The record-union., 1896-07-12
SOME RAMBLING THOUGHTS.
BY MEMO.
1Copvrighted.)

(Copyrighted.)
Timely and discriminating praise is
the very essence of hope at the moment
of deepest depression. 1t enables one
20 add that extra ounce of effort just as
the load of purpose is halting few
inches below the crest of the hill of diff
Guilty. 1t turns faintheartedness into
faith. But beware, yoI whose trials are
many and whose purposes are high, OF
the friend who labels everything of
yours as well done" He is your most
serious enemy. He leads you by his
constant approval to Il feeling of self
satisfaction, and then like some fair ap-
rearing, but fated tree, the decay at
your heart commences. Not every act
of yours is well directed; not every
judgment is sound; and he who tells you
otherwise is not a friend but foe.
Give a dog bad name and he might
| as Well be hanged; and a man in like
case is not much better off. Dead, .
wreath may even be found on his grave,
but alive, the ghosts of a murdered
reputation keep rising in his path, An
old Quaker, With his sectarian uon-com-
bativeness strong within him showed
the door to a growing cur and said:
/ will not kill thee, but l will give thee
bad name" The moment the dog left
his doorstep he called down the street,
Mad dog" and then watched the
neighbors kill the poor brute l reckon
the Recorder of Deeds above has blood
guiltiness marked against many a man
whose hand has never been raised to
|
A good father of high social standing
once said to me regarding his children:
Others are just as good as they are, but
no better" 1t reminded me of Theodore
Parker's Interpretation of what consti-
tuted true democracy. He said it was
| Not l am as good as you are, but YOU
are as good as | am" If we enter fully
into the spirit of freedom and liberty.
we shall not, like anarchists, try to level
people down, but rather in the spirit of
Christian socialism, level them up. A
democracy in which every mans voice
is as powerful as every other mans. is
a menace to itself, unless there is a
constant upward tendency of the whole
body polite. Our social edifice cannot
be reared to grandeur or if reared, can
not be perpetual. unless it be founded
on the solid rock of an intelligent, pat
riotic, progressive people.
Why is the modern purpose novel
falling into disfavor with the great
mass of readers? Because neither men
nor women like to discover themselves
IL temple or crypt, when they set
out with the intention of entering a
theater 1t is the same principle at work
that compels an angry exclamation
when we reach the foot of a column of
romantic and startling reading and dis
cover we have been lead interestingly
OF, only to have ourselves brought face
to face with the merits of a porous plas-
ter or a tooth wash. The purpose"
novel, if we'll and interestingly written.
IS rather apt to defeat it's own ends.
The youthful reader will pass over the
dry parts so long as he can keep the
thread of the story unbroken, while the
mature person turning the weary mind
to fiction as a refresEment gets impa-
tient at this capsule method of admins
tering moral and physiological and
psychological truths.
To generalize freely, it is safe to say
that the most serious obstacle in the
way of the moral redemption of a vo-
man is woman herself. The moral dere-
lictions that she has been apt to con-
done in man she condemns in a wo-
man. She viii strain at the gnat of a
trifiing indiScretion on the part of a girl
TREND, and yet swallow the most pre-
posterous dromedary in the behavior of
man The one misstep of woman is
recalled with whispers and shrugs. while
notorious lbertine is received in soci-
ETY. with smirks and smiles Woman too
often theorize on Gods forgiveness Of
sins, but her feeble imitation of Him
will be extended towards man and not
woman.
The homely old saying, Sauce for
the goose is sauce for the gander. y
comes in here very oppositely Not
one word should be said in favor of low
er1ng in the mind of a woman the moral
standards she has helped so strongly
to maintain, but the barbed-wire de-
fenses must be high enough to stop
trousers as well as petticoats When
she reaches the divine perception that
shrank not from the washing by peni-
tentiaI tears while a rebulxe was admin
istered to the sacrosanct Pharisee, when
she understands that woman may re-
ally reform, and when she insists that
man must there will then be fewer
fallen men, and as a consequence fewer
fallen women.
1t is hardly possible to find a better
concrete example of the progress in
propulsion since the days of the Caesars
than by comparing the galley, vessel
propelled by oars, with the modern At
lantic liner. In a vessel 600 feet long
it would be practically impossible to
find room for more than 400 oars on a
side. Assuming now that three men
work each oar and six men exert one
horse power, there must need be 240G
men working at one time to exert 400
horse power. At least as many more
men would have to be in reserve to
render progress continuous. The trf1ing
result is almost lost to sight when we
bear in mind the fact that the largest
ocean steamer exerts 10, 500-horse pow
er; or. if represented by man power
would require a rowing crew of III GOO
with the same number in reserve. Even
If possible to carry this number of men
q hxy NIX.