The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-03-10
THE GOOD OLD TIMES"
That Much Talked of Epoch Existed
in Imagination Alone.

/
| When were the good old times?" What
was the exact date of that much talked of
and much-sghed-over epoch? One of
| these terrible German Investigators has
| been asking some such questions, and in
the vain effort to find the exact time and
| place of the good old days" he has gone
| back in vain to the dawn of history, and
the era of hieroglyphcs! Theodor Kund-
hansen is his name, and in Ueber Land
| und Nicer, Leipsic, he shows that strange
| to say, the time of perfect peace and con-
| tentment never was. We summarize his
| article as follows:
| The good old times were not a-quar-
| ter of century ago, that's plain, for
| the editor of the Evangelische Kirchen
| Zeitung then wrote: Every one is anx-
| ious to get rich quickly and without work
| ing, in our times. This craving after
| wealth rapidly acquired demoralizes So
| ciety more than anything else" Nor was
| 1t fifteen years earlier, when the KrcuZ
| Zetung said Now. at last, when inn
| morality is increasing at such a fright
| fun rate, reform movement is begun
| to reduce the evil. 1t is terrible Carnal
| pleasures are followed by every one and
| they all want TO make money, no matter
| how"
| Let us go back little further In 1916
| Lashmann complains of the ''materialistic
| tendency of our times" In 1922 Freiherr
| Won Stein summarized his observations as
| follows: 'The country Is over populated,
| GUS industries are too rapidly progress
ing, there is much overproduction, and We
| live too we'll" Stein must have been
mistaken if he thought that this Illus
rated the attitude of the Prussian peo-
| pie only in his own time for in 1907 Met
| trammer, the philologist, wrote that The
| feverish chase after money and profit
| rules our times" Perhaps the good old
times are to be foand in the eighteenth
| century. But alas! Frederick the Great
complains bitterly; he says he is tired
| of ruling people with the minds of slaves 8"
| Again, in 1888, Albrecht Haler wrote that
1.-The hearts of our citizens, the very mar
| row of the state, is hollow and rotten.
| History will record how soon the down
| fall of the country followed the decline
of morals" During the Thirty Years War
nobody will look for the good old times"
and, indeed, George Wilhelm, of Brandon
| burg, in an edlct, wrote as follows ''The
| people lead vile lives; murder. highway
| robberies, blood feuds and arson are de-
| filing the country So we travel back
to the times of the reformation, and
read In a letter of Johann Won Nassau to
William of Orange. in 1888, that THE peo-
| pie arc blind to what is good the lust
for GAIN on the one hand, suspicion and
| pesslmism, on the other are increa sing"
No wonder, then, that the social reform
er found plenty of work to do among the
| wealthy burgherS of the times. In 1865
the Hamburg Senate passed laws against
luxury and immortality, and in 1906 the
sumptuary ordinance of the City of Mag
deburg began with the words, in con
sideration of the fact that the manners
and the appearance of the people have
a q y,
citizens are accused of filthy habits. want
of order, a desire to make a show. ir-
righteousness, violation of the Sunday
laws, disregard of the sacredness of an
oath, and disobedience generally to the
authorities.
We stand on the threshold of the Mid
die Ages We hear the agonized cry of a
peasant carried to barbarous execution
Woe is me, already must I die vet have
| never in my life been able to eat my
fill! The Frankfort Diet in 1872 reports
much robbery. murder, exc arson" and
walter Won der Vogelweide. the trouba-
dour, sings of 1.-The golden spring of good
| old times" when love and freedom. manly
dignity and truth and holiness We're
found.
How pitlful is the conduct of vo,ns,
men nowadays" he exclaims "A confess
sional manual by Burkard Won Worms.
in the year 1000, shows what searching
questions were thought necessary by the
PRIEST and in ISL Ratpert the Monk re-
CARDS an invasion of the Mortimer as
just punishment for the wickedness of
his contemporaries In 1870 Salvian writes.
How the wealthy of our times rob the
poor and ruin the country is best known to
the Spanish provinces, of whom the name
alone remains and to the African prov
inces, which are ruined, and Gallia which
has been devastated"
Ancient history does not encourage. our
search for the good old times" Lactan-
thus, a contemporary of Constantine the
Great, declares that 1.-THE country Is ruin
ed by overtaXation. the peasants leave
their acres, ana land which should be cul-
tivated is changed into forests
Throughout the entire period of imperial
Rome we meet with the complaint that
agriculture is declining. that superstitio
is rampant and morals are bad The
purer spirits of those times always wished
for THE vanished past, when men led
natural lives and civilization was not
Suetonius and Tacitus prove TO us thar
THE good old times" were not with them.
Perhaps We find them with the republic
of Rome. But Cicero denies IL. and Gains
Lucllius wonders il Rome is still worthy
of the protection of the gods The scandal
cases of 1856 b. c. prove that reform was
| necessary even then, and that the an
thorites We're forced to legislate against
immortality and the destruction of fam
lily life. Cato's thunderings against the
immortality of his times, and his praise of
THE good old times" are well known.
but the bitter class wars of the ages before
his birth do not lead us 10 think we are
very close to the object of our search.
Turning to Greek literature, we find
that Poybius. complains of corruption
and the waste of public funds, of poversy
of ch!ldless marriages. and ruin OF the
country Strabo relates that the Thepan
villages were devastated during the time
of the Macedonian empire. Isocrates
suggests the founding of colonies where