Life — December 24, 1908 — page 6: what you’re looking at

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

THIS BUBBLE WORLD “You Are a Good Boy, William |" T the news that the ex- cellent Taft has turned down his wine-glasses and will drink no more rum, Pres- ident Lillian Stevens, of the National W. C. T. U., gushes in to say: Mr. Taft is entitled to grateful apprecia- tion and the thanks of a thrice-grateful na- tion, which nation we believe within the next decade will outlaw the sale of that which is unfit te drink. We do not believe that Mr. Taft is looking for grateful appreciation, or a thrice-grateful nation’s thanks, for turn- ing down those glasses; nor is it likely that he will thrill with joy at Mrs. Stev- ens’ patronizing assurances. He is a man with a tendency to weigh too much, and he needs to keep himself in a state of the highest mental vigor for the next four years. We doubt if any good trainer would give him any al- cohol so long as he kept in training. Very little is all he would get, anyhow, and if he finds it more convenient to take none at all, that is easily understood. In the course of time and his duties Mr. Taft will, doubtless, have something to say about the army canteen. When he speaks on that subject we doubt if Presi- attainable dent Stevens gets a chance to issue any congratulations. A man of Taft's sort of mind may to be himself a teetotaler, but could hardly be readily enough elect a Probibitionist, and hardly co-operate in regulations that induce drunkenness while their purport is to abolish it Nothing is more wonderful about the present anti-rum movement than its abil- ity to survive the assistance of the W. C. T. U. and the Prohibitionists —O &o The Effect of Prayer CCORDING to the Tribune, on Thanksgiving day the ministers of twenty-five towns in the Kansas-Missouri mining district united in a prayer for a tariff on zine ore. Some of the lines of the prayer were: O Lord. we humbly a To tariff raise on ecause our infant trade now stands Close onto ruin's brink. thine aid There is yet some little time to elapse before the effect of this prayer can be es- timated. In the meanwhile, we are re- minded of the comment once made by an English paper, long before the present king had reached his royal office, when he was a mere prince, very much in debt, etc. The comment was to the effect that on Sunday the English churches all over the world united in a common service of prayer for the Prince of Wales, “ And,’” concluded the comment, “just look at him.”” Canny Is Mr. Carnegie aware that the effect of a radical reduction in the steel tariff would be the elimination of a large part of the in- dependent manufacturers and the strength: ening of the mastery of the jee] Corpora- tion upon the steel trade of this country ?— Woll Street Journal. HIS statement, taken in connection with the fact that Mr. Carnegie is supposed to possess three hundred mil- lions of Steel bonds, would seem to argue that he is trying to add something to, or to strengthen his present income. But Mr. Carnegie does not need any more money. What he wants is reputation. It is easier to believe that he shot his bolt not for pecuniary benefit, but because he saw a way of telling the truth at no expense. Parents, Take Notice Parental authority s come to a low ebb, The father thinks the bowling alley is far more sacred, and the mother plays bridge.— Pittsburg Gazette-Times. A’ things work to a common good Our contemporary should remem- ber that we are really in a transition stage, and it is hardly fair to judge us altogether by our present standards. Once there was too much discipline, The child was compelled to go to church two or three times on Sunday, and was regu- larly “ whaled "’ into obedience, and held strictly into account for every act. This age has been succeeded by the present one, in which the child has as yet not come to a full recognition of his own re- sponsibilities. It is not improbable, how- that left thus to their own re- sources, children will soon begin to find themselves, and by their self-control un- der supreme difficulties, and their knowl- edge of hygiene and psychology, come to be a source of real discipline to their parents. Only the other day we heard a little girl of eleven say to her mother: “ Mother, dear, do you wonder that I ob- ject to your having wine on the table, when it averages nearly twenty per cent. alcohol, and has a most deterrent effect upon the coating of the stomach, to say nothing of your morals? ’* ever, ABRUZZI TO MISS ELKINS. SAID TO HAVE SENT HER TELEGRAMS IN TIE LAST PEW Days. w York Times, December 3. HAT a very small business this tat- tling, eavesdropping, and lying about those young people is. How it must disgust the decent men who work for the newspapers that keep it up! Fully Equipped As It Is ISS IDA TARBELL, , being acci- dentally herded in by a Sun re- porter with the Woman Suffragists, rises in the paper to explain that she belongs to the Anti-Suffrage Association. It makes one smile to think of Miss Tarbell's needing any more vehicles of expression for her political sentiments. What does a twelve-inch gun want of firecrackers? Fear ‘The present active war against tubercu- losis appears to be bringing about conditions which are startling. It is creating and propa- gating a general fear and horror of con- sumption It is a most serious mat- ter to arouse an unreasoning fear against —New Orleans Picayune. EYE the doctors themselves are be- ginning to realize that the fear of a disease is likely to be as fatal as the dis- case itself. This is particularly so in tuberculosis, where it is driven in to the patient, from the his case is diagnosed, that the chances of his re- covery are small. Thus terrorized, his cure is extremely doubtful. Added to this we ¢ all the hysteria about germs which furnishes the patient with an added scientific "’ reason why he cannot get well. It ought to be clearly understood that germs do not “attack.’’ They go when they are sent for. They are only sent for by those who do not use fresh air, and who are prone to be scared by what the doctors think they know. moment