Newspaper Page Text
PAGE TWO
I Public Opinion Throughout the Union
THEY SAVED “OLD SUNSHINE,”
THE HORSE. GOOD!
All the newspapers and newspaper
readers rejoiced because “Old Sun
shine'’ was saved from the peddler’s
wagon.
For twenty-five years, good weather
and bad, “Old Sunshine” had done
his duty as a police horse. He pranced
ahead of potentates who visited the
city, carrying a policeman clear
the road. He saved lives by running
after runaway horses in the park. He
himself never ran away, bucked, kick
ed, pulled, shied or stumbled. He did
his duty conscientiously, like a good
horse.
Then he got old, and Two days ago
he was brought to the auction block
to be sold to the highest bidder. He
put his ears forward and rubbed his
nose confidingly against the arm of
the man that led him. He little dream
ed that the faithful service of his
youth was to be rewarded by hard*
ship, suffering, overwork and perhaps
abuse as a peddler’s horse in his old
age.
At the last moment “Old Sun
shine” was saved. The good-hearted
head of the “Cruelty to Animals” so
ciety could not endure that this old
horse should drain the dregs of his vi
tality in humiliation and sorrow.
“Old Sunshine,” happily saved
from the block, is to be turned out ir.
a nice clover field in the summer. He
will lie <»n warm straw in winter.
lie is saved. That is pleasant. We
all rejoice.
But what about those other old ani
mals that have two legs, instead of
four? What about “Old Grayhead,”
the man?
’Phe world rejoices and the newspa
pers print columns when a faithful
old horse is from suffering tit.
the last.
What about all the old men? Who
thinks of them?
How dees lheir lot compare with
that of the old horse?
Even for the oldest horse there is
always some “highest bidder.”
What are the feelings of the old
man for ahom no one will bid at all!
Do you know how many of those old
men stand beside the auction blocks
that we call employment agencies,
waiting vainly for somebody to bid
for them? Their sorrowful faces say,
“Here is my old body for sale,” and
no one will bid.
Have you any idea how many old
men iheue are only too anxious to get
any kind of work, however hard, how
ever painful, however poorly paid?
Kind-hearted humanity saves “Old
Sunshine” from the peddler’s wagon,
while thousands of old men are look
ing for peddler’s work, or any work.
The man, “Old Grayhead,” has
worked as hard and faithfully in his
life as did the police horse —as faith
fully and much harder. He, too, did
his best for long years, much longer
than the life of that horse. He work
ed as a boy, as a young man, and as
an old man until they turned him out.
The o’d hor-e comes up to the auc
tion block sleek and fat, full of vital
ity, his head up. bis ears forward.
They have left something in him.
WATSON’S WEEKLY JEFFERSONIAN.
“Old Grayhead” comes up thin and
worried, lines in ihe face that he holds
downward, knowing in advance that
his offer of work will be refused,
knowing that there will be no bid for
him. He pays a barber to dye his
thin gray hairs and applies for work
at twilig.it.
All his life he has worked for part
of what he has earned. The other part
has gone to build up the country’s
wealth and prosperity.
But he is not a horse. He is not
even a dog. If he were a very old
horse, s nne peddler ■would take him,
or «*.mo kind man would save him. If
he were a very old dog, some benevo
lent society would chloroform him.
But there is no bid, and no official
chlorcform for “Ohl Grayhead.” He
must walk around from one auction
block to another until his walking
days shall end.
We human beings have improved,
yon <av l Yes, we have. Once the
usual and generally approved proced
ure was to knock the old man or wo
man on the head —and eat the body.
Up in the far North, even now, they
take the very old, put them in a snow
hut, with a little fcod, block up the
entrance v.ith ice and leave them
there to die.
We have got beyond that We could
not bear to kill an old man, or eat him.
Nothing could make us put our old
grandparents ur anybody else’s grand
parents to die in an ice hut.
We d«* not kill the old with clubs
any more. Bat we do leave them to
themselves to die slowly of worry,
neglect, want and sorrow.
Let us congratulate ourselves that
we have improved, but let us not over
do the congratulation.
P. S.—Old age pensions for the
faithful workers? Humanity rich
enough tt keep shame and humiliation
from gray hairs? No, indeed! That
would, bo 44 Socialism.”' —New York
J ournal-Examiner.
THE STANDARD OIL AND THE
LAW.
The Hepburn Rate law of 1906 is a
new toy in IV ashington. Its varnish
is yet sticky. The Department of Jus
tice is still using the Elkins act to
punish illegal rebating.
Yet the Standard Oil Company has
already made its arrangements to
evade the now law--to 44 conform to
it/’ Mr. Milburn says in merrv jest.
Already it has, upon Mr. Milburn’s
advice, built tanks upon the state lines
at Unionville on the New York-New
Jersey fire at Fond Grove on the
Pennsylvania-Mai viand line, at Cen
terbridge on the New Jersey-Pennsyl
vania line, and so on.
The rate law brings interstate pipe
lines under its provisions and forbids
rate discrimination. These new tanks,
jocularly called “terminals,” profess
to receive oil sent across one state by
one company and deliver it in the ad
joining state to another company, all
companies being owned by the Stand
ard. Thus the °laim is set up that
piping o»l from Indian Territory to
Greenpoint is not interstate business.
Incidentally, the last links in this
chain include a pipe line across Cen-
trul Park and another under the East
River. The present city government
has but a hazy idea how these were
acquired. They pay no rental. What
chicanery of past officials is called up
by Mr. Milburn’s cynical avowal!
Any idea that the Standard has
changed its tactics and become in any
respect a law-abiding corporation
must be driven by such testimony
from whatever credulous brains have
harboied it.—New York World.
Some American Catholics are be
coming very much dissatisfied with the
influences ihat surround the good
Pope Pius X., and the dissatisfaction
grows every day. Several very revo
lutionary orders have recently been
\ssued bv the pope, and ths last one
is more distasteful than any of the
preceding ones. It is as fellows’:
“Modernists are to be removed from
profes-orsh ips and the direction of
educational institutions. The clergy
and faithful are not to be allowed to
read modernist publications. A com
mittee of censorship is to be estab
lished in every diocese to pass upon
the publications which the clergy and
faithful shall be permitted to read.”
Many American Catholics look upon
that as an attempt to return to the
dark ages.—lnvestigator.
IN MAINE A LEMON.
Hospitality and the common civili
ties of life decrease just as one ay
prcaches the provinces down on the
Atlantic coast. That has long been
ebserved by travelers and now the
Providence Journal acknowledges the
truth of the accusation. It says: 44 1 f
you go to San Francisco and meet a
friend, lie will ask you to stay a week
with him. In Omaha he will take you
home over night: in Chicago he will
take you cut to dinner; in New York
he will hurry you off to luncheon; in
New Haven he will hand you a good
cigar: in Bost an he will give you an
apple. ’ ’ —lnvestigator.
THE ORIME OF “LEZE
MAJESTY.”
Tn ancient times the crime thus
styled upon the statute books was
high treason, a willful offense against
Ihe life, person, or name of '•“the
Lord*s appointed. ” To offend against
“the divinitv that doth hedge a king”
is still visited with heavy penalties,
especially in Germany, where the em
peror is exceedingly strict in enforc
ing the law. A Berlin carpenter has
recently been made an example ot
and sentenced to a month’s imprison
ment for futting out his tongue at the
Kaiser as his imperial majesty was
driving past. As there are no fewer
thin one hundred and twenty-five
paragranbs in the German statute
book expounding leze majesty, we
need not be surprised at the list of
sentence* passed up in-other deep
dyed criminals, given as follows in
the Westminster Gazette (London):
“Not long ago an unfortunate pri
vate was sentenced to seven years’ im
prisonment for saying to a comrade
that the Kaiser might pay more atten
tion to the salutes of his soldiers; a
Silesian school boy was prosecuted
for smiling while his majesty’s health
was being drunk, and a governess for
signi ig her name in a hotel visitor’s
book immediately below that of the
King of Saxony; while a German edi
tor t ent to prison fur three months
for s ating in his paper that the Kai
ser r 'reived 2,00) pounds • $10,000) a
day for signing a few documents The
law i espects neither age, sex nor na
tionality. A Dresden lady of seventy
four iras sent to jail for six pionths
for an unflattering reference to the
Saxon king; about the same time a
boy received a similar sentence for
speal ing disrespectfully of the Kai
ser; and for the same offence two
American ladies were arrested and
expelled from Germany.”
THE SLAUGHTER OF THE
STREETS.
From statistics gathered by the sec
retary of the Public Service Commis
sion it appears that the street rail
ways of Greater New York have in
jured the astounding number of 5,500
people in the past month. Os these
42 were killed outright, 147 more were
fatally or seriously injured and thou
sands more were maimed for life.
Fifly-five hundred persons, would
constitute five ordinary regiments, or
an army as large as was engaged on
the American side in many Revolu
tionary battles. If stood shoulder to
shoulder the line would extend for
more than two miles.
Such a record of accidents in a
single month is amazing; it is past all
excuse. It is but another of the evils
of the system which operates on the
heartless rule of giving a minimum
service for a maximum return. —New
York American. 1
POOR REAR ADMIRALS.
Announcement by the assistant sec
retary of the navy that rear admirals
must socn undergo a test of their
abilities to swim has caused conster
nation among the gallant old sea-dogs,
many of whom have known the touch
of only bath tub and Florida water
for many years.
The order comes following one in
the war department to the effect that
all c< lends must be able to ride
horseback.
According to a Washington dis
patch. the test planned for the rear
admirals isto have them dive
from shore and swim out to their
ships. How far out the ships
are to be is left to the humane
instincts of the navy department.
Whether the test is also to include
hitrh- iving and bringing up coins
from ihe bottom cf the ocean has not
been announced. ,
Just why it is necessary that rear
admirals should be able to swim is not
dear. An admiral ought to be able to
swim and a railroad president ought
to be able to run a passenger engine,
but most of them can’t. And the rail
roads get along fairly well.
It mav be possible that the if
posed orders come from the fact/
some rear admirals will not
vater except externally. If so, t
ought to be made to learn swimmin.
So that if they ever fall into the
sea they will he able to keep their
spirits up.— -Fort Worth Telegram.