The San Francisco call., 1899-05-07

question. in the course of which he re-
ferred to the loss Of his wife, ana
swelled the flood of his eloquence with
a torrent of tears. A short time ago
at a banquet in Philadelphia he IN
formed the gu asts that on the day De
fore young lady of the city had pre-
sented him with a white rose, and that
the sweet gift so sweetly given from
so sweet a donor had inspired him to
this rapture:
1 said to the rose: "Oh, rose! Sweet rose!
VIII you lie on my heart tonight,
Will you nestle there, with your perfume
rare,
And your petals pure and white?"
l said to the rose: "Oh, rose! Sweet rose.
VIII you thrill my every sigh,
Tho your life exhale in the morning pale,
And you wither and fade and die?'
I said to the rose: "Oh, rose! Sweet rose!
VIII you throb with my every breath;
VIII you give me the bliss of passionate
kiss,
Albeit the end is death?"
The white rose lifted her stately head
And answered me fair and true:
Il am happy and blest to lie on your
breast
For the woman who gave me to you!"
The Boston Journal, while not deny
ing that the poem appears to be an
impulsive flow of song asserts that 1t
carries too much internal evidence of
being an imitation of Tennyson TO be
accepted by the critics of New Eng
land as a genuine wood note wild of
the Nebraska prairies; and it intimates
that the verse is probably a compost
ton rather than an inspiration. The
Washington Post, $Which as a rule
treats Senators with Difference, seems
to have had it's gravity wholly upset
by the poem, and mocks at the affair
from beginning to end. 1t spares not
the lady, though she be a Philadel-
phian, but refers to her as "a Jessica,
Mariana, Marguerite or Leonora";
gibes at the rose and AYERS it spanked
with the dew Of a Quaker hydrant,"
While it describes the effusion itself as
"a little thing, a mere jet of genius.
but pang of inspiration which will
bring out the goosehesh upon every
feeling skin"
1 have gone over the record Of this
agitation merely as a subject of Sun
day interest TO poets, statesmen and
ladies-three very respectable classes of
the population l have no criticism
to make of either side Of the contro-
versy, no judgment to pronounce. The
lasting beauty and popularity Of My
Life Is Like the Summer Rose" proves
that Richard Henry Wilde had within
him the glow of true poesy; and the
unquestioned excellence of the sonnet
Opportunity" attests that Ingalls, pos
sesses in high degree both poetic con-
ception and the faculty of verse. But
the white rose lyric of ThurstOn proves
only there are some Senatorial per
formances on which every American
citizen has right to form an un-
prompted opinion for himself
Since the suggest of last Sunday
that when the panhandle" is extended
to form a grand driveway to the park
from Van Ness avenue. some more SON
orous and proper name should be given
to it, 1 have noticed in the Philadel-
phia papers that 'panhandling" is
term used in Pennsylvania to signify
a Gel tam lOi III VI DOllblCdl JODDtlS. a
word to the wise
The statement made some time ago
that fitting mansion for Governor
Gage could be provided by furnishing
a convenient gimlet hole with a roof
over it was intended to be satiricaI, but
the Governor appears to have taken it
in earnest. At any rate, in his fittings
up and down the State he manages to
conduct his official life and political
consultations in such secrecy and OBJ
scurity as to incline to the belief that
he not only lives, moves and has his
being in a gimlet hole, or possibly a
key hole, but has acquired the habit OF
pulling the hole in with him.
In these days of social reform. when
so much attention 80 given to the ele-
walton of the masses. good many peo-
pie are likely to be interested in reso-
luton just adopted by the municipal
authorities of Mons, Belgium, which
provides that for every child born in
that city the treasurer shall deposit in
the City Savings Bank on the day of
the registration of the birth the sum
OIL one lTdHC TO start the infant with
bank account, and so encourage him
or her TO be saving thereafter. The
original deposit returns to the city
when the child becomes of age, but the
interest accruing upon it is the prop
erty of the youngster, People in this
country who think the plan a good one
need not wait for municipal action, as
almost any American family can start
each of its children with a dollar in
savings bank without straining in the
least. The resolution is interesting
mainly as an illustration of the extent
70 which the Belgians have carried the
doctrine that municipality is respon-
sible for the we'll being of its people.
When the practice of municipal help is
extended little further a Belgian com,
munity will have something of the soil,
darity of family, and the city officials
may claim the paternal right OF trounc>
ing small boys who spend their pen,
MES instead of putting them in the saw
ings bank. Paternalism has its defects
as we'll as its benefits, and few Ameri.
can communities would like to intrust
1t to municipal authority