The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1901-04-04
TERMa.J Shopper year, In advaL CO
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while gold is in sight. The Romans
were heather, which to my mind had
very little to do with their downfall or
immortality as 1 have learned from
present history in the twentieth CEN
tury that people living under Chris
tian civilization can be as cruel and I'M
moral as the worst Roman of them all,
which believe was Nero, the fiddling
Emperor. Therefor we cannot Justly
depreciate the wonderful achievements
OF Rome by saying they were heather
for we of the present day are as
divided in our creeds as were the
Romans on their Gods. Nor can we
say that the laxity or corruptness of
Roman law was so much inferior to
that which we have in the present
century. 1 know this is rather strong
assertion to make under a Mckinley
administration, yet where all law was
made for the benefit of the aristocracy
of Rome, we have the majority of our
laws made for the monopolistic COM
bines and political rings of our times.
And yet to be a Roman citizen was
more proudly felt, than to be a St.
Paul alderman, and under the Roman
law and discipline men attained
standard that few equal today. One
of the greatest faults placed to the
credit of Rome was the upholding of
slavery. 1t was not adopted from
desire for luxury or wealth as can be
said of the slavery in the south only
forty years ago. Roman slavery was
brought to its greatest height as a
result of the wars on surrounding
nations, and the prisoners of such wars
became slaves because it was dangerous
to the state to leave them free, and
barbarOus to kill them, and so Rome &C.
cepted the easiest method of settling the
question. And we of the present
century don't require to go back further
then one hundred years to find similar
conditions existing among the most
Christian nations of the world.
l have heard speakers refer. to the
lack of hospitals, asylums and state
institutions in general among the
Greeks or Romans and it seems strange
to them that Rome with it's great
power and wealth failed to have them.
They fail to consider the difference
between Rome of two thousand years
ago and the patent-medicine, plague
ridden world of today. Romans didn't
have sand in their sugar, chickory in
their coffee, and thousand and one
adulteratiOns that we of the present
enlightened era have to contend against
Even in their warfare, the wounds
inflicted were slight as compared to
that Of today. Again it is said that
women did not receive the same recog-
milton OF equality among men as they
do at the present time; and vet since
the day that Madam Eve got an eject
ment served on Adam, women have
received their share of this worlds
and also managed to cause
a shortage on mans portion in many
instances.
We callnOt take a certain class of
people from any age and Judge the
whole therefrom. If the slums of our
cities were held up as result of our
civilization by some future race who
may inhaDit the world twenty centuries
from now, it would not be Just nor
correct in giving an estimate of our
civilization nor the effects of our
Christianity; and still we have this
class in as great proportion as did the
Greeks or Romans, and under a more
perfect and enlightened civilization, as
we ourselves claim. AS [ view the
question, history is simply mill that
grinds out whatever you put in it; and
until the grain if may SO term man.
kind is sorted and cultivated to a
higher quality of perfection, both
mentally and physically, the grist will be
the same with its mixture of rottenness
and good, which may make a good
historical cake. Yet, although we
may improve ours of the twentieth
century with frosting and gingerbread
work, we will find when we cut it and
place it before the professors of the
fOrtietb century that it is the same old
cake served to us by the Romans and
Greeks, only we have the advantage of
using Republican baking powder in
it, with little Democratic spice added.
So in conclusion 1 would say, Judge
the ancients leniently, because our
history may be ancient also some day,
and we won't be here to defend it.
JAN O'RURICK.