218 



THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



in their several ways, and scarcely less 

 striking, are a series of "Sketches in 

 Egypt," drawn by Charles Dana Gibson, 

 with some genial comment and description 

 written by the artist himself; some en- 

 tirely new reminiscences of Lincoln, 

 showing his relations with Fremont, Mc- 

 Clellan, Cameron, and Stanton, and illus- 

 trating his rare tact and.cDnsideration in 

 dealing with men in general; an account 

 (largely his own narrative) of the way in 

 which the artist Tissot came to take up 

 his great work of picturing the life of 

 Christ, and of the manner in which he ex- 

 ecuted it; and incidents and anecdotes of 

 General Wood's great work n the regen- 

 eration of Santiago, furnished by H. H. 

 Lewis, who himself spent sometime at 

 Santiago with General Wood. All of 

 these articles are fully illustrated, the one 

 on Tissot with some beautiful reproduc- 

 tions of the chief of his paintings. Cap- 

 tain Mahan, in his series of papers "The 

 War on the Sea and its Lessons," sets 

 forth in this number the problems pre- 

 sented to the navy by the arrival of Cer- 

 vera in West Indian waters, and relates 

 how they were dealt with. Mr. Kipling 

 gives us a further chabter from the ad- 

 ventures of "Stalky & Co., "one that shows 

 those heroes in quite a new role; and 

 there are several other good short stories 

 in the number. 



THE FORUM. 



To say that the March number is an 

 unusually good one is great praise, as this 

 publication is one of such high order that 

 each issue is full of timely and interesting 

 articles by writers of ability and experi- 

 ence. Mark Twain contributes an article 

 full of his old-time humor. Taking for 

 his text "Diplomatic Pay and Clothes," 

 he discourses, in terms of withering satire, 

 on the meagreness of the stipends which 

 we pay to our diplomatic representatives 

 abroad. He also ridicules, in his unique 

 style of pleasantry, the absence of an 

 official court dress, which, unless our 

 minister happen to have been in the arny 

 or navy, compels him to attend court and 

 public functions, "even at seven in the 

 morning, in that same old funny swallow- 

 tail. * * * It is a night-dress and a 

 night-dress only, a night-shirt is not 



more so. Yet when our representative 

 makes an official visit in the morning, he 

 is obliged to go in that night-dress. It 

 makes the very cab horses laugh." 



"A Lost Eden Cuba'' is the expressive 

 title of an article by Dr. Felix L. Oswald. 

 "The coasts of Cuba, " he says, seem to 

 to have been constructed for the special 

 convenience of filibustering expeditious." 

 It will be many years before the despera- 

 does and outlaws of Cuba become peaceful, 

 law-abiding citizens and, despite the fact 

 that "the undulations of the coast-plain 

 will soon resemble a wide-spread sea of 

 verdure," the writer thinks "for the in- 

 terests of American civilization it would 

 perhaps have been better if, like the lost 

 Atlantis, the whole island had disappeared 

 beneath the ocean wave." Col. Alexander 

 S. Bacon, in his article, "Is our Army 

 Degenerate?" compares the success of our 

 naval engagements during the late war 

 with the disgraceful record of our army 

 management. Lack of proper military 

 training was, he thinks, in a great measure 

 to blame for the mistakes which were 

 made, and he says truly. "It is worse than 

 a blunder, it is, as I have said, a crime, to 

 put thousands of precious lives under the 

 control of an uneducated soldier, no 

 matter how experienced and efficient as a 

 subaltern." From undisciplined and raw 

 recruits a magnificent army may be made, 

 but the officers must be men who are 

 heroic: who have sufficient enthusiasm to 

 inspire their men and who, in addition to 

 having brains, must have training and 

 experience. While our army is not as a 

 whole degenerate, it will not bear com- 

 parison to our navy. 



Hon. Charles Denby, who has been ap- 

 pointed a member of the commission to 

 the Philippines, contributed an article 

 entitled "What shall we do with the 

 Philippines," which was brought to a 

 somewhat abrupt close by the fact that, 

 having been appointed on the commission, 

 he felt he was not at liberty to express 

 opinions on a vital question of this nature, 

 which before he could discuss at his 

 pleasure. 



Since our last issue we received a 

 "harbinger of spring" in the shape of 

 a package of flower and vegetable seeds 

 from the D. M. Ferry Seed Co., of Detroit 



