Fort Worth gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1891-1898, 1892-01-31
Bah HAS THE GRIP,
And Falls to Moralizing, Doing
1t Most Delightfully."-.
ARE MEN BORN FREEAND EQUAL
The Wonderful Watch ola Queen-whsre
Wisdom is Folly and knowledge is
Unwise-The Kinds of Grip
We Like

copyright. 1892, by the Box Syndicate Press
New York.
Special Correspondence OF the Gazette
NEW o *, Jan. &c, 1892.
If the grip dosne't kill you, it at least
gives you a number of hours for reflection.
and in between the times when you are
moaning about the ache in your back, abont
the funny feeling in your knees, and almost
choking when you cough, you can think
over, not all your sins and those of your
friends and kinsfolk but you have suffici-
ent time to do a little thinking on abstract
subjects. At least, that is what 1 called
them, though am not sure whether it is
correct or not. However, it sounds we'll.
So many thingssound well that are not true;
for instance, was there ever a greater
untruth than the assertion made that ''all
men are born free and equall' They are
not.
THE DIFFERENCE IN MEN.
Some are handicapped from the start, and
If they come in at the finish victor, they de-
serve so much more credit for it. Handi-
capped with what? Well, one man is born
with superb health, with a clean line of
ancestry behind him, and in respectable
surroundings. Another comes into the
world inheriting the illnesses of insanity or
drunkenness, of Indigestion, or of bad
heart, and among those who will encourage
everything that is wrong in him. Are those
two men born free and equal2 Certainly
not. Is John Brown, who can take glass
of wine and enjoy it, and stop there because
he doesn't care for any more, on an equality
with John Smith, who because of the sins of
his ancestors cannot do the same without
becoming a drunEarde Is John Brown who
finds it no trouble TO say pleasant word to
everybody, on an equality with John Smith,
who, fighting against an hereditary ill-teul-
per, has to make an effort TO be agreeable2
Is sJohn Brown, who would no more think
Of stealing than he would of numbering, on
An equality with John Smith, whose father
was convict, whose mother had no idea of
what decency and purity were, and who
came into this world unwelcomed and IN
cared for? Why there is no such thing
as equality. don't care If twenty Thomas
Jeffersons wrote that. And I don't believe
that when all these men come to be Judged
that the God who made them will look at
them as on an equality; but he will think
of the weakness and wickedness that came
to them by inheritance, of the surround
inEs that tended to increase these, and of
the temptations that came in their way.
ARE WE FREE BEINGs2
Free7 Are we free? I doubt that. We
all of US are dependent, the one on the
other. The social structure, which means
the home, the marriage and morality, would
tumble to pieces if we were free. Are you
free to do things that would cause q scan
dal to come upon you and all belonging to
your Are you free to speak the evil words
that hurt another and that will as certainly
rebound as boomerang2 You do it, but
certainly you are not free to, and that it IS
not your privilege is proved by the fact
that Just as certainly as you commit this
crime or take this freedom, Just so certainly
you viii be punished for IL. It's nonsense
saying all men are born free and equal
We are equal once in our lives, all of
US, and that is when we face
4 81
among silken spreads and laces, or
huddled up in dirty blanket, but it is Just
the same. Death comes, and be it prince
or pauper, he is met in the same way. He
looks at you, you meet him, and you close
your eyes just as does the poor wretch who
hadn't the food to keep him alive.
WHEN WE ARE ALL EQUAL
That is the only time in your life, nv
friend, that you and the other man are ab-
solutely equal When the heir of the Brit
ish throne died a little while ago we all felt
sorry, and SYM athiZed most of all with his
mother and the young woman who was to
have been his wife. That was right and
kind-hearted. The newspapers had columns
about this death, and yet in all that was
written the keynote never was struck, as it
was in the description of another death,
that of an Irish boy who delighted in call
ing himself "a sport" He was the same
ueGe as the Duke of Clarence. A woman
WIS weeping beside his dead body, and she
said: ''He has fought many a fight and he
tried to fight death, but death downed
him" That's it. Death downs everybody
at last And in the sight of that grim de-
stroyer the son of the future King Of Eng
Hand and the tough Irish boy were free and
equal, but they were not born so. Put it
down TO the grippe, my friends. if 1 am
smoralizing. Everybody commits sin once
in awhile, and the grippe. with its aches
and pains and its horrible depressing feel