The Ketchum keystone. [volume] (Ketchum, Idaho) 1885-1899, 1894-05-05
ENGLISH SOCIETY.
It II Severely Criticised by Q bod
BEitieh Writer.


GUS article from the pen Of Geonrey
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:
'.As . matter of fact only . 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 tn larger. part Of civilized peo-
pie continue to lead barbaric lives.
In the higher. as in the so-called lower
CLASSES, we find the lines Of apathy
vulgarity and animalism craven on
patrician faces and proclaimed In the
talk of the dinner table and the smok.
ing-room. Obviously, all aristocrats
are not ultrA-barbariAns, nor are all
bargees and coal hewers savages. Yet,
the dominant tone II just As often low
and inane In the mansion as In the
tenement, and with infinitely less to
offer In its extenuAtion. Hoy few per.
sons in . town are interested in hear
ing that Herbert Spencer is there on .
visit; but most people arc anxious to
shake hands with prize fighter or the
jubilee plunger, or to take tea with q
millionaire's wife. 1t is this perni-
cious alteration Of tinsel that keeps Z
couatry In barbarism, that starves ita
spirit. The ideal of the lAborer who
resents the lordling's contumely and
indicts him for living , lazy life may
rise no higher than perpetual beer and
ninepius, while the esquire Graves nc
higher satisfaction in life than hunt
ing six days in the week, with cham
pagne. billiards and the sporting pa
pers on Sunday.
'.rhe evil is in the setting up Of Z
barbaric aim of life In all classes. 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 afduent have, for the
greater numbe4, returned to the en-
ployment Of the prepastoral epoch.
Look at the lives of thousands of Eng
lish 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 alb
serbs the best of us, mental and phys
ical, that commercial activity tends to
rctard 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 commercially. But, in the
fierceness 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
ous business career Of the future be
alone compatible with low standard
Of thought and . corrupt canon OF
commercial morals? II SO, material
success must bring about national ruin,
for no community can subsist upon
bread alone. At present two formida-
BILE hindrances stand in the way of de-
veloping culture-overpopula and
passion for ostentation. What are
the remedies7 Regulate the reprodac-
tive faculty and save the potential
slave of industrialism from struggle
that wakes yearly heavier. Allied with
this teaching there should be wide
incubation of = refined simplicity OF
life and the substitution Of high think
ing for mere barbarous display In liv.
inQ.'r NJ