The San Francisco call., 1899-04-23
THE MAN WITH a SOUL.

nldrkaDle productions or modern tunes. 1hc picture
by NIillet which gave Mr.. Markham his inspiration,
is grand conception, splendidly executed.
The picture and the poem represent type of man
kind bent and musculary rigid, with face brutal
lied by incessant labor and hardship, and fixed in a
stod expression of hopeless mbecility in which the
faint stirring of rebellion against the oppression and
the fraud of ages can be detected This terrible shape
in which the light of intellect has been extingushed,
is presented portent and to 'the judges
OF the world and to the masters lords and rulers in
all lands"
AS work OF art the picture resuscitates dead past
and should, as it will endure The poem, however,
is dangerous anachronism. 1t has no application
to the age in which we live 1t is wholly pagan in its
scope. 1t is built upon goddess and fataistc
sumption. 1t ignores the grand harmones OF human
development from the age of Abraham to the birth Of
Christ 1t disregards the greater triumphs, the
intermittent chorus of progressive mankind from the
dawn of the Christian the closing years of the
nineteenth century. 1t assumes isolated exceptions
to be the rule and reproduces failure wrapped in the
cerements of the grave if its shrunken distortions
reproved the beauty assaled the strength and shad
owed the exuberant hopefulness OF modern civiza-
ton
In the age OF Cyrus or OF, Xerxes imbruted pes
smism could have been typied by The Man with
Hoe" The hordes of Egypt and OF India, the
Heots OF Sparta the black savages of Africa might
have been embraced within its range But since the
blended forces OF Hebrew theism and Christian fra
ternty began their prolonged struggle with the
diminishing barbarism OF the world that type has
dwinded until now it is virtually extinct. The Saxon
sullenly but broke his collar and threw his
ponderous weight into the human march The Nor
man struck the letters from the limbs of Freedom and
entrenched it perpetual charter The Cet allowed
no intermssion in his upward struggle. The whole
Caucasian race has ascended the slopes of advance
ment and tolls toward its higher peaks. There
has been Silence OF the centuries and the
dumb Terror of antiquity has ceased its mute and
unheeded appeals.
When our Declaration of Independence was
promulgated and the sovereignty of man became the
endowment OF a nation, the last physical or intelec
tua obstruction to human progress was removed
The imperfections, the inaptitudes, the degrading
passions and appettes the hard sehshness, of man
kind were still to be conquered but opportunity full
complete, universal, came and where opportunity is
open the emptiness of ages" is a solecism and the
burden of the world has fallen like the load that Chris
tian bore to the celestial gates.
1t is marvel that The Man With Hoe" should
have been written at all-it is greater marvel that it
should have been written in the United States-t is
the greatest marvel Of all that it should have been
written in California This man belongs to a past
long inferred. He exists nowhere the globe, not
even among the peasantry of Russia, the slavish
toiers OF China or the fierce tribes of the Philippines
Least of all is there any vestige of his existence in
America Bad as conditions are low as the relative
depths of misery and poverty still remain, though
greed and false ambition yet nest the ctadels
OF brotherhood, the uplifting OF the by the up
ward pressure OF civilization has been universal
Food, shelter, comfort education, mental stimula-
! t4..-.
OF poverty and OF wealth are visible even in our own
favored land But the standards of life are every
where raised far above the level of Mr. Markham's
conception, and physically and intellectually, man
kind comparatively enlightened as they are
free
"The with hoe" has long been dead The
central question of this generation is moral and per-
tains to the soul While the human body has been
nourished and the human mind expanded, is morality
distanced torpid or perishing? This is the text for
the great poet the mighty interpreter of mystery as
he views the signs and the portents that attend the
expiring throes OF this century.
Charity sweetens the bitterest draughts of life The
tender influences of love SURROUND or touch every
phase Of physical suffering and reach the craving of
the agtated mind. Optimistic CLEANS pierce the
deepest shadows that fall upon the pathway OF the
unfortunate and the unsuccessful But in the midst
in the ordinary and not the exceptional or eccen-
trcal business of the world where is the evidence of
corresponding moral improvement? Is the standard
even of the past maintained? These are interroga-
tories that appeal not merely to individuals but to
communities and to nations They are suggested by
the occurrences and the revelations of each tunul-
tuous day. They arise spontaneously from common
observation and experience They include the multi
farious transactions OF trade, commerce, finance and
government. They illustrated through all lati-
tudes and longitudes from the equator to the poles
from Greenwich or Washington to the Philippines
1t is the man with the soul, the perfected citizen
the nation governed by honor and by principle that
the latent sublimities are to and to inspire
when priest or poet utters the ntellgble word of
solicitation or of command
At a trial at San Rafael DR.. E. P. Dunn insanity
expert, declared that Dr. c. F. Buckley is faker
This is one OF the sad results of expert testimony on
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