Life — December 1, 1898 — page 4: what you’re looking at

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

“ While there VOL. XXXII. DECE: 19 West Taicry-F Published every Thursday, qanee. $5. a year In ad~ Postago to foreicn countries In the Postal 106 Xtra. Sinyle current coples, ce tack uumbers, after three months ots. Of publication, 25 céats, Yo contribution will be returned untess panied by stamped and addressed ations in Live are copyrighted, ant are uot to be reproduced without special arrangement with the publishers. Prompt no ion should be sent by sub- tCRET which has long puzzled social observers has, cu- riously enough, been brought to solution by the result of the re- cent political campaign in New York State. It has always been a noticeable fact in bibulous circles of society that wealthy and well-to-do brewers habitually drink cham- 5 pagne and Rhine wincs— never lager beer. If they went thirsty, the mystery might have been explained by the well-known pre- cedent of the bare-footedness of shoe- makers’ children. But everyone knows that brewers in general are men of lurge girth, florid complexions, rubicund noses, and bearing the other outward in- dications of spirituous or vinous indul- gence, so that explanation would not explain. In the recent political con- test the pecuniary and personal sup- port of the brewers was thrown on the side of the Democrats. The Re- publicans, who were victorious, areabout to punish the brewers for the aid and countenance they gave the enemy, and itis the form this punishment will take which explains the secret of the brewers’ evident antipathy to their own products. ‘They ate afraid to drink the poisonous compound which they sell as beer. The Republicans are going to compel the brewers to brew pure beer, if they brew at all, The readers of Lire may not be especially interested in the purity * LIFE * of beer, but to many worthy people it is a staple article of dict. To us all it is a gladsome sight to sec honest pecple getting their due because other people have fallen out, The unfortunate part of it is that the benefits of this falling out are to be realized only by the beer- drinking portion of the community. For the rest of us, it would have been well if the wrath of the Republicans had also fallen upon the grocers. who adulterate their sugars, coffecs, teas and spices ; or the druggers who sell impure drugs ; or the gas companies who “enrich” their gas ; or the packers who put up cotton.seed oil under the Lucca label and box minnows from Maine as sardines; in short, on the whole race of counterfeiters and short-weight dealers. The immunity from punishment enjoyed by this dishonest gentry makes critics of otir system of government regret that it is nota little more paternal in matters that very closely concern the health and happiness of us all. There are laws, to be sure, covering these matters; but what is everybody's business is not the urgent business of anyone, 80 we seldom hear of a punishment for selling adulterated goods. HE correction of this evil might fur- nish creditable employment for our yellow contemporaries, Of late, those journals have been declining in prosperity and influence, because they have apparently exhausted all the tar- -gets for sensationalism. They must be storing up a vast amount of unexpended energy, and it would find a praiseworthy outlet in the investigation of these frauds and the punishment of their perpetrators through the medium of publicity. Per- sistently, intelligently and fearlessly fol- lowed up, such a warfare would redound in credit to the journal that carried it on, and in a great amount of gvod to the people at large. ‘CHE football season ends with a rec- ord of casualties even fewer than those suffered by the Americans in the late war. The experiment of confining the games to college towns and college grounds has removed one basis of criti- cism, and that without in the slightest degree lessening the legitimate interest in the game. College men who have deep at heart the best interests of college sports have always regretted the associa- tion of the commercial idea with the clean and generous rivalry that should exist among the universities. ‘ Gate- money ” is too closely associated with the prize ring and kindred enjoy ments to be especially grateful to the cars of men who think the simple laurel should be the sole reward in college contests. The large sums received by the athletic asso- ciations have given rise to charges of dis- guised professtonalism, and of tactics in securing desirable men for the teams and crews which would never have been heard if the sports had been obliged to depend for their support on the contri- butions of students and graduates. Al- though the advocates of free admission for college men and their friends do not rate the exclusion of the general public as one of their objects, they hold that the collegians should have the first choice of seats as against the moneyed and other elements which lie outside of college life. The money value of the privilege to secure seats at the games, which has been pushed up to an absurd figure on some occasions by outside people, has brought to the poorer men a temptation to dis- honorable conduct hard to be resisted. rele mal EW YORK people have invented a name for the provincials who once a year put on their best bibs and tuckers, and journey to display them- selves and their garments at the Horse Show. They can be so readily picked out in the city’s thoroughfares and gath- ering places during Horse Show week that they have earned the distinguishing title, but the limitations of English orthog- raphy tre such that it is dificult to express itin print, If one spells it Horse- Show-ers, it seems to have something to do with the weather or the treatment of equine sprains; if one spells it Horse- Sho-ers, it implies a blacksmithing idea not intended. It is simply the adding of the termination er to the words Horse Show, and the resident New Yorker knows what it means and can distinguish one every time and without difficulty.