Morning journal and courier., 1893-11-17
9umrmaI aud Courier,
Extremes are sometimes not as far apart s they seem. Frequently 8 man who has

PLEASE KEEP MY NAME OUT.
 Extremes are sometimes not as far apart az they seem. Frequently man who has been fined in the police court will come into this office and ask that no mention be made of him or his doings In the columns of this paper. Yesterday we were waited on by delicate delegation from one of the most exclusive literary clubs of this city and asked to make no further mention cf the club or It's doings. And as clincher to the request we were told that all the other papers of the city, even those which support the Paul and the Polly Prys, had agreed to do their best to hide the clubs light under buehel.
 The request doubtless seems to those who made 1t modest and reasonable, bat it is too modest and not entirely reasonable. It is too modest because the club that makes 1t is entitled to frequent mention as 8 part of what our old frisnd Colonel Wright was fond of calling "the res gest@" The club forms part of the things that go on here, and very useful and honorable part. It has doIe much to raise the stand ard of literature in New Haven and hold it up. It has not yet made New Haven an Athens, but it has done its part toward pre- venting 1t from being an Oshkosh. There is therefore no reason why it should blush, seen or unseen. It has no call to shrink from public notice and mention any more than East Rock has. And while 1t may not be quite as grand and impressive as that Rock, 1t has such grandeur and i'm pressivensss as are always connected with sven futile struggles toward the higher ideals of life. And we don't mean to in- sinuate that the struggles of this club are futile. Far from 1t. It is ascending. It has already reached plane where the air eeems to be little thin, and it may be that 1t is the thinness of the air that accounts for It's excessive and ipjudicious modesty.
 While the request is too modest 1t Is not reasonable enough. Why should one of our most lofty literary clubs seek to hide itself entirely from the public eyei Isit because it has become too literary and lost all con- nection with and interest in those who are still in the bonds of the first readerl If so, in becoming too literary 1t has become too selfish. It should consider the rest of us and suffer us to bask in at lesst It's re- hected light. Is 1t not better and more consistent with sound and right principles of living for the club to stand openly on it's height and shine, shedding upon those below 1t all the light Ii cani How are the common people to be lifted up unless the uncommon ones help to lift them upf How can the general literary tone of New Haven be more rapidly and effectually i'm proved than by the shining of such light and the working of such lesven ss this liter sry club can furnish If it willi Should it refuse to shine or refuse to furnish leaven because it is too modest or too self isha By no means. It has a duty. And it's duty isn't done in making of itself secret society for it's own exclusive benefit and enjoyment. If 1t makes itself such society it will act much like the Hindoo who thinks that eternal and uninterrupted contemplation of his own bellybutton is the height of holiness.
 We hope the club will withdraw its re- quest. In addition to the excess of mod esty and the lack of reason in it 1t is not up to the spirit of some of the other liter ary clubs of the city. Just imagine the Saturday Morning Club, for instance, try ing to make of itself secret circle instead of spout, from which flow instruction and inspiration for the people, who, by the way, know real good and genuine thing when they zee it.