The Madison daily leader. [volume] (Madison, S.D.) 1890-current, 1905-03-17
WAGNER'S IMPRESSIONS.

/
Simple Lfc Advocate Says lie Took
| yerftabie sympathy Cure" Here.
Charles Wagner, author of The Sim.
! pie Life recently gave to the Paris
correspondent Of the New York World
his impressions Of the United States.
He said In part
'Keenly sensible to friendship, to the
usages of cordiality, | took In the
| course of my ten weeks stay in the
| United States veritable sympathy
cure ! have been warmed, strength
| ened, stepped In the springs Of an affec-
tion ever new and which filled my pas
sage with most touching tokens. | have
seen 50 many schools Of youths and
girls, ] have had before me SO many
juvenile assemblages that they remain
before my eyes like a dazzle OF youth
and freshness. | have stored away a
simply colossal mass of new ideas, col.
lected in my memory Views Of country,
OF geographic characters, physiogno-
mics of towns and faces of men.
Life has appeared to me in novel
forms. | carry an American ideal with
mean America seen and studied for
months. 1t IL yet but a corner of the
real country, and hope to go to see 1t
again In order to turn other leaves of
that book, so rich In diverse pages and
surprises.
AT this very moment you are having
cold aud snow, but frequent sunshine
Here we are plunged in fog, composed
not only of the cold yapors of water.
but Of the smoke and dust OF coal. We
form of red disk In which there is
nothing dazzling. For myself the re-
suit of this change of climate is a Ger
tain diminutlon of vital force With
out being either iii or tired | feel less
disposed for work, less constantly en-
ergetic, than over there | certainly
could not stand with the same buoy
ancy the extraordinary feats | per
formed in your cities, where, on GER
tain days / spoke to 1900 persons, as
In New York on Nov. 2S or to 1900,
as in Philadelphia on Sept. %.
Morally felt an analogous effect in
those months. The daily preoccupa-
tions of our politics, problems such as
our public life imposes upon us, reced-
ed into the distance. had scarcely time
to think of them living among you.
habitated myself to the problems OF
America, which are very great and
very burning / took part in them by
"A 40. 4 In
to your difficulties. But all that EN-
barrassment, In the midst of which
your wise men and your statesmen
seek their way, had formed the excit-
ing charm of novelty.
II saw France again with the JOY OF
a man expected by his friends, his fam
lily, his work. But would you believe
me that from the moment of reaching
lie Havre | was struck by many pitiful
contrasts. No comparison can be made
between the harbor of New York, with
Its gigantic proportions, and the port of
lie Havre, with it's narrow canals and
the rather wretched view of its old,
gray, low houses, squeezed against
each other. In the streets the people
seemed to me rather small, with a
mean look and poor spirit. The same
thing struck me In Paris. When /
went to the school my son attends and
watched the children come out they ap
peared withered by comparison with
the full and rosy checks / had observ-
ed In the American schools"
crying "a Substitute For Tobacco.
Professor Starr OF the University of
Chicago has been experimenting with
members of his class upon a substitute
for tobacco. dried plant from Mexi-
co, says a Chicago dispatch. 1t has
strange effect upon the eyes OF the
smoker, making him unable to see
what is going on around him. But
there Is nothing harmful about tha
weed" says Professor Starr.