Perth Amboy evening news., 1907-01-04
MUcK-RAkE.

The word muckraker is an epithet.
An epithet is always historically in
structive. Tt usually exhibits at a
glance q mans value to the world
and the worlds contempt for him. 1t
Is cursing as a fine art.
The word Christian was originally
a pagan jibe; Methodist a slur, and
mugwump an expression of scorn.
The condemned took up the challenge
and gloried in what was said to be
their shame. Christians boast of
their name; Methodists are proud of
their title, and the outcast mug
wumps have become the kid-gloved
elite of politics.
Muckrakers were called such, u.s.
ing an illustration from Bunyan, as
a term of degradation. They denied
the allegation and defed the alligat-
or" But who knows? Perhaps some
day the Newport descendants of the
poor writer's who are now cursing
themselves rich may bear upon their
automobile doors and have engraved
upon their sugar tongs the escutcheon
OF a muckrake.
1t is not because he rakes up scam
Fdals and looks only for shame that
the muckraker has come into his
kingdom; he refused to be side-track-
ed by such a charge. Scandal mong-
ers we have had a plenty, from the
village gossip to the vermin who pub
lish the Chicago Club Fellow" and
the New York 't"Town Topics"
But the muckraker has done better
than that. He is the mar who has
dared to knock to pieces the great
American mud god, Success"
There never was an idol made of
cheaper, comnoner. dirt. We have
kow-towed to 1t SO long we think it's
blasphemy to speak against it. AS a
matter of fact, success" is as often
as not destructive to character. A
good way to lose your soul is to gain
the world.
The thirst for a fine, high, and no.
BILE order of life is unquenchable in
the bosoms of men. But the poor
runts we have elected to this superior
class! 1t is to laugh! Once the earth
had kings and dukes and people of
birth. Lacking knowledge of true
godlike a~ristocracy of Brains and
Character, we set up these pitiful
driblets of first families. The French
men of Paris and thereabout, and the
American Colonists, in the closing
days of the eighteenth century, had a
great time smashing these cheap pot
terry divinities.
Nowadays we, having been deliver
ed of the. old gods of Egypt, have
made unto ourselves a new golden
calf. 1t is money. Those who have
heaps of 1t are called select5blue
points. The rest of us are common.
These be thy gods, o Israel!
We believe in money, maker of
heaven and earth, and in Success. T"
All ann of sin and blasphemy
shall be forgiven men except words
against the Successful. Millions can
do no wrong. Vested interests are sa-
cred, and the Senate are the vestal
virgins.
We were decorating our national
Pantheon, in much pride, with the
busts of the Caesars to whom we had
voted divine honors. There stood
the togaed forms of Julius Caesar
Rockefeller and Augustus Armour
and HadFihu,H Hyde and Claudius De-
pew, and We began to walk chesty be-
fore the Old World. We met and
sang, Ave, Wall Street, immortal
isl"
Then along came a sockless Social
list, there were a few vigorous swipes
with the rake, and now the unbeliev-
er in our gods grows ribald over us.
We doanot approve of the muck
raker. Most of us are Men with Jobs.
We are holding on to the same with
more or less circumspection. We
have to do it to keep the children in
school and the Missus in the Brown
ing class. We can't talk out our
selves, but, oh! Il hearts go out In
the dark to the Ilcckraker.
The man with a job is legion. His
virtue is e(utio.. lie walks softly
befuress the Lord. He has a neat,
shifty ssidR atzb. and can dodge trou-
BILE everyNpee%
Sometimes he is a bishop and says
nothing in a deep, orotund voice. Or
he has a newspaper, and his news is
edited from the counting He
sits in the Senate, and doesn't forget
the corporation who put him there.
He may be a Judge, but he knows the
political boss who put him there. He
may be called a Governor, but his
real business is keeping up his fences.
He may preach a platitudinous gospel
~fervently and be strenuous in de-
nouncing the Turk or any one else