Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1901-11-15

pleted to Vladivostok and Port Arthur.
| The connection with Vladivostok has not
been made through Siberia, as some
newspapers represented last week, but
by branch line to that port from the
Manchurian railroad, which unites Port
Arthur with the Siberian line at STREET.
ensk. Though the Russian government
has recently decided to extend the main
line down the Amur to join the Ussurl
river road, now in operation from Vlad'
| ivostok, the extension is likely to serve
only the eastern part of Siberia through
which it passes; as the Manchurian
route to Vladivostok is $50 miles shorter
it is quite certain to be regarded as the
preferable route for through traffic.
The world will congratulate Russia
upon the practical completion of this
colossal undertaking. In labor alone 1t
has cost over 90,000,000 days work.
Nearly twenty miles of bridges have
been thrown across numerous rivers.
Over 900, 900 immigrants have been at
tracted to Siberia because the railroad
has brought the hitherto inaccessible
within reach. Built as political and
commercial necessity to safeguard and
develop the Russian Empire, the Siber-
ian railroad is also destined TO be large
factor in the worlds commerce and to
bind the East and the West the more
closely together.-New York Sun.
5000
FUTILE CORRECTIONS OF HISTORY.
Cynical Sir Robert Walpole preferred tC
listen to "anything but history, for his
tory must be false" A large and learn.
ed volume recently published In Paris
seems to many European critics to prove
that Columbus did not venture upon ar
uncertain voyage Of discovery when he
landed in America. but sailed by char
furnished to him by previous voyager
So many historical fictions continue tC
pass as facts, however, that Columbus
fame is likely to endure, even If Its basil;
is shattered. Thermopylae's 300 are
still popularity believed in, though Leon
idas was long ago proved to have hat
1000 men there with him. The tale o.
William Tell shooting the apple from hi
sons head persists without the slightes
underpinnng of fact. Alfred the Great
so recently celebrated neither founded
Oxford University nor trial by jury, bu
the belief that he did is imperishable
"1he Old Guard dies but never surren
ders" was long ago stamped by Victor
Hugo as a saying that meyer was said a
Waterloo, but it remains popular quo
taton. That Robert Toombs said h,
would "call the roll of his slaves at til,
foot of Bunker Hill monument" and tina
Chef-Justice fancy said "a black man ha
no rights that white man is bound t.
respect" are still solemnly but untruly
asserted in many works of more or les
authority.
The futility of attempting to correc
any statement once firmly imbedded /.
standard works is demonstrated by
scores of such instances.-NewY orl
World.
CONGREGATiONALlSM ABROAD.
The meeting last month of the British
Congregational Union was enliveped by
an address In which the Rev. Dr. Parker
outlined the plan which he has formu
lated for more effective cooperation
among the more than two thousand Con
gregational churches of Great Britain
Some features of this plan were described
several months ago in these columns, bu
the fuller elaboration of it by DR.. Parker
at the meeting of the Congregations
Union makes it more clear precisely
what DR.. Parker has in view.
Briefly, DR.. Parker wants "Unitet
Congregational Church." which shall
assume direct responsibility for its min
listers, shall lay down tests which al
candidates for the ministry must pass
and shall establish colleges responsible
to the general body, Sustentation Fun(
for worn-out ministers, and bursaries fo
ministers in the form of librarianshipI
and lectureships. He would have thi
Omitted Congregational Church" gov
erned by an assembly elected by county
conferences, to the end that zone centra
and governing purpose and discipline
may be maintained.
This project may have excellent fea
lures, and there can scarcely be a doub
that il would make the churches accept
ing it a stronger militant force, but tn
most obvious criticism upon it Is, tina
whatever its oxcellences or defects, it i
not Congregationalism. DR.. Parker i
one of the best-known of English Con
gregational leaders, and man of aggres
sve energy, but he will hardly be able t.
persuade his brethren to accept pla
which runs counter to all the tradition
of Congregationalism by eliminating tn
independence of the individual church,
Boston journal.
The man who finds Joy in little pleas
ures will never miss the great ones.