The Washington herald., 1906-11-12

The man with the muck rake was raked
over the Goals by Dr. Wallace Radcliffe,
Of the New York Avenue Presbyterian
Church, I'm his sermon last evening. He
characterized the muck-raker as menace
to the community, and showed his own
optimism by declaring the world is better
than It ever was. DR.. Radcliffe said in
part:
His name is Gashmu. His appearance
is peculiar His eyes are defective. so
that a straight truth becomes to him a
corkscrew of error, and he can never look
up. His ears are worse. At best a
crooked organ, everything goes in with a
twist. so that a negative becomes a
positive and he can hear words that have
never been spoken. His tongue shutters
and stammers, and his whisper can be
heard around the world. His nostrils are
remarkable. He can smell what ne wishes
to smell. and to him a dunghill is more
fragrant than a garden
His portrait was painted by Bunyan,
and hangs I'm the House of the Inter
prefer. It reveals a man who can look
no way but downward, and in his favor
ite position, with a muck rake in his
hands. over his head one who offers him
a celestial crown, but he does neither look
up nor regard. but rakes together the
straws, small sticks. and dust of the floor
Has Mission.
THE man with the muck rake has 4
mission. Straws, and sticks. and dust,
abound The common scavenger has his
place. No earthly city is paved with gold.
There are bad men and women, dishon-
est business, scheming politics. reckless
society, defiant trusts, unscrupulOus ed
itors, impure literature, and insincere pro-
fession everywhere. and life and health
require their recognition and removal
That IS not high type of piety which
swaths itself in silks. and breathes in
perfUmed atmosphere, and shutting its
eyes. sings. Gods in the Heavens; alTs
right with the world
"All is not right with the world. Sin
abOunds, and sin is muck. Gather it up
that it may be cast into the he'll fire. Our
very prosperity breeds Indifference. Our
palace must not look out upon the hospi-
tai. Our automobile must whir past green
field and beautiful forest
But many q palace is built on wrong
and decked in vice, and many an auto
mobile crushes over law and life and hui
man souls knowledge is the process to-
ward conviction and redress. This nation
needs more than anything else a prophets
Ciear-toned voice 10 show the people their
transgression. A muck rake is good
thing. All depends upon the man that
uses IL He is apt 10 see nothing but the
muck To him the world is all straw anG
sticks and dust
He cannot, If he would, see anything
else. Sometimes he is an editor, and his
columns reek with the yellow muck Of
tainted money and insurance scandal.
cold-bloOded commercialism and vileness
of prostituted life and tongue.
Sometimes he is a novelist and his lutte
becomes a sewer for the pouring Of filth
and UnfaithfuIness into the hearts and
homes of the Unwary.
Sometimes he is a preacher of right
eOusness and he uses his platform for the
spectacular panorama of vice and his bril-
liant rhetoric for the gliding Of the thing
that should be hidden and despised. The
man with a muck rake may set on a
tripod. lounge in a salon, or stand in a
pulpit.
Sometimes n TaIe-bearer.
Sometimes he is the friend and neigh
Dor, who tatties from house TO house.
adders poison under their lips. dropping
slander and suspicion and ugliness as he
goes and leaving behind him the Uttered
straw and dust in clean homes and limo
cent hearts. He believes in total depravity
with a big D. He thinks he knows human
nature. and does not believe in It.
NO shrewdness can conceal from him.
no simplicity mislead. Nehemiah could
not fool Gashmu. He might talk as he
pleased about the city Of his fathers and
his fathers God That will do on the
platform, but between men. I know
what you are after; no hOodwinking now
you want to rebel.
But human nature IS a minglng of
good and evil. If wrong abOunds. good
much more abounds Even though all
were true, why roll It under the tongue
as a sweet mOrsel. OF parade it as an
acquisition. Some men are as proud Of
muck as others are Of money. Why dis
play it, even if it is there? Most scav-
enger work is done at night. A fact may
be a fact, but that is no reason Tor its
publication. There are crowns and angels
if we would only look up.
"AlI Christians are not hypOcrites, all
corporations are not sOulless; all mer-
chants are not thieves; all bankers are
not gamblers. The commercial wrongs are
impressed by the contrast. The world Is
better than it ever was. The tone of
public life is pUreT, nobler, cleaner than
ever. Distance lends enchantment to the
virtues and early days OF the republic.
THE man with the muck rake is a
menace to the community. He dissent
mates disease. He undermines the founda-
tions of society. He chooses for
himself straw where he might have
a crown. And ne that spends his
life with a muck rake becomes assimi-
lated TO the muck Gashmu is not as
good as the vulture which, having no
feathers on head or neck does not be
come filthy with the carrion. These hu-
man vuitures are vile with the filth on
which they feed