The Dallas daily herald. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1873-1887, 1880-12-15
TEE PRACTICAL AND THE IMPRACTICAL

certain Arab chief, on first seeing aiulI-taccd
EngliBhmAn of aldermanic proportions. lie
was of one of those tribes among whom mar
riage is for so many days in tho week, com
monty four days, as is the custom OF their
''best families" and who laugh at our mon
ogamy, or one wife system; among whom
also, unfaithfulnoes on the part of tho nus
band is held to DO very grave otense,
though on the part Of tho wife, TRIVIAL
one among whom, also, it is thought to be n
duty to bury alive their aged parents, who
60 smiling to the grave; among whom, aIso'
every man, married or single, looks upon his
sisters children alone as his sole heirs; and
among whom, also tho whipping of the
wife il, by her, held as tho truest
evidence of her liege lords
love, fidelity ard devotion. The
foregoing is only specimen, an Illus
tration of some social traits, extreme per
haps within the microcosm of our limited
social organization, but yet descriptive of the
variability and Gexibility Of the moral and
social judgments. And yet such laws, Gus.
toms and thoughts transplanted to our aoil
would be considered as poisoning upns.
But yet radical American institutions, for
instance. transferred into Arabia, would be-
get revolution. The lesson that we mean
to impart is that the laws and customs Of n
country arc merely representative of the
thoughts and feelings of the people among
whom they exist, and can only be properly al
tered by gradual emancipation and not by
sudden and violent treatment. The question
that now agitates the city council about GER
tain institutions among us, is Of nature en-
tirely similar. Their very existence implies
a predsmiaance of desire for them, the sup
ply being herein responsive to the demand
under the universal law. The very fact that
to the perennial effort through generations
to extrpate them, succeeds the perennial
disappointment even to lessen them is
akin to demonstration for the necessity of
their existence under our present status in
civilizations progress. The individual con-
science would suppress them as well any and
all other ills such rs war, intemperauce @. id
omne genus, but the corporate conscient o
being less developed, finds the time asyet IN.
propitious. The character and drift of en-
evil may be conceded, but the mode of its ABB
clifton or even modification has puzzled the
wisest statesmen whose concep.ive faculties
have shown them the value of the doctrine
of the correlation Of forces, whereby, for in
stance, the suppression of steam through the
safety valve or a leak may produce more dan
ger than its permitted escape. The repression
of boils on tho body may generate fatal
fever. The trouble with most of these
questions is that men run to ex-
tremes, or as Emerson pats il,
spare of in insane parties" representing
and urging the extremes Of unressoning Sc
verify on the one hand, and of unreasoning len
ity on the other, now Furnishing wthintense
vengeance and now psndering with maud
lin sympathy, thus disturbing the healthy
rhythm that due medium might ensure.
They rush from the perihelion of Sunday
virtue to the aphelion of a Saturday night
vice. A medium Elasticity is the healthful
condition that evolves tae best results from
the waves of conflicting social views. Some
ills are 10 BIO cured in the social
organism by the gradual increase OF the
moral qualities rather than b
operation Of harsh, inadequate or premature
laws. 1t is thus in the physical world as ia
recognized by the physician who pursues
sometimes what hasty minds aro disposed to
criticise as the "do-nothing policy" whereas
indeed, they are working under. the great law
ofnaiure known to them, perhaps, as the Evils
medicatrix nsturm" Thus II is that in
all the affairs Of life, success is only achieved
by strict adhesion TO the dictates of com.
mon sense and by true conservatism. The
natural wants Of man and his inherent quail
1tleS Oh HChu anu uehIl, hlhhc svNlctf u hSCoS'
sity, and tracing the history of the world
back to the days when the human race first
b,gan to form into communities, at the very
dawn Of creation itself, we SEQ that for the
good of the whole, individual members Of
society have hsdto giveup some of their per
sonsl rights. Everything in nature has it
fermenting or forming process and SO is il
with society. In some ages there has beer
tho extreme of la1ity in ethics and socis
codes, while in other there has been the ex-
IRENE of severity. The Blue Laws of Con-
nscticut, the rigid oxactions of the old Puri
tan system of social organization when every
man, woman, and child was required under
heavy penalty to attend church on Sunday
and when man was prohibited from kissing
his wife on the Lords day, are illustrations o.
the too straight-lacea social views that hsv,
obtained. Radical conservatism in anything
is justas reprehensible as is unbridlod license
The state, through its legislative authority
enacted laws prohibitory in their nature, a
bulwsrks to protect society against the en-
croachments that from time to time are mad,
against 1t. 80 is 1t with the municipal g oy
ernments Of incorporated cities, which ar
but atoms Of the state. Experience ha
nh tlas ~ la. t1. ntnt . ~