become soldiers, but pictures their life as one perpetual evasion of military service without regard to such palliating circumstances. But it is the falsity of the impression that he would convey in its entirety to which I would call attention.

The prospect of service in the ranks is not an alluring one to any Russian. Taken from his home in the first flush of early manhood, he is condemned for five years to a life of almost unendurable hardships. He is treated without consideration, and in innumerable cases with absolute cruelty. The indignities to which he is subjected rob him of his self-respect; and as he has not had the opportunity of learning a useful trade, he is fit only at the end of his service to continue a life of brutal dissipation. As his pay in the army was not sufficient to provide for his wants, he has probably developed into a petty pilferer. Certain it is that the largest proportion of criminals are from this class, and the return to the community of the quondam recruit is dreaded almost as a public calamity.

Can it be wondered at that self-respecting young men revolt from such a future? Can it be considered strange if among the Russian peasants innumerable young men render themselves unfit for military service by means of self-inflicted wounds? In America it is impossible to realize the horror of this robbery of the best years of one's life, the years upon which the entire edifice of the future is to be constructed. We look upon it afar off and fail to grasp its import.

with impunity, sometimes even with the expressed approbation of his chiefs.* If he resents it, we need not pause to paint the retribution. His only hope of escape is suicide.

Notwithstanding the lack of incentive for military service offered to the Jews, it must be admitted that they contribute more than their just proportion to the Russian army. It may be mentioned in passing that they are not permitted to serve in the navy. According to accepted authority,† in the five years from 1881 to 1886, the number of Jews called out for military duty, figured upon one thousand men of the masculine population, was 24.89 per cent as against 18.54 per cent of non-Jews, and the number of Jews actually incorporated into the army was 5.8 per cent as against 5.2 per cent of non-Jews. In the four years from 1886 to 1889, the proportion of Jews incorporated into the army was greater than the proportion to the Jewish population. Upon the most exaggerated estimate the Jewish population was 5.1 per cent of the entire population, whereas the proportion of Jewish soldiers incorporated to non-Jewish soldiers incorporated ranged from 5.2 per cent to 5.8 per cent. These figures conclusively evidence that however much Jewish patriotism may be impugned, the Jews of Russia cannot be justly accused of failure to render their share to the defense of their country

It is easy to understand that the poorer classes of all religious beliefs would attempt to evade the hardships and cruelties to which the common soldier is subjected, as well as the priceless years lost in unre

to live the development of their intellectual life has been continuous, and has preserved for the other nations, and has handed over to them, the foundations of morality and spiritual life."

M. Leroy Beaulieu, writing, as he declares in the preface in a recent work, from the point of view of a Christian and a Frenchman, says:

"The antiquity and the continuity of their intellectual culture is (after their secular selection) that which, in my opinion, best explains the Jews and the place taken by Israel in our societies. They have come before us, they are our elder brothers. Their children learned to read in the rolls of the Thorah before our Latin alphabet was fixed-long before Cyril and Methodus had given an alphabet to the Slavs, before Runic inscriptions were known to the Germanic races of the North. Compared to them we are as upstarts; they give us the lead in the matter of culture. Inclose them as much as we would for several hundred years behind the walls of the Ghetto, the day on which were torn the bars from their prison-gate, they had not much trouble in catching up with us even on the roads which we had opened without them." The Jew is not always and in every country the same. He always assimilates as far as it is allowed him to do so with his surroundings. In America he is an American, in England an Englishman, in France a Frenchman, and in Germany a German; he is an integral part of the life about him. But there is after all a superior excellence in the race that enables them to distinguish themselves wherever they have opportunity. It is, perhaps, the result of centuries of good ancestry and careful breeding, but it is certain that they have always given evidence of the truth of the old saying, "Blood will tell."

It is a matter of history that after the accession of the father of the present Czar, Alexander II., the Jews rapidly advanced in every department of learning, and easily demonstrated that they were the direct descendants of the Jews who had distinguished themselves centuries before in Spain. In the few short years that were

allowed them, during the reign of this benefactor, they displayed remarkable energy and ability. Although they had been oppressed for centuries, the moment they were granted a degree of liberty they proved their inherent capacity. Availing themselves of educational advantages, they soon awakened the admiration of all honest hearts by reason of their brilliant attainments in every department of human knowledge. They rapidly adopted the dress and habits of their Russian friends and began to intermarry with the Christians. Had not the fanatic who now despotically rules the destinies of the Russian people, revived the ancient persecution, they would have reflected glory on their Fatherland, and the Jewish question, as it pertains to Russia, would be but the memory of an unhappy past. It is only necessary to compare the condition of the Russian Jew under the Czar of to-day and under his predecessor of twenty odd years ago, to perceive the solution of the whole matter.

Who can prove that the Jew of Russia, when he is permitted freedom, does not make as good a citizen as his coreligionists. of other countries? When we remember the long roll of statesmen, philosophers, philanthropists, financiers, poets, musicians, artists and great men of every class that the Jewish communities of other countries have produced, the folly of Russia appears stupendous in oppressing her Jewish subjects. And what shall we say of the crime she commits against humanity? The policy of her ruler and his advisers is worthy of Torquemada. It is as senseless and as inexcusable.

So far from the Russian Jew being an undesirable immigrant, there is no country of the world having room for more inhabitants that should not gladly welcome him. The foolish and inhuman policy of Spain enriched the world, and it is the same Jew, although in ragged garb, that seeks a refuge in our land. His poverty is his misfortune, not his fault. His genius, when assimilated with our own, will make our children's children praise our wisdom in receiving him, and Russia will lament the day she thrust him from her.

COSMOPOLITAN. UGENE SANDOW, in telling how to preserve health and attain strength, almost convinces us that he is not a freak, but simply the normal man, and that his less Herculean brothers are strangely abnormal. He says that it is as natural to be well, as to be. Strength is the ability to do and to bear. Health and strength should be synonymous with life. Adequate nourishment is the first requisite, and a diet which yields the largest amount of nourishment for the least amount of digestive exertion is the best. The greatest error made in this respect is eating too much. Water is nature's offering to the thirsty, and when distilled, cannot be improved upon. It should always be taken when the stomach is empty. Good health depends upon sound sleep as well as upon good nutrition. It is necessary to cultivate the best conditions for sleep.

The sleeping-room should be heated, popular opinion to the contrary. A temperature of sixty degrees should always be maintained. A habit of regularity is valuable. One should bathe as regularly as one should eat. The function of exercise is twofold. For development and growth in childhood, it is a necessity. In adults, it ranks among the most important requisites for health. Excessive exercise is injurious. The most valuable results in the complete muscular development are reached by the simplest and lightest exercise. Nature's

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laws are always the best laws. Follow these and Shelley's prophecy of the athletic form of age, with its open and unwrinkled brow, shall be fulfilled.

THE

REVIEW OF REVIEWS.

THE Review of Reviews for June is an excellent number. No other publication so well covers the field of material and political progress.

William H. Hotchkiss makes a plea for "Constitutional Home Rule for Cities."

Everyone will admit that a change must come in the control of our civic politics. Just what plan will afford least opportunity to professional politicians and boodlers is still a question. The chief thing will be to have men in control. Whenever good men, even if they are only endowed with ordinary intelligence, are in control, there is little fault to find with any government. We blindly lay at the feet of methods and constitutions the corruption of public officials. It comes from the greed and cussedness of those in charge-men whose lives are molded by no other isms than self-ism. Mr. Hotchkiss recommends a combination of the initiative and referendum as now in force in several states. "If the New York Convention can be brought to a realizing sense of the practicability of this quite radical change, why not, it may be asked, go a step further? Why not provide for permanent charter commissions in cities? No state has gone this far. Yet it is home rule, constitutional home rule of the purest, simplest sort. Let it be provided that in

every city of the state of New York there shall always be a body of fifteen or more representative citizens, chosen, if possible, on a general ticket by minority representation and serving without pay, whose sole business it shall be to publicly consider and submit to the people all proposed changes in the charter; add a provision that no proposal be considered unless supported by a resolution of the city council or by a petition signed and verified by at least five per cent of the qualified voters of the corporation; provide for the publication, submission and ratification of the charter or amendments, and the people of each city would at least be the sole masters of their own organic law."

U

THE ARENA.

NDER "A New Disease" in the June Arena, Elbert Hubbard says a good many things which should have a wide reading:

"Civilization (like success) has its penalty. Granting all the wonders that invention has wrought, and admitting our splendid progress along certain lines, the calm observer still sees that we have bought these things with a price. Have we paid too much? If you are not in haste, let the future tell.

"In civilized countries the state protects the individual, and thus through lack of exercise the individual in time loses the capacity to protect himself. Our forefathers, who wrestled with wind and storm and dared the elements, or faced wild beasts, or savage men as wild, laughed at danger. They went into battle with stouter hearts than we take to the dentist's. We are so busy making money and so fearful about the money we have made, so alert and breathless for facts, that what we have

gained in height we have lost in girth. As a consequence we have acquired a few things beside money and facts. Among these acquisitions are a whole host of diseases-exhaustion, paresis, nervous prostration and various brands of debility; each of which is presided over by many selfappointed specialists (like the gods of old) who offer us 'consultation free. Several men have immortalized themselves by palming off on us brand new ailments and naming the diseases after themselves. As the 'Autocrat of the Breakfast Table' has said: "Their names go clattering down the corridors of time like a tin kettle to a dog's tail.' Who can conceive of the mischief that Dr. Bright brought about by booming his disease? Schemes for 'self-treatment' are thrust at us from the columns of every daily, and as we walk the streets we see in shop windows dainty little plush boxes containing hypodermic outfits, advertised as holiday presents. As we journey by rail, announcements of 'the only sarsaparilla' and 'the kind that cures' greet us from barn roofs that should be sacred to moss and silky gray shingles. We look out to enjoy the landscape, and we behold references to 'that tired feeling' that give it to us. We take up the paper to read on pictures of worthy housewives who have gained a pound a day or lost it, as the case may be. Pepsin, hypophosphites, bromide, cocaine, chloral, are sold on every hand. The opium smugglers are making such vast fortunes that they bid fair to rival in society the Coal-Oil Johnnies." Then the writer goes on to describe paranoia, which he calls the new disease which is purely a mental hallucination which leads people who have it to think that enemies are constantly seeking their death. It too often results in some sort of tragedy.

"There are now strong symptoms of a