to farther learning, the love of truth, the scholarly spirit, chivalrous enthusiasms, disinterested aims, enlightening glimpses into the great world of thought and intellectual action-we can as yet only hope. It was well said by a devoted teacher of this State, that "the higher education" did not mean the later years of schooling as distinguished from the earlier, but a spirit and method of education that should permeate the whole course; one could have the higher education in the primary school, and could fail of it in the University. Other schools, smaller, poorer, and less perfect in technical drill than those of San Francisco, have consistently surpassed hers in this higher education; and her two high schools should take the lead in making this no longer true. Correction. TO THE EDItor of the OveRLAND MONTHLY: May I beg you to allow me a line or two for the correction of a vexatious blunder made in a foot-note to my California, p. 429? I have there accused Mr. John S. Hittell of putting Meiggs's flight from San Francisco in September, 1854, instead of in October. In fact, Mr. Hittell's statement, on p. 223 of his History of San Francisco, actually puts Meiggs's flight in October, and my accusation was based on a note of mine, made after a careless misreading of Mr. Hittell's text. The haste with which my volume, after it had once been completed, passed through the press, prevented me from comparing my notes or my proof with Mr. Hittell's text, to verify my remark. The matter is very small in itself, but as I somehow took it upon myself to correct, in passing, Mr. Hittell, it is only fair that I should take back my correction. Let me add, that I shall be deeply obliged for further correction of any mistakes, small or great, that your readers may note in my book. Errors are so easy, in work of this kind, and yet so much to be regretted, that I am anxious to correct all that I can of my own, and ask no mercy for them Yours respectfully, JOSIAH ROYCE. 20 LOWELL STREET, CAMBRIDGE, Mass. Some Zuni Traditions. The Zuñis have an explanation for any question asked them concerning their peculiarities, customs, etc. Many of these are more interesting, as romantic flights of fancy than as truth, for they overstep the line of the possible. However the Zuñis themselves believe in their cherished traditions as sacred historical facts, and relate them with an admirable earnestness and sympathy of feeling. They have one to the effect that they, aided by the Navajoes and Pueblos, made and put in their places the sun, moon, and stars, finding themselves in need of light, after an escape into the big open world from a great cavern of solid silver in the San Francisco mountains, seen far west of their pueblos. This self-helpful and advanced tribe of Indians say that the towns (now ruins) in Rio Chaco, de Chelley, and other cañons, were built by Montezuma, who often erected a pueblo in a single night, and whoplanted corn that grew in the darkness, and was ready for harvest on the following morning. In building the pueblos the estufa was never forgotten, on the altar of which he kindled a flame ever after held sacred. These estufas are found in all the ruins of town or city throughout New Mexico and Arizona. They are six to nine feet in diameter, and circular, having neither window nor door, but an aperture in the roof for access and egress. They contain, usually, a large flat stone for an altar. In the estufas of the habitable and inhabited pueblos this flame was not extinguished until the portion of Montezuma's prophecy regarding the coming of white people from the east had been fulfilled. Montezuma's mother, the bride of the Great Spirit, was so beautiful that all the chiefs of the land so worshiped her that they warred with each other in rivalry for her favor, and gave her presents of corn, wheat, skins, and precious stones; and when famine came to them she hastened to their relief with ample supplies, the stores accumulated by their own liberality, in token of their love for her. One day she lay down to sleep in a grove, and a drop of dew fell upon her bare bosom, by which she became pregnant and bore the great and universally beloved Monte zuma. There are occasionally found among them, individuals who have light hair and blue eyes. I am told that they themselves account for this curious phenomenon, by relating a version of the well-known legend of the Welsh prince, Madoc, whose colony, in the twelfth century, is said to have reached Zuñi, after many wanderings, and there settled; disputes over the possession of the Welshwomen led to the destruction of the Welshmen, leaving the women to become incorporated with the tribe. In the Agua Pescada, near Zuñi, is a curious fish resembling a pike, which has its origin in man. Two Indians were returning from the sacred spring. One of these had vowed not to taste flesh that had been touched by water. Passing along the bank of the stream, they saw some game sitting on the branch of a tree. One of them shot an arrow at it, and the body fell into the water, but was rescued. When the game was prepared for eating, the Indian under Vow was over-persuaded, and ate of the meat. Almost immediately his hunger was replaced by violent thirst, and no draught from a drinking vessel could relieve it. At last he leaped into the stream to drink his fill. performs incantations to attest their reverence for the spirit who makes it his home. If the governor is not present, this duty falls upon one of the others. On the face of the bluffs that rise so high above the valley to form the mesa above, are two colossal pillars of sandstone, reaching nearly to the level, and, though evidently formed by nature, these much resemble the human form. A tragic tradition clings to these two giants. Ages before the white man was known, a great flood swept the valley, overwhelming the pueblos, and drowning all, both human and animal, except those that scaled the steep bluffs and reached the mesa. Here the people thought themselves safe, but the water still rose higher and higher, until the land seemed a vast ocean, with the mountains as islands. Their terror grew more intense as they watched the water-mark, inch by inch, nearing their altitude. At length, it had only thirty feet more to reach, and it would flood the mesa. The mountains were not accessible. Not another foot's elevation was to be had. Something must be done, and that at once, for their protection. Many were so overwhelmed by the calamity, and so certain of their doom, that they did nothing but gaze with an uncontrollable fascination upon the flood at their feet, eleven hundred feet deep, under which the highest four-story building of their pueblo, in which they were so lately comfortably quartered, in fear of foe neither in man, nor beast, nor nature's elements, lay buried at almost as great a depth-their city, provisions, household conveniences, and comforts gone, flocks and herds, and, worst of all, their dear ones perished; and in connection with all this death, even to their last member, seemed unavoidable. Others were hopeful that the water would recede ere it reached the brink on which they were collected. These few cast about for a means of helpful action. The need of a great offering to appease the wrath of the Spirit was urged and acknowledged. Its hasty execution had become a necessity painfully felt by the ashen-faced participants in the council. The gov ernor's son and daughter, in the beauty of their budding manhood and womanhood, were the chosen victims for the sacrifice, for the sake of which they "I cannot see!" he shouted from the water to his hoped their supplications to the Great Spirit to stay comrade, come to me! " The comrade, alarmed by his tone of voice as well as his words, ran toward him, but too late to drag him from the water. He had changed into a fish. The Great Spirit had so punished him for his broken VOW. The sacred spring is near Zuñi, at the foot of a bluff ten to twelve hundred feet high. It is ten feet in diameter, with a low stone wall around it. On the surface of this stand tenajas (earthenware jars) bottom up. These are gifts of friendship to the spirit of the spring., None of the Zuñis ever taste of this water; they would fear instant death for such a sacrilege When it is visited, the governor is usually one of the party, and he invariably, while there, the further rising of the water would be heard and granted. The verdict pronounced, the brother and sister were seized, bound, and pitched over the brink. into the depths of the flood-where the sun had risen but once or twice since the happy birds soared in altitudes of air, with a panorama beneath them of prosperous fields and merry workers, grazing kine, and busy thrift. The waters closed over the victims where the industry of generations lay swallowed up in desolation. But the offering was not in vain. The Great Spirit appreciated the adoration of the people in sacrificing to him the two most loved of their children. The surging element beating so ominously against the brink of the mesa grew calm almost at once, and the surface of its great expanse gradually fell to the level of the valley. But, with all their possessions destroyed beyond recovery, the Zuñis began their work of reconstruction on the mesa that had been their haven in their great misfortune. They built their new Cibola among the cedar groves on the level plateau; a city which grew to be very large, as its ruins now bear evidence, covering thirty acres. The two de tached pillars on the face of the cliff, the tradition relates, were built by the people, as monuments to perpetuate the memory of the marvelous flood, the Spirit's anger, and the sacrifice made to appease it. Dagmar Mariager. Boat Riding on Blue Lakes, California. Dip the light oar by the shadowy shore, And raise it twined with a dripping wreath Curls from some nymph of the lakeside shorn, By some emerald-robed mermaid reclining there. Bursts forth from his cloudy sheath, And the blue, blue heavens lie overhead, The beautiful azure lake unrolled Mirrors her fringéd brim, The sunbeams quiver in pools of gold, And the gnarled old trees, and the mountains old, Merrily sing, while the light boat speeds Has burst from his cloudy sheath, And the blue, blue heavens above me shine, Lilies, lilies along the shore, They stand in the rushes high, The tremulous sunbeams quiver and dance, As o'er the beautiful lake we glide? Do we sigh for a glimpse of sunny France; Let the German sing of his castled Rhine, Martha L. Hoffman. The Old Bachelor's Story. "THE boys concluded to get up a dancing school. I begged my parents to let me join, and they yielded. There was a nice party of us, about thirty in number. The The girls got up a class, too. Old Cady was the teacher. Everybody called him 'Old Cady.' He weighed about two hundred pounds, was short and round as a barrel, and as good-natured as the day or night was long. He did not do much dancing himself. He played the fiddle and instructed us. The boys met two evenings in the week for lessons. girls met in the afternoon. After we had made some progress, our teacher concluded to give us a 'hop' once a week. To these hops all the classes might go, and members of former classes were invited. As Old Cady had been teaching a dancing school every winter for time out of mind, the invitation embraced pretty much all the town. The most of the fathers and mothers of the class had been his pupils, and so his hops formed a pretty group of old and young together. "On the evening of the first hop he gave us the easy dances in the first part of the evening, and later on he suited the tastes of the old pupils. I remember that evening well. I was all excitement and bashfulness. I got along nicely, however, until a waltz was called. I knew I could waltz, though it was called the hardest of the dances. The music started. Old Cady was a genius. The cadences of his music seemed to lift one off his feet. The airs that he played have floated through my life ever since those years. He summoned the gems of every opera and sonata and requiem of the masters, and picked up the melodies in which the people have sung and do sing in every land, and the airs whistled on the street, and dressed them up for his purposes, and made them the spirit and soul of the dance. He did not seem to know what he was about to play, and as the dance progressed, now and then a new thought seemed to inspire him as new strains whirled us on. Now he would lean forward, and a plaintive air would lead us; then, rising, with chin and elbow elevated, a stately measured movement, and, perhaps, as if laughing, a light and tripping step. It was Annie Laurie or The Marseillaise. He even dared the sacred strains of 'Joy! Joy! To the host that in glory advances!' I remember with what audacity old Coronation once rang out from under his bow, as if in defiance; and he played it with such grand effect that it did not seem out of place. "I looked around the room for some one to waltz with. I espied Annie, a bright-eyed daughter of a neighbor. She was a few years younger than I. We had played together always, though of late she had seemed a little shy. I invited her to waltz with me. She said: 'Why, I never tried to waltz, except with the girls. I am afraid I can't.' |