Wichita daily eagle., 1885-10-10
PRENTIS ON THE HOG AND THE
KICKER.

PRENTIS ON THE HOG AND THE
KICKER.
From the A,chison Champion.
Cities have characters 10 make or
lose ike men. There are mean cities |
and good cities, just as there are mean |
men and good men. And they are
treated according TO their deserts.
There are men that every decent man
crosses the street rather than speak to.
and there are towns that everybody
wants TO go through or drive around
In the old times cities were dealt
with as corporations. Sodom and
Gomorrah were burned up, mayor,
city council and all. Tyre and Sidon
got too rough; were threatened with
destruction aud got it, municipality.
Judgments are obtained against cities
in our day.
Cities get the reputation they strive
for: no city ever got a bad or good
name by accident. Once in awhile
YOU find place which the 'bOys" who
live there say is "red hot, you bet"
So it is in this world, and so it will be
in the next. A town where "every-
thing goes" means town where a
great many citizens 90 to the peniten-
tiary and TO hell.
As there are drunken men, 50 there
arc scottish towns, but a whisky town
is not so much town that drinks
whisky. as town that thinks whisky;
town which makes the liquor busi-
ness the principal thing and is always
Growing over it: a town where the
newspapers call all the bar-tenders
Colonel and "Major," speaks of
every hummer as genial, whole
souled gentleman a town that pre-
sumes that every visitor wants TO get
drunk as soon as possible after his ar
rival; that is whisky town, and may
the Lord save such--if he can.
Towns have their tolls and affiic-
tions, usually sent upon them for their
sins or follies: though sometimes an
innocent town suffers Just as good
man is sometimes overwhelmed by
misfortune. The worst calamity that
can befall town is hogs two-legged
hogs. 1t is said that all brutes have
their part in humanity. There are
men like lions. and foxy men and so
on The hog has also mis- duplicate
The hog is selfish accumulatOr and
an obstructive lie never gets slOp
enough. and he would use an acre of
straw for his bed, and would never
move along an inch to let in com
panion. When hog is ly ing in hole
by the roadside and sees team COM
ing he always gels up aud walks across
the road in front of it and conirivcs so
that all four wheels will 60 over him.
The hog does not stop the buggy and
his action does him no goOd-hc acts
as he does merely because he is hog.
In city affairs hog can always be
counted on TO throw himself in the
way of the wheels of progress. He
does not stop them, unless it is a case
where re is in a majority, but there is
always jolt, a protesting squcal, and
the people say, There is that old hog
again"
One great nuisance in the city is The
kicker. He is always opposed 10
everything the rest of the popnla' ion
want. This comes from the fact that
in his own opinion he knows more
than all the rest. He knows better
what is good for his fellow citizens
than they do. lie is awise bird, the
kicker is. lie always sees II .'-teal''
when nobody else does. AMI Iushes to
..bust things" His fellow citizens
would like to see him make one more
kick-one that would take the bucket
in its sweep.
There are cranky towns just as
there are cranky men. Men get cranky
about religion As often in opposing it
as favoring it. A town cannot be re-
ligious: 1t cannot preach or sing or
pray as a corporation, but it can be
very silly in opposing religion. One
of the anii-God towns, where there is
always fuss going on about the Bible
in the schools and every body is frantic
for fear the young ones will sing
hymns. or where the major part of the
population have a series of epileptic
fits on the subject of the merits or de-
merits of some preacher-such town
as that is very tiresOme.
| There has been great deal said
about certain countries being "pr lest
ridden" That is very bad, certainly,
but worse thing is town that is
ring ridden Where the town has got
into such shape that four or five
men seem pcrpetually in sight, like
the lamp posts. The city is the net,
down under water somewhere, and
these fellows are the corks bObbing
around on the surface. all that is seen.
When town gets in tina: shape, il is
n subject for prayer. Ten or twelve
or fifteen thousand people hidden
away, and only four or five pettifog-
gers and contractors in sight, is some
thing TO make angels weep and arch
angels struggle to restrain their feel
ings.
The virtues of cities are business
virtues-enterprise, honesty and tol-
erance being the chief.
An enterprising town is united
town; it gees with a rush aud ''every-
thing goes" in the best sense The
people have no time to split into fac
tions or "enjoin" each other III the
district court. Hogs and kickers are
run over and left behind in the race
AS bummers and loafers help no en-
terpri>e, they cut no figure in the pub
| lie affairs of live town: they have no
more to do with it than the drift-wood
has with directing the course of the
river. Entcrpris;ng, flourishing towns
are tolerant. They welcome every
body that has brains, in any depart
ment of life, and accept the help of
any man who shows willingness TO
take hold and lift. Such a town as
that shall save its soul alive, for enter
prise is unity, which in town is life
everlasting.
OAKWOOD HERD