The Topeka state journal., 1908-08-12
KANSAS COMMENT
CONDITIONS IMPROVING.


Some people complain a good deal
or the burdens of civilization. and
long for a freedom from our high
pressure life. This is form of lazi-
ness Which is afraid to acknowledge
ltS true colors. Poets have always In
cTned toward this far from the mad
uenlng crowd idea, but a great many
poets DO not make a living that way,
ana are, therefore. lazy. and not good
authorlty Nothing wrong with q va
cation now and then, and a bit of
roughlng 1t is undoubtedly healthful,
put Tor actual comfort the man of to-
day has his forefathers beaten to a
Irazzle. Every man enjoys luxuries
and comforts today which were un-
known a number of years ago, and
many OF these come at small cost. And
when 1t comes to work; it isn't killing
half as many as you imagine, and we
dont work so much harder than was
Formerly customary; in fact, few peo-
pie today work as hard as those in
similar lines at an, early date. Take
farming. for instance. Every farmer
now accomplishes by labor saving ma
chinery to great extent the things for
winch he used to rely upon the
strength of his back. And the farmer
of today accomplishes a great deal
more. and is able to live in the better
mouse, and with a lot of comforts his
predecessors never dreamed of. And
what is true of the farmers applies in
a great measure to nearly all occupa-
tions. Possibly there is more 1ndiges-
ton and heart trouble now than there
used to be, because we eat too much.
ana fail to take exercise, which was
FORCED upon our ancestors, but mod
ern science has conquered a number
or other diseases which used to kill,
span or life is longer than that of our
more primitive forebears. This is the
best country in the best age the world
mas ever known, and there is ample
inducement to keep on irving in the
fact that it is getting steadily better.
-Atchison Globe
"HOBOES" HAVE GONE TO WORK.
The western railroads. 1t is said. are
reducing the pci;cc and detective
forces which they maintain to keep
tramps and idle men off their prop
erty. With the beginning Of the panic
they found 1t rece ssary In many In
stances to double the number Of their
watchmen and guards, to prevent
damage to their cars. the destruction
of ties ana other loss. What the pres
ent course of the railway corporations
means is that there is materially less
idleness in the country now than there
was a few months ago. In such sea-
sons as the first half of this year
large percentage or the men VINO stole
rides on the trains bunked in the box
cars or cooked over blazing heaps Of
ties were not tramps at ALL but "ho-
boes,' a distinction with quite a differ
ence. A tramp is plainly a beggar, a
man who is idle from choice and not
from circumstances, a man who is
without ambition and man
who will not work. He Is a de-
generate. A "hobo' is a sort of
knight errant out of a job, a fellow
who drifts about on railroad trains
from place to place in search of work.
With him work may be scarcely called
an obsession, that is, with the average
'hobo," but he Is not entirely disin-
clined to labor, and even hard labor
The most of the "hoboes" have now
found employment, and while there
will always be the tramps for the rail-
roads to contend against, the task of
safeguarding their property has been
considerably reduced in the last few
weeks.-Leavenwortf Times.