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FOR SEPTEMBER, 1895.

The Birth of the Flower. John Northern Hilliard

A Notable Work. Elbert Hubbard

The Manners Tart. Clara Cahill Park

A Matter of Background. William McIntosh

In Slippery Places. W.

A Lantern Song. Stephen Crane

The Rubaiyat of O'Mara Khayvan. W. M.

Notes.

THE PHILISTINE is published monthly at a year, 10 cents a single copy. Subscriptions may be left with newsdealers or sent direct to the publishers.

Business communications should be addressed to THE PHILISTINE, East Aurora, New York. Matter intended for publication may be sent to the same address or to Box 6, Cambridge, Massachusetts.

THE PHILISTINE.

NO. 4. September, 1895. VOL. 1.

THE BIRTH OF THE FLOWER.

In the Beginning, God, the Great Workman, Fashioned a seed; Cunningly wrought it from waste-stuff left over In building the stars; Then, in the dust and the grime of His Workshop, He rested and pondered-- Then, with a smile, flung the animate atom Far into space.

As the seed fell through the blue of the heavens Down to the world, Wind, the Great Gardener, seized it in triumph And bore it away; Then, at a sign of the Master, who made it, He planted the seed:-- Thus into life sprang the first of the flowers On earth.

--JOHN NORTHERN HILLIARD.

A NOTABLE WORK.

And right here, before referring further to Mr. Cudahy's book, I wish to place on file a modest word of protest concerning the modern sex novel.

Just now the stage and story-book seem to vie with one another in putting on parade the Men and Women who Did for the delectation of those who Have or May. The motif in all these books and plays is to depict the torturing emotions that wring and tear the hearts of these unhappy mortals. The Camp of Philistia does not boast that there are in it no People who Did, neither do we deny the reality of the heartaches and tears that come from unrequited love and affection placed not wisely. But from a somewhat limited experience in wordily affairs I arise to say that life does not consist entirely in these things, and furthermore that the importance given to the Folks who Have is quite out of proportion to their proper place with the procession. There are yet loves that are sweet and wholesome; there are still ambitions that are manly and strong. Let's write and talk of these.

The space in THE PHILISTINE at my disposal will not admit of an extended criticism, so I will briefly trace the plot, and make a few casual remarks on the more important situations, trusting that my readers will procure the work and each read for himself. For while its faults are many, yet there are here and there redeeming features, and in the moral at the close is a suggestion that is worth one's while.

Now for the story:

James Hunks, known on the bills as Signor De June, was in 1875 proprietor of a Ballet Troupe. The corps de ballet consisted of sixteen ladies who were personally selected by Signor De June, and trained by him so that they performed some very wonderful terpsichorean evolutions. Eight of these women were blondes and eight brunettes. Surprising to state, none were over thirty and none under twenty years of age. But they were all Women who Did--that is to say, Ladies with a Past.

Not that they were selected on this account; indeed, Signor De June did not interest himself in their Experiences--he only wanted form and intellect--but mostly form. Yet a coryphee must have brains, else she could not learn to conduct her airy shape through the mazy evolutions of the dance.

But it came about by degrees that Signor De June learned that all of his ladies were Ladies with a History. And being a philosopher, he reasoned it out that the ballet was the only respectable calling that was open to a woman who had been the victim of misplaced love. Such is the bitter cruelty of a sham-virtuous society.

And thus on page 141 Signor De June muses as follows: "Had my ladies been possessed of homely faces and crusty manners, no temptation could have come to them, and they would all have lived and died virtuous maidens; or at best been the contented wives of farmers, molders, bricklayers or mill hands. But being loving and gracious and sympathetic and withal beautiful, they have been unfortunate. Furthermore no woman should ever speak of her virtue unless she hates her husband and loves another man."

So Signor De June was very kind and gentle with these ladies--aye! tender. He loved them all; he guarded and shielded them from every fierce temptation. It was a pure paternal love--more properly Platonic. He only wished to make them happy--that was all.

They gave exhibitions in the principal cities of the United States and were everywhere successful. Occasionally a husband or a former lover of one of these Women who Did would appear upon the scene, and whenever this happened the Signor, who was a large man and ambi-dextrous, would take the offender neck and crop and throw him out. This always cooled the most amorous follower, but it kept Signor De June quite busy. Yet it must not be thought that the Signor was brutal--far from it: all were welcome to worship his ladies, but it must be done from the parquette or dress circle.

So they were all very prosperous and very happy, until one day the wife of Signor De June appeared and camped upon his trail. He had gotten an Indiana divorce from this woman five years before, but the courts had pronounced it invalid, and now she was upon him neck and crop, just as he had been upon the lovers and husbands. He tried to explain to her that he loved the Corps de Ballet, not the ladies individually. He loved them as a Whole, not singly. Moreover, his love was idyllic--Platonic. The wife explained that the thing did not exist except in books, and further stated her belief that the love was Plutonic if anything; and moreover it must cease.

No doubt the woman really loved Mr. Hunks. He, too, had a little regard for her, although they quarrelled. But he was essentially commercial--a man of peace. He had no stomach for a legal battle with his wife's attorneys, who had taken the case on speculation, and he could not run away. The woman utterly refused to be bought off for a reasonable sum, and she also declined joining the Ballet herself, in spite of De June's assertions that he could love seventeen as well as sixteen, for in love capacity increases through use.

"Try it for a month and you will see that it is Platonic," said De June.

"I've no doubt I'd find it so," said the wife.

She still was firm. He must choose between her and the Troupe. If he chose the Troupe he'd have her, like the poor, always with him. If he chose her alone she would still resemble the poverty stricken; but there would come times when vigilance might relax and he could slip a way.

But what to do with the Troupe! He could not throw these beautiful, susceptible women on a struggling, seething, wicked world. He could not put them on a farm, for who would look after, correct, discipline and restrain them as he had done? If allowed to scatter they would marry, and marriage according to civilized methods, so-called, was a failure; had he not tried it?

But De June was a man of resource . They were in Denver and women were scarce. He would select husbands for his ladies, himself.

He did so, choosing sixteen strong fine young miners. Calling the men out one side, he made known to them his plan. Each man was to have a wife on payment of the trifling fee of two hundred dollars "matriculation" . The men were delighted--but had the ladies been consulted? No, that was not necessary--there was to be a return to primitive methods, which indeed were ever best: civilization was artificial, unnatural and corrupt.

These sixteen ladies were all of fair intelligence, good hearted, able to work, willing to obey. More than that they had great capacity for loving, for had not this excess of love been their misfortune? The love only needed proper direction, like all of our other gifts.

The sixteen gentlemen that the philosophic De June selected were of fair intelligence, healthy and good natured, prosperous and all men of fine physique. There was no choice in the men; there was no choice in the women; they were on the same intellectual plane--they were well mated and De June would not defeat the God of Chance by allowing any personal selection. One man offered a thousand dollars for first choice, but Mr. Hunks was a man of honor and could not be bought.

The gentlemen were to be in the parquette. When the ladies appeared on the stage, at the word "Go" from De June, the sixteen men were to make a rush for the stage and each seize his future wife. All after the manner of the Romans who captured the Sabine women--and I guess the Roman Nation is not to be sneezed at! Caesar, Antony, Brutus and all the rest of those honorable men were products of just such marriages.

The rush was made--the women screamed, some fainted, but each man held his prize. The electric lights were turned off, the audience got out as best it could. Then the doors were locked, the curtain dropped and Signor De June stepped forward and in gentle words assured the sixteen ladies that no harm should come to them. All had been arranged for the best. They must be good honest wives, and the men must be good honest husbands, and Mr. Hunks, being a Justice of the Peace, declared them all man and wife--that is sixteen wives and sixteen husbands.

The women, it must be confessed, had grown a trifle weary of the De June Idyllic Plan; and in the good old-fashioned womanly way, oft in the night season, each had confessed in her own heart, that one loving husband for each woman was what Nature intended. So they accepted the situation, and each began to use those winning ways that Herbert Spencer says are woman's weapons: woman conquers through her intuition.

At a word from De June the women repaired to their dressing rooms and soon appeared in customary feminine attire. This time the ladies had to pick their mates, for the change in dress greatly mystified the hirsute miners. There was a slight scramble among the ladies when three of them selected the same man, but the Signor soon brought order outits Benevolent deities Gods of gore and rage Malignant and dangerous spirits Agricultural goddesses Giant spirits Gods of lust and consanguineous love Spirits of celestial phenomena Other spirits Nature of the various divinities in detail, The primary deities The secondary order of deities The gods of gore, and kindred spirits

In general Miscellaneous casual omens Divination by dreams Divination by geometrical figures The vine omen The rattan omen Divination by suspension and other methods The suspension omen The omen from eggs Divination by sacrificial appearances The blood omen The neck omen The omen from the gall The omen from the liver The omen from a fowl's intestinal appendix Ornithoscopy In general Respect toward the omen bird Interpretation of the omen bird's call Birds of evil omen

The extent of the movement Reported origin and character of the revival Spread of the movement Its exterior character and general features The principal tenets of the movement New order of deities Observances prescribed by the founder Religious rites The real nature of the movement and means used to carry on the fraud The sacred traffic Religious tours The whistling scheme Pretended chastity and austerity The end of the movement Similar movements in former years

Historical references to the Man?bos of eastern Mindanao Early history up to 1875 From 1875 to 1910 Methods adopted by the missionaries in the Christianization of the Man?bos The secret of missionary success Explanation of plates

CLASSIFICATION AND GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION OF MAN?BOS AND OTHER PEOPLES IN EASTERN MINDAN?O

EXPLANATION OF TERMS

Throughout this monograph I have used the term "eastern Mindan?o" to include that part of Mindan?o that is east of the central Cordillera as far south as the headwaters of the River Libag?non, east of the River T?gum and its influent the Libag?non, and east of the gulf of Davao.

THE TERM "TRIBE"

The word "tribe" is used in the sense in which Dean C. Worcester defines and uses it in his article on The non-Christian Tribes of Northern Luzon:

A division of a race composed of an aggregate of individuals of a kind and of a common origin, agreeing among themselves in, and distinguished from their congeners by physical characteristics, dress, and ornaments; the nature of the communities which they form; peculiarities of house architecture; methods of hunting, fishing, and carrying on agriculture; character and importance of manufacture; practices relative to war and the taking of heads of enemies; arms used in warfare; music and dancing, and marriage and burial customs; but not constituting a political unit subject to the control of any single individual nor necessarily speaking the same dialect.

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