The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1909-10-08
KANSAS CONAENT
INFANCY AND DIsEAsE.


Country schools in three districts in
Lacrosse county4FSVisconsin, according
to dispatches in Jhe Eagle, have been
e etiS Decause.1Df an epidemic of in
IantIie paralysis. From other sources
comes dlsquleting word of the spread
of the malady. II;
what strange economy in nature
makes childhood so susceptible to
confront infancy the most ter
rible battle array known to
humankind. diphtheria. scarlet
Iever. spinal meningitis and
three score and ten. life up to the
hoGr or adolescence. Is the sweetest
Then sun is never so bright, the flow
ers never so fragrant, the birds never
SO melodlous, and all creation never
so shining and vocal with life, the
JOY or II. the promise of it, the GER
tainty or 1t, as in youth. Purpose has
not come into the heart to callous it.
nor design nor ambition, nor envy
nor emulation into the mind to cor
rode. The child is part of Nature,
without alloy, as much as the sun
light that dances on the ripping wa
tiers OF the brook, as much as the va
grant evening breeze that stirs among
the sleeping roses in the garden. For,
youth sees and hears Nature being
part Of 1t. AS we grow older, we
drift away from Nature. We do not
see the sunlight and feel it as we
heard them once when they brought |
to the baby sense only the meaning
of delight, delight in life. The old in
timation of Immortality that came as
an overwhelming earnest with the |
long. cool shadows of dawn, fading |
before the rising sun, somehow dies |
now at any effort to revive it. /
The scourge of disease, the quick, |
destroying fever might attack US, who |
have drifted so far away from Ma |
ture. But why are adults so generally |
immune, and why are infants so open
to attack? To most of us the little |
ones are the chief sources of JOY, |
touching us again with the mystery
of love and innocence and faith. There
is not one of US who would not give
himself up to stand the penalty for
birth and life in our baby's stead.
And yet we are measurably secure,
and the baby, brilliantly alive,
responsive to everything
that breaths. sings. dances. sparkIes,
stands always near the oncomlng ana
close-cutting scythe of the grim
Reaper.
Why? There may be those who are
deeply learned in the PHILOSOPHERS, or
those who are clear-eyed through
long and peaceful devotion to the
remains to US the old, eternal ques-
ion. Why?-Wichita Eagle.
POLITICS ON THE BENCH,
Throughout the country the effort "
iivorce politics and the judiciary is be-
ng made and the judges are the first to
'esent the idea that they indulge in
politics on or off the bench. l.
But in practice there is a great deal
If politics in the Judiciary and if that
branch of the government does not
how it on the bench, it is because the
to do it is lacking.
In Oklahoma the people would APP
,rove a nonpartisan judiciary, but the !
'arty leaders will not have it.
Bird S. MCGUIRE, Republican con- !
FRESHMAN, selects federal district at
orney from the bench not because he :
5 specially fitted, but because he is a :
dangerous rival if Sle should take, a +
ppointment is considered, wholly from !
political standpoint, and personal
olItics at that. =
anne condition. w. H. Murray threat !
y winning the next nomination for :
nd selects q justice of the supreme :
curt as its candidate against MUIR {
ay, because it believes he is popular
nd could win.
Popular government seems to be a =
arce when a few schemers in both :
artieS can control nominations and
Manipulate the patronage for their per-
onal ACKNOWLEDGEMENT But when the
1diciary is used as the means By Il
hitch their designs are accomplished. a
discourages the advocates of a nom b
artisan judiciary.-Wichita Beacon. h