Life — February 10, 1887 — page 2: what you’re looking at

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

“While there's VOL. IX. FEBRUARY 10, 1887. 1155 BRoaDWay, NEW YorRK. 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 ; Vol. III., IV., V. and VII. at regular rates. Rejected contributions will be destroyed unless accompanied by a stamped and directed envelope. | bas the light of the assertion that the ballet of the National Opera Company has been increased, presumably to pop- ularize the company, is there not something ambiguous about the Graphzc’s allusion to Mrs. Thurber’s heroic efforts to keep the “Enterprise upon its legs.” It can’t be possible that the Grape means that the lady is trying to make the legs of the ballet support the whole company! Oh, no! * * * VERYONE knows that it was recommended, ten years or so ago, as a cheap way to deal with the Indians, to board them at the Fifth Avenue Hotel. If the American fishermen would consent to become citizens of New York, accept membership at the Union Club, and devote their ener- gies to conducting the Patriarch’s balls, it might be less ex- pensive for our anxious country to pay their dues, and pro- vide them with needful accessories to polite life than just at this time to fight England in their behalf. Coney Island would give them a taste of sea life in summer, and if that were not sufficient they might interest themselves in defend- ing the America’s cup, always at America’s cost for yachts and champagne. We can afford to bluster a little about the fisheries, and even to negotiate, but could we fight? Certainly there will be no occasion. The New York 7rzbune, inspired by re- morse, perhaps, because of the defenseless state in which the Republican party has left the country, suggests that we might do pretty well afoot if not afloat, and that we could , send an army into Canada that would make the Canucks homeless in short order. And it says, too, that England has enough to do at home these days, and would be more afraid to fight us than we would be to have her. Let us yell and brandish our fists, and shout “ fish or blood,” and make a dreadful spectacle of ourselves, but oh! let us not fight till we have time to buy some tools, and cast a fort or two to set up in front of us. NINE day’s wonder, the duration of which is bar past, was the recent descent of a horde of unclassi- fied Americans on the house of the Chinese Minister in Wash- ington. The heathen envoy gave a ball and invited a good many Christians of the brand supplied in Washington. It appears that not only did they all come and bring their friends, but that great numbers of uninvited guests crowded in; ate the celestial ices and terrapin, and drank the cham- pagne. Some of the correspondents make more of the story than others, but there cannot be much doubt that the facts were scandalous. No one seems to have suggested that the occasion resulted from a concerted effort to bring the pagan gentleman to a due understanding of the scriptural parable about the host who went into the highways and byways to find guests for his feast. The advantage of living in a Chris- tian country seems to be that the inhabitants, being familiar with the parable aforesaid, do not have to be hunted out like rats, but come themselves and do their duty. They say that when the Chinese Minister gives another party he will hire unto himself a hall, and put up feeding-troughs around it. * * * WASHINGTON jury has found Mrs. Emmons sane. That is all right. She is not demented enough to spoil her fun, even though she does make it an anxious world for the Professor. Could he stand a trial now and prove that he was sane when he married her? She had a record then, and he ought to have discovered it. * * * IFE hopes the news is true that Secretary Manning is about to leave the cabinet and become president of a bank. It is understood that, next to an hotel clerkship, the highest achievement in business is to be chief magistrate of a bank. The pay is said to be good, and we have always understood that it was paid in consideration of knowledge, not for work. That is the best quality of job our Republic affords, and for Mr. Manning we want the very best. Knowledge is essential to the place he holds now, but it is not enough. There is work, too, there. Mr. Manning has worked enough. | Neither the administration nor the country can afford to accept the sacrifice of what health is left to him. * * * HAT was a diverting story the newspapers had about Brigham Young’s rehabilitation, but no one, not in the employ of the Associated Press, is required to believe it. * * * HEY say Mr. Travers will never come back from Ber- muda. New York without Mr. Travers will not be so pleasant or so cheerful a town by a long distance. Has any- one, since John Van Buren, been so much or so justly quoted as Mr. Travers? comicbooks.com