St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1892-05-09
Rev. w. s. Vail Pertinently
Discusses the Result of
the City Election.
What the People Expect From
the Incoming Admins
tpatiOn.
There Must Be a Moral Change
Visible to the Naked
Eye.
Rev. Thomas McClary En-
larges Upon the Duties Of
Good Citizens.

Rev. W. s. Vail. in his Serman yes
terday morning before the Uniyersalist
society, at the Grand opera house, dis
cuSSed the result of the city election.
He said: A profound agitation has
visited this city. due to the recent cleo
ton, and this agitation is important to
church people because it has in it the
promise of moral change that will
serve to make this city better place in
which to live.
AS an agitation. it was something that
has scarcely been felt before, for 1t was
like an army going out prepared for a
siege and suddenly concluding to storm
the. enemy. in one hour, with crackle
of muSketry, clang of Saber. crushing of
horse and roar of cannon it won its way
to the citadel, and, as result, the hope
of the people has been raised to strong
expectation, for in the fight every
speaker and every newspaper, and
many preachers, have made promise
that it was strictly moral battle in
which we were engaged; consequently.
masses of people expect that the incom-
ing administration will make many
changes. and even where there has
definite hope.
And if this feeling was strong before
election, it has much more than doubled
in strength since that time. 1t has been
rising tide ever since Wednesday
morning. All kinds of hope exist i'll
the minds of the people. Some look
upon the good New England town.where
every night they ring
The Curfeyy Bell ~
at 9 o'clock, and where the Staid folks
get up and leave their enjOymentS and
go home and go to bed; and where
nearly all things are done in the same
way they were done zoo years age
some people look for that life to be in
troduced by the new administration.
Others claiming to know say thatSthe
same general tendencies Will he main
talned, only that it will be new neil,
and there are hundreds who are look
ing with diStrust on the men who were
called Sunday school politicians. But for
all that, the invisible something we CALI
the public mind, which is so quiet when
1t Is still that you would think it dead;
but so powerful when it is reused that a
cyclone might pale with envy at the
sight of its power-tliat unseen thing
we call public opinion is clearly de
termined that the logic OF this election
means more than talk; that it is More
than mere pledges that serve to putsone
party out and let another party ln.iahdi
that same determined opinion, whose
pressure is felt over this city with the
power and potency of a storm centefAi'
that sentiment is saving in one way or
another there must be moral change
that will be visible to the naked eye. or
else the people of this city have been
deceived. Any attempt to eyades de-
ciSive action will meet with a solid re-
buff on the part of the people. So 8.DcF,
There is good coming to the city from
this sentiment if it can only be handled
with care. soe if-4.:
Whoever feels that the election E has
accomplished all has only very super /
fetal idea of conditions. 10 think that
the sinners have all been driven out
and the saints led in is not exactly in
accordance with facts. TO believe that
every voter who assisted III the over
turn is a -=s
1i Puritan by Nature
and saint by practice is something that
is hardly to be expected, to remember
that the friends of cause will often do
it ten times as much harm as an enemy
is very necessary; to remember that we
are to wait and see whether the spon-
taneOus feeling of the hour will attack
fragrant and palpabie wrongs should be
the attitude of all; to refrain from
specific advice until we see what
the new administration will do seems
to me good Judgment: to recall the fact
that popular cry is not always very
deep, that the same p0pplace that cries
with fearful grief the king IS dead is
ready to cry the next moment, as the
future aspirant comes i'll sight, long
live the king;' that same people who
scattered palms in the pathway of
Jesus and hailed him as king the next
day cried Cruelty him. that the same
people who bore Macmillan on their
shot him little after by the gate of the
city-in word that the sentiment is
like wave of the sea, liable to collapse
before it rolls upon the beach. When
we appreciate all this we shall see
that some difficulties remain, especially,
when expectations are like ours. reach
ing little beyond the legitimate scope
of common politics: therefore we should
be armed with caution.
Besides this there is a belief that law
is not only protector, but also All edu-
Gator. That man is, to an extent.
creature of conditions; that one living
in the atmosphere of conservatism Will
breathe the conservative idea; that one
coming under the conditions of con-
yiyial life common to another atnO-
sphere will be likely to feel its inf1u-
ence; and that If a city becomes known
as a place where there is law and order.
where decent people find respectable
enioyments, that place will naturally
draw its own and better class of people
to itself; that while the strongest boy
will go through the worst forms OF
temptation to despise them, the average
boy is influenced largely by his condl-
tions, and many one can trace the
steps of his downfall to the source yQf
an evil companiOnship and the intiu- 4
ences that fastened upon him before he
was aware of their power, and that
whatever influence shall make for the !.
better life of the average boy has in it a
power for good that is strictly admirable /
to the ~ a
Eruly Religious EEind. i 4
Moreover hope this city will improve
in more senses than one. That we stall
continue to point with pride to the most
wonderful avenue i'll the country; that
we shall say, look at the expansion of
our city. with streets stretching away,
graded and sidewalked, too, INTO the
L..
on hand moonlit nights, pay his assess
ments by shooting wolves and gettiHgA
the bounty on scalps; that although our
magniticen water craft needs the help
OF human hands to cross the bar at :
Pigs Eye. we are still declared by con-
gress the head of navigation, but that
after all the boast of this city would be
In the fact that we are 4 people noted
for the life of purity. culture, humanity
and plain everyday morality.
Let me call your attention to the
aspect OF this subject that is distinctly
religious. The claim that in the in
Stincts of common humanity you find
that higher sense that las been crystal
lied into the statement: 1.-The voice
of the people is the voice of Cod
While we do not make that application
to this case, for that would be foolish
ness at the present stage of develop
ment, by it we are brought face to face
with the truth. Gladstone was right,
when Stung to anger in the close of a
iai,atA NO pypIa oil lApImQ is IN