The prison mirror. [volume] (Stillwater, Minn.) 1887-1894, 1888-04-18
The Spirit of Advance ment.

fecring the lives, liberties social relation of
men, established by slow and laborious pro-
cess. 1t took hundreds of years to convince the
christian wo Id that the earth round. The
wonderful strides which science has made in the
present century is due, no doubt, to the freedom
and lberalty of the thinking portion of mankind
When we look back upon the ejudice and super
stition OF a hundred years ago we can scarcely
conceive that the learned, the noble, the good of
the infantile days of our republic. lived in the
midst gross superstition where only the faint
glimmerings of the freedom and liberality Of
thought and action of to-day were visible upon the
horizon of civilization. Or.
when great Calico proclaim ed that the world,
In a regular orbit was ceaseessly whirled;
And got not convert for all of his pains.
But only der:sion and suffering and chains.
1T moves for all that was his answering tone:
For he felt like the earth he could go it aone.'
Thus it has been from the dawn of civilization,
great truths are taught the masses at the expense
OF time and great labor. The conflict between ad
vancement and fixed habits, customs and laws, is
ever before thinking humanity. my father
dragged in wheat with wild plum bush. and in
tend to do as he did, for he good man. res
pected by all who knew him. This principle has
ever been present in the race, and perhaps will
forever remain, to hold in check the few advanc-
ing leaders of society. 1 say the few, for what
great truth tending to the advancement of man.
Kind toward the highest civilization, was ever
accepted, when first proclaimed. by the many? 1t
is useless to occupy space with recital of the
steps by which we, as a nation, have reached
present social status. We claim to occupy the
front rank ir the center company in the advance
march OF the nations but how far, a nation, are
we behind the spirit of our skirmish line of lber-
al education? Yet we hear the constant warning
of the drones. the figure heads, who cry, 1--WE are
drifting to our death, tending toward centrali-
cation of power, placing the government in the
hands of a few that they may grapple all power.
while the masses will sutherland all on account
of our wild and reckless desire for Advancement
Not so! Liberality of thought and speech, hu.
name consideration of the entire human family to
the exclusion of national and individual selfish
ness are not indicative of downward tendency in
government, or in morality. the great safeguard
of government: but rather may attribute the
evils in our midst to individual greed and selfish
ness. And this it is. too, which clogs the wheels
of progress in every branch of government and
stands in peaceful indignation, wondering at the
increase of crime, and seeks to ascribe every
wrong to the spirit of advancement, and liberal
thought. Within the period of two hundred
years the entire thinking world has undergone a
great, and if may predict the future, a perma-
ent change; yet we find portion of the human
race clinging with death grip to the old. the first
laws for the government of men.
Tyranny and bgotry go hand in hand with ig-
norance and superstition, and after four hundred
years of active strife in which man has been raised
from the grossest ignorance to his present intel
lectual sphere, it is strange that there should be
in the heart of every advancing society of men,
an element of the most exacting tyrannizng igno-
rance utter failure to profit by the intellectual
freedom of the governments and laws which pro-
tect them This element stands ever ready to
"lock the wheels of prog ress' 1t cries halt to
every advance educator, and liberal thinker. 1t
would cling to the old and reject the new, denying
all claim to superior merit in the creations of
modern mes. Reader, do YOU know any repre-
sentatives of this school? Look around you and
find the man who says: ''The who takes
human life should suffer doath,' and with the
next breath of his inconsistent being will ad vocate
love your enemies; do good to them that hate
you; cherish no malice Find man who would
doom young man. in the vigor of manhood
against whose character no word of suspicion has
been uttered. except that he did one act which
the laws denominate a crme-to Imprisonment
for longer period than is necessary to rectfy
the wrong he has done. In other words, one who
would imprson without intelligent object on
the principle of punishment for wrong-doing re-
gardless OF the good or evil effect of such pun
ishment upon the wrong-doer. When you have
found such an one. ask yourself. "what would be
the condition of mankind to-day, if ali mems
minds were as we find his narrow, selfish ignor ant
tyrannical circle of intelligence" The answer
can be nc other than BARBARISM
OBSERVER.
A Query.