The Winslow mail., 1898-06-25
Sensation Seekers /.
Written for the Vinslow Mail.

Written for the Winslow Mail.
America is nation of sensation mon
gers. What wonder The student of
strong mental discipline; the man with
mind, body and impulses under thor
ough control; the woman of innate re-
finement, with her consciousness of
good breeding heightened and strength
ened by deep mental culture; men and
women of conservative and discrimina-
tive decision of character-all these are
lacking in the nations aggregate.
Such men and women in their selec-
tion and appointing of public officials,
in their choice of associates, to say
nothing of friends, consider not the
dress, the superficial social gloss, or the
pocket book. Rather do they look with
in. The man with silk vest, Alaskan
diamond, patent feathers and voice of
a cockney huckster, is not received by
them with out stretched arms. even
though he have bank-roll big as Cree
sus. The woman who runs the gaunt-
let of vaudeville and demi-monde, then
marries some antiquated quahaug and
reforms, need never hope to break her
fast at their board even though she
stife quite with odor of violets and
scent of gold the pungent past.
In America we lack the thoroughly
seasoned man. In his place we have
charlatans and quack-salvers. And
more yet, these are the men who are
foisted into prominence, become teach
ers and leaders of the masses. Barnum
hit the spike on the Uranium when
be said Americans like to be humbug-
ed. The American brain, being consti-
tuted mostly of bi-carbonate of soda,
runs to froth. Hence, with Grass dis
elimination thinks a blatant bluff
mental Hercules.
The editor who conducts his paper
along clean, rational, thoughtful, vera
cious lines is called "behind the times
His paper loses patrons and his purse
loses flesh. While the man who prints
stuff that would pollute garbage heap
wakes fat and hearty, and his paper
sells by thousands. The writer who
vividly and logically pens the panacea
for poverty in politico-economic works
is scarcely read, while yellow-wrapped
depictions of foul and fostering vice
are devoured with avidity. The man
ager of amusement enterprises who sets
before the public play elevating and
ennobling goes broke, while the cor
rupt purveyor to popular passion fills
every seat and whiles away the summer
in his private yacht.
Day was, long years ago-in the un-
civilized past, when our grand-mothers
didn't wear bloomers, and our grand
fathers didn't smoke "twirlers," that
the editor would have been run out of
town, the carmine novelist tarred and
feathered, the producer Of spectacular
correlled in the stocks. But it's diff
ferent now. The reason? Modern de-
generacy. Each OF the above gentle
men give what the people want, and are
willing to pay for. They have oppor-
tunely discovered that sensation seek
ing pays. They may lack refinement,
intellect, integrity and purity, but if
they have the faculty of tickling the
lethargic sensibilities of the popular
mind with risque morsels, seasoned and
favored with vulgarity and coarseness,
their pockets will bulge with gold and
their fame will reach throughout the
earth.
The fruits of sensation are deteriora-
tion and degeneration. Sensation means