The looking glass. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1894-????, April 07, 1894, Page 4, Image 4
4
The Looking Glass
M“0 lead some pow'r
the yiftie gie us,
To see oursel's as
ithers see us."
Published Weekly
by
THE LOOKING GLASS
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Looking Glass Publishing Company.
Why was it that Col. Breckinridge in the
late trial denied so emphatically that love
played any part in his relations with Miss
Pollard? The assertion wiped away the
faintest shadow of an excuse for his perfidy.
Had he been animated by love instead of
mere animalism, had he given his heart to
this woman and in a moment of madness
forgot honor and duty, the world would
tacitly forgive him. As it is he will go down
to history as a beastly old satyr devoid of any
higher guiding power than his vile and
unbridled passions.
* * *
A female reporter went into a lion’s cage
and wrote up her experience for last Sunday’s
New York World. There is nothing singular
in her escape unscatdhed. No self-respecting
lion would monkey with a World reporter.
# * #
Everybody who admires nerve must ad
mire Tillman aside altogether from the right
or wrong of the question. Few magistrates
have the desperate courage—call it audacity,
if you will—to take such a situation by the
throat, and w’ere it not for the frightful un
popularity of the cause, he would be
lauded to the skies as one of the most re
markable men of these times.
With undeniable craftiness the opposition
have made their watchword the sanctity of
home. Home is a tender point with the
American. He is always ready to fight for
it, and if needs be, die for it, and this pas
sionate devotion, which is the true spring,
by the way, of our national greatness, is apt
to render him blind to the merits of any
cause that appeals to the home sentiment.
It is altogether possible that the very peo
ple who complain most loudly that their
households have been invaded and who ap
peal to their fellow citizens to protect the
hearthstone, are people who have cared
precious little for the sacredness of the fam
ily circle in the past. No man who has sold
whisky in his private house, or so conducted
himself as to arouse suspicion that he is so
doing, has any right to prate about the
sacredness of home, and other and better
men would do well to take a sober second
thought before risking their lives in his
behalf. •>_
Nevertheless, the dispensary law is odious,
and justly so, and the presence of a horde
of spies will rouse the resentment of any
community, no matter how blameless and
law abiding. An informer is inately detest
able to an honest man, it makes no differ
ence how laudable the end to which he is
employed.
It is human nature, and that’is something
that laws cannot change or modify.
In fact, it may be set down as a truism
that any law that runs counter to our inborn
prejudices is a bad law. It is this kind of
an enactment that Gov. Tillman set about to
enforce, and riot, revolt and bloodshed was a
predestined consequence. The only thing
about his course that can possibly be ad
mired is, as has been said, his dogged cour
martial law, to seize railroads, to establish a
censorship over the telegraph, to strip re
luctant soldiery of their uniforms and com
missions, and to assume control of the en
tire police power of a state, but Tillman
has done all this and more unflinchingly.
He certainly has the stuff in him of which
dictators are made.
But what will the denouement be ? It is
midsummer madness to suppose that the
will of the people can be bent to a law that
has been enforced by brute strength and
arms alone, and surely a gin mill on every
corner were preferable to the incessant strife
that has embroiled the state. It is a sad
condition of affairs.
Poor old South Carolina!
* * #
That was a modest request Mr. Norcross
made of council the other night. He wants
to put a suspension bridge over the pavement
to facilitate the leisurly removal of his col
lapsed corner. In behalf of diffident people
we would like to know where Mr. Norcross
buys his nerve-food.
* * #
The outrageous Dimmock ordinance for
the purpose of driving out hucksters was
very properly knocked in the head last
Monday. If an ordinance could now be
passed preventing the honest farmer from
putting the big apples on top or measuring
his thumb in a quart of strawberries things
would be on a very happy basis.
* * *
It was really painful to observe the grim
aces with which the administration element
swallowed Pat Walsh. He was a bitter pill,
and while Governor Northen’s choice was
not openly condemned by the Cleveland
press, if ever a man was damned by faint
praise, that man is the Honorable Pat. The
Journal’s construction of his statement that
he “stands squarely on the democratic plat
form’’ as a pledge of allegiance to the pres
ident cannot but provoke a smile. Setting
aside the question of which party wing real
ly does stand squarely on the platform, it-is
undeniable that Col. Walsh’s expression is
a shibboleth of the anti-administration dem
ocrats. At the same time the Journal ac
cepted the nomination with more grace and
tact than any of its contemporaries of the
same way of thinking—doubtless for the
simple reason that the Journal has more
brains.
j To the great mass of people the nomina
tion was exceedingly satisfactory, and the
Governor is being generally patted on the
back. His announcement that he himself
was out of the race, divests his choice of any
thing like personal interest. He was not
The Look
ng Glass.
“playing for position” as billiardists say, but
at the same time the assumption that he
y could have pre-empted the senatorship by a
little diplomacy is extravagant.
Governor Northen is a good man and an
honest man; but his chances for the office
were exceedingly microscopic.
His withdrawal was the most adroit act of
his career, and makes him a much stronger
man than his candidacy would have done.
Col. Walsh is certain to make a fine
record in the Senate. He is bold and brainy,
and the marked adaptability which is one of
his characteristics will go a long ways toward
taking the place of experience. Personally
comment is superfluous:
“ None know him but to love him.”
“ None name him but to praise.”
* * *
That a citizen of Atlanta is obliged to
apply to council for damages for being de
tained in doors by a case of chicken pox
diagnosed as small pox by the authorities is
a pretty commentary on professional intelli
gence. It is enough to make one fancy that
the big vaccination fees had a great deal to
do with the small pox scare.
* s- *
The City Solicitor ought to receive a sala
ry. The present fee system is simply an in
vitation to oppression. The sole and only
purpose of many of the prosecutions in the
City Court is to get a fee, and this fact was
never better illustrated than in the recent
raid on the slot machines. The warrants
were sworn out b. the bailiff’s father—no
doubt by request. It was shown that the
parties running the machines had no inten
tion of violating the law and the cases were
dismissed on payment of costs. The Solic
itor made a desperate fight for a fine which
meant a fat fee and a terrible hardship to a
score of business men. The whole thing
smacked so largely of persecution that the
Sheriff and his deputies returned their costs
to the defendants, but it is almost superflu
ous to add that the Solicitor hung on to his.
The way that immoral houses are dealt
with is a standing scandal. There is no
pretense that they are suppressed, but when
ever deemed advisable the keepers are
dragged into court and mulct of a fine. The
warrants in these cases are also made to
order.
Such a state of affairs is a shame and a
disgrace. The Looking Glass is emphat
ically in favor of the suppression of vice, but
just as emphatically opposed to its being
made pay tribute money to greedy officials.
* * *
The action of the Newberry rifles and
other South Carlina companies in refusing
to obey Gov. Tillman’s orders has been the
subject of a great deal of discussion among
our local militia, and opinion has been almost
universal against the Palmetto State troops.
That blind obedience is a soldier’s first duty
is undeniable, and from that point of view
the Carolina companies were everlastingly
wrong, but there is more than that to be said
on the subject. It can not be humanly ex
pected that a body of troops strongly im
pressed with the injustice of a law will shoot
down their friends and neighbors in its sup
port. That has been demonstrated
over again. Years ago in the great labor
riots at Pittsburg the local troops, strongly
in sympathy with the strikers, turned out but
simply fired over the heads of the mob.
More recently in a similar state of affairs
during the Southwestern railroad strike the
home troops of St. Louis proved worse than
useless. This is human nature, and under
all the circumstances, it was better for the
militia to openly declare itself than to take
the field half hearted and prove worse than
useless in actual service.
This may not be in accordance with mili
tary law, but it is common sense, and that is
or ought to be the basis of all laws.
* * *
In a recent interview in the Constitution,
Adjutant-General Kell reflected pretty se
verely upon the South Carolina troops for
failing to turn out when called upon by the
Governor, and scouted the idea that Georgia
soldiers would be similarly recreant to duty.
“ No such case is supposable as long as
Georgia soldiers are in their barracks,” he
said. “ But, to answer you more seriously,
the laws of Georgia provide for a strict
court martial The officer in charge of the
company refusing to obey such orders is
called up before the court martial and tried.”
If The Looking Glass remembers right
ly, such a case was supposable when the
plans were being laid to fortify our frontier
and the Adjutant went especially to Savan
nah to confer with the troops there to see
whether they “ approved ” of the proposed
action. They kindly agreed to turn out and
help save the state from the disgrace of a
slugging match, and the call was thereupon
made.
7t- -TV -X-
Why not abolish that dismally stupid in
stitution known as the coroner’s jury? It
has long since ceased to exist in many other
states and has absolutely no excuse for be
ing on earth except to furnish a livlihood to
certain chronic jurymen. In ninety-nine
cases out of a hundred an inquest is an ex
pert inquiry into obscure causes of death.
Such an examination requires a skillful phy
sician, and the laymen jurors know as little
of the means by which he reaches his con
clusion as they do of the man in the moon.
They simply look wise, keep their mouths
shut, sign the verdict and draw their pay.
If a jury essays to make the investigation
on its own hook, it usually makes a bull of
it. There is a case on record in Chatham
Co. where a verdict of death from causes
unknown was returned on a man who fell
out of fourth story window, and a Florida
jury who found a negro hanging to a tree
near Gainesville last winter, decided that he
died from exposure.
The jury fees are a considerable item of
expense to the people from one year's end
to the other and the sum might well be
saved. The coroner does all the work any
how, and the balance of the machine is a
useless and ridiculous encumberence.
Which one of our legislators will distin
guish himself by introducing a bill to do
away with these costly parasites ?
* * *
About the only alarming effect that
Coxey’s army has produced so far is the
influence in has exerted on other cranks.
There are hundreds of hair-brained indivi
duals everywhere who need only such a
demonstration as this to bring them to the
surface. They are being heard from in all
directions. One proposes to organize a
young woman’s army, another announced
that the Lord was about to smite congress
and very appropriately fixed the day of
smittng on April Ist. The queerest inci
dent, however, is the joining of Coxey’s
gang by Alexander Childs, of Pittsburg.
Childs is the nephew of Frick, Carnegie’s
partner, and one would suppose that all his
traditions were against a labor uprising. He
is a mild religious crank, very rich, and en
tertains what are vaguely termed “ advanced
views.”