Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-08-29

I gardener. who prided himself on being
strenuously of"the opposition party. What
do you think of the new administration?
said l when l came upon him one morning
at the rhododendron beds.
Much better than / allowed" said he.
"Burbanks got good men around him.
You approve of his cabinet?
"O2 course, they're all strong party men.
like good party man. 1 like man that
has convictions and principles, and stands
up for en-
Your newspapers say some pretty severe
things about those men,,
SO 1 read" said he. but you know how
that is, Mr.. Sayler. They've got to poupd
EN- to please the party. But nobody be-
| lieves much he sees in the newspapers.
Whenever l read an item about things l
happen to know, it's all wrong. And
! guess they don't get it any nearer right
about the things l don't happen to know.
Now, all this here talk of there being SO
many millionaires-I don't take no kind of
stock in it,
''Oi course. some's poor and somes rich
that's got to be. But think it's all news
paper lies about these here big fortunes
and about all the leading men in politics
being corrupt know 1t amt so about the
leading men in my party, and l reckon
there amt no mere truth In it about the
leading men of your'n. | was saying to
my wife last night, It's all newspaper les,
says I, just like the story they printed
about Mrs. Timmins clipping with Maria
Wilmerding's husband, when she had only
went over to Rabbit Forks to visit her
married daughter No, they can't fool me,
them papers"
That's one way of looking at It," said 1.
IT'S horse sense" said he.
And have no doubt that to the average
citizen, leading a small, quiet life and deal
Ing with affairs In corner-grocery retail,
the stupendous facts of Accommodations of
wealth and wholesale. far-andwide pur
chases Of the politicians, the vast system
OF bribery, with brides adapted to every
taste and conscience, seem impossible
ties. romancings of partisanship and envy
and sensationalism. Nor can he under
stand the way superior men play the great
games. the heartlessness Of ambition. the
cyEicism of political and commercial pros
tuition, the sense of superiority to the legal
and moral codes which comes to most men
with success.
Your average citizen is a hero-worshiper,
too. He knows his own and his neighbor's
weaknesses, but he gapes UP at the great
with glamoured eyes, and listens to their
smooth plausibilities to the reading of
the gospel from the pulpit. He belongs to the
large mass of those who believe, not to the
small class of those who question. But for
the rivalries and jealousies of superior men
which have kept them always divided into
two parties, the ms and the outs, 1 imagine
the masses would have remained for ever
sunk in the most hopeless, If the most de-
Eghtful, slavery-that in which the slave
accepts his lowliness as a divine ordinance
and looks up to his oppressors and plum
deTeTS as neTO-leduerS. Ana doubt,
long as the exuberant riches of our coun-
try enable the triumphant class to take
care Of all the hungry who have intellect
enough to make themselves dangerous, we
shall have no change-except occasional
spasms whenever a large number of I'M
placed intelligent hungry are forcing the
full and fat to make room for them. How
long will this be?
If educa ton did not merely feed pre-
JUDGES instead of removing them l should
say not long. AS 1t is, l expect to leave the
world as wicked and as foolish as l found
1T. At any rate, until the millennium.
shall continue to play the game under the
rules of human nature-instead of under
the rules Of human ideals as does my es-
teemed friend Scarborough And l claim
that we practical men are as true and useful
servants Of our country and Of our fellow
men as he. If men like him the light,
men like us are the lantern that shields 1t
from the alternating winds of rapacity and
resentment.
But. in running about myself I have
got away from my point, which was how
slight and even fiimsy pretense of fairness
will shelter a man in high place-and there
fore Burbank He will fool the people
as easily as he fools himself" said /. And
more than ever 1t seemed to me that must
keep out of the game of his administration.
My necessity of party regularity made it
impossible for me to oppose him; my equal
necessity of not outragins my sense of the
wise. not to speak of the decent, made it
Impossible for me to abet him.
his name was brought to me, l regretted
that l could not follow my strong impulse
to refuse to him. But at sight of his big
strong body and big, strong face, with its
typtca!ly American careless good humor-
the cool head, the warm heart, the amused
eyes and lips that could also harden into
sternness or resolution-at sight of this old
friend and companion-in-arm my mood
began to lift and l felt him stirring in it
like sunshine attacking a fog. Il know
what youv come to say" / began, but
don't say it,: l shall keep to my tent for
the present"
Then you won't have tent to keep to-
retorted he.
Very well. said 1. MY private affairs
will give me all the occupa ton l need"
He laughed. THE general resigns from
the command of the army to play with a
box of lead soldiers"
That sounds we'll" said 1. but the
better the analogy, the worse the logic /
am going out Of the business of making and
working off gold bricks and green goods
and that's no analogy"
Then you must be going to Kill Yourself"
he replied. For that's life"
Public life-actve life" said l. Here
there arc other things And l looked
toward my two daughters. whose laughter
reached us from their pony-cart Just round
ing a distant curve in the drive.
His gaze followed mine and he watched
the two children until they were out of
sight, watched them with the saddest hun
griest look in his eyes. Guess you're
right" ne aid grufhy.
After silence 1 asked: What's the
neWs?"
quizzcal smile just curled his lips and
1t broadened into a laugh as he saw my
own rather shamefaced smile of under
standing. Seems to me- said he that
/ read somewhere once how a king perhaps
1t was an emperor, SO hankered for the
quiet joys that he got off the throne and re-
tired to a monastery-and then established
lines of post-horses from his old capital
to bring him the news every half hour or
co rly0p hn' no toly t. i1k~l 49,
If he could have got It,"
II reckon said l.
We'll" said he, 1.-The news is that they're
about to GUST you from the craftsmanship
of the national committee and from con-
troll in this state
"Really?' said I, in an Indifferent tone
though 1 felt anything but Indifferent.
Really" said he. Burbank is throwing