The Mason County journal. [volume] (Shelton, W.T.) 1886-1927, 1893-12-01
A DANGEROUS REM EDY.
Proposed Means to Check the
Train Robbing Epidemic.
The Aiming of Inexperienced Railway
Employees Likely TO E;suit in Whole
sale Destruction of
Life.

clans prescribe remedies that are more
severe than the tlicca"c, and there Is
some danger that tho doctors who arc
cssaying the treatment Of the train
robbing epidemic raay make this mis-
take. says the Washington Post. I'm
doubtedly il l.; desirable to put a stop
to this inGiscrininate holding up Of
trains, bat if it is to be done by expos
ing the lives of all patrons of the roads
the travelling public will not take kind
~ to the proposition.
Several of the large railway corpora
tons have caused it to be announced
that all of their trainmen and station
agents are to be provided with reyOlv-
ers and Winchestcrs. The express
companies will follow suit. and all Of
their messengers will be heavily armed,
and they will also be expected to shoot
every time an effort is made to hold up
their trains. Not only will these men
be pressed into service, but the Pull
man conductors and portcrs are to be
transformed into walking arsenals,
and are to be added to the force that is
expected to convince some Of our grasp
ing and reckless western friends that
train robbing is dropping industry.
The great danger attending this pro-
posed reform lies in the fact that there
is no telling just where an amateur
marksmen is going to land. AS rule,
the gentlemen who make q profession
OF fnanciering on q smoOth-bore basis
are very good shots and don't waste
much powder and lead during their
business hours. There is no assurance
that train crew that is suddenly at
tackled will be able to maintain disci-
pine, and in an indiscrininate shoot
ing match the probabilities are that
the innocent passenger would get much
the worst of it.
But train robberies are not the only
incidents that would precipitate
trouble should the general armament
of railway employees go into effect.
There would be a constant gauntlet for
the traveller to run. There would be
the didn OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES station
agent, the observation-disclosures
fun conductor, the point-at-your-head
joke on the part Of the brakeman, and
other like pleasantries too numerous
to mention. In the early hours of the
morning, after the Pullman car porter
had cleaned the shoes and had engaged
himself in cleaning the Colts. Win
chesters, and other paraphcrnalia Of
the car, there is no telling just when
the passengers would receive an early
call and a dose of lead all around, as a
Grearm in the hands of sleepy and
ovcrworl.ed colored gentleman is a
very uncertain piece of mechanism
For our part we prefer to bear the
train-robbing ills we have rather than
fly to others that are more or less prob
leratical. 1t might do to equip the
engineers and express messengers with
guns, but give us the Old-fashioned
station agent who doesn't know how to
shoot, who doesn't know the time the
trains arrive and depart, or anything
else he is expected to know. Give us
the sleeping-car porter of our fore
fathers-the colored gentleman who
carries nothing but the old-time, sim
gle-barreled razor, and an air of supe-
riOrity that even the most hardened
train robbers cannot batter down with
IMMUNITY. Allow us to retain these
old landmarks and we will make so
bold as to take our chances with the
train robbers.
ADVANCE OF KNOWLEDGE.
Liberty of Thought Did, Not Give 1T OPP
portunity Until This Century.
The growth of higher knowledge has
been very gradual one, says the Nine
teenth Century. 1t has come by leaps
and bounds within the last two CEN
turtles, after remaining stationary for
more than sixteen hundred years. The
nineteenth century especially has been
a period of activity and progress in the
various branches of science such as the
world has never seen before. Nor
could it have been seen before. The
full light of liberty-liberty of action
and liberty of thought-was necessary
for any great forward movement, and
the world was lying in the bonds of
darkness and superstition. The tree
Of liberty is plant of slow growth,
that has fought it's upward way pain
fully, bowling it's head often beneath
the blasts of persecution, and often
broken beneath the foot of the OBJ
pressor. Like Igdrasil, the tree of life,
it has its roots deep below in the king
dom OF the dead. 1t was not till this
century that it had attained such
growth as to burst into the blossom
which is everywhere bringing forth
noble fruit for the service of man.
Had Hahnemann and Stephenson,
Herschel and Edison lived in the mid
die ages their genius would have
availed mankind nothing The slow
world was not ready for them, and it
would have crushed and silenced them
as it did Calico and many another
brave spirit that was born out of time.
They would have gone under, and
shouts and hymns would have cele-
brated another triumph of orthodoxy
and authority. Authority was the
juggernaut beneath whose car all the
best and boldest spirits were crushed
In the sacred name of religion.
I'm almoste al places of studio, F" wrote
Cornelius Agrippa, "a damnable custom
is grower, in that they binde with an
othe the schollers which they receive
never to speak against Aristotle.
Boetius, Albert, or any other of their
schollers being accompted a God, from
whom if man differ fingers breadth
IN thought, Immediately they will call
him Heritike and worthy to be
burned"
Montaigne, too, adds his protest to
the same effect:
1.-The opinions of men," he saws. ssare
received according to ancient belief, by
authority and upon trust, as if it were
religion and law. and thus the world