St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1895-03-23
DIR. zIER AS CoeUELIN.

The work of legislating is so seri-
Gus and brain-taXing a work that
every session must have it's by-play
of a farce as a relief to the over
taxed minds of the grave and rev.
erend seigniorS on whom has been
thrust by a distressed constituency
the task of Strengthening out the
social SnarlS that an Indifferent
providence permits in the social web.
1t is an awful responsibility, when
you come to get it in proper per-
spective, so that its full proportions
can be taken in at glance, this
task of regulating the affairs of this
poor, dependent mass of humanity,
thrust by severe edict from the
sheltering care and provision of the
Garden of Eden out into a heart
less world governed by Nature, in
different to the individual, but tena-
cious of preserving the type, and if
those charged with the task seek rest
in occasional horse-play they are not
to be too severely rebuked.
And so we have all sorts of alb
ment to the wearied legislators. One
affects to have his modesty shocked
by the Scantily draped figures of the
theatrical billboards; another has
had his enjoyment of the play
marred by the towering hat of some
the contagion of immortality in the
tights worn by the actresses; an
other views with a simulated alarm
the spectacle of tender and imma-
ture youth finding solace in the
nicotian cigarette, and each and all
of these, and many more, put on
the legislative stage bill to abolish
that which strikes him as worthy of
being the subject of his farce With
that deficiency of humor so marked
in some men there are those who
take these things seriously, and go
through the performance as gravely
as if they were correcting some evil
that threatened to undermine the
foundations of the social structure
But, for the most part, the humor is
sensed and appreciated, and the fun
goes on to the end.
The present sitting of the legis-
lature of this state has not been
without its bits of this by-play,
among which, so far, Dr. Tiers eff
forts to preserve the dear people
from curing themselves of the vari-
GUS little ills with which they imag-
inc themselves afjiota5 ipctoa1 Of
calling in duly certificated and di-
plomaed doctor of medicine, is not
the least amusing. The funny part
of it all is the mock seriousness of
the doctor himself. He has surely
missed his vocation. He is a born
comedian. He never cracks a smile
in any part of his play. When grav-
ity is not enthroned on his classic
features, as he argues the preScrip-
tive right divine of his to prescribe,
the obedient facial muscles take on
the look Of alarm as his theme rises
to a description of the murdered
babes and constitutions wrecked by
the Internal compounds of the unli-
cenSed quackS.
He preserves the unities to the
last. When the humorists of the
press, keenly enjoying and appre-
ciating his comedy and his mar
velous fidelity to his part, fire at him
their quips and jests in token of
their appreciation, he turns with
well-simulated indignation and emp
ties his phials, duly labeled, on their
luckleSs heads. They are a venal
class, he asseverates, with high
pitched voice, caring more for the
filthy lucre that trickles into the
business office from the mercenary
proprietors of the patent medicines,
whose advertisements adorn the col
umns of their papers, than they do
for the health of the dear public, or
the welfare of the members of the
ancient and most honorable profess
sion of the healing art. The healer
hotly scores the heelers. The world
of comedy has lost another and a
better Coquelin that medicine may
have Jealous guardian and the
legislature it's roaring farce.