Life — November 23, 1899 — page 4: what you’re looking at

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

+ While there is Life there's Hope.” VOL. XXXIV. NOVEMBER 23, 1800, No. 887. 19 West Tuery Finer St., New YORK. Psa i every I hureday. #500 » year in ad~ vatage to foreign countries in the Petal 104 alrear extra. ‘Mingle current copies, Ww Back numbers, after three months from Gate of ‘publications ‘Scents, No contribution will be returned unless accompanied by stamped and addressed trations in Live are copyrighted, an are not to be reproduced without special arrangement with the publishers, Prompt notification should be sent by sub- seribers of any change of adsbrers, ye ERE is craven una- nimity among the doctors of the two parties in their diagnosis of the late clec- tions. They agree that the President has been sustained in the pol’ey of carrying the Spanish war i:.to Asia, and that his renomination by the Republicans is inevitable. Our neighbor, the Evening Post, puts it fairly when it says that ‘‘opposition to imperialism could be effectively made only by a party of principle under a leader of character,” and that ‘it was too much to ask in- dependent voters to support a dema- gogue at the head of a mob as a protest against anything.” 80 long as Bryan is the leader of the Democrats the rash impulses of the Expansionists will have to be tempered by such discretion as the Republican party can afford, for the Democratic party will be too feeble to be of much use as an opposition. Morcover, 80 far as affairs in the Philippines go, there is at present better prospect of inducing order there by supporting the measures now on trial than by a change of policy. How much, or how little, share we shall tuke in the administration of the islands after present disturbances have been abated is still to be settled, and need not be settled in haste. Bryan carried his own State, and, though his friends in Kentucky seem to have been whipped, and his friends in Ohio were badly disfigured, the elections did not do much for our relief so far as he is concerned. It may be necessary LIFE that he shall lead the Democrats to defeat once more, It seems a pity to lise 80 much time over so impossible a leader, but the mass of the Democratic voters are very slow to learn, and when once they hive given their allegiance, are extremely loath to transfer it, A) HE discussion in South Africa con- tinues without conclusive arguments being advanced up to this writing by cither side. Persons who start with the assumption that the interests of civiliza- tion demand the expansion of the British Empire in South Africa are able to side strongly with the British and to feel that they are fighting the good fight for peace and liberty in Christendom. Those, however, to whom it seems that the Boers have been unduly and unneees- sarily crowded are swayed by mixed emotions and subdue with difficulty their disposition to cheer when Boers get the best of a fight. Bless the dear British! We love them, but it is a sad habit they have of putting their feet into the trough ! re __ ‘Ba E are getting pretty strenuous here in New York, judging from our success in promoting prize-fights. We have them regularly, and of a quality that seems to give excellent satisfaction to persons who affect such entertainments, Lire bas no violent objection to them as long as the duty of attending them can be delegated, but it observes that moralists all over the country are pointing the toc of scornat New York as being the only State in the Union that tolerates prize- fighting. The moralists say it is brutal and demoralizing diversion, and so much in disrepute that the Governor of Texas called out his militia some time since to hinder a prize-fight in Texas. They think we are a bad lot here in New York, and somehow they all lay our prize-fights to Governor Roosevelt and declare that if he were half as good as he looks when he addresses the mothers’ meetings, he would stop them, But the Governor says they are no affair of his, It only the right chaps fought, Lire would defend the Horton law and the present interpretation of it. If we could get Croker and Platt into the ring, or Gardiner and the champion of the City Club, or Educator Little and Professor Buuer, it might be worth while, for some things might be settled. But for a Jeffries to pummel o Sharkey settles nothing but bets, LOKIO & UR New York contemporaries have had very little to say about the retire- ment of Mr, Godkin fromthe editorshipof the Erening Post. There may be acertain degree of consideration in their silence, for Mr. Godkin, of late years, hus not endeared himself to his neighbors. No doubt he might have done go if he had chosen, but it has suited him better to be the most notable American critic of all American concerns, and in fulfilling that office he has taken counsel of nothing but his own discernment, He might. perbaps, have accomplished more ifghe had been somewhat less ruthless, for often he has antagonized even the fulks who should have been his backers. However that may be, he does not leave behind him in any newspaper office in New York a writer who is his equal in cquipment. Tis knowledge is surpassingly comprehensive, and his powers of expression and mental grasp are so unusual asto warrant us in regret- ting thatalarger proportion of his encr- gics were not devoted to writings which could be preserved in books. Mr. Godkio’s health is said to be indif- ferent, but, in the interests of literature, we must hope that rest will restore his nerves and his strength, and enable him to write the essays and the books that he owes to us and to his own fume, aye 2 DRE IIE attention of persons who affect to believe that it is a disgrace to any nation to haul down its flag in any territory that it has once floated over is called to the withdrawal of the British flag from Samoa. As quickly as our cousins determined that it was best for all-hands that they should get out of Samoa, they got out. No absurd senti- ment against hauling down the British flag had any weight with them.