The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1892-02-14
KNOX TALKS SERIOUSLY.
(Copyrlqht, 1892, by the United Press.l

(CopyIght. 1892 bg the United Pressl
New York, Fen. 13.-"I do not Justify
| it, you know, but it has been done that way
and. SO 1 do it myself; it's the custom-the
custom, you know"
That is what friend OF mine said to me
| to-day, In explanation of certain thing he
had done that l argued was absurd. SO
thought few thoughts on the subject, as l
rested on my lounge tonight after dinner,
and here they are.
Some of the most atrocious things that
are done on the earth to-day are done be-
cause there is a precedent for them.
Some one has done similar thing before.
The person who did it was somebody of
consequence.
Therefore It is perfectly proper to repeat
| che performance.
So they argue, but nothing has given
more pain, nothing has retarded civiliza-
| tion's onward march, as much as has this
worship of the things that have been-this
| devotion 10 the traditions of the past
have no patience with the people who do
| this. that and the other because their faith
ers did it.
If We had not discarded beliefs and ideas
that our foretathers thought were backed
up by "confirmation strong as proof OF
holy writ" where would We be to day. We
would be tlattering ourselves that the sun
was built Tor the express purpose of rush
ing around this little planet of ours once
every twenty>four hours, just to give his
| light to go down town to attend to bust
ness.
Here and there. in every century of the
worlds life and progress, there has been a
man who discovered that what all the other
men believed TO be IA truth was lie, and
this man has been taken, by men who
blindly followed those who had gone before,
and who would not question anything that
was encruste1 with the boar Of time, and
| they have tried to burn with fire the truth
that was in him. The light of the faggots
around his charred body has illumined the
pathway of other men who have pushed the
car of progress adown the ages.
Let US talk about some of the old frauds
that we venerate-we wouldn't have time
to talk about all Of them in week-but
let's touch on few.
You believe that fiddle is worth 81, 900
or $5,0o0-they have been sold for such
sums-bec quse it is called Stradvarius. is
labelled "Faciebat Cremona," and was con-
structed in the years that were first torn
from the calendar OF theelghteenth century.
Millions OF people believe as you do.
You are wrong.
Most OF the violins. worshipped on account
Of their age, are imposters. They are not
twenty years old But let us take the
ACoAig Oid OOoSs fAl0 buSJ 6ACSpllOunIlJ
good because they were made by men who
are dead two hundred years or soe Possibly;
because he who made the violin was a good
maker of violius. II ne was q poor work
man-an amateur in violin makiug-the
years would not make his siddle good one.
That a violin improves with age is popu-
lar falacy. dramatically seal an instrument
in a box for hundred years. The tones it
would have yielded the d. y it was placed in
the box are the same as those it will yield
on the day Of its release.
1t Is in the use of the instrument that the
value accrues. 1t is the continuous action
Of the bow and its vibratory effect on the
wood that result in the pure tones of the in
strument.
Taking advantage of the ignorance Of the
average man regarding matters to which he
has not given years of study. modern fiddle
makers are every day turning out dozens of
old Cremonas. Their stock in trade IS a
cord Of the right kind of wood, some glue,
and a knowledge Of some things that other
people do not know. They initiate the old
violin by vanishing the wood, scraping off
the varnish, and then revarnishing ard
scraping many times. This gives the ap-
pearance OF age.
To give it the tone of the century old
violin is the most expensive and difficult
thing. To do this the manufacturer secures
his vlolins to a bonch, and. by machinery,
runs bow over them day and night for
months. So you do not know whether the
violin you SO carefully handle and so
proundly show to friends, was made al a
cost OF s. in New York's Chatham street, or
was the work of Stradv arius. or one of the
other great fiddle makers of Lombardy and
the TYrol.
But | am getting off the track didn't
intend to tell Of vlolins when began. ]
intended to call your attention to a few of
the outrageous things that we reverence,
because they are old. 'Old masters for
instance, pictures of angels with impossible
and impracticeble wings, and of the SAVIOR
of mankind who looks like tho very oa:ith-
esis of what is manly, heroic, or godlike,
and has, as a background to a face that
should be depicted as divine, a thing called
q halo that looks SO much like a soup plate
that nothing but the antiquity of its ex-
preston in art, and its acceptance by our
forefathers. could save it from ridicule,
Then there's the jury system.
All or twelve men must say that man is
guilty CT he is not guilty. In every other
business of life, the ma Ority rules. That IS
in line with the truth. II it is not the
truth, it comes nearer to it than does any
thing else. But when we come to where a
man is accused of a crime, and his life
bangs in the balance we worship the great
charter that King John gave us at Ruuny-
mede, not because it is right, but because it
is ancient, 1t is a precedent, and our fathers
have bowed to it.
Faughl 1t makes me weary. I shall talk
moro regarding it some other time. | care
not to discuss 1t further Tonight.
L Apuox KNOx