Judge — October 20, 1906 — page 13: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

OHN JAMESON THREE & & *& STAR WHISKEY PEOPLE WHO WRITE TO JUDGE. UDGE receives a good many letters from readers which are of necessity never answered. We have no facilities for forking over information to the multi- tule, none of the exquisite equipment, such as our esteemed contemporary, The Ladies’ Home Journal, possesses, for taking the public into our confidence and sharing with it the laboriously acquired riches of learning which we enjoy. The encyclopaedia is open to all just as it is to us. From the known character of this publication one would suppose that only the humorously inclined would write to us. But for some unaccountable reason, the explanation of which is so deeply im- bedded in the mystery of human nature that we do not care to delve for it, we are | more often appealed to in perfect serious- ness for an opinion on grave matters of| science, religion, politics, and encyclo- padic knowledge than on topics which might be supposed to belong in our especial field. Itflatters our pride to be considered in the light of a university education and a postgraduate course all in one; and since we never reply to queries, itis all the more flattering, and at the same time puzzling, that they keep right on coming. We get a great many lett-rs, first of all, {rom young people who are ambitious to be artists. This is natural enough, and to such we invariably give the best reply we can. Others write us for in- formation or advice about humorous writ- ing. They, likewise, are treated with consideration, though we realize how utterly useless are such letters and the answering response. QUESTIONS WE DON’T ANSWER. But next comes a letter asking for the popular vote for the several candidates in the past twelve presiviential elections. We duck and go on trying to earn our salary, which takes about all the dynamics our brain-p'ant can develop. Then we are askei! to supply the data for a thesis on the Europeanization of the Hinterland ; or perhaps the writer is suffering for a simply-worded interpretation of the Schopenhauer philosophy and its precise shade of gloom, Our next letter very likely is bulging with an ungrammatical eagerness to know whether railroad prop- erly is faring as well as that class of, property ought to fare in a free republic. And on top of this some disordered soul blandly inquires of us why we are not taking amore yearnful interest in the Propa,stion of the doctrine that after we die we all come back here as cows, or ‘legs, or donkeys, or some of the other tamer and more civilized beasts. People write to us and in all innocence ask us to advise them fully about a Magazine they are about to publish for the hetter advocvey of true religion, and to surgest a plan for pushing the same. The. want us to put them next to the Fight publisher who will go halves with them, print the periodical, furnish the ad- Yerising, conduct the business of the pub sation and accept haif the profits for the trouble. And any other informa- Uon ve may be good enough, out of the aby «lance or our experience, to offer ! poor woman wrote us on the subject tch-makers and later called to dis- hus in a more intimate and con- ial way the whole subject of crutches ‘heir relation .o che disabled struc- of the human anatomy. We took ur of our time and finally convinced hat we knew as much about crutches crutch-makers as a blind toad knows of cu fi an tw why Mr. Murphy and Mr. Hearst sudden- ly began to love each other. CO-OPERATIVE CHILD-RAISING. Tt was not necessary to say all this Jin order to lead up to the letter that |set us off on this strain; but it will serve to explain to some, perhaps, whose eyes may fall upon this page why their letters were never answered. On the other hand, it seemed wise to offer some sort of an excuse for departing from prec- edent in this case. The foliowing is entirely sincere and quite out of our line. Ordinarily we would pay no attention to it, It suits our mood now rather to} notice it, Here itis: “Will you please |tell me something more of the plans of Mr. Upton Sinciair, and just what is meant’by bringing up children on the co- cperative plan? [have thought that in many cases children might thrive better under the care of the state. If we are ever to arrest the tendency to degenera- tion in large masses of the population it must be by some sort of government oversight of child-raising. What do you think Now, isn’t that a poser? But never mind. We would just as soon tackle a little thing like that as to explain why Hearst wants to be governor of the Em- pire State. There is a lot of folly abroad in the earth to-day—more than is good for | us. Unfortunately, it seems to be the fash- ion to attempt the cure of every folly by a greater folly still. Observing that a good many people are coming to grief in their individual morals and personal fortunes, |acry has gone up to let the government take hold and do more for the people. Mr. Bryan wants the government to run the railroads. The socialists want the [government to run preity much every- jtning. Mr. Sinclair suggests a scheme for relieving mothers of the drudgery of taking care of their own offspring, and pretty soon we shall find ourselves ex- |horted, every one of us, to give up his jown proper business and let somebody else take care of itfor him. On the other hand, naturally, being relieved of our own business, we shall all be minding the business of other pzople. Tuus the time may come when a mother will not have to tend and care for her own chili (if so be she has one); but as a part of her proles- sion, and to earn money, she may be tending the baby of some other woman. So we wiilall trade off. The thing we ought to do we will despise and then turn round and for pay do the same thing for somebody else. Thus women object to the drudgery of the home and then go out into the great city and drudge pitiably for their taskmasters, The poor breed like rabbits in the foul closures of the tenements, and we fall to discussing some plan of rusticating the debased offspring. It occurs to nobody that it might be cheaper to tackle the problem at the other end and do something to reclaim and elevate motherhood and fatherhood and the home. THE INSTITUTIONAL DAD. We are sorry to say that we regard the whole scheme of Mr. Sinclair as vicious beyond the ordinary, because it gives a certain sentimental boost to the Jeurrent habit of reasoning “backward about all the troubles of our day. A very great authority has pointed out that| every effort of the sta‘e to establish itself| as the foster-parent of unhappy childhood |has been a cruel disappointment. — Insti- tutional child-raising in almost every case A product of the costly pot-still method We don't mind tapering off this screed here with a the raising of children in comparative health and happiness. Applying the same principle, we v for most of the ills of*the times. know it will do no good. read what we say and go right on doing | the wrong thing, wearily working the old game of life backward as before and making a miserable botch of it. But we don't care, They can’t blame us after we have told’ them how to do the business right. There is no accounting for plain ignorance. TWO RECIPES OF OUR OWN. Recipe for raising children: Take one industrious, intelligent, God-fearing man. Add a gentle, maidenly young woman, who has had an A-t, 4x, God-fearing mother, a girl whose ‘reverent eyes are rich with honest. thoughts. own. Their own, mind you. Let it have alittle light and ‘air ‘round it.- None of your flat_and tenement abominations. Let them feel that one little acre of mother earth, clear down to the root of things and straight up to the gentle star that keeps watch above it, belongs to them. Sur in enough honest labor at good pay Il venture to offer a recipe | mer days. But we | Simple? So simple that the astute polit- People will| ical economy of the day laughs at it as Mix them | thoroughly and place ina home of their | jto make them feel as secure of food and le recipe of our own for| raiment and shelter, as sure of their little day and hour as are the untroubled hills that dream and doze through happy sum- And that will be about all one of the feeble inanities of impractical and visionary minds. Recipe for the cure of most of the ills of the times: Secure even-handed _jus- ice to all the people, then shoot holes into any government that attempts to in- terfere with the people, their liberties or their industries. - P Soseeceeceetvec SSS SeSersscecccsssys CHEW... i Beeman’s THE ORIGINAL Pepsin Gum + + Cores lodigestlon and ‘Sea-sichoess. Atl Others sre_tmitations. ik-yeeveccvesecscerercseceteceece has turned out to be nothing better than a slaughter of the innocents. On all News-stands. ‘JUDGE'S QUARTERL Price 25 Cents comicbooks.com