THE GRANT MEMORIAL CELEBRATION

The demonstration in New York in connection with the dedication of General Grant's tomb, and its transference from the Grant Monument Association to the city, will have taken place ere this issue of SELF CULTURE reaches our readers. As is wont to be the case with celebrations of a national character in the great city, the spectacular features of the parade outweigh, and tend to minimize, the religious and dedicatory services on the occasion. This, however, is inseparable from all public functions of the kind, whenever and wherever they occur. The thoughtful onlooker, nevertheless, will not fail to let his mind be impressed, in the services at the tomb, with the significance of the religious rite. Nor will he fail to see in the spectacle, besides the desire of the metropolis for a great pageant, the eager wish of the people to show their respect, as well as their admiration, for a national hero.

A noble tribute has been paid by New York in the splendid structure which the city has erected, on an ideally beautiful site, for the last resting-place of the great soldier. It is a shrine worthy of a great name, and a great name in the nation's military annals at least is that of Ulysses S. Grant, whatever may have been his merits as President. In the latter capacity, the qualities were not lacking that marked so emphatically his career as a soldier-good sense, simplicity, and single-hearted devotion to the public service. Naturally, however, it is as a soldier that Grant will chiefly be remembered. To his resoluteness and dogged perseverance the national army at a great crisis of its history owes much of the triumph of its cause. He had many of the qualities of a great commander, and though often unsparing of life, the vigor and rapidity of his movements, no less than the success of his operations in the field, always excited praise. He was also ever above the pettiness which in some seeks the lion's share of the credit in any victory achieved. Merit, moreover, he heartily appreciated in others, while in his friendships he was loyal as well as honest, trustful and sin

cere.

We have here, however, no intention of summoning from his sleep the great captain of our arms to be judged over

again at a Minos' tribunal. All we seek is to note, with brief comment, a significant, but passing event, and to lay a modest immortelle upon the tomb of the great strategist and campaigner. After his active, heroic life, he fitly earns that stately rest in the costly mausoleum which the nation's commercial capital has provided for him. In the marble sarcophagus by the waters of the historic Hudson he will sleep no more reposefully than does the humblest of his command who fell at Chattanooga, Cold Harbor, or Shiloh. But the shrine within the great city will keep green the memory of the hero, and be a reminder, to the youth of the nation who look upon it, of services that were as priceless as they were loyally rendered and patriotic.

THE LOG OF THE "MAYFLOWER"

er,

What has been called the "Log of the Mayflow"about which we had an article in SELF CULTURE for September of last year, and which has hitherto found lodgment among other historic relics in the library of the Bishop of London at Fulham, has been restored to this country through the official interposition of Mr. Bayard, our retiring ambassador at the Court of St. James. The volume, which is in script, and of the highest value genealogically, since it contains a contemporary list of the Pilgrim emigrants, and a history of the first twenty-five years of the Plymouth Colony, is now ascertained to be the production of Governor Wm. Bradford, set forth in his own handwriting, and narrating the annals of the Plymouth Plantation from 1620 to the end of 1646, with a preliminary record back to the year 1602. The priceless manuscript was understood to have been destroyed during the occupation of Boston by the British in 1775. Such, however, was not the case, as a chance reference to some facts in the History by the Bishop of Oxford in 1846 led to a subsequent examination of the volume, and a disclosure of its real character. The surrender and return to this country of the invaluable relic is a friendly, as well as graceful, act on the part of the prelate custodian, with the consent of the ecclesiastical authorities and that of the Government of Great Britain.

EVENTS OF THE MONTH

Saturday, March 13.-Thomas B. Reed was renominated for speaker at the caucus of Republican representatives; the Democrats nominated Joseph W. Bailey, of Texas.... The withdrawals of goods from bond were the largest on record....It is said that Russia will propose immediate occupation of Crete by the powers. ....The naval credits demanded by the German government were refused by the budget committee of the Reichstag....War has broken out in Samoa, and the foreign consuls are said to have asked their governments to send warships there....The Carlist agitation is reported to be spreading rapidly in the northern part of Spain

Home rule has been dropped from the programme of the annual conference of the National Liberal Federation in England.

Sunday, March 14.-The Mississippi River at Memphis is higher than at any time for over a quarter of a century; some towns in Arkansas were submerged, and much loss of stock reported....A meeting in Trafalgar Square, London, to express sympathy with Greece in her efforts in behalf of the Cretan Christians, was attended by about 20,000 persons....Prof. Simon Newcomb, superintendent of the nautical almanac office, was placed on the retired list of the navy on account of age. ...The Mississippi River is causing a flood at Memphis and in the surrounding country....It is semiofficially announced in Paris that the Powers, while united in principle, have not been able to reach a solution of the Cretan question.

Monday, March 15.-Both branches of the fifty-fifth congress met in extraordinary session; the first message of President McKinley was presented and read; it was devoted entirely to the tariff Speaker Reed and the other officers of the last house were reëlected; the tariff bill was introduced and committees on rules, ways and means, and mileage were appointed... The French chamber of deputies, by a vote of 356 to 142, decided in favor of common action by the powers in reference to Crete; the condition of things in the island is growing more serious, and in some districts anarchy prevails.

Tuesday, March 16.-The Mississippi River continues to rise in its lower course; nearly a thousand refugees from the flooded district have been removed to Memphis... The people of Greece are determined that their army of occupation shall not be withdrawn from Crete.... It is stated that the British troops at Cape Town have been ordered to hold themselves in readiness for an emergency....The University of Cambridge, England, conferred the honorary degree of doctor of science upon Dr. Nansen, the Arctic explorer.

Wednesday, March 17.-Ex-President Cleveland disembarked from the lighthouse tender "Violet" at Cape Charles, Va., and took a train for Princeton.... Charges of wholesale legislative corruption were made in the Iowa house, and Speaker Byers resigned pending an investigation....Washington Hesing resigned as postmaster of Chicago in order to make a canvas for the mayorality of that city....The reply of Turkey to the note of the Powers admits the principle of autonomy for Crete, but reserves discus

sion of the forms and details of such an administration with the diplomatic representatives of the Powers....The admirals of the combined fleets in Cretan waters made a formal proclamation of the intention of the Great Powers to confer upon the island of Crete an autonomous government, subject to the suzerainty of the Sultan.

Thursday, March 18.-The rush of officeseekers to the White House continues, and there are some murmurs of discontent at the slowness with which the President dispenses the patronage.... A Washington dispatch says that of 92 cases of Americans imprisoned in Cuba during the present war, there are but 14 cases pending. ....The Austrian gunboat "Sebenico" has sunk a Greek schooner, with a cargo of munitions of war and a number of Cretan insurgents on board.....The death has just occurred of Prince Yoshito Haranomi Ya, Crown Prince of Japan.

It is stated that a Federal Union between the Transvaal and the Orange Free State has been decided upon. Mr. Gladstone published his letter on the Eastern Question.

Friday, March 19.-A "special river bulletin" issued by the weather bureau says that the floods in the lower Mississippi during the next ten days or two weeks "will in many places equal or excel in magnitude and destructiveness those of any previous years."....The Greek cabinet has decided to recall the warships from Crete and send them to Valo, Thessaly, and to push forward the reinforcement of the Greek troops on the Turkish frontier with all possible expedition.....The congress of Venezuela will take up the Guiana question at once, the official copies of the treaty with Great Britain having arrived at Caracas.

Saturday, March 20.-Disastrous floods continue to work destruction to life and property throughout the Mississippi valley.... Admiral John G. Walker was placed on the retired list of the navy.. Major Charles Dick has been appointed by Chairman Hanna secretary of the Republican National committee.....The 93d birthday of Neal Dow, the father of prohibition, was celebrated in Portland, Me.......... The Greek admiral has summoned the Turks to dismount their guns at the entrance to the Gulf of Arta in twenty-four hours.

Sunday, March 21.-Notice of the blockade of Crete was served on Secretary Sherman by the representatives of the Great Powers....The situation in the overflowed regions of the Mississippi and Missouri valleys grows worse; the levees are breaking, and rescue and relief work goes steadily on.....The blockade of Crete by the fleets of the Powers began at 8 A. M..... Fifteen Armenians and three Mussulmans were killed in a conflict in Asia Minor.....Services in connection with the centenary of the birth of Kaiser Wilhelm I were held in Berlin.

Monday, March 22.-There was no great change in the flood situation on the Mississippi. ....The Citizens' Union, an independent party whose purpose is to secure a non-partisan municipal government for New York city, effected a permanent organization....The British consul at Canea reports that the Cretan insurgent chiefs

will not be satisfied with anything but annexation to Greece....The monument commemorating the centenary of the birth of William I. was unveiled in Berlin, and the day was observed as a holiday throughout Germany. The Italian elections on Sunday resulted in the choice of 329 Ministerialists, 75 Constitutional Opposition Candidates, 17 Radicals, and 18 Socialists.

Tuesday, March 23.-The tornado in South Georgia swept the valley of the Chattahoochee ; the total deaths reported number thirteen, and at least 200 persons were more or less hurt; the property loss will be very large....Earthquake shocks were felt at Malone, New York, and throughout Quebec and Eastern Ontario....The principal outdoor feature of the celebration of the centenary of Emperor William I., in Berlin, was an historic procession; there were upward of twenty thousand persons in line....It is reported that 700 Armenians were killed in the recent massacres at Tokat.

Wednesday, March 24.-The Republican majority of the ways and means committee have decided to put scientific apparatus and books for colleges and libraries on the free list....A new iron-ore pool was formed at a meeting of manufacturers at Cleveland, Ohio... A heavy snowstorm prevailed in parts of Illinois, Iowa, and Wisconsin.... Fighting has been renewed in Crete between Christians and Turks; the Turkish warships fired on the Christians....It is reported in London that the Duke of Leeds will succeed the Earl of Aberdeen as GovernorGeneral of Canada in 1898....The Sultan issued an irade summoning into active service fortyfour battalions of the reserves of the second army corps, and the whole of the contingent of 1897... A British government official says the United States Senate has taken all the meaning out of the arbitration treaty, and asserts his belief that the British government will not accept it.

Thursday, March 25.-More than 6,000 colored refugees from the Mississippi River floods are being cared for at Memphis....The Greater New York charter bill passed the State senate at Albany; it has already passed the House.... The Cretan insurgents captured Malaxa, driving out and killing all but nineteen of the Turkish troops that composed the garrison; part of the town was blown up with dynamite....The European warships shelled the insurgents....Germany is making preparations to send 3,000 troops to Southwest Africa in April....Lord Salisbury left London for Cimiez, France, where Queen Victoria is staying....Ex-Premier Crispi, of Italy, has been summoned to appear before the judge of instruction to answer charges of illegal financial transactions with the Bank of Naples while he was premier.

Friday, March 26.-It is said that formal application for annexation to the United States will be made by the government of Hawaii through its minister at Washington.... President McKinley announced that he proposed to nominate Andrew D. White as ambassador to Germany

The Mississippi River continues to fall slightly at Memphis and many predict that the worst of the flood situation has passed... The Manitoba legislature has ratified the Laurier

Greenway settlement of the Roman Catholic parochial school question....The German Reichstag passed a bill providing for the payment of members of the Reichstag... The Paris Figaro says that the French minister of marine will ask for a credit of 800,000,000 francs to build forty-five large ships and seventy-five torpedo boats.

Saturday, March 27.-The weather bureau, in a special bulletin on the flood situation, announced that there is great danger yet to come from the flood in the region from Helena southward to New Orleans." William T. Adams (Oliver Optic) died in Boston, aged 75. ....It is reported from Madrid that negotiations for ending the war in Cuba are proceeding between the Spanish government and the insurgent leaders.....Secretary Chamberlain, in a speech in London, warned the South African republics to abandon their independent aspirations.

Sunday, March 28.-Senator Hill is trying to reorganize the Democratic party in New York for the campaign next fall.....The crest of the flood wave passes slowly down the Mississippi, causing great anxiety lest the levees break; the greatest danger has been transferred to the levees south of Memphis.....The coal fields of Jackson County, Ohio, have been sold to a London syndicate for $4,000,000... The sultan of Morocco has forbidden his subjects to make pilgrimages to Mecca on account of the plague.

Admiral Canevaro, commanding the international fleet in Cretan waters, has asked the Italian government to send immediately a large land force, which is imperatively necessary to cope with the Cretan insurgents. ...It is said the czar has ordered the concentration of 200,000 troops on the four governments of South Russia.

Monday, March 29.-President McKinley made a number of nominations, including those of Charlemagne Tower to be minister to Austria; Thomas Ryan, to be assistant secretary of the interior; Henry Clay Evans, to be pension commissioner, and William S. Shallenberger, to be second assistant postmaster-general.....A large break occurred in the Mississippi levee near Greenville, Miss.... Secretary Sherman appointed Joseph P. Smith, of Ohio, director of the bureau of American republics.....General Ruis Rivera, Maceo's successor in Cuba, has been captured by the Spaniards.....There was an animated debate in the House of Commons on the Cretan question; dispatches from the British admiral in Cretan waters were read.

Tuesday, March 30.-Three serious breaks in the Mississippi levees are causing the inunda tion of the great Delta, the most valuable of the farming lands of the Mississippi....A tornado struck Chandler, Oklahoma, destroying every building in the town but four; so far as known, at least 25 persons were killed outright, 14 were fatally injured, and 170 wounded....The Greeks attacked Fort Azzedin, which dominates Suda Bay; the foreign warships bombarded the attacking force in support of the Turkish garrison; foreign troops now occupy the fortress....A Manilla dispatch says that in an engagement between Spanish troops and the Philippine insurgents thirty of the latter were killed and 1,097 surrendered.

Wednesday, March 31.-The President sent to the Senate the nomination of Thomas W. Cridler, of West Virginia, to be third assistant secretary of state....The Monon road was formally reorganized at Indianapolis as the "Chicago, Indianapolis and Louisville railroad company."....The British house of commons rejected, by a vote of 317 to 157, the motion of Edward Blake, Irish Nationalist, relative to "an undue burden of taxation upon Ireland.". Rear-Admiral Tirpitz has succeeded Vice-Admiral von Hollman as secretary for the navy in the German cabinet.

Thursday, April 1.-The President nominated Andrew D. White of New York, to be ambassador to Germany, and William F. Draper, of Massachusetts, to be ambassador to Italy; Benjamin Butterworth, of Ohio, was nominated to be commissioner of patents. The French cabinet authorized the introduction of a bill in the chamber providing for the expenditure of 80,000,000 francs for new warships... The French chamber of deputies has passed a bill imposing a tax on foreign vessels entering French ports. ...The German emperor telegraphed his cordial congratulations to Prince Bismarck upon the occasion of the ex-Chancellor's 83d birthday.

Friday, April 2.—The first formal protests of foreign nations against the pending tariff bill have been made by Japan and Argentina in regard to the silk schedules and the duties on hides and raw materials....The German Reichstag adopted a motion favoring the complete abrogation of the Jesuit exclusion law....Great confidence is said to exist in military circles in Constantinople over the issue of a war with Greece, the Turkish army having been efficiently mobilized under the direction of German officers.

Saturday, April 3.-The State department has been informed by the Turkish government that it finds it inconvenient to raise the grade of its mission in Washington to that of an embassy, on account of the increased expense....Mr. Curzon, in a speech in Lancashire, England, replied bitterly to the attacks on the British government's Cretan policy, and referred to the arbitration treaty; M. Hanotaux, French minister of foreign affairs, made an optimistic statement regarding the Cretan situation....The Oxford crew won the university boat race on the Thames, defeating Cambridge by two lengths, in 19 minutes, 12 seconds....Johannes Brahms, the well-known musical composer, died in Vienna.

Sunday, April 4.-Another break in the Mississippi levee at Flower Lake, six miles below Tunica, Miss., occurred, and will probably be the most destructive of those in the Delta; the levee, two miles south of Helena, Ark., gave way last night, and the water will flood a great area, probably reaching Helena... . For lack of promptitude in action England, France, and Italy have been deemed by Germany to have encouraged the Greeks and Cretans into lawlessness.

Monday, April 5.-The President made a number of nominations, including that of A. E. Buck to be minister to Japan....Immense damage by the floods is being caused in the Delta country of Mississippi....In the House of Commons Sir William Harcourt asked Mr. Balfour whether the British forces were to be employed

in the blockade of Greece, and failed to get a satisfactory answer... In opening the Italian Parliament, King Humbert praised the concert of Europe and called for a strengthening of the navy.

Tuesday, April 6.-President McKinley is considering the adoption of a vigorous policy to secure from the Turkish government the payment of claims preferred by the United States....The President nominated Theodore Roosevelt, of New York, to be assistant secretary of the navy. . . . It is estimated that between 50,000 and 60,000 persons have had their property destroyed and their avocations suspended by the flood in the Mississippi valley....Sir William Vernon Harcourt renewed his motion in the House of Commons praying the Queen to prevent her forces from being used against Greece or the people of Crete... The Sultan of Zanzibar has issued a decree abolishing slavery; the government will pay for all slaves legally held.

Wednesday, April 7.-President McKinley, accompanied by Mrs. McKinley and his private secretary left Washington on the dispatch boat "Dolphin" for a trip of two or three days.... There were sixty-seven appointments of fourthclass postmasters; of these thirty-four were based on resignations, thirty-two on removals, and one on death....Brisk fighting took place in the island of Crete.

Thursday, April 8.-The ambassadors of Germany and Italy and the minister of the Netherlands have protested to the State Department against the high duties imposed by the Dingley tariff... The Porte has notified the Powers that the Turkish garrison will be withdrawn from Crete immediately if the Greeks previously withdraw and the Powers guarantee to pacify the island.

Friday, April 9.-The Mississippi River had reached a higer stage at New Orleans than ever before recorded, and a further rise of another foot is expected.... Proposals have been invited by the secretary of the navy for the construction of three 30-knot torpedo boats... Bands of Greek irregulars entered Turkey in the vicinity of Gravena and had an engagement with Turkisk troops which lasted for some hours; the Greeks were surrounded; a greater part of the Turkish division at Gravena is advancing.

Saturday, April 10.-The administration is said to be somewhat anxious over the situation in Hawaii, and two warships will be kept at Honolulu... Ex-Senator Daniel W. Voorhees, of Indiana, died in Washington, aged 70....The invasion of Macedonia by Greek irregulars caused great excitement in Athens; the expedition burned three Turkish blockhouses, and fought a spirited engagement with the Turks; the fighting continues.

Sunday, April 11.-The flood waters have begun to recede from the Mississippi Delta, and the outlook in the Memphis district is more hopeful....The Porte speaks of the Greek invaders in Macedonia as the "regular" troops, and the incursion is regarded in Constantinople as the commencement of war.... Japan has decided to send two warships to Hawaii, stopping meanwhile all emigration....Word has been received by the Spanish minister in Washington that 10,803 rebels in the Philippine Islands have surrendered.

INQUIRIES ANSWERED*

Pray advise a young writer how best to get her stories accepted by some of the magazines of the day. Should one offer them at first gratuitously or not? Any advice given in your pages will be gratefully received.

1. There is no royal road to the citadel of an editor's affections unless through conspicuous merit. The one thing to do is to be sure that you have an attractive and inviting theme, then present it in its most telling guise, and keep sending it to one editor after another until you succeed in getting your contribution accepted and attention directed to your work. If your stories are good-noticeably so-don't send them to a poor or indifferent source (that is waste of time), but submit them to the Atlantic Monthly, to the Cosmopolitan, to McClure's Magazine, to Munsey, to Lippincott, or to Scribner's, Harper, and the Century, and trust to merit for a favorable response in time.

*Note to Correspondents

The Inquiry Department of SELF CULTURE, as has been previously announced, is conducted for the benefit of members of The Home University League, all of whom are subscribers to SELF CULTURE. There are, however, many subscribers to the magazine who are not members of the League. To such we desire to emphasize our previous announcement: that it is no part of the duty of the editor of SELF CULTURE to answer questions, either in the magazine or by letter, for subscribers to the magazine who are not also members of The Home University League. The faculty of The Home University League is engaged in this research, and members of the League are entitled to its best energies and ripest judgment, as well as the benefits of careful research in all known channels of information.

Subscribers to SELF CULTURE alone, therefore, will please take notice again that the privileges extended to members of The Home University League of asking the questions which we answer, by letter or in the magazine, are exclusively League privileges. Any one desiring information on the benefits which are extended to League members can obtain a full outline of the League's work by addressing The Home University League, Akron, O.

A two-cent postage stamp should invariably be enclosed for reply by those who submit questions to the magazine, or to the Secretary of The Home University League. All interrogations must be accompanied by the name and address (as well as by the number of the League membership certificate in the case of League members) though not necessarily, or at all, for publication.

Letters should be plainly written, on one side only of a sheet of paper; and each separate question should have a separate paragraph, instead of being run together in a confused jumble of interrogations. The importance of this to the conductors of the Investigation Department must be obvious to inquirers, whose number is not to be measured by the extent of replies published monthly, since these do not represent a tithe of the questions currently put to us.

On one other point we would ask consideration at the hands of our correspondents—namely, that they should give the editor and his staff ample time for research before expecting replies to inquiries. We would also ask that a certain restraint should be exercised in the number of questions put to us in any one letter, and that these shall be legitimate and not idle inquiries, propounded for no practical or informing purpose.

EDITOR SELF CULTURE.

Akron, O., April 20, 1897.

2. Give nothing for nothing, for a gift in literary matter is little appreciated by reputable magazines. Offer your paper, modestly of course, on the periodical's usual terms. The remuneration necessarily varies with the periodical, and with the merit of the story and the reputation of its author. The customary honorarium is from three to five dollars per printed page, and from these sums, when a reputation has been gained, to ten dollars and even twenty dollars, per printed page.

I should like to know whether a lens in a telescope of the size of the Yerkes instrument would bring the moon any nearer or appear plainer in detail than the Lick telescope; also if on increasing the size of the lens the object will seem nearer and more distinct.

The lens of the Yerkes telescope is expected to produce a brighter image of the moon and other objects, and therefore plainer in detail, but it will not bring the moon seemingly nearer to the eye. The Yerkes telescope has the largest lens in the world, the clear aperture of the objective being forty inches. The crown lens is two and one-half inches thick at the middle, three-fourths of an inch thick at the outer edge, and weighs two hundred and five pounds; the flint lens weighs three hundred and ten pounds, and the combined lens with its iron ring and cell weighs one thousand pounds; the focus of the Yerkes lens is sixty-one feet.

The Lick telescope has a clear aperture of thirty-six inches, but the focal length is considerably less than that of the Yerkes lens. The size of the image produced by a lens depends upon the focal length of the lens, and is independent of the aperture, the law being that the linear dimensions of the image are directly proportional to its distance from the lens. The brightness of the image is directly proportional to the area of the aperture. The clearness of the details of the object depends upon the accuracy of the construction of the lens, the optical properties of the glass, etc. Read Encyc. Brit. vol. XIV., p. 594, on " also see Lens-Making," Popular Astronomy, vol. 1, p. 176, "The Yerkes Telescope."

Kindly advise me through SELF CULTURE how many telegraph operators the U. S. Government employs under Civil Service rules, where they are stationed, and what is the usual salary paid.

To ascertain the exact number of telegraph operators in the employ of the U. S. Government