No More Learning

A curious old ewe came to sniff at
him; but it was long before he raised his head. When he did,
he looked at the far-off hills with his heavy eyes.


## p. 12964 (#394) ##########################################

12964
OLIVE SCHREINER
"Ye shall receive, ye shall receive,-shall, shall, shall," he
muttered.
He sat up then. Slowly the dullness and heaviness melted
from his face; it became radiant. Midday had come now, and
the sun's rays were poured down vertically; the earth throbbed
before the eye.
The boy stood up quickly, and cleared a small space from the
bushes which covered it. Looking carefully, he found twelve
small stones of somewhat the same size; kneeling down, he
arranged them carefully on the cleared space in a square pile,
in shape like an altar. Then he walked to the bag where his
dinner was kept; in it was a mutton chop and a large slice
of brown bread. The boy took them out, and turned the bread
over in his hand, deeply considering it. Finally he threw it
away, and walked to the altar with the meat, and laid it down
on the stones. Close by, in the red sand, he knelt down. Sure,
never since the beginning of the world was there so ragged
and so small a priest. He took off his great hat and placed it
solemnly on the ground, then closed his eyes and folded his
hands. He prayed aloud:
"O God, my Father, I have made thee a sacrifice. I have
only twopence, so I cannot buy a lamb. If the lambs were mine
I would give thee one: but now I have only this meat; it is my
dinner-meat. Please, my Father, send fire down from heaven to
burn it. Thou hast said, Whosoever shall say unto this mount-
ain, Be thou cast into the sea, nothing doubting, it shall be done.
I ask for the sake of Jesus Christ. Amen. "
He knelt down with his face upon the ground, and he folded
his hands upon his curls. The fierce sun poured down its heat
upon his head and upon his altar. When he looked up he
knew what he should see, the glory of God! For fear, his very
heart stood still, his breath came heavily; he was half suffocated.
He dared not look up. Then at last he raised himself. Above
him was the quiet blue sky, about him the red earth; there
were the clumps of silent ewes and his altar-that was all.
He looked up: nothing broke the intense stillness of the blue
overhead. He looked round in astonishment; then he bowed again,
and this time longer than before.
When he raised himself the second time, all was unaltered.
Only the sun had melted the fat of the little mutton-chop, and it
ran down upon the stones.
-
-


## p. 12965 (#395) ##########################################

OLIVE SCHREINER
12965
Then the third time he bowed himself. When at last he
looked up, some ants had come to the meat on the altar. He
stood up, and drove them away. Then he put his hat on his
hot curls, and sat in the shade. He clasped his hands about his
knees. He sat to watch what would come to pass.
The glory
of the Lord God Almighty! He knew he should see it.
"My dear God is trying me," he said; and he sat there through
the fierce heat of the afternoon. Still he watched and waited
when the sun began to slope; and when it neared the horizon
and the sheep began to cast long shadows across the karroo,
he still sat there. He hoped when the first rays touched the
hills, till the sun dipped behind them and was gone. Then he
called his ewes together, and broke down the altar, and threw the
meat far, far away into the field.
He walked home behind his flock. His heart was heavy. He
reasoned so: "God cannot lie. I had faith. No fire came.
I am
like Cain, I am not his. He will not hear my prayer. God
hates me. "
-
The boy's heart was heavy. When he reached the kraal gate
the two girls met him.
"Come," said the yellow-haired Em, "let us play coop. '
There is still time before it gets quite dark. You, Waldo, go
and hide on the 'kopje'; Lyndall and I will shut eyes here, and
we will not look. "
The girls hid their faces in the stone wall of the sheep kraal,
and the boy clambered half-way up the "kopje. " He crouched
down between two stones, and gave the call. Just then the milk-
herd came walking out of the cow kraal with two pails. He was
an ill-looking Kaffir.
"Ah! " thought the boy, "perhaps he will die to-night, and go
to hell! I must pray for him, I must pray! "
Then he thought, "Where am I going to? " and he prayed
desperately.
"What
"Ah! this is not right at all," little Em said, peeping between
the stones, and finding him in a very curious posture.
are you doing, Waldo? It is not the play, you know. You
should run out when we come to the white stone. Ah, you do
not play nicely. "
"I-I will play nicely now," said the boy, coming out and
standing sheepishly before them; "I-I only forgot; I will play
now. "


## p. 12966 (#396) ##########################################

12966
OLIVE SCHREINER
"He has been to sleep," said freckled Em.
"No," said beautiful little Lyndall, looking curiously at him:
"he has been crying. "
She never made a mistake.
THE CONFESSION
ONE night, two years after, the boy sat alone on the "kopje. ”
He had crept softly from his father's room, and come there.
He often did, because when he prayed or cried aloud his father
might awake and hear him; and none knew his great sorrow,
and none knew his grief but he himself, and he buried them
deep in his heart.
He turned up the brim of his great hat, and looked at the
moon, but most at the leaves of the prickly pear that grew just
before him. They glinted, and glinted, and glinted, just like his
own heart, cold, so hard, and very wicked. His physical heart
had pain also; it seemed full of little bits of glass that hurt. He
had sat there for half an hour, and he dared not go back to the
close house.
He felt horribly lonely.
There was not one thing so wicked
as he in all the world, and he knew it. He folded his arms and
began to cry-not aloud: he sobbed without making any sound,
and his tears left scorched marks where they fell. He could
not pray: he had prayed night and day for so many months;
and to-night he could not pray. When he left off crying, he
held his aching head with his brown hands. If one might have
gone up to him and touched him kindly-poor ugly little thing!
Perhaps his heart was almost broken.
With his swollen eyes he sat there on a flat stone at the very
top of the "kopje "; and the tree, with every one of its wicked
leaves, blinked, and blinked, and blinked at him. Presently he
began to cry again, and then stopped his crying to look at it.
He was quiet for a long while, then he knelt slowly and bent
forward. There was a secret he had carried in his heart for a
year. He had not dared to look at it; he had not whispered it
to himself; but for a year he had carried it. "I hate God! " he
said. The wind took the words and ran away with them, among
the stones, and through the leaves of the prickly pear. He
thought it died away half down the "kopje. " He had told it
now.
-


## p. 12967 (#397) ##########################################

OLIVE SCHREINER
12967
"I love Jesus Christ, but I hate God. "
The wind carried away that sound as it had done the first.
Then he got up, and buttoned his old coat about him. He knew
he was certainly lost now; he did not care. If half the world
were to be lost, why not he too? He would not pray for mercy
any more. Better so better to know certainly. It was ended
now. Better so.
He began scrambling down the sides of the "kopje" to go
home.
-----
-
Better so, but oh, the loneliness, the agonized pain, for that
night, and for nights on nights to come! The anguish that
sleeps all day on the heart like a heavy worm, and wakes up
at night to feed!
There are some of us who in after years say to Fate, "Now
deal us your hardest blow, give us what you will; but let us
never again suffer as we suffered when we were children. "
The barb in the arrow of childhood's suffering is this: its
intense loneliness, its intense ignorance.
THREE DREAMS IN A DESERT
From 'Dreams'
As
s I traveled across an African plain the sun shone down hotly.
Then I drew my horse up under a mimosa-tree, and I took
the saddle from him and left him to feed among the
parched bushes. And all to right and to left stretched the brown.
earth. And I sat down under the tree, because the heat beat
fiercely, and all along the horizon the air throbbed. And after
a while a heavy drowsiness came over me, and I laid my head
down against my saddle, and I fell asleep there.
And in my
sleep I had a curious dream.
I thought I stood on the border of a great desert, and the
sand blew about everywhere. And I thought I saw two great
figures like beasts of burden of the desert; and one lay upon the
sand with its neck stretched out, and one stood by it. And I
looked curiously at the one that lay upon the ground; for it had
a great burden on its back, and the sand was thick about it, so
that it seemed to have piled over it for centuries.


## p. 12968 (#398) ##########################################

12968
OLIVE SCHREINER
And I looked very curiously at it. And there stood one be-
side me watching. And I said to him, "What is this huge creat-
ure who lies here on the sand? "»
And he said, "This is woman; she that bears men in her
body. "
And I said, "Why does she lie here motionless with the sand
piled round her? "
And he answered, "Listen, I will tell you! Ages and ages
long she has lain here, and the wind has blown over her. The
oldest, oldest, oldest man living has never seen her move; the
oldest, oldest book records that she lay here then, as she lies
here now, with the sand about her. But listen! Older than
the oldest book, older than the oldest recorded memory of man,
on the Rocks of Language, on the hard-baked clay of Ancient
Customs, now crumbling to decay, are found the marks of her
footsteps! Side by side with his who stands beside her you
may trace them; and you know that she who now lies there,
once wandered free over the rocks with him. "
And I said, "Why does she lie there now? "
And he said, "I take it, ages ago the Age-of-dominion-of-
muscular-force found her; and when she stooped low to give
suck to her young, and her back was broad, he put his burden of
subjection on to it, and tied it on with the broad band of Inevi-
table Necessity. Then she looked at the earth and the sky, and
knew there was no hope for her; and she lay down on the sand
with the burden she could not loosen. Ever since she has lain
here. And the ages have come, and the ages have gone, but the
band of Inevitable Necessity has not been cut. "
And I looked and saw in her eyes the terrible patience of the
centuries; the ground was wet with her tears, and her nostrils
blew up the sand.
And I said, "Has she ever tried to move? »
And he said, "Sometimes a limb has quivered. But she is
wise: she knows she cannot rise with the burden on her. "
And I said, «< Why does not he who stands by her leave her
and go on? "
And he said, "He cannot. Look->
And I saw a broad band passing along the ground from one
to the other, and it bound them together.
He said, "While she lies there, he must stand and look across
the desert. "


## p. 12969 (#399) ##########################################

OLIVE SCHREINER
12969
And I said, “Does he know why he cannot move? "
And he said, "No. "
And I heard a sound of something cracking, and I looked,
and I saw the band that bound the burden on to her back broken
asunder; and the burden rolled on the ground.
And I said, "What is this? »
And he said, "The Age-of-muscular-force is dead. The Age-
of-nervous-force has killed him with the knife he holds in his
hand; and silently and invisibly he has crept up to the woman,
and with that knife of Mechanical Invention he has cut the band
that bound the burden to her back. The Inevitable Necessity is
broken. She might rise now. "
And I saw that she still lay motionless on the sand, with her
eyes open and her neck stretched out. And she seemed to look
for something on the far-off border of the desert that never came.
And I wondered if she were awake or asleep. And as I looked
her body quivered, and a light came into her eyes like when a
sunbeam breaks into a dark room.
I said, "What is it? "
He whispered, "Hush! the thought has come to her, 'Might I
not rise? ' »
And I looked. And she raised her head from the sand, and
I saw the dent where her neck had lain so long. And she looked
at the earth, and she looked at the sky, and she looked at him
who stood by her; but he looked out across the desert.
And I saw her body quiver; and she pressed her front knees
to the earth, and veins stood out: and I cried, "She is going to
rise! "
her.
But only her sides heaved, and she lay still where she was.
But her head she held up; she did not lay it down again.
And he beside me said, "She is very weak. See, her legs have
been crushed under her so long. "
And I saw the creature struggle; and the drops stood out on
And I said, “Surely he who stands beside her will help her? "
And he beside me answered, "He cannot help her: she must
help herself. Let her struggle till she is strong. "
And I cried, "At least he will not hinder her! See, he moves
farther from her, and tightens the cord between them, and he
drags her down. "


## p. 12970 (#400) ##########################################

OLIVE SCHREINER
12970
And he answered, "He does not understand. When she moves
she draws the band that binds them, and hurts him, and he moves
farther from her. The day will come when he will understand,
and will know what she is doing. Let her once stagger on to
her knees. In that day he will stand close to her, and look into
her eyes with sympathy. "
And she stretched her neck, and the drops fell from her.
And the creature rose an inch from the earth and sank back.
And I cried, "Oh, she is too weak! she cannot walk! The
long years have taken all her strength from her. Can she never
move? »
And he answered me, "See the light in her eyes! "
And slowly the creature staggered on to its knees.
And I awoke: and all to the east and to the west stretched
the barren earth, with the dry bushes on it. The ants ran up
and down in the red sand, and the heat beat fiercely. I looked
up through the thin branches of the tree at the blue sky over-
head.
I stretched myself, and I mused over the dream I had
had. And I fell asleep again, with my head on my saddle. And
in the fierce heat I had another dream.
I saw a desert and I saw a woman coming out of it. And
she came to the bank of a dark river; and the bank was steep
and high. And on it an old man met her, who had a long white
beard; and a stick that curled was in his hand, and on it was
written Reason. And he asked her what she wanted; and she
said "I am woman; and I am seeking for the Land of Freedom. "
And he said, "It is before you. "
And she said, "I see nothing before me but a dark flowing
river, and a bank steep and high, and cuttings here and there
with heavy sand in them. "
And he said, "And beyond that? "
She said, "I see nothing; but sometimes, when I shade my
eyes with my hand, I think I see on the further bank trees and
hills, and the sun shining on them! "
He said, "That is the Land of Freedom. "
She said, "How am I to get there? "
He said, "There is one way, and one only. Down the banks
of Labor, through the water of Suffering. There is no other. "


## p. 12971 (#401) ##########################################

OLIVE SCHREINER
12971
She said, "Is there no bridge ? »
He answered, "None. "
She said, "Is the water deep? "
He said, "Deep. "
She said, "Is the floor worn? »
He said, "It is.
may be lost. "
She said, "Have any crossed already? "
He said, "Some have tried! »
She said, "Is there a track to show where the best fording
is ? »
Your foot may slip at any time, and you
He said, "It has to be made. "
She shaded her eyes with her hands; and she said, "I will go. "
And he said, "You must take off the clothes you wore in the
desert: they are dragged down by them who go into the water
so clothed. "
And she threw from her gladly the mantle of Ancient-received-
opinions she wore, for it was worn full of holes. And she took
the girdle from her waist that she had treasured so long, and the
moths flew out of it in a cloud. And he said, "Take the shoes
of Dependence off your feet. "
And she stood there naked, but for one white garment that
clung close to her.
And he said, "That you may keep. So they wear clothes in
the Land of Freedom. In the water it buoys; it always swims. "
And I saw on its breast was written Truth; and it was white:
the sun had not often shone on it,-the other clothes had cov-
ered it up. And he said, "Take this stick; hold it fast. In that
day when it slips from your hand you are lost. Put it down
before you; feel your way: where it cannot find a bottom do
not set your foot. "
And she said, "I am ready; let me go. "
And he said, "No-but stay: what is that-in your breast? "
She was silent.
He said, "Open it, and let me see. "
And she opened it. And against her breast was a tiny thing,
who drank from it, and the yellow curls above his forehead pressed
against it; and his knees were drawn up to her, and he held her
breast fast with his hands.
And Reason said, "Who is he, and what is he doing here? »


## p. 12972 (#402) ##########################################

OLIVE SCHREINER
12972
And she said, "See his little wings-"
And Reason said, "Put him down. "
And she said, "He is asleep, and he is drinking! I will carry
him to the Land of Freedom. He has been a child so long, so
long, I have carried him. In the Land of Freedom he will be a
We will walk together there, and his great white wings
will overshadow me. He has lisped one word only to me in
the desert-'Passion! ' I have dreamed he might learn to say
'Friendship' in that land. "
man.
And Reason said, "Put him down! "
And she said, "I will carry him so
the other I will fight the water. "
He said, "Lay him down on the ground. When you are in
the water you will forget to fight, you will think only of him.
Lay him down. " He said, "He will not die. When he finds you
have left him alone he will open his wings and fly. He will be
in the Land of Freedom before you. Those who reach the Land
of Freedom, the first hand they see stretching down the bank
to help them shall be Love's. He will be a man then, not a child.
In your breast he cannot thrive: put him down that he may
grow. "
―
- with one arm, and with
And she took her bosom from his mouth, and he bit her, so
that the blood ran down on to the ground. And she laid him
down on the earth; and she covered her wound. And she bent
and stroked his wings. And I saw the hair on her forehead
turned white as snow, and she had changed from youth to age.
And she stood far off on the bank of the river. And she
said, "For what do I go to this far land which no one has ever
reached? Oh, I am alone! I am utterly alone! »
And Reason, that old man, said to her, "Silence! what do you
hear? »
And she listened intently, and she said, "I hear a sound of
feet, a thousand times ten thousand and thousands of thousands,
and they beat this way! "
He said, "They are the feet of those that shall follow you.
Lead on! make a track to the water's edge! Where you stand
now, the ground will be beaten flat by ten thousand times ten
thousand feet. " And he said, "Have you seen the locusts how
they cross a stream? First one comes down to the water-edge,
and it is swept away, and then another comes, and then another,


## p. 12973 (#403) ##########################################

OLIVE SCHREINER
12973
and then another; and at last with their bodies piled up a bridge
is built, and the rest pass over. "
She said, "And of those that come first, some are swept away,
and are heard of no more; their bodies do not even build the
bridge ? »
"And are swept away, and are heard of no more- and what
of that? " he said.
"And what of that » she said.
"They make a track to the water's edge. "
"They make a track to the water's edge—» And she said,
"Over that bridge which shall be built with our bodies, who will
pass?
>>>
He said, "The entire human race. "
And the woman grasped her staff.
And I saw her turn down that dark path to the river.
And I awoke; and all about me was the yellow afternoon
light: the sinking sun lit up the fingers of the milk-bushes; and
my horse stood by me quietly feeding. And I turned on my
side, and I watched the ants run by thousands in the red sand.
I thought I would go on my way now - the afternoon was cooler.
Then a drowsiness crept over me again, and I laid back my head
and fell asleep.
-
And I dreamed a dream.
I dreamed I saw a land. And on the hills walked brave
women and brave men, hand in hand. And they looked into
each other's eyes, and they were not afraid.
And I saw the women also hold each other's hands.
And I said to him beside me, "What place is this? "
And he said, "This is heaven. "
And I said, "Where is it? "
And he answered, "On earth. "
And I said, "When shall these things be? "
And he answered, "IN THE FUTURE. "
And I awoke, and all about me was the sunset light; and ɔn
the low hills the sun lay, and a delicious coolness had crept over
everything; and the ants were going slowly home. And I walked
towards my horse, who stood quietly feeding Then the sun
passed down behind the hills; but I knew that the next day he
would arise again.


## p. 12974 (#404) ##########################################

12974
CARL SCHURZ
CARL SCHURZ
(1829-)
BY JAMES FORD RHODES
N 1848, that year of upheaval, the love of liberty and the
spirit of revolution came to Carl Schurz, then nineteen
years old (for he was born March 2d, 1829, at Liblar near
Cologne, Prussia), a student at the University of Bonn. In union with
other noble and bold spirits he endeavored to secure by force a
freer government and constitutional rule. For his part in an attempt
to promote an insurrection he was forced
to flee from his university city; he went to
the Palatinate and joined the revolutionary
army.
The revolutionists were defeated.
In their failure the high aspirations of many
liberty-loving men went down. Schurz es-
caped to Switzerland, which afforded an
asylum for large numbers of the German
political exiles. A year in Paris as a cor-
respondent of German newspapers, a year
in London as a teacher, brought him to
1852, when he came to the United States.
Residing in Philadelphia and visiting Wash-
ington, he studied law, political institutions,
and public men. He went to Wisconsin,
and was admitted to the bar; but his enthusiastic interest in the
antislavery movement drew him into politics. As a consequence of
the repeal of the Missouri Compromise, the moral and political strug-
gle against slavery had practically become one. The Republican
party had been formed. The Northwest, which had been Democratic,
took ground against the extension of slavery; and one of the factors
in its conversion was the support which the party of freedom re-
ceived from the large population of Germans. Schurz threw himself
into that contest with ardor, advocated without ceasing the Repub-
lican cause, and then laid the foundation for his influence politically
over his countrymen, which he has never lost, and which has been of
true service to the republic. He spoke for Lincoln in the memorable
senatorial campaign of 1858 against Douglas, and made the personal
acquaintance of the man with whom the points of contact became



## p. 12975 (#405) ##########################################

CARL SCHURZ
*
12975
closer as the irrepressible conflict developed from the strife of words.
into the clash of arms. As the chairman of the Wisconsin delega-
tion to the Republican national convention of 1860, held in Chicago,
he advocated the nomination of Seward for President; but he did not
feel, as some of the friends of Seward in the bitterness of their disap-
pointment felt, that by the action of the delegates the cause had been
betrayed and lost. From the debates with Douglas he had measured
the ability and character of Lincoln: and when he gave an account
of his stewardship to the Republicans of Wisconsin, it was no par-
tisan opportunist who spoke, but an orator whose convictions were
decided, whose words were sincere; he told them that their candi-
date was a "pure and patriotic statesman," "eminently fitted by the
native virtues of his character, the high abilities of his mind, and a
strong honest purpose," for the solution of the "problem before him. ”
During the canvass of 1860 he was constantly on the stump, speaking
in both English and German. Receiving the appointment of minis-
ter to Spain, and entering upon the duties of his mission, his heart
remained in America: he watched with painful anxiety, as Motley did
from Vienna, the progress of the war. He wrote a dispatch to the
State department, giving an accurate and comprehensive account of
European sentiment in reference to our civil conflict, and urging that
the Government take steps toward the abolition of slavery, to “place
the war against the rebellious slave States upon a higher moral basis,
and thereby give us control of public opinion in Europe. " Concern-
ing the effect abroad his judgment was sound; but the President
had to take into account the feeling of the plain people at home, and
issued his 'Proclamation of Emancipation' at the earliest moment
that it would have been sustained by the public, which Mr. Schurz
inferentially in his essay on Lincoln admits. "It would have been a
hazardous policy," he writes, "to endanger, by precipitating a demon-
strative fight against slavery, the success of the struggle for the
Union. "
Late in 1861 he returned to the United States, and served with
credit as a general in the field. After the war he became a journal-
ist. For a while he was the Washington correspondent of the New
York Tribune; then founded a newspaper in Detroit, and later became
the editor of a St. Louis journal. In 1869 Missouri sent him to the
United States Senate, where his service was both solid and brilliant.
He favored universal amnesty to the men of the South; he opposed
President Grant's scheme for the annexation of San Domingo, and
was one of the senators and leaders of public opinion who gave ex-
pression to the profound disappointment and dissatisfaction of many
Republicans with the general drift of Grant's administration. Thus
he became more than any other one man the head and front of the


## p. 12976 (#406) ##########################################

12976
CARL SCHURZ
movement of Liberal Republicans of 1872, whose convention at Cin-
cinnati, under the influence of some manipulation and a wave of
curious enthusiasm, nominated Horace Greeley for President. Schurz's
choice was Charles Francis Adams, who represented logically the op-
position to Grant, and whose candidature, whether defeat or victory
came, would have been dignified, and might have laid the foundations
for a new party capable of enduring good.
During the financial crisis of 1873, the popular remedy for the
distress, which had able and powerful advocates in Congress, was the
issue of more greenbacks. Schurz fought in the Senate a bill pro-
viding for such an inflation of the currency. In 1875 the contest
was transferred to Ohio. Meanwhile the Republicans in Congress
had committed themselves to the resumption of specie payments; and
Hayes, who was nominated for governor of Ohio, advocated unequiv-
ocally the doctrine of sound money. The Democrats put forward
William Allen, and demanded that "the volume of currency be made
and kept equal to the wants of trade,”. a declaration satisfactory
to the generality of Democrats, and to many Republicans in finan-
cial straits. Then ensued a wholesome and momentous canvass.
Schurz was called from a well-earned rest in Switzerland to take part
in it. He spoke constantly all over the State in English and in
German; with a power never before equaled, I think, of placing
cogently before men who labored with their hands, the elementary
truths of sound finance. It is unquestionably true that Schurz's and
John Sherman's speeches, their campaign of education, carried the
State for the Republicans; though so hard fought was the contest
that Hayes's plurality was but 5,544. That Ohio election made Hayes
President, and Schurz Secretary of the Interior. As Secretary he
served with honor, and he had an opportunity to put into practice
his principles of reform in the civil service. He supported Cleve-
land in 1884, 1888, and 1892. In 1896 he canvassed the principal cities
of the middle West; opposing the election of Bryan, speaking for
sound finance in this great educational campaign as he had spoken
in 1875, and being so persuasive a teacher that the sagacious chair-
man of the Republican National Committee distributed 1,500,000
pamphlet copies of his principal speech, besides a large quantity of
so-called "Schurz Nuggets. "
Such is a brief account of an active life. With George William
Curtis, Mr. Schurz stands as the representative of the Independent in
politics. No other man in this country, outside of a few who hold
high office, has the political influence which he possesses. Wher-
ever intelligent business men, college professors, advanced students,
and political reformers gather together, there will you find the seed
germinating which through many years and under different party
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CARL SCHURZ
12977
banners he has sown. The eagerness with which his work on the
stump is at different times sought for alike by Republican and Dem-
ocratic campaign managers, is proof of his large influence with the
mass of voters. Many well-meaning men accuse him of inconsist-
ency, for the reason that he has changed so frequently his party asso-
ciations; but if consistency means adherence through the years to
the same principles, he may challenge comparison on this ground
with the strongest partisan in the land. He has also been accused
of unsteadiness, from his frequent change of residence and occupation.
We all know the benefit of attachment to family and location, which
we see so clearly in Virginia and Massachusetts: such a feeling
causes men to take root in the soil, and redounds to the safety of the
State. But in our great republic, there is room for the cosmopolitan,
for the citizen who has no attachment to any State, whose love is for
the nation. Mr. Schurz, while pre-eminently a citizen of the world in
society, literature, and art, is as true an American as any man born
on American soil.
It is a remark of Bagehot that the men who know most, rarely
have the time or the training to write books. Let it be noted then
in the calendar, when a man of Mr. Schurz's varied life becomes a
distinguished member of the republic of letters. His 'Life of Henry
Clay' is one of the best biographies ever written. The view is purely
objective. He had no manuscript material, no unprinted private let-
ters which would of themselves present his hero in a new light. His
material was books and speeches accessible to every one. The merit of
the biography lies in the thorough assimilation of the facts, the power
of telling a story, the bringing to bear upon the subject the wealth of
his experiences, and the fusion of the whole into a form grateful to
literary art. It seemed strange perhaps that the editor of the 'Ameri-
can Statesmen' series selected him who was a strenuous advocate of
a tariff for revenue only, to write the life of Clay, the father of the
principle of protection to home industries. But John T. Morse, Jr. ,
the editor, chose wisely. Mr. Schurz treats the tariff question and
Clay's relation to it with absolute candor. In truth, had he been in
public life contemporary with Clay, he would probably have taken
the opposite side, on nearly every public question, from his hero; yet
such is his impartiality and sympathy that all who read the book
must end it with loving Henry Clay. The historical part
of great
value, and I question whether one who had not been Senator and
Cabinet minister could have given to it such animation.
Mr. Schurz wrote an essay on Abraham Lincoln, originally pub-
lished in the Atlantic Monthly. More has been written about Lin-
coln than about any other man in our history; but our author, by his
power of generalization, and his presentment of the orderly unfolding
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12978
CARL SCHURZ
of this great life, has thrown new light on the character and work
of the martyr President. To say that the essay is a classic is praise
none too high.
After his retirement from public life, Mr. Schurz was one of the
editors of the Evening Post, in association with E. L. Godkin and
Horace White. On the death of George William Curtis, he became
the writer of the leading political article of Harper's Weekly. At
first his contributions appeared unsigned, but in 1897 they began to
be printed over his own signature. He discusses, for his audience of
several hundred thousand, domestic and foreign politics, with an in-
telligence, acumen, and incisive literary style that certainly are not
surpassed in America or in England.