38 



THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



on irrigation experiments. Farmers are 

 beginning to realize the benefits of irriga- 

 tion and have a desire to try the system 

 but do not know just how to go about it. 

 There should be some way provided by 

 which the small farmer may obtain infor- 

 mation on this subject as easily as he now 

 can regarding fruit pests, fertilizers, etc. 

 "I Will" Chicago is a constant surprise 

 a Fitting to other cities. The United 

 Motto. states regards her with the 

 astonishment the old hen felt when her 

 duckling took to the water. The first sur- 

 prise was that sane men should attempt to 

 build a city upon the swamps of the Chica- 

 go river. But despite the prophecies of 

 disastrous failure the city was built and 

 prospered. After the fire of 1871, when 

 pessimistic people said "the city will never 

 be rebuilt," Chicago rose from her ashes 

 with a rapidity that was surprising. She 

 captured the World's Fair and again "as- 

 tonished the natives." So well known is 

 her propensity for 1 "getting there" that it 

 occasioned but little wonder when she was 

 the first city to hold a peace jubilee. 



Such a dismal period of rain and slush 

 as the jubilee week proved to be might 

 well daunt the projectors. Like a naughty 

 child, who when company is present abso- 

 lutely refuses to "show off" but sits in 

 sulky silence, Chicago put on her blackest 

 frown and showed strangers what she 

 could do in the way of weather, causing 

 them to wonder how anyone who was able 

 to get away could live in such a dirty, 

 rainy, foggy, muddy place. 



But despite the unfavorable circum- 

 stances Chicago conquered fate and held 

 her jubilee. The crowd that gathered on 

 Wednesday, Oct. 19, to witness the parade, 

 was in itself worth seeing. Looking down 

 from high buildings you seemed to see in 

 the streets below a moving mass people 

 packed like sardines in a box. Everything 

 orderly, every one good.natured; each one 

 accepting the inevitable jostling and 

 crowding as merely a part of the day's 

 celebration. Even the man who fell in 

 the street too drunk to regain his feet, had 

 a con tented look on his face as if he did 

 not mind the inconvenience of lying on his 

 back in the mud, but was only thankful for 

 space in which to fall. 

 To say that President McKinley made a 



good impression and won many friends 

 fails to express it. And though perhaps, 

 in view of the recent failure of the peace 

 commissioners to come to any definite 

 agreement, the celebration was a little 

 premature, the good that it has done in in- 

 troducing the President personally to the 

 people and the desire evinced by all re- 

 gardless of party to support the policy of 

 the administration, is worth all the ex- 

 pense the jubilee celebration entailed. 



At no time when thinking of a 

 Bismarck's 



Diary. great man deceased are we so 



prone to agree with Shakes- 

 peare that "The evil men do lives after 

 them; the good is often interred with their 

 bones," than when we hear that his diary 

 is to be published his inmost thoughts, 

 his hidden weaknesses, his secret loves 

 and hates, given to the public. Bismarck 

 made many enemies during his long life, 

 and the recent publication of his diary 

 will not tend to decrease the hard feeling 

 held by many, especially by the English 

 nation, as the entries prove he had no love 

 for that country. A London newspaper, 

 in its criticism of the work, says it proves 

 Bismarck to have been as arrogant and 

 brutal as his worst enemies declared him 

 to be. The man who published the diary 

 is Dr. Moritz Busch, sometimes described 

 as Bismarck's Boswell, and though it is 

 claimed that he had Bismarck's sanction, 

 it would seem that the best and kindest 

 thing Dr. Busch could have done would 

 have been to allow the diary to remain 

 only a diary. The efforts the ex-chancel- 

 lor's family are making to justify his treat- 

 ment of his enemies and to avenge his in- 

 sults, will be much hampered by this book, 

 which most Germans condemn as showing 

 want of tact on the part of Busch and which 

 is a mere jumble of unimportant remarks, 

 which teach us nothing new, yet cause a 

 great deal of bad feeling." A Glasgow 

 paper says of the book. "* * * Dr. Busch 

 has so fully drawn the screen from before 

 this great German idol that we have no 

 difficulty in seeing that the feet are clay. 

 And such clay!" 



When a man is dead beyond the reach 

 of reproach, when he can no longer defend 

 himself against the criticisms made by his 

 enemies, is it not better to let the "dead 

 past bury its dead?" 



