The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1906-05-19

Tell
&c .Goodby.' I said to my conscience
'Goodby for aye and aye.
And I put her hands of harshiy,
And turned my face away;
And conscience, srnitten sorely,
Returned not from that day
But a time came when my spirit
Grew weary of its pace;
And I cried: Come back my conscience;
long to see thy face.
But conscience cried: I cannot;
RemOrSe sits in my place.
Paul Lawrence Dunbar.
A Bloody Birthday Party.
Not the man who cries, fire." when
the house is burning, but the one who
sets it afire. Is to be blamed. The
worlds way Is to find fault with the
doctor who makes the diagnosis rath-
er than with the careIessness or evil
that oiers the disease a, lodging place
Herod and his paramOu felt that
they had a grievance against John;
the woman especially cherished her
hate in secret waiting for the hour
when It might blossom into revenge.
The hour came. The plotter usually
succeeds for a time. though generally
to his own later undoing. Herodias
had a we'll laid scheme to entrap John
through the birthday feast Of her roy
al husband She knew what lustful.
treacherous creature and how heed
less of consequences was this man
whom she had captivated- So she
planne moth er!-that her
own daughter should ensnare the king
by a voluptuous dance. after he had
drunken and his senses had become
muddled Salome was the grand
daughter of Herod the Great; what a
role was this for a princessi
Fascinated, this puerile king, pleas
ed by what appealed to his senses,
made the unkingly pledge that the
| dancing girl should have any boon she
might ask of him. be it to half of his
kingdom. We need know nothing
more about Herod than this. A con-
! temptible weakling was he dead to
manliness, as to true loyalty. The fact
/ that he regretted his word when the
I fair dancer came back with the grew
some request for the head of John, IS
1 small atonement for his foolish pledge,
! especially as he did not have the cour-
\ age to break a vow made in a moment
/ of Tnaudlin excitement. Shall a man
/ persist in every mistake he makes and
! in every evil he undertakes There
/ is small palliatiOn for Herod's crime
4 in the fact that he had promised II
blindly
When the dripping. CORY head of the
| murdered Baptiser was brought into
the scene of festivities. it was Herod
who was guilty of the murder. He
knew himself as the slayer of John,
and those sightless eyes would haunt
/ him to the end. Conscience doth make
/ towards of US ALL" Herod's first
. tn ought ABOUT eSuSs WnGn ne ACcII
| of the latter. was that John the Bap-
fist had come to earth again. The
/ plight Of the cOnscience-smitten has
been set forth in Dean Stubbs familiar
lines:
It sat alone with my conscience
In place where time had ceased,
| And we talked of my former living
In the land where the years increased
In ghosts of forgotten actions
Came floating before my sight.
A I ff74arru fr n
We're alive with a terrible might.
The vision Of all my past life
Was an awful thing to face,
Alone with my conscience sitting
In that silently solemn place.
The Woman in the Case.
Right here is good place to stoI
and do little honest thinking. before
4 proceeding to the common observation
that woman is back of every evil
and that VINE and women are the twin
temptresses of man. 1t is true tina
there are bad women; and it Is short
sighted wisdom which teaches youth
\ otherwise. All women are not like
our own mothers, and any young MAI
who does not Know this is made easier
prey for temptations. But granting
the worst. it still remains true tina
womanhood as a whole is mans mora
and spiritual superior. and that i
woman is back of some evil, it l:
doubly true that she is back of mos
GOOD. Inc man makes no DliSldlAs
who preserves through life an IN
shaken reverence for womankind.
HeFOd was worse than Herodias; n
was weak as we'll as wicked. 1t wa
his duty to protect his own honor ant
his prisoner; and also to protect hi
wife from her own wicked impulses
; The tragedy of MacheTus. which ha
made Herod's name a loathed one fl
history is due to the kings lust. COW
ardjce and weakness
The judgment of the centuries i
ererally just. 1t has written John
E namn on the scroll Of :srea- and sue
; cessfuI ones, for he was true to his God
true tc his fellows, and true to HIM
: se'f. III kept faith. Among hcl, (
e his ) q heroic figure. IN him IS o'lc
more illustrated the obvious truth
that the roads to final success are var
ious ard that many of hem Its,
: tklcI ph apparent failure ana defeat
\ The antithesis Of John was Herod. VIII
IA e = wreck of his character ar
career because he did as he pleased
I ana in tho pursuit of D'easur-s lost L
l crown of his manhood. becoming tn
u more tool of the cruel devices Of
3 ] 4.-t,f<rT woman