Life — May 9, 1889 — page 4: what you’re looking at

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

AS TO THE STAGE. IIE stage is bad, so parsons say, And naught but evil from it springs, And still it has what angels do (And parsons don't) have, Namely, wings. . . . ~HE human race may pro- gress by a return to com- parative barbarism. If the dude circus, which. we may consider to be an outcome of the heroic games the gilded youth of Rome were wont to indulge in, succeeds in develop- ing the courage and muscle of some of the modern product, it will not have been in vain, though a broken limb or two and nu- merous bruises are the penalty. The fact should not be lost sight of, cither, that in case one or two fortunes should collapse, the young gentlemen who are thus thrown upon their own resources may be able to find an engagement with Barnum by reason of the training now obtained. ae: enc . . . HE only good reason we can see for not alluding to Mr. Cornelius Vanderbilt as a “pious cuss” is that he seems to be truly pious, whereas the piety of “ pious cusses” is usually understood to be more apparent than real. Mr. Depew, who is no slouch in good works himself, says that it is mainly due to Mr. Cornelius Vanderbilt's efforts that the edict has gone forth which is to reduce Sunday freight traffic on the Central Hudson to its lowest terms, On purely re- ligious grounds, says Mr. Depew, Mr. Vanderbilt has long wished for this change, which would have been brought about before but for the practical difficulties in the way of its accomplishment. It isn't good for anybody to work on Sunday, though, of course, it is better that some people should work than that some things should not be done. We are all with Mr. Van- derbilt in wishing that as many as possible of the Central Hudson train-men shall have their Sundays at home, and if any of us fail to put our desires in this regard on purely re- ligious grounds, why, that is where he and Mr. Depew have a very notable and decided advantage of some of us. . . . W E are glad to mingle our tears with those shed by Professor Norton in the back part of Scrébner’s Mag- azine over the lack of homes in America. It is a sad lack, but what is there to do about it? Ancestral homes in this country are for the very rich, or for those judicious persons who arrange to become the only children of parents in com- fortable circumstances, Homes started in the country have not a reasonable chance. A family that grows up in such a home is bound to scatter as soon as its members get to years of wage-earning discretion. The boys of the family, if they are of any account, will hie them to town to make a living, for the alternative to stay at home and plough their share of the homestead means lifelong poverty. Those homes seem to have the best chance of a prolonged existence which are started in cities—if a city house can be said to be a home—or so near to some big town that the boys of the family can find work without being obliged to pull their stakes completely up in the search for it. Primogeniture has very serious drawbacks, but it is a mighty useful institu- tion to any country that wants to have more than one genera- tion of any family acknowledge the same homestead as theirs. OR our own consolation and Professor Norton's, let us try to believe that this is an uncommonly restless gen- eration; that presently, when the West has all been settled, there will be less temptation to wander, and that Americans will make a business of having homes somewhere, eventhough it should be in Paris. One thing seems pretty evident: that a sentiment for places has not had time, latterly, to sink very deep into the American nature, and that the man of our day and country will not stick to a particular spot so long as there is any other spot on earth that seems to him likelier, and he has the means of reaching it. THE EVOLUTION OF A SOCIETY THESPIAN CHICK AND THE EGG FROM WHICH IT 1S HATCHED. comicbooks.com