Life — March 30, 1899 — page 4: what you’re looking at

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

“ While there ts Life there’s Hop VOL. XXXUII. MARCH 30, 1899, No, 853. 19 West Tuiery-Finst New YORK. Published every Thursday. $5.00 a year In vance. Postage to foreizn countries in the Pos Union, $106 a year extra. Single current coptes. lOcents. ‘Back numbers, after three months from date of publication 25 cents. No contribution will be returned unless accompanied by stamped and addressed envelope. The illustrations in LrrR are copyrighted, anil are not to be reproduced without special arrangement with the publishers. Prompt notification should be sent by sub- seribers of any change of address, NY astrologers, soothsayers, A clairvoyants, seveoth-sons, or plain detectives, who have time, are V) invited to drop their respective probes NT Asa Bird Gardiner. Why didCroker give usGardiner? It is comprehensible that there is money for the Organization in bav- ing a District - Attorney /#4-> who knows neither law ae nor manners, and who necds a drove of high- Ge salaried assistants and an army of deputy assistants to help him obstruct the adininistra- tion of justice. But there are plenty of bad lawyers who are not jackanapescs, and plenty of jackanapeses who are not quarrelsome, self-conceited, opinionated, and miscellancously and obviously fool- ish. Van Wyck is arrogant, and has brutal manners, but it is conceivable that Van Wyck is the sort of Mayor that Croker needs, There is nut the mystery about him that there is about Gardiner. Van Wyck fights fur the Organization, browbeating citizens who ask embarrass- ing questions and hurling his epithets against the common enemy. But Gar- diner’s cbullitions seem to have no motive except his own personal relief. When he treats Tammany's own Judges with insolence it is not from any sense of obligation to serve his maker and carn his pay. It is simply his way of having fun. He is not only a nuisance, but a ridiculous nuisance. Gardiner really seems to have been a mistake. The joke in his case is on Croker. ‘LIFE: Wosten A Yale graduate, under fifty years of age, who isa man of national reputation and a leader in his profession, and whose name inspires re- spect, can learn of something to his advan- tage by communicating with the corpo- ration of Yale University at New Haven. Physically, he need not be very big. A man the sizeof Ambassador White would do, if acceptable in other respects, though weight as cousiderable as that of Speaker Reed would not disqualify him, if it is active weight and not mere grease. A Christian man is preferred, but rea- sonable latitude in the interpretation of Scripture will be allowed, and intensity of religious profession will io no case be ac- cepted asa substitute for personal charac- ter. The applicant should bea scholar, but not more learned than iscompatible with a high degrceof astutencss, He need not be an authority on practical finance, but should understand ina general way the use of railroad bonds and the qualities which make them serviceable. He should be personally solvent, and yet should not be so appreciative of the value of this world’s goods as not to prefer a very moderate salary in a place of high use- fulness and honor to much more adequate remuneration elsewhere, He must be able to express himself clearly and with precision, and with some grace, while standing on his legs, and witbout notes. His acquaintance should be considerable, and not limited to men of any one calling. His ideas of dress should be neither too elaborate nor en- tirely rudimentary. A married mao is preferred, though a widower with grown daughters, or even a bachelor, would be considered. Some aptitude for the de- tection of humor is of importance, though a personal gift for making jokes would not be considered to make any applicant more available. The right man, whenever he discovers himself, is requested to apply at once, as the Yale corporation is desirous to be in communication with him at least as early as May Ist, and, if possible, sooner. Ohio papers please copy. © ® HILE the conquest of the Philip- pines goes on, and we are wonder- ing what the upshot of it all will be, and what the Liberator’s further plans are, Boston is fortunate in having a counter- irritant which is giving local relief by making it smart in a new place. War has been declared there on the sparrows. Their nests have been clearcd out of the Common, and notice to quit is being diligently served upon them in all the public places of the city. The"complaint about them is that they are ornithologi- cal Chinese, and can thrive under such hard conditions, and multiply so fast in the face of such difficultics that, wher- ever they settle, they crowd the native birds out, The America-for-the-Ameri- cans party in Boston is down on them, and intends to make the town too hot for them, if it can, But, as always, when there is a cause in Boston there is an opposition, and just now the opposition to the sparrow hunt is very lively, and is shedding printers’ ink by the barrel and calling very hard names. How the matter comes out seems not very important one way or the other, though the attempt to drive the sparrows out of any town seems a hope- less proceeding. It must, however, bea comfort to our Boston friends to have a good fight over something that is in sight and can be understood. Fighting Fili- pinos has only one practical side, which is taxation. It is fighting people we don't know, for something we don’t want, and which won't be ours even if we get it. It may be foolish to fight sparrows, but it is the height of wisdom compared with fighting Filipinos. HE yellow Journal threatened Gov- ernor Roosevelt, his family, and his friends, with all sorts of newspaper exposures unless he obeyed its shrieking behest to commute the sentence of the cruel murderess, Mrs. Place. The Gov- ernor is not made of the stuff that yields to blackmail, and did bis duty as his conscience dictated. In the effort at in- timidation, the Journal exhausted all its facilities for lying, both in picture andin print, but the law was carried out with- out any of the horrors it promised. The result is that the Governor's interpreta- tion and performance of his duty is com- mended by all good citizens, and the Jour- nal is the laughing-stock of even the dupes whom it has been in the habit of stuffing with liesand exciting with loathe- some pictures and blackmailing threats.