The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1892-08-21
OBSERVATIONS BY REBEcoA.
oths Editor Of the Eagle.

The old saying that cit takes all kinC
of people to make a world was full,
illustrated in Wichita the past week. Al
one had to do was to make up ones mine
what type Of humanity he wanted TO Sc
and then watch the crowd, and i
wouldn't be long until the very one you
minds eye had seen would be presented &
you in living flesh and blood. There i
nothing more interesting or entertainiu!
TO me than to get seat in some nice shadl
spot and watch the crowds as they &,
surging by. WHAT an endless study o
human nature, what endless variety O
types of man woman and childhood
Of dress, of expression, OF happiness, o
| misery, of riches, of poverty, o.
human forms OF Godlike beauty and per
! lection; of human forms deformed. dis
torted, twisted out OF all semblanee OF
what the human form should be. Some
with one leg some with none, some with
one arm some armless, the deaf the halt
and the blind Old soldiers contented aud
| happy in every form of mutllation. Legs
| and arms left on bloody battlefields,
| tributes OF their love for and horoism in
defending their country from their
traitorous brothers. Some are deaf depriv-
! ed by shot and shell and exposure from
hearing the glorious music, the cheers and
| the shrill bugle call which in
those awful days inspired them
/ with courage to face death
at the cannons mouth, on the long weary
marches, in hospitals after their grand
! victories, and worst of all in those living,
/ hidious hells, Andersonvile. LIB and
Belle Island We talk of our high grade
| OF civilization, of our humanity, and we
| look back with pity upon the d. rkness
| and ignorance of the ages when they broke
| their prisoners upon the wheel aud burnt
/ them at the stake. At Nero who plunged
/ those who had the misfortune to fall under
! his diSpieasure, into caldronS of bollIp &
oil. We talk about our own Indians bar
I barity, in making their prisoners run the
! gauntlet and then burning them 10
death. We talk of all these thinks
are wonder how human beings can be SO
| much below the brute creation in their
modes Of punishment, and, yet, in no age.
! under no ruler, however despotic his
| sway, was there ever such revolving, such
| heartrending, such perfectly heartless sonl-
| less, inhuman treatment melted out TO
| prisoners as here in our own fair country.
| The country that has the most liberal gov
| eminent the sun shines on, where there Is
perfect freedom of religion, Of speech, Of
| the press, everything that goes TO make rs
! perfect government as can be framed. IL
seems rs though the old saying
that every man is savage at
heart is true when such things
and done in a country whose progress the
whole world euvies. Surely the American
people are the most forglving on earth
when. with these things fresh in their
minds, they can take tha perpetrators by
the hand and call them brother" What
I III 81, 8
the soldiers are comparatively young men.
When we think it is more than thirty-one
wears since the first call for volunteers.
Think how young these men must have
been, a great MANY not much more Than
Is, some perhaps not that old. Let the
mothers of today think of those
mothers thirty years ago. Think OF
their darling boy out to face all the dan
gers and toll OF war, when they worry il
hey stay down town half hour longer
than they are accustomed to, how they
think he must be watched over and cared
for And think of those mothers who saw
their darling, curly headed boys go away
from their protecting arms. TO defend this
country, of the long, tiresome marches,
the lonely sentry duty, when rebel bull
let was likely TO end their young lives at
any moment, CT their facing shot and
she'll marching up to the lannon's mouth
over piles and piles OF dead mems
bodies, of the boys who never
came home to mother at all,
of boys who came home TO mother with
arms gone, legs gone, beautiful boyish
faces distigured beyond recognition to any
but Il mothers eye boys who went through
the whole dreadful conflict and came home
TO mother without scratch or scar-boys
who came home TO mother covered with
glory, with his captains, lleutenants or
colonels epulets won by some daring he
IL in ont han . taa
lives and liberty of hundreds were at
stake of the boys who dill these things
before they were old enough to cast "a vote
and think if their carefully nurtured dar-
lings are capable of doing likewise if there
should be n necessity.
Then, there is the humorous side
in watching the crowd You see such
ridiculous costumes; such silly behavior;
green, ignorant girls and boys, whose talk
and behavior aud whose elephautiue at
tempts at love making would make mule
laugh | saw a man with ear rings in MS
ears and another one with his hair done
in a French roll and fastened with hair
pins. | have thought sometimes that
Dickens overdrew some OF his characters,
but | saw living. breathing images OF his
most popular people. | saw Bill Sykes
riding horse in the merry go-round. He
seemed tolerebly happy. | saw Oliver
Twist leaning YEARLY against u tree look
ing as though he still wanted more"
Little Nell and her grandfather were there
last Thursday, looking just as they did
when they started on their journey. David
CopperfieId's mother, with her dark.
brown husband, was there with poor little
Davy looking so frightened aud miserable
and Charles Dickens himself was there ia
soldiers clothes with u. \. K on his hat
Then there was the danceTs-shades and
ashes Of departed dancing masters
aA
walled in their graves could they
have seen what some of these folks called
danciug The local dancing masters and
dancing mistresses are not Ia IL at all in
comparison.
| saw women who don't know tina.
busties and those hideous puffed shirts are
not worn any more. | saw the oldtHsh-
toned sky scraper" bonnet that was wora
before l Was born. aud the "sundown"
tied down at the sides and sticking out at
tue front and back, that were worn when
| can first renembe II is a mystery 70
me how folks can keep those things 50
long One would think that time aud the
natural wear and tear would Obllterdte
these old land marks, but they don't seem
to And the street cars. They were no cad
of fun To see people who on most Occa-
sIous are the very pink and perfection OF
proprlety scTamblIug and Fighting their
way into a Car, ike the veriest street Arab.
losing their manners and temPers 10 the
scufre. Women whom you would think
never said a naughty word Ia their lives,
swear ike pirates because they couldn't
Zet on, or because they were 30 mashed
and dlsheveled in TIE rnsh. The police
man " SO watched the bridge had plculc
People " 10 couldn't get a car, and had 70
walk back % town, naturally would take
TO the railroad a. tBe nearest way, ana
when they got 20 the bridge and found a
blue-coat, and said blue-eoat sEouldn't lei