Judge — March 31, 1917 — page 10: what you’re looking at

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

Sonny—Aw maw, I'm hungry! Maw—Listen to this one! He Half a egg aint much! wants a whole egg! Paw—Give him a whole egg an’ let him eat till he busts! THE PRESTIGE OF CANT By TOD CHENEVIX IMPLE LIVING can never thrive while S cant is allowed to persist. Cant spoils everything it touches, particularly the best things. No other counterfeit is derived from so many roots, sprouts into so many good places, or is more likely to hasten the ruin of whatever it approximates Not to drink water when one is thirsty, but imbibe quarts of it on principle at certain times when not thirsty, is stupid cant that has been thrust upon us. And we stupidly obey. The very form of such didacticism condemns it, but what if it does? Most of us have minds that can- not be diverted from their course except by an absurd big stick. Then, by pure virtue of physi- cal impact, we turn toward the attack, swallow the lesson, and become educated in knowledge of facts that aren’t so. In other words, cant enables us gracefully to take leave of simple intelligenc A loud noise, a stinging blow, and the din of lies will knock the sense out of anybody. But cant is also subtle, and often follows the lines of no resistance at all. Stop in the street and raise your eyes and tip your head to the sky- line, and you will presently have the company of acrowd all about you. Don’t object to this illus- tration as one of curiosity instead of cant. It is cant for the reason that it is one of the easiest and cheapest devices to show up the ancient habit of imitation with no good reason. For cant is not born of reason. Cant is a cheap maligner. It evades reason. It is the lazy mind's refuge—a refuge that isa trap. The mind may recover, but it will “never be the same” again! The folk that miss the point of soap and water and bathing, but spontancously rise to the call of antiseptics, are victims or culprits of modern cant. Cant never says anything so useful as “Keep clean in and without your homes, if you would keep well.” No. Instead, it says “Quarantine!” That is mysterious, scientific, sensational. It'would be interesting to know how many fine people really understand that the bacteria are not all disease-making, but, on the contrary, are bene- ficent, and play a role that life cannot spare. The cant phrase, “ Avoid germs,” isstupid. Asif it were possible to avoid the myriad forms of microscopic ality that are a part of the assets of health! Then, the cant of spurious piety-——! It is cant that shrouds with confusion the truth of almost any proposition that man has use for. To the extent that he is lazy or feeble-witted he hugs a form of words as the substance of what he likes. How much so-called conversation is made up of declaration and assent that arrests if it does not interest, and for which the only excuse is that it passes the time! As if time must be disposed of somehow! comicbooks.com