domitable spirit of independence that characterizes the whole of this most incorruptible of republics. Porfirio Diaz has succeeded in establishing a very stable Government in Mexico. Moreover, the large North American Republic itself is a living proof that the socalled Anglo-Saxon race is not the only nor even the best qualified for a democratic form of government. As a matter of fact, her population is far from being made up of Anglo-Saxons, as some writers have carelessly assumed. And if a nation like the United States, composed of so many different races, of so many different elements, a great proportion being drawn from the very lowest and most ignorant classes in Europe, has known how to assimilate them and produce a very fair type of citizen, very capable of self-government, why should Cuba, freed from all baneful influences, equally exempt from tradition and old prejudices, prove an exception just because she happens to possess a relatively small negro population and to be situated a few degrees nearer the equator than is Florida? Finally, no trial has been made, therefore it is idle to prophesy as to results. It may be confidently expected that a people which has fought half a century for freedom will have something to say respecting its future destinies.

To deny the capacity of the Cubans for self-government before they have been put to the test is neither logical, honest, nor in accordance with moral principles. The charges of cruelty and cowardice brought against the Cubans by correspondents in the pay of Trusts and Corporations do not even deserve the honor of a serious refutation. They are but libels, inspired by the enemies of Cuban independence, in order to discredit her in the eyes of European nations. No more humane, hospitable, and charitable people exist on the surface of the globe. Their humanitarian and charitable sentiments have been successfully put to the proof thousands of times, and have been everywhere proclaimed. During their long and unequal struggle to free themselves from the Spanish yoke the courage and military qualities exhibited by the Cubans

have been recognized by eye-witnesses, even including their enemies, the Spaniards. Military writers like Colonels Campo and Gonzalez, and Generals of so high a reputation as Jorellar, Concha, and Martinez Campos of the Spanish army, in their official reports to the Government have paid a high tribute to the Cuban soldier. The Cuban troops, without arms and ammunition, with neither pay nor sufficient food, successfully resisted for years and years the most formidable army that any nation ever sent to punish a revolted colo

ny.

During the seven years that the American War of Independence lasted the entire force that England sent over to fight Washington's recruits scarcely reached 80,000 men, while Spain during the present war despatched to Cuba a powerful army of more than 200,000 men, which, with the volunteers, reached the colossal figure of more than 300,000 well-equipped and well-armed men, not to speak of a fleet of more than fifty war-ships surrounding the Island and watching the coasts. To have opposed such a powerful combination with any degree of success, it was necessary for the Cubans to have manifested excellent soldierly qualitiesabove all, great discipline, courage, and a power of endurance never equalled in any previous struggle for independence on the part of a colony. And the heroism of the contest will be the more admired if we bear in mind that the Cubans have never counted upon the protection of any nation, and never received help such as the American Colonies received from France in her contest with England. On the contrary, up to the loss of the war-ship Maine, the whole world, the great Republic included, remained an indifferent spectator of this terrible and unequal struggle for liberty, without even according the patriots the moral support of a recognition of belligerency.

The accusations of cruelty have no foundation whatever. Since early in the century the Cuban progressive party have engaged in a very energetic propaganda, as energetic as the iron rule of the Captain-General would al

low, in favor of the emancipation of the negroes. In this connection, the works of the Count of Poyos Dulces and Saco deserve special mention, the latter having written his "History of the Institution of Slavery in Cuba" in the year 1851, a book notable not only on account of its humanitarian tendencies, but also of its literary merits.

The first act of the Revolutionary Government in the Ten Years' War (1868-78) was to declare free all slaves on the Island. During their long struggle for freedom, lasting intermittently from 1850 until to-day-that is to say, nearly half a century-the Cubans have always respected the lives of prisoners, notwithstanding the fact that the Spaniards did not reciprocate this generosity, never sparing the life of a single prisoner taken in battle or otherwise, by force or by fraud, nor even that of a defenceless "pacifico" who crossed their path. Illustrations of the civilized method of warfare carried on by the patriots can be cited by the thousand.

During the Revolution of 1868 the Cubans either raided or captured the cities of Bayamo, Victoria de las Tunas, Holguin, Sta. Clara, St. Spiritus, not to speak of numerous towns and villages, and never in one instance did they take the life of a Spaniard, whether volunteer or civilian, in spite of the abominable crimes committed by the former against women, children, and the aged. In the battles of Las Guasimas, Palo Prieto, El Salado, and many others in which the Spanish forces were routed, all the prisoners of war were released by the Cubans. And, in the present war, General Calixto Garcia, at the capture of Victoria de las Tunas, took more than 700 prisoners, who were released after they had been fed and the wounded and sick cared for. In the battle of Mal Tiempo, Santa Clara province, the Cuban general Rego released all the Spanish prisoners of war at the nearest town, on a receipt to this effect being given him by the Spanish authorities. All those taken prisoners by General Aranguren, when he captured a train between Havana and Guanabacoa (1897) were immedi

ately released. Examples of this kind are a practical refutation of the charges of cruelty lately made, and the best and most undeniable proof of the superior humanity of the Cubans when dealing with their enemies by whom they were never spared the most fiendish torture or the foulest treachery. Furthermore, the patriots have always respected the private property of the Spaniards, and when the necessities of warfare compelled them, as in 1897, to order the cessation of the grinding of the sugarcane on the estates, or other measures of a similar character, in order to deprive the enemy of means to carry on the war, no discrimination was made between Cuban and Spaniard. All were treated alike, for no revengeful spirit ever actuated the laws and decrees adopted by the Cuban Provisional Government or the General-in-Chief of the revolutionary forces.

The history of the Cuban war does not present any example of atrocities committed by the patriots comparable in any way to the terrible scenes which took place at Scullabogue, prompted by the Irish revolutionaries of 1798, or those committed by the American patriots on the evacuation of New Orlcans by the British troops.

The fact of many Cubans having remained in the cities without seeming to take an active part in the revolution does not reflect in any way upon the population as a whole, nor tend to disprove their interest in their country, nor their passionate desire for emancipation. In the first place, no colony has ever been known to rise en masse against its oppressors. In the second place, the immense majority of the Cubans living in the cities held by the Spaniards have rendered valuable assistance to the cause of independence by forming Juntas to direct and spread the revolutionary propaganda, collecting money wherewith to purchase arms, ammunition, and to equip expeditions, likewise conveying to the field important information relative to the movements of the Spanish army.

In the American War of Independence the people from many cities, New York included, remained at home, ap

free and independent and shall have a stable government are questions of great importance to the people of that island, and of considerable importance to us; but the question of greatest importance to the people of the United States is whether they shall allow a war prosecuted ostensibly for the

I repeat, without fear of contradiction, that no colony in the world ever fought so long, so desperately, or so bravely, in the face of such difficulties, as did Cuba, without aid, without even a sign of encouragement from other nations. Consequently, at the present moment, the only position that can be fairly held by those who deny the fitness of the Cubans for self-government is to suspend judgment until the "Pearl of the Antilles " has been given an opportunity to prove or disprove their unsupported assertions. As to the intervention of the United States in Cuban affairs and the policy of annexation advocated by some, I cannot do better than append the recent utterances of the Hon. J. G. Carlisle, Ex-Secretary of the U. S. Treasury, which represent the best thought and feeling of America:

"Our national honor is pledged, and ought to be sacredly preserved, no matter what view other nations may take of the subject. Whether Cuba shall be

the pretext or the occasion for changing the very essence of our national character, and for converting their own Government into a great war-making, tax-consuming, landgrabbing, and office-distributing machine. No graver question than this will probably ever be presented for the consideration of the American people, for upon its decision depends the preservation or destruction of public of equal States. If we are to close the vital principle of our Federative Re

and seal up the records of the past and begin a new history, it ought not to be said hereafter that it was done without a protest from the friends of Democraticknowledge of the probable consequences. Republican government, or without a full

"There is absolutely no evidence worthy of consideration to show that a majority of the inhabitants of Hawaii or Cuba, or any other island proposed to be conquered or annexed, desire to be attached to the United States, while their character, habits, and past histories strongly conduce to prove that they greatly prefer to remain as they are, or establish independent governments of their own. Better a thousand times that monarchical Spain should continue to rule a people against their will than that the United States should usurp her place and hold them in subjection in the name of liberty and humanity."

-Contemporary Review.

PHUNG AH NYAN, the subject of this sketch, has the happiest knack of turning commonplaces with a great air of originality, as when he says, for instance, "We Chinese are of two kinds. One kind bad men, and one kind good men." This is quite true; and Yong Ah Kim (literally Glory Golden, a name too good for its owner) must be classed among the bad men, as we have both reason to agree. Still, I have to thank him, since through his delinquencies I became acquainted with the family of the Phungs, who are of the good kind beyond all question.

I took Glory Golden with me from the Straits to China some years ago. He went as my domestic servant, nothing more; but as we approached that part of the Canton province which had given him birth, he thought fit to magnify his office, and to announce at the many inns at which we halted on our way that I was a Devil of the first magnitude, in fact, a "Foreign Mandarin;" which expression sounds to Chinese ears almost as grotesque as "Lobengula's Premier" would to ours." He himself posed as my confidential adviser, cheaply paid at a hundred dollars a month.

In consequence I was charged double missionary rates by innkeepers and porters, and missionary rates are reckoned at twice the market price.

But when we reached our destination at Muddy River he found himself unable to keep up this illusion: the people heard me call him "boy" (he said) and order him hither and thither; he was "losing face," and desired to retire into private life and read for a literary examination. So he withdrew himself from my presence, taking with him the privy purse and, worse still, my postagestamps. No redress for breaches of contract or trust are obtainable for Englishmen in the friendly country of China, and I could only submit in silence. But as things turned out, other entries were to be made in time on both sides of the account of Glory Golden with myself.

Thus things stood when there arrived my newly engaged teacher Phung Ah Man, which is Phung the Late-born; and he suggested that I should employ his elder brother, with such words of recommendation as these: "Carry water, buy provisions, polish the horse, any sort of thing he can do." Accordingly I set out one day to find the house of Phung and discover this prodigy, moved partly by curiosity to hear of an elder brother who would do the rough work, while the cadet was reading for a degree.

The house of Phung lies buried in a dingle at the foot of the fir-clad hill that divides the Stone Fan Valley from the watershed of Muddy Brook. The road runs, in the uncompromising manner of Chinese roads, straight and steep down the hillside, and turns off abruptly across the drying-floor which lies between the Phung homestead and the fish-pond. And I made my acquaintance with the Phungs in this most undignified way. Glad to get off the cobble-stones, and grown "beany" on a luxurious diet of rice and beanstalks, my pony was not to be controlled, and swung round the corner onto the farm precincts at a pace that might almost have been called a trot. The dryingfloor was covered with sheaves of rice, playing among which was a little naked

girl of that immature age when the human infant, differing from the infant horse, is characterized by the extraordinary shortness of its legs. She, with circumspect and staggering gait, and an awful solemnity in her round black eyes, was engaged in persecuting one of those passive kittens that appear to be the complement of Chinese babyhood, when the phenomenon described above appeared before her. Naturally she shrieked and collapsed. Then to me also appeared a prodigy. For from the house a young woman rushed out with flaming cheeks, her dishevelled hair loose over her blue smock, running on stout sunburned legs of which a good hand's-breadth was visible below her knickerbockers of gray homespun. She seized the child and shook it vigorously -why does your outraged mother shake her innocent offspring?-and, straddling like Apollyon across the path, greeted me with a tirade in which "horse-bells," "get down," "strike dead," and my forefathers recurred at frequent intervals. It was in vain to apologize for the absence of the warning horse-bells. She still barred the way, and it seemed as if my only course was retrograde.

Meanwhile the rest of the household, forty or fifty strong, had turned out to see the fun, the women critically attentive, and the men wearing the amused yet sheepish air of schoolboys who are observing the castigation of another's person. An old man leaning with both hands on his stick hobbled out for a minute; but though I appealed to him as Reverend Uncle, he went back again without speaking: his patriarchal experience had not taught him how to quiet an angry woman.

I had had about enough of it, when onto the drying-floor from the other end there strolled a man leading a pink buffalo by a rope. After tying it up with deliberation he came forward and pushed his way through the little crowd. No sooner had the woman caught his eye, than, turning the current of her volubility on him, she reiterated for the dozenth time her version of my evil deeds; but her husband seemed to cut her very short, assuming with a nice

discrimination of the probabilities that his wife was in the wrong, as, shoving her aside with a shoulder of extra size, he raised toward me one of the flattest and roundest faces I have ever seen even in China, and reassured me with a grin: "No fear. No fear. Just woman's talk only!" He invited me indoors to take tea and tobacco, when following on the usual inquiries as to each other's honorable patronymics and respected proper names, it turned out that he was no other than the Phung Ah Nyan I had come in search of. So I engaged him there and then.

When I say there and then I am exaggerating. Nothing in China is ever done there and then, but I left a letter which his brother, the Late-born, had given me, and finished my ride; and returning, was told by the patriarch above mentioned that my conditions were accepted, and sure enough there was Ah Nyan Elder Brother sitting at the doorway by the threshing-floor, with his worldly goods tied into two convenient bundles, and his carrying-stick across his knees, in a state of elaborate preparation, from his freshly shaved and glistening crown to the new straw sandals on his feet. And hardly had I arrived when by general acclamation a start was insisted on. Ah Nyan grinned impartially on the little crowd, and put his shoulder to the carrying-stick. "Go carefully," cried they. "No ceremony,' we replied, as we hurried off, horse and man, at a sharp trot.

In a minute we had turned the corner, and were breasting the steep road. through the wood, all slippery with the cobbles and pine-needles. Here, as we slowed down, I learned the reason of the hurry. It was not the distance to be covered: our road was only three or four miles by Chinese computation (three miles down-hill, but four miles up!). It was his wife's younger brother. He, an ill-conditioned fellow it appeared, was expected home that afternoon, and it was anticipated that he would refuse consent " unless I offered him an equally good billet. When I asked how he could do that to his elder brother-in-law, Ah Nyan shifted. his ground and said he would have

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"scolded." I found out by degrees that this dread of a row was one of his leading characteristics.

During the war with Japan I had the opportunity of seeing some Chinese troops embarking for Formosa, and greatly admired the soldierly compactness of their kit; for they carried neither arms nor baggage other than a fan and a slice of water-melon. At the little teahouse which comes so kindly into view at the top of the long up-grade, I had the curiosity to examine my new servant's possessions, and see what equipment for his new life was considered necessary by him. At one end of the stick there was a bundle of oiled yellow paper, enveloping a change of the coarse blue coat and trousers that are the common wear of the Chinese peasant of either sex: item, two live fowls strung up by the heels, a present from the patriarch to the writer. At the other end was a round wicker basket, which, being unpadlocked, was found to contain a long coat of blue satin with a waistcoat of maroon, trousers of white crêpe, a skull cap with red button, some paper editions of the classics, a round silk fan with lacquered handle, embroidered shoes, and a water-tobaccopipe, of polished tin. I could not forbear from wondering how a burdenbearer should go so nicely appointed, but I might have spared the sarcasm. Ah Nyan explained very simply that the contents of the wicker basket were for his younger brother, the teacher.

The tiny cottage I lived in consisted of a centre hall or atrium, opening upon a compluvium called in the vernacular the Heavenly Well, upon which opened also my bedroom and the kitchen, that were little more than walled-in passages, one on each side of the centre hall. It is not a comfortable house, for a rainstorm beating in through the Heavenly Well takes possession of it all except a six-foot strip to leeward; and with the glass at 96° in the shade the thin black tiles prove an indifferent protection from the sun, but for eavesdropping it seemed specially designed. Ah Man, the Late-born, was cooking the fowl in the kitchen when we arrived: