New-York tribune., 1905-04-10

'helr sympathy the only available form in such
case-that OF liberal and sufficient contribu-
uons In the case OF these poor strikers in the
Huhr district the first week settled 1t virtually.
mere Were about a million mouths TO feed, and,
all toid' counting the money from every source,
only about five hundred could be fed. That was
tne simple but all suficient reason OF their
defeat
Ahat the railroads in Prussia are nearly all
owned by the state and that they produce
every year a surplus varying from 300O00OO0
10 4OOOOOOOO marks. reducing to that extent
ohe burden OF the taxpayer. are well known
laots' 1t is not so generally known that these
net earnings are in large measure made up
"a 'he prennigs and marks which the railroad
employees have earned but do not receive in the
way OF compensation. In other words the sala-
rles paid are ridiculously low The Prussian
Haiiroad Minister. Won Budde gave some figures
the other day TO the Diet BY far the larger
NUMBER or the men-switchmen, train dispatch
ers' track walkers, station guards fremen. ETC.
receive daily wages OF from 213 to 2.62 marks
C02 to 81 cents. OF course. they are entitled to
OLD age invalid and sick pensions, TO accident
insurance, to a uniform" and mayhap to a
decoration for long and blameIess service. But
the above are meanwhile their wages. and this
in country where a pound of good meat costs
sample. And as for hours of work. they are still
for many Of these upderpald men from fourteen
to sixteen, without interruption.
But the great public does not care much about
these details. II sufnces that the state manage
ment has every year big surplus to show. and
that this surplus is deducted from the next en-
suing tax budget
Gerhart Hauptmann has written another drama.
and it produced at the Lessing Theatre in
this city the other night. The play is called
Elga," and belongs to the dreamy. fantastic
kind of which the same author has given speci-
mems in The Sunken Bell" "SchIuck und Jau'
"Hannele,' etc. The plot is built up from the
Austrian poet Grillparzer's weird tale THE
Convent of Sendomir and the play suffers from
that unreal quality which nearly always at
taches to dramatized dreams. Just one scene
in it is strong and impressive: the one where
the deceived husband faces at the same table
the triumphant lover of his wife, and where
there is a terrible reckoning between the two.
This one scene. however, makes amends for
much that is shadowy and, in stage sense,
weak 1t is one Of the strangest and most pow
erful things that has been written for the mod
theatre.
Nothing that Hauptmann wrote is COM
monplace. 1t is always poetic. 1t always shows
the lions claw But by a singular fatality
scarcely anything this man Of singular mind and
gift has made public Of late years possesses the
necessary dramatic cohesion and the reasonable
ness Of plot required to hold his audiences un-
divided attention. Hauptmann is still young and
he is industrious and ambitious. Doubtless he
IS the greatest dramatic poet in Germany to-day.
sudermann beats him in mere technique; but as
poet as a creative artist of unique bend
Hauptmann towers far above him Hauptmann
has been busy for ten years and more to shape
to his own satisfaction a Biblical drama. OF
rather sort Of passion play with the Saviour
as central figure, but Of the score Of drafts not
one has satisfied him