EUROPEAN BARBARISM.--A German Major, of distinguished military career,
brought a suit for libel securing an apology and retraction, but after
this satisfactory result a caucus of army officers, called a court of
honor, induced the war office to dismiss him from the army _because he
had not challenged his opponent_. This appears to be the doctrine of
the war office. America has outgrown such barbarism. Not only are
duels forbidden, but Texas has passed a severe law against carrying
pistols, the punishment being imprisonment.
BOSTON CIVILIZATION.--More space is given by our leading dailies to
base ball, pugilism, races, games and crimes than to anything else. Of
course Boston wants such reading. The Herald says, "It is not unusual
to see 5000 people sitting in the hottest sun of the hottest summer
days for more than two hours, and not even murmuring at the lack of
liberality which fails to provide them the slightest awning for
shelter. There is a grand stand for which the price of $1 for a
reserved seat is charged. The character of these reserved seats would
exceed belief on the part of those who have not been in them. And yet
the management who deal in this manner with a long forbearing public
find it not an unusual event to make $3000 clear profit from a single
game of base ball!"
But Boston has religion as well as base ball and "_Sufferings of God's
Mother_" was the heading of a piece of religious news in the Boston
Herald.
On the other hand the temperance influence through high license has
reduced the number of liquor saloons in Boston to 800 less than two
years ago.
MONOPOLY.--The latest monopoly under the name of a trust is the "Salt
Trust." Sixty-three companies unite to form it. The object is to
freeze out competition and keep up the prices. These "trusts" which
began with the Standard Oil, and are gradually extending over the
whole field of production, are as much opposed to the genius of our
institutions as Socialists or Nihilists. They are gigantic monopolies,
and the purpose is to do by combinations of capital what could never
be done under fair and honest competition.--_Herald_.
The remedy for this must be found in legislation. Boycotting is
illegal, monopoly _should be_.
WOMEN'S DRUDGERY.--Why should all the washing, cooking, and sewing of
each household be done by its women? We have laundries, ready-made
clothing, and bakeries, and now it is proposed in Boston to furnish a
complete supply of ready-cooked food. This _can be done_ cheaper than
families can supply themselves, if we leave out the American
propensity to speculate in exorbitant profits.
CHRISTIAN CIVILIZATION.--Wong Chin Foo may boast of the superiority of
heathenism as long as pauperism shows itself to be a vast ulcer, as in
the following despatch from London:
"Pauperism is on the increase in the metropolis. Last week
relief was given to 53,164 indoor, and 35,110 outdoor paupers.
The total shows an increase of 2011 over the corresponding week
last year. Trafalgar Square pavement is half covered nightly
with houseless vagrants, and church steps, benches, and doorways
in nearly all parts of London have their complements of
destitute people after midnight. Many resort to the parks in the
daytime to obtain on the grass the sleep which they are unable
to get on the stones by night, and begging cannot be suppressed
by the police."
WALT WHITMAN, the odd and original American poet, enjoys in his
declining years and feeble health the admiration of a large number of
literary friends, who are to build him a beautiful little cottage. His
special admirers regard him as the greatest of American poets, and he
has equally warm admirers among the foreign literati. A Walt Whitman
club is to be established in his honor at Philadelphia. Yet it is not
long since Mr. Whitman was made the target of the "prurient prudes,"
who carry on the Comstockian movement of the Vice Society, and was
ordered to expunge some of his writings. Mr. Whitman defied them, and
his literary prestige has sustained him; but Mrs. Elmina Drake
Slenker, of Western Virginia, a woman of humble surroundings, has been
pounced upon, arrested, and placed on trial for discussing in private
correspondence physiological questions in reproduction which might
have been discussed by physicians in medical journals with impunity.
Her friends regard this as an outrage, considering her exemplary
character and philanthropic motives. The Congressional law under which
the prosecution of Mrs. Slenker has been instituted, is a specimen of
hasty legislation, rushed through in the last hours of the 42d
session, more than one-half of all the acts being passed on the last
day and night amid the most disgraceful confusion and uproar.
A well-educated community will learn that the charge of obscenity in
such cases expresses a quality which belongs neither to nature nor
art, but to the foul minds in which such ideas rise. This was
illustrated by an intelligent judge in Maine. _The Health Monthly_
says:
"Recently in Portland an art dealer was arrested for exhibiting
immoral pictures in his window. Mr. Stubbs, the artist, gathered
up samples of all the pictures that he had exhibited in his
windows and took them with him into court. He placed them about
the court room on chairs and benches. They were copies of
masterpieces of the Paris Salon of well-known subjects, and such
as are familiar to all art critics. As Judge Gould looked about
him and saw these pictures he thought it unnecessary to take
testimony, but descending from his desk he made a pilgrimage of
the room, carefully inspecting each picture. He exhibited much
appreciation, and after examining the last one, he complimented
the taste of the art dealer and dismissed the case. A sensible
judge."
This "prurient prudery" of the vulgar mind was once strongly exhibited
in Baltimore. The millionaire Winans had imported from abroad quite a
number of classical statues, which he erected in the beautiful grounds
around his palatial residence. The ignorant vulgarity of the
neighborhood made such a clamor against his statuary as to excite his
indignation and contempt. He built a wall about his grounds fifteen
feet high, to exclude the vulgar gaze. The City Council being
thoroughly ashamed of the circumstances as a discredit to the city,
passed a resolution requesting him to take down the wall, but Mr. W.
had been too profoundly disgusted with the vulgarity of the people,
and refused to remove it.
TEMPERANCE.--"For the first time in the history of Iowa, Fort Madison
Penitentiary is short of a sufficient number of convicts to enable it
to fill contracts made upon the basis of the usual supply. This and
many similar instances go to prove that prohibition _does_ decrease
crime."
Hon. W. D. Kelley, the oldest member of Congress, argues that the
whiskey tax of ninety cents a gallon ought to be taken off because it
amounts to little more than half a cent a drink, and therefore does
not discourage intemperance. Temperance men would think this was an
argument for increasing the tax. The best temperance measure would be
to send every drunkard to a reformatory prison.