Daily independent. [volume] (Elko, Nev.) 188?-1915, 1894-05-10
, ENGIiIsR SOCIETY.
It Ii Severely Criticised ~ Bold
British Writer.
VuISS rity and AninilIsm Gr4pee, ~ r.
- ttician FacesAThe Great Evil That
Is Being NurtqEed by
All ClaaSoO. =

A recent issue of the Free Review, q
london publication, contains a vigor--
GUS article from the pen Of Godfrey
Mortimer, who takes issue with the
average Briton's boast that he lives IN
a highly civilized country. In the
course Of, the article Mr. Mortimer
says: - 90. T.
"As a matter of fact only a very
small number of the Inhabitants OF
these isles can be justly labeled civ
ilized. Slowly and painfully are we
working out the beast Meanwhile,
much the larger part of civilized peo-
pie continue to lead barbaric lives.
In the higher, as in the so-called lower
class IS, I'VE find the lines of apathy,
ytlSar;ty and animalism craven on
patrician faces and proclaimed in the
talk of the dinner table and the smolr-
ing-room. Obviously, all aristocrats
arc not ultra barbariaps, nor are all
;bargees and coal hewers savages. Yet,
the dominnnt:tone just as often low
and; inane in the mansion as in the
tenement, and with infinitely less to
offer in It's extenuation. How few per-
sons in "A town are Interested in hear
ing that Herbert Spencer is there on a
VISIT; but most people are anxious to
shake hands with prize fighter or the
jubilee plunger, or to take tea with q
millionaire's wife. 1t is this PERM
ciuus alteration of tinsel that keepssa
country in barbarisn, that starves its
spirit. The ideal of the laborcr1 who
rcsents the lordling's contumcTy and.
indicts him for living a lazy lie may
rise no higher than perpetual beer and
ninepins, while the esquire. Graves no
highei: satisfaction III life than hunt
ing SIX days in the week, with charm
payne, billiards and the sporting pa
pers on Sunday. .. .
"The evil is in the setting up Of q
barbaric aim Of life in all clnsses. Our
greatest ideals are the commercial and
the voluptuous. We are rich and lux
urious; we are, therefore, far above
the savage. Yet how far? Our
learned and affluent have, for the
greater number, returned to the en-
:ployment of the prepastorar epoch.
Look at the lives of thousands of Eng
fish gentlemen. Truer barbarians
never existed than many of these,
whose whole thought, energy and
wealth are given up to sport. In
large measure we are civilized by the
shop. 1t is only when the shop abb
serbs the best of us, mental and. phys
ical, that commercial activity tends TO
retard progress. Provided that a mans
moral sense and. intellect are not
warped in the making of money there
is nothing degrading in his desire TO
succeed coTlniefcially. But, in the
tlerceness of competition in an over.
populated country, barbarity, mean
ness and cruelty arise. Not only these,
but the curse of Intellectual and
aesthetic atrophy lights upon the host.
Yet, need money-getting always bar
barrie the people? Will the PROSPER
GUS business career of the future be
alone compatible with low standard
of thought and a corrupt canon of
commercial morals? If SO, material
success must bring about national ruin,
for no community can subsist upon
bread alone. At present two formida-
bic hindrances stand in the way of de.
veloping acknowledgements and
a passion for ostentation. What are
tile remctlies2' Regulntu the reproduc.
tive faculty and save the potential
Slaveiof industrialism from struggle
that wakes yearly heavier. Allied will
this teaching there should be wide
Incubation of refined simplicity O
life and the substitution of high think
ing for mere barbarous display in hv
ing" -. .L.
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