Life — December 1, 1900 — page 26: what you’re looking at

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

‘LIFE + -cus—@. “CONFOUND IT! I HAVEN'T SEEN A RABBIT TO-DAY.” and doing, It is well! There are the Philippines and the Transvaal and China. In all of them this year the times have been uncommonly lively, and in two of them at least the righteousness of what has been accomplished has been ear- nestly disputed. If we are to say It is well! and have our verdict respected, we shall have to use our best judgment in choosing our point of view. . . . E Americans can afford to confess that, so far, our efforts to promote good will and brotherliness among the Filipinos have not been flattered by much success, We have killed alot of Filipinos, and a good many of us have died in the process of doing it, and most of the surviving Filipinos scem to dislike us and ours with a disregard that is very fervent. That doesn't seem much like carrying Christmas into the Orient. The more hopeful side is that we are looking at a work which is still very far from complete, and which, possibly, has not extended far enough yet to take the conclusive turn for the better which its defenders hope lies ahead. The dispositions of most of us towards the Filipinos are sincerely benevolent. Urgent and instant reproof from our mentors at home has not availed to restrain us all from disclosing the misgivings which our course has stirred, from time to time, in our own breasts. If we have done wrong we have been mighty squeamish about it, and though squeamishness about ill-doing isn’t quite the same thing as righteousness, it is certainly a sign of a tender con- science and, so far, is a hopeful symptom. We can’t say as yet that itis well in the Philippines, but we can say that, in spite of all appearances, the intentions of most of us there are not despotic but brotherly, and that though, so far, we have not been able to do ourselves justice, time may yet vindicate our dispositions and put our conduct in a better light. . . . HE South African episode of our British brethren comes nearer to being a finished job, but is not on that account easier to deal with ia a Christmas discourse. ‘There may or may not have been Christmas trees io Boer homes last year, but certainly this year there will be few. Little love was lost, maybe, between Dutch and English in South Africa a ycarago, but there isless now. The best we can say is that the blight of one Christmas may be the precursor of others that are happier, and that where sharp correction is needed, itis better that it should come than that civilization should grow distorted for lack of it. Very likely the Boers needed disci- pline. Presumably the British did also. Both bave got it Both surely have suffered enough to expiate all their mis- deeds which are capable of explatory settlement. If pain brings forth good fruit, and often it does, there is a great crop of dear-bought benefits due in Boer-land, and Britain too, and we wait with expectant interest to see it harvested. . . . HESE many years Christendom has urged upon our remote neighbors, the Chinese, that it was expedient for them to include Christmas in their list of annual festi- vals and to put it ahead of all the others, as wedo. They have been, on the whole, very tolerant of our arguments on the subject. Indeed, we have insisted that they should be tolerant, and whenever they have shown signs of resenting the urgency with which our beliefs have been pressed upon them, we have had ministers, consuls, soldiers and ships to sustain our views and our citizens who promote the spread of them, und even to protect from their own authorities the native Chinese who adopted them. Moreover, our brethren in Europe have gone so faras to proclaim rather openly that folks in Asia who were not keepers of Christmas were backnumbers and too much behind the times to be competent to manage their own affairs. So the expediency of taking charge of the Chinese and their country has been very openly discussed and consid- ered. The work seems in some particulars to have been over- done, for, partly on account of the fervor with which it has been prosecuted, a strong revulsion of feeling against all Christmas-keeping people has arisen in China, with results that bave caused Christendom the greatest concern and that have included many fatalities, a vast deal of distress, and the occupation of Pekin by foreign troops. This situation, like the others we have considered, has perplexed conscientious observers not a little, We do not doubt that our brethren in China would be better off if they could be induced to accept and assimilate our Christmas and all the ideas and aspirations that belong to it. Nordo we doubt that we do right in offer. ing it to them, but it is debated whether we have not backed “our solicitations with too much of consttaint and whether our solicitude to do good unto others is not marred by our eager- ness to find for ourselves an ample profit in the transaction Reviewing all these doings in the other half of the earth, vari- ous are the reflections to which we turn for comfort. After all, we say, there are stronger forces in the universe than man’s will. Destiny will have her last word. Laggards can- not hope not to be run over. The fittest, whether we will or comicbooks.com