Life — September 6, 1888 — page 2: what you’re looking at

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

e “While there's Life there's Hope. XIL. SEPTEMBER 6, 1888, No. 297. 28 West Twenty-tTitirp Street, New York. VOL. free. Single is office. Vol. LVI, Published every sek name $5.00 a year in advance, post copies, ro cents. Back numbers can be had by applying to t bound, $15.00; Vol. II, bound, $10.00; Vols, III, 1V., vite IX!, Xv and XI. bound, or in flat numbers, at regular rates. Rejected contributions will be destroyed unless accompanied by a stamped aod directed env Subscribers wishing address changed will greatly facilitate matters by old address as well as new. NOusentlee gentle reader, there is no cause for alarm. If this were not a Presidential year the Republican news- papers would not consider that Mr. Cleveland’s message concerning the fisheries is a deliberate effort to get up a war with England; nor would they tremble at the thought of our defenseless coast lined along with British men-of-war, or turn pale at the idea of the siege of Coney Island. It is comforting to know, however, that if a hostile fleet should forget itself so far as to come fooling around our shores, we still have Captain Paul Boyton and his rubber suit, and the next time he puts a torpedo under a British man-of-war in New York Bay it will be a loaded one. . . . [* considering the beneficent anomaly that exists in the circumstance that the recent invention of more powerful explosives and more terrible engines of destruction than have ever been used in war, is in itself a preventive of war, we must not lose sight of the fact that naval construction has about come to a standstill. England “has got the men and got the ships,” but her largest marine guns are so big that sustained firing would rack the vessels to pieces. France has just invented a pretty little submarine gunboat, too, that promises to make things interesting for the big fellows. According to a despatch to the Herald this boat “is so constructed as to be able to dive completely beneath the keel of the largest ironclad and by means of special apparatus. fasten explosive cartridges to the sides of an enemy's vessel, and is enabled to maintain communication with explosive cartridges fixed by means of a steel wire by which the cartridges can be exploded by electricity,” after which it comes to the surface and smiles. When the enemy's fleet arrives off Sandy Hook we will send a boy out with one of these boats, and scuttle poor Britannia’s entire Navy. . . . T°? the efforts of the Rev. Dr. Howard Crosby, ably seconded by his son, is due the circumstance that the Republican party has finally made high license an issue, and to both of these gentlemen the public owes a debt of grati- tude. If every clergyman, possessing the force and energy of Dr. Crosby, were to use his influence in the cause of good government as he has done, the pulpit would have weight in politics and the better element of society make itself felt at the clections. And it might be a good thing, by the way, if the clergy, which is now returning refreshed and invigorated to renew warfare upon the devil, should im- press upon the good citizens who go to church their moral responsibility in affairs of municipal and state government, and induce them to attend the primaries. Blessed is he who voteth at the ward meeting, for the seraphim shall cast a united ballot for him in Paradise. . . . [® spite of the fact that the Republicans have made high license an issue, however, that plank of the platform would be stronger if it dealt with the question in a positive rather than a negative way. Still, the party is committed to the issue, as read: “The Republican party unequivocably condemns the course of Governor Hill in obstructing by his vetoes acts for increasing the fees for licenses, by which a larger share of the cost of government might be levied on the liquor traffic, and we approve the efforts of the Re- publicans in the last Legislature upon the liquor question, especially on passing the act nullified by such executive action to restrict that traffic by charges which would lift some of the burdens of taxation caused by the liquor traffic from the home and farm, and we believe that such charges should be advanced to standards similar to those successfully enforced in other States under Republican control.” * . . UT perhaps the best effect of the high license plank lies in the circumstance that it puts Governor Hill out of the way for a second term. The “saloon element” is work- ing with all its strength to bring about the renomination of the present tricky incumbent, and if this object is accom- plished, the Democratic party will have to go before the people on a pro-liquor issue, which it cannot afford to do. The next best thing to getting Hill out of the way is the fact that his elimination leaves the Democracy no alternative ex- cept to make our present Mayor its choice for Governor, and the nomination of Mr. Hewitt will mean his election. And then we shall look for sport. Given a man of Mr. Hewitt's independence, fearlessness, dyspepsia and force in Albany, and how the machine of government will whirl! There will be some fun in living in those days. . . . ND, of course, the Democratic party will take cognizance of the fact that high license has become an issue in the State, and will introduce a plank in its platform similar to the one in the Republican platform we have quoted. It will certainly be suicidal to ignore the liquor question, and worse to take the side of the “saloon element” against the respectable part of the community. comicbooks.com