in typical Mexican fashion. Religious digni- representing those in actual use by the natives. taries are also represented in this remarkable doll family and are carefully dressed in full accordance with the character which they are supposed to imitate in dignified miniature. Some of the dolls are furnished with tiny baskets of flowers, brought from Guanajuato, where they are made by the Indians. Others have fancy hats and other paraphernalia. The little baskets are composed of fine hair and are woven in the most clever fashion, truly The sombreros are also woven from hair and are examples in miniature of the regulation style. The little pieces of pottery are made from clay on the exact lines and proportions of the practical sizes. All of these accessories are sewn to the dolls and greatly improve the already attractive appearance. The first dolls of the kind were made about eight years ago. Now they are to be found in the possession of almost all of the royal families of the world. DR. LUEGER, VIENNA'S GREATEST BURGOMASTER MONDAY, March 14, 1910, witnessed Sadowa shot Austria out of the Germanic Conthe most remarkable funeral that federation and paved the way for the resurrection of Hungary, an event which Dr. Lueger regarded with undisguised dislike till the end of his life. Vienna had ever seen. The whole popula- other woman. and a Liberal. In 1872 he was secretary of Lueger began his public life as a lawyer the Liberal Club of Vienna, in which the Jewish element predominated. To quote further from Mr. Stead: He first attracted attention by the vigor of his Handsome Karl" soon became recognized as a criticism of municipal maladministration. “The trenchant debater and a magnificent demagogue. Possessing a resonant voice, much homely wit, a perfect command of the Viennese vernacular, and a physical energy which enabled him to address a dozen meetings in a single day, he speedily won recognition as a formidable adversary. For more than thirty years he spent almost every evening among the habitués of one or other of the suburban beerhouses. When he was thirty-eight years of age, in the year 1882, Lueger felt that the psychological moment had arrived. He proclaimed himself leader of the anti-Semites and issued a proclamation capitalism organized by Jews and the abolition declaring war to the knife against international of the system which permits individuals to manage public business for their private advantage. The Austrian Press, largely controlled by Jews, opened fire. He struck back. He carried the war into the enemy's camp, and in those days it was complained that no charge was no calumny too bitter, for his monstrous, speeches. In three years he was elected to the Reichsrath, where he opened his Parliamentary campaign by attacking with equal violence the Jews in Austria and the Magyars in Hungary. in fabric, Slav in sympathy, and Hapsburgian in dynasty." He held up to popular odium “Jewish capitalism and Magyar tyranny." 66 too The boy was dumb till his fourth birthday. His mother, who was the daughter of a carpenter, and a woman of great force of character, devoted herself to his education, and inspired him with an affection which left his heart without any room for the love of any He never married, and lived after his mother's death with his two sisters, who are to be pensioned by the State. For Dr. Lueger, although untold millions passed through his hands, reduced his own salary as Burgomaster, and died leaving behind him property which, all told, did not exceed £4,000 in value. He was born in 1844, four years before the Year by year Lueger's popularity instorm wave of the Revolution burst over creased. He was emphatically a man of the Europe. He was educated at the gymnasium, and afterwards graduated at the university in people. A writer in the Dublin Review, 1866, the year when the Prussian needle-gun at cited by Mr. Stead, said of him: His motto now was, A united Austria, German Lueger has won his way to the hearts of the people by optimism, good-nature, sympathy and personal interest in their affairs. An indefatigable worker, he has ever found time to laugh and joke, to sympathize, congratulate or condole with the first comer, rich or poor, friend or foe. He has been godfather and wedding guest whenever and by whomever asked, a visitor to sick-beds, and a lover of children. More popular still has been his constant attendance at golden wedding festivities,-a much fêted event in Austria, and it is estimated that during the first seven years of his Burgomastership he attended no less than 1,372. Although suffering from a painful disease, he has won immense admiration by his constant cheerfulness and gaiety, and, with the exception of several journeys taken to effect a cure, he has never relinquished his work for a moment. Besides, he was incorruptibly honest, and he used his position as an advocate in the courts almost entirely in pleading for poor clients who could not pay a fee. It was in 1895 that the Municipal Council elected Lueger Burgomaster. The Emperor's confirmation was necessary; and this was withheld. The Emperor said: "I cannot allow a demagogue to be chief of the local government of Vienna. I cannot suffer attacks upon the Jews, who have always shown loyalty to the dynasty, nor upon the Hungarians, who are my subjects." Of this stage of Lueger's career the London Times says: A period of conflict followed. Lueger was repeatedly re-elected, until, in response to a direct appeal from the Emperor, he withdrew his candidature and accepted the position of ViceBurgomaster. But the thundrous applause with which he was received by the populace during the Corpus Domini procession of 1896 left no room for doubt that further efforts to exclude him might be dangerous; and in April, 1897, he took possession of the Rathaus. Once Burgomaster, his municipal administration was at once examplary and grandiose. By the municipalization, electrification, and development of the tramway service, the municipalization of the gas and electric light supplies, the organization of a large municipal slaughterhouse, the creation and upkeep of innumerable public gardens and open spaces, he made Vienna in all externals a modern, if not a model European capital. Henceforward till his death Lueger "reigned as the uncrowned king of Vienna." Quoting Mr. Stead again: During recent years his appcarance in the streets was constantly hailed by the singing of an anthem beginning, "Hail, Lueger, long may he live!" Streets and squares were named after him, a statue was erected to him, and his drives through Vienna resembled a royal progress. He was the idol and the hero of the Viennese. He deserved his popularity. If he had achieved his great position by an unscrupulous use of DR. LUEGER, WHO, UNTIL HIS DEATH, REIGNED AS THE "UNCROWNED KING OF VIENNA." many of the acts of the demagogue, if he had inflamed racial enmity and religious strife, when he arrived in office he did his best to make amends by the excellence of his administration and the moderation of his language. Towards the Magyars and the Social Democrats he was implacable to the last.. But he "let up" on the Jews, until the time came when in some quarters it is contended that he was never an anti-Semite at heart. What Lueger did for Vienna was to revolutionize its administration. He "municipalized everything, and he improved everything, and he made it pay." He "Haussmannized" Vienna, and made it, instead of the dirty, ill-lighted, ill-paved town of twenty-five years ago, with very bad means of communication, unhealthy, insecure, and a hotbed of immorality, the beautiful and brilliant city it is to-day, certainly one of the handsomest in Europe. He took over the Viennese gas works from an English company; the city now manages its gas works itself. He turned out the old horse-trams and put in electric; he introduced electric lighting of the streets, built a great municipal slaughter-house, and established central markets, these being only a portion of the undertakings carried out since his term of office as Burgomaster of Vienna. In ten years, in short, Vienna has been brought up to the level of the great European cities. The outlay has been enormous, but the interest on the loans has been covered over and over again by profits; not a penny has been added to the rates. Mr. Stead says: Charles Lueger was to Vienna what Joseph Chamberlain has been to Birmingham." Indeed, Mr. Stead heads his sketch, "Dr. Lueger, the Joseph Chamberlain of Vienna." Socialists; and "his Catholicism found satisfaction in restoring crucifixes and religious instruction in the public schools." The Viennese are not particularly religious, but they have put Christian Socialists in office Lueger was the leader of the Christian and kept them there. ALSACE FOR THE ALSATIANS SEVERAL recent events have directed attention to the position of Alsace, notably the Weissenburg commemorations, the Gneisse-Wetterle case, Herr von BethmannHollweg's speeches in the Reichstag, and the discussion in Alsace of the question of autonomy. M. Pierre de Quirielle, an Alsatian economist of some considerable European reputation, writing in the Correspondant, endeavors to set forth the views of the Alsatians. In a school at Colmar, where the mistress had been describing in glowing colors the cruelties of Alexander the Great in a city in Asia, a little girl is said to have exclaimed, to the stupefaction of the teacher, "Surely he was a Prussian!" Herr Gneisse, we are informed, repeated this story in a newspaper article and commented indignantly on it, regarding it as spontaneous evidence of the sentiments of Alsace. Meanwhile the pencil of a simple caricaturist has been portraying to excellent purpose the conflict of the two civilizations. In the albums of Hansi the Germans are always made to look ridiculous. Hansi is the pseudonym of an artist very celebrated in the annexed country, and his albums are published at Paris at frequent intervals. Under the general title of " Images des Vosges," the first volume illustrates a variety of subjects, and the second the restoration by the Germans of the Alsatian castle of Hohkönigsburg. A French translation accompanies the German letter-press. Herr Gneisse figures in Hansi's caricatures. Then the Abbé Wetterle was accused of having personally directed the attention of Herr Gneisse's pupils to the pictures, and Herr Gneisse demanded that proceedings be taken against the Abbé, and hence the much-discussed He remarks that the attitude of Bismarck towards Alsace had the great merit of frankness, if not of logic. It suppressed all discussion of the sentiments of the Alsatians. A country violated in the name of force and the right of conquest for the strategic necessities of future war had not to make any answer. Its part was to suffer and possibly to protest. Any assimilation between the Alsatians and the Germans has been made at the expense of the former; but now the Alsatians are resisting German civilization, and a few sympathetic and intelligent Germans are beginning to recognize that Alsatian civilization differs as greatly from the German as the Alsatian mind and character differ essentially from the mind and character of the Germans. These German professors and publicists go even further, for they say that it is vain to continue to force an as- Gneisse-Wetterle affair. similation of the two nations, that the Alsatian individuality ought to be respected, and that by doing so Germany would be the gainer. Pan-Germanism," with its pretensions and stupidity, and its want of understanding of the Alsatian character," is in reality a valuable ally of Alsace, for it proves that in Alsace the Germans are foreigners, and that Alsatian civilization and German civilization are ideas quite opposed to each other. Herr Gneisse, a comic and complete type of the German pedagogue, will find his name immortalized in Alsace as a useful "document" in the Alsatian cause. As to the question of autonomy, M. Preiss, in a debate in the Landesausschuss, or Provincial Committee, recently declared with great force that their struggle for it was useless. The promises that it would be given were valueless; the Germans required from the Alsatians guarantees of assimilation and proof of their German sentiments. A miracle would have to be performed to change the German point of view. The Alsatians would receive other promises, and again there would be disillusionment. They would wait quietly for a more favorable destiny to bring the liberties for which they had always fought to the renown of Alsace-Lorraine." DIAL'S" OUTLOOK ON LITERATURE THE " THAT admirable literary journal, the to claim for even the best of them a parity of Dial, of Chicago, which has just importance with the best of those Victorian. rounded three decades of continuous publi- authors whose deaths have been chronicled cation under the same editorial auspices, gives since 1880. If " politics and private avarice frank expression in its issue of April 1 to cer- were evil influences in Emerson's day, they are tain rather somber reflections on The quite as pervasive now, in the Dial's opinion. Bankruptcy of Literature." The Dial maintains that "if bankruptcy be a failure to meet just obligations, there is a good deal to be said for the view that modern literature is dangerously close to the insolvent state." Many of our modern writers, in the Dial's opinion, are frantically striving for an extension of credit. "To achieve novelty at whatever cost is the sum of their ambition, for thus alone is their poverty-stricken estate to be for a time concealed. If they can make themselves sufficiently startling, they may hope to seem impressive." Prof. Barrett Wendell, of Harvard, has declared the Dial to be "the most unbiased and sensible organ of American criticism." Its judgments are almost invariably sane and wellconsidered. Its warnings, therefore, are not to be lightly dismissed as the utterances of the chronic pessimist. The Dial itself in the thirty years of its existence has done much to encourage sound and wholesome literature in this country, and it is not because it believes the present situation hopeless that it seeks 66 Mr. Francis F. Browne has been editor of the Dial since its first number appeared in to expose the demoralizing tendencies of the time, but rather in pursuit of its mission to speak frankly at all times and to be honest with its readers. It is this candid, outspoken comment on literary conditions that has made the Dial so useful and respected as an organ of criticism in the past. It is a thankless office, perhaps, but one that cannot well be dispensed with. While the Dial welcomes new writers, it is not prepared May, 1880. For twelve years he issued the periodical as a monthly, but for the past eighteen years it has been a fortnightly. The Dial has never missed an issue and its stability of management is almost unique in American journalism. Its editor has made us all his debtors many times. His has been a quiet but effective influence in the nation's literary development which we hope may be continued far into the future. A CLERGYMAN ON REAL REFORM OF THE THAT THEATER HAT the theater as an institution is the strangest and most remarkable combiation of good and bad that society knows any thing about is the deliberate conviction of the Rev. Charles M. Sheldon, author of "In His Steps." Writing in the Independent Dr. Sheldon says: No other institution which is supposed to be a part of our civilization dares contain such a strange medley. The church is, for the most part, at least decently moral in its worship, its services, its entertainments, and its social life generally. It would not dare be anything else. The average school is for the most part giving to the civilized community good things in an overwhelming majority. But the theater, with an eye to box-receipts mainly, gives the people a purpose play one night and shows up the next with things so indecent that they could not be seen or spoken on the street or repeated out loud in any company of men and women, outside the theater, without a storm of protest." Largely on this account Dr. Sheldon himself rarely goes to the theater, because he does not know what he is liable to run into; but with the help of some newspaper reporters he recently summed up the character of twenty-seven shows that visited his town: Five of the twenty-seven were clean and good, had some definite lesson to teach, without a syllable or scene throughout that could offend the most fastidious man or woman. Seven of the twenty-seven were of the doubtful order, that is, they were for the most part good as to acting and such matters, but contained at least suggestive dialogue or questionable ethical teaching. The remaining fifteen were what could truthfully be called bad in the sense of suggestiveness; or the theme of the play itself revolved about some phase of human frailty, the discussion of which by the theater, as experience shows, does not help to better conditions but rather incites the passions, just as hanging used to do when it was performed in public. It is not a deterrent to evil, but rather a pandering to vulgar things, leaving in the mind a brown deposit which gradually coats the finer sensibility of virtue or takes the bloom off the necessary innocence of youth. As to the effect of the theater as an institution on the chronic theatergoer, Dr. Sheldon finds from his limited experience that this influence is not very permanent in its actual doing of righteousness. On the other hand, he does find "a more or less blasé condition of mind." The theater seems to create an artificial atmosphere. It is glamour and dream life. Young nightly attendance on the theater become dismen who are caught by the fascination of the satisfied with real life. The atmosphere of the play affects them not as an incentive toward the cleaner and more ambitious righteousness but rather acts as a sensational tickling of certain emotional parts of their nature, and there is no question whatever concerning the rousing of certain passions in the inveterate theatergoer which, as far as my observation goes, tend towards demoralization of character. There is no doubt that Dr. Sheldon is perfectly right when he says that "the trouble with most theatergoers is the failure to discriminate. They go to good and bad alike.” If the actor or actress is first class, that is sufficient for them, although "the play itself may be rotten to the core and the teaching objectionable in the extreme." Dr. Sheldon complains that church members will condemn the things they see and hear, yet not one of them will register a protest by leaving the house. This leads Dr. Sheldon to comment severely on what seems to him to be a remarkable inconsistency where the theater is concerned. It is this: billboards which depict women indecently clad Our civilized cities are vulgarized by staring advertising theatrical presentations. Very few persons seem to think anything is wrong about this; but if the persons portrayed on the billboards were suddenly to come to life and get down off the boards and walk along the street the law of any town in America would instantly arrest them for indecent exposure. The same thing is true of the things that are said and done on the stage. Actors and actresses will say and do things on the stage of a theater which could not be said and done on the street or on the sidewalk of any town without subjecting them to arrest. There seems to be one rule for the theater and another for common, every-day life. Dr. Sheldon cites the following editorial comment on a play given in a university town where scores of college boys and girls attended: |