Life — February 20, 1902 — 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. XXXIX. FEB. 20, 1902, No, 1008. 19 West Taikty-First St., New YORK. Published evory Thursday. $5.00 a year in ad. ¥ vatage to foreign countries tn the Postal bs year extra Single current copies, 10, Rack numbers, after three months from date of publication, 3 cente, No contribution will be returned unless accompanied by stamped and addressed envelope. The illustrations in Lure are copyrighted, and are not to be reproduced without special arrangement with the publishers, Prompt notification should be sent by sub- scribers of any change of address, SX sono _ poetical os lines in one of the magazines, a well- known reform: ==> er says _he is home- sick; homesick for the home he has ne r seen ; where riso only to lift where equality leaves men free to differ ; where the obligations of love are sought for as prizes, and vary not with the moon. “That land,’ he cries, '‘is my true country. Iam here by some sad cosmic mistake." So far as history records, there was never on Earth such a land as this poet specifies, though those of us who have pious hopes anticipate something of the sort in the sometime future. His being here is no more a cosmic mis- take than our being here. There is no use of complaining that Earth and human ways are unsatisfactory, until aerial navigation gets so far along that n explore other planets, If ways isfactory, what would be the use of Earth and of our being here? Where things are satisfactory oppor- tunity is dwarfed, if not altogether absent, Tho great merit of Earth is that it offers so many good jobs of work. It roars and clamors unceas- ingly for amendment and improve- ment. No one ought to be homesick * LIFE : on a sphere where there is so much to do. Anyone who suspects that his being here is a cosmic mistake must somehow be on the wrong track. No healthy man ought to want to live ina finished world. Boston is as nearly finished as any place can be, and still be an advantageous place of mundane residence. Of course it is not fair to pin down anyone too close to sentiments ex- pressed in a poem; of course we all fecl at times as our friend feels in his poem. Butit is a mistake. The in- tention of Nature seems to be that when we feel like that we should take something for the liver, and if our dis- comfort is deeper-seated than that, that we should bestir ourselves, and try to demonstrate, not that our being here is a cosmic mistake, but that the cosmic mistake has been made at the cost of the persons whose desires and convictions conflict with ours. Let them get off the earth. We belong my, IY Care = YOR EXAMPLE: There is the matter of the abatement of the sugar duties for the relief of Cuba. Economically, Cuba is in the last ditch, and she will sink there unless Uncle Sam helps her over. Her great crops are sugar aud tobacco, We ex- act heavy duties on both of them. Cuba must have money for her sugar crop this year. She must sell it in the United States, for she has no other market. She cannot sell it here at even a yery small profit unless we let down our tariff on sugar about one-third for her benefit. The Administration has been fighting hard for that reduction. It is opposed by the beet-sugar people, who argue that it is a cosmic mistake that Cuba exists and can raise sugar so much cheaper than they can. The rest of us don’t see it so. The cosmic mistake seems to us to lie in fencing cheap sugar ont of the country so that dear sugar can be raised at a profit here. We want to see Cuba set on her legs, even at the cost of some abate- ment of the profits in beets. Of course it is disenchanting to the beet- sugar men, who have been taught that they can raise beets immeasurably and indefinitely at our expense. But let them squirm a little. It is life and death to Cuba, and it is not nearly so serious a matter as that to the beet men. The Cubans have been home- sick for a better world for ten years. Give them a chance. NOTHER EXAMPLE: For some years Americans coming from Europe to the port of New York have been subjected to such unnecessary impertinences and indignities in the effort to make them pay customs duties on their effects, that they have felt strongly that this country was not their home, and that there was a large cosmic mistake somewhere in the Treasury Department. They have been. compelled to submit sworn statements of what they had that was dutiable, and then their baggage has been strictly searched to discover if their statements were true. In the case of respectable travelers not suspected of fraud, one or the other of these proc- esses should be dispensed with, Either the passengers’ statements should be accepted, or they should not be sworn to. Ts papers say that Queen Mar- garet of Italy, the widow of King Humbert, is disposed to visit this coun- try, incognito, and see what, and how much, there really is of it. We have never had any experience with queens on their travels except with the former Queen of Hawaii, and it would be very interesting to see whether a European queen could travel here comfortably and to her satisfaction, or not. It ought to be easily possible. It is likely that the Americans would be at least as much interested in Queen Margaret as she in them. Here’s hoping that she will come, and find edification and take pleasure in the Americans and their winning ways. comicbooks.com