New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1894-03-11


has worked over is very great. his method OF
arranging his facts is simple He agrees Win
others in making three grand stages in the
progress of acknowledgements heather bar
bar:sm and civilization. Only the first division
Is really homogeneous in the way II Is described
When II comes to barbarism and civilization. the
work soon divides on social or national lines.
Possibly the case would be the same WITH
savagery II It could be thoroughly UNDERSTOOD
from the point Of view of civilization. 10
white man all redmen look alike. and the easiest
inference is that they act alike. But they 90 not
They vary as much individually as their ciViii%eu
neighbors. In the effort to Imagine the prac'ioes
Of the remote progenitors OF the civillzed races
M Uitteu imognes them to have been like the
rude races of the present day. The amount Oh
information that has been gathered about these
modern savages is overwhelming and Mr.. Hit'en
has shown extraordinary skill In summdr'@i'is
=, between the covers of a volume Of about four
hundred pages. He collects what is known as
IN tho necularlties Of the various groups of I'M
civilized men belonging to the black the yeiio"
and the white races, not only those of the pres
ont day but of the prehistoric past. With the
eavaee time has almost stood still, and he Is but
little susceptible mentally at least. to differences
Of reoeraphical conditions These are starting
considerations because they are presumptlVe
evidence against the possibility of evolution upon
which Mr. Hittell builds up the vast fabric OF
his chronological system The modern savage
rarely shows any desire for Improvement. III 'he
same was true Of those savages from whom the
moro cultivated races have arisen, then 1t Is
sificult TO account for the beginnings or the
movement toward civilization. Moreover IL d
group of savages becomes civilized nowadays
the result is due not TO ordinary causes suOi
as have been acting upon the group lor ase''
hut tn the extraordinary and accidental cause
which brings the group into contact WITH oe''e'
educated peonle. Were it not for such accidents
at intervals civilization would apparently never
have been diffused But at the outset. theoreu-
oou,, az last all men were equally incapable.
ooua,lv brutal and equally ignorant If one
dev,ses n series Of divisions in the lie OF the
race no finds that some groups at the present
moment saw after half million years OF EFFORT
have reached the rank of hunters. others that OF
farmers others that of shepherds. whlie o'heis'
no better than the rest at the beginning III
dulge in all the variety OF modern ci''ii"a''o"
lie will find that some have got as lar as po'S-
andry others as far as polygamy ana sun ot"ei'
10 monogamy legally enforced. Some nave
meagre notions in the domain of religion othels
rrofuse s,perstitions; and the ignorant seem 10
d,Yer as much among themselves in this matter
as they do from people of better training
The inference from the confusion whch De-
longs to the mass of details collected D! MI
u,tte,, not to his arrangement. is that human
evolution so-called. is not necessary fact Ill 'e
history of the race. but an accident Ihe sus-
,,,oion crosses the mind as one passes from item
20 ,,er, of the thousands which the author mas
arranged that all TIE infinite results OF civiiza-
t,on rested once on the mere turn OF life. What
has existed to prevent the spread of the Dahoman
E,nre over the whole of Africa? why ala II
hammer that the first efficient confederacy Oh
Northern redmen not organized uhui shoru!
before the coming of Europeans! Nopooy can
answer these questions. but it certainly looks as
81 what is usually called human progress was
,v no means a necessity in the history OF the
race An interesting article, perhaps DOOR,
might be written on disease as FACTOR III 'he
origin of civilization. 1t is certainly suggestive
that the first indications Of self-conscious move
men. in mankind characterized some Of the I'M
healthiest spots the globe-the valleys oil the
Nile. the Euphrates. the Yang-tse-kians ana
tho Canges Was the genius which lighted the
wav to civilization at the outset the product OF a
normal condition in human life? Has the per-
fectly normal healthy contented man ever
helped the race forward at any time? Ihese are
not triaing questions. They touch the heart Oh
the subject Every one who has meddied WIN
the sciences OF humanity knows how tentative
they all are and how difficult is anything IKE d
generalization. 1t is q convenient hypothess tnat
primitive man went through stages OF lie such
as have been suggested by the state or modern
sayages; but it would be rash to assert that
ANYTHING Of the kind was actually true. III Is
s,mplv from the civilized point of view that the
lowest form of culture seems 10 DC thar Vi nun
filling sayages. In the actual life of some races
~ oil, uvel n
far higher. lust as group of Texas herdsmen,
who as far as occupation is concerned are Oh
the culture level Of the first children of Abraham
or of a modern Tartar family, may be individu-
allv specimens of the civilization OF New fork
or London And only by an artificial standard
can II be said that there has been any backward
movement along the supposed evolutionary lines
in either case. Mr.. Hittell himself betrays some
misgiyings when he contrasts the pohucai sys-
tenn OF Dahomey with that OF the lroquois Con-
,aaarocv and points out that according 10 the
fayorite chronological theory the former Is great
advance beyond the latter toward clVllZa'ion'
Science that upholds such paradox Is MOI
wholly trustworthy. One thing is certain. Inc
League of the Six Nations was a natural resui'
~ the federative tendencies invariably shown by
the American Indian. on the other hahd' the
bloody Dahoman monarchy is as unexplainable
from, its African environment as 1t would be III
rurone or South America. If 1t can ever be
sbown that the old Phoenicians had colony III
South Africa then the incessant inassacres OIL
Dabomev and Ashantee will be accounted for
There is one broad mark between the down
right savage and the barbarian-though 1t. too II
sometimes overstepped-and that lies In the
treatmen: OF metals. The American Indian pu
a high value copper and yet never learned t(
smelt It, He hammered the native ore into shape:
that were useful to him. Mr.. Hittell deals VIII
possible exceptions in Africa by supposing thai
certain negro tribes learned metallurgy from th'
whites He does not alude TO the ancient mines
and smelling works found in Mashonaland az
having anything to do with the use Of metals by
negroes. But in general the savage in all periods
can be relegated TO the stone age. From the frs