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I.] processes, and products which his every-day experience makes familiar to him, but of which the vast majority, perhaps, of those outside his own line of life know nothing. Ignorant as he may be, he will talk to you of a host of matters which you shall not understand. No insignificant part of the hundred-thousand-word list is made up of selections from such technical vocabularies. Each department of labour, of art, of science, has its special dialect, fully known only to those who have made themselves masters in that department. The world requires of every well-informed and educated person a certain amount of knowledge in many special departments, along with a corresponding portion of the language belonging to each: but he would be indeed a marvel of many-sided learning who had mastered them all. Who is there among us that will not find, on every page of the comprehensive dictionaries now in vogue, words which are strange to him, which need defining to his apprehension, which he could not be sure of employing in the right place and connection? And this, not in the technical portions only of our vocabulary. There are words, or meanings of words, no longer in familiar use, antiquated or obsolescent, which yet may not be denied a place in the present English tongue. There are objects which almost never fall under the notice of great numbers of people, or of whole classes of the community, and to whose names, accordingly, when met with, these are unable to attach any definite idea. There are cognitions, conceptions, feelings, which have not come up in the minds of all, which all have not had occasion and acquired power to express. There are distinctions, in every department of thought, which all have not learned to draw and designate. Moreover, there are various styles of expression for the same thing, which are not at every one's command. One writer or speaker has great ease and copiousness of diction; for all his thoughts he has a variety of phrases to choose among; he lays them out before us in beautiful elaboration, in clear and elegant style, so that to follow and understand him is like floating with the current. Another, with not less wealth of knowledge and clearness of judgment, is cramped and awkward in his use of language;


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 potentially dangerous situations to the railroad and its contractor, and to make certain that the stakes that had earlier been located over the pipeline remained in place. No concern was voiced by Calnev during the removal process.

Events Preceding the Pipeline Rupture

Calnev’s dispatch center at the Colton Pump Station is equipped with a monitoring system that scans and records, among other system parameters, pipeline pressures. When normal operations resumed on May 16, the pipeline pressure had increased to 1,667 psig. Between May 16 and May 23, the pipeline was operated at pressures ranging between 1,690 and 1,060 psig (normal operating ranges established by Calnev) and was subjected to various pressure changes during this time. Operations during the next couple of days showed only smooth pressure transitions until about 8:05 a.m. on May 25, 1989.

Pipeline Rupture

Pipeline Operations on May 25, 1989.—During the early hours of May 25, 1989, the three 1,000 horsepower (hp) mainline pumps at the Colton Terminal were operating at maximum output (2,300 to 2,400 barrels per hour), and the pressure on the pipeline was relatively constant at 1,620 psig. About 4:03 a.m., with the completion of a product delivery at Daggett (see figure 1), a gradual increase in pressure to 1,680 psig occurred over an interval of about 17 minutes at which time the pressure decreased within 5 minutes to 1,669 psig. The pressure then remained relatively constant until 8:05 a.m.

At 8:05:25, based on a readout of the information recorded by the monitoring system, a low suction pressure (15.188 psig) alarm and a low discharge pressure (257.644 psig) alarm were received in the dispatch center at Colton Pump Station on Calnev’s computer system. At 8:05:38, the three 1,000-hp mainline pumps were shut down by the computer system. At 8:05:39, the dispatcher acknowledged the alarms. According to testimony of the dispatcher on duty at the time, when changes in operating conditions occur: (1) an audible alarm will be sounded, (2) the word "alarm" will appear and flash at the top of the dispatcher’s computer terminal screen, and (3) information regarding the specific condition (in this case, "low suction pressure" and "low discharge pressure") will be highlighted in a particular


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 color and continue to flash until acknowledged by the dispatcher. Testimony further indicated that if more than one condition occurs on the same page [screen], the word "alarm" and the audible alarm are terminated by one stroke on the computer keyboard.

The dispatcher testified that he noticed on his terminal screen flashing lights indicating that the pumps were shutting down and that he had a "low suction pressure" color alarm (blue). He did not notice the "low discharge pressure" color alarm (blue) on the same page. The dispatcher stated that he believed the pumps were shut down as a result of a low liquid level in the storage tank from which he was pumping. He was aware that a similar situation had been experienced by the dispatcher whom he relieved, and the pumps were eventually restarted. According to the dispatcher, the normal procedure for the condition of a low liquid level in a storage tank is to restart the pumps after the suction pressure again returns to normal. According to the dispatcher, normal suction pressure is between 26 and 50 psig. The suction pressure rose to 37.1429 psig, and at 8:06:02, the dispatcher commanded the restart of the 100-hp booster pump. At 8:06:11, the command was acknowledged by the computer. At 8:06:22, the computer reported the status of the booster pump as "off."

At 8:06:53, the dispatcher again commanded the computer to start the booster pump, and at 8:06:57, the command was acknowledged. Operating parameters were automatically checked and found satisfactory, and the system attempted to restart mainline pumps Nos. 2 and 3. At 8:07:09, the computer acknowledged the command. At 8:07:19, another low suction pressure (17.2932 psig) alarm was given to the dispatcher who knowledgedacknowleged [sic] the alarm, and at 8:07:22, mainline pump No. 2 registered status "off," as did mainline pump No. 3 at 8:07:23. Also, at 8:07:23, the suction pressure was 46.1654 psig and at 8:07:55, the booster pump reported status "off."

At 8:08:10, the dispatcher acknowledged the shutdown alarms and again commanded the start of the booster pump. At 8:08:18, the booster pump acknowledged the command and at 8:08:19, pump No. 3 acknowledged the command. At 8:08:20, a low suction pressure (20.9023 psig) alarm was provided to the dispatcher. Pump No. 3 reported status "off" at 8:08:32, at which time suction pressure was recorded as 90.9774. At 8:09:15, the booster pump reported status "off." At 8:09:18, the shutdown was acknowledged by the dispatcher. The dispatcher stated that because he was not successful in restarting the pumps, he left his station to request assistance from another dispatcher who was on duty as a supervisor at the time and located down a hallway from the dispatch center. The supervisor acknowledged the request.

While returning to his dispatch area, the dispatcher encountered the senior systems specialist and asked him if he knew of any reason why the pumps would not come back on. The dispatcher stated that the systems specialist advised him to "pinch down" on the station control valve to bring


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 the pumps on slowly. The dispatcher stated that as he was doing this, they received a phone call from the San Bernardino County Communication Center asking if Calnev’s pipeline was involved in a fire. The systems specialist then observed through a station window a cloud of smoke in the direction of the pipeline route through San Bernardino, advised the caller that it likely was Calnev’s pipeline, and then instructed the dispatcher to leave the pumps down.

After notifying Calnev locations currently taking delivery of products at Las Vegas, Nevada, that the pipeline was being shut down, the dispatcher began remotely closing valves to isolate the pumps and the storage tanks from the pipeline. In addition to closing the valves at the terminal, he shut down the Baker booster pump station at MP 146.2. After the pressure sensor indicated zero psig pressure at the summit of Cajon Pass, the dispatcher remotely closed the valve at California aqueduct (MP 35.4) which is located on the north side of Cajon Pass. He also stated that notification was made to personnel who had to close other valves manually. The first downstream valve that had to be closed manually was located at MP 25.7; the maintenance supervisor reported that this valve was closed at 9:00 a.m.

Witnesses’ Observations.—A resident at 2395 W. Adams Street stated that she was in her backyard between 7:45 a.m. and 8:00 a.m. and noticed a "white colored rain" falling on the house behind hers on Duffy Street. She further stated that after she went back inside her house, she heard an explosion and "then her windows blew in" and the entire house was on fire. Another resident at 2446 San Benito Street stated that he was outside around 8:00 a.m. on May 25, heard a train go by, and about 5 to 10 minutes later heard a "rumble." He stated that he then looked up and saw a "cloud of flame about four houses wide come over the houses…the flame was about 10 feet higher than the rooftops" (figure 10). Several witnesses stated that they saw a white vapor and then heard a loud explosion; this was followed by black smoke and intense heat and flames. A resident at 2385 Mesa Street recalled that a friend, who had arrived at her residence to transport her children to school, "pointed to a spray vapor shooting up into the sky," that was coming from the direction of where the train had derailed. A motorist, who was filling his automobile with gasoline near Macy Street and Highland Avenue, stated that he heard a "rumble," then saw what appeared to be a "geyser" of liquid shooting up in the air near the site of the train derailment. He stated further that within a few moments "it exploded." In addition to the resident on San Benito Street, several residents recalled hearing a train pass by 5 to 10 minutes before the explosion; residents also recalled smelling gas before the explosion. Two residents, one at 2327 Duffy Street and one at 2315 Duffy Street, were fatally burned as a result of the explosion and fire.

Emergency Response to Pipeline Rupture

On May 25, 1989, at about 8:00 a.m., a firefighter leaving his assigned fire station on Highland Avenue noticed a large column of black smoke in line with Highland Avenue, about 2 miles from his location. He returned to the fire station and notified the battalion chief.


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 The battalion chief, in turn, notified his dispatch office about 8:08 a.m. and requested fire department personnel and equipment to respond to Highland and Duffy Streets. En route to the site, the battalion chief observed flames and black smoke rising straight up in the air with no apparent wind. He arrived on-scene about 8:13 a.m. Mutual aid agreements were activated when the dispatch center was notified of the accident. As emergency response units and fire department personnel and equipment from adjacent jurisdictions arrived on scene, the battalion chief positioned them around the involved area. He had surveyed the accident area and determined that seven houses were fully engulfed in fire and that two houses were partially on fire. Being concerned with the downed power lines and the possibility of ruptured residential gas lines, the battalion chief requested the utility companies to shut down their respective lines. He also requested the water department to assist in building dikes to prevent the product from flowing into surrounding areas. The battalion chief ordered an evacuation of residents in the area; police personnel eventually evacuated about 170 persons in a four-block area. According to the deputy fire chief, because of fuel remaining on the ground, some residents were unable to return permanently to the area until August 6, 1989.

At 8:30 a.m., the deputy fire chief, who had been the incident commander during the response to the train derailment, arrived on scene and assumed the role of incident commander for this accident. By the time he arrived, fire-fighting operations and treatment and transportation of the injured to local hospitals had begun. At 10:05 a.m., a command post was set up at 2359 Mesa Street. According to testimony of the deputy fire chief, the mutual aid emergency response plan was implemented as planned. Although the deputy fire chief’s role as incident commander ended on May 28, fire department personnel remained on scene as a safety measure until May 31, 1989.

After Calnev’s maintenance superintendent observed the fire from his office window shortly after 8:00 a.m., he immediately notified the manager of operations who, along with other company personnel, proceeded to the accident site. Upon arrival at the accident site, the manager of operations introduced himself to the incident commander and was directed by the incident commander to fly with a police officer in a helicopter to observe the fire. Calnev’s manager of operations stated that while in the air, he observed a large stream of flaming liquid exiting the ground eastward at an angle of about 60 degrees from the horizontal. He stated that he observed substantial fire damage in the direction of the burning stream of liquid, a small pool of liquid burning around the rupture, and a small grass fire burning south of Highland Avenue. The manager of operations stated that he then advised the incident commander to allow the fire to burn itself out. According to the incident commander, the fire burned out by 3:30 p.m. on May 25.

According to Calnev’s manager of operations, when the fire was out, the rupture site was inspected and the damaged pipe examined (the damaged is described in the section "Damage," "Damage to the Pipeline"). At least four pieces of railroad debris—a brake arm, an approximately 8-inch section of I-beam from a locomotive, a piece of metal cowling from a locomotive, and a


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20 he puts his ideas before us in a rough and fragmentary way; he carries our understandings with him, but only at the cost of labour and pains on our part. And though he may be able to comprehend all that is said by the other, he has not in the same sense made the language his own, any more than the student of a foreign tongue who can translate from it with facility, but can express himself in it only lamely. Thus the infinite variety of the native and acquired capacity of different individuals comes to light in their idiom. It would be as hard to find two persons with precisely the same limits to their speech, as with precisely the same lineaments of countenance.

Once more, not all who speak the same tongue attach the same meaning to the words they utter. We learn what words signify either by direct definition or by inference from the circumstances in which they are used. But no definition is or can be exact and complete; and we are always liable to draw wrong inferences. Children, as every one knows, are constantly misapprehending the extent of meaning and application of the signs they acquire. Until it learns better, a child calls every man papa; having been taught the word sky, it calls the ceiling of a room the sky; it calls a donkey or a mule a horse—and naturally enough, since it has had to apply the name dog to creatures differing far more than these from one another. And so long as the learning of language lasts, does the liability to such error continue. It is a necessity of the case, arising out of the essential nature of language. Words are not exact models of ideas; they are merely signs for ideas, at whose significance we arrive as well as we can; and no mind can put itself into such immediate and intimate communion with another mind as to think and feel precisely with it. Sentences are not images of thoughts, reflected in a faultless mirror; nor even photographs, needing only to have the colour added: they are but imperfect and fragmentary sketches, giving just outlines enough to enable the sense before which they are set up to seize the view intended, and to fill it out to a complete picture; while yet, as regards the completeness of the filling out, the details of the work,


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 short section of rail—were found near the rupture. The brake arm and the rail section were about 2 to 3 feet in length. The brake arm was found 8 inches above the pipeline and the other parts were within 2 feet of the pipeline. Testimony by Calnev’s manager of operations and by equipment operators who had worked at the site following the derailment indicates that the depth of cover they observed over the pipeline at its point of rupture was from 2 to 2½ feet, whereas the depth of cover they had observed after completing work, following the train derailment, was from 4½ to 6 feet. Calnev’s manager of operations testified that the location of the rupture was very near if not at the exact location where the excavation #5 had been performed across from the middle of lot 76 (figure 4).

According to Calnev’s manager of operations, Calnev’s plan to repair the pipeline after the rupture and place it back in service evolved over many days "…during which many discussions were held with many interested parties as to how best to return that pipeline to service [and] make the repairs necessary." Calnev’s maintenance superintendent testified that when the pipeline rupture occurred, he notified the National Response Center, the California Office of Emergency Services, the California State Fire Marshal’s Office, and the Underground Service Alert System. Representatives from these agencies, as well as an engineer from the U.S. Office of Pipeline Safety (OPS), responded to the accident site.

On May 26, 1989, OPS issued a Hazardous Facility Order, CPF No. 5987-H to Calnev (appendix E). This Order included preliminary findings, among others, that the pipeline within the area of the derailment had not been completely exposed and visually examined for damage, that the structural integrity of the portion of the pipeline potentially affected by the derailment had not been ascertained by Calnev, and that Calnev had not determined if there had been damage to the pipe coating as a result of the cleanup operations. OPS required Calnev to expose the pipeline around its circumference for the length of pipe between a point 50 feet north of the casing beneath Highland Avenue and the south end of the levee adjacent to the check valve at MP 6.9, to conduct a thorough visual inspection of the exposed pipe to locate any damage to the pipe or to its coating and make appropriate repairs, and in accordance with applicable requirements of 49 CFR Part 195, to hydrostatically test to 1.25 times its maximum operating pressure the pipe located between a point 100 yards south of the check valve on the downstream side of the derailment impact area and a point 200 yards upstream of the road crossing at Highland Avenue.

On May 30, 1989, based on its preliminary findings, OPS found that "if placed into service under the same circumstances as existed after the rupture, that portion of Respondent’s [Calnev’s] pipeline subject to the required corrective actions prescribed [on May 26, 1989] would be hazardous to life and property." Consequently, as a result of conversations with Calnev, the OPS order was amended to require excavation of the pipeline located between a point 10 feet north (downstream) of the casing beneath Highland Avenue and the south (upstream) rise of the Muscoy Levee, that the excavated pipe be visually inspected to determine any damage to the pipe or its coating, that the pipe be replaced with new pipe, that a block valve be installed between the check valve and the Muscoy Levee, that the new pipe be


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User talk:77.222.178.14

Inductiveload— talk/contribs  20:12, 5 December 2010 (UTC)

Edit to The Swineherd
I reverted your edit to this page because I'm not sure which it should be (both appear in Google searches). If you have a page scan to hand, and it definitely says eighty-sixth, rather than sixty-eighth, please change it back. If you could also make a note of the edition (with a link if possible) on the Talk:The Swineherd, that will aid future editors. Better still, upload the scan to Wikimedia Commons and create the index page, and we can begin using the page scans. Thanks, Inductiveload— talk/contribs  20:12, 5 December 2010 (UTC)

title: User talk:77.222.178.14


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 tested as previously required of the existing pipe, and that all activities be performed in accordance with applicable requirements of 49 CFR Part 195. The revised Order also stipulated that OPS would review and approve Calnev’s hydrostatic testing and inspection program, that OPS would monitor the test, and that the pipeline could not be returned to service until OPS had determined that all required actions had been successfully completed.

By letter of June 6, 1989, Calnev requested relief from the requirements of the Order because it discovered that a bend in the pipe made it impractical to tie into the new pipe 10 feet north of the Highland Avenue casing, the location required by the amended Order. As there was no apparent damage to the pipe at that location and because the line would be hydrostatically tested before returning it to service, on June 6, 1989, the OPS again amended the Order to allow the tie-in to be made at a location determined acceptable by Calnev and concurred with by a representative of the OPS so long as the tie-in was made between the point 10 feet north of the Highland Avenue casing and a point about 35 to 40 feet north of the casing.

About 600 feet of the pipeline through the area of the previous derailment was removed and replaced. The pipeline was refilled with product on June 9, 1989. More than 9,400 barrels of product were required to refill the pipeline. A mile of pipeline of the size installed will hold 917.69 barrels of product, based on information provided by Calnev.

.—Five locomotive units and the entire consist of 69 hoppershopper [sic] cars were completely destroyed as a result of the derailment; the rear-end locomotive was extensively damaged. About 680 feet of track were destroyed by the derailing locomotive units and cars.

Following the derailment, a building inspector from the City of San Bernardino Department of Building and Safety inspected the houses that incurred damages as a result of the derailment. The inspector’s assessment of damages is listed in Appendix F. The inspector recommended that dwellings at 2314 Duffy Street through 2382 Duffy Street be demolished immediately (figure 11).


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 .—Eleven houses and 21 motor vehicles were destroyed by fire from the pipeline rupture and fire (figures 11 and 12). Four houses received moderate fire and smoke damage, and three houses received smoke damage only. Appendix F lists the residences and the damages incurred.

The costs incurred from the train derailment and the pipeline rupture, as reported by SP, follow:

* The dollar figure is based upon comparable locomotives available today for replacement.

Calnev reported the following costs as a result of the pipeline rupture:

Total reported costs from the train derailment and the pipeline rupture were: $14,274,291.00.

.—The 14-inch-diameter pipeline ruptured at about MP 6.9. A 25-foot, 1⅞-inch-section (301⅞ inches) of the pipe that included the rupture area was cut from the pipeline to make a temporary repair. The 25-foot section was removed about 5:00 p.m. on May 26, 1989, and was replaced with a section of sound pipe.

After the 25-foot section of pipe containing the rupture was removed, it was torch cut into 5 smaller sections. Beginning at the south end, the first section was 44⅞ inches long and contained no areas of damage. The next 44½-inch section contained the rupture. These last two sections of pipe were taken to the Safety Board’s laboratory in Washington, D.C., for testing (figures 13 and 14). (Additional information is provided under "Tests and Research.") The next section was 6 inches long and contained no damage. The last section was 165½ inches long and contained damage to the coating along the side of the pipe at the 3 o’clock position (looking north).


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I.] and the finer shades of colouring, no two minds will produce pictures perfectly accordant with one another, nor will any precisely reproduce the original.

The limits of variation of meaning are, of course, very different in different classes of words. So far as these are designations of definite objects, cognizable by the senses, there is little danger of our seriously misapprehending one another when we utter them. Yet, even here, there is room for no trifling discordance, as the superior knowledge or more vivid imagination of one person gives to the idea called up by a name a far richer content than another can put into it. Two men speak of the sun, with mutual intelligence: but to the one he is a mere ball of light and heat, which rises in the sky every morning, and goes down again at night; to the other, all that science has taught us respecting the nature of the great luminary, and its influence upon our little planet, is more or less distinctly present every time he utters its name. The word Pekin is spoken before a number of persons, and is understood by them all: but some among them know only that it is the name of an immense city in Asia, the capital of the Chinese empire; others have studied Chinese manners and customs, have seen pictures of Chinese scenery, architecture, dress, occupation, and are able to tinge the conception which the word evokes with some fair share of a local colouring; another, perhaps, has visited the place, and its name touches a store of memories, and brings up before his mind's eye a picture vivid with the hues of truth. I feel a tolerable degree of confidence that the impressions of colour made on my sense are the same with those made upon my friend's sense, so that, when we use the words red or blue, we do not mean different things: and yet, even here, it is possible that one of us may be afflicted with some degree of colour-blindness, so that we do not apprehend the same shades precisely alike. But just so is every part of language liable to be affected by the personality of the speaker; and most of all, where matters of more subjective apprehension are concerned, The voluptuary, the passionate and brutal, the philosophic, and the sentimental, for instance, when they speak of love or of hate,


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User talk:85.182.5.177

Inductiveload— talk/contribs  20:16, 5 December 2010 (UTC)

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text: 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Hangö

title: 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Hangö


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 150 CRITICISM CRITICISM


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 200 DOON DOUBT

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DOUBT


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DOVE


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250

{{Hoyt quote | num = | text = As clear and as manifest as the nose in a man's face. | author = Burton | work = Anatomy of Melancholy. | place = Pt. III. Sec. III. Memb. 4. Subsec. I. | seealso = (See also {{sc|Rabelais) And her face so fair Stirr'd with her dream, as rose-leaves with the air. | author = Byron | work = Don Juan. Canto IV. St. 29. | author = | work = | place = | note = | topic = Face | page = 250 }}

{{Hoyt quote | num = | text = Yet even her tyranny had such a grace, The women pardoned all, except her face. | author = Byron | work = Don Juan. Canto V. St. 113. And to his eye There was but one beloved face on earth, And that was shining on him. | author = Byron | work = The Dream. St. 2. | author = | work = | place = | note = | topic = Face | page = 250 }}

{{Hoyt quote | num = 23 | text = There is a garden in her face, Where roses and white lilies blow; A heavenly paradise is that place, Wherein all pleasant fruits do grow. There cherries grow that none may buy, Till cherry ripe themselves do cry. | note = {{sc|Campion}} claims these in note To Reader, Fourth Book of Airs. {{sc|Arber}} in English Garner, follows original. Attributed to {{sc|Richard Allison}} by {{sc|W. D. Adams, Frederick Locker-Lampson, Charles Mackay}}. To {{sc|Campion}} by {{sc|Ernest Rhys, A. H. Bullen}}. | topic = Face | page = 250 }}


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300


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900


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text: 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Hanka, Wenceslaus


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Rh Although, according to the above figures, the United States appears to take the lead of all other nations in respect to the import trade of Mexico, it is claimed by the English consular officials that, if the necessary figures were obtainable, it would be demonstrated that the real exports of England and France to Mexico are larger than they are reported. "All that the United States exports to Mexico is of necessity sent direct, as it would be unreasonable to suppose that any American goods would be sent via Europe, and thus figure in the indirect trade of other countries. On the other hand, it is certain that all the indirect trade through the United States is European, and it is probable that a fair share of it consists of English and French merchandise; and this is especially the case when so much material for the construction of new railways is being imported from England through the Texan ports and sent by rail across the frontier."—Report of Consul Garden, 1883.

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text: 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Hankow

title: 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Hankow


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500


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450

{{Hoyt quote | num = | text = Through the sequester'd vale of rural life The venerable patriarch guileless held The tenor of his way. Pokteus—Death. L. 109. | seealso = (See also {{sc|Gat) | topic = Life | page = 450 }}

{{Hoyt quote | num = | text = Amid two seas, on one small point of land, Wearied, uncertain, and amazed we stand. Prior—Solomon on the Vanity of Human Wishes. Pt. III. L. 616. | seealso = (See also {{sc|Lillo}}) | topic = Life | page = 450 }}

{{Hoyt quote | num = | text = Who breathes must suffer; and who thinks, must mourn; And he alone is bless'd who ne'er was born. Prior—Solomon on the Vanity of the World. Bk. III. L. 240. | topic = Life | page = 450 }}

{{Hoyt quote | num = | text = So vanishes our state; so pass our days; So life but opens now, and now decays; The cradle and the tomb, alas! so nigh, To live is scarce distinguish'd from to die. | author = Prior | work = Solomon on the Vanity of the World. | place = Bk. III. L. 527. | topic = Life | page = 450 }}

{{Hoyt quote | num = | text = Half my life is full of sorrow, Half of joy, still fresh and new; One of these lives is a fancy, But the other one is true. Adelaide A. Procter—Dream-Life. | author = | work = | place = | note = | topic = Life | page = 450 }}

{{Hoyt quote | num = | text = Lord, make me to know mine end, and the measure of my days, what it is; that I may know how frail I am. Psalms. XXXIX. 4. | author = | work = | place = | note = | topic = Life | page = 450 }}

{{Hoyt quote | num = | text = As for man his days are as grass; as a flower of the field so he flourisheth. Psalms. CHI. 15. | author = | work = | place = | note = | topic = Life | page = 450 }}

{{Hoyt quote | num = | text = The wind passeth over it, and it is gone; and the place thereof shall know it no more. Psalms. CHI. 16. | author = | work = | place = | note = | topic = Life | page = 450 }}

{{Hoyt quote | num = | text = Our life is nothing but a Winter's day; Some only break their Fast, and so away: Others stay to Dinner, and depart full fed: The deepest Age but Sups, and goes to Bed: He's most in debt that lingers out the Day: Who dies betime, has less, and less to pay. Quarles—Divine Fancies. On The Life of Man. (1633) Quoted in different forms for epitaphs. | seealso = (See also {{sc|Dryden, Gerhard, Henslaw, Jenkins, Seneca}}) | topic = Life | page = 450 }}

{{Hoyt quote | num = | text = Man's life is like a Winter's day: Some only breakfast and away; Others to dinner stay and are full fed. The oldest man but sups and goes to bed. Long is his life who lingers out the day, Who goes the soonest has the least to pay; Death is the Waiter, some few run on tick, And some alas! must pay the bill to Nick! Tho' I owed much, I hope long trust is given, And truly mean to pay all bills in Heaven. Epitaph in Barnwell Churchyard, near Cambridge, England. | author = | work = | place = | note = | topic = Life | page = 450 }}

{{Hoyt quote | num = | text = Et la commencay a, penser qu'i] est bien vray ce que l'on dit, que la moitie du monde ne scait comment l'aultre vit. And there I began to think that it is very true, which is said, that half the world does not know how the other half lives. Rabelais—Pantagruel. Ch. XXXII. | author = | work = | place = | note = | topic = Life | page = 450 }}

{{Hoyt quote | num = | text = Vivat, fifat, pipat, bibat. May he live, fife, pipe, drink. Rabelais—Pantagruel. Bk. IV. Ch. 53. Called by Epistemon, "O secret apocalyptique." It suggests "Old King Cole." | author = | work = | place = | note = | topic = Life | page = 450 }}

{{Hoyt quote | num = | text = The romance of life begins and ends with two blank pages. Age and extreme old age. Paul Jean Richter. | author = | work = | place = | note = | topic = Life | page = 450 }}


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In three separate forms:

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LAKE was born and bred in London, lived there for all but three years of his life, and died there. Nor can I discover that he ever went farther out of London, except on that one excursion to Felpham, than he could walk in a day. And he was not a walker. "He never took walks," says Gilchrist, "for walking's sake, or for pleasure; and could not sympathize with those who did." Pictures, statues, and books seem to have had more reality for him than for any other man. Merely out of books and prints, and out of his strong feeling about "the Druid Temples which are the patriarchal pillars and oak groves," he could probably have drawn Stonehenge so as to impress us as we are ready to be impressed after hearing about it, yet seldom are. That was one of his principal gifts, to translate into visible and chiefly human forms what would in other minds remain vague, scattered notions and fragmentary blurred images. For example, at the beginning of the French Revolution he was a Republican, and wore a red cap in the streets of London, and in 1791 wrote the first book of a poem called "The


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4 French Revolution." He paints the notables—the King, Necker, the Archbishop of Paris, Aumont, Bourbon, Orleans and a Duke of Burgundy, Mirabeau, and La Fayette. The Duke of Burgundy's portrait shows how readily and sublimely Blake's mind would work upon a hint. His materials were chiefly three: the grandeur of the idea in the title of Duke, the solid mass and dignity expressed in the sound of the word "Burgundy," and connected with this the thought of blood-red wine. Thus he created a Duke of Burgundy (the title was then extinct), a colossal Bacchic emanation from these three sources:

It could hardly have mattered to such a man where he lived after his youth. Yet he gives as one reason for returning to London that he "ought not to be away from the opportunities London affords of seeing fine pictures, and the various improvements in works of art going on in London"; moreover, London, and in particular South London, suited him. Towards the end of his life he complained of Hampstead air, saying that it always had been bad for him: "When I was young, Hampstead, Highgate, Hornsey, M us well


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Rh Hill, and even Islington, and all places north of London, always laid me up the day after." Accordingly, in London, and for much of the time near the river, he dwelt all his life, and avoided the northern heights. London was still a town, or not more than two towns, with country borders, when Blake was born in 1757, at 28, Broad Street, Golden Square. Gilchrist says that " as he grew older the lad became fond of roving out into the country. . . . On his own legs he could find a green field without exhaustion. . . . After Westminster Bridge—the 'superb and magnificent structure' now defunct, then a new and admired one,—came St. George's Fields, open fields, and scene of 'Wilkes and Liberty' riots in Blake's boyhood; next, the pretty village of Newington Butts. . . ; and then, unsophisticate green field and hedgerow. ... A mile or two further through the 'large and pleasant village' of Camberwell, with its grove (or avenue) and famed prospect, arose the sweet hill and dale and 'sylvan wilds' of rural Dulwich. . . ." The tree that he saw filled with angels was on Peckham Rye. "Another time, one summer morn, he sees the hay-makers at work, and amid them angelic figures walking." Here, too, he must have found suitable dens and bowers for the wild beasts, virgins, shepherdesses, of his books. What he saw and read to any purpose made equal and similar impressions on him, and he combined the two with beautiful freedom. No wonder he declared afterwards that the whole business of man was in the arts—that the man or woman who was not poet, painter, musician, or. architect, was not a Christian—that they must leave fathers and mothers and houses and lands


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6 if these stood in the way of Art. These free and astonishing remarks were written round his engraving of the Lacoon. Their meaning is not clear except to his peers, but certain it is that in Blake's view life should be a poem, a free and astonishing thing. The innocence of life he loved; everything done and said at liberty from the mere reason or from the self-conscious, "self-righteous" virtues, as he considered them, of pagans, deists, and agnostics. His own life and work proclaim his own enjoyment in a great measure of this innocence. He saw life whole. An unlearned man, who can only be understood completely by the very learned, he had made for himself out of the streets of London, the churches and shops, the fields of Dulwich, and out of ruminations among all sorts of books and pictures, a system of the world. The Bible, Shakespeare, Milton, the mystics, newspaper reports of the American War and the French Revolution, popular songs, Westminster Abbey, pictures and sculptures and engravings, London streets, provided the elements of this world. He had no need of crying:

For this land and the Land of Dreams were one. Books were, if anything, stronger than direct sensuous experience, or he could not have mingled eyesight and memory of books about foreign lands as in "To the Evening Star":


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HANOTAUX, ALBERT AUGUSTE GABRIEL (1853-), French statesman and historian (see 12.923), was active during the World War as historian and propagandist, producing Histoire de la Guerre de 1914 (9 vols., 1914); Le Traité de Versailles (1919) and Histoire de la Nation française (17 vols., 1920). He was employed on more than one semi-official mission abroad, notably to the Vatican, and in 1921 was the third French delegate on the League of Nations.


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Rh incident, which may operate upon this intolerable agitation of soul. I have, indeed, no abhorrence of danger, except in its absolute effect—in terror. In this unnerved—in this pitiable condition, I feel that the period will sooner or later arrive when I must abandon life and reason together in some struggle with the grim phantasm, ." I learned moreover at intervals, and through broken and equivocal hints, another singular feature of his mental condition. He was enchained by certain superstitious impressions in regard to the dwelling which he tenanted, and whence, for many years, he had never ventured forth—in regard to an influence whose supposititious force was conveyed in terms too shadowy here to be restated—an influence which some peculiarities in the mere form and substance of his family mansion had, by dint of long sufferance, he said, obtained over his spirit—an effect which the physique of the gray walls and turrets, and of the dim tarn into which they all looked down, had, at length, brought about upon the morale of his existence. He admitted, however, although with hesitation, that much of the peculiar gloom which thus afflicted him could be traced to a more natural and far more palpable origin—to the severe and long-continued illness, indeed to the evidently approaching dissolution, of a tenderly beloved sister—his sole companion for long years, his last and only relative on earth. "Her decease," he said, with a bitterness which I can never forget, "would leave him (him the hopeless and the frail) the last of the ancient race of the Ushers." While he spoke, the lady Madeline (for so was she called) passed slowly through a remote portion of the apartment, and, without having noticed my presence, disappeared. I regarded her with an utter astonishment not unmingled with dread, and yet I found it impossible to account for such feelings. A sensation of stupor oppressed me, as my eyes followed her retreating steps. When a door, at


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36 length, closed upon her, my glance sought instinctively and eagerly the countenance of the brother; but he had buried his face in his hands, and I could only perceive that a far more than ordinary wanness had overspread the emaciated fingers through which trickled many passionate tears. The disease of the lady Madeline had long baffled the skill of her physicians. A settled apathy, a gradual wasting away of the person, and frequent although transient affections of a partially cataleptical character, were the unusual diagnosis. Hitherto she had steadily borne up against the pressure of her malady, and had not betaken herself finally to bed; but on the closing in of the evening of my arrival at the house she succumbed (as her brother told me at night with inexpressible agitation) to the prostrating power of the destroyer; and I learned that the glimpse I had obtained of her person would thus probably be the last I should obtain—that the lady, at least while living, would be seen by me no more. For several days ensuing, her name was unmentioned by either Usher or myself; and during this period I was busied in earnest endeavors to alleviate the melancholy of my friend. We painted and read together; or I listened, as if in a dream, to the wild improvisations of his speaking guitar. And thus, as a closer and still closer intimacy admitted me more unreservedly into the recesses of his spirit, the more bitterly did I perceive the futility of all attempt at cheering a mind from which darkness, as if an inherent positive quality, poured forth upon all objects of the moral and physical universe, in one unceasing radiation of gloom. I shall ever bear about me a memory of the many solemn hours I thus spent alone with the master of the House of Usher. Yet I should fail in any attempt to convey an idea of the exact character of the studies, or of the occupations, in which he involved me, or led me the way. An excited and


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Rh highly distempered ideality threw a sulphureous luster over all. His long improvised dirges will ring forever in my ears. Among other things, I hold painfully in mind a certain singular perversion and amplification of the wild air of the last waltz of Von Weber. From the paintings over which his elaborate fancy brooded, and which grew, touch by touch, into vaguenesses at which I shuddered the more thrillingly because I shuddered knowing not why—from these paintings (vivid as their images now are before me) I would in vain endeavor to educe more than a small portion which should lie within the compass of merely written words. By the utter simplicity, by the nakedness of his designs, he arrested and overawed attention. If ever mortal painted an idea, that mortal was Roderick Usher. For me at least, in the circumstances then surrounding me, there arose, out of the pure abstractions which the hypochondriac contrived to throw upon his canvas, an intensity of intolerable awe, no shadow of which felt I ever yet in the contemplation of the certainly glowing yet too concrete reveries of Fuseli. One of the phantasmagoric conceptions of my friend, partaking not so rigidly of the spirit of abstraction, may be shadowed forth, although feebly, in words. A small picture presented the interior of an immensely long and rectangular vault or tunnel, with low walls, smooth, white, and without interruption or device. Certain accessory points of the design served well to convey the idea that this excavation lay at an exceeding depth below the surface of the earth. No outlet was observed in any portion of its vast extent, and no torch or other artificial source of light was discernible; yet a flood of intense rays rolled throughout, and bathed the whole in a ghastly and inappropriate splendor. I have just spoken of that morbid condition of the auditory nerve which rendered all music intolerable to the sufferer, with


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38 the exception of certain effects of stringed instruments. It was, perhaps, the narrow limits to which he thus confined himself upon the guitar, which gave birth, in great measure, to the fantastic character of his performances. But the fervid facility of his impromptus could not be so accounted for. They must have been, and were, in the notes as well as in the words of his wild fantasias (for he not unfrequently accompanied himself with rhymed verbal improvisations), the result of that intense mental collectedness and concentration to which I have previously alluded as observable only in particular moments of the highest artificial excitement. The words of one of these rhapsodies I have easily remembered. I was, perhaps, the more forcibly impressed with it, as he gave it, because, in the under or mystic current of its meaning, I fancied that I perceived, and for the first time, a full consciousness, on the part of Usher, of the tottering of his lofty reason upon her throne. The verses, which were entitled "The Haunted Palace," ran very nearly, if not accurately, thus:

Banners yellow, glorious, golden, On its roof did float and flow, (This—all this—was in the olden Time long ago)


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194 In regard to the exports from Mexico there is less difference of opinion, and it seems to be agreed that the United States and England are the chief consumers of Mexican products, and that Germany, France, and Spain hold a subordinate place as buyers from Mexico. For the year 1884-'85 the value of Mexican exports—precious metals and merchandise—has been estimated as high as $45,600,000; of which $25,053,000, or 55 per cent, went to the United States; $15,367,000, or 32.9 per cent, to England; 4.8 per cent to France; 3 per cent to Germany, and 2.6 per cent to Spain. It therefore follows, if these figures are correct, that the United States buys more of Mexican merchandise than all the other nations of the world together. Excluding the exports of the precious metals, the proportion of exports in favor of the United States would undoubtedly be much greater.

In a report to the State Department (May, 1884), ex-Consul-General Strother thus briefly sums up the obstacles (heretofore noticed more in detail) which stand in the way of the future development of the commerce of Mexico. He says: "Topographically considered, Mexico labors under many serious disadvantages to commerce, whether external or internal. Her coasts on both oceans are broad belts of intolerable heat, disease, and aridity, and, except a few small seaport towns,

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Rh are nearly uninhabited. On the whole extent of her coast-line there are but two natural harbors available for first-class modern merchant-vessels—those of Anton Lizado on the Gulf, and Acapulco on the Pacific. All the other so-called seaports now used by commerce are open roadsteads, dangerous in rough weather, and only approachable in lighters, or are located on rivers, the entrances to which are closed to ocean traders by shallows or sand-bars. The natural obstructions and difficulties in the way of inland traffic are scarcely less observable. Mexico is entirely wanting in navigable rivers and lakes. Her fertile districts, capital cities, and centers of population are separated from each other by long distances, arid districts, immense chains of mountains, and vast barrancas washed out by her rapidly descending water-courses. These difficulties were partially overcome by the Spaniards, who constructed a noble system of highways and bridges extending between the principal cities of the viceroyalty, but from the nature of the soil they were immensely expensive to construct and difficult to maintain. During the long and ruinous wars for independence, and the civil wars which followed, these highways went rapidly to destruction; and, notwithstanding recent repairs and reconstructions, the general condition of Mexican highways is not

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196 encouraging to either commerce or travel. But all these natural and accidental disadvantages combined may be regarded as nothing in comparison with the crushing and suffocating influences brought to bear on Mexican commerce, foreign and domestic, by the exclusive policy imposed by the mother-country during the three centuries of Mexico's colonial vassalage; and, secondly, by the system of internal and interstate duties and custom-houses, inherited from Old Spain, which still practically vexes the internal commerce of the republic."

Silver Monometallism.—Until within a very recent period, Mexico has furnished to the world a most curious and interesting example of a some-what populous country conducting its exchanges almost exclusively by means of a monometallic, silver currency; no other form of money, with the exception of a small copper coinage, having been used or recognized. The results were most instructive. The bulk and weight of the silver currency constituted a most serious embarrassment to commerce and all money transactions. Thus, if one proposed to trade, even to a retail extent, or go on a journey, a bag of coin had to be carried. If it were proposed to pay out a hundred dollars, the weight of the bag would be five and a half pounds; if two hundred dollars, eleven

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Rh pounds; if five hundred, twenty-seven pounds. About the doors of the principal banking-houses were to be seen groups of professional porters (cargadores) who gained a livelihood by carrying loads of coin in ixtle bags from one part of the city to another. Where collections or payments were to be large, and the distance to be traversed considerable, regular organizations of armed men, and suitably equipped animals—known as "conductas"—were permanently maintained; and severe and bloody fights with bandits were of common occurrence. At the great cotton-mill at Querétaro, as already noted, the organization of a conducta—men, arms, and horses—for making collections, was as much an essential of the business as the looms and the spindles. "It was obviously impossible to carry even a moderate amount of such money with any concealment, or to carry it at all with any comfort; and the unavoidable exhibition of it, held in laps, chinking in trunks or boxes, standing in bags, and poured out in streams at the banks and commercial houses, was one of the features of life in Mexico," and undoubtedly constituted a standing temptation for robbery. This state of affairs continued until 1880. The Government, the banks, the merchants, the railroad offices, and private individuals transacted all their business in silver coin;

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198 and all promises to pay, notes, bonds, mortgages, etc., were drawn up with the invariable provision, "payable in hard dollars (pesos fuertes), to the exclusion of all paper money existing, or that may be hereafter created." The only bank-notes issued at that date were large bills of the "Bank of London, Mexico, and South America"—21 branch of which, unchartered, was established in Mexico in 1864. Their circulation was extremely limited; small traders and the people at large declining to accept them. Since then, the "Monte de Piedad" (the national pawnbroking establishment), a "national" bank, and various banks of foreign incorporators, have issued notes; and the practice thus initiated has rapidly extended to all sections of the republic. The basis of issue of all the regularly chartered banks is understood to be substantially the same as that of the "Banco Nacional Mexicano" (Mexican National Bank), which is authorized to issue three millions of paper for every million of coin or bullion in its coffers, which notes are legal tender from individuals to the Government, but not from the Government to individuals, or between individuals. This bank is chartered for thirty years, and is exempted from taxation during that period. Its present circulation has been reported at over $5,000,000. The possibilities, if not probabilities, therefore,

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Rh now are, that a flood of paper will ultimately drive silver out of circulation in Mexico; and that neither popular traditions nor prejudices, nor the adverse influence of the mints (which in Mexico are private establishments), nor its great silver-mining interests (at present the most important business interest of Mexico), can have any effect in checking the paper currency movement.

The sanitary condition of every country constitutes an important element in determining its commercial development, and Mexico especially illustrates the truth of this proposition. The coast-lands of the republic are hot and unhealthy. The more elevated portions, where nine tenths of the people live, are claimed to be unsurpassed in salubrity. Strangers from northern latitudes, and accustomed to the ordinary levels of human residence, are liable, on coming to the Mexican plateau, to a process of acclimation, which, although often very trying, is rarely attended with any very serious consequences. Horse-dealers from Texas state that they lose from twelve to twenty per cent of the horses brought to the city of Mexico for sale, solely from the climatic

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200 contingent on its great altitude. The sanitary conditions of the two chief commercial centers of the republic, namely, the city of Mexico and of Vera Cruz, are, however, so extraordinary and so obstructive to national progress that any review of the country would be imperfect that neglected to notice them. The evil in the case of the former is local and not climatic, and is due to the circumstance that the site of the city is "a bowl in the mountains," so that drainage from it is now, and always has been, very difficult. And, as years have passed, and the population living within the bowl has multiplied, the evil has continually increased, until Lake Tezcoco, which borders the city, and on which Cortes built and floated war-galleys, has been nearly filled up with drainage deposits which have been carried into, it through an elaborate system of city sewers. If these sewers ever had fall enough to drain them, they have, as the result of the filling up of this lake, little or none now, and the result is that they have become in effect an immense system of cess-pools; while the soil, on which from 250,000 to 300,000 people live, has become permeated with stagnant water and filth inexpressible. And were it not for the extreme dryness and rarefaction of the air, which, as before pointed out, prevent the putrefaction of animal substances,

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Rh and seem to hinder the propagation of the germs of disease, the city must long ago have been visited with plague, and perhaps have been rendered absolutely uninhabitable. And, even under existing circumstances, the average duration of life in the city of Mexico is estimated to be but 26.4 years. Typhoid fever prevails all the year round, and is especially virulent at the end of the dry season, when the heat is the greatest. And, surprising as it may seem, with a climate of perpetual spring and an elevation of 7,500 feet above the sea-level, lung and malarial diseases hold a prominent place among the causes of death. According to the reports of the Board of Health of the Mexican capital for April and May of the present year (1886), thirty-three per cent of the weekly mortality at that season was to be referred to typhoid and other forms of gastric fever, and twenty per cent to consumption and pneumonia. In the year 1877, when a typhus epidemic prevailed, the city's mortality was reported to have been as high as 53.2 per thousand as compared with an average death-rate of 24.6 in Paris for the same year. "A distinguished member of the medical faculty of Mexico has lately published a report, in which he demonstrates, by comparative statistical tables, that the annual mortality of the city is increasing

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202 to such an extent as already to counterbalance the natural movement of the population, and, if not checked in time, as threatening the race." —"United States Consular Reports," No. 3, 1881, p. 18.

This condition of affairs is not due, as some might infer, to any improvidence or want of enterprise on the part of the Mexicans, for the evil has long been recognized, and at present especially interests the Government. But the difficulties in the way of applying an efficacious remedy are very great, and engineers are not fully agreed as to the best method for attaining the desired result. "For such is the nature of the plain upon which Mexico is built, such the conformation of the land and the contour of the mountains about it, that a vast system of tunneling and canalization would be necessary to create a fall sufficient to drain the valley; and, before the city can be drained, the valley must be." It is said that one celebrated American engineer, whose advice was recently asked by the Government, reported that, if a thorough drainage could

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Rh be effected, the city, through a consequent shrinkage of soil, would probably tumble down. And, finally, the existing condition of the national and municipal finances is such, that it is not easy for the authorities to determine how the money necessary to meet the contingent great expenditures—estimated at about $9,000,000, or a sum equivalent to more than one third of the entire annual revenue of the General Government—is to be provided.

It ought not to be inferred that there is special danger to travelers, or tourists, visiting the Mexican capital, and residing there during the winter months or early spring; for experience shows that, with ordinary precautions in respect to location, diet, exercise, and exposure, health can be maintained there as easily as in most of the cities of Italy at the same seasons. One serious draw-back to the visitation of Mexico by English-speaking foreigners, intent on either business or pleasure, is the absence of any suitable public pro vision for the care or comfort of any such who may happen to fall victims to accident or disease. This condition of things is greatly aggravated in case of contagious diseases, when the authorities, on notification by the landlord of any hotel or boarding-house, "immediately remove the patient to a public pest-house, where with scores or hundreds of uncongenial companions, suffering from

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Rh He used to go to Mrs. Mathew's salons at 27, Rathbone Place, and meet the Bluestockings and their friends, and, as J. T. Smith said, read and sang several of his poems to airs of his own. His father died in 1784, and he moved to 27, Broad Street, and opened a shop with a partner as printseller and engraver, his favourite younger brother Robert living with him, his brother James keeping on the hosier's business at No. 28, next door. Robert died in 1787, and the poet and his wife moved to 28, Poland Street. There he published "Songs of Innocence" in 1789, having printed it in the manner revealed to him in a vision of the night by his brother Robert. "On his rising in the morning, Mrs. Blake went out with half a crown, all the money they had in the world, and of that laid out is. Iod. on the simple materials necessary for setting in practice the new revelation," the reproduction in facsimile of the songs and their designs. The "Book of Thel" and the "Marriage of Heaven and Hell," reproduced in the same way, also came out of Poland Street. And there he wrote the "French Revolution," which was to have been published by John Johnson, and worked at designing and engraving plates for the same publisher. Blake sometimes sat at Johnson's table at 72, St. Paul's Churchyard, in a company that included, at one time or another, Priestley, Godwin, Holcroft, Tom Paine, Fuseli, and Mary Wollstonecraft. He was then, in Mr. John Sampson's opinion, writing some of the "Songs of Experience" and "A Song of Liberty." In 1793 he moved to 13, Hercules Buildings, in Lambeth, a one-storied house, with "a narrow strip of real garden behind, wherein grew a fine vine." It was here


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204 all kinds of loathsome diseases, he is placed in the hands of nurses whose language he probably can not speak or understand, and to whose food and manners he can not, especially in such a trying hour, become accustomed; and where he is prohibited any little delicacies that might be sent him, and where he lies down alone, to suffer and perhaps to die." In the city of Mexico the further continuance of such painful experiences has in a great degree been prevented by the founding and establishment by private contributions during the present year (1886), of a small but suitable and conveniently located hospital, with provision for ten free beds, and two furnished rooms for rental; and these arrangements it is proposed to enlarge as rapidly as further contributions for the purpose will permit. It may be further noted that this enterprise was the outcome of a meeting of Americans and others on the anniversary of the birthday of Washington in 1886; was greatly stimulated by the generosity of a "Raymond Excursion" party which happened to participate; is now under the charge of a committee, of which the Rev. John W. Butler, of the Methodist Episcopal mission, is secretary; and is a matter which strongly commends itself to the sympathy and aid of the North American and English people.

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Rh At Vera Cruz, the local name of which is "El Vomito" (a term doubtless originating from the continued prevalence in the town of yellow fever), the sanitary conditions are much worse than in the city of Mexico; and the causes of the evil, being mainly climatic, are probably not removable. The statistics of mortality at this place, gathered and published by the United States Department of State, are simply appalling. Thus, the population of Vera Cruz in 1869 was returned at 13492. The number of deaths occurring during the ten years ending September, 1880, was 12,219. The average duration of life in Vera Cruz for this period was, therefore, about eleven years! Other calculations indicate the average annual death-rate of this place to be about ninety per thousand, as compared with the annual average for all the leading cities of the United States for the year 1880, of 22.28 per thousand.

The writer feels that he would be guilty of a grave omission, in this connection, if he failed to quote and also to indorse the words with which the United States consul, who gathered and communicated these facts, thus concludes his official report, October, 1880: "With these awful facts before me, I leave it to the common judgment and high ideas that our law-makers have of justice to say whether or not the salary of the

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206 who, for eleven years, has lived in such an atmosphere, ought or ought not to be placed at least back to where it was when he was sent here."

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208 and with increased facilities for travel, the number of people—restless, adventurous, speculative, or otherwise minded—who are certain to cross the borders into Mexico for all purposes, good and bad, is likely to rapidly increase in the future. An extensive strip of territory within the Mexican frontier is already dominated, to a great extent, for the purposes of contraband trade, by a class of men who acknowledge no allegiance to any government, and whom the Mexican authorities tacitly admit they can not restrain, and who seem to find their greatest profit in smuggling, and their greatest enjoyment in cattle-stealing, gambling, and in fights with the Indians or among themselves. And it is undoubtedly from this rough border population, who no more represent Mexico than the cow-boys of Texas and Colorado represent the people of the United States, that much of the denunciation and complaint about Mexico, its courts and its officials, which finds its way into the columns of American newspapers, originates in the first instance.

An opinion also prevails to a considerable extent, that there is a deliberate scheme—in the nature of a gigantic land-speculation—on the part of a not inconsiderable number of not unimportant people, both Americans and Mexicans, and on both sides of the border, to do all in their

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Rh power to excite animosity and a war feeling in the United States against Mexico, and revolutionary movements and disturbances in the northern States of Mexico against their central Government. These persons represent land ownership in Northern Mexico, where large tracts of Government land, it is understood, have been secured within recent years by Mexican military and political adventurers, and also by Americans, at nearly nominal prices. So long as this land continues to be a part of Mexico, and subject to uncertainties in respect to government, it will command but a very low price, say from ten to fifty cents per acre. But let the southern boundary of the United States be once changed from the Rio Grande to a line from three to four hundred miles farther south, or to the Sierra Madre Mountains of Mexico, then this cheap Mexican land will undoubtedly rapidly appreciate in price—Texas lands near the border and

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210 inferior in quality commanding from two to four dollars per acre—and thus insure immense fortunes to the speculators and adventurers above mentioned. And out of such a condition of things political complications between the two countries, at no distant day, are almost certain to originate.

Again, in asserting the "Monroe doctrine," the United States virtually assumes a protectorate over Mexico. For, whatever else the Monroe doctrine may embody, it unmistakably says to Mexico: "You shall not change your form of government"; "You shall not enter into any European alliances"; "You shall not make cessions of territory, except as we (the United States) shall approve"; and in return "We will not allow any foreign power, ourselves excepted, to bully, invade, or subjugate you." It may be, and is, replied that the necessity of repelling from the outset any attempt at further aggrandizement of any European power on the North American Continent, with its contingent menace to the maintenance of democratic institutions, sufficiently justifies the assertion of the Monroe doctrine, and is for the good of Mexico as well as of the United States. But, at the same time, if there was any other power on the American Continent which should arrogate to itself the right to dictate to or control the United States, as the United States

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Rh arrogates to itself the right to dictate to or control Mexico, and had sufficiency of power to make its assumptions respectable, could there be any doubt that the people of the Federal Union would regard such pretensions as a justifiable occasion for hostile protest and defiance?

Every right, however, carries with it and involves a duty; and the assertion of the Monroe doctrine by the United States carries with it an obligation of duty in respect to Mexico. What is that duty? Manifestly the duty which the strong owes to the weak. Not an offensive protectorate or meddlesome interference, but a kindly feeling and policy; manifesting itself in acts that will tend to promote the prosperity of our neighbor, and bring her willingly in accord with our own interests and wishes. Has that kindly feeling ever been manifested? To answer this question intelligently, one needs but to get a position outside of ourselves—more especially anywhere among the other people and states of the American Continent, north or south of our boundaries—when a little inquiry will satisfy, that the United States is regarded very much in the light of a great, overgrown, immensely powerful "bully," from whom no favor and scant justice are to be expected under any circumstances; and who would never hesitate, if interest or selfish indifference

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212 prompted, to remorselessly trample down—in the old Anglo-Saxon spirit (and as it always has)—any weaker or inferior race, Mexicans, Indians, or Chinese, the poor fishermen of Newfoundland, or again the negro, if political sentiment in respect to the latter was not running for the time being in another direction. And it is safe to say that to-day there is not a nation or people on the face of the globe, which is brought in intimate contact with us, but fears and hates us; and that, apart from a conservation of the principle of free government, which the United States is believed to typify, would not be glad if the power of the Federal Government were by some contingency to be impaired or destroyed. Is it not time, therefore, that some steps should be taken to induce a different and a better state of feeling? But, apart from any moral or ethical view of the situation, an exceptional, kindly treatment of Mexico ought to be a permanent national policy on the part of the United States, for reasons purely of self-interest, apart from any other motives. What Mexico most needs and what she has never had, unless the present Administration be an exception, is a stable, good government. Without such a government the large interests which citizens of the United States are acquiring in Mexico are sure to be imperiled. Some eighty million

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Rh dollars of American capital are understood to be already represented in Mexican railway-constructions; and other large investments have undoubtedly been made in mining and "ranching" in the country. Now, if history is to repeat itself, and there are to be further domestic revolutions and intestine strife in Mexico, and these American property interests or their owners are, as a consequence, to be arbitrarily or unjustly treated—i. e., in the way of confiscations, or forced contributions—resistance will follow; claims for damages will be created and pressed; national intervention will be sought for, and, in the present temper of the American people, will probably be granted—with a possible sequence of war and annexation. Certainly the last thing which the United States would be likely to tolerate would be political chaos, with involved American interests, across its southern border. If it be said that there is no danger of this, it should be remembered that the

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214 present President of Mexico came to his office for the first time in 1876, through successful rebellion against the regularly elected authorities; during which period the "Vera Cruz Railroad" was destroyed at different points by the revolutionists, and all travel throughout the country greatly interrupted and made dangerous; and also that during recent years there have been constantly incipient rebellions against the central authorities.

But good government in Mexico is a matter not easy of attainment There can be no good government in any country without good finance, and the finances of Mexico are always in an embarrassed condition; and this almost necessarily for a variety of reasons. In the first place, as already pointed out, the extreme poverty of the masses, the absence of accumulated wealth, the sluggishness of all societary movements, the practical exemption of land from taxation, and the adoption of a method of taxation that blights the harvest that it is desired to gather, all render the collection of an adequate annual revenue very difficult. Owing to the semi-civilized condition of its people, Mexico is necessarily obliged to support an army nearly double that of the United States (45,323 rank and file in 1883), to maintain anything like a permanent government; and the expenditure

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Rh which this military establishment entails absorbs more than one third part of the total revenue of the state, as compared with a present direct military expenditure on the part of the United States, of not more than one tenth of its annual receipts.

In a certain sense this large expenditure on the part of Mexico is for the direct benefit of the United States; for, if Mexico did not maintain reasonable peace and order throughout its great territory, the United States, having regard simply to its own peace and interests, would have to do it through military rule, on certainly so much of Mexico as is contiguous to the Federal dominions. There can be no doubt, further, that there is a powerful party in Mexico—the old social leaders, and what considers itself the best society of the country—embracing the Church, the notables, and persons of wealth and ancient lineage allied with Spain—which is not at all in sympathy with the younger and progressive element of the nation, and sullenly opposes the introduction of railroads, and dislikes the United States. And this party would, if it could, dominate the policy of the country in all political and commercial questions. In

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216 proof and illustration of this, note the following extract from a recent article in the "Voz de Méjico" ("Voice of Mexico"), an able Catholic daily published in the city of Mexico, against the policy of admitting American capitalists into the republic:

It may also be affirmed with truth that the Mexican people generally dislike the United States and its people more than any other foreign country and people. And why should they not? They

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Rh never have experienced anything of kindness or favors from the United States; and they do not forget that she has taken from them, unjustly as they think, full half of their original territory. The following extract from "The Two Republics," a daily journal published in the city of Mexico, under date of June 16, 1886, illustrates the discussion of this matter from the liberal point of view: "If the professed hatred of foreigners on general principles is a sentiment which has disappeared almost entirely among the intelligent classes of the country, there still exists to-day another feeling which also disguises itself under the mask of patriotism and which is strongest among some of the most intelligent people of the republic. This feeling is no other than that of fear. And not fear of foreigners in general, least of all of Europeans (for fiasco of the French intervention has done much to allay the fears entertained formerly in this country of European powers), but fear only of our Northern neighbors, and, associated with it, opposition to everything identified with American interests. A certain political party in Mexico especially distinguishes itself by the fear with which the Yankee inspires it. The conservative press, as one of the arms of the opposition to liberal governments, writes daily the most bitter criticisms against them, for having opened the ports of the country to the enterprise and the capital of the Americans. If one were to credit this press, the present President and his immediate successor should be convicted of high-treason, on account of the policy they have observed toward railroads.

"There is nothing to justify this fear, for which there is absolutely no reason. On the other hand our daily experience is demonstrating the contrary. . ..

"It is a well-established fact that neither the Mexican nor the European merchant has anything to fear from his American rival, and our own national experience proves conclusively that this fear of the Yankee is nothing but a bugbear, a groundless prejudice, which greatly injures the material development of this country. This fear serves no other purpose than to keep large capitals from our soil, which employed in Mexican enterprises would give an impulse and new life to agriculture, to mining, and to a multitude of industries which could be developed in our country, and, besides being irreconcilable to our national pride, also make us appear in the eyes of our next neighbors as a cowardly people which doubts its own vitality, the manliness of its sons, and which seeks safety in the recourse of all weaklings against danger, namely, in flight, instead of fighting danger bravely; and in this flight we greatly damage our economic interests, besides obstructing the development of the country.

"Even commerce, to which so much fear regarding our neighbors is attributed, should only see a reason for congratulation if American capital comes to this country to impart life and activity to our market, which is almost stagnant for lack of circulation of money. And if, notwithstanding the lessons of the past, the pessimists should be right, and the American enterprise were not entirely free from danger to us, why in the world have we not confidence enough in ourselves to face such danger, instead of running away from it? To close the door to the elements of natural progress, which might offer themselves, only for a feeling of fear which is as unfounded as it is needless, and almost childish, would be the same as if a man should abstain from food, for fear of producing an indigestion."

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218 On the other hand, the present Government of Mexico seems to be cultivating and encouraging every effort that may serve to strengthen society against the possibility of any conservative reaction.

Thus, for example, the attitude of the Government toward the various Protestant sects, which are earnestly striving to gain a foothold in Mexico and extend their special theological views among its people, is well illustrated by the following answer which was returned some time since by the Governor of one of the important States of Mexico to a Protestant clergyman, who had made application for military protection for his church against a threatened mob:

"Sir, I willingly give you the desired

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Rh, as it is my duty to see that the laws are respected; and, while I feel no interest whatever in your religious forms or opinions, we are all interested in encouraging the organization of a body of clergy strong enough to keep the old Church in check."

Whether the Catholic Church will accommodate itself to the new order of things, and be content to live peaceably side by side with civil liberty and full religious toleration, or whether, smarting under a sense of injustice at its spoliation, and restless under the heavy hand of an antagonistic government, it waits its opportunity to array itself against the powers that be, is yet to be determined. Ex-Consul Strother, who has already been often quoted as an authority, thus graphically exhibits the respective attitudes of the former and still great ecclesiastical power and its acknowledged antagonist, the Government: "They may be illustrated," he says, "by a glance at the Grand Plaza of the city, across an angle of which the palace of the liberal Government and the old cathedral stand looking askance at each other. On the one hand, at the guard-mounting, the serried lines of bayonets and the rolling drums appear as a daily reiterated menace and warning. On the other, we might naturally expect to hear from the cathedral towers a responsive peal of indignant

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220 test and sullen defiance. Yet we remember that it is not the clergy, but the Government, which holds the bell-ropes."

It will not, furthermore, be disputed that under the liberal policy which Juarez adopted after the overthrow of the empire, and which the present President has especially carried out, more has been done for the regeneration and progress of Mexico than in almost all former years. Not only has freedom for religious belief and worship been secured, but a system of common schools has been established; the higher branches of education fostered; brigandage in a great degree suppressed; an extensive railroad and telegraph system constructed; postage reduced and post-office facilities extended; the civil and military law codes revised and reformed; the payment of interest upon the national debt in part renewed; and general peace, at home and abroad, maintained—and all this under difficulties which, when viewed abstractly and collectively by a foreign observer, seem to be appalling and insurmountable.

Now, why should not the United States, which heretofore has been so prompt to sympathize with and even give material aid to the people of every Old World nationality struggling for freedom and against oppression—to Poland, Greece, Hungary, and Ireland—be equally ready to sympathize with

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Rh and help the progressive party of Mexico—our neighbor—in the efforts they are unquestionably making to put their country in accord with the demands of a larger civilization?

But, assuming the general concurrence, on the part of the people of the United States, in the proposition that an exceptionally kindly treatment of Mexico ought to be a permanent policy of their Government, such a proposition, even if proclaimed in a joint resolution of both Houses of Congress, would be little other than an expression of sentiment, unless accompanied by practical action. But, through what measures, having this definite end in view, it may be asked, can practical action, not repugnant to the spirit of the Constitution or the precedents and traditions of the Government of the United States, be instituted? And, in answer, the following points are submitted for consideration:

First. That the Government and people of the United States should do all that can be reasonably asked of them to dispel the idea or suspicion, that now prevails throughout Mexico and all Central America, that the North Americans desire and intend, at no distant day, to take possession of all these countries, and destroy their present nationality. So long as this suspicion exists, the influence of the United States in Mexico and

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222 America will be based to a great degree on apprehension rather than liking. A return of the cannon and flag captured by the armies of the United States in the War of 1847, as heretofore proposed, would undoubtedly greatly contribute to dispel this feeling; but, apart from this, would it not be well for those who are especially anxious to send the gospel to the heathen, to consider whether it conduces to a higher life and civilization, for two neighboring nations to live on a basis which, if made applicable to individual members of the same community, would be regarded as akin to barbarism?

Second. The public debt of Mexico, which is recognized as valid, has been variously estimated. According to the report of the Mexican Secretary of Finance in 1879, the foreign debt of Mexico—exclusive of the enormous liabilities (some £40,000,000) contracted under the empire of Maximilian, and which Mexico (very properly) does not recognize—amounted at that date to $81,632,560:

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Rh and, in addition to this, there is a reported internal debt of some $40,000,000. At the present time (1886) the aggregate national debt of Mexico has been reported as amounting to $122,891,000, and $7,891,000 arrears of interest. The obligations which this debt entails constitute a serious embarrassment to the Government, and a heavy burden upon the resources of the country. Numerous attempts have been made to fund it, with adequate provision for the payment of interest—the payment of the principal being regarded as hopeless—a scheme by President Gonzales in 1884 for a new conversion, by the issue of bonds to the amount of $86,000,000, having well-nigh occasioned a revolution; not that Mexico wanted to repudiate, but because the whole measure was believed to be tainted with fraud. During the present year (1886) however, the Mexican Government has resumed payment, in part, of the interest on the English bonded indebtedness—in pursuance of an act of Congress in 1885, which authorized the consolidation of the entire national debt without consultation with the creditors. But so long as the debt of Mexico is not arranged to the satisfaction of its holders, and the originally stipulated interest thereon is not regularly paid, the republic can expect but little credit, no sound finance, no full material development, and no thoroughly sound

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224. And, imperative as is the problem, there seems but little present chance for Mexico to solve it. The United States could, however, easily accomplish it. With its interest temporarily guaranteed by it (i. e., for a time sufficient to allow of a fuller development of the trade and commerce of the country) the Mexican debt could undoubtedly be funded at from two to two and a half per cent interest, involving an annual charge, say, from $1,800,000 to $2,225,000—less than what is almost annually wasted on river and harbor improvements that subserve only private interests; and not much more than the four leading railroads of the North-west have this year (1886) decided to add to their annual interest charges, for the purpose of extended constructions over territory that can at present return but little remunerative business. Is this a sum too great for the American people to pay, if it will help to give good government to a contiguous territory nearly as large as all of the United States east of the Mississippi?

Buying nearly six tenths, and selling nearly one half of all that Mexico sells and buys external to itself, is not such a commerce worth fostering by the expenditure of such a sum?—especially in view of the fact that a bill was introduced at the first session of the Forty-ninth Congress which proposed, as an act of sound public policy, to tax

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Rh the people of the United States to the extent of some fifteen million dollars per annum, for the purpose of fostering only one department of the industry of the country—namely, that of manufacturing tin-plate.

That such a proposition is likely to be scouted, in the first instance, by the American public, is to be anticipated. "Have we not debts enough of our own to pay," it may be asked, "without looking after those of other people?" But let us reason a little. Can it be doubted that, after the termination of our late civil war, the United States would have practically enforced against the Maximilian government, had it been necessary, that phase of the Monroe doctrine which affirms that European political jurisdiction shall not be enlarged on this continent? Fortunately,. Mexico was able, out of its patriotism and sacrifice, to protect itself against the encroachment of foreign powers, and thus saved the United States from a conflict that would have permanently increased the burden of its debt by many times two million dollars.

Again, the demands of the world's commerce, for the establishment of speedy and cheap methods of transit across the narrow belt of Southern Mexico and Central America which separates the two oceans, are being recognized; and new routes

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226 such conditions, at no distant day, are certain to be established. European sovereignty over them is, however, repugnant to the sentiment of the United States, and, if attempted, will probably be contested; and this, in turn, if anything more than words of protest are to be used, means formidable military and naval demonstrations and large expenditures. The people of the United States might, however, well hesitate before embarking in such an enterprise, in view of the fact that the foe which their forces would have to especially encounter and most dread, would be one against which neither courage nor skill would avail; for over all the low, tropical regions of Central America, where the routes for interoceanic transit have got to be constructed, the climate for unacclimated persons is most deadly—in proof of which the current mortality of Vera Cruz, San Blas, and the line of the Panama Canal may be cited; as well as the horrible historical experience of the forces which the North American colonies sent in 1741 to co-operate with Admiral Vernon's expedition to Carthagena and the coasts of "Darien" (Panama). But Mexico is a nation of soldiers; and, if proper kindly relations were to be established between the two countries, the United States could confidently rely on, or employ, the well-acclimated

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Rh troops of the former to guard any transit routes from foreign appropriation and control; even if a desire on the part of the people of Mexico and Central America to preserve the integrity of their own territories was not sufficient to prompt them to defensive action. But kindly relations, between nations, are not to be established in a day and under the pressure of a one-sided necessity; and nations, as well as men, "gain doubly when they make foes friends."

Third. The commercial relations between the United States and Mexico, now complicated and restricted by mutual antagonistic tariff legislation, might easily be so readjusted and broadened as to secure continued peace and amity between the people of the two nations, and greatly extend the volume and the profits of their international commerce. And to the present condition and possibilities in detail, of this commerce, attention is next invited.

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Rh time become possible. Thus, to illustrate: Chihuahua, an important center of population, is distant a thousand miles or more from the city of Mexico; and between the two places, in addition, a somewhat formidable desert intervenes, of about a hundred miles in width, and over which the "Mexican Central Railroad" trains are obliged to carry a water-supply for their locomotives. Previous to 1883, if a revolution broke out in Chihuahua, the most ready method of communicating intelligence of the same to the central Government would have been to send a man on foot, probably an Indian runner. If the messenger averaged fifty miles a day, twenty days would have been consumed in reaching the city of Mexico, and from three to six weeks more, at the very least, would have been required to dispatch a corps of trained soldiers from the capital, or some intermediate point, to the scene of the disturbance. But before this the revolutionists would have had all the opportunity for levying forced loans or direct plunder, or the gratification of private animosities, that their hearts could desire. And it is altogether probable that, in a majority of such cases, political grievances were merely alleged as a pretext for and a defense of plunder; and it is a wonder how, under such circumstances, there could be any desire for or

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