Twice-a-week plain dealer. (Cresco, Howard County, Iowa) 1895-1913, 1901-01-25

We note with satisfaction that the |
public is wearying of the cheerful
idiots w h O IN ke
grotesque election !
wagers and that the
extremely silly performances which the
losers are required to undertake are
meeting with small encouragement
The right of a man to make fool OF
himself is probably inalienable. Equal
ly SO is the right of any two men to
agree that under certain circumstances
one shall do this for the amusement Of
the other. No less inalienable, however,
quite truly remarks the New York
Times, is the right of the public to
the use of the streets and highways
for the legitimate purposes for which
they are provided and maintained, and
the man who in the payment of ar
election bet seeks to monopolize street
or other public place for any such pur-
pose as trundling another man about
in wheelbarrow or its equivalent has
only himself to blame if he is hustled,
guyed, pelted with disagreeable mis-
siles and generally reminded that to
answer a fool according to his folly
has high and ancient sanction. The
man who agrees, il his favorite candi-
date is defeated, or his plurality prog
nosis is in error, to turn his garments
inside out, don his wife's bonnet and
nj do loo 10 Nv
Hall park to Union square preceded
by gutter band, may think he has
promised to do something prodigious-
ly funny, but he is mistaken. 1t is not
funny at all, but only serves to make
the judicious grieve. But there is an
other and better reason for discour-
aging such exhibitions. AS giving oc-
casion for postelection jubilation they
are, in small way, mischievous. When
the count is finished, the tally verb
fed and the result announced and ac-
cepted, those moved to indulge in noisy
and unseemly rejoicings would do well
| to consider whether it is not in bad
taste, at least, to do that which gives
needless offense to those who find the
result profoundly disappointing 1t is
the part of good citizenship to take
| political victories, like those of civil
war, thankfully, it may be, but with
out unseemly rejoicing; to remember
that the defeated party represents one
phase of public opinion on great ma
tional issues, and to permit the wounds
of defeat and disappointment to heal
by first intention. No one objects very
seriously to the shouting and horn
blowing of election night, when some
eNuberance of enthusiasm is expected
but that should end it, Our people
We're ever generous in victory and pa
tient in defeat at the polls, and the
sooner the banners are taken down
the litter of the booths swept up and
the headquarters surrendered the bet
ter While prosperity-which, to Dor
row the eloquent words of an es
teemed contemporary. has been ane
is now ampant''-continues to ramp
self-respecting and sensible people car
iilo more pfoitaDle occupation thaT
making spectacles of themselves OF
J encouraging others to do so.
Although it has been the centur
= OF the widest conquest, it has bee
! the century also of the creates
liberation, of the keenest huma,
sympathy, the most active helpful
n
} dom' man has become a brother te
man as he never became in eras Of
meditation and authority. 1t has
oeen the century of heroic fact-fndine
says Worlds Work, the century of tb,
emancipation of thought from mys
terry and dogma, and of the vieldine
OF precedent to experience.