Life — October 22, 1896 — page 20: what you’re looking at

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

COMPARATIVE. ee ID you have any trouble in learning to play the flute?” “Two gun-shot wounds and a law sui . ££] WANT to be an ar- tist.” “Can you draw at all?” “No, “.Then begin by making pictures for the Sunday papers.” yx the chess of hard luck there are too many pawns. *>LIFE: A PROTEST. HERE scems to be a disposition in some quarters to criticise the G. A. R. on the ground that in its vocabulary patriotism really means pension, and that its members have a gen- eral idea that the world is, or ought to be, theirs, with the fullness thereof. This criticism is all wrong. In reality the action of the Grand Army man is dictated by the most disinterested patriotism. He knows that the country is in danger from the horde of hungry “TO MAKE A LONG STORY SHORT.” politicians who are trying to get all there is to be had from the public service, and he means to cir- cumvent these rascals even at the cost of using THE PUNT, BRYAN’S POSSIBILITIES, every cent of the public revenues for pensions. He has not, himself, any particular hankering after a pension ; he knows, of course, that it is his in- alienable right, but his natural inclina- tion to self-sacrifice would lead him to refuse it were it not for his ardent desire to keep the civil service free from the disreputable classes who enter it for the loaves and fishes. Again, the G. A, R. man is animated by an unselfish desire to preserve the good name and character of his country. Republics are proverbially ungrateful, and he is determined to save the U. S. from this reproach even at the cost of his own modesty and self-respect. It is UDGING from the way Mr. Bryan is going J on and the immense demands he is making on himself, he does not anticipate the ne- cessity of hoarding his strength for the labors of government. He is a re- -markably sturdy, as well as vocifer- ous, person, and with more educa- tion, more maturity, and a change of heart, he. might become a’ useful citizen. His main effort at present seems to be to rouse the poor against the rich, and the West against the East, which is as mischiev- "ous a job as any American since Benedict Arnold has set himself to accomplish.