The new dominion. [volume] (Morgantown, W. Va.) 1876-1904, 1897-02-13
Some Rambling Thoughts.
BY MEMO.

simple savage stopped before it in
awe; peopled it's wierd mists with
spirits; gazed, grew hungry, and de-
parted. Generations of white men
have followed. They came; they
saw; were conquered; and still left
it to it's thunderous waste of power.
Then arose men of fearless heart,
who, like the conquerors of our
swamps, our forests, and our prairies,
said to riotous nature, "The sons of
men have need of thee" At last the
broad bosom of the stream, still in
beauty gliding, is the donor of light
and heat, power and transportation
to the thousands who are gathering
to it, like children to a generous
mother
~
Praised be all practical men who
are not confused by the noise of
many shoutings; who stand like a
rock in the rush of the thoughtless
throng; who dare to ask for actual
results from culture and popular en-
enthusiasm. Diogenes was of these
unconfused ones; sweeping aside
polish and artificialities, he dared to
ask his age whether it had produced
an honest man. If in all its gaining
it had failed to uplift character,
then its material progress was like
Niagara Embarrassed, beautiful but
essentially futile. a hopeful spirit
is of great gain; but upon the minds
of even the most hopeful of us must
be forced deepest questioning as to
whether civilization may not posi-
bly, be progressing backward in
these broad States. We fippantly
talk of millions; we pride ourselves
on the vastness of our territory; we
tell of its onward sweep and the
very noise of boasting so fascinates
us that we are 10th to ask for real
evidences of power. A few statis-
tics in one direction are unavoida-
BILE. They shall be very limited in
number.
Roughly speaking we have in this
country 100000 public-school teach
ers. BY latest figures from the Bur
eau of Education, we spend yearly
IT'S millions of dollars on our com
mon schools, whose buildings are
valued at 439 millions of dollars.
There are enrolled in public and
private schools Is millions of chill
dren of school age. So much for ed
ucation.
There are here very nearly 100, 1000
paid teachers of religion, the clergy
they officiate in a somewhat larger
number of buildings. Their work is
aided by the labors of rs thousand
Sunday-school superintendent and
legions of teachers. The enrolment
of pupils is nearly equal to that in
the public schools. So much for re-
ligion.
Is there not in these two organized
forces, very Niagara of power?
~
But despite education, there are
vast numbers~ho seem utterly I'M
prepared to struggle for existence.
Though knowledge is increased like
a flood, and men hold their hands
aloft to praise free education, it still
has failed to give worthy ideals to
the jewellers in our jails, the tramps
on our highways, and the traitors in
our political life. Despite Religion
and Science-and Education-the
triune hope of the race, thousands
opon thousands of men are beastly
and grovelling, selfish and cruel In
their most essential relations they
will remain in the deepest darkness;
tsitness the swarms of idiots and the
gibbering hosts of the insane. To
knowledge we may well say:
~
"Of what avail to tame the lightning's
speed,
To quell the waves and hold the winds
in lash,
If health no more be Labor's need,
If love be smothered. honor spurned,
And beauty crushed in Mammon's blind
stampede?
What boots it to have turned,
The soils dull sons to nervous factory
slaves,
Ifpain that stunts, if pleasuSe that de-
Hurry the haggaru millions to their
graves?
What profits it to heap
Hoard upon hoard in hideous towns, and
acmiss& - ~ u
The pure sky and the sweet airs kiss
To weigh the stars and lack the gift of
joy,
Outstrip the storm and lose the boon of
sleep.
~
Confucius, ages ago, suggested the
proper feeling you thinkers should
have in the presence Of proofs that
both church and school fall short of
their powers. Said he, Gin archery
we have something like the way of the
superior man. When the archer misses
the centre of the target he turns
round and seeks for the cause of his
failure in himself"
1t will not do to cry out desperately
that immigration is the source of fail
ure, for many of the most conservative
elements in the community have come
recently from abroad. One ill1stra-
tion will suffice. The purest Ameri-
can blood, undiluted Anglo-Saxon for
two centuries, can be found in the
two rural counties of Delaware. Yet
in no regions of the country, even
where English is hardly spoken, would
it be possible to find more abuse of
the voting power.
1t will not do to cry out that popu-
lation has increased so rapidly that it
has out-run all attempts to cope with
it; for your agencies for good, your en-
gines for the destruction of evil have
more than kept up with it as whole.
Far from it being fact that evil
workers come alone from those that
Religion and Education have failed to
reach; it is true that scholars, secular
and religious, are frequent among
our criminals, that some even drench-
ed with the droppings Of the sanctuary
take their share in evils of every de-
scription.
1t will not do to affirm the will of
God in the birth Of idiots and the de-
velopment of insanity, for science will
disprove your bubble, and affirm that
much If not all is preventable by sane
knowledge of the laws of life; subjects
that in your strange timidity you are
almost afraid to mention above your
breath.
~
Shall we travel further together9
RIfx xni11. frrooor;aa ~ pna4o.,,s