The Jackson standard. [volume] (Jackson C.H., Ohio) 1847-1888, 1881-09-01
chronological Journal.]
PnnuIar Mistakes.

chronological Journal.]
Popular Mistakes.
Man is a creature of mistakes. By
mistak kes he learns. From the days
Of Tubal-Cain to the days Of Alva Edi-
son he has been inventing, improving,
and learning by his blunders. The
life of an individual, from childhood
to manhood, epitomizes the life of the
race. Theodore Parker well puts it:
BY stumbling the child learns to
walk. Every fall is upward ~
N this sense mistakes are neces-
sary. They are the educators of man
kind. They are a part Of the great
plan of the almighty Designer of the
universe by which man is enabled to
educate himself and ascend the scale
which continues upward, but never
ends.
But man is an initiative being. He
copies the mistakes Of his ancestors.
This initiative faculty of man, which
he has in company with the monkey
is, to my mind, one of the strongest
arguments for the Darwin hypothesis.
He initiates the bad as well as the
good, and perhaps the former more
than the latter, just as a monkey will
learn mischief faster than anything
useful.
Thus he copies mistakes, and mis-
takes become popular. Fashions are
due to this initiative faculty, though
all fashions are not mistakes.
There is a prevalent idea that the
world is growing weaker and wiser
While many do not believe this, they
believe that we are growing wickeder
and wiser How often do we hear
our fathers and mothers saying, 1T
wasn't so when [ was young" To
hear old people talk sometimes one
would think that our grandfathers
and grandmothers were all saints and
giants, and we their degenerate off
spring all devils and dwarfs.
| am happy to be able to state, and
think | can prove it, that the world is
growing physically, mentally, and
morally stronger, wiser, and purer.
There are men just as strong living
to-day as there ever were. Milo car
ried a calf every day until it grew to
be an OK. DIR. Winship commenced
by lifting small weights, and adding
to them daily until he could lift 5000
pounds Who Of our grandfathers
ever swan across the Straits of Dover
like Capt. Webb? Weston and
O'Leary can outwalk all the ancient
pedestrians. Hercules could not stand
up against the educated muscles of
Mac 7 oool
anything about our great and good
men. We have men and women to-
day superior to those of any past age,
and a great many more of them.
Another popular mistake is, that as
men advance in civilization they de-
part from natures plan. Out of this
idea has grown the prevalent belief
that Indians and savages and the low
er classes are healthier and longer-lived
than the educated Caucasian. 1t is
contrary to all ideas of progress and
not supported by facts. AS though
the filthy savage, who rolls in dirt
batheS his body in grease instead OF
water, and exposes himself to all the
vicissitudes of changeable climate
half clad, sometimes gorging himself
with unhealthy food, and again starv-
ing himself for days, could be more
healthy than the educated Caucasian
who obeys the laws of health and
practices temperance in all his daily
duties | must admit that civilization
by bringing unnatural and unhealthy
fashions, does harm in many cases
and many fall victims to these unnat.
ural customs, yet, upon the whole
there are enough sensible persons
among the civilized to redeem the race
and bring the average far above that
Of the lower races. Civilization bring:
its curses as well as it's blessings
When locomo ives were first proposed
many people objected because they sale
the country would be filled will
smoke and dust, and animals would b.
frightened to death. True, the loco
motive does bring smoke, and some
times you get a cinder in your ey
when you look out of the car window
and sometimes animals are scared o
run over, and even persons are killed
yet who will deny that railroads are
blessing? 1t is said that rats wer
never known in Nebraska until tn
railroads were built into the country
Railroads bring human rats, and so d
all the arts of civilization have thei
evil attendants. The open-air life an
, coarse food of the savage conduces t
. his health and longevity, and is i
direct contrast with the close confine
ment and refined foods of too man
{ civilized people.
But all civilized people do not col
= tinually breathe foul air, nor eat III
= healthy food, nor, if you will allow tn
word, tight-lace. Savages have man
7 diseases, and when they take sick the
5 generally die. How is it when sma'
$ pox or any contagious disease ge
f among them? They are taken off (