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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.