Life — December 26, 1895 — page 4: what you’re looking at

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

‘LIFE: “OWhite there is Life there's Hope.” VOL. XXVI. DECEMBER 26, 1895. 19 West Tuirty-First StrEET, New York. No. 678. Published every Thursday. $5.00 yearin advance. Postage to foreign countries in the Postal Union, $1.04a year extra. Single copies, 10 cents, Rejected contributions will be destroyed unless accompanied by a stamped and directed envelope. hi Ww' do the protectionists rage and sundry of the Republican Congressmen imagine a vain thing. It is true that Ambassador Bayard said some indiscreet things in his Edinburgh ad- dress, but his indiscretion was by no means so great either in kind or in degree as to warrant all the rumpus that has been raised over it. It was __. the indiscretion of a man with a full mind seek- ing to impart the largest possible amount of Pen a truth on a certain subject to an audience of his fellow-creatures, There was no malice in it, * and it did no harm. It set forth what Mr. Bayard con- ceives to have been the effect of a certain species of tax- ation on the people of the country where the most interesting and extensive modern experiments in that sort of taxation have been made. It gave a young man from Boston a chance to demonstrate the exuberance of his fancy and to get his portrait in the newspapers, and it gave some of the more virulent enemies of the administration a chance to raise a howl. These opportunities being duly and diligently improved, the incident will doubtless make its way on and out into the limbo of overworked sensations, UR lively and ubiquitous fellow-7 townsman, Mr. Anthony Comstock,’ a . arrested and arraigned a man named Benson, the other day, =, on a charge of having (GPS solicited subscriptions and agents for anew maga- BF) zine which he eh} had no intention § of publishing. It Q is obvious to everyone that there are more than enough magazines just now, and that anyone who proposes to start a new one is fit meat for justice. It would appear, however, that such infirmity of purpose as deterred Benson from actually getting his magazine out is so far from being criminal that it ought to be regarded as a mitigation of his offence. An example of clemency in Benson's case might be useful. OLONEL INGERSOLL has not been converted, and his lecture business is better than usual. In some places where he discourses some of the local clergymen object to the display of his pictures, and use their local in- fluence to have them suppressed. That is not the way to deal with Colonel Bob. He thrives on that sort of sup- pression. Let him alone, reverend brethren. Persecution will help him as much as it would help you. It’s a mistaken policy for you, especially for those of you who are Protestants, to make any suggestion of an attempt to hinder free speech. UST now when Democratic victories are somewhat J scarce it is worth noting that Mr. Josiah Quincy has been elected Mayor of Boston by an unexpectedly large majority to succeed a very good Republican, who was a can- didate for re-election. There is no one in American politics who at all resembles Mr. Quincy. He is not emotional, nor convivial, nor maghetic. He does not chew tobacco like Mayor Strong and many other worthy men; he is not a jingo, and he has no Celtic blood in him. Nevertheless he will make Boston a good Mayor, and will probably go out of office with a reputation so much expanded as to make it interesting to know what it will seem good to him todo next. . R. AHLWARDT, who has come to this country from Ger- many to stir up bad blood be- tween the Jews and the other Americans, has undertaken a difficult job. The Jews give great offense in Germany and in Russia because of their great success in trade. But a large proportion of the Russians are ignorant and stupid, and it is possible that the Germans, though by no means ignorant, : are more deliberate in their _ Mental processes than some other peoples. % It is not unlikely that Dr. Ahlwardt will find that the Americans are less in need of his warning than he supposes, and that he may derive more valuable information from his visit here than he imparts. . * * EAN SMITH of Barnard College says, or is reported as saying, that the great difference between Barnard and Girton is that girls who graduate at Barnard get degrees, whereas graduates of Girton, however: distinguished in scholarship, are “ hampered all through life by having to explain why they have no degree.” No doubt that is incon- venient for the Girton maids, but their embarrassment is as nothing compared to what would cover some of our young male Bachelors of Arts if they had to explain how it hap- pened that the degrees they hold were ever conferred upon them,