Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-04-06
THINGS IN GENERAL.
Some Features Brought Out by the Inter-
national Dispute-Action of Italy and
the Louisiana Mob Much Alike-A


the Louisiana Mob Much Alike-A
Veneer of Civilization.
WRITTEN FOR THE DIsPATcHl
"a hundred thousand Kansas cowboys would
like to spend the summer in Rome" Yes; and
o hundred thousand Italian brigands would
like to spend the summer in New Orleans.
The rumor Of war brings these people into
sight. And the sight, though not particularly
pleasant, is exceedingly instructive. 1t is
worth while that we should realize that good
deal which we are pleased to call civilization is
really nothing but veneer. The fact is, that
with all our arts and sciences with all our fine
houses and good manners, with all our manifold
advances in right thinking and wonderful
achieving. we are still but semi-civilzed,
mostly FOOLS" Carlyle said of the inhabitants
of the island of Great Britain. Mostly savages,
one might say in similarly exaggerated fashion
of the inhabitants of the planet Earth. So
many millions of people dwell upon the surface
of this terrestrial ball-most of them savages.
For civilization, unhappily, is not effected by
washing the warpaint off a mans face, an
plucking the feathers out of his hair, and
putting him into pair of trousers, and teach
ing him to write his name. The difference
between civilized man and a savage is mainly
in the different way in which they look out at
human life. And good test of the real depth
OF anyDody's civilization is his behavior in the
moment of misunderstanding with his brother.
The savage wants to hit somebody.
The Difference Between Them.
The civilized man wants to talk the matter
over and find out where the wrong is, and SO
get it righted. 1t seems quite impossible
for the savage to believe THAT anybody
Will do justly unless he is first bullied
and then beaten. That human beings should
of their own motion desire to do right and
wish to amend wrong and listen to reason and
obey the voice of justice, passes the compre-
hension of the savage. That is not his way,
and he cannot understand how it can be any
body else's way The hundred thousand Kan
sas cowboys see no better answer to KING
Humbert's demand for American fairness to
Italy than the spending of a summer in Rome.
Evidently they have never been in Rome, and
do not at all realize the degree to which the
Italian sun would make it hot for them in that
pest1ferous neighborhood. They look forward
toward pleasant season of stealing and mur-
dering-as a help toward the right settlement
of an international question. And the hun
dred thousand Italian brigands can imagine no
speedier way to the securing of perfect Justice
toward their fellow countrymen than the dis
patching of fleet of gunboats TO the mouth Of
the Mississippi river.
enuse of right-angled triangle is equal to the
sum of the squares described on the other two
sides. You say mo-" What, nor Fool, ras-
cal. reprobate, thief, darest thou contradict
me? Sirrah, come forward herel away with
pen and paperi here are two swords. Lay on,
Macduff. and damn'd be he that first cries
Hold, enough! And If beat you badly enough
over the head, then am right. But if, on the
contrary you bruise me sufficiently about the
body and get the better of me, why. yield.
Noble and stout-handed sir, you are correct.
The square described on the hypothenuse of
right-angled triangle is equal to the sum OF the
squares described on the other six Tor even 10y
Sides Thus will We arrive at truth.
One of the Medieval Customs.
Everybody knows that not so very long ago
questions at law were decided after that very
fashion. The accused had the privilege of
wager of battle" which meant precisely the
sort of settlement which have just been i'm
agining. The law books were shut up; the
judge and jury listened no longer to argument
on one side or on the other; no attempt was
further made to get in reasonable way at the
rights of the matter. The whole court room
went outdoors and formed ring, with the
judge for referee and the opposing counsel for
seconds. and there the case was fought to
finish with bare fists, or blackthorns, or sharp
lances. And thus impartial justice was admin
isteredi
And this is the kind of law which the cow
boys of Kansas and Palermo want in this year
1881. They propose that two respectable Chris
tian nations should settle difference by wager
of battle, bv behavior which, on the part of
TWO respectable Christian men. would be in
dignantly rejected. When disreputable and
tlement OF their discussions the police take
them away In patrol wagon, and they are
very properly given space of quiet days in
Jail.
OF course. there will be no war. We are
sufficiently civilized, it seems. to overrule the
savage elements of the community this time.
But we see that savagery still exists. In
great nation. where the boys who will be the
five days every week between the
hours Of 8 and 8, might it not be
well to add to the fact that two and two make
four the further and not less 1mportant fact
that two wrongs cannot possibly be SO added
together as to make right?
The action OF the Italian Government and of
the Louisiana mob appear to have been singu-
larly alike. Both proceeded hastily, abruptly,
way to get a wrong righted was by violence.
Because a wrong was not righted. or was not
righted in day. they concluded that it could
not be peaceaoly set straight at all.
The Difficulties of Justice.
There is a very general overlooking of the
difficulties of justice Setting crooked things
straight is no easy task: cannot well be done
off-hand; sometimes, with the very best inten.
tion, misses of accomplishment. This is admir-
For the Right" The hero is possessed
with an unusually strong sense of justice: He
fails of getting Justice done in a case which, to
him, is perfectly plain. He is used unright-
the courts of his country are all corrupt; that
the judges have no conscience. He sets out to
administer justice himself. He becomes self
constituted avenger. Whoever has wrong
presents his case and the avenger rights 1t.
But at last he discovers that he himself, on
false information, has punished an innocent
man. All his longing after infinite justice, all
his determination to do the right, has not
availed to keep him out of error. 1t is reve-
lation to him. At once he surrenders himself
TO the courts. His career as avenger is over.
The business of avenger is one on which any
man or any Government may we'll hesitate to
enter. Sometimes there must be a loading of
guns, and grim firing OF them afterwards But
not till every possible endeavor after peaceable
and reasonable Justice has been made. Some
times, by the neglect of the people, and by the
abuse of men in power, the laws may be SO
lawlessly administered that the only remedy is
to shoot the lawmakers. Somebody must be
Iynched Some nation must be assailed with
gunboats. But it is always better to wait. Bet
ter wait year and be sure!
Ninety-nlne times out of SO the Gospel will
in mora iuSlica than the pun9