The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1884-05-08
ON TIE LECTURE PLATFORM.
Addresses Last Night by Rev. Dr.. Ala
baster and Hon. Will Cumback.
A Brilliant Description of the Dome Of st
Peters. Angeles Masterpiece--The
Social Environment Discussed.
owe AND OUR NEIGHBoRs."

GILL; SlICcb RitlItu. ldSl HiSDlt HlllIlS every Stdb
in the house, among others present being the
Hon. Thomas a, Hendricks. The programme
as published was adhered to strictly, and passed
off to the great satisfaction and pleasure of all.
In addition to the musical numbers heretofore
noted, Mr.. Binford's Chinese class sang a couple
of hymns in the native tongue. Mrs. Walkers
recitation was heartily enjoyed. Hon. viii
Cumback delivered his lecture, 'OurN eighbors, .
which Was replete with practical suggestions of
how to get and keep in harmony with the social
environment. Social life, as well as physical
life. requires correspondence with environment.
In the former it is our neighb0rs; in the latter,
the atmosphere. No matter what the constituents
elements of the atmosphere We use, we have to
breathe it anyway.
1t must be conceded that in all civilized lands
human life is longer, kinder and nobler than 1t
has ever been before. That science comes daily
with some new truth, by the light of which some
new law Is revealed to guide men upwards. Her
better implements and improved machinery
Tighten mans burdens and save him from the
wear and tear of manual labor and cheaper the
comforts and necessities of his life. What
could science or religion accomplish if each per-
son were a Tecluse! If the knowledge we acquire
were given under the seal of secrecy, so that we
dare not communicate and compare ideas with
our neighbors. the tree of knowledge would
cease to bear fruit. would wither and die, and
we would RAPIDLY relapse into harbaPism.
In the centuries long past religious fanaticism
led men to think the only safety for their souls
was to fly from society and live the life OF a her.
nit in caves and cells in the desert. But it
was an awful failure. They became so inhuman
that they refused 80 see the faces of their own
mothers, spurned from their presence their own
children and died in their filthy dungeons like
beasts.
If there was just enough sunshine and atmos-
phere for each human being. and his share We're
set on to him., and there was no common stock,
this world would be q cherries and unhappy
place. But darker still to the man who shuts
out of his life all the social light about him, and
wanders though the dark, may cells of his soul
with dim lighted candle of his own little selfish
life. Human ingenuity has never yet invented q
felon's dungeon so dark, and with such power to
punish the occupant as the man who is a volun-
tary prisoner in the narrow cell of self, Every
room of the soul ought to be opened daily and
be thoroughly ventilated. The smile and sun
shine of the neighbors ought to shine all through
them.
keen sense of right and justice comes largely
from the education we daily give each other on
the highways and byways Of our life's work. A
few neighbors gather around a question of gen
eral interest. each with a differently constituted
mind, but all anxious to reach arightconclusion,
look at it, discuss it, weigh it, and finally reach
as near the truth as human knowledgeis capable
of doing.
1t was this wisdom that saved the life of the
nation during our civil war and saved the honor
of the nation when her debt was sweeping thou
sands into the maelstrom of bankruptcy. 1t is
the wisdom that whistles down brakes when
fanaticism conducts the train and fires up when
the conservative fails to make time.
There is too much straight-jacket in our
neighborhood life. There are rings and cliques
and other foolish artificial distinctions that Keep
men apart when they ought to be together.
Everybody not absolutely lawless and
vicious ought to be permitted
to have all the advantages of neigh
borhood life, so that when one neighbor makes "a
new discovery, or overtakes a new fact, or hears
anew story, all can have a chance at it.
These little political rings and church cliques
that divide the ueighbors are an unmitigated
nuisance. They sow ill-will broadcast in the
community which yield an abundant harvest Of
gossip and jealousy. They poison the social
fountain and create distrust where there ought
20 be confidence.
II must not be forgotten that the neighbors
have their hobbies and their crotehets; some of
them even carry it so far as to be eranks. Some
pet notion may have taken possession
of your brain and crowded all others out, and
you may be more engaged than you think, or
are willing to confess in trying the ~fruitless task
Of bringing all your neighbors' brains to the
same disordered condition. And while the other
eranks in the neigborhood are making the same
> effort with you, the result is a conflict of eranks,
out Of which can come nothing but folly.
In order to accomplish social reform every
nam should look himself square in the face and
peerdown into the mazes Of his own mental ma
chinery and ask himself if he is q crank and de-
mand AN honest answer. We become so infat-
uated with our hobby that we lose the power of
honest determination and become one-idead,
narrow and intolerant. A crank or two can al
most ruin the peace of a whole neighbofhood,
and we had better see to it that we ourselves
are not one of them.
We ana our neighbors make society what it is.
National life and strength, civilization, is but
the aggregation of neighborhoods. The cast
and color of that civilization, the progressive
spirit animating it, and the stability of the gov
nr11 I'M ant for tho nrNfaation. of rau .4.,a Il
relate back to the individual character Of each
member of society.
The value and brilliancy Of the diamond is de-
pendent upon the purity of each atom comprising
it. In ike manner the individual gives charac-
ter to society and government, and each right
minded member is a lever to lift up and q prop to
help his neighbor to a full comprehension of his
destiny and his duty.
In opening, Mr.. Cumbaek hit the biological"
nonsense some hard raps. Herbert Spencer
says: Life is the definite combination of
heterogeneous ch-anges-changes both stimuli
taneous and successive, in correspond
ence with external co-existences and
sequences, or, more shortly, the continuous ad-
Justpeut OF internal relations to external rela-
tons" IF all this be true said Nh. Cumback,
and 1t becomes generally known, it is feared
the list Of suicides will DO greatly increased. p
Ii it takes all this simply to live no law man
would be willing to exist. l very much doubt if
the euluFated biologist gets any mere comfort
ont or his existence than We do out of ours. You
can not make a philosopher by having him
clothe the commonplace ideas of everyday life in
the large and unused words of the language.
Yet men are doing that very thing, and we come
to think that they are more than mortal. Yet
they go to protest IN bank. quarrel with the gas
company and lose the buttons off their shirts
like the rest al US. They even get mad at the
petty annoyances of life, as witness Joseph
Cook choking a minister of the gospel for waking
him seven and a half minutes too soon to 90 to
prayer meeting with him.
The lecture was we'll received. 1t may be
classed among plain talks on familiar subjects,
the effect,of which can but be wholesome.
The entire entertainment was a gratifying
success.
ANGELO.