The Ocala banner. (Ocala, Marion County, Fla.) 1883-194?, 1917-08-03
Is THE WORLD GROWING BET
TER?
(DeLand NeWs)

Gle now and
Compare conditions in the olden
days with Mexico of last year and the
year before, where over sixty nuns
were taken from the converts. abus-
ed by soldiers" and either later kill
ed or left to become mothers.
Compare conditions spoken of in
the article with poor. little. unhappy
Belgium, where armed forces are still
taking passion of women and young
girls and subjecting them to most hor-
rible experiences; where women are
murdered as spies.
Compare history of the dark ages
with East St. Louis, where men, wom-
en- and children we're shot down in
the streets, driven from their own
homes, and the homes burned &C the
ground.
Compare history of the DARK ages
with prosecuted Armenia. where an
entire people have been murdered and
ravaged.
The Banners editorial follows:
Is the World Growing Better or
Worse?
We can understand how the aver
age citizen, in reading accounts of
all sorts of crimes, scandals and trag-
edies that are dished out continually
and cons picuOusly in our daily news
papers, can reach the conclusion that
the world is growing dangerously and
worse, but to those who
make some pretentions to information
and erudition, we cannot for the life
Of us understand how they can be so
wholly deceived.
A bishop of the Methodist church
is reported to have recently said in a
sermon delivered in Savannah, Ga.
that Rome in her worst days, never
harbored such conditions of vice as
are prevalent in our highest social cir
cles at the present time.
The good bishop, we are told. made
other criticisms equally as appalling
along other lines
Some centuries after the decline
and fall of the Roman empire" when
the world was supposed to have been
softened and elevated by the mellow
ing influence of the Christian religion,
how did the pulpit itself stand as
compared with its standing today?
AS late as the seventeenth century
Thomas Darlington Macaulay tells
us that the English country squire,
who thought that it belonged to his
dignity and standing to have grace
said at his table by an ecclesiastic in
full canonicals, found means to recon
Gle his dignity with economy. A
young Levite-such then was the
be had for his board,
a small garnet and ten pounds year.
he might not only perform his own
professional functions; might not only
be the most patient of butts and of
listeners: might not only be always
ready in fine weather for bowls, and
in rainy weather for shovelboard, but
might also have the expense of gar
dener or groom. He sometimes cur
ried the coach horses and thought
nothing of walking ten miles to deliv-
er a message to some other county
squire of equal dignity and impor-
lance. He was permitted to dine with
the family. but was expected to con-
tent himself with the coarsest fare.
and when the sweetmeats and delica-
cies were brought on he quilted his
seat and stood aloof until he was
summoned to return thanks for the
repast, from the greater part of which
he had been excluded
Think of minister or a bishop of
any denomination currying a horse
for his board or acting as a mental in
any capacity for country squire in
our day.
How was it in the matter of COM
mon education?
Not one person in five hundred
could have spelled his way through
a Psalm. Therefore, says the histo.
rian. it was not strange that Mat
theas and Kniperdoling. apostles of
lust, robbery and murder, were able
for time to rule great cities.
How was it in case of ordinary hui.
mainly How did the infiction of tor
ture effect the populace?
If a supposed offender was put in
the pillory it were we'll if he escaped
with his life from the shower OF brick.
bats and paving stones; if he were
tied to the carts tail the crowd press
ed around him impIoring the fogging.
master to give it to him well and TO
make him howl. and the more the nm