"Had God created drugs for medical use, Jesus and his disciples would have employed them and recommended them for the treatment of diseases."

Again, she has written:

"It was I that healed the deaf, the blind, the

dumb, the lame, the last stages of consumption, pneumonia, paralysis, etc., and restored the patients in from one to three interviews, that started the public inquiry: What is it?"

Now if there is any subject about which definite knowledge has been gained during the last few decades, it is the nature of human diseases. Many diseases are as clearly understood as anything is or can be understood, and the best medical treatment has kept pace with medical knowledge. So rapid has been the practical advance in medical, and especially surgical efficiency that this progress shares with electrical progress the distinction of making the greatest practical revolution of recent times.

Yet within the last ten years there has been in the populous and most intelligent communities in the United States such an organized revival of faith in miraculous healing, in healing by prayer, as has caused the growth of a religious sect that bids fair to outnumber some of the long-established churches of Protestantism. Such a sect— for the doctrine is as old as Christianity suggests two inquiries: Have any of even the most elementary facts of modern science found their way into general knowledge, through the public schools or through any other channel? Or are we yet in that stage of development where the religious faith of men is still wholly detached from their intelligence?

THE DEATH OF JOHN FISKE JOHN FISKE, philosopher, historian, and

JOHN master on poble prose style, had a

larger intellectual outlook than any other American of his time, and a firmer grasp on a wider range of essential knowledge. And he was a man of imagination and of large constructive power.

After winning a secure place for himself in the philosophical world by his lectures on Cosmic Philosophy, and after intimate association with all the great evolutionist thinkers, especially with Huxley, he gave his mature years to the writing of American history from the discovery to the formation of the Union

a task that he had nearly but not quite completed when death suddenly overtook him on July 4. No man has touched American history who has illumined it with a style as clear and as strong as his; for Parkman is the only other historian that we have produced who belongs in the same class; and no other has shown Mr. Fiske's philosophic grasp. His "Discovery of America" is epic in its sweep, and there are few greater narratives in our language.

Mr. Fiske himself set greater value on his evolutionary religious book than on any others that he wrote "The Idea of God," "The Destiny of Man," and "The Mystery of Evil," wherein a reverent imagination touched his evolutionary philosophy.

The death of our foremost historian is an

irreparable loss to our literature, and the loss of such a rich personality cannot be replaced to his friends. If he were not the most interesting American living, it would be hard to say who was. Prodigal, as Nature itself is prodigal with his money, his time, his knowledge, his good-fellowship and his affection, the carelessness of his great nature about many small things (perhaps about all small things), would have wrecked the career In him it was rather an of a small man. attractive evidence of an exhaustlessness of

mind and spirit. We have no such man left, either in prose literature or in philosophy.

IT

THE DEATH OF MANY NOTABLE MEN. T is one of the characteristics of a Democracy that occasion turns up from its masses men of unexpected utility and power. Ex-Governor Hazen S. Pingree, of Michigan, who recently died in London, was such a man. As mayor of Detroit, he forced 3-cent streetrailway fares; he secured municipal potatofields for the unemployed; and in general he set about making the city government serve the masses of the people, with no regard to precedent and custom. As governor he pursued the same plan. sued the same plan. Among his purposes was the purpose to compel railroads to pay taxes on the full market value of their securities. He was an honest and successful business man who came into political power with no respect for current political methods. exerted a wide influence; he provoked the opposition of most of organized society, and he pointed the way to many improvements in the practical administration of municipal and

He

State affairs; for he did things without fear or hesitation. During the month Edward Moran, the distinguished painter, died; Albert L. Johnson, the energetic street-railway builder, at the early age of forty; James H. Kyle, Senator from South Dakota, who, having served one term as a Populist, was serving his second as a Republican; James A. Herne, the playwright and actor, author of "Shore Acres," and young Adelbert S. Hay, lately consul to Pretoria and son of Secretary

Hay. In England Sir Walter Besant died,— journeyman novelist, philanthropist, and champion of the author's guild. He wrote, first in collaboration with James Rice, then alone, a long series of readable novels. "All Sorts and Conditions of Men" brought about the building of the People's Palace in the east end of London. Much of Sir Walter's energy for the last decade was spent in organizing English writers into a sort of trade-union to secure better treatment from publishers.

REPORTS from book-dealers in Toronto, Philadelphia, Albany, Indianapolis, New Haven, Detroit, St. Paul, Boston, San Francisco, Buffalo, Louisville, Cincinnati, Kansas City, Dallas, New York, Chicago, Pittsburg, Washington, Louis and Rochester, and from librarians in Los

St.

POPULAR BOOKS

Angeles, Buffalo, Detroit, Bridgeport, Brooklyn' Minneapolis, Jersey City, San Francisco, Hart ford, Cincinnati, Springfield, Atlanta, New York, Kansas City and Chicago, combine into the following composite lists showing the demand for books:

BOOK-DEALERS' REPORTS

1. The Crisis-Churchill. (Macmillan.)

2. The Helmet of Navarre-Runkle. (Century.)

3. The Visits of Elizabeth-Glyn. (Lane.)

4. Truth Dexter-McCall. (Little, Brown.)

5. Alice of Old Vincennes-Thompson. (Bowen-Merrill.)

6. The Puppet Crown-McGrath. (Bowen-Merrill.)

7. Penelope's Irish Experiences-Wiggin. (Houghton, Mifflin.)

8. The Octopus-Norris. (Doubleday, Page.)

9. Like Another Helen-Horton. (Bowen-Merrill.)
10. Graustark.-McCutcheon. (Stone.)
II. Tarry Thou Till I Come-Croly.
nalls.)

12. Eben Holden-Bacheller. (Lothrop.)
13. A Sailor's Log-Evans. (Appleton.)

(Funk & Wag

14. Sir Christopher-Goodwin. (Little, Brown.) 15. Jack Raymond-Voynich. (Lippincott.)

16. The Turn of the Road-Frothingham. (Houghton, Mifflin.)

17. Juletty-McElroy. (Crowell.)

18. Monsieur Beaucaire-Tarkington. (McClure, Phillips.) 19. Betsy Ross-Hotchkiss. (Appleton.)

20. A Journey to Nature-Mowbray. (Doubleday, Page.) 21. Uncle Terry-Munn. (Lee, Shepard.) 22. Miss Pritchard's Wedding Trip-Burnham. ton, Mifflin.)

(Hough

23. Up From Slavery-Washington. (Doubleday, Page.) 24. The Life and Death of Richard Yea-and-Nay-Hewlett. (Macmillan.)

25. A Pair of Patient Lovers-Howells. (Harper.) 26. The Tower of Wye--Babcock. (Coates.)

27. The Successors of Mary I-Phelps. (Houghton, Mifflin.)

28. Every Inch a King-Sawyer. (Dodd, Mead.) 29. A Carolina Cavalier-Eggleston. (Lothrop.)

30. The Observations of Henry-Jerome. (Dodd, Mead.)

8. The Life of Phillips Brooks-Allen. (Dutton.) 9. Quincy Adams Sawyer-Pidgin. (Clark.)

10. In the Palace of the King-Crawford. (Macmillan.) II. The Visits of Elizabeth-Glyn. (Lane.)

12. Up from Slavery-Washington. (Doubleday, Page.) 13. Stringtown on the Pike-Lloyd. (Dodd, Mead.) 14. Uncle Terry-Munn. (Lee, Shepard.)

15. The Life and Letters of Thomas H. Huxley-Huxley (Appleton.)

16. When Knighthood Was in Flower-Major. (BowenMerrill.)

17. Babs the Impossible-Grand. (Harper.)

18. A Sailor's Log-Evans. (Appleton.)

19. The Master Christian-Corelli. (Dodd, Mead.)
20. The Octopus-Norris. (Doubleday, Page.)
21. Elizabeth and Her German Garden-Anon.
millan.)

22. Her Mountain Lover-Garland.

(Century.)

(Mac

23. The Gentleman from Indiana-Tarkington. (Doubleday, Page.)

24. The Mainwaring Affair-Barbour. (Lippincott.) 25. Like Another Helen-Horton. (Houghton, Mifflin.) 26. Napoleon, the Last Phase-Rosebery. (Harper.) 27. To Have and to Hold-Johnston. (Houghton, Mifflin.) 28. Graustark-McCutcheon. (Stone.)

29. Miss Pritchard's Wedding Trip-Burnham. (Houghton, Mifflin.)

30. In the Name of Woman-Marchant.

(Stokes.)

N July 4th President McKinley issued a proclamation opening to white settlers the lands in Indian Territory purchased by Congress from the Kiowa, Comanche, Apache and Wichita tribes. This tract, which cost two million dollars, included between four and five million acres, and was the last Indian reservation of any size which could be secured and "homesteaded" for the public benefit, so the occurrence attracted even more than the usual attention from Western home seekers.

The four tribes mentioned received a substantial allotment for a permanent reservation; 50,000 acres were retained in the Ft. Sill Military Reservation; a tract of 10,000 acres is wisely held for a new national park in the Wichita Mountains; and the remaining 2,000,000 acres and more have been presented to 13,000 American citizens for farms and homes. The only initial payment required under the homestead law is a filing fee of $14; at the end of five years the holder must pay the Government $200 for his one hundred and sixty acre plot, but he is exempted from all taxation during this time. The land is rich, well wooded and watered and admirably adapted to raising wheat, corn, cotton and all the standard crops, as well as to grazing. Many these farms will be worth several thousand dollars by the end of

the first five years-much more if the lucky owner should locate close to a town site-so the eagerness of the would-be settlers is not difficult to understand. Over 24,000 registered in a single day at Ft. Sill and El Reno, and when the lists finally closed there were over 160,000 applicants for the 13,000 homesteads.

Every great land opening hitherto has combined most of the elements of a go-asyou-please race and a free fight. Thousands. of men and women would gather along the boundary line of the new territory-failures who hoped to retrieve themselves, men from the East and North, who had emigrated to make homes here, adventurers and roughs inflamed by the idea of getting something for nothing, women school teachers and clerks, seeking a living away from the familiar drudgery-every class and type would be represented. This motley throng-in wagons, on mules and horses or afoot-would dash away at a pistol shot in a mad scramble for the choicest claims, riding each other down recklessly in the wild excitement, the rougher element "jumping" the claims of those who dared not resist. Even after the damage to life and limb ceased the bountiful crop of lawsuits arising from conflicting titles always kept the new settlement in an uproar. The whole proceeding was distinctly an unseemly one.