Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-09-22
SELECT SOCIALISTS.
Mrs. Ashton Dixie Writes Entertain-
ingly Of the Members Of
THE FAMOUS FABIAN SOCIETY.
Art, Poetry, Literature and the Church
Represented.
AWAITING A PROPER TINE TO STRIKE
CORRESPONDENCE OF THE D1spArcH.l j

LONDON, September 12.-"For the right
moment you must wait" as Fabius did
most patiently when warning against Han
nibal, though many censured his delays;
but when the time comes you must strike
hard, as Fabius did, or your waiting will be
in vain and fruitless."
Such is the motto, and such the aim of
the Fabian Society. They are select and
cultivated body, the Fabians, and infinitely
the most respectable of the English Social
ist societies. Even in the eyes OF the socially
and politically orthodox, the Fabians are
regarded as lowering on an admissible bor-
uttermost depths of Bohemia to which all
advanced reformers are relegated by the
powers that be.
A true Fabian in no sense feels bound to
declare war Poutrance against modern So
clety. On the contrary, he expressly con-
demns force as remedy, and disbelieves in
revolutionary upheavals. He is, as a rule,
distinctly literary in his tastes and occupa-
tioDs, and his primary aim as Fabian is of
an educational character. Fabians are
elected on their personal merits, and are not
allowed to be idle. The serious study of
Socialist doctrines is enjoined upon all, and
each is bound to contribute something to-
ward the public good, either as lecturer or
writer. Fabians are convinced, and rightly
SO, that ignorance is at the bottom of much
of the political listlessness of the people
and they do their best to remedy the evil
Men who are scared by the possible dyna-
mite of the Anarchist and the belief in force
arguments of the Social Democrats take
kindly to Socialistic doctrines under Fabian
tuition. The pill is pleasantly sugared and
the strong ingredients are swallowed unper-
ceived In word, to borrow phrase from
the Pail Mall Gazette, Socialism under
Fabian auspices is made as rose-pink as the
depressing facts of English pauperism will
admit.
SOME CLEVER PEOPLE.
When we come to numbers, there are but
100 Fabians, all told, but the proportion of
clever and rising men among them, who are
making their reputation in the political and
literary world, is very considerable. Such,
for instance, is Bernard Shaw, writer and
journalist, who was spoken OF the other day
as possible Radical candidate for Chelsea.
His particular meter is art-criticism, and at
every Press View, tail figure, pencil in
hand, with fair beard, regular features,
and general appearance OF smoothness
about him, may be seen making the round
of the pictures with his brother critics. His
dress, too, is peculiar; it is all-wooI, of a
Ight-brownish tinge, neither linen collar
nor silk tie being tolerated. This is but one I
OF Mr.. Shaw's little feats; their name is
legion. believe he is member OF every
"anti" society in London: an Anti-Vaccin-
ationist, an Administrations an Anti
Tobaeconist, besides being a vegetarian,
teetotaler, and secularist. With all this,
Bernard Shaw is a man of very decided
Literary promise; he has lately made him.
self conspicuous by his enthusiastic cham
plonship of Heudrick Ibsen in general, and
OF his drama Mora, as recently interpreted
by Mrs. james Ackwith, in particular.
The rose pinkners of the Fabian Social
ism receive powerful impulse from the
presence in the society of Walter Crane and
of his friend and artistic disciple, j. NJ. |
Walter Cranes Socialism
takes the special form of art for the people, |
a general striving against the sordid hid |
of the poor mans life, and he |
shows his sympathy in practical way by
drawing (gratis) exquisite designs for So
cialist publications, and great decorative |
cartoons for popular demonstrations. In
this respect he sets an example to his fellow
artist, the great William Norris whose
beautiful wall papers and hangings, in
spite of all the Democratic proclivities of |
their creator, still remain luxury unat-
tainable by all but the privileged few.
AN INTELLECTUAL COUPLE.
Passing from art to literature, there is a
charming little Socialist and literary house.
hold down at Lee, in Kent, tenanted by Mr.. |
and Mrs. Hubert Bland, both of them orig
inal members of the society. This prim SUBJ /
urb, mostly given over to British Philistin-
ism in its most bourgeois manifestation,
was terribly scandalized at first by the
pleasant sans-gene of its Socialist neighbors.
Mrs. Bland was observed personally in
her domestic in the mysteries of
coloring the doorstep with red chalk, and
the merry little Bland children in aesthetic
pinafores were seen daily running about
the garden with bare feeti The gossips of
Lee were deeply agitated, but the Bland
household went peacefully on its way.
Both husband and wife write articles, re-
views and stories, the latter often il part
nership; but Mrs. Bland, under her maiden
name of E. Nesbitt, has published more
over a great deal of very charming verse.
The Fabian umbrella is a very capacious
one, and shelters every imaginable develop
ment of modern thought under It's protect
ing silk. Catholics and Atheists, Russian
Anarchists and English State Socialists,
may all be found in the ranks of the society;
it is, therefore, not at all surprising to dis
cover no less than four clergymen of the
Church of England among the members.
First, there is the Rev. H. G. Shuttleworth,
the eloquent incumbent of st. Nicholas Cole
Abbey in the city, whose stirring addresses
to workingmen, and whose spirited denun-
Citations from the pulpit of the sins of the
rich have attracted considerable attention.
Canon Shuttteworth, with his round red
face, dark eyes, and friendly, somewhat
iovial manner, satisfactorily solves the pro-
blem of being at once bona fde Socialist
and an orthodox Anglican. As rule, it is
the Anglicanism which suffers, as in the |
case of the well-known East End parson,
the Rev. Samuel Barnett, whose doctrine is
of the most doubtful description. Mrs.
Shuttleworth, too, always dressed. in ex-
4uisite taste, enthusiastically supports her
husband in his propaganda.
THE BALLET GIRLS CHAMPION.
A far less orthodox person is the Rev.
Stewart Headlam, the founder of the Church
and Stage Guild, and the special friend of
The ballet girls, who, in point of fact, has
been inhibited from holding living by the
Bishop of London, owing chiefly to his
somewhat peculiar views regarding the
lrama. His wife apparently shares his
ordship's distrust of the ballet girl, and
has left her husbands house and the Church
and Stage Guild, that fantastic attempt to
combine two utterly incongruous elements
has fallen into considerable disrepute.
Stewart Headlam, small, slim man with
cynical expression and an eye-glass, is
special friend OF Mrs. Besant's, vino, in
order to show conclusively that her atheism
IS not the result of prejudice, goes out of
ler way to be polite to wearers of the cloth;