Life — April 27, 1899 — page 4: what you’re looking at

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

19 West Tutety-First St., New Y _Lublished every Thursday. $5.0 0 year tn a eget lereign cpontrieatn the Prtal i ‘a year extra. Single current coptes, jack numbers, after three months from Gate of publication. 33 eeuts, No contribution will be returned unless accompanied by stamped and addressed encelope. The illustrations in Live are copyrighted, and are not to be reproduced without special arrangement with the publishers. Prompt notification should be sent by sub- scribers of any change of address. ~ (> OVERNOR ROOSE- VELT, who has been to Chicago to make some speeches, did not omit to disclose in the course of them his well-known sen- i) timent that the great- est’ thing in the world is war, and that any nation that g! lets a fair chance for 4 afight getaway from a it is sure to suffer the usual consequences of wasted opportunity. The Governor was, perhaps, a little too young atthe time of the Tilden-Hayes election dispute to appreciate what a glorious chance offered at that time to develop what he calls “the great, fighting, masterful virtues.” Nowadays, when he reads the history of 1876 and 1877, it must sadden him to real- ize what a chance was lost. Thetrouble was that at that time the country was full of timorous men who had fought so recently and so hard in one civil war that they didn’t feel the need of an- other. The Governor, as appears in his narrative now running in Scribner’ Magazine, fought hard at Santiago, and personally made a good bag of Span- iards with his revolver, but he didn't get nearly war enough there. No doubt he would like now to be in the Philip- pines, and it {s a pity he cannot be spared for service there, since, if he could once get all the fighting his system requires it mightcalm his spirit, As itis, he angers a good many good men, who ought to be his political supporters, by denouncing their timidity, It is not recalled that any eminent *LIPE American has ever shown the enthu- siasm over war for its own sake and asa sport that Governor Roosevelt exhibits, and which shows so clearly in his maga- zine articles, Washington was always ready for military service, but, as a sport, fox-hunting was good enough for him; Jackson was a grim and earnest fighter, but hardly an eager one; Lincoln, Grant, Sherman, Lee—to all of them war was dreadful, Roosevelt likes it, and really scems to see more good in it than evil, provided tolerable grounds for it can be discovered. Yet be is a good man, not quarrelsome,and not fairly to bedescribed as a fire-eater. It is a pity that some remedy cannot be discovered that will mitigate his bellicosity, and attune his sentiments more closely to the harmonies of civilization. LOVIO S OLICE-JUDGE PEABODY of St. Louis has drawn public attention upon himself by declining to punish a man charged in his court with slapping his wife's face. It was a case where man and wife disagreed as to which of them the children should obey, and it is possible that the Judge’s action was in the interest of domestic harmony. But his reasoning was that there are times when wives exhaust their husband's patience, and at such times to beat his wife moderately is the husband's privilege. So it used to be in the good old days when Blackstone commented on the com- mon law of England. Then a judicious husband might promote harmoniousness in his spouse by timely castigation, pro- vided he did not use too thick a stick. But that has all passed away. Nowa- days, no man in the more civilized American States may lawfully beat his wife, If she won't agree with him he must agree with her, or else they must agree to disagree. For good wives the present doctrine does very well, since good wives ought never to be beaten. But it is hard on bad wives who have gcod husbands, for it deprives them of correction which might be the making of them, and save the integrity of the family. However the law runs, it is bound to make some hard cases. Justice Peabody may as well recognize that, and leave unruly wives totheirfate. He cannot turn back the course of time and make wife-beating respectable. ENERAL SHAFTER, in his testi- mony before the Beef Investigating Commission, admitted that the canned beef he saw in Cuba was unpalatable, uninviting, and without taste, but still, in his opinion, it was not unfit for food. His testimony is somewhat perplexing, until we recall the circumstances under which his experience of the canned beef was obtained. The great central fact of the Santiago campaign was that General Shafter had the stomach-ache, It’ was before the stomach-ache seized him that he ate the beef and found it ‘ unpalata- ble, uninviting, and without taste.” No doubt the pain and the canned beef sus- tained the relation of effect atid cause, Nevertheless, the General seems to have harbored no grudge against the beef. Lying on a bed of suffering, when all food was alike revolting to him, he formed the second opinion which ap- pears in his testimony, that the canned beef was not unfit for food. This opin- ion, therefore, amounts only to this: that the canned beef, bad as it tasted, was not, theoretically, unfit for the food of a man who could not eat. That is true, The canned beef did no barm to those who did not eat it, except that it smelled bad and disappointed them. As for those who did eat it, many of them, like General Shafter, had the stomach- ache. But they were less charitable than he. They said the beef was not fit for food. o AR ® & HE war on the sparrows in Boston has ceased. Mayor Quincy said he wanted the sparrow-fighters for other work, The Boston war on the war in the Philippines continues, and Boston is very earnest about it, and holds mass- meetings, and gives vent to impassioned Boston utterances. They are sincere utterances, and in due time may have an effect; but for the present it isa situation that we are bothered with, and for at least eight months to come it is likely to be left to work itself out.