Kansas agitator. [volume] (Garnett, Kan.) 1890-1905, 1901-06-14

of contests, including the oratorical. Orator
ical and baseball contests are not necessarily
harmful, any more than the development of
wealth. The mischief lies in the fact that the
contests, either in Wall street, on the campus
or the race-track, have become so al.absorbng
as to leave little room for so many of the more
important interests of the human family.
We have not only departed from the oldtime
landmarks iii national affairs, but we have
likewise departed from the old.time steady in.
dustry that afforded all competence and none
surplus.
Fifty years ago, throughout the West, it was
sidered dishonorabe to acquire wealth except
through the steady industry that returned to
society as much as received. The honor was
on the side of the man who gave more than he
received. 1t was easy for Uncle Toms Cabin
to root in the soil of that day.
great principle grew with great rapidity,
because the soil was fertile and the climate
congeua.
The ebb promises to carry us far from land
So, to-day, society is inclined to bestow honor
upon the unworthy. Great is the fnancier who
absorbs the product of other mems labor. Much
eclat is bestowed upon the skillful football or
base bail player. There are scraps over orator
ical contests. The man of fine clothes, fine
talk and unlimited gall in political affairs is
preferred to the thoughtful, able and patriotic
gentleman of noble character. Woe to the
humble or the obscure.
There are good doctors without patients,
lawyers without clients and honest merchants
with few customers, who, not being Sin the
swim," apparently are of as little account as
the dust on the streets and highways. l am
saying nothing about the teachers and preach
ers who do so much and receive so little as to
make them not worth while to mention them.
Is 1t not fact that we are sporting with the
liberty of great nation, with the continuance
of civilization (say nothing of advance), with
the happiness of millions unborn? Yea, verify!
Whatsoever man soweth, that shall he
also reap" Whatsoever a nation soweth, that
shall it also reap. They that sow to the wind
shall reap the whirlwind. Washington, Phil.
lips and Lincoln sowed to liberty and happiness,
and the old soldiers under Grant garnered
great harvest.
Our children seem to be casting out the grain
to be devoured ty swine.
If we had made the Roman and Grecian
peoples our study, and aimed at having them
for our models, we could not have more closely
followed them in the general drift of recent af.
fairs. Greece and Rome had their periods Of
heroic men and women. They had their sports
and milionaires and spolt did for those nations
what no outside enemy could do so long as no.
BILE character was cultivated Their sports de-
stroyed them as nations and wrecked their civ
iization. do not mean to say that the games
OF the Greeks or the gladiatorial tragedies of
the Romans ruined those peoples. 1t was sport
ing with opportunity until the demons of lust,
ambition and avarice gained the ascendancy
over nobility of character. The fatal sporting
was in the days when Greece and Rome had
seemingly reached the pinnacle of grandeur.
Had those peoples continued to cultivate the
virtues that raised them to high level of civ.
ilization, there would have been no break in
their advance, and no downfall. Opportunities
are prese nted once only in the life of nation,
and, once sported away, are never rcgained.
There was no break in the onward and upward
movement of the American people from Wash.
ington to Lincoln. Publish it not in Gath, but
the break has come. We are sporting with all
the best and noblest things that belong to our
civilization; sporting with the Bible-the book
that, more than any other book, made our
fathers great and OF glorious memory; sporting
with the rights aud liberties of the black man.
whose freedom cost rivers of blood and untold
treasure; sporting with ou- institutions of learn
ing in that we train the head and leave the