Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1907-11-20
ges- r4.hliea, glarsta1tu,ut jnpa Nurrhrr 20 1907

other places has gathered more souls
and mere dollars. Still this Is a fair
business, all things considered Per-
haps Galesburg was short on sinners.
The offering was fully up to the average.
Twenty three hundred converts for
$500. Only two dollars and seventy
cent for each. This is not an ex-
travigant price, considering many or
these converts We're especially bad Cit
liens requiring much extra effort on
the part of the great evangelist. But
there comes to us a feeling OF sadness
suggested by these very figures. It's
this. No more will the rural districts,
the country cross roads church come
under Rev. Mr.. Sundays ministrations.
Speaking after the manner of the UNI
cody, he's now in too fast a class for
us. Or to- use a business metaphor.
he's now wholesale dealer In souls,
and will never again engage In the
retail business. One can see at
glance this self evident fact. We can
run church, minister's salary. coal
bills, lights and painters service at
Dillon for 5000 a year, while In Gales
burg they paid Mr. Sunday ten times
that amount for five weeks. Carrying
the comparison still further, If
successful revival In Dillon resulted
in the whole town being converted,
there would not be over one hundred
saved souls as the result. In fact the
writer doubts If there are 100 sinners
living in Dillon. Nothing seems TO
stop the move from the farm to the
town, and another factor is added to
the attractions of town life. Only the
larger towns will hereafter have the
great efforts and results of this in
comparable evangelist. But what Is
our loss is their gain.
1t is not always well to use the
name of living person to point a
moral, or adcrn tale. 1t is much safer
to take name from a tombstone.
There will be less back talk But we
have in this country just at present
two living characters that SO we'll IL
lustrate the power Of environment that
their names will be used as text.
Theodore Roosevelt was born. bred and
raised an aristocrat. BY education,
birth and wealth surroundings he grew
up to manhood like thousands OF other
"effete fasteners" with only SUI
perficial Knowledge of the wants.
needs and daily walk and conversa-
ton" of the common people. But to
save his life, to regain lost health, he
took up the life of a cowboy on the
Colorado plains. And. here environ
ment knocked out heredtty. The
"effete eastern" became the wild and
woody westerner" He was broadened
not only across the shoulders. but
across the forehead. He regained not
only in weight of body but of mind.
And this, country Is the gamer, too.
If we have progressed as nation in
a hundred ways, since he took up the
reins Of government. give environment
the credit. If Theodore Roosevelt is in
touch with the common people, give
the plans OF Colorado It's due. The
paved streets OF the modern city never
have and never will produce his proto-
type.
The other case is that OF Albert
Shaw, editor of the Review of Re-
views, whose writings carry as great
weight and authority as anything pub
lished in the English language. More
than that, he Is the trusted adviser OF
Theodore Roosevelt in matters Of state
craft, both foreign and domestic. And
yet this staid, conservative writer and
advisor was. a few years ago, one of
the most radical students in Iowa Col
lege in Grinnell Radical in the sense |
that his views as a young man and
student were intense and extreme.
Even after his entry into newspaper
work his extreme views and utterances
hindered his journalistic advancement.
Raised in Iowa, in Grinnell, while a
boy and young man, he ut-heroded
Herod on the slavery question, on the
prohibition question, and when 1t came
to partyism, we'll. some democrats
might go to heaven If there was a
chance for preparation after death, if
there was political purgatory with
saving clause. Well, he finally
landed where much of the brains Of
this country is called, New York city.
And here again environment got in its
work. Surrounded by culture, wealth
and conservatism. this radical of the
west became the mugwump Of the
east, and one whose cool Judgment and
dispassionate utterances commanded
the attention of the reading world.
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