Life — April 26, 1928 — page 16: what you’re looking at

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

APRIL 26, 1928 VOL, 91. 2373 “While there is Life there’s Hope” HAUNCEY DEPEW was re- markably adapted to be happy already in this life. He had a good body, a suffi- ciently good mind and excellent sense. He did a lot of work and was happy in it; happy, too, in that his aspirations never seemed to exceed his abilities. His notion of recreation was some other kind of work than what he did in hours of business. One recalls his strong recommendation of after- dinner speaking to Mr. Joseph Choate as a recreation which in- volved little effort and was a good exercise. He did it very well. Though seldom a voice crying in the wilderness, he was able to put even into after-dinner speeches something worth hearing, which was, of course, an extravagance only to be indulged in by a mind that could afford pro- fusion, Physically he must have been very sound. One recalls his old-time habit of an annual voyage to Europe and how he began it with a long sleep. After he had slept a day or two, fatigues of departure and pre- departure were made up for and he could start afresh. Plainly enough he had immense recuperative facul- ties, as men must have who live at high pressure most of the year. Now and then he got a jolt. The great insurance investigation was the worst, and that seemed for a time to affect his health as well as his spirits, but he pulled through it and finally came out without damage to his reputation because it was the habits of business of the time that were shown up rather than the mis- deeds of individuals. We are all liable to have a line of virtue that we habitually practice suddenly indicted by a new genera- tion because the standards of deport- ment have risen or at least changed. In old times and wars impaling was practiced and other like details of homicide which doubtless accorded with the sense of propriety of those who practiced them, but for a long time now such incidents of war- fare have been felt to be beyond the toleration of nice people. Of course a lot of the incidents of even this present ci tion, which so many of us think so well of, are likely to go by the board in their turn and be regarded as reprobate by a posterity whose practices we would think nothing of. Mr. Depew was lucky in keeping step with his generations in their estimates of virtue without ever getting uncomfortably far in the lead. He was never too good for human nature's daily food. Probably his great gift was the understanding of life as lived in his time. He was the President of a great railroad, but railroad men do not credit him with great exploits as a railroad man. His talents were rather those of a politician and in the years of his greatest activity they came in very handy in railroading. It is considerably an exploit to live to be ninety-three, without being forgotten. Mr. Depew was never forgotten. He was a habit of New York life like the Public Library and the City Hall. Peace to his ashes! The imperishable part of him has doubtless gone on to activities which he will enjoy as heretofore. THE great news at this writing is the overthrow of the one hundred per cent Americans in Chicago and the triumph of the adherents of King George. Some of the papers here- abouts said that such an upset could not happen except by a miracle, but it has happened and a thankful sigh has gone up all over the land, for really the hundred percenters have been getting too rough and Chicago much too disorderly. The election was a fight in the Republican pri- maries to settle who should run for Governor of Illinois, who for State’s Attorney, and who for United States Senator. The Thompson candidates were badly beaten in all three cases and though Big Bill continues to be Mayor, the handwriting has been put on the wall for him and the in- terpretation is not difficult. The political habits of great cities offer an extraordinary subject for study. Readers of Mr. Werner's new history of Tammany Hall will find that first or last pretty much everything that can happen to a great city has happened to New York. In no other city have condi- tions been exactly as they have been in Chicago for the last few years. No other city has had quite the seme mixture of populations, big floods of money and the competition of Pro- hibition all at once, but cities are governed by men who can do the job and they usually collect their charges. If they do not do so sys- tematically, the order which they provide does not last. Neither benevolence nor patriotism is enough to provide management for cities, It is a job of big business and there has to be a profit in it if it is to last. UDGE DANIEL who is an incorrigible optimist about some things, is quoted as assuring the Clan na Gael that we are pinching Great Britain painfully in trade and that in his opinion, “trouble of a more militant nature is inescapable.” One would not grudge the Judge any happiness he can get from think- ing so, but it is curious that he should see any improvement to British trade to result from ructions with the United States. One notices that the Hearst papers still advocate: 1. An agreement of the English-speaking peoples to preserve peace among themselves and to promote the peace of the world. E. S. Martin. comicbooks.com