The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1916-06-01
:. THE ONLOOKER :.
Word Sketches of Topical Events
By ''Ham

In this commemorative year of the death of
Christopher Columbus, modern discoveries in ex-
ploration have much to be thankful for. Perry,
Scott, Rasmussen, Stanley and many others who
have added to our knowledge of unknown regions
have all been honcred and have received pecuniary
recognition well.
1t seems almost unbelievable that Columbus
the dlscoverer of the greatest continent, should
have died unhonored, and in extreme poverty in a
dlngy room OF cheap tavern in Seville.
The prevailing attitude of Europe during
Columbus time in the fifteenth and early part of
the sixteenth centuries, seems to have been one of
reproach, even animosity, toward an individual
who displayed genius worth WHILE
To be an active exponent of new theories gen
orally invited suspicion and persecution from the
authorities.
Nowadays governments, scientific bodies and
individuals welcome the dscoverer of new truth
or invention of device, and the discoverer need
have no fear of an ignomnious end.
We may for time worship at the feet of false
gods in the shape of we'll 'press-agented" explor.
scientists but the credit is eventually plac-
ed where it belongs. 1t is but due a noble work
that it's virtue be recognized during the lifetime of
the performer. Of what use to him is the honor
bestowed. perhaps hundred years after his death?
Miraculous escapes from injuries in disasters
is part of the daily news in any country. 1t is
not the disaster that interests us most but the
results The New York Chicago on the Erie line
recently had an escape that is worth recording
While running east at sixty miles an hour,
this fast train jumped the track and ran on the
ties for six hundred yards. Not coach was I'M
coupled or overturned and beyond shock and
fright no injuries are reported
Had but single coupling snapped under the
strain shudders to think what might have
happened
In newspaper, under the caption ''How to
be Happy" we read the following: Learn how to
forget disagreeabe things" Why 60 to all this
trouble? Don't place yourself in the way of dis
agreeable things and one won't have to forget
them. The latter advice is about as simple to fol-
low as the former.
Here is another gem of aphorism, Keep
your views we'll in hand and inject them on no
one."
1t is peculiar commentary upon men of the
present generation, or to be more exact the last
twenty years, that they no longer refuse to
change their mlnds' 10 past generations.
The man of today no longer votes the conserva-
tive ticket because his grandfather did so-he even
changes his party when in his opinion the occasion
demands. This is the spirit that makes for bet
ter people. The maintenance of party lines, for
the sake of the party alone as against productive
legislation, is specie of ward politics that is be-
coming more and more dangerous to attempt in
the face of an enlightened public.
Some of the purest, finest thoughts ever ex-
pressed, contained in the legacy of old letters
bequeathed to her son by the mother of Aaron
King the hero of Harold Bell Wr1ght's The Eyes
of the World' a book of real life we'll worth re.
reading. Here is an extract: without strong
desire to reach some light that in the distance lifts
above the level OF the present, man becomes
laggard on the highway of life-a loafer by
the wayside- -slothfu INDECENT, slipping easily as
the years 60, into the most despicable of places
the place of the human parasite that, contributing
nothing to the wealth of the race; feeds upon the
strength of the multitude of the toilers who pass
him BY"
Was there ever perfect arrangement
of what Roosevelt calls the undesirable citizen!'
Men who live in big cities are prone to dis
count the value of anything that has to do with
country town. The little country weekly news
paper, for instance, is often regarded as being
legitimate prey for badnage If all would read
William Allen Whites contribution to Harper's