Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1900-11-17
RoOS1ERS.

The Gate City, Cedsur Rapids Repub-
lican, the Des Moin,ss Register aud
Freem Conway are e ng aged in the dis
cussion of roosters in u campaign.
The Gate City undertakes no defense
of a most r~eprehensiblt. and vugar Gus
tom, but discusses the matter humor-
ously. Freem Conway thinks that the
attempt on the part of certain
papers to eliminate : Z the proud
American bird is a fad. Freem's rea-
sons for retaining the rooster as an
election return are almost overwhelm-
ing. He thinks "a republican paper
never ooks complete without a roos-
ter" etc. .Children can understand
pictures n 1.-THE rooster in the Regis
ter proved an inspiration to every re-
publican child in Iowa" etc, etc.
Custom is indeed a stra nge thing and
habits and tastes acquired in ones
youth are difficult to drop. People used
TO eat with the knife, but gradually the
refinements of society decreed that the
fork was the proper instrument to con-
vey food to the mouth, and yet to this
day many people insist that eating with
the fork .'is a fad Wiping ones mouth
on the overhanging table linen or on the
shirt sleeve, and blowing ones nose in.
the street by using the thumb first on
one side and then on the other are all in
the same category With the rooster
Splitting on the floor, the sidewalk and
on the floors of public vehicles are
among the habits Inherited from our an
%cestors. They are all vulgar and nasty
and no weil-informed and right-minded
gentleman ought to ridicrlle or make
fun of those who are trying to bring
about reform by calling it a fad.
a few days ago the writer was con-
yersing with a male beiI.g known as a
man. The man opened his mouth and
spilled a very large meuthful OF tobacco.
Juice on the beautiful cement sidewalk.
A protest against such a practice was
met with a look of utter amazenent. II
never occurred to him that a sidewalk
was not the proper place to deposit his
filth. He vas simply a vulgar fellow.
The uneducated and pncultured coun-
try pumpkin rigs out his horses when
he takes his hsst girl riding With coiored
oxtails and red, white and blue ivory
Erings-the mere rings the finer the rig.
MLJgEElM
The pumpkin doesn't know any batter.
but he will learn. To his more refined
brother on sister he is simply ii .Jakess e
The newspaper rooster is on a par
With the cxtail and rings. The cam
paign rooster is certainly not pretty.
The bigger the victory, the bigger and
~coarser and more vulgar the bird. To
represent the defeated party a scrawny.
notwithstanding bird is used, one with.
most Of the feathers gone often one on
his back and his feet up, and OCCASION
ally one in the dlgnified attitude of
vomiting. all of Which is edifying and
Instructive, especially to the children.
One does not expect anything else from
lpapers published in backwoods commu-
mites. These methods of instructing the
children are in vogue in Arkansas, and
we think they are especially adapted 10
the great Senator Jones state, but the
Gate City and the Register ought to
know better. Our sympathies are with
the Cedar Rapids Republican. and if
the editor is an old bachelor it is dol
lars to d%oughnuts that he doesn't wipe
his mouth on the table cloth nor expec-
%torate Of the sidewalk.