Delaware gazette. [volume] (Delaware, Ohio) 1855-1886, 1866-11-16
TIE coUBT HOUSE QUESTION.

It is a happy situation to be sur
rounded by disinterested friends will
ling, even at the risk of neglect of
their own personal affairs. to consume
their precious time in assisting ones
reformation. Delaware county stands
in this fortunate aspect toward its
neighbors. 1t is a pity, however, that
said neighbors should waste all their
humanitarian sympathy for US in mis-
taken apprehensions that this county
needs a Court House. Friendliness is
always venial even though it comes
through a wrong gehannel or from an un-
worthy source, yet there are cases in
which it wounds more deeply than
open enmity. We believe this is one
of them. 1t hurts our feelings to be
coudoled about not having a Court
House for two reasons 1, We know
we don't need one. 2, Those who sup
pose we do are themselves to be pitied.
That our contemporaries should be-
lieve weneed a Court House is pardon
able on account of their remoteness
from this center of civilization and
fountain of moral light, and on ae-
count Of the lamentable state of socie-
ty to which they are doubtless acous-
toned where they live. We believe
public opinion will coneede that where
bad morals, (not balmorals,) } ignorance
and crime abound, there do lawyers,
iails and court houses abound also
(We mean no reproach to lawyers in
this, but only to court houses and
jails.) On the contrary where intelli-
gence, refinement and peace prevail.
there jails, court houses and Democrat
ic newspapers are in a bad condition
arehiteeturally and financially IF
Delaware were in Marion or Franklin
county, for instance, where triumph
ant Democracy grows mellow and mer-
ry after every election, its necessity
for a Court House would be unques-
tionabIe. People judge of the neces-
stiles of others very much by their
own, and if we could place ourselves at
Marion or Columbus and look hither
we too, no doubt, would wonder why
the people Of Delaware are too stin-
gy to build so necessary a thing as a
court house. So a Chinaman would
wonder at our not wearing queues and
a japanese that we never find occas-
ion to commit the harl kari. So a
Spaniard would marvel at our coarse
ness in having no relish for garlic, and
an African at our want of refinement
in not tattooing our faces. So Mo
hamedan would question our morals
for not believing in the Koran, and a
Hindoo tell us it is a shame and dis
grace that we have no wooden gods in
our churches. Soan Esquimaux would
wonder that we forego the luxury of
sperm oil as a beverage, and a Feejee
Islander that we prefer piece Of roast
beef to a piece of roast missionary
Every one to his taste, as an aged in
dividual Of the female persuasion is
said to have once remarked after kiss
ing a representative of the bovine spe-
cies. AS for ourselves we don't need
a court house and don't want one. As
for those who need such an instit--
ton, they can have it if they wis 20
vided always they have money cough
to afford it. For our own part we be-
lieve our Female College is the best
court house this country affords, and
we wouldn't trade off our University
for a dozen of them. Besides, there
is our sulphur spring, a greater prodi-
gy than forty court houses. A com
munity that can afford a luxury like
that eau afford anything Neither
Columbus or Marion has a sulphur
spring, and while their court houses
are dealing out verdicts and bankrupt
cy to the community, our spring dis
penses health, rejuvenation and odor
of birthstone (The latter, however,
we believe would be more appropriate
to court house than a spring, or most
any other place this side the regions of
darkness
The fact IS court houses belong to
an obsolete era, or at least to one rap
idly fading out before the genial in
huences of civilization As they be-
gan in iniquity so they will end in its
determination The abolition of the
guillotine, the piIlory, the thumb
screw and the dueking-stool was the
beginning Of the reformation which
will sweep away galloWs, pris-
Ons, court houses, until it finally ends
in the golden age that shall bring back