McCook weekly tribune. (McCook, Neb.) 188?-1886, 1883-11-29

menced with the federal government.
Good New England people did not hes
itate to hit out slavers. There was far
less liberation than to-day. The pio-
neer Methodists and Baptists were
abused and hated and encouraged to
STAY away.
A ''spiritualist" in 1776 would have
been hooted out of town and "me-
jun" tarred and feathered, if not hung.
A mild dose of tar and feathers would
prove beneficial to some of the present
imposters.
The ''good old times" were probably
good enough for those who lived in
them. We might endure their styles,
costumes, and manners for curiosity's
sake. Perhaps the getting of one
breakfast over wood fire in 8 fire.
place, when the wind was in it's smoky
quarter, would cure us. And the morn
ing paper of fifty years ago, full of
dry political essays and news two
months old from Europe, would make
the cure lasting.
And the novelists and writer's of the
s'good old times" with q few notable
exceptions. What dreary lots of soft,
gushy bosh they wrote! What mires of
words their readers waded through!
What unreal pictures of life they pre-
sented! What lies they told or inferred
in their stories! What impossible,
gaudily-painted heroes and heroines
they made up in their closets!
Life as it really is is not all printed in
the books now, but it's a much better
copy of the original than it was in the
''good old times
Is not ours great Improvement on
the 'good old times?" True, our
newspapers are full of murders, burg
lars, thefts, and other crimes, but not
one-tenth of these found the irway into
the papers in the old times. People
could not realize the amount of evil
among them. Such realization is the
first step to the cure. A man now can
seldom be robbed and murdered with
out its being known throughout the
length and breadth of the land In the
Dick Turpin days of England how
many unknown crimes of the road must
have been committed. when there was
neither live paper, live reporter, nor
live telegraph to make it known! Our
papers to-day have great deal to say
of the corruption in legislatures, state
and national, and of abuses of those in
power. Probably more or less truth is
involved in such statements. What
opportunity in any land had the rank
and file of the people two hundred
years ago to know what went on in
high places and governing bodies, save
by word of mouth? Print such matter
in a paperp Had there been paper to
print it in, and an editor daring enough |
to print, he would not have seen twenty
four hours of liberty after the first issue.
1t is doubtful If ever he would be seen |
Recollect that it it still less
than one hundred years since the time |
of the French oupliettes and lettres de |
cachel, when man arrested by the |
government went out of sight forever.
Then ours are improved times, but
not by any means perfect. If not bar
barous, we are in some respects semi
barbarous. Our laws put people to
death in most revolving fashion. Did
we take the criminal by the hair of his ,
head, bend his neck over a block, cut
his throat, and allow him to bleed to
death, he would die far easier than at
half our official strargulations. With
The fact that a shock from an electric
battery will put the life out of q man as
quick as wiEk, we still 60 on commit
ing executions to the charge of bung-
ing sheriffs who know far more about
mixing their whisky and water in prop
Or proportion than they do about the
most expeditions method of taking hui
nan life, and who so often s.llow their
7ictims to hang and kick, agonize and
'trangle from ten to twenty minutes
after the drop is cut. The condition of
he poor, too, in such tenement-housed
titles as New York, is, as regards the
privileges of fresh air and sunlight,
worse than in any city of the "good old
INES" But we are alive to this, and
here is d persistent cutlery against
t. These are evils consequent
lpon the rapid concentration of pop
llation. Shall we ever find q remedy
or this crowding of people together
md the trouble arising from it? A New
York police judge once said to me that,
n his estimation, one-third of the daily
ases brought before him were caused
" the inconvenience and friction of
life against life in the seven-storied and
tenements. And what
lolds good in this respect as regards
louss may also in some matters hold
,ood regarding block of houses hon
y combed together, no matter the
wealth or standing of the occupants.
Still ours is Il great improvement over
he ''good old times" never lived in
hose times, at least to my present
If it be true that nothing
8 ever gained or lost IN the universe,
ONE element now wrapped up in my
organization may have been
loating around in the "good old times"
how long ago I know not). Possibly