Young Men's Journal, Vol.2, No.43

              Volume 2, OMAHA, NEB., FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 1893. Number 43.
YOUNG MEWS JOURNHL.
JNO. M. HAZELTON, E DITOR.
EDITORIAL.
IT looks very much as though there were two
sides to the Hawaii affair. There usually are
two sides to such affairs. While it appears
desirable that Hawaii should sustain a
closer relation to the United States than it
does at present, it would be well for the au­thorities
to proceed cautiously. It would be
better for us to spend our surplus resources in
developing our own magnificent domain rather
than in defending newly acquired appendages
and quelling rebellions within their borders.
WE commend the example of the town coun-
Westport, a suburb of Kansas City, to
our own honorable city fathers. Down there
they recently passed an ordinance making it
an offense punishable by a fine of from .$25 to
$100 dollars per day for a street railroad com­pany
to fail to provide proper protection for
trainmen from inclement weather. In our
own city motormen and gripmen are entirely
without shelter in the most severe weather,
and no effort is made to protect them. If an
appeal to humanity fails, it would be well to
use some argument more convincing, as was
done in the case referred to above.
TnE length to which some would-be skeptics
go to find an opportunity to rail against Chris­tianity
is often absurdly ridiculous. Their
lightningrod isalways up, fair weather or foul,
and if t here is any electricity in the air they
are sure to receive a shock. For example one
of o ur esteemed contemporaries, an excellent
newspaper with the exception of i ts occasion­al
illogical and uncalled for attacks upon the
Christian system, recently took an article
which appeared in the YOUNG MEN'S JOURNAL,
in which there was no reference whatever to
the Christian faith, as a point from which to
launch an editorial tirade against Christianity,
laden with time-worn and moss-covered relics
of t he arguments of a ntedeluvian unbelievers.
IT was hoped that the election of a United
States senator would put an end to the horse
play at Lincoln, and thatduringthe remaining
days of t he session of the general assembly
some practical legislation would be enacted.
But no sooner was the senatorial fight ended
than an investigation was trumped up for the
purpose of killing time, squandering money
and blocking legislation. The performance
has progressed sufficiently to leave no grounds
for doubt that the clown is to be the principal
attraction, and to convince the observing
voter that many of the attractions advertised
during the campaign will not be forthcoming.
The particularly discouraging feature about the
affair is that the same gaudy posters announc­ing
anti-monopoly reform legislation which
have done duty to attract the voters for the
past four years will be used with the same ef­fect
in the next campaign, and with the same
result that none of the advertised attractions
will appear. Verily, the voters like to be
humbugged.
THE spectacle of the venerable De Lesseps,
at the age of e ighty-eight, consigned to prison
for five years, and sentenced to a fine of 3,000
franc, the highest fine the court could impose,
is one to wring sympathy- from xno Trrost fr.-
different bosom. Only a few short months
ago this man by his genius and ability chal­lenged
the admiration of the civilized world,
and by his enthusiasm and aggressiveness won
the confidence of all people in all lands. For
years he has worn the grand cross of the Leg­ion
of Honor, and none has questioned his
right to it. Today he is locked like a common
felon in a prison cell. The revulsion of feel­ing
against the sentence imposed upon De
Lesseps is general. That he was guilty as
charged, no one, except his enemies, will
assume to believe. Not even in France,
where the feeling against the Panama
conspirators is strongest, is it
France's grand old man
party to this gigan-past
eighty when
cation of ch allenges to prize fights, the accept­ance
of t hem, the abetting of them by men
who act as trainers or seconds of the princi­pals
to them, or as umpires, referees, or as­sistants
of a ny kind to the fighters, penal of­fenses.
Such a law, if e nforced, would pre­vent
the recurrence of the disgraceful specta­cle
of two men punching each others' faces
out of all semblance to humanity in the pres­ence
of would-be respectable men in one of
our athletic clubs, a spectacle the odium of
which will attach to the aforesaid club during
the remainder of i ts existence.
Canal
be'ieved that
was intentionally a
tic steal. He was a man
the canal enterprise was inaugurated, and in
its later stages his connection with it was
largely nominal. That his hopeful disposition,
his faith in his hobby, made him an easy prey
to designing men, is the general belief. This
popular revulsion of fe eling against what is
undoubtedly an unmerited humiliation and
disgrace will make a speedy pardon by the
president imperative.
GAMBLING AND PRIZE PIGHTING.
Two bills have recently been introduced in­to
the Illinois House of ftepresentatives which
we would commend to the members of the Ne­braska
and Kansas legislatures who seem
spoiling for want of something to do. The
first, by Representative Watson, does away
with the trivial fine attached to keeping a
gambling house, and makes the conducting of
such an establishment an offense punishable
by imprisonment for not less than two years.
Such a law in this state, if e nforced, would
give the Omaha guardians of the public peace
and safety employment for several weeks.
The other bill, by Representative Murdoch,
relates to prize-fighting, and makes the publi-
0N THE MORAL EXCHANGE,
On the moral exchange there appears to be
continually a preponderance of bears—persons
whose aim is to depreciate the market. With
them acts of g oodness are passed hy without
notice, or attributed to wrong motives, while
one false step is flaunted before the world as
an evidence "f 'iJaVfoS. !>v Good reports
Gteiaer Ptthiveyf'. rm, Cayh ylet-aHn to an appreciation oi * lit
moral market, while evil reports are magnified
and scattered broadcast that they may lead
the world to believe that it is fast approaching
a state in which redemption is impossible.
When a hopeful individual attempts to bull
the market by pointing to the evidences of
progress around him, he is denounced by the
bearish element as an enthusiast—a crank—a
dangerous man to be allowed to run at large.
With this class of people all charitable acts are
bids for notoriety, all good deeds cloaks for in­famy.
They point with pride to the inconsist­ency
of c hurch members, and when a man who
has previously borne a good name yields to
temptation, his shortcomings are painted in
letters of fire upon the heavens.
A certain class of n ewspapers are ever ready
to perpetuate this bearish feeling in the moral
exchange. Thousands of benificent deeds are
daily passed by without mention, while thou­sands
of petty crimes are written up with dis­play
head-lines. They are ever on the alert to
find some flaw in the moral structure—some
broken thread in the warp and woof of soc iety.
A straight line is laid down as the path of the
churchman, and the slightest deviation there­from
is accepted as sufficient evidence of moral
laxity.
In the commercial markets, the bear is the
man who is "short," and who is striving to
depress the market in order that he may buy
at a reduced price to protect himself from loss.
He has no other object in circulating unfavor­able
reports about the article he is interested
in, than to secure it at a price which will be
sufficiently low to protect him from the results
of indiscreet speculation. It is just possible
that some of these people who are "bearing"
the moral market are doing so in order to pro­tect
their own reputations, hoping to escape
the results of t heir moral laxity not by striv­ing
to elevate themselves to a higher plane,
but by striving to pull everybody else down to
their own level. What the world needs today
is a large number of men and women who are
"long" on morality and rectitude, who will
"bull" the moral market, and elevate the tone
of so ciety.