Life — December 2, 1897 — page 4: what you’re looking at

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“QDhile there is Life there's Hope.” VOL. XXX. DEC. 2, 1897. a9 West THIRTY-FiRST ST, New York, D. 780, Published every Thursday. $5.00. year in advance, Postage to foreign countries in the Postal Union, $1.04 a year extra. Single copies, 10 cents, Rejected contributions will be destroyed un- tess accompanied bya stamped and directed envelope. The illustrations in Live. are copyrighted, and are not to be reproduced without special arrangement with the publishers. HE Horse Show being accom- plished, the chief football games being fought and consequent thanksgivings celebrated, now comes winter, and with it—Congress. It is in some respects an anxious time when Congress meets, but let us hope for the best. We know that our national legislature includes a good many unwise persons, who are clam- orous in direct ratio to their unwis- dom, and who would get us into vari- ous scrapes if they could have their way; but it also contains many men who are sensible, conscientious and influential; and behind it is the President, conservative in most mat- ters,and sincerely desirous for such an administration of affairs as shall give the industries of the country the best possible chance to prosper and repair the ravages of hardtimes. We have no very ominous domestic legis- lation in prospect. Congress may or may not try to improve our currency system, but at any rate there will be no free-silver agitation. What gives our timorous friends most uneasiness is the chance of annexing Hawaii and the possibility of trouble with Spain. Neither prospect is sufficient cause for sleepless nights. If we annex Hawaii we must make the best of it; -> LIFE: and, as for Spain, we won't get into any row with that unfortunate coun- try which the President can prevent, or which it is our duty to keep out of. Let us try to expect Congress to do itsduty. The disparagement of every- thing connected with politics or government is somewhat overdone in this country. When we start out with the declaration that Congress is a collection of irresponsible blather- skites we compel the implication that the Americans are unworthy people, for Congress is fairly representative ofitsemployers. Whatever its short- comings are, there is but one great legislative body in the world that has a serious claim to be considered its superior, and the validity of that claim is by no means conceded. With Congress we stand or we fall, It represents the American attempt at popular government. Good or bad, it is the best that we can do at this time, ard however any of us may think it a poor thing, let none of us forget that it is our own, N OTWITHSTANDING some bad accidents, a good deal of clamor and some foolish legislation, it has been a good year for football. The great college matches have been unusually clean and free from scan- dals, and have been highly satisfac- tory to the victors in them, Foot- ball is a great game, with some con- siderable drawbacks. It is partly skill that wins in it, but it is largely brute force, and indifference not only to damage received but to damage in- flicted. ‘* Ginger,” the lack/ of which is so detrimental to high achievement on the gridiron, scems not to be mere vigor, such as one may sometimes see in baseball, but something very close to ferocity. It can hardly help seem- ing to a contemplative layman that a football eleven, which is thoroughly qualified in point of “ginger” for the successful transaction of its business, ought at once to be taken before a magistrate and bound over to keep the peace. The aim of every first- rate football player is to achieve the extreme limit of permissible violence without slopping over into prohibited brutalities. To be the least bit lack- ing in violence is to have a defect in “ginger,” aléas ferocity, and that meansfailure. To bethetrip-hammer that cracks the eggshell is perhaps the football ideal, but though that is possible in mechanics, it is too much to expect of flesh and blood. The nature of one inherent drawback in football is indicated by the fact that, after two teams of nearly equal strength have competed, there is al- ways ground for rumination as to whether the winners won because they were better players, or merely because they were fiercer and more unscrupulous bruisers. There is no room for speculation of that sort over contests in any other branch of ath- letics except pugilism. BUR Ey eer T is suggested that while State legislatures are meddling with matters not within their province, they will do well to prohibit the raising of money for public memo- rials of persons who have not been dead at least twenty-five years, An exception might be made in favor of funds for the benefit of surviving widows or infant children. The memo: industry is very much over- done. There is a constant succes- sion of solicitations of funds for memorials of one kind or another for persons newly dead, who either don’t particularly deserve a public memorial or don't particularly need one. Asa rule, persons who need a public monument to keep them from being forgotten would better share the common lot and be forgotten, Let the fittest reputations survive. Those that don’t survive in force for twenty-five years ought not to be forced on public attention, & 8 @ Ccomicbooks.com