Weekly journal-miner., 1921-08-24
The Cynic'S Column
ALEXANDER THE GREAT

the modern public has been fed on stories of his wildness and nearly everybody believes what has been said by the character assassins of his day to blacken his name and attrib- ute his end to a furious debauch of branded champagne, Egyptian cigar cites and what then passed for hula jhula girls. But it is not so. The de- fense of one whose name has been unduly spattered is as much the duty of Cynic as the pricking of bubble reputations It is the g1Nible public at which the shafts are aimed in this instance.
 Aleck went to great lengths to equip himself for public life. His ma was his best teacher, for she was a shrewder politician even than the women of the present day. The way she organized the ladies' auxiliary to the Macedonian Phalanx, an organiza- ton corresponding to the present | American Legion, was a textbook for machinators even unto this day.
 It is quite true about the Greek and Tyrian philosophers who con tributed to young Alexander's educa- tion So, by the time his dad, Phil Hip, passed on to the Elysian fields, A1eck, or Sandy, as he was called at college, was ripe to rule. Nobody gives him credit for the masterly way in which he overran Asia Minor and attached the satraps of the crumbling Persian empire to his staff. They see in his trip to Egypt only the scandals he got into with some temple girls at Ammon, and forgot how he swung the Nile delegations to his side and pacified the country far and wide.
 Few realize what truly halted his triumphant march into India. One authority who pretends vast knowl- edge, says that his Macedonian subs ordinates called off the dogs of war rather than invade the valley of the Indus. But such was not so. It was jealousy among the petty poll ticians. They were afraid Aleck would make too good record. If they lived now, they would boo Babe Ruth every time he stepped to the plate for the same reason-they hate success.
 Alexander was the first instance of public servant who died as a re- suit of the prosecutions of his de tractors. He IS the first for whom unjust criticism has resulted fatally, although there are several others ln history whose ends have been hasten ed by ingratitude. They say repub- licans are ungrateful-they ought to see the way some democrats act!
 q have done the best l could, Aleck said one time to a friend while they were coursing OXian deer on the plains north of Susa Here l have gone into office and given the public the best I had. And what is the result? Just because some ot these cheap Thracian rough-necks don't like the way equip my spears men or dislike that harness contract I let to Sammus, the Beoetian Sad dlcry Co.,, president, they get out their little knives and make out to whittle small gooey chunks out ot my heart. On the square, Bill, ii 1 hadn't already got engaged to be married to a regular girl, I'd chuck this job and go back to writing tor the Delos Advertiser. l can go to work for Hippas any day I blow in. He ran the weekly at the Varsity and used to run in and proof-read for him every Friday night
 But I got to stick to it. News paper work doesn't pay like it used to, and besides the Kid got picked likes the public-eye stuff"
 Alexander kept building up until he had a blazing fine empire carved out and everything was going pretty good, although the knockers were hammering every minute. He used to call some of them up on the car pet and threaten to resign and leave them flat if they didn't quit, and then because they were all 2 by 4 sports and knew it he pulled out, their little old kingdom would crack into million little satrapies, they begged him to forget 1t and keep the job. But they never let up on him. He pleaded in vain. Public servants,
 he said, "are no sooper in office, than everybody begins hurling mud at 'em. Pretty soon you won't be able to get decent guy to run for office. I'll be alarmed if l blame them, either"
 Things got rapidly no better Aleck was over at Sardis. The anvil chorus had got his goat. He called