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Tacts and Tancies for the Tireside
A STREET PHILANTHROPIST.
In his little room in a cheap ho* el
in Omaha, Colonel Alexander Hoag
land, “the newsboy’s friend,” and
author of the Curfew law, was found
dead, aged 75.
That was nearly all the newspa
pers said about the passing of a
great soul.
For forty years this dear old man
went from city to city with a single
passion—to make good men out of
the boys of the streets.
Tn this gracious ministry of turn
ing young hoodlums into good citi
zens, giving street waifs an outlook
upon a better life, Alexander Hoag
land spent a fortune. When the
fortune was gone he kept on just the
same. A few friends sometimes sent
him some money. Some newspapers •
helped.
Tt did not take much to keep the
old man’s soul and body together.
His wants were touchingly few.
It was the glory of Mr. Hoag
land’s work to be in a crowd of
news sellers and bootblacks—the
cheeriest and wittiest of the gang—
and so turn the talk as to make the
boys think something of themselves
and of their future.
Few men better knew the way to
a wayward boy’s better nature.
He was a man of education and re
finement with a brilliant war record
behind him. His personal graces and
tact and ability would have made
him a great success among men. He
was an eloquent public speaker, and
had many elements of popularity.
But he chose rather his own mod
est philanthropy of the street.
Many successful business men re
member the grand old man with
gratitude. He gave them their first
“hunch” toward better things.
What, then, is the test of a man’s
life work? Who is the successful?
Put the life labors of Alexander
Hoagland beside the success of the
mere money-getter. What an abject
failure the latter! He will die and
the worms will eat him, while “the
newsboys’ friend” will live in the
lives made better by his presence,
live as long as the race shall live,
live a sweet and gracious influence.
Through hardness and short din
ners and scant comfort the life of
Hoagland was a constant martyr
dom —and a constant joy.
Blessings on the memory of his
good gray head! —Fort Worth Tele
gram.
WILL THE YOUNG MEN DARE?
Tn these strenuous times of com
mercialism and graft when corrup
tion is in high places, "when Mayors
of great cities, United States sena
tors, congressmen, legislators, judge-:
and other officers are using the po
sit ions given to them by the peop’o
for the sole purpose of enriching
themselves by schemes of graft and
extortion, we need men who will
stand for the right and champion
the cause of the people who as a
whole a e helpless in the hands of
these plunderers. The case is hope
less unless the young men dare to
take up the fight and contend for
civic righteousness. Will young men
dare to denounce these rascals and
lead the people back to the old time
honesty and statesmanship that pre
vailed in times gone by, when a
grafter would have been hung as a
traitor, when men did not hold office
for profit, but were really servants
of the whole people, and devoted
their best energies and brain to try
ing to benefit those whom they
served ?
Let us have the young man
Who feels with his veins the throb
thing pulse
Os power and purpose urging him
to dare,
And, yielding to the message, treads
down fear,
Rending to scorn his own innate
despair?
He is the nobleman! No accident
Os ancestry can equal that fine
birth
Os spirit which unlocks the dormant
soul
And rounds endeavor to its highest
worth.
God grant that this generation
may see the day when a man to be
honored must be honorable, truthful,
noble and brave —daring to go for
ward in the right though all the,, le
gions in earth and hell oppose him.
This is the opportunity for young
men, if they have the moral courage
to accept it and take the risk. —
Weekly Sentinel.
GOOD THOUGHTS.
To obey God is liberty.—Seneca
A man must first govern himself
ere he be fit to bear the government
of the commonwealth. —Sir Walter
Raleigh.
Plain good intention, which is as
easily discovered at the first view
as fraud is surely detected at last,
is of no mean force in the govern
ment of mankind. —Burke.
There is really in nature such a
thing as high life. A life of health,
of sound morality, of freedom from
petty cares, is higher than a life of
disease and vice, and stupidity and
sordid anxiety. I maintain that it
is right and wise in a nation to set
before itself the highest attainable
ideal of human life as the existence
of a complete gentleman.—Hamer
ton.
The wise and good, whose esteem
alone is precious, -will not judge of
you by the few deeds of philan
thropy and honesty which you put
boldly forth for the inspection of
the world, but by your constant hab
its in business, your daily walk, your
most private treatment of the hum
blest man in your service; in short,
by your contribution of mites to in
dividual happiness and the public.—
C. A. Barol.
The object of wrestling and of
all other athletic sports is to
strengthen men’s bodies and to
t n ach them to use their strength
readily, to keep their tempers, to en
dure fatigue and pain. These are
WATSON’S WEEKLY JEFFERSONIAN.
noble ends. God gives us few more
valuable gifts than strength of body,
and courage, and endurance. We
ought to cultivate them in all right
ways, for they are given us to pro
tect the weak, to subdue the earth,
to fight for our homes and country
if necessary.—Hughes.
Justice is the great interest of
man on earth. Tt is the ligament
which holds on the temple of justice
with usefulness and distinction, who
ever clears its foundations, strength
ens its pillars, adorns its entabula
tures, or contributes to raise its au
gust dome still higher to the skies,
connects himself, in name, and fame,
and character, with that which is
and must be as durable as the fame
of human society.—Webster
There is an opinion that parties
in free counters are useful checks
upon the administration of the gov
ernment, and serve to keep alive the
spirit of liberty. But in government
purely elective, party spirit is not to
be encouraged. From this natural
tendency, it is certain there will al
ways be enough of that spirit for
every salutary purpose. And there
being constant danger of excess, the
effort ought to be, by force of pub
lic opinion, to mitigate and assuage
it. A fire not to be quenched, it de
mands a uniform vigilance to pre
vent its bursting into a flame, lest in
stead of warming, it should consume.
—Washington.
SUBSTITUTE FOR BRAINS.
Mr. Arthur Brisbane is quoted as
saying: “Tn this great whirling,
pushing, competing world, there is
no substitute for brains.” Brains
unquestionably constitute a good
part of the equipment in the battle
of life. Still, “in the final analy
sis,” as the stump orator says, Mr.
Brisbane’s statement cannot be tak
en as altogether axiomatic. There
is a subtle and infinite variety of
what is commonly called brains and
everyone is not agreed on the su
perlative quality. A Chicago Uni
versity professor, for instance, said
John D. Rockefeller’s intellect—gen
ius he called it —was superior to
that of Shakespeare, and for certain
ends this conclusion seems capable
of demons! ration.
A very good quality of brains
sometimes fails to make itself known
or to avail anything to its possessor
in a material way, while that of the
gaudy and meretricious kind often
dazzles the gaping public.
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608 TEMPLE COURT
As for substitutes, it has been
charged that Mr. Hearst uses Mr.
Brisbane to supply some mental de
ficiencies of his own. While that
may not be an exact truth there are
numerous instances in which such
a statement is true in “this great,
whirling, pushing, competing world.”
The man with mere intellect, if that
be called brains, without money,
without diplomacy, too proud for ar
tifice and too honest for intrigue,
is very likely to be exploited for
the benefit of some one else, and oft
en he acts as a substitute for brains
in others.
A modicum of brains backed by a
considerable quantity of audacity
will go much further on the road to
success than these qualities reversed.
And it is true, Mr. Brisbane to the
contrary notwithstanding, audacity
is often a fair substitute for brains.
Give a man both audacity and cun
ning and he is often much better
fitted for the jostling conditions of
the latter day world than one with
a strong, cultivated, but ingenuous
mind. Audacity and cunning are no
more brains in the proper accept
ance of the term than pinchbeck is
pure gold, but that fortunate com
bination often succeeds where brains
fail and it passes for brains with the
multitude.
There was never more room for
the charlatan than there is in this
bustling world Mr. Brisbane de
scribes. The public does not take
time to find out what is genuine. On
ly the few have the capacity to dis
cern the genuine and reputations are
often made on the estimates of the
million. And it has always been so.
The mob crucifies Christ and de
mands the releasing of Barabbas. It
has no discernment of merit. Cag
liostro was better known and more
patronized in his day than was any
genuine man of science then living.
If what Mr. Brisbane says were true
we might put faith in monuments
and epitaphs and believe some
of the windy orators whom the peo
ple choose to fill high offices to be
great statesmen. We might even ac
cept the modern yellow journal as a
genuine newspaper and regard Mr.
Brisbane’s flamboyant socialistic ef
fusions as something better and
more wholesome than sane and well
tempered journalistic discussion.
Verily there are substitutes for
brains, and the world has never
known a time when they could be
used to better advantage.—Nashville
Banner.
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