The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1898-11-03
Present Day Thoughts.

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some day be, is bearable. He imparts
color to the drab life that too many
of us see. Dreams may. indeed, be
made of stuff that has neither texture
nor warmth nor weight, but, like
clouds, they often speak of life hid
ded, yet some day bound to be re-
yealed God bless the dreamers who
walk abstractedly among us of more
practical calibre and see visions and
fortell changesl They have their place
and they bring things to pass that are
impossible to men of little faith
*x*
But the lazy man in politics is diff
ferent creature. He neither sees the
future nor cares Tor siises.s4 s. ~ ~
cept that "in his time there shall be
peace" and be undisturbed. Like
one man | have known with tainted
well who had never known of typhoid
fever in the family,you cannot arouse
him nor shake into him an under
standing of the awakened spirit of
the day that demands a service in
some form from every man as a re-
quital to society for the care and at
tentiOn it permits to surround him.
He would silence the drums and flies
of those who do battle, for his eyes
are closed in self-fostered laziness so
that he sees no hosts to combat He
vacuously asks to be let alone, for he
does not believe in the power of one
solitary man, forgetting that enthu-
siasm and purpose have a self-muIti-
plying element, so that when one
mani is aroused he may find followers
enough to com bat an army of en-
trenching wrong.
The lazy man in politics is ever
ready to say in one breath, "This is
Gods world" and in the next, THE
political world lieth altogether in the
wicked one;;" and between these two
contradictory assertions, like the man
in the narrow lane with hostile bull
before him and another behind, he
will take to the woods and there rest.
To dispose of argument we will sup
pose that God made the country and
all the physical manifestations of life
around us; but social and political
organization is made by man. and by
man is it to be maintained, and by
man is it to be improved and purified
and by none other. There is no eva
sion of this thought possible to an
honorable thinker. Do we create
beautiful city and then utterly neg
lect its constantly recurring needs be-
cause of our faith in the Almighty to
keep the stars in their courses? Do
we work out an intricate machine
and then leave it to run itself because
other, higher law maintains the ma
jestic movements of the planets? Then
neither ought heroic, ahead -of-the-
age men to be permitted to work out
in blood and agony a system for Civ
ing every man a political influence;
and their successors neglect the sa-
cred task and let it fall to the ground.
1t would so fall if all were lazy and
willing to let chances take the helm
of affairs and steer to mischance.
Nv
The lazy man in politics is like the
ungrateful son who forgets the breasts
that nourished him, and would heart
lessly leave his mother to starvation
and fate outside comfortable home
inherited from her.
The lazy man in politics is like the
traveller by rail, who will admire the
solid roadbed and intrust himself to
the splendid safety devices of the
block system and the inter-locking
switches that carry him unharmed
through bewildering freight wards,
and then try to evade the payment of
his fare.
The lazy man in politics is the kid
glove voter, who, having heard that
practical politics from "a filthy pool,
because of his gloves and his own
personal appearance, will leave the
pool untouched, no matter how vile
its influence on the day that now is,
and no matter how sinister its posi-
bic results in the day that is to come.
The lazy man in politics is the wool
en- dummy upon whom the opposing
oilice holders can perform in safety
their great sea-saw act of "ins" and
outs" He is the rich man who finds
it TOO much trouble to vote, and then
goes to much more trouble to play
golf; or the poor man who does not
think it worth while-and is blind,
since political conditions affect the
very air he breaths and the quality
of the food he can put before the hun
cry mouths of his children.
~
The lazy man in politics, like the
laissez-faire nobility of France "a hun
dred years ago, is the real source of
anarchistic murmurings. He it is
who permits the stream of ilI-timed