San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1897-03-14

ClluEutltIS was lOSl. lllth Jul lltSl
puritanical ancestors, in their revolt
from that luxury, denounced the effect
rather than the cause and a crusade
was waged against all outer beauty
that for a season made earth barren
of divine form. This was only an in
cident of that change, for its real
wealth lay in the ruggednesS of char
acter that restored all the aSceticism
of the ancient stores and the grit of
the Spartan mind. What better have we
| today than that Old-faShioned courage
and grit and vim, that Difference to
woman, that love of purity, that con-
tempt of SOftneSS, that self-Secritice,
that hardness of head and heart and
body. that strength of arm and resO-
luton that is now called the Old-faSh-
Toned fOoliShneSS of purltanism.
The Old-faShiOned fools of Greece
and Rome had old fashioned ways
that it would not hurt us mOdernS to
copy. There were arts known in
those days, lost to this. that it might
he well for us to go three days
journey into the wilderness to discOv-
err That Sartan boy, who, having
lied to his mother about the fox I'M
der his shirt stood without a tremOr
until his heart was gnawed into,cOuld
teach the present boy lesson of for
titude that would be worth dollars to
know. The comfortable home life
and the simple ease of those beautiful
Greeks. reckoned old fools by many
today, would save the nerves Of this
generation as no college of surgeons
can. Athletic life and culture of this
day is turning in its despair to that
old time. and the wisdom of this pres
ent is finding the greatest gain of this
generation in following the paths
marked out by those old-fashiOned
fools.
The hygeinists of today are looking
to the simpleS of life for an antidote
for the humorS and cOrruptiOns that
an involved diet have Saddled upon
our race. In the life of those old
| fashioned fools of the primitive era.
| in the shepherds around their camp
| fires. the herdSmen in their tents, the
artiticers in their open shops, the mer-
chants in their baZarS, whose diet was
! largely such as nature had provided,
whose bed hangingS were the curtains
of the night, to the life Of those old
fashioned fools. simple ones, is the
medical science and wisdom of this
day turning for the corrective that
will restore the human stomach to it's
power and kill the devil of dyspepsia
that has haunted the lives of millions
to their untimely graves.
Among the lost arts that did not
enter into the subject of that beautiful
lecture of the American Spartan,
Wendell Phillips, is that lost art of
living BEAUTIFULLY and simply, and
the one is more largely dependent up
on the other than is generally accept
ed. We think that because those old
buffers could not turn off the gas, OF
flash an electric signal, or talk across
a continent over a wire. or bottle VI
hot water to make the voyage across
an ocean. or shoot prOjectile score
of miles. or whisper love note under
and across the engirdling seas, that
they were not in it with ourselves. Al
mistake. They knew how to live, en-
jOy the hours. take pleasure in ma
tune. have long intervals for rest anC
recreation and converse each day
could sleep at night. endure fatigue
take pleasure in eating, drink the
modern stone blind and feel no worse
for it in the morning, and so on nc
nfnitum. Old-faShienOd fools vol
say.
The Puritan fathers and mothers anC
lovers and SOnS. whom we so mucl
dcrde. because of Il few blue laws
that are not whit worse than SOmC
modern regulations, were not Sucl
Old-faShiOned fools as we write then
down. They could love and hate in {
| fashion that would take the bTeatl
| away from one Of our modern Mis-
| Nancies of either breed. If they be
) lieved in witches they also believed
in manhood, truth, cleanness, per
) Sonal honor. family obligation, bust
: ness integrity, public faith, patriot
ism, as we'll as in God, man and tn
] devil, and they had the courage o
- their convictions and practiced wha
p. they preached. Call them Old-fashion
+ ed fools, for they stood by their altar