Life — November 22, 1900 — 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. XXXVI. NOV. 22, 1900, No. 41. 19 West Tuimry-First St., New Yous. Published every Thursday, $5.00 n sear | vance, tostage to foreign countries in the Ista) Union, $1.0t-a year extra, Single current copies, ldconts. Rack numbers, after three wonths fro date of publication, 25 cen! No contribution will be returned unless accompanied by stamped and addressed envelope 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- soribers of any change of address, HEKing sdead ; long live the King! The Bryan- ite party being con- clusively beaten for the second time, the chance seems to have come for the Democratic party to re- trick its beams and get x. ready to shine to some SS" purpose. Mr. Bryan he is surprised. Mr. Croker insisted that he was surprised, Maybe Senator Jones, the Bryanite manager, was sur- prised, though that is not certain. It was part of Jones's job to expect to win, and he duly expected. Nobody scems disposed to throw stones at Mr. Bryan, He has grown a good deal in the last five years. He isn’t a new man any more, for we have all come to think we know him. -He has grown somewhat in our esteem and even in our affections, so that whereas at first we looked upon him as a blatherskite, we have come to have kindlier iments about him and to regard him as a good man gone hope- lessly wrong. He certainly has talent. Maybe he has convictions. He has in- gratiating wi He is like a man who makes a hopelessly bad marriage in early life. Full of energy and ambi- tions, with high hopes and a gift of re- sounding discourse, he took up with that lamentable free-silver Jezebel and staked his fature on his ability to force her into reputable society. Poor Bryan! His constancy has been worthy of a better object. Society is bound to Se Ie as yd a ee look out for itself, and it is perfectly idle to expect that sympathy for a man in a bad scrape will ever beguile it into a course of action that is contrary to enlightened self-interest. > ta-~ BrxAn will live to fight another day—though he will hardly be again a candidate for President—but his Jezebel is pitched out for good and all, and they that would be at pains to bury her will find few bones to do their office to. Yet she was a King’s daughter, and men still young recall what favor she found in her prosper- ous times with William of Canton. Confound the slut! She had done much mischief. Yet it may be that if we were perfectly farsighted we would not feel it a misfortune that the sound money issue has given the present ad- ministration another lease of life. A good many diseases have to rn their course, and if they are checked make all the more mischief. Whatever com- plaints the body politic is suffering under now will have another four years to work out, and maybe some of them will disappear. Whether the Major will keep his ear as close to the ground as he has been used to we can- not tell; but habit is strong, and he will undoubtedly aim to manage things as nearly in accordance with tho will of a majority of the people as he knows how. He will poultice our painful sore in the Philippines for all he is worth, and possibly he may re- duce the inflammation. No one could have more urgent motives for doing so than he has, and if his zeal for amend- ment at any time falters, there are those near him whose political ambi- tions have not yet been glutted, and who will prefer that the deluge shall not follow him too close, ~ O far as the Philippines are con- cerned, it is a blessing that election is over. The continuation of the Republicans in power at least has this advantage, that it will tend to pre- vent the fighting Filipinos from being bolstered up with any more doubtful hopes. If Bryan had been elected, Aguinaldo would surely have made shift to keep up a fight for four months more at least. Whether he and his would have been any better off with Bryan in the White Honse is uncertain, for what Bryan would have wanted to do is one thing, and what he could have done, or would have found it expedient to do, is another. When a job has been botched, it takes more than good intentions to make a gocd job of it. a SR e THE great success of the campaign was the discomfiture of Croker. If Croker was a man in history, safely dead, and to be read about at a proper distance, we would not find him en- tirely detestable. We have a kindness for robust villains when we meet them in works of fiction, and Croker is robust. But in real life we have much less kindness for him because he costs so much and does so much harm, and be- cause his rule is so humiliating to decent citizens of the Republic. In the late campaign, more than ever be- fore, he won a national reputation, and an uncommonly bad one it was. He not only domineered and gave un- timely manifestations cf his power, but he was unexpectedly foolish, It came out clearer than ever before that though as a boss he is a man of might, he is sure to make a pitiful showing when it comes to being a statesman. His habits of life have changed, too, and certain austerities of conduct which used to serve him in good stead seem to have been undermined. It looks as though we should not long be bothered now with Croker, but whether we are or not there is no sense in biting our thumbs at him. As an individual he is not particularly important. It is asasymptom that he counts. He has been the sign of our disease. If we had taken proper care of ourselves and our interests, we would never have had him. If we get quit of him, and then neglect our political health some more, some other symptom will show itself that may be even more distressing. comicbooks.com