The record-union., 1896-02-21
DAVID STARR JORDAN.
HiS Lecture on "The Mission Of the
FOOl-Killef."
An Entertaining Address, Seasoned
With Many Wholesome Truths
and Hard Hits.

filled house under the auspices of the
Sacramento Lecture Association. His
theme was 1.-THE Mission of the Fool
killer" and it proved a fruitful one.
President Jordan is well known as a
fluent and interesting speaker, who al
ways has ideas thoroughly and sys-
tematically arranged, and the lecture
last night was bright and sparkling
and full of sharp points and good
things, which were fully appreciated by
his audience, even when they cut
closely.
He commenced by saying that his
audience need not fear as the mission
of the fool-killer did not apply to Sac
ramento but to the other cities and
towns of the State.
The keynote of his thought would be
the assertion of Huxley that the only
alleviation of the woes of mankind was
in perfect veracity of thought and ac-
tion. The failures of mankind in life,
he said, were mainly due to the want
of veracity in these respects. It is
said that 80 per cent. of merchants fail.
The fact will be traceable to their lack
Of this quality and bad judgment in
consequence. How do we know that
things are what they seem? Two per-
sons will look at fact with different
eyes and understand it in totally diff
ferent ways. We may think a person
is crazy, but possibly that person may
think it is we who are crazy.
He told of a ladys who went into the
mountains and lived on nuts and sim
liar food, and who, when she came
back, said that her soul wandered
away from her body. She saw and
learned strange things, which were to-
tally different from the received opin-
ions on the same subjects. He thought
that her mind was affected by her way
of life, but we all seem to part with our
souls temporarily, especially at night,
when they seem to go wandering off
in the realms of space. We must use
our common sense in judging of phe
nomena.
He spoke of the wonderful cures ef-
fected by medicines, by sending a lock
of hair, and in many other ways, while
skilled physicians could only make
cures with time and difficulty Then
there were the people who search for
hidden treasures by direction of me-
diums. He told also of the wells found
by the use of the witch-hazel rods, and
of the man who wanted to find out, and
over the county he took the rod and
went over the county map with it.
What we call common sense is not
always what others look on as such.
The two outermost planets discovered
years ago were discovered by people
who weighed them by calculations, and
told where they should be. Was that
common sense? Was it any more com
mon sense than the cures by means of
a lock Of hair? The scientific party
who went out to observe the transit of
Venus built a house in a far land, and
when they were through with their
work left the house there. Did the ma
tives who found the deserted house
think they displayed common sense?
We have our own standard of thought
which we think is the right one, but how
do we know it is, and that the standard
of those who differ with us is not right?
The magic that we so often hear of,
like hypnotism and kindred things, is
simply the power Of the strong mind
over the weak one.
Is there anything that we are sure of,
or do we know that anything exists at
all? We refer to everything as being
matter, but the wisest men cannot tell
what matter is. A man has his opinion
of himself and all his neighbors have
their opinions of him, which is generally
different from his own.
The subject of matter has been pur-
sued by theorists and speculators until
they have conclusively proved to them
selves that only the most intangible re-
suits are ultimately found. This is be-
cause they are talking about things
that are unknown to us all. The only
test that we have that a thing is true
is, Is it safe to act on it :? in other words,
can we bet our lives on it?
We trust ourselves to the train dis
patcher, the conductor, the train. We
trust ourselves to take grain of
strychnine, when we know we must not
take an ounce. The only test Of safety
is to do what we have proved is safe.
The difference in the fool is that he
takes the ounce of strychnine and dies.
The brain responds to sensations, and
what we call intellect is only the re-
sponse that the brain responds to SEN
sation. The more we know, the more
safely we respond to our sensations
This is why knowledge is power. The
American Nation is a picked Nation
They are the descendants of a sound
ancestry-of the strongest characters
that formed the English Nation The
only difference between the nobility of
England and the American people is
that the former are the descendants of
the older sons, and the latter of the
younger sons.
The thing that has saved us is that
we have been improved by the fool
killer. He spoke of progress in science.
The little items of discovery are put in
one common reservoir, from which any
one can draw, and the little child to-
day can know more of many things
than the old man could years ago.
We have gas and electric lights, while
Queen Elizabeth, with all her glory,
had TO use candles
The fool killer is continually at work
selecting his victims from those who do
something and those who are nothing
but failures. It would be curious if we
could find out just what proportion of
deaths is due to folly. The man who
takes a cup Of coffee in the morning be-
cause he is jaded, is Jaded still, but does
not think he is The man with ve-
racity of thought and action needs no
coffee or stimulant to help him to do his
work rightly. He does not stimulate
himself above his normal condition.
only to fall back below it.
Some people have theories as to how
the Government can abolish poverty.
The Government cannot abolish poy-
erty, but it does sometimes do things to
increase it, and he thought his friend
I,ubin had put his finger on one of the
ways in which the Government has
done so.