text:
Page:EB1911 - Volume 02.djvu/509

 elected, and in order to provide against the predominance of Buenos Aires, it was determined that Sante Fé should be the place of session. But this did not suit the porteños, as the people of Buenos Aires were called, and the province refused to take any part in the congressional proceedings. But Urquiza was a man of different temperament from Rosas, and when he found that Buenos Aires refused to submit to his authority, he declined to use force. The congress had (May 1, 1853) appointed Urquiza president of the confederation, and he established the seat of government at Paraná. The province of Buenos Aires was recognized as an independent state, and under the enlightened administration of Doctor Obligado made rapid strides in commercial prosperity. The two sections of the Argentine nation contrived to exist as separate governments without an open breach of the peace until 1859, when the long-continued tension led to the outbreak of hostilities. The army of the porteños, commanded by Colonel Bartolomé Mitre, was defeated at Cepeda by the confederate forces under Urquiza, and Buenos Aires agreed to re-enter the confederation (November 11, 1859). Urquiza at this juncture resigned the presidency, and Doctor Santiago Derqui was elected president of the fourteen provinces with the seat of government at Paraná; while Urquiza became once more governor of Entre Rios, and Mitre was appointed governor of Buenos Aires.

The struggle for supremacy between Buenos Aires and the provinces had, however, to be fought out, and hostilities once more broke out in 1861. The armies of the opposing parties, under Generals Mitre and Urquiza respectively, met at Pavón in the province of Santa Fé (September 17). The battle ended in the disastrous defeat of the provincial forces; General Mitre used his victory in a spirit of moderation and sincere patriotism. He was elected president of the Argentine confederation and did his utmost to settle the questions which had led to so many civil wars, on a permanent and sound basis. The constitution of 1853 was maintained, but Buenos Aires became the seat of federal government without ceasing to be a provincial capital. Causes of friction still remained, but they did not develop into open quarrels, for Mitre was content to leave Urquiza in his province of Entre Rios, and the other administrators (caudillos) in their several governments, a large measure of autonomy, trusting that the position and growing commercial importance of Buenos Aires would inevitably tend to make the federal capital the real centre of power of the republic. In 1865 the Argentines were forced into war with Paraguay through the overbearing attitude of the president Francisco Solano Lopez. The dictator of Paraguay had quarrelled with Brazil for its intervention in the internal affairs of Uruguay, and he demanded free passage for his troops across the Argentine province of Corrientes. This Mitre refused, and alliance was formed between Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay, for joint action against Lopez. General Mitre became commander-in-chief of the combined armies for the invasion of Paraguay and was absent for several years in the field. The struggle was severe and attended by heavy losses, and it was not until 1870 that the Paraguayans were conquered, Lopez killed, and peace concluded (see ). Meanwhile, disturbances had broken out in the interior of Argentina (1867), which compelled Mitre to relinquish his command in Paraguay, and to call back a large part of the Argentine forces to suppress the insurrection. The rebels had hoped for assistance from Urquiza, but the powerful governor of Entre Rios maintained the peace in his province, which under his firm and beneficent rule had greatly prospered, and the revolutionary movement was quickly subdued.

In 1868 the term of General Mitre came to an end, and Doctor Domingo Faustino Sarmiento, a native of San Juan, was quietly elected to succeed him. His conduct of affairs was broad-minded and upright, and was characterized by earnest efforts to promote education and to develop the resources of the country. His period of office was marked by the rapid advance of Buenos Aires in population and prosperity, and by an expansion of trade that was unfortunately accompanied by financial extravagance. The war with Paraguay left a legacy of disputes concerning boundaries which almost led to war between the two victorious allies, Argentina and Brazil, but by the exertions of Mitre, who was sent at the close of 1872 as special envoy to Rio, a settlement was arrived at and friendly relations restored. The month of April 1870 saw an insurrection in Entre Rios headed by the caudillo, Lopez Jordan. Urquiza was assassinated, and the provincial legislature, through fear, at once proclaimed Lopez Jordan governor. The federal government refused to acknowledge the new governor, and troops were despatched by Sarmiento against Entre Rios. The contest lasted with varying success for more than a year, but finally Lopez Jordan was completely defeated and driven into exile.

The presidential election of 1874 resolved itself, as so often before, into a struggle between the provincials and the porteños (Buenos Aires). The candidate of the former, Dr Nicolas Avellaneda, triumphed over General Mitre, not without suspicions of tampering with the returns; and the unsuccessful party appealed to arms. The new president, however, who was installed in office on the 12th of October, took active steps to suppress the revolution, which never assumed a really serious character. The government troops gained two decisive victories over the insurgents under Generals Mitre and Arredondo, and they were compelled to surrender at discretion. But though peace was for a time restored, the old causes of soreness and dissension remained unappeased, and as the time for the next presidential election began to draw near, it became more and more evident that a critical struggle was at hand, and that the people of Buenos Aires, supported by the province of Corrientes, were determined to bring to an issue the question as to what position Buenos Aires was to hold for the future with regard to the remaining provinces of the confederation. It was evident that the president intended to use all the influence which the party in power could exercise, to secure the return of General Julio Roca, who had distinguished himself in 1878 by a successful campaign against the warlike Indian tribes bordering on the Andes. The porteños on their part were determined to resist this policy to the utmost. Mass meetings were held, and a committee was appointed for the purpose of considering what action should be taken to defeat the ambitious designs of the provincials. Under the direction of this committee, the association known as the “Tiro Nacional” was formed, with the avowed object of training the able-bodied citizens of Buenos Aires in military exercises and creating a volunteer army, ready for service if called upon, to withstand by force the pretensions of their opponents. The establishment of the Tiro Nacional was enthusiastically received by all classes in Buenos Aires, the men turning out regularly to drill, and the women aiding the movement by collecting subscriptions for the purpose of armament and other necessaries. On the 13th of February 1880, the minister of war, Dr Carlos Pellegrini, summoned the principal officers connected with the Tiro Nacional, General Bartolomé Mitre, his brother Emilio, Colonel Julio Campos, Colonel Hilario Lagos and others, and warned them that as officers of the national army they owed obedience to the national government, and would be severely punished if concerned in any revolutionary outbreak against the constituted authorities. The reply to this threat was the immediate resignation of their commissions by all the officers connected with the Tiro Nacional. Two days later, the national government occupied, with a strong force of infantry and artillery, the parade ground at Palermo used by the Buenos Aires volunteers for drill purposes. A great meeting of citizens was then called and marched through the streets. President Avellaneda was frightened at the results of his action, and to avoid a collision ordered the troops to be withdrawn. Negotiations were now opened by the government with the provincial authorities for the disarmament of the city and province of Buenos Aires, but they led to nothing. Matters became still further strained on account of the outrages committed by the national troops, and such was the bitterness of

title: Page:EB1911 - Volume 02.djvu/509


text:
Page:Biographies of Scientific Men.djvu/184

 with the physics and chemistry of his time. "Before Laplace, he elaborated a hypothesis as to the origin of the solar system; before Hutton and Lyell, he realized the causes like those now at work had, in the long past, sculptured the earth; he had a special theory of heredity not unlike Darwin's, and a by no means narrow theory of evolution, in which he recognized the struggle for existence and the elimination of the unfit ('the survival of the fittest' of Herbert Spencer, and the 'natural selection' of Charles Darwin), the influence of isolation and of artificial selection, but especially the direct action of food, climate, and other surrounding influences upon the organism": and his writings paved the way for the doctrine of descent. Buffon saw, with a philosophic eye, the unity of nature; and no doubt he would have seen more, and written more, if orthodox creeds had not stood in his way. He had always to keep an eye on the Sorbonne!

Living in the renaissance of science, Buffon was no believer in the permanent stability of species. He says, e.g., "the pig does not appear to have been formed upon an original, special, and perfect plan, since it is a compound of other animals; it has evidently useless parts, or rather parts of which it cannot make any use—toes, all the bones of which are perfectly formed, and which, nevertheless, are of no service to it. Nature is far from subjecting herself to final causes in the formation of her

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/


text:
Page:Biographies of Scientific Men.djvu/185

Rh creatures." He believed that species have altered, due to changes in the environment in past ages of the world; and he hinted that there may have been a common ancestor of the ass and horse, and of the ape and man.

Buffon was an evolutionist, and the most "suggestive naturalist of the eighteenth century." During the same century there was great enthusiasm for natural history, as the following names, among others, bear evidence Rœsel, De Geer, Schäffer, Réaumur, and Bonnet.

Buffon anticipated many important theories, such as "the struggle for existence," "artificial and natural selection," "geographical isolation," "descent," and the action of the environment in producing structural changes which were preserved by heredity. Although faulty in many of his ideas, Buffon helped to pave the way to the modern theory of evolution.

Of his foibles, it may be mentioned that he was personally vain—turbine raptus ingenii; so were the most eminent writers, Voltaire and Rousseau, of the age of Louis XV. He was fond of jewellery and gold-laced clothes, and in his you rig days he was a dandy, as far as dress was concerned. He said of himself: "I know but five great geniuses, Newton, Bacon, Leibnitz, Montesquieu, and


text:
Page:Biographies of Scientific Men.djvu/186

142 myself." However, he was always willing to hear the opinions of others, and to admire their work.

In 1733, four years after the death of Jean Gaston, Grand Duke of Tuscany (the last of the De Médicis), Buffon was elected a member of the Académie des Sciences.

He greatly improved and enlarged the much neglected Jardin des Plantes, having been appointed the director, and continued the work of regeneration begun by Dufay.

In 1744 Buffon published his Théorie de la Terre, which was ultimately included in the Histoire Naturelle. He had similar ideas to those of Laplace and Kant, namely, that the earth and other planets were thrown off from the sun in the molten state, and, after cooling, dry land, seas, mountains, etc., were formed by various agencies that are slowly working at the present day. Concerning the place where life began on this planet, he suggested, in his Époques de la Nature, the polar regions.


text:
Page:Biographies of Scientific Men.djvu/187

 In 1749 appeared his Histoire Naturelle des Oiseaux, in eight volumes and six supplements—a beautiful illustrated work, in which is painted in glowing colours the manners and habits of birds. In particular and minute observation he excelled, and by his indefatigable researches he made most valuable additions to science.

Buffon rejected the principles of classifications in use in his day, and threw his subjects into groups. He was not free from bias, and his prepossession for a favourite doctrine led him astray. He rejected the works on classification of Ray, Tournefort, Bernard de Jussieu, and Linnæus; but in his Histoire Naturelle des Oiseaux he felt more and more the necessity of arranging birds according to their affinities.

In 1774 Buffon published his Histoire des Minéraux—a work of great importance and value.

The same year that Voltaire and Rousseau died, Buffon ended his labours, and joined the majority on 16th April 17781788 [sic]. His last words to his son were: "Never quit the path of honour and of virtue; it is the only way to be happy." He was buried with public honours in the Cimetière du Père la Chaise.

He died one year before the advent of the French Revolution, and his only son was guillotined fifteen days before the fall of Robespierre. During the Reign of Terror the remains of the great zoologist were torn from the tomb, and the monument which was erected to


text:
Page:EB1911 - Volume 02.djvu/510

 feeling developed between the two factions, that an appeal to arms became inevitable.

In the month of June 1880, President Avellaneda and his ministers left Buenos Aires, and this act was considered by the porteño leaders equivalent to a declaration of war. The national government and the twelve provinces forming the Córdoba League, were ranged on one side; the city and province of Buenos Aires and the province of Corrientes on the other. The national troops were well armed with Remington rifles, provided with abundant ammunition, equipped with artillery and supported by the fleet. In the city and province of Buenos Aires, plenty of volunteers offered their services, and an army of some twenty-five thousand men was quickly raised, but they were armed with old-fashioned weapons and there was only a limited supply of ammunition. Feverish attempts were made to remedy the lack of warlike stores, but difficulty was experienced on account of the fleet blockading the entrance to the river. After several skirmishes, the national army commanded by General Roca, containing many troops seasoned in Indian campaigns, assaulted the porteños posted before Buenos Aires, and after two days’ hard fighting (20th and 21st July) forced its way into the town. On 23rd July the surrender of the city was demanded and obtained. The terms of the surrender were that all the leaders of the revolution should be removed from positions of authority, all government employees implicated in the movement dismissed, and the force in the province and city of Buenos Aires at once disarmed and disbanded. The power of Buenos Aires was thus completely broken and at the mercy of the Córdoba League. The porteños were no longer in a position to nominate a candidate in opposition to General Julio Roca, who was duly elected. He assumed office in October 1880.

Hitherto General Roca had been regarded only in his capacity as a soldier, and not from the point of view of an administrator. In the campaigns against the Indians in the south-west of the province of Buenos Aires and the valley of the Rio Negro he had gained much prestige; the victory over Buenos Aires added to his fame, and secured his authority in the outlying provincial centres. One of the first notable acts of the Roca administration was to declare the city of Buenos Aires the property of the national government. This separation of the city from the province, and its federalization had been one of the chief aims of the Córdoba League, and was the natural consequence of the crushing defeat inflicted on the porteños. As a sequel to this step, in 1884 the town of La Plata was declared to be the capital of the province of Buenos Aires, and the provincial administration was moved to that place. This federalization of the capital has proved to be a most important factor in binding together the different parts of the confederation, and in promoting the evolution of an Argentine nation out of a loosely cemented union of a number of semi-independent states.

Considering the circumstances in which General Roca assumed office, it must be admitted that he showed great moderation and used the practically absolute power that he possessed to establish a strong central government, and to initiate a national policy, which aimed at furthering the prosperity and development of the whole country. He was able by the influence he exerted to keep down the internal dissensions and insurrectionary outbreaks which had so greatly impeded for many years the development of the vast natural resources of the republic. With this object he had promoted the extension of railways so as to link the provinces with the great port of Buenos Aires, and to provide at the same time facilities for the rapid despatch of military forces to disturbed districts. Unfortunately the last two years of Roca’s term of office were marked by two grave errors, which subsequently caused widespread suffering and distress throughout the country. The first of these mistakes was a measure making (January 1885) the currency inconvertible for a period of two years. This act, which was only decided upon after much hesitation, had a most deleterious effect upon the national credit. The second was the nomination of Dr Miguel Juarez Celman for the presidential term commencing in October 1886. The nomination was brought about by the Córdoba clique, and Roca lacked the moral courage to oppose the decision of this group, though he was well aware that Celman, who was his brother-in-law, was neither intellectually nor morally fitted for the post.

No sooner had President Juarez Celman come into power towards the close of 1886, than the respectable portion of the community began to feel alarmed at the methods practised by the new president in his conduct of public affairs. At first it was hoped that the influence of General Roca would serve to check any serious extravagance on the part of Celman. This hope, however, was doomed to disappointment, and before many months had elapsed it was clear that the president would listen to no prudent counsels from Roca or from any one else. The men of the old Córdoba League became dominant in all branches of the government, and carpet-bagging politicians occupied every official post. In their hurry to obtain wealth, this crowd of office-mongers from the provinces lent themselves to all kinds of bribery and corruption. The public credit was pledged at home and abroad to fill the pockets of the adventurers, and the wildest excesses were committed under the guise of administrative acts. What followed in the second and third years of the Celman administration can only adequately be described as a debauchery of the national honour, of the national resources, of the rights of Argentines as citizens of the republic. Buenos Aires was still prostrate under the crushing blow of the misfortunes of 1880, and lacked strength and power of organization necessary to raise any effective protest against the proceedings of Celman and his friends when the true character of these proceedings was first understood. The conduct of public affairs, however, at length became so scandalous, that action on the part of the more sober-minded and conservative sections was seen to be absolutely imperative if the country was to be saved from speedy and certain ruin. In 1889 the association of the “Union Civica” was founded, and the organization undertaken by Dr Leandro Alem, Dr Aristobulo del Valle, Dr Bernardo Irigoyen, Dr Vicente Lopez, Dr Lucio Lopez, Dr Oscar Lilliedale and other leading citizens. The untiring energy and zeal of Leandro Alem fitted him for being the chief organizer of a movement into which he threw himself heart and soul. Mass meetings were held in Buenos Aires, and it fell specially to the lot of Dr del Valle, who was an able orator as well as a sincere patriot, to expose the irresponsible and corrupt character of the administration, and the terrible dangers that threatened the republic through its reckless extravagance and financial improvidence. Subsidiary clubs affiliated to the central administration were formed throughout the length and breadth of the country, and millions of leaflets and pamphlets were distributed broadcast to explain the importance of the movement. President Celman underrated the strength of the new opposition, and relied upon his armed forces promptly to suppress any signs of open hostility. No change was made in official methods, and the condition of affairs drifted from bad to worse, until the temper of the people, so long and so sorely tried, showed plainly that the situation had become insufferable. The Union Civica then decided to make a bold bid for freedom by attempting forcibly to eject Celman and his clique from office.

On the night of the 26th of July 1890 the Union Civica called its members to arms. It was joined by some regiments of the regular army and received the support of the fleet. Barricades were thrown up in the principal streets, and the surrounding houses were occupied by the insurgents. Two days of desultory street fighting ensued, during which the fleet began to bombard the city, but was compelled to desist by the interference of foreign men-of-war, on the ground that the bombardment was causing unnecessary damage to the life and property of non-combatants. A suspension of hostilities then took place, and negotiations were opened between the contending parties. Celman, acting upon the advice of General Roca, who recognized the strength of public opinion in the outbreak, placed his resignation in the hands of congress on the 31st of July. A scene of

title: Page:EB1911 - Volume 02.djvu/510


text:
Page:Biographies of Scientific Men.djvu/188

 Buffon's memory was razed to the ground. Such was the wanton recklessness of the revolutionists—even the dead were not safe in their graves! The despicable meanness of the mob in rifling the grave of "the aristocrat Buffon" was to steal the leaden coffin in which he was buried. With this exception, however, the tomb was restored by admirers of the great man.

Buffon was a naturalist of the highest order; indefatigable in his work, independent in his ideas, and although rich and the friend of kings, idleness was unknown to him. "He opposed the extreme systematizers, who seemed to think it the end of science, not so much to know about an object, as to be able to make it and fit it into their system," Huxley, writing in 1894, said that "we do not possess, at this moment, a history of even the little group of British mammals up to the level of the work of Buffon and Daubenton, now nearly a century and a half old." Huxley said in appreciation of Buffon: "I am not likely to take a low view of Darwin's position in the history of science, but I am disposed to think that Buffon and Lamarck would run him hard both in genius and fertility. In breadth of view and extent of knowledge these two men were giants, though we are apt to forget their services."

Saint-Hilaire said of Linnæus and Buffon: "Linné, un de ces types de la perfection de l'intelligence humaine


text:
Page:Biographies of Scientific Men.djvu/189

 où la synthèse et l'analyse se complétent l'une l'autre, et, pour ainsi dire, se font équilibre: Buffon, un de ces homines puissants par la synthèse, qui franchissent d'un pied hardi les limites de leur époque, marchent seuls en avant, et's'avancent vets les siècles futurs en tenant tout de leur génie comme un conquérant de son épée."


text: Biographies of Scientific Men/Buffon

title: Biographies of Scientific Men/Buffon


text: The Story of Doctor Dolittle/Introduction


text: The Story of Doctor Dolittle/Chapter 1

title: The Story of Doctor Dolittle/Chapter 1


text:
Page:EB1911 - Volume 02.djvu/511

 intense enthusiasm followed, and Buenos Aires was en fête for the following three days. The vice-president of the confederation, Carlos Pellegrini, who had been minister of war under presidents Avellaneda and Roca and had had much administrative experience, succeeded without opposition to the vacant post.

Much satisfaction was shown in Europe at the fall of President Celman, for investors had suffered heavily by the way in which the resources of Argentina had been dissipated by a corrupt government, and hopes were entertained that the uprising of public opinion against his financial methods signified a more honest conduct of the national affairs in the future. Great expectations were entertained of the ability of President Pellegrini to establish a sound administration, and he succeeded in forming a ministry which gave general satisfaction throughout the country. General Roca was induced to undertake the duties of minister of the interior, and his influence in the provinces was sufficient to check any attempts to stir up disturbances at Córdoba or elsewhere. The most onerous post of all, that of minister of finance, was confided to Dr Vicente Lopez, who, though he was not of marked financial ability, was at least a man of untiring industry and of a personal integrity that was above suspicion. But the economic and financial situation was one of almost hopeless embarrassment and confusion, and Pellegrini proved himself incapable of grappling with it. Instead of facing the difficulties, the president preferred to put off the day of reckoning by flooding the country with inconvertible notes, with the result that the financial crisis became more and more aggravated. Through the rapid depreciation of Argentine credit, the great firm of Baring Brothers, the financial agents of the government in London, became so heavily involved that they were forced into liquidation, November 1890. The consequences of this catastrophe were felt far and wide, and in the spring of 1891 both the Banco Nacional and the Banco de la provincia de Buenos Aires were unable to meet their obligations. Amidst this sea of financial troubles the government drifted helplessly on, without showing any inclination or capacity to initiate a strong policy of reform in the methods of administration which had done so much to ruin the country.

It is little wonder that, in these circumstances, the choice of a successor to Pellegrini, whose term of office expired in 1892, should have been felt to possess peculiar importance. General Bartolomé Mitre was proposed by the porteños as their candidate. He had been absent from Argentina on a journey to Europe, and on his return in April 1891, a popular reception was given to him at which 50,000 persons attended. A petition was presented to him begging him to be a candidate for the presidency, and with some reluctance the veteran leader gave his consent. His partisans, however, found themselves confronted by a compact provincial party, who proposed to put forward the other strong man of the republic, General Roca, to oppose him. But the two generals were equally averse to a contest à outrance, which could only end in civil war. They met accordingly at a conference known as El Acuerdo, and it was arranged that both should withdraw, and that a non-party candidate should be selected who should receive the support of them both. The choice fell upon Dr Saenz Peña, a judge of the supreme court, and a man universally respected, who had never taken any part in political life. This compact aroused the bitter enmity of Dr Leandro Alem, who did his utmost to stir up the Union Civica to a campaign against the neutral candidate. Finding that the more conservative section of the union would not follow him, Alem formed a new association to which he gave the name of Union Civica Radical. Such was his energy, that soon a network of branches of the Union Civica Radical was organized throughout the republic, and Dr Bernardo Irigoyen was put forward as a rival candidate to Dr Saenz Peña. But Alem was not content with constitutional opposition to the Acuerdo, and his movement soon assumed the character of a revolutionary propaganda against the national government. His violence gave Pellegrini the opportunity of taking active steps to preserve the peace. In April 1892 Alem and his chief colleagues were arrested and sent into exile.

In the following month (May), the presidential elections were held; Dr Saenz Peña was declared duly elected, and Dr José Uriburu, the minister in Chile, was chosen as vice-president.

The idea of Dr Saenz Peña was to conduct the government on common sense and non-partisan lines, in fact to translate into practical politics the principles which underlay the compromise of the Acuerdo. He was a straightforward and honourable man, who tried his best to do his duty in a position that had been forced upon him, and was in no sense of the word his own seeking. No sooner, however, was he installed in office than difficulties began to crop up on all sides, and he quickly discovered that to attempt to govern without the aid of a majority in congress was practically impossible. He had had no experience of political life, and he refused to create the support he needed by using his presidential prerogative to build up a political majority. Obstruction met his well-meant efforts to promote the general good, and before twelve months of the presidential term had run public affairs were at a deadlock. Dr Alem, who had been permitted to return from exile, was not slow to profit by the occasion. Embittered by his treatment in 1892, he openly preached the advisability of an armed rising to overthrow the existing administration. Public opinion had been outraged by the immunity with which the governors of certain provinces, and more particularly Dr Julio Costa, the governor of the province of Buenos Aires, had been allowed to maintain local forces, by the aid of which they exacted the payment of illegal taxes and exercised other acts of injustice and oppression. A number of officers of the army and navy agreed to lend assistance to a revolutionary outbreak, and towards the end of July 1893 matters came to a head. The population of Buenos Aires assembled in armed bodies with the avowed intention of ejecting the governor from office, and electing in his stead a man who would give them a just administration. The president was for some time in doubt whether he had any right to intervene in provincial affairs, but eventually troops were despatched to La Plata. There was no serious fighting. Negotiations were soon opened which quickly led to the resignation of Costa, and the return of the insurgents to their homes. While these disturbances were taking place in the province of Buenos Aires, another revolutionary rising was in progress in Santa Fé. Here the efforts of Dr Alem succeeded in supplying a large body of rebels with arms and ammunition, and he was able, by a bold attack, to seize the town of Rosario and there establish the revolutionary headquarters. This capture so alarmed the national government that a force was sent under the command of Roca to put down the insurrection. The revolt speedily collapsed before this redoubtable commander, and Alem and the other leaders surrendered. They were sentenced to banishment in Staten Island at the pleasure of the federal government.

But the suppression of disorder did not relieve the tension between the congress and the executive. During the whole of the 1894 session, the attitude of senators and deputies alike was one of pronounced hostility to the president. All his acts were opposed, legislation was at a standstill and every effort was made to force Dr Saenz Peña to resign. But although he experienced the utmost difficulty in forming a cabinet, the president was obstinate in his determination to retain office without identifying himself with any party. A definite issue was therefore sought by the congress on which to join battle, and it arose out of the death sentences which had been pronounced on certain naval and military officers who had been implicated in the Santa Fé outbreak. The president had made up his mind that the sentence must be carried out; the congress by a great majority were resolved not to permit the death penalty to be inflicted. It was a one-sided struggle, for without the consent of the congress the president could not raise any money for supplies, and congress refused to vote the budget. But heavy expenses had been incurred in putting down revolutionary movements in various parts of the provinces, and war with Chile

title: Page:EB1911 - Volume 02.djvu/511


text:
Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 3.djvu/416

396 laboured for a union, and had laboured fruitlessly. It was not till a new power had been introduced, and a bond of concord had arisen between the two nations in a common Protestantism, that the inveterate antagonism consented at length to give way. Here too, by a mischievous fatality, the spirit of disagreement contrived to enter; but the uniting influence was stronger than the separative, and the work of fusion was accomplished at last, though painfully and arduously. The political condition of Scotland has been traced downwards to a point where it runs parallel to the general current of the story. I must go back a few years, to follow to its fountain the already visible stream of the spiritual Reformation.


text:
Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 3.djvu/417

Rh In Ireland it was observed that the heresy laws were inoperative, because unneeded. In the midst of infinite license of conduct, neither priest nor layman, chieftain nor serf, in that country, indulged himself in liberty of thought. The Roman Catholic religion satisfied the intellectual desires of the Irish nation, which on this one point forgot its besetting inconstancy. Between Scotland and Ireland there was much superficial resemblance. The O'Neils and O'Donnells were indeed of an inferior mettle to the Bruces and the Wallaces. The Milesian Celts never rose into a national consciousness—never in any sense were a people with a cause and a country—until enmity to England was sanctified by religious separation. On the other hand, the feuds of the Scottish chiefs were superseded by their patriotism, whenever the liberty of the nation was imperilled. They were a 'people' in the distinctive sense of the word. They had bought their freedom with the sword; and with the sword they continued to defend it. Yet their independence was an isolated virtue, compatible with unrestrained indulgence in crime and licentiousness: the annals of the sister island are not more rich in aimless feuds, murders, and conspiracies than those of the country which we are describing; and if the Scots had remained as a nation under similar spiritual trammels with the Irish, they would have come down into the modern world equally shrouded in misery—equally the despair of the statesman, the problem of the moralist. But there was a something in all races of the Teutonic blood which rose in rebellion against so barren


text:
Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 3.djvu/418

398 a destiny. The seeds of liberty were scattered simultaneously in England and in Scotland; and the initial symptoms of growth in both countries are visible together. When the first Acts of Parliament were passed by the Lancastrian princes against the Lollards—perhaps even earlier—heretics, by the Scotch law, were consigned to the stake. The Glasgow register shows that in 1422, and again in 1431, various persons suffered death for their religion; and under James IV. as many as thirty were indicted whose fate is not discoverable.

In the reign of the same King, in the year 1505, an event occurred of vaster consequence. In the house of a retainer of the Earl of Bothwell, in the suburbs of Haddington, there was born into the world an infant who became, perhaps, in that extraordinary age its most extraordinary man, and whose character became the mould in which the later fortunes of his country were cast. John Knox was forty years old before Scotland knew him as more than a poor priest, a plain yeoman's son: it is chiefly through his eyes, however, that the religion of the Scottish people is visible to us from his early manhood. He grew himself


text: Author talk:Francis Mathews Green

title: Author talk:Francis Mathews Green


text:
Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 3.djvu/419

1525.] with the growth of the spirit of the Reformation; and the history of the outward occurrences is the history of them in the effect which they worked in shaping the mind of the Reformer.

The world went smoothly with the Church for the first quarter of the century. The bishops and abbots ate, and drank, and sinned, and married their children, and believed their houses would continue for ever; till suddenly Luther started up in Germany, and the expanding circles of the great wave which he had created penetrated into Scotland. Patrick Hamilton, the Earl of Arran's nephew, a youth little more than twenty years old, was among the first of her children who was shaken with the undulation. The young abbot (he was the titular superior of Ferns) crossed to the Continent, 'to see that great sight.' He spoke with Luther himself; he spoke with Melancthon; and in the beginning of the year 1527 he carried back the lessons which he had learnt to his countrymen. It was a time when there was neither law nor order, when the strong trampled on the weak, and the ruling powers of the Church were happy in their adulteries, and there was no justice but to the strong. But authority, unequal to the protection of men's lives and properties, could rouse itself in defence of their souls. A friend of Hamilton, an Alexander Campbell, with whom he had shared his treasure, whispered the news that heresy was in Scotland. The rank of the offender made him peculiarly dangerous. He was seized, and convicted of Lutheranism before


text:
Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 3.djvu/420

400 Beton; and on the last of February, in front of the old college of St Andrew's, he was brought out to be burnt. He bore himself with a courage worthy of the cause of which he was the protomartyr. 'At the place of execution,' says Knox, 'he gave to his servant, who had been chamberchield to him of a long time, his gown, his coat, and his bonnet. They will not profit in the fire; they will profit thee; I have no more to give now but the example of my death. Think well on that. It seems to be dreadful; but it is the gate of eternal life.'

The bishops killed him, hoping that they had done service both to God and to themselves. It seemed that they had failed. From each drop of his blood sprung up a fresh heretic. But as in England, so in Scotland, it was rare that men of the rank of Patrick Hamilton went astray after his example. Among the poorer commons chiefly 'the new learning' found a home. It was they who came in contact with superstition in its grossest form, and who suffered at once from the vices of the clergy and their avarice. Their understandings were too direct to sublimate absurdities into mysteries; and they had plain tongues, which spoke their feelings without disguise. There was little or nothing transcendental in the first religious confessors of Scotland; little or nothing doctrinal; the Calvinist gloom was of later birth; and Knox, a man pre-eminently of facts, and


text:
Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 3.djvu/421

1528.] untroubled with theological subtleties, has sketched the popular feeling in a series of scenes shining with laughter and humorous defiance, but so free from bitterness, that even anger seems to melt into contemptuous pity.

There was no occasion to look far for scandal. In Scotland all the chiefest ecclesiastical vices were in the bloom of maturity, coarse, patent, and palpable. The scattered pictures of them which Knox has left are, in fact, the history of Scottish Protestantism.

In a skirmish in one of the Border wars a certain Alexander Ferrier was taken prisoner, and being unransomed, remained several years in captivity. On returning home, at last, he found that 'a priest, according to the charity of kirkmen, had entertained his wife, and wasted his substance.' He was loud in his outcries, and in consequence was 'delated' for heresy, and cited before a tribunal of bishops at St Andrew's. The following sketch appears to have been a literal transcript of the scene which took place in the court: 'Mr Alexander,' being brought in, 'leapt up merrily upon the scaffold, and casting a gamound, said, 'Where are the rest of the players?' Mr Andrew Oliphant (the clerk of the court), offended therewith, said, 'It shall be no play to you, sir, before you depart;' and so began to read his accusation, the first article whereof was that he despited the mass. His answer was, 'I hear more masses in eight days than the bishops there sitting say in a year.' Accused, secondly, for contempt of the sacraments. 'The priests,' he said, 'were the most


text:
Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 3.djvu/422

402 common contemncrs of the sacraments, and especially of matrimony,' and that he witnessed by many there present of the priests, and named the men's wives with whom they had meddled; 'and because,' he said, 'I complain of such injuries, I am here summoned and accused as one that is worthy to be burnt. For God's cause,' said he, 'will ye take wives of your own, that I and others, whose wives ye have abused, may be revenged upon you.' The old Bishop of Aberdeen, thinking to justify himself, said, 'Carle, thou shalt not know my wife.' Alexander answered, 'My lord, ye are too old; but with the grace of God, I shall drink with your daughter before I depart.' And thereat was smiling of the best and loud laughter of some, for the Bishop had a daughter married in the same town. Then the bishops bade away with the carle. 'Nay,' he answered, 'I will not depart this hour; for I have more to speak against' the vices of priests than I can express the whole day.' After divers purposes they commanded him to burn his bill; and he demanding the cause, they said, 'Because ye have spoken those articles whereof ye are accused.' 'The muckle devil bear away them that first and last spake them,' he said. He took the bill, and chewing it, spit it in Mr Oliphant's face, saying, 'Now burn it, or drown it, whether ye will; you shall hear no more of me. But I must have somewhat of every one of you, to begin my pack again, which a priest and my wife, a priest's whore, have spent.' And so every prelate and


text:
Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 3.djvu/423

1528.] rich priest, glad to be quit of his evil tongue, gave kiru somewhat, and so he departed; for he understood nothing of religion.'

Tetzel carried on a trade in pardons. The Scotch bishops sold bills of excommunication—more innocent, if not more effective. A friar entering an alehouse on a Sunday, at Dunfermline, found a number of peasants drinking. He proposed to join them. 'Yea, father,' said one, 'ye shall drink, but ye mun first resolve a doubt which has risen among us—to wit, what servant will serve a man best on least expenses?' 'The good angel,' said the friar, 'who is man's keeper, who makes great service without expense.' 'Tush,' said the peasant, 'we mean no such high matters. 'What honest man will do greatest service for least expense?' While the friar was musing, the peasant said again, 'I see, father, the greatest clerks are not the wisest men. Know ye not how the bishops and their officials serve us husbandmen? Will they not give us a letter of cursing for a plack to last for a year to look over our dyke? And that keeps our corn better nor the sleeping boy that will have three shillings of fee, a sark, and a pair of shoon by the year.'

In these scenes, and the scenes which they suggested and from which they arose, lay the secret of Scotland's second life, and it was swiftly growing. Whatever the truth of God might be, it was not in the doctrines of these priests; nor could any human soul,


text:
Page:EB1911 - Volume 02.djvu/512

 was threatened upon the question of a dispute concerning the boundaries between the two republics. In January 1895 a special session of congress was summoned to take into consideration the financial proposals of the government, which included an increase in the naval and military estimates. Congress, however, had now got their opportunity, and they used the time of national stress to bring increased pressure to bear upon the president. On the 21st of January Dr Saenz Peña at last perceived that his position was untenable, and he handed in his resignation. It was accepted at once by the chambers, and the vice-president, Dr José Uriburu, became president of the republic for the three years and nine months of Peña’s term which remained unexpired.

Uriburu was neither a politician nor a statesman, but had spent the greater portion of his life abroad in the diplomatic service. His knowledge of foreign affairs was, however, peculiarly useful at a juncture when boundary questions were the subjects that chiefly attracted public attention. After disputes with Brazil, extending over fifteen years, about the territory of “Misiones,” the matter had been submitted to the arbitration of the president of the United States. In March 1895 President Cleveland gave his decision, which was wholly favourable to the contention of Brazil. The Argentine government, though disappointed at the result, accepted the award loyally. The boundary dispute with Chile, to which reference has already been made, was of a more serious character. The dispute was of old standing. Already in 1884 a protocol had been signed between the contending parties, by which it was agreed that the frontier should follow the line where “the highest peaks of the Andine ranges divide the watershed.” This definition unfortunately ignored the fact that the Andes do not run from north to south in one continuous line, but are separated into cordilleras with valleys between them, and covering in their total breadth a considerable extent of country. Difference of opinion, therefore, arose as to the interpretation of the protocol, the Argentines insisting that the boundary should run from highest peak to highest peak, the Chileans that it should follow the highest points of the watershed. The quarrel at length became acute, and on both sides the populace clamoured from time to time for an appeal to arms, and the resources of both countries were squandered in military and naval preparations for a struggle. Nevertheless despite these obstacles, President Uriburu did something during his term of office to relieve the nation’s financial difficulties. In 1896 a bill was passed by congress, which authorized the state by the issue of national bonds to assume the provincial external indebtedness. This proof of the desire of the Argentine government to meet honestly all its obligations did much to restore its credit abroad. Uriburu found in 1897 the financial position so far improved that he was able to resume cash payments on the entire foreign debt.

In 1898 there was another presidential election. Public opinion, excited by the prospect of a war with Chile, naturally supported the candidature of General Roca, and he was elected without opposition (12th October 1898). The first question which he had to handle was the Chilean boundary dispute. During the last months of President Uriburu’s administration, matters had reached a climax, especially in connexion with the delimitation in a district known as the Puña de Atacama. In August an ultimatum was received from Chile demanding arbitration. After some hesitation, on the advice of Roca the Argentines agreed to the demand, and peace was maintained. The principle of arbitration being accepted, the conditions were quickly arranged. The question of the Puña de Atacama was referred to a tribunal composed of the United States minister to Argentina and of one Argentine and one Chilean delegate; that of the southern frontier in Patagonia to the British crown. One of the first steps of President Roca, after his accession to office, was to arrange a meeting with the president of Chile at the Straits of Magellan. At their conference all difficulties were discussed and settled, and an undertaking was given on both sides to put a stop to warlike preparations. The decision of the representative of the United States was given in April 1899. Although the Chileans professed dissatisfaction, no active opposition was raised, and the terms were duly ratified. In his message to congress, on the 1st of May 1899, General Roca spoke strongly of the immediate necessity of a reform in the methods of administering justice, the expediency of a revision of the electoral law, and the imperative need of a reconstruction of the department of public instruction. The administration of justice, he declared, had fallen to so low an ebb as to be practically non-existent. By the powerful influence of the president, government measures were sanctioned by the legislature dealing with the abuses which had been condemned. On the 31st of August of the same year a series of proposals upon the currency question was submitted to congress by the president, whose real object was to counteract the too rapid appreciation of the inconvertible paper money. The official value of the dollar was fixed at 44 cents gold for all government purposes. The violent fluctuations in the value of the paper dollar, which caused so much damage to trade and industry, were thus checked. In October 1900 Dr Manuel Campos Salles, president of Brazil, paid a visit to Buenos Aires, and was received with great demonstrations of friendliness. The aggressive attitude of Chile towards Bolivia was causing considerable anxiety, and Argentina and Brazil wished to show that they were united in opposing a policy which aimed at acquiring an extension of territory by force of arms. The feeling of enmity between Chile and Argentina was indeed anything but extinct. The delay of the arbitration tribunal in London in giving its decision in the matter of the disputed boundary in Patagonia led to a crop of wild rumours being disseminated, and to a revival of animosity between the two peoples. In December 1901 warlike preparations were being carried on in both states, and the outbreak of active hostilities appeared to be imminent. At the critical moment the British government, urged to move in the matter by the British residents in both countries, who feared that war would mean the financial ruin of both Chile and Argentina, used its utmost influence both at Santiago and Buenos Aires to allay the misunderstandings; and negotiations were set on foot which ended in a treaty for the cessation of further armaments being signed, June 1902. The award of King Edward VII. upon the delimitation of the boundary was given a few months later, and was received without controversy and ratified by both governments.

To the calm resourcefulness and level-headedness of President Roca at a very difficult and critical juncture must be largely ascribed the preservation of peace, and the permanent removal of a dispute that had aroused so much irritation. His term of office came to an end in 1904, when Dr Manuel Quintana was elected president and Dr José Figueroa Alcorta vice-president, both having Roca’s support. Dr Quintana at the time of his election was sixty-four years of age. He proved a hard-working progressive president, who did much for the development of communications and the opening up of the interior of the country. He died amidst general regret in March 1906, and was succeeded by Dr Alcorta for the remaining years of his term.

.—C. E. Akers, Argentine, Patagonian and Chilian Sketches (London, 1893), and A History of South America 1854–1904 (New York, 1905); Theodore Child, The Spanish-American Republics (London, 1891); Sir T. H. Holdich, The Countries of the King’s Award (London, 1904); W. H. Hudson, The Naturalist in La Plata (London, 1892), and Idle Days in Patagonia (London, 1893); A. H. Keane and C. R. Markham, Central and South America, in Stanford’s “Compendium of Geography and Travel” (London, 1901); G. E. Church, “Argentine Geography and the Ancient Pampean Sea” (Geogr. Journal, xii. p. 386); “South America: an Outline of its Physical Geography” (Geogr. Journal, xvii. p. 333); Dr Karl Kärger, Landwirtschaft und Kolonisation im spanischen Amerika (2 vols., Leipzig, 1901); F. P. Moreno, “Explorations in Patagonia” (Geogr. Journal, xiv. pp. 241, 354); Carlos Lix Klett, Estudios sobre producción, comercio, finanzas e interesses generales de la Republica Argentina (2 vols., Buenos Aires, 1900); G. Carrasco, El crecimiento de la población de la Republica Argentina comparado con el de las principales naciones 1890–1903 (Buenos Aires, 1904); C. M. Urien

title: Page:EB1911 - Volume 02.djvu/512


text:
Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 3.djvu/424

404 to whom, truth was dearer than falsehood, believe any longer that his hopes of heaven lay in listening to profligate impostors. The bishops burnished up their arms. Another victim died at St Andrew's who had called Patrick Hamilton a martyr. Catherine, Patrick's sister, was called before the Bishop of Ross at Holyrood, and examined on 'justification.' No man, she said, could be saved by water; but only by the grace of God. A learned lawyer expounded to her the mysteries of 'works,' of works of 'condignity' and works of 'congruity.' 'Work here,' she cried, 'and work there, what kind of working is all this? No work can save me but the work of Christ my Saviour.' It would have gone hard with her had not James interfered. She escaped her persecutors and found a shelter in England. Thither also many others were flying from the same danger, so long as Cromwell lived, secure of protection. Henry, too, himself showed occasional favour to these exiles. One of them, Andrew Charteris, a priest, had called the Scotch clergy 'children of the devil.' 'When they perceive any man take up their craft and falsehood,' he said, 'or challenge them of fornication, incontinently they accuse him of heresy. If Christ Himself were in Scotland He should be made more ignominious by our spiritual fathers than He was of old by the Jews.' Henry heard of the words, and sent for Charteris, and talked with him for an hour. At the end of the conversation the King dismissed him with a phrase which in Henry's mouth contained the


text:
Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 3.djvu/425

1534.] highest compliment. 'It is a pity,' he said to him, 'that ever you were a friar.'

But the attitude of the Scotch Government naturally threw upon the Romanizing bishops an increase of power, and they grew more vindictive as the times grew dangerous. Religion and politics had become so identified, that Protestants were not only hated in themselves, but they were allies of the English, traitors to the Commonwealth, to be hunted down and annihilated. In 1534 a fisherman named David Straiton was burnt. He had been required to pay tithe of what he caught. If the priests would rob him, he said, they might come for their tithe to the place where he got it; and as each tenth fish came up, he flung it back into the sea. He was excommunicated for disrespect; the lighter punishment soon drew after it the worst; he was executed at the stake.

In 1538, the conduct of the persecution fell into the hands of David Beton, and in him ultramontanism became absolute in its most relentless form. The attempt was no longer to conquer heresy, but to exterminate it; nor can it be said that a process which in Spain was absolutely successful, was in itself unwisely calculated. If the Scotch had been a people over whom bodily terror could exert a power, they would have yielded as the Spaniards yielded.

But Beton had to deal with dispositions as hard as


text:
Page:English as She is Spoke.djvu/40

8

title: Page:English as She is Spoke.djvu/40


text:
Page:The Works of Lord Byron (ed. Coleridge, Prothero) - Volume 2.djvu/97

CANTO I.] Nurst in the glowing lap of soft Desire:

Ah! that to these were given such peaceful shades

As Greece can still bestow, though Glory fly her glades.

LXV.

Fair is proud Seville; let her country boast

Her strength, her wealth, her site of ancient days;N14

But Cadiz, rising on the distant coast,

Calls forth a sweeter, though ignoble praise.

Ah, Vice! how soft are thy voluptuous ways!

While boyish blood is mantling, who can 'scape

The fascination of thy magic gaze?

A Cherub-Hydra round us dost thou gape,

And mould to every taste thy dear delusive shape.

LXVI.

When Paphos fell by Time—accurséd Time!

The Queen who conquers all must yield to thee—

The Pleasures fled, but sought as warm a clime;

And Venus, constant to her native Sea,

To nought else constant, hither deigned to flee,

And fixed her shrine within these walls of white:


text:
Page:The Works of Lord Byron (ed. Coleridge, Prothero) - Volume 2.djvu/127

CANTO I.] 14.

Seville was the Hispalis of the Romans.

15.

This was written at Thebes, and consequently in the best situation for asking and answering such a question; not as the birthplace of Pindar, but as the capital of Bœotia, where the first riddle was propounded and solved.

[Byron reached Thebes December 22, 1809. By the first riddle he means, of course, the famous enigma of Œdipus—the prototype of Bœotian wit.]

16.

17.

Alluding to the conduct and death of Solano, the governor of Cadiz, in May, 1808.

[The Marquis of Solano, commander-in-chief of the forces at Cadiz, was murdered by the populace. The "Supreme Junta" of Seville had directed him to attack the French fleet anchored off Cadiz, and Admiral Purvis, acting in concert with General Spencer, had offered to co-operate, but Solano was unwilling to take his orders "from a self-constituted authority, and hesitated to commit his country in war with a power whose strength he knew better than the temper of his countrymen." "His abilities, courage, and unblemished character have never been denied."—Napier's War in the Peninsula, i. 20, 21.]


text:
Page:EB1911 - Volume 02.djvu/513

 and C. Colombo, Geografia Argentina (Buenos Aires, 1905); E. von Rosen, Archaeological Researches on the Frontier of Argentina and Bolivia 1901–1902 (Stockholm, 1904); Arturo B. Carranza, Constitución Nacional y Constituciones Provinciales Vigentes (Buenos Aires, 1898); Angelo de Gubernatis, L’Argentina (Firenze, 1898); Meliton Gonzales, El Gran Chaco Argentino (Buenos Aires, 1890); John Grant & Sons, The Argentine Year Book (Buenos Aires, 1902 et seq.); Francis Latzina, Diccionario Geografico Argentino (Buenos Aires, 1891); Géographie de la République Argentine (Buenos Aires, 1890); L’Agriculture et l’Elevage dans la République Argentine (Paris, 1889); Bartolomé Mitre, Historia de San Martin y de la Emancipación Sud-Americana, según nuevos documentos (3 vols., Buenos Aires, 1887); Historia de Belgrano y de la Independencia Argentina (3 vols., Buenos Aires, 1883); Felipe Soldan, Diccionario Geografico Estadistico Nacional Argentino (Buenos Aires, 1885); Thomas A. Turner, Argentina and the Argentines (New York and London, 1892); Estanislao S. Zeballos, Descripción Amena de la Republica Argentina (3 vols., Buenos Aires, 1881); Anuario de la Direción General de Estadistica 1898 (Buenos Aires, 1899); Charles Wiener, La République Argentine (Paris, 1899); Segundo Censo República Argentina (3 vols., Buenos Aires, 1898); Handbook of the Argentine Republic (Bureau of the American Republics, Washington, 1892–1903).

ARGENTINE, a former city of Wyandotte county, Kansas, U.S.A., since 1910 a part of Kansas City, on the S. bank of the Kansas river, just above its mouth. Pop. (1890) 4732; (1900) 5878, of whom 623 were foreign-born and 603 of negro descent; (1905, state census) 6053. It is served by the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fé railway, which maintains here yards and machine shops. The streets of the city run irregularly up the steep face of the river bluffs. Its chief industrial establishment is that of the United Zinc and Chemical Company, which has here one of the largest plants of its kind in the country. There are large grain interests. The site was platted in 1880, and the city was first incorporated in 1882 and again, as a city of the second class, in 1889. ARGENTITE, a mineral which belongs to the galena group, and is cubic silver sulphide (Ag2S). It is occasionally found as uneven cubes and octahedra, but more often as dendritic or earthy masses, with a blackish lead-grey colour and metallic lustre. The cubic cleavage, which is so prominent a feature in galena, is here present only in traces. The mineral is perfectly sectile and has a shining streak; hardness 2·5, specific gravity 7·3. It occurs in mineral veins, and when found in large masses, as in Mexico and in the Comstock lode in Nevada, it forms an important ore of silver. The mineral was mentioned so long ago as 1529 by G. Agricola, but the name argentite (from the Lat. argentum, “silver”) was not used till 1845 and is due to W. von Haidinger. Old names for the species are Glaserz, silver-glance and vitreous silver. A cupriferous variety, from Jalpa in Tabasco, Mexico, is known as jalpaite. Acanthite is a supposed dimorphous form, crystallizing in the orthorhombic system, but it is probable that the crystals are really distorted crystals of argentite.

ARGENTON, a town of western France, in the department of Indre, on the Creuse, 19 m. S.S.W. of Châteauroux on the Orléans railway. Pop. (1906) 5638. The river is crossed by two bridges, and its banks are bordered by picturesque old houses. There are numerous tanneries, and the manufacture of boots and shoes and linen goods is carried on. The site of the ancient Argentomagus lies a little to the north. ARGHANDAB, a river of Afghanistan, about 250 m. in length. It rises in the Hazara country north-west of Ghazni, and flowing south-west falls into the Helmund 20 m. below Girishk. Very little is known about its upper course. It is said to be shallow, and to run nearly dry in height of summer; but when its depth exceeds 3 ft. its great rapidity makes it a serious obstacle to travellers. In its lower course it is much used for irrigation, and the valley is cultivated and populous; yet the water is said to be somewhat brackish. It is doubtful whether the ancient Arachotus is to be identified with the Arghandab or with its chief confluent the Tarnak, which joins it on the left about 30 m. S.W. of Kandahar. The two rivers run nearly parallel, inclosing the backbone of the Ghilzai plateau. The Tarnak is much the shorter (length about 200 m.) and less copious. The ruins at Ulân Robât, supposed to represent the city Arachosia, are in its basin; and the lake known as Ab-i-Istâda, the most probable representative of Lake Arachotus, is near the head of the Tarnak, though not communicating with it. The Tarnak is dammed for irrigation at intervals, and in the hot season almost exhausted. There is a good deal of cultivation along the river, but few villages. The high road from Kabul to Kandahar passes this way (another reason for supposing the Tarnak to be Arachotus), and the people live off the road to avoid the onerous duties of hospitality. ARGHOUL,, or (in the Egyptian hieroglyphs,  or ), an ancient and modern Egyptian and Arab wood-wind instrument, with cylindrical bore and single reed mouthpiece of the clarinet type. The arghoul consists of two reed pipes of unequal lengths bound together by means of waxed thread, so that the two mouthpieces lie side by side, and can be taken by the performer into his mouth at the same time. The mouthpiece consists of a reed having a small tongue detached by means of a longitudinal slit which forms the beating reed, as in the clarinet mouthpiece. The shorter pipe has six holes on which the melody is played; the three upper holes being covered by the fingers of the right hand, and the lower by those of the left hand. The longer pipe has no lateral holes; it is a drone pipe with one note only, which, however, can be varied by the addition of extra lengths of reed. In the illustration all three lengths are shown in use. An arghoul belonging to the collection of the Conservatoire Royal at Brussels, described by Victor Mahillon in his catalogue (No. 113), gives the following scale:—

The total length of the shorter pipe, including the mouthpiece, is 0·435 m.; of the longer pipe, without additional joints, 0·555 m. An Egyptian arghoul, presented by the khedive to the Victoria and Albert Museum, measures 4 ft. 8 in.

ARGOL, the commercial name of crude (q.v.). It is a semi-crystalline deposit which forms on wine vats, and is generally grey or red in colour. ARGON (from the Gr., privative, and  , work; hence meaning “inert”), a gaseous constituent of atmospheric air. For more than a hundred years before 1894 it had been supposed that the composition of the atmosphere was thoroughly known. Beyond variable quantities of moisture and traces of carbonic acid, hydrogen, ammonia, &c., the only constituents recognized were nitrogen and oxygen. The analysis of air was conducted by determining the amount of oxygen present and assuming the remainder to be nitrogen. Since the time of Henry Cavendish no one seemed even to have asked the question whether the residue was, in truth, all capable of conversion into nitric acid.

The manner in which this condition of complacent ignorance came to be disturbed is instructive. Observations undertaken mainly in the interest of Prout’s law, and extending over many years, had been conducted to determine afresh the densities of the principal gases—hydrogen, oxygen and nitrogen. In the latter case, the first preparations were according to the

title: Page:EB1911 - Volume 02.djvu/513


text: 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Argentina

title: 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Argentina


text: 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Argentine

title: 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Argentine


text: The Dictionary of Australasian Biography/O'Connor, C. Y.


text: The Dictionary of Australasian Biography/O'Connell, Hon. Sir Maurice Charles


text:
Page:Under Dewey at Manila.djvu/53

"! Here's luck at last! Two letters, and from Ben and Walter, by the handwriting!"

Larry was standing in the handsome structure occupied by the Honolulu post-office department. He had just asked for letters, and the gentlemanly clerk had handed him two, each of goodly thickness, one marked New York and the other Boston. Both had come in on the mail steamer from San Francisco, which had arrived the evening previous.

Hurrying to a secluded corner of the building, he tore open the letter from his oldest brother Ben; for both Larry and Walter had looked up to Ben ever since they could remember. The letter ran as follows:—

": After what seemed a long wait, I received your letter from San Francisco, telling how you had run away,

title: Page:Under Dewey at Manila.djvu/53


text:
Page:Under Dewey at Manila.djvu/54

34 and what trials and troubles you were having. I guess we are all having our hands full. I know I am.

"Getting to New York was no picnic. I tramped as far as Middletown, where I found work in an auction store, working four days and earning my fare to the metropolis and a dollar over. When I reached New York I tramped around for three days without so much as a smell of an opening. By that time I was out of money, and I can tell you I was pretty well discouraged, too, when who should I meet on Broadway but Mr. Snodgrass, the man who used to have the hardware store in Buffalo. He asked me what I was doing in New York, and I told him I had come to seek my luck, but didn't tell him how badly off I was. He told me he was in the wholesale hardware business, on Canal Street, and I could come and see him. I went, and am now working for him for six dollars per week, with some chance of a rise sooner or later. My boarding-house address is at the foot of this letter. The lady is very nice, and she cooks a good deal better than Mrs. Rafferty did.

"I haven't heard from Uncle Job since I left.

title: Page:Under Dewey at Manila.djvu/54


text:
Page:Under Dewey at Manila.djvu/55

Rh and don't want to at present. But some day I'll go back and tell him what I think of him for treating us like so many dogs.

"I suppose this letter will find you in Honolulu, or some other out-of-the-way place. What possessed you to turn sailor? In a letter I received from Walter he seems to have pretty much the same fever.

"I see by the papers here that Hawaii may be annexed shortly to the United States, so if it is, you'll still be somewhere in the Union, won't you? The papers are also full of our trouble with Spain. Wouldn't it be queer if the two nations should go to war? If they did, I think I'd drop my job and turn soldier.

"I don't know when we three will ever get together again, but I trust it will not be long, and in the mean time I intend to write to you often, and I want you to write also, both to me and to Walter. Write again as soon as you get this. Your loving brother ."

Larry drew a long sigh when he had finished the letter. It was written just as Ben usually talked, and in his mind's eye he could imagine his

title: Page:Under Dewey at Manila.djvu/55


text:
Page:Under Dewey at Manila.djvu/56

36 elder brother standing before him. So Ben was settled in the great metropolis, with no notion of a change, excepting he might be called upon to turn soldier. Well, there was small fear of there being any war with Spain, or any other country. So thought Larry, and his thoughts were not much different from those of many others until the thunderbolt broke.

The letter from Walter took longer to peruse, for Walter always had so much to say, and wrote such a twisted hand, and Larry was compelled to laugh outright ere he was done. Certainly Walter had had his full share of adventures.

"What in creation made you ship to Honolulu?" he wrote. "Why, it's almost half around the world, and you'll make me a beggar with buying such high-priced postage stamps when I'm writing to you. I shouldn't know where Honolulu was, only we're all reading so much about the Hawaiian Islands these days. Why didn't you ship to Alaska, or the North Pole, while you were at it? Better strike Peary for an opening on his next expedition to the land of ice.

"Perhaps I didn't have it as hard as you, or

title: Page:Under Dewey at Manila.djvu/56


text:
Page:Under Dewey at Manila.djvu/57

Rh Ben? After I left Ben,—I got a ride on the train from Middletown to Albany,—I just struck the worst luck a boy could imagine. My hat was the first thing that went—the wind blew it from the train—and on the outskirts of Albany I encountered a bull-dog that tore my clothing nearly to bits. A tramp saved me from the bulldog, and I travelled with the tramp two days, when he obligingly walked off with my coat and all my money—forty-seven cents.

"How I got to Boston at last would fill a volume. I have been a farmhand, a glazier (put in two panes of glass for an old lady, who had the glass, but not the skill), a blacksmith (helped at a country smithy two days, when the regular helper came back), a florist (worked three days in a greenhouse, and got no pay, because I knocked a lot of pots down with a step-ladder), and a deckhand on a river steamboat. Now, at last, I am here in Boston, helping an old sailor, with one leg, that has a large news-stand (the sailor, not the leg). The sailor's name is Phil Newell, and he was all through the Civil War. You just ought to hear him tell about fighting and narrow escapes from the enemy! He knows all about the war between

title: Page:Under Dewey at Manila.djvu/57


text:
Page:Under Dewey at Manila.djvu/58

38 Spain and the Cuban insurgents, and he's certain the United States will get mixed up in the row sooner or later. If we do, he says I ought to go as a sailor on a man-o'-war, and I don't know but that I will; for, according to Newell, it's the most glorious life on the face of the earth. Who knows but that I might come out a captain or a commodore, eh?

"I know there is no use in speaking of Uncle Job, for Ben will write about that, and I can't think of the mean old fellow without getting mad clear to my finger-tips. Perhaps that isn't just Christian-like; but really, isn't he the worst that ever was? And to think he was going to have you arrested! He ought to be arrested himself—for breaking up our home, putting all the money in the bank, and making us live as though we were next door to beggars. But never mind; a day of reckoning will come.

"But I must close up now,—the stand, I mean,—and I'll close up the letter, too. Good-by, and take care of yourself, and write often, above all things, for it's mighty lonely being by one's self, isn't it?"

"Dear old Walter, that sounds like him,"

title: Page:Under Dewey at Manila.djvu/58


text:
Page:Under Dewey at Manila.djvu/59

Rh Larry, as he stuck the epistle back into its envelope. There was something very much like a tear in his brown eyes. "It would be awfully nice if we were together again, and mother was alive!"

Larry had stopped at the post-office as soon as it was open in the morning, just as he had stopped every morning since he had been in Honolulu. Now, putting his letters away, he hurried on, bound for the dock at which the Columbia lay.

"Well, I see you're on hand," was Tom Grandon's greeting when he appeared. "You can get right to work, if you will. I've sent that good-for-nothing Kanaka about his business."

"Me take Kuola's place," said a thick voice at Grandon's elbow, and both Larry and the mate of the Columbia turned, to find a dusky, fat, and ill-smelling native standing before them.

"What's that, man?"

"You send Kuola away—me take his place."

"I don't want you. I've hired this lad to fill Kuola's place."

"Dat boy?"

"Yes."

"He no strong as Wakari—Wakari werry strong. You try um."

title: Page:Under Dewey at Manila.djvu/59


text:
Page:Under Dewey at Manila.djvu/60

40 "I told you I didn't want you," answered Tom Grandon, half angrily, for the foul-smelling native had come up closer, and caught him by the shoulder. "You go and look for work elsewhere."

The face of the native fell, and he muttered something under his breath in his own language. He still wanted to argue; but Grandon threw his hand off and turned him around, and then he glided away, noiselessly, like some beast of the forest.

"You'll get into trouble with those boys, Tom," laughed Captain Ponsberry, who stood near. "Consarn 'em! Give me a white man for stevedore work, every time. The wust of 'em are wuth three niggers! How are you to-day?" the last to Larry.

"Very well, sir, and ready to pitch in," was the answer. "I should have been here earlier, only I received two letters,—one from each of my brothers,—and I couldn't help stopping to read them."

"Don't blame you for that, for letters are scarce when you get away as far as this. I was looking for letters and papers myself; but Jack Dodger, who went after 'em, ain't back yet."

The captain turned to another part of the dock, and Larry followed Tom Grandon on board of the Columbia. Although he had been a sailor but a

title: Page:Under Dewey at Manila.djvu/60


text:
Page:Under Dewey at Manila.djvu/61

Rh short time, the youth knew how to take in many of the good points of a vessel, and his quick eye told him that the Columbia was in every respect an A 1 schooner, to use the Lloyds' method of classification, and that all on board was in perfect order and as clean as a boatswain's whistle.

"She's a good one," he observed, as he saw Tom Grandon look at him questioningly.

"None better, lad," responded the mate, "and I expected you to say it. Now come up to the forward hatch. Do you think you could manage yonder block and fall without getting a finger taken off or dropping a valuable case of goods?"

"I think I can. I did just such work on the Rescue about a month ago."

"Then pitch in, and if you do a man's work it's a man's wages that will be coming to you when the job's at an end. Come, Hobson, Striker, bend to it now and no fooling, or the Columbia will never be unloaded, to say nothing of getting our Hong Kong cargo aboard. Where is Oleson, that new fellow that shipped day before yesterday?"

"He hasn't shown up this morning, sir," answered the man addressed as Hobson, a ruddy faced Englishman. "Was he to work with us?"

title: Page:Under Dewey at Manila.djvu/61


text:
Page:Under Dewey at Manila.djvu/62

42 "We didn't hire him for it, but still he might take a hand—the sooner we're unloaded and loaded again, the better. There you are, boy, steady now and let her go! Up, up! a leetle more! That will do. It's all right—couldn't have done it better myself. Hobson, this is Larry Russell, the brave lad that stopped the team yesterday. He'll help here as long as there is anything to do," and with a cheerful wave of his hand Tom Grandon moved to another part of the schooner, leaving Larry to continue the task which had been assigned to him.

It is needless to say that the youth went to work with a will, not only because that was his usual way of doing things, but because he wanted to show Captain Ponsberry and the mate that he was capable of taking a man's place, should it come to a question of shipping for the cruise to Hong Kong—something that was more in his mind than ever before, now that he had seen what a good craft the Columbia was.

As Larry worked, the eyes of two natives secreted behind a high pile of lumber on the dock beyond were riveted upon him. One of the natives was Kuola, the fellow who had been

title: Page:Under Dewey at Manila.djvu/62


text: 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Argol

title: 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Argol


text:
Page:Under Dewey at Manila.djvu/63

Rh, the other was Wakari, the foul-smelling chap who had come to take his place. Both were dissolute, only working in order to obtain a little cash with which to buy liquor. They watched Larry for a long time, then both shook their clenched fists at the boy and sneaked off.

title: Page:Under Dewey at Manila.djvu/63


text: Under Dewey at Manila/Chapter 4

title: Under Dewey at Manila/Chapter 4


text:
Page:Under Dewey at Manila.djvu/64

an hour had been passed by Larry in steady work, when, on looking towards the companionway of the Columbia, he saw Captain Ponsberry rush up, newspaper in hand, and so excited that he could scarcely speak.

"Tom Grandon, look here!" he cried. "Consarn the Spaniards, anyhow! Here's news for all to listen to, and news that ought to set the whole United States on fire with indignation. We ought to drown every mother's son of 'em at the bottom of the sea."

"What is it, Nat?" returned Grandon, rushing forward, while Larry and the others paused in their work. "What have the Spaniards been doing to the poor Cubans now?"

"Cubans!" fairly roared the master of the Columbia. "It ain't the Cubans I'm talking

title: Page:Under Dewey at Manila.djvu/64


text:
Page:Under Dewey at Manila.djvu/67

Rh about now. It's the teetotal busting up of the battleship Maine and the killing of I don't know how many of our gallant jack-tars! See here, the newspaper from San Francisco is full of it, with type six inches long!"

And Captain Ponsberry held up the sheet in question, so that not only Grandon but all the others might see the flaring head-lines.

A whole page of reading followed, in smaller type, which Larry could not catch. The youth stared at the head-lines, with mouth agape, and instantly he thought of Ben and Walter, and

title: Page:Under Dewey at Manila.djvu/67


text:
Page:Under Dewey at Manila.djvu/68

46 what they had said about going to war. If this awful news was true, and the Spaniards were guilty, would war follow?

There was a second of silence, as the sailors read the lines, a silence broken by Tom Grandon. "Tell you what, this is awful, simply awful, Nat! And they say the Spaniards did it? If that's so, there will be war in a jiffy, and don't you forget it—and Cuba will be free."

"Yes, Cuba will be free, and Spain will get knocked into six million pieces," blazed away Captain Ponsberry, who was wont to talk very extravagantly when warmed up. "The cowards! to blow 'em up when they were sleeping."

"Does it say that?" questioned Hobson. "No fair-minded nation would do such a dastardly bit o' work, cap'n."

"I don't say the nation did it,—as a nation,—but their officers did it, and that's the same thing—the sneaks! I see some think it was an explosion from the inside, but I know that couldn't happen in our navy; the rules aboard a warship are too strict."

"That's right," piped up a thin, nasal voice,—that belonged to Luke Striker, a sailor who had been

title: Page:Under Dewey at Manila.djvu/68


text:
Page:Under Dewey at Manila.djvu/69

Rh working beside Larry. "Didn't I put in five years aboard a warship, cruising the Atlantic? There couldn't be no explosion from inside, not with the daily inspections of the magazines, and the wetting of the guncotton, and the keys and electrical connections in the captain's cabin; no, sir. That explosion came from the outside, and—and—but, captain, won't you read the full account?"

"Yes, Nat, read it out; all of the boys will want to hear it, especially those who claim the stars and stripes as their flag," added Tom Grandon.

And so the captain of the Columbia read the account which, stripped of its newspaper sensationalism, was as follows; the special report being dated at Havana, Cuba, Feb. 16, 1898.

"At quarter to ten o'clock last evening a terrible explosion occurred on board or under the United States battleship Maine, lying in the harbor of Havana. The battleship has been completely destroyed, and over two hundred and fifty sailors and two officers have lost their lives.

"The explosion was so heavy that many of the houses in Havana were shaken, and people ran outside, thinking it was an earthquake shock. It was soon learned that the great battleship had gone

title: Page:Under Dewey at Manila.djvu/69


text:
Page:Under Dewey at Manila.djvu/70

48 up, and the docks were lined with people, while rescue boats put out from all directions.

"The shock came without an instant's warning. Captain Sigsbee was seated in his cabin, writing a letter to his wife, while many of the officers and sailors had retired for the night, when there came a deafening report, followed by thick volumes of smoke and a shower of iron piping and splinters, and then the vessel began to sink, her heavy structure and armor plate twisted, bent, and broken like a battered wash-boiler.

"The officers who were below, and who had escaped serious injury, rushed or rather swam on deck, only to find themselves in a mass of wreckage from which it was almost impossible to extricate themselves. The explosion occurred close to the men's quarters, and but few of the gallant jackies got out alive. One ladder leading from the rear torpedo compartment was literally jammed with men struggling for life.

"Fortunately the Alfonso XII. was lying close by, and a powerful searchlight was speedily turned upon the scene. The steamer City of Washington, also close at hand, sent out all her boats and brought in a great number of those swimming about,

title: Page:Under Dewey at Manila.djvu/70


text:
Page:Under Dewey at Manila.djvu/71

Rh many of whom were wounded and on the point of drowning.

"So far but few of the dead bodies have been recovered, everybody being on the lookout for the injured. Many have been taken to the hospitals in Havana, while some are lying at death's door on the steamships which were in the vicinity of the explosion.

"A dozen theories have started up as to the cause of the explosion. One is that the guncotton on board went off by spontaneous combustion; another is that the plating between the engine rooms and one of the magazines became too hot and ignited the powder; and still another that the electric lighting system is responsible. The general opinion among those on board, however, is that the Maine was blown up from the outside, either by a torpedo or by a sunken mine, most likely the latter.

"There is fearful though suppressed excitement in Havana, and the Americans here look blackly at the Spanish soldiers as they move from place to place. Spanish officers declare the explosion must have come from the interior of the ship, and profess to be deeply concerned over the disaster. Certainly a majority of them are sincere in their

title: Page:Under Dewey at Manila.djvu/71


text:
Page:Under Dewey at Manila.djvu/72

50 condolence. But in the back quarters of the town the Spanish sympathizers do not hesitate to declare that it serves the Yankees right, that they had no right to send a big warship here at this time, and that they hope every warship that may come from the United States will be served the same way."

"Is that all?" queried the mate of the Columbia, as Captain Ponsberry paused in his reading of the newspaper account.

"That's all the news there is of the explosion. I reckon everything was upset, and they couldn't get details," answered the captain.

"The Maine must have been a big boat," said Hobson.

"She was a big boat," answered Luke Striker. "I know something about her. She was what they call a battleship of the second class—although I allow as how she was fust class all over. She came out of the Brooklyn Navy Yard and she was over three hundred feet long, nearly sixty feet broad and drew about twenty-seven feet of water. Her hull was of steel, and she was put down as about sixty-seven hundred tons' displacement."

"Who is this Captain Sigsbee?" asked Larry.

"I don't know much about him, exceptin' that he

title: Page:Under Dewey at Manila.djvu/72


text: File:A plain and literal translation of the Arabian nights entertainments, now entitled The book of the thousand nights and a night, volume 1.djvu-89.png


text:
Page:Under Dewey at Manila.djvu/73

Rh came from the Naval Academy, and he used to be in charge of the Hydrographic Office, and I've heard he made a big thing of that."

"I see in another part of this paper that there were three hundred and fifty men on the pay-roll," said Captain Ponsberry. "If that's so, then only about a hundred of 'em escaped. It's the wust accident I've heard of since the sinking of that British warship the Victoria, which went down by being struck by one of her own fleet while off the coast of Tripoli. She carried about four hundred poor sailors down with her, and Vice-Admiral Tryon in the bargain."

A lively discussion lasting several minutes followed. The news was such that it would furnish talk, especially for sailors, for a long time to come.

But the work aboard the Columbia was not to be forgotten, and soon Larry was back at his post, trying to make up for lost time.

title: Page:Under Dewey at Manila.djvu/73


text: Under Dewey at Manila/Chapter 5

title: Under Dewey at Manila/Chapter 5


text:
Page:Under Dewey at Manila.djvu/74

went back to his work with his head filled, with what he had heard. The news was truly terrible. To think of those poor jackies who had been summoned before their Maker without an instant's warning made him shudder, and half unconsciously he breathed a prayer that such a fate might never overtake himself.

"None of the navy for me," remarked Hobson, as he, too, resumed his labor. "I've sailed upon merchantmen going on twenty-six years, and they are good enough for me."

"I can't say as much," put in Luke Striker, who, as Larry soon discovered, was a typical Yankee, hailing from Bangor, Maine. "O' course the rules are strict, and you have to pay strict attention to all commands; but the jackies are a jolly crowd with it all, and then, if war comes, think of all the glory to be won!"

title: Page:Under Dewey at Manila.djvu/74


text:
Page:Under Dewey at Manila.djvu/75

Rh "If a shell or a shot don't finish you," interrupted Hobson. "No," he added, as Striker muttered something about being afraid, "I'm as brave, I think, as most men, but I'm peaceably inclined, and I say, let them as makes the quarrel go and fight it out."

"But the poor lads at the bottom of Havana harbor can't fight any more, matey," said Striker.

"No, they can't, an' more the pity. But then they didn't make the fight at the start. It's those in high authority do that." And Hobson turned to shore with a case of goods he was trucking; and the discussion, for the time being, came to an end.

Although it was still early in the year, it was hot in these latitudes, and when the noonday whistles blew, Larry was glad enough to knock off for his dinner and a rest. He was about to go ashore when Grandon hailed him.

"Have you paid for your dinner in advance?" he asked.

"Why, what do you mean? " returned Larry, somewhat mystified.

"I mean have you a regular boarding-place to go to for dinner? If not, you can have your dinner with the crew, and welcome."

title: Page:Under Dewey at Manila.djvu/75


text: File:Alumni Oxoniensis (1715-1886) volume 4.djvu-116.png


text: File:Alumni Oxoniensis (1715-1886) volume 4.djvu-206.png


text: File:Alumni Oxoniensis (1715-1886) volume 4.djvu-224.png


text: File:Alumni Oxoniensis (1715-1886) volume 4.djvu-242.png


text:
Page:Under Dewey at Manila.djvu/76

54 "Thank you; that will just suit me, sir."

"You seem to be a good lad, and I like to see such get along. We had one young fellow on our last trip, but he wasn't worth his salt. Tell Jeff I said you could mess with the rest."

Larry soon learned that Jeff was the ship's cook,—a tall, fat mulatto, much given to singing and dancing whenever the occasion allowed. Jeff smiled broadly when the boy told him what Grandon had said.

"All right, sah, jess git Hobson or one ob de rest to make room fo' yo', an' yo' kin hab' all yo' wants, includin' plum duff an' a slice o' mutton. We is livin' high in dis port."

"Mutton and plum duff will just strike me right," smiled Larry. "When I was on the bark Rescue, it was salt horse almost every day."

"Well, I ain't sayin' wot de boys gits on a long trip," answered the cook. "We runs putty close to de wind sometimes."

"Avast there, Jeff!" cried Luke Striker. "Don't give the captain a black eye when he don't deserve it. The eatin' on board of the Columbia is all it should be, an' more, without thanking the cook, either. Ain't that so, Hobson?"

title: Page:Under Dewey at Manila.djvu/76


text: File:Alumni Oxoniensis (1715-1886) volume 4.djvu-260.png


text: File:Alumni Oxoniensis (1715-1886) volume 4.djvu-278.png


text: File:Alumni Oxoniensis (1715-1886) volume 4.djvu-296.png


text: File:Alumni Oxoniensis (1715-1886) volume 4.djvu-314.png


text:
Page:Under Dewey at Manila.djvu/77

Rh "You've spoken the truth, Striker," rejoined the Englishman. "A man as would go thin on such grub has no right to live. If you want to ship, lad, just you strike Captain Nat Ponsberry for a berth, and you'll be safe."

"Do you think he would take me?" questioned Larry, not stopping to think twice.

"Hullo, do you want to go to Hong Kong?" put in Luke Striker. "I thought you said something this forenoon about getting back to the States."

"I do think of going back, but I might take this trip first. I haven't seen much of the vessel, but what I have seen has pleased me, and I took to Captain Ponsberry and Mr. Grandon the very hour I became acquainted with them."

"Which was nateral lad, quite nateral," said Striker. "I did the same—and I've never regretted it. But about taking you—that's another question. Do you know the ropes?"

"I think I do."

"How about doing your duty aloft when there's a storm on and the ship is pitching an' creakin' an' groanin' like she was going to Davy Jones' locker? Would you pull in and clew up for all you was worth then?"

title: Page:Under Dewey at Manila.djvu/77


text: File:An account of the English colony in New South Wales.djvu-427.png


text: File:An account of the English colony in New South Wales.djvu-433.png


text:
Page:Under Dewey at Manila.djvu/78

56 "I'd try to do my duty."

"Douse my toplights if I don't think you would; eh, Hobson?"

"I should hope so. But there's no telling what's in man or boy until he's put to the test. However, if the lad thinks to ship on the Columbia, it would do no harm to broach the subject to the captain," concluded the English sailor.

Once having spoken of the matter on his mind, Larry was now quite anxious to speak to the master of the Columbia concerning the trip. But during the afternoon neither Captain Ponsberry nor the mate showed themselves, having gone up to the Custom House to see about clearance papers.

"He can use one more hand," said Hobson. "But I heard Grandon speak of a German who wanted to go, a fellow who used to be a sailor but is now working on one of, the Oahu sugar plantations. If he's shipped him, I don't see how they will be room for another."

At this Larry's hopes fell somewhat, but they rose again when Luke Striker said he would speak to the captain as soon as he came back. With this he had to be content, and at the end of the day's work he bade the others good-night, picked up his coat, and left the vessel.

title: Page:Under Dewey at Manila.djvu/78


text: File:An account of the English colony in New South Wales.djvu-435.png


text: File:An account of the English colony in New South Wales.djvu-437.png


text: File:An account of the English colony in New South Wales.djvu-439.png


text: File:An account of the English colony in New South Wales.djvu-441.png


text: File:An account of the English colony in New South Wales.djvu-568.png


text:
Page:Under Dewey at Manila.djvu/79

Rh His boarding-house was quite a distance from the shipping, and Larry had not covered many squares before he noticed that he was being followed. The persons after him were the two natives who had watched him, and each was armed with a stout club.

"It's queer that they should follow me," thought Larry. "What can they be up to?"

The youth was not kept long in doubt. Having passed from the main street into one of less pretensions, he was on the point of entering the shady grounds surrounding the new boarding-house he had selected, when both natives ran up, each catching him by an arm.

"Want to speak to American boy," said the one named Wakari.

"Well, what do you want?" demanded Larry, at the same time trying in vain to pull himself free.

"American boy take work away from Kuola," answered the second native. "Must pay for doing dat."

"Took work away from you? What do you mean?"

"Kuola work down at dock, on boat Columbia.

title: Page:Under Dewey at Manila.djvu/79


text: File:An apology for the life of Mr. Colley Cibber - Lowe 1889 - Volume 1.djvu-209.png


text: File:An Australian language as spoken by the Awabakal.djvu-10.png


text: File:An essay towards a topographical history of the county of Norfolk vol. 4.djvu-25.png


text: File:An essay towards a topographical history of the county of Norfolk vol. 4.djvu-83.png


text:
Page:Under Dewey at Manila.djvu/80

58 American boy get captain to send Kuola off, and American boy take Kuola's place."

"I didn't get them to send you off," returned Larry, a light dawning upon him. "He sent you off because you drink." He mentioned the last fact for Kuola's breath smelt strongly of rum, as did also the breath of Wakari.

Both of the natives scowled until their faces assumed a most ferocious appearance.

"American boy pay Kuola for loss of work—must pay," insisted the discharged one.

"What do you want?" asked Larry, not that he intended to pay anything, but in order to gain time to think over what was best to be done. The boarding-house stood fifty feet back among the trees; it was dark at the entrance to the grounds, and the road was practically deserted.

"Pay Kuola and Wakari each two dollars," came the quick reply.

"And will you let me go unharmed if I do that?"

"Yes," and the natives' eyes gleamed, for they felt certain by the worried look upon Larry's face that their demand would be satisfied.

"Let me see what money I have in my pockets,"

title: Page:Under Dewey at Manila.djvu/80


text: File:An Introduction to the Study of Fishes.djvu-101.png


text: File:An Introduction to the Study of Fishes.djvu-102.png


text: File:An Introduction to the Study of Fishes.djvu-103.png


text: File:An Introduction to the Study of Fishes.djvu-104.png


text: File:An Introduction to the Study of Fishes.djvu-106.png


text:
Page:Under Dewey at Manila.djvu/81

Rh went on the youth, and shook Kuola off, at the same time putting one hand down into his trousers pocket.

Satisfied that all was going well for them, Wakari also released his hold. Hardly had he done so than Larry snatched the club from his hand and sprang into the gateway.

"Now clear out, both of you!" he cried sternly. "If you don't, one or the other will get a cracked head. You can't play any such game as this on an American boy!"

The natives were dumfounded at the sudden turn of affairs. Unarmed, Wakari lost no time in retreating, for he had no taste for a blow from the weapon he had carried, while Kuola stood still, not knowing what to do.

"Skip!" went on Larry, advancing upon Kuola. "Help, somebody! Thieves!"

"Be still!" fairly hissed the native, and now his club was raised. He aimed a savage crack at Larry's head, but the boy was alert, and quick at dodging, and the weapon merely struck resoundingly upon the gate-post.

Footsteps were now heard approaching, and once again Larry raised his cry for help, at the same

title: Page:Under Dewey at Manila.djvu/81


text: File:An Introduction to the Study of Fishes.djvu-109.png


text:
Page:Under Dewey at Manila.djvu/82

60 time making a pass at Kuola, striking him a glancing blow upon the bare shoulder. Then Wakari gave a cry of warning. "Somebody comes; we must run," he said, in his native tongue.

"What is the matter here?" came in a voice which sounded familiar to Larry, and in a second more the Rev. Martin Wells appeared from out of the darkness.

"Help! they want to rob me!" answered the boy. "Oh, Mr. Wells, is that you?"

"Lawrence Russell!" came from the missionary. He turned to the natives. "So you would rob this lad? Are you not ashamed of yourselves? Begone!"

But his words were not heard; for seeing the newcomer was a man, and one carrying a heavy cane, the pair of rascals turned, uttered a few words under their breath, and sped away in the darkness. At first Larry was for following them, but he quickly gave up the thought.

"I'm glad you came," he said, as soon as the excitement was over. "I don't know what would have happened if you hadn't chanced along."

"'One good turn deserves another,' Lawrence,"

title: Page:Under Dewey at Manila.djvu/82


text: File:An Introduction to the Study of Fishes.djvu-83.png