Life — July 22, 1886 — page 2: what you’re looking at

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

nee ee “QWhile there's Life there's Hope.” VOL. VIII. JULY 22, 1886. NO. 186. ie 1155 Broapway, New York. Published every Thursday, $5 a year in advance, postage free. Single copies, 10 cents. Back numbers can be had by applying to this office. Vol. I., $1.50 per number; Vol. II., 25 cents per number; Vols. III., IV., V. and VI. at regular rates. Rejected contributions will be destroyed unless accompanied by a stamped and directed envelope. UR esteemed Democratic friend and contemporary, Collector Saltonstall, of Boston, took occasion at Harvard’s Commencement Dinner to decry the propensity of Harvard’s present undergraduates to have wealthier parents than their predecessors. It-is to be inferred from the Col- lector’s remarks that when Plancus was Consul and Josiah Quincy, president, in the year ’44, that is, an undergraduate whose trousers were not patched at the knees and reinforced in the posterior region with leather thought himself no scholar, and but an indifferent gentleman, whereas now, such has been the inflow of new-gotten gold upon old Cambridge, that a set of Sardanapali from Chicago and New York go about in purple and fine linen, and impart to the college an undesirable air of luxury and crime. Not only are their trousers new and whole, but their apartments are fine, their amusements costly and the whole bent and tenor of their existence is to disparage learning and make honest poverty uncomfortable. They are too rich, these new Harvard men, Mr. Saltonstall thinks; too fine, too fresh, too much in the way. The Collector evidently had his subject matter very much at heart, and spoke with such feeling that an uninformed person might have suspected that within his recent memory he had been paying one of these new Harvard men’s college bills. LriFE hopes that Mr. Saltonstall has seen the news- paper paragraph which asserts that, owing to reverses at New London and elsewhere, young Harvard is $200,000 poorer than on Commencement Day. If he had been a Methodist preacher, instead of a Puritan Collector, and had put his remarks in the form of an appeal to Heaven, Mr. Saltonstall would have been warranted in regarding this impoverishment of the gilded youths as a direct answer to prayer. PRESIDENT ELIOT says he has some of the decent poor with him yet, but our contemporaries of the daily press are inclined to see with Mr. Saltonstall’s eyes, and regard Harvard as nickel-plated at least, if not gilded. * * * R. GILDER, of the New York Hera/d, had hard work in starting for the North Pole, which he promises to bring back and make a mast of for the Przscz//a. Good- bye, Mr. Gilder, dear. If you get back—as you may—you can still’ jump off the Brooklyn Bridge or sail down the whirlpool rapids at Niagara. The world is full of oppor- tunities to achieve renown if one only has the grit to seize them. * * * HE venerable city of Albany is in the actual throes of celebrating its bi-centennial. To persons more familiar with New York State taxes that with State history, Albany will be recalled as the site of the large and costly granite structure which has absorbed so vast a sum of the people’s money. But before the new capitol was begun Albany was a highly respectable old Dutch city, and it is her ancient respectability, not her modern splendor, that she is commemorating now. “Red be the paint upon her!” as the poets lisp; may she remember the patroons and forget the Assemblymen. * * IFE is inclined to rejoice that student-waiters are out of fashion in the summer hotels. While circumstances may make the station behind the chair the post of honor, and while the highest human office is to serve, taking tips in consideration of hot coffee and tender chops is not easily consonant with the traditions of student life. A very limited acquaintance with American history teaches that in this country an A. B. degree is not essential to the most distin- guished success or the highest usefulness, and it is suspected that a college education may be purchased at too great a sacrifice of personal dignity. No honest way of making a living is to be sniffed at where necessity drives, but a liberal education—so-called—is not worth having at any cost of self-respect. * * * HE advent of the new Scribner's Magazine will be a sweet boon to the poets and story writers who find themselves in need of a market. The rumor that the giants of the existing monthlies have matter enough ahead and in type to last them into the third and fourth generation, makes a new victim heartily welcome to the ambitious contributor. That the new venture may develop a face and figure pleas- ing to the public—and a maw promptly voracious of copy— is the sincere desire of this journal. * FTER Gladstone—what? A sort of cocktail ministry ; Salisbury, with a dash of Hartington, and a sprinkling of assorted purposes. England may swallow it, but can she keep it down? * * comicbooks.com