Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-02-03
LOOKING BACKWARD
THE PRESENT SHOWS IMPROVE
MENT ON THE PAST.
The Poor of Today Live Better than
the Rich Of Yesterday-Morala
Of Men Are Higher.
From the Independent.

'eaH thr iuuelPnuent.
The American has but one grand pas.
sioh-that OF progress. No person In this
country is thoroughly happy unless he can
De doing something little better than
1t was done by his predecessors Natu.
rally. to take a backward look Is occa.
sionaily relief The whole nation has
IT'S periods of eagerly studying history.
ana the present Is one of these periods
II is wholesome exercise to look over
the achievements OF the past: but the
secret OF our present development OF his.
toricai writing seems to be a desire to
secure rest and recuperauon On the
awning over store We have often seen =
haif dozen spinning wheels. such as our
mothers kept pace with seventy-nve years
ago. People who live in the finest houses
eye those meme1tos with great interest,
ana for time there was n fashion for buy-
ing them 10 place In Queen Anne windows
There was sensation OF rest in looking at
tne relics OF more pastoral days.
Those of us who are full of years find q
deal of comfort In dreaming of the old road
SIDES, where. as bare-footed boys. We chased
through bun thistles and caught white
faced bumbie5ees. Why not let our own
poys go hare-legged among thstles and
burdocks? The first break with brute life
was kindi!ng a fire with flint: yet less than
hundred wears ago civilization was still
knocking hints together in finder or In pow
der; How carefully in the big fireplace. at
night our mothers covered the Goals to keep
them alive until morning. And IT, by
chance, the fire went out. the oldest boy or
girl must run to a nelghbor with two pieces
OF bark TO borrow Goals. Our mothers were
adopts at bringing even threads off the
spindle, while they reeled small talk and
neighborly gossip; but the newspaper came
only once a week. and every letter sent
three hundred miles cost twenty cents,
postage.
The average of human life was not much
over twenty years, and such diseases as
cholera. plague. smallpox and typhoid
fevers were set down as vlsitations Of
Providence. Now our average age is over
forty and increasing
If anything Is certain II is that the most
dreaded diseases will all be hunted down.
their causes discovered and then re-
moved.
The Poor Live Better.
In no respect is the frontage of evolution
more surely beneficent than when we con-
slider our private homes. The ancient house
was not superior to a modern hove!-with-
out glass or carpets or subdivision. All OF
art belonged to the cathedrals and the,
gods: enough for the individual to antici-
pate golden palaces hereafter. Today there.
is no one thing so perfect as the common
man. house. Its spring bed has more COM
fort than the state touches OF Louis le
Grande. Base-burners and furnaces keep
him warm. dozen books cost the price.
OF quarter of lamb or roast or beef. Ten
square yards of news. printed IN clear
type, come to his door each morning for
two cents.
You may measure the common mans evo-
luton at his table. Descended from an
cestors whose struggle for existence made.
them deVour the West food, find our
tables spread with luxurious variety. gath
cred from every quarter of the globe. or the
direct products of our experiment stations,
and our Burbanks. The pride of America
is once more in her agricultural achieve
ments. Every weed contains undeve,oped
wealth. and bless ngs for mankind; and
man will yet find them all out"
There is much to be improved I'm our judi
cature, but no longer ago than 1887 the.
wager of battle was legal custom IN
some of our states. Trial by jury was con-
sidered a gross innovation. and denounced
by the church as profanc. 1t left to man
the decision which the duel left with God.
Dueling was thus appeal to heaven -
settle the quarrel. 1t was religious art,
to show by the success granted by tho
sword the innocent party. 1t was a matter
of common law in every code in Europe.
The parties interested were held in prison.
with cords around their necks; and whoever
was adjudged guilty through the defeat OF
his champion was forthwith hanged. But
If the party was a woman, she was buried
alive-in capital cases.
Politics Cleaner.
Our politics are scandalous; are they7 Co
back to the political conditions OF 1905. and
read a few pages OF the history in which
Aaron Burr and Alexander Hamilton were
actors. English French and German no.
bles were rare who did not carry on trea-
sonable correspondence. English kings
were in the pay of France. Even our own
Major Gen. Wilkinson received annual
pension from Spain for revealing u that
government our political secrets. AS for
brides and bribery, there is indeed too much
of 1t: but Is there a hamlet in America
where a candidate for Office would dare to
set a table in the street and publicly buy
votes? Yet such was the custom 100 years
ago in England. In political morals We are
unquestionaby making steady gains. Sec
rotary Bonaparte says right, that there is
a drawing together of religion and politics.
How are we getting on socially? y few
pages taken from any history that covers
the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries
will tell US some things that we will do well
to remember-or perhaps will prefer to for
get Kings courts We're invariably less de-
modern cities. The history of the church had
many a passage that prefer to PRINT In
the Latin. Archbishops and bishops went
to the great councils with clowns ana
courtesans in their trains. The remedies
for vice were as vicious the evils they
undertook to cure. Among the capitll Of
lenses of our own colonies was "a solemn
compact or converse with the DEVIL.
Witchcraft and conjuration were punish
able by death. Bringing playing cards into
the Plymouth colony subjected the offender
to fine of forty shilings, and for us ng
them the penalty was public fogg ng.
Blasphemy was punishable with death-so
also cursing and disobedience OF parents.
The Massachusetts, colony imposed death
for idolatry, witchcraft b!asphemy. kidnap-
ing, adultery. perjury and on children who
struck Their parents.