Life — October 4, 1900 — page 4: what you’re looking at

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

VOL. XXXVI. OCT. 4. 1900. . 19 West Tuixty-Pinsr St., New Yons. Poblished every Thursday. 6500 a year | o ataye Co foreign countries In th iot'a'vear extra. Sinule current copies, hack numbers, after three months from Df publication, 25 cents. No contribution will be returned unless accompanied by stamped and addressed envelope. The illustrations in Lrve are copyrighted, and are not to be reproduced without special arrangement with the publishers, Prompt notification should be sent by sub- seribers of any change of address, at, TTPHIS is the month in which we must expect to see our stat- isticians record the lowest average of veracity since the corresponding. peri- od four years om, “2a ago. Between now and elec- tionit becomes the business of large numbers of cur fellow - citizens to make us believewhat isn't so, It is the time of roorbachs, of rumors, of put- up jobs, of strikes for political effect, of panics, of “fake" bets, of stories built of flimsy materials and designed to hold together until after election. We should all be on our guard now against over-credulousness. When we are told that the Filipinos are almost ready to begin loving us, we are en- titled to have our reasonable doubts about it; when we are told that Bryan’s election will stifle enterprise and wreck the finances of everyone who has any finances, we must not quake too violently; when we are told that Republican success means a career of conquest for our country, and the further enrichment of the rich and impoverishment of the poor, we must take those forecasts, too, with a fair allowance of salt. It is going to make a difference who wins the election, but not such an enormous difference as our political friends would have us believe. Bryan LIFE isn’t fit to be President so far as we know, and many of the ideas he up- holds are mischievous rubbish, but a good many pretty sensible men will vote for him, who would not vote for a man who, they thought, would rush the country to destruction. McKinley stands for what we permit ourselves to call imperialism, but there is reason to suspect that he doesn't like it much better than we do, and is holding on because of the extreme difficulty of letting go. A lot of the men who are trying to elect him, and will vote for him, hate imperialism and Asiatic expansion and militarism and the like evils with hearty and virtuous dislike. Whoever is elected, there will be a great deal of pulling back from men who are entitled to be considered. of & ISPARAGING allusions to our Philippine policy are open just now to the objection that they seem to incite folks to vote for Bryan. For that reason it will be more agreeable to make them after election, for it is by no means true that Bryan repre- 8.nts a monopoly of conservative sen- timent in the country on the Expan- sion question. If all the voters who were disinclined to a system of colonies beyond the seas governed from Wash- ington were going to vote for Bryan he might be elected, whereas even in Wall Street it is hard to get up a healthy scare over his prospects, is amusing—somewhat grimly so—to see how the leading Demo- crats of the Cleveland School con- tinue, as they come to the fork of the roads, to make their choice and issue statements making their excuses. Since Senator Caffery refused to be the Nationalist candidate, Mr. Moorfield Storey, of Boston, has buried his sav- ings under u weeping willow in his back yard, and come out for Bryan. Mr. Storey has had a horrible timo with himself about politics and the state of the country for the last four years, which is a pity, for he is one of It the best men in the land. He has not hid his sufferings from the world, and we all know that he did not turn to Bryan until every avenue of escape seemed closed. For cases like his, there ought to be invented an opera- tion on the mentals corresponding to the operation for appendicitis. When, through no fault of the patient, an organ ot the mind continues at inter- vals to give dreadful pains, and can’t be cured, it ought to be taken out, so that the patient can have health and go about his business. Perhaps Mr. Storey would say that nothing ailed him, but that it is the appendix of the country, newly acquired, useless, and situated in the Philippines, that is in- flamed and needs to be disconnected. That is a fair way to put it. How long would any good political surgeon, called to attend Uncle Sam, and un- vexed by other considerations than such as affect the patient’s health, hesitate to declare that his Philippine appendix ought to come ont at the first moment he was well cnough to stand the operation? Mr. Hornblower, of New York, another Cleveland Democrat, has made his choice and excuses himself without many qualms, in a statement that an- nounces his preference for McKinley. Perhaps after election it may be possi- ble to generalize about the difference in the mental processes of Boston and New York. The tendency to seek tho martyr’s crown seems somehow strong- er among Boston Democrats than in New York. ef GUNDRY golf-clubs in Connecticut are under disfavor of the law for Sims boys under fourteen as cad- dies during school hours, The authori- ties are after superintendents who are careless about it, and the authorities are right. There is also objection to employing caddies on Sundays, but that the law in Connecticut has not yet been used to stop. There is a great deal more to be said in favor of Sunday golf than in favor of Sunday caddies. Some clubs decline to fur- nish caddies on Sundays, and there is a good deal of reasonableness about that conclusion. comicbooks.com