Los Angeles herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1900-1911, 1909-01-10
JOHN BROOKS

WOuiO
vanish. Every discord in the world is
the result Of some disobedience Of law.
Social discords result in social injus-
tees and social injustice is a social
sin. 1t is we'll that an effort is to
be made to lead the Christian life and
obey the Christian teachings as they
are taught. The United States and the
world will be improved by the expert
ment in actual religion which is about
to be made. Under conditions resulting
from a practical application Of the fun
damental principles of Christianity, the
newspapers would not have been able
to record the case of John Brooks.
which was the subject of a police
paragraph" in Los Angeles.
Primitive instincts are strong in John
Brooks. He cannot help it. Some of his
habits are atavistic. He is not re-
sponsible for that, therefore he is not 20
blame. He slept in a shed because he
had not the price of a bed. To dis
cover accurately why this specimen Of
the human race had not the price Of a
bed might require great and profound
research and a volume. But civilized
society has a pleasant habit of deal
ing with effect and letting cause take
care Of itself. That is why drunkards
are still being fined every morning in
the police courts while perhaps part of
the filming Justices salary is paid with
the proceeds Of grog licenses. Odd state
Of affairs. isn't it?
After his nights sleep In the shed
John Brooks awoke. It is a habit he
has in common with an overwhelming
majority Of human beings. Nearly all
of us are sometimes awake. Some Of
us may be more wide awake than 9TH
ers; but that has nothing to do with
the case. He awoke, according to GUS
tom, which we cannot call atavistic,
because 1t is persistent, and the bats
and the owls and all kinds of created
things with the breath Of life have it,
excepting the state railroad commits
sioners. When he awoke he was hun
cry. That showed he was a man of
unbridled primitive instincts. In
order to crafty the primitive sleep ap-
petite, a fellow has only to flop over
and begin to snore somewhere. If he
has the price Of bed, so much the
better, but price is not absolutely pre-
requisite to slumber. Price, however,
unless under rare and extraordinary
conditions, is absolutely prerequisite to
breakfast.
John had no money, but he was as
hungry as any one with a pocketful-
a great deal hungrier, probably, than
Rockefeller, who goes about advertis-
ing for doctors to come and fix up
digestive apparatus for him. Near at
hand was tamale wagon. Providence
is kind" said primitive John Brooks,
began to eat it. Then all sorts of ter
rible things began to happen to John.
The man who had property right in
the tamale came on the scene before
the last guilty mouthfuI had been
gorged and made a much bigger fuss
than if he had heard some eastern cap
italist had managed to absorb a million
dollars more than he had any right to
and was hot-footing for the border.
The theft of somebody e1se's million
is far easier to bear than the theft of
ones own tamale. The tamale man,
you see, was as atavistic as John, and
was illustrating it every minute, but
he would have been highly indignant
if any one had said the scene enacted
between the two humans reminded him
Of one he had witnessed in the-let's
see; what was the name Of the primi-
tive creatures that lived in the house
once frequented by the great Italian
tenor? After berating John Brooks for
conveying a tamale, the tamale man
summoned the majesty of the law, be-
cause he thought the enormity Of the
offense was such that ordinary name
calling was not punishment enough.
The majesty of the law came along,
in blue coat and brass buttons. In
few minutes John Continuing mean
while to assimilate benevolently the
cause of all his trouble) was on his
way to the police station; and soon
afterward he stood trembling before a
justice, struggling to find reason why
sentence of he knew not what should
not be passed upon him. When the
excuse came it was primitiVe-it was
atavistic. The original monkey who
stole the baboon's morning vans from
his front tree limb could not have been
more fundamentally fortnight.
81 WAS HUNGRY" said John
Brooks.
''Workhouse for a month";" retorted
the justice.
Well, John won't have to worry
about his morning meals for a month,
anyway. But beyond his theft was his
hunger, and back of his hunger was
what?
Let society plead guilty or not guilty
of the hunger of John Brooks.
FRIEND OF WORKINGMEN