are altogether trivial and volatile, he relishes the polemics of the famous agnostics, being especially affected by their sensationalism and eloquence. On his tramps from camp to camp, the hobo addicted to reading burdens himself with a volume or two which, when he has finished, he exchanges with fellow-travellers of similar propensity. A box of old magazines. provided by one contractor for the use of his employees proved to be greatly appreciated by the men, the demand for the periodicals being quite extensive and constant. The amount of general information thus acquired by the reading hobo would surprise those gentle personages of glorious opportunities and cultivation who look upon him as an outlandish, clodlike piece of humanity. The existence of a world more polite than he has ever seen, the developments of popular science, inventions and events of national importance, the recurring crises in European diplomacy—all these, chiefly through the medium of the newspapers, he is aware of and can discuss with a readiness which would do credit to an even more alert mind.

Undoubtedly, in most cases, he reads only to satisfy curiosity or from a desire for entertainment. The vocabulary which he utilizes in conversation cannot be said to enlarge or improve in consequence of his reading. It seems, too, that the omnipresent relation of ideas does not occur to him; else he would inevitably make logical deductions from the subjects perused and apply them to his own endeavors. This, it is only too obvious, he fails to do. When he goes upon a piece of work, the fact that he is penniless and in tatters, and his system starved for food, is no assurance that he will stay. The probabilities are that he will fritter away the summer running from one camp to another. Again, should he remain at one place and accumulate his earnings, the fact that winter is suspending all the work in the country, so that he will need his savings to buy shelter and food, will not in the slightest deter him from leaving every cent in the first saloon he encounters. Being en route to the city without any money, he is obliged either to walk the ties or to become a box-car stowaway. Thus he returns to metropolitan haunts no richer and no wiser than when he left them in the springtime. He is once more a pauper, and unless he can find rations immediately he will suffer from want of food.

Now both

As in the winter time outdoor work for unskilled labor is out of the question or else so limited that the supply of laborers is greater than the demand, his first resource is "mooching" or begging. charity and gullibility are uneven qualities of human nature. who begs his bread often traverses a great Sahara without

The hobo

finding an

oasis. He knocks at many doors whose owners do not feel in duty bound to feed the travelling public. Hunger gnaws at his vitals. At last, wolf-like, he emerges from the forest of municipal restrictions. Goaded and desperate, he adopts for an hour the vocation of the footpad; and so awkwardly does he exercise himself in this business that it usually proves only a barren experiment out of which he makes his exit some months later with disagreeable impressions of the police and the drag-net of the law.

Now, indeed, he is deep in the meshes of a tangled web. His troubles are genuine enough, though the lesson will profit him nothing. His predicament, however, is not without recompense. He attracts the attention of the Salvation Army, the sympathy of whose earnest workers is instantly enlisted. He is pleased at being out of jail, but he must still have something to eat, to obtain which in an emergency he is not above feigning the pangs of self-reproach. Behold him, a follower of the bass drum, pontiff that he is in the art of palming himself off as a repenting prodigal son, and he becomes an inmate of one of the Army's 'Helping Hand Missions" or "Havens." The stratagems of " mooching" and "working the Haven" are exploits which he will recount for the edification of approving pals around some future camp-fire.

Such, then, is the biography of the real hobo. As a character he is totally unable to foresee wants and make provision for them. Consequently, as an industrial factor he lacks the essential element of stability. Thus deficient, he is incapable of any function, no matter how humble, whose recurring duties must be discharged punctually and without deviation. He drifts from one place and its employment to another, with no other object than to make a change. He is improvident, aimless, without an anchorage and seemingly with no desire for one, and undergoes hardships for the sake of vile pleasures afterward. Hence, in his phases, the hobo is to the sociologist a problem, to the clergyman and philanthropist an example, to the criminologist a scapegoat, to the professional humorist an opportunity; by turns a theme for argument, an object of charity, quarry for the law, target for the barbs of ridicule and buffoonery; alternately discussed in books, fed at free soup houses, mauled by the police, "rescued" by the Salvation Army, laughed at by the enlightened and elect.

But the hobo is not an unanswerable question. Most of his misfortunes are traceable to his own ignoble fallibility. He is morally blind and deaf and deformed, and needless poverty curses his life. Being human he struggles, but that which to others is the attainable is to

him the unattainable, because in his endeavors he lacks intelligence. He does not and cannot bring to his employments that degree of enlightenment which enables other men to gain and retain advantages. The luminous ideals toward which thoughtful workers direct their efforts are to the hobo but blinding lights in whose glare he flits and dodges. The man in the shadow is wretched. He makes expenditures of time and strength only to sink deeper and deeper into misery's bottomless mire. The fatalities of his destiny stun him. He is embittered without knowing why, except that he suffers. He exists, but forever loses. He only knows that he wants. From this condition he dumbly seeks emancipation. He must look to the future.

In the future it will be perceived by advanced and progressive governments that the compulsory education of all the people their liberation from the bondage of utter ignorance is a social imperative. In this obligation are involved the essential moralities. With the elevation of the common level the laborer will not disappear. He will toil then as now. But in his adaptability and his proficiency, in his discrimination and foresight, in his moral regeneration, the "hobo" of to-day will find ultimate effacement. CHARLES ELY ADAMS.

29

OUR LEGACY TO THE CUBAN REPUBLIC.

THE turning over of the government of the island of Cuba to its people, in fulfilment of the pledge of the Joint Resolution, invites a consideration of the legacy which will be left by the government of intervention to the new organization. When the affairs of the outgoing administration shall have been brought to a final account, it will be found that Cuba is richer by sundry gifts and benefits, poorer by sundry burdens and liabilities.

Any such consideration properly starts with a fundamental proposition. This involves the legal and the moral right of the United States to do a great deal of what has been done. After clearly announcing her purpose to exercise neither "sovereignty, jurisdiction, nor control" over the island, there was promptly established a government whose officials proceeded to do what we had declared to be contrary to our purpose.. Military absolutism has characterized the American government as distinctly as in former days it characterized the Spanish government. In the repeal and amendment of laws, in the expenditure of public funds, in the appointment of officials, the American experience has repeated that of its predecessor in all points save that of official dishonesty. In the policies adopted and in the plans pursued, Cuban opinion has had little or no place, with the exception of a brief period during the first year, when an undue measure of authority and influence was vested in a Cuban cabinet which made no notable success of its work. With this exception, all else, good or bad, right or wrong, stands to the American account.

We have boasted much of what we have done for Cuba; but it is to be noted that the Cubans have not been greatly inclined to rejoice over what we have done for them. For this we are disposed to denounce them as ingrates and unworthy. Cubans, ambitious for a goodly share in the government of their island, have become possessed of a fairly defined idea that, during the three years of American control, they have remained decidedly among the governed. Our benefits to the Cuban people have been the favorite theme of officials, of politicians,

and of writers who are disposed to praise the administration. The open protests and the discontented mutterings of the Cubans have been regarded as the querulous complaints of people who did not know what was good for them as well as a stranger people did.

In this American account with Cuba there stands first the expulsion of an oppressive government. In the imposition of heavy taxes, in the restriction of Cuban industry and commerce, and in a general disregard of the interests of the Cuban people, Spain displayed not only injustice and wrong, but a folly which cost her all save the smallest of her colonial possessions. The strong arm of the United States lifted this burden from the Cuban people, and led them into the promise of a new and larger life.

To most American minds, there probably stands, as second in importance on the credit side of the account, the item of school establishment. The exuberant energy of Mr. Alexis E. Frye, followed by the more methodical and systematic work of Lt. Matthew E. Hanna, gave to Cuba a school system endlessly beyond anything previously known in a Spanish colony. That such establishment, under the circumstances, has been costly almost to extravagance has been perhaps inevitable. About 4,000 teachers are employed, and some 150,000 pupils are in daily attendance. The cost of all this, to date, approximates $8,000,000. This undoubtedly constitutes a highly valuable legacy, though it entails upon the incoming government the burden of maintaining a system so costly as to leave no little ground for apprehension of the ability of that government to continue it on such a scale.

Probably as the next in the list of credits America would place the item of sanitation. This, however, presents itself in some complexity. America's special interest was not notably affected by dirty streets, offensive odors, and generally insanitary conditions. In that respect, Cuba was not worse than many European countries, or than most of the Spanish-American countries to the south of us, or than a large share of the rest of the world, particularly the Orient. America was concerned by a belief that these conditions, notably in Havana, constituted a perpetual menace as a source of the much-dreaded yellow fever, easily communicated to our Southern cities. A new order of things in the island was demanded for American protection; and, coincident with American control, brooms, shovels, and garbage carts were put into active operation, until to-day, superficially, Havana, Matanzas,.Cienfuegos, and Santiago are cleaner than the average of American cities. For this work a sum approximating $10,000,000 has been expended.