The Savannah morning news., 1903-04-23

this capacity of enjoyment an advan-
tage of education? If a man returns
, dead-tired whether from a musty law
office or brick-laying. why has he not
the, right to read a comic story or in
dulge in some such petty amusement
to relieve his mind and. his fatigue?
Even the great Samuel Johnson is
reported to have amused himself by
hanging upon the ratings of London
Bridge and listening to, the stories and
jokes that drifted up from the river
bargemen below. Another point is,
that the masses probably do not read
Nick Carter as much as Mr.. Eltz-
bacher leads one to suppose. A young
minister in New York spoke to me
recently of the interest taken by the
Working-men of his parish in the great
capital versus labor question, and
OF their surprising knowledge of facts,
drawn from reading newspapers and
articles upon the case.
AS for the degeneration of the stage,
life is so strenuous that human kind
seeks for light diversion in its leisure
moments through that unvarying law
OF reaction. The unfortunate thing is
that the public has lost it's artistic
appreciation of the drama. Can Mr..
Eltzbacher not only state but prove
that this is due to higher education or
booklshness. According to our law of
reaction is 1t not rather the fault of
a hard, GREATNESS modern life inau-
gurated in many instances by self
made men? In regard to the fate of
the drama, we may draw some, COM
fort from the fact that the Frogs of
Aristophanes," bowling burlesque,
was produced most SUCCESSFULLY in the
hest dramatic nprind ~ ho
time of Aeschylus and Sophocles. Mr..
EltZbacher has pointed out the un-
doubted dangers in our modern middle
life from Indifference to what is literary
and proper. He has still to prove that
education and not lack of education
has caused these evils.
In conclusion, the mistake might be
corrected that the so-called educa-
ton of persons beyond their means is
a ball of mud to hurl at culture. Why
is it a fault of culture? 1t is just as
If one should say to a candy clerk
We'll, here you are distributing this
much desired article to other people
who have the money to pay for it.
Because you cannot obtain it, though
you may be every bit as good as they,
the world is all wrong" One of the
tragedies of life is the education of
a child for a social position it can
ilOl lldlllldlil Is THAT the ldull OI euu-
cation or the mistake of the parents
and the incapacity of the child? Be
cause our style of college education,
for example, seldom benefits the
negro, the inability of the black mans
mind to follow the white mans meth
DDS is clearly manifest, not that the
white mans method is a poor one.
In this discussion 1 have somewhat
torn Mr.. Eltzbachers article to pieces.
This I have done not through lack of
respect nor in blind Indifference to
the value and insight of his essay,
but simply in order to bring forth,
particularly in my own town and as
well as 1 could, the other and more
optimistic point of view. Methods of
higher education, whether for college
men or for the lower classes are not
so bad after all. To the impartial
observer education should not have
quite so many disadvantages in Amer
lea as the English writer has pointed
out 1t certainly has many advantages
for greater usefulness and deeper en-
joyment that he has entirely omitted
Antonio Johnston Waring,
New Haven. Conn.