Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1898-03-26
THE GOOD OLD TIMES.
bat Much Talked of Epoch Existed in Imag-
nation Alone.

III mucn IatRed OF Epoch ExlSLeu IN 1lldS-
ination Alone
ron the Literary Digest.
When were the good old times?
That was the exact date of that
auch-talked-of and mucE-sighed-after
Qoch2 One of these terrible German
Investigators has been asking some
Qch questions and in the vain effort
b find the exact time and place of the
&ood old days he has gone back in
ain to the dawn of history and the
ra of hieroglyphics. Theodore Kund-
ausen is his name, and in Ueber
land und Nicer, Leipsic, he shows
NAT. Strange to say, the time of per-
|eet pea.e and contentmC n never
kass We summarize his article as
pillows:
The tsgood. old times were not a
century ago, that's plain. for the edi-
|or of the Evangelische Kirchen
eitung then ,wrote:, Every one is
nxious to get rich quickly without
Working, in our times. This craving
tier wealth rapidly acquired demon
lies society more than anything
Ise-" Nor was it fifteen years earlier,
khen the Kreuz Zeitung. said: Now
& last, when immortality is increaS-
Pgsat such frightful rate. reform
hoVement is begun to reduce the evil.
. is terrible. Carnal pleasures al e
pllowed by every one, and they all
Fant to make money, no matter how"
Let us go back little further. In
546 LaShmann complains of the ina
eualistic tendency of our times" In
822 Freiherr Won Stein, summarized
Is observations as follows: 1.-THE
ouHtry is oyeEpopulated, our indus
rfes are too rapidly progressing,
here is much overproduction, and we
We too WE'LL Stein must have been
Mistaken if he thought that this Illus
rated the attitude of the Prussian
eQple only in his own time, for in
507 Niettrammer, the philOlOgiSt,
frote that 1.-THE feverish chase after
honey and profit rules our times
Perhaps the ssgood old times" are to
e found in the eighteenth century.
BUT, alas! Frederick the Great COM
l4ins bitterly; he says he is ''tired
fsruling people, with the minds of
aves." Again, in 1888, Albrecht
Taller wrote that 't'the hearts of our
1tlzens, the very marrow of the
bate, is hollow and rotten. History
kkl record. how soon the downfall of
he country followed the decline of
hOrals." During. the Thirty, Years
Var nobody! will look for the good
Id times" and indeed, George Will
elm of Brandenburg, in an edict,
Frote as follows: 1.-THE people lead
lie lives; murder, highway robberies,
lDOdy feuds and arson are defiling the
ountry.n So we travel back to the
INES of the Reformation, and read
d a letter of. Johann Won Nassau to
William of. Orange. 1888, that ''the
eople are blind to what is good; the
lst for gain on the lone hand, suspi-
ION and pessimism on the other, are
ncreasing." No wonder, then, that
he social :reformer found plenty of
FORK to do among the wealthy ,burgh-
rs of the. times. In, 1865 the Ham
nrg Senate passed laws against luxu-
and immortality, and 1905 the
1mptuary ordinance of the City of
[agdeburg began with the words, ''in
DnsideratiOn.. of the. fact that the
anners and the appearance. of the
eople have. of a verify, changed
kuch,'' and the citizens are accused
hlthy habits, want of order, de-
re to make a show, righteousness,
olation, of. the. Sunday laws, disre-
krd of the, sacredness of an oath, and
sobedience generally to the authori-
rs.
We stand.on the threshold of the
iddle Ages. We hear the agonized
b of peasant carried to barbarous
kecutiOn: s.Woe is me, already must
die, yet have 1 never in my life been
tle to eat my filll'' The Frankfort
led in 1442 reports .'much robbery,
urder, and arson" and Walter Won
Is Vogelweide,. the troubadour, sings
the golden spring of good old
mes, when love and freedom, manly
Unity and truth and holiness were
md sHow pitiful is the conduct
young men nowadays" he exclaims.
confessional manual by Burkard
Worms, in the year 1000, shows
z46 searching questions were
0Qght necessary by the priest; and
881 Ratpert the Monk regards an
<aslon of the Mortimer as just pun
1ment for the wickedness of Lis
incorporates. In 430 Salyian writes.
INV the wealthy men of our times