The San Angelo press. (San Angelo, Tex.) 1897-1907, 1903-02-04


brutality. John Wilson Ben
cough in his Bret Harte poem,
"The Whaling Of the Kid" In
many Keys--W. Briggs, Toronto]
expresses the same idea. The
poet 10 about TO write:---
when sudden IKE, an loud aud shrin.
A yen my idle ear assaulted.
IL made me stsr and drop my quill-
The neishbors kid sss get,in' ~hsled.
Yes. sure enough, poor little chap,
For some new mischief, ] suppose
An'I could hear the bare hand slap
Just where he didn't wear no clothes;
He yelled. % crost that knee he lay,
An tried TO plead, but choked an failed,
Ma, IN be goo6H he tried TO say,
Poor hid when be vas eettin' vhaled.
You know the sorter noise 1t vuz,
ArAspin' roar, half crowned inteaB,
That sometimes to . screech arose
An nlled you fun OF nsmslcss feas;
But s,il the welts Jew hot An' fast--some
wholesome truth was bein' nailed.
An then the smackin' ceased AZ last,
The Job was done-the kid was whaled.
But yet, for quite spell heard
The piteous aftersobs he made,
An every passin' little bird
Quit chirplng when near by IL strsyed,
An the old house dog down below
Rosm'd III At ease and droopy tailed
An every critter seemed to know
The neighbor's kid had just been vhsled.
There are other poems of SINH
lar nature in the book but the
golden thread running through
each, is the hatred of all form of
force and injustice. He is ting
ed with Tolstoi-lsm.
*4*
Mia Upper Maynard is less
consciously affected by Tolstoi in
the critical essay on walt Whit
man." a book that should be on
the shelves of the public school
library. Nevertheless the broad,
all comprehensive democracy of.
Whitman differs in degree only
from that of Tolstoi, as may be
seen in the chapter on Unity with
Nature. At one of the Business
Mems Club meetings, well
known citizen voiced an en-
phatic protest against all giving
of power into the hands of any
man or set of men, and he
seemed to me typical of the
grand old school of consistent
democrats. Whitman's declara-
ton that the greatest city is one
where 1.-The citizen is always
the head and the ideal and pres
ident, mayor, governor and what
not, are agents for pay--where
children are taught to be laws to
themselves and depend on them
selves" sprang to my mind. One
remembers Pindar, "A plain
spoken man brings advantage to
every government, to monarchy,
and when the impetuous crowd,
and when the wise, rule city. ;"
When hearing such sentiments
and, strange paradox, agreeing
with the true democrat, almost
wishes to place the power he de-
precates in his hands.
***
The trend of thought amongst
evolutionists is most decidedly
toward the larger hope and be-
lief. The belief put forward by
John Fiske in his Destiny of
Man that "the materialistic as
sumption that the life of the soul
ends with the life of the body, is
perhaps the most colossal in
stance of assumption that is
known in the history of phil
osophy." / note that Funk e.
have produced a book
by DIR. l. X. Funk inspired to
some extent by these views. The
next step in evolution according
to this writer, is an advent when
men will be lifted to the Christ
plane of spiritual comprehension.
"We are" he says, making so
great din preaching and praying
that we are not able to hear Him
talk" and if we would but look,
the true brotherhood is right at
hand.
A school girl, couple of days
ago, pointed out that / had made
m error in ascribing the author
ship of Mistress Joy to the same
person as that of 1.-THE Last
Word - | thank her for corraot-