Life — February 7, 1901 — page 4: what you’re looking at

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

+ While Uvere is Life there's Hope. XXXVIL FEB. 7, 1901. No, 953. 19 West Trikry-Pinst St., New Youre. VOL. y ‘Thursday. $510 a year ign countetes to the pa date of publication. Beents. No contriution 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 su scribers of any change of address. F we are not getting a taste for foreign news, it is notfor lack - of food for it. Wehave almost Ma SS lived in London for the last three weeks, and when we have not been reading about Victoria of honored memory, or Edward, the new King, profuse reports from Cuba and the Philippines have invited us. We have hardly hi: ne to get out of the habit. of being interested in British corona- tions and all that precedes them, for King Elward’s is only the fourth that has been since the Revolution, To read the proclamations that attended the transfer of allegiances from Queen to King was a good deal like opening the old Bible and reading some of the back entries in the family r There has been a vast de mourning for Queen Victe country, and there is abundau good-will to her successor and of inter- est in his performance of the duties of constitutional king. The fluttering of hundreds of flags at half-mast in New York has been the outward expression of feelings that demanded to be ¢ pressed, Whether the City Hall fi expressed the feelings of the city v after all, of little consequence. We have known for three years past that we had a Mucker-Mayor, and though reassurances of that sad truth are «LIFE « disagreeable, they cannot hurt much now. The more signally the Mayor illustrates the disparity between his sense of fitness and ours, the better for us. Whereabouts on the mast the City Hall flag should hang was a question of taste and feeling with which neither precedents nor politics had much to do. The Mayor decided it quite as was to be expected. Amenities do not appeal to him. Courtesy is not in him, If he had the virtues of his defects we might still respect him. If he was a rough diamond, and his bad manners were the rampart that sheltered a surly integrity, we could admire him. But The manners scem fairly to ex- press the man. He is Van Wyck of the Ice Trust ; Van Wyck of the great Tammany » Trust; our Mucker- Mayor, who was sent us for our sins. no. fas Gas N° doubt most of thi 1 stories = about Roosevelt's azardous: exploits among the wild beasts of Colorado are lies. ‘They are amusing, but no one who remembers Hobson, or who recalls the wonderful airship sto- ries that the imaginative West regaled us with for atime a few years ago, will pay anything more than a humorous attention to them. As to the even more sarprising stories that come from Kansas of the exploits of Mrs. Carrio Nation, one knows hardly what to say. They can’t be all lies, and yet it seems incredible that a sovereign state should not be able to muster 1 force enough to restrain a small group of obstreperous women from raging about and destroy- ing property. The explanation appar- ently is that Kansas being a prohibition State, saloons are not under the pro- tection of the law, and aro at the mercy of the first comer with an axe who dislikes them. That must be why the Governor of Kansas hasn't called out the mili Making laws that are meant to be broken is an un- manly practi If the Kansas men ure compelled either to enforce their liquor laws or repeal them, they will be none the worse off. There is alto- gether too much sneaking about American liquor legislation. <> Cas looks as if we might think better of Roosevelt as Governor by con- trast with Odell, Silas Burt from the Civil Service Com- mission displeased many persons who wished to remain, as they began, the Governor's well-wishers and support- ers, and the bad impression it left has been strengthened by the proposition toabolish the State Board of Charities. The State Board of Charities is a fallible concern. Good men, who were doing their best to discharge efficiently their duties as managers of various in- stitutions in New York State, have often complained of its meddlesome- ness, and declared that in many cases it thwarted their efforts and impaired their efficiency. But its business is to meddle, and to charge it with meddle- someness is not necessarily to disparage it. It onght tocombine the wisdom of the serpent and the dove’s harmless- ness, but as that combination is rare, it is possible that it doesn’t. The Governor says he can save money by transferring the State Board’s duties to a smaller Commission. If the State Board is not useful, let it go, but the pretense of abolishing it for economy's sake is absurd. It costs very little. Tho important question is, Is it efficient, and is there any reasonable prospect of getting its work better done by other means? ow H AZING investigations continue - popular and in good demand. Those who sifted West Point found ont so much more than was cxpected and justified themselves so thoroughly, that there is a call for a similar going over at the Naval Academy at Annapo- lis. It will come if Congress can find any reasonable excuse. Drat tho hazers! They are in a poor business, and the more of them get come up with the better. Still, even investiga- tions may be a nuisance if they become epidemic. comicbooks.com