The Washington times. [volume], August 24, 1919, FINAL EDITION, EDITORIAL PAGE, Image 20

About The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939

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EDITORIAL PAGE
OF THE
WASHINGTON TIME
WASHINGTON
AUGUST 24. 1919
S
Tgffgjfr THE NATIONAL DAILY cggfe
" Ileg, u g Patent Office. jgg
ARTHUR BRISBANE. Editor and Owner.
,, A , EDGAR D. SHAW. Publisher. , . .
Entered as second class matter at the Postofflce at Washington. D c.
Published Every Evening (Including: Sundays) by
The Washington Times Company, Munsey Bldg., Pennsylvania At.
Mall Subscriptions: 1 yeer (Inc. Sundays), $7.50; 3 Months. $1.90; 1 Month. 6rM.
SUNDAY. AUGUST 34. 1919.
Eternity, Most Dreadful Word
The Effect of This Word On a Man's Mind Gives An
Unmistakable Index to His Character.
The Path of Forever
"BEYOND IS ALL ABYSS, ETERNITY, WHOSE
END NO MAN CAN REACH." Milton.
Time leads on, FOREVER. There can be no end, as
there was no beginning. We live our little life here,
between the cradle and the grave, hoping and planning, all
within avbrief hour. We hurry through life, and through
each day.
Busy with little things, we try to forget the big things,
the terrible realities. But we cannot forget.
Byron, with his red hot poetry, his wild desires, his
painful conceit about his lame leg and all the rest of it, was
obliged to say, "Eternity forbids us to forget."
And almost every other one of the men that have
thought and felt on earth have felt most deeply on eternity
that goes on and on, time that can never end, and that takes
us with it.
At the end of this editorial you will find a number of
quotations, each expressing briefly the effect, that eternity
produces upon an able mind. It may interest you to see how
these thoughts compare with your own, as you contemplate
eternity and try to realize that matter, force, life, AND YOU,
must go on forever and ever, changing in form, in occupa
tion, in locality, going to sleep at night and dying occa
sionally, but NEVER ENDING.
Mr. McCay in his picture endeavors to comply with the
editor's request: "Make a picture that will show your idea
of eternity, without beginning or end."
He shows you Father Time leading a strange procession
through the clouds and the stars, on a journey to last
forever. At this particular moment, and on this particular little
earth, Time as he moves takes with him elephants, tigers,
rhinoceroses, birds, human beings.
If you had come here a few million years ago you would
have found Time leading a different army. Not one of the
creatures in this picture would have been visible then.
Instead, dinosaurs and other monsters.
There are many words in our language that, taken by
themselves, arouse deep feeling. Every word that we use,
remember, is the result of long thinking and change. Every
word of importance represent the condensed essence of
thousands of years of thought.
LIFE and DEATH are two great words. The word
NEVER and the word HOPE, if you concentrate your mind
on them, will each bring a thousand ideas and suggestions.
PAIN is a word that of itself takes you back through
suffering, makes you think of the millions upon whom suf
fering has been inflicted.
SORROW is a word that brings on a certain mood of
pity, while the word HATE changes the mood entirely,
causes the brows to contract, and brings into the mind the
poison of bitterness.
Of all the words, none carries with it so much meaning,
so many thoughts of fear, courage, hope, curiosity, awe, ap
prehension and determination as that word "ETERNITY"
written on this picture.
If you could pronounce the word, look into the mind of
the man that heard you, and see the effect on that mind, you
would know just what kind of a man he was.
When ambition hears the word "Eternity" it thanks
God that it has time without end in which to do something
worth while.
When timidity hears that word, it shudders and thinks
almost with pleasure of the waiting grave.
As for the mind to which the powerful word "ETER
NITY" means nothing, you may say quite safely that to such
a mind no word would have any real meaning.
After looking at this picture and thinking about it, you
will read with interest the quotations that follow, showing
how men of character and intellect have briefly expressed
the feeling created in them by the knowledge that time can
never end, that it never began, and that in all probability
each of us must forever go on with it.
Cicero, the Roman of keen brain who made the practical
mistake of opposing Caesar, and lost his life in consequence,
says truly that the greater the mind the greater the interest
in the endless destiny ahead of us.
"There is, I know not how, in the minds of men, a
certain presage, as it were, of a future existence; and
this takes the deepest root, and is most discoverable, in
the greatest genuises and most exalted souls."
One man contemplates eternity and moralizes. For
instance:
"Nothing is eternal but that which is done for God
and others. That which is done for self dies."
Another, Bishop Heber, sees eternal time as almost a
living thing:
"Eternity lias no gray hairs! The flowers fade, the
heart withers, man grows old and dies, the world lies
down in the sepulchre of ages, but time writes no
wrinkles on the brow of eternity."
Locko, whose work, "Essay on the Human Understand
ing," is on of the world's intellectual monuments, reminds
you that our short life here amounts to little compared to
what I coctinjrj
Human Beings, Limited in Every Direction, Born
Today, Gone Tomorrow Are Filled with Horror at the
Thought of Space That Has No Limit and of Time
That Never Began and Never Can End.
Yet if Any Statement Formulated by Man's vFeebIe
Mind Can Be Called True, It Is the Statement That the
Hour in Which We Live Is Part of an Eternity That
Must Stretch on Forever, and That the Spot Where
We Stand Is Part of Space That Cannot Possibly Have
Any Bounds.
For Time Must Go On Forever, and Space Can
Have No End. x
If You Say That Time Will End You Cannot An
swer the Question, "What Will Come After That?"
And if You Say That There Must Be a Limit to Space
You Cannot Answer ihe Question, "What Is There
Beyond and Outside of That Limit?"
Ah! The Poor Fish
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"If there remains an eternity to us after the short
revolution of time we so swiftly run over here, 'tis clear
that all the happiness that can be imagined in this fleet
ing state is not valuable in respect of the future."
Many a man will agree with Burnet that all real intel
lectual comfort is to be found in Eternity, in the knowledge
that there will be plenty of time in which to do the things
that we have not yet done, that we shall have plenty of
leisure for thinking, exploring and contemplating the cosmic
scheme that includes endless time and unlimited space.
He says:
"Let us be adventurers for another world. It is at
least a fair and noble chance; and there is nothing in
tills worth our thoughts or our passion. If we should
be disappointed, we are still no worse than the rest of
our fellow-mortals; and if we succeed in our expecta
tions we are eternally happy."
One poet expresses the attitude of the bewildered mind
thus:
4 'Eternity, thou awful Gulpli of Time,
This wide creation on thy surface floats.
Of life of death what is, or what shall be,
I nothing know. The world is all a dream,
The consciousness of something that exists,
Yet is not what it seems. Then what am I?
Death must unfold the mystery!"
Every human being, perhaps, would answer in a dif
ferent way the question, "What is Eternity, and how does
it impress youi" One of the best answers was given by a
child in a deaf and dumb institution in Paris, "Eternity is
the lifetime of the Almighty."
Man stands on the edge of Eternity, like one of the baby
crabs on the edge of the Atlantic Ocean. He can know as
much about Eternity as the crab can know about the ocean.
But fortunately he can feel and imagine more than his
little brother the crab. His life here is hurried; he hurries
out of bed and hurries to bed. He hurries to his meal and
hurries away, if he is a working American; all his life he is
driven, and an automobile hearse going eighteen miles an
hour takes him to the grave. But in the Universe and in
Eternity there is no HURRY.
And somewhere in Eternity we shall know what this
Universe means and settle down really to enjoy ourselves
in it.
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HEARD AND SEEN
By EAEL GODWIN.
In the days of Pejn?y O'Neill, the
pretty daughter of the most jovial
innkeeper Washington ever saw
In those days when Andrew Jackson
smoked his corncob pipe in the
White House and his Cabinet re
signed because the ladies of the
Cabinet wduldn't receive this same
Peggy O'Neill as wife of the Secre
tary of War. In those
days when the world's besv sherry
was imported through Alexandria
warehouses and retailed here for S3
a quart; and Tom and Jerry sold
for twelve cents a drink
In those good old days which will
NEVER return again, Washington
saw its first organized attempt to
make the National Capital ory.
Those good old days, when the
stage coach between here and Bal
timore was occasionally held up by
road agents: when Daniel Webster
lived somewhere around Four-and-a-half
street and his "reply to
Hayne" was the story of the day;
in the era when an inaugural recep
tion at the White House was a jam-,
boree (including unlimited rum
served from the barrel). When the
"voterflns" tn he considered for jobs
were those of the revolution and the
war of 1812, in those old times, I
repeat,. a few temperance socieues
banded together under the name of
"The Temperance Union, D. C,
with the firm object of stopping for
ever the sale of "ardent spirits.
"Signing the pledge" seemed to bo
about as far as the temperance so
.inJoj -viTPnt. hut the union went in
for a complete revolution and asked
fvi. fi -onnol rvF nil lirPTISa ULWB. IS
first meeting, held in the Methodist
Episcopal Uhurcn, oi Aiexanorjit,
tnen m ineiistricuu vawuuh
on Julv 4. 1835. saw representatives
of eleven societies, including organi-j
zations from many neighborhoods,
such as the Navy Yard, Rock Creek
parish, Alexandria, Tenleytown. and
Georgetown. This meeting adopted
a platform for the complete ruin of
the trade in "ardent spirits," and re
solved "that the traffic in intoxicat
ing drinks is morally wrong and
ought to be immediately abandoned.w
The meeting also had a 'warm dis
cussion over ministers of the Gos
pels, who either openly opposed tem
perance as being too radical a move,
or who gave only mediocre and luke
warm support.
"respectable" authorities to contem
plate. The license laws, the unioa
declared, imposed this burden of wm
upon the community, and were
therefore unjust and unreasonabla
and should be repealed.
rtIt is a political maxim, well
known and recognized in the prin
ciple or ail sound government, that
the majority should not be taxed for
the exclusive benefit or the minori
ty," said the union. "In the opera
tion of the license laws this maxim
Is virtually annulled. We find a
large majority of our fellow-citizens
annually paying a heavy and in
creasing tax to enrich the retailers
of ardent spirits, who are compara
tively a small class of th commun
ity and by whose business pauper
ism, disease, and crime are entailed
upon the majority and for the sup
port of which the majority are un
JusUy compelled to pay."
Along with that the union present
ed the startling affidavits of forty
five physicians of CincinnaU who
placed ardent spirits In the class
with arsenic!
John Coyle, corresponding secre
tary of the union, was directed to
write to the mayor and other nfti
clals to get the costs of supporting
paupers, prisoners, and the public
sick. Mayor Bradley was oar civic
head In those days and William
Hewitt our register. They replied
tnat tne revenue rrom liquor licensee
was ?8,408. Chief Justice William
Cranch, of the Supreme Court of thai
District of Columbia, did a lot of fig
uring ana replied that the averasa
annual cost of prosecuting cases
arising from foo much drink was
$6,642.23; and Judge Cranch, by the
way, made the wise observation that
there never would be any real tem
perance law unless there was a
strong preponderance of- public opin
ion to support one. Otherwise, NO
temperance law could be enforced.
The argument that intoxicating
drinks were "morally wrong" seems
n have been a. new one in this neigh
borhood at that time and attracted
considerable attention. "Tie novelty
of the subject to many and the gen
eral feeling and eqoaL opportunity of
expression of any opinion upon it,
called lareer meetings than had been
held at anytime previous," said a
representative of the Young Mens
Temperance union, a pan. . una
union and claiming, to have been the
actual pioneer in temperance work.
(Its first bie meeting was held in the
First Presbyterian Church on Four-and-a-half
street in 1827, Senator
Pinckney of S. C presiding.)
One of the rough spots on the road
to a completely arid Washington at
that time were the grocery stores
which sold "ardent spirits." That
seems to have been a thriving part
of the grocery business in those
days, but the work of the temper
ance societies induced several gro
cers to give up "wet" groceries and
conduct "temperance stores." They
had a hard time, however, for itwas
apparent that only a few temperance
folks realized the sacrifice. There
fore the first meeting of the union
asked that ALL good "drys" support
"temperance groceries" to the exclu
sion of the "wet" stores.
Then the union sat down to peti
tion the mayor and council (we could
at least VOTE in those days) to
abolish liquor licenses, claiming
these liquor laws to be unjust, op
pressive and injurious. In the peti
tion the mayor was told that "the
Young Men's Total Abstinence Tem
perance Sociey reported 270 venders
of the liquid poison of ardent spirit
one DRUNKER to every
twelve families." At the same time
the union set about to canvass "the
most respectable" of the city's offi
cials, leaving out those who drank, I
presume, in an effort to prove that
these same ardent spirits were the
direct cause of nine-tenths of the
disease, poverty and crime in the
city. And thereon followed one of
the gloomiest and dreariest pictures
that words can paint Drunkards'
families, homes and graves were
brought forth in the most lugubrious
w . . -- &
paragraphs and held up for these
Dr. Alex McWflliams was the at
tending physician and Dr. Richard
Butt, the Intendent of the Washing
ton Asylum. They declared that
practically ALL their cases arose
from "ardent spirits." These two
worthies also declared that without
ardent spirits "an addition would be
formed to the peace and comfort
generally, as you can find at almost
all hours of the night youths of all
ages and sexes going from one
ordinary to another, hallooing and
ringing the most indecent songs
which must annoy the citizens and
greatly offend the virtuous and deli
cate part of the community.
The nnion received many letters
from "the reverend clergy," includ
ing a most enthusiastic one from,
Reuben Post, pastor of the First
Presbyterian Church, who declared
without reservation that whenever
he smelled liquor upon a sinner's
breath he "felt little encouragement
to labor for his salvation. If the
aforesaid sinner win not quit drink
ing; declares the Reverend Mr. Post,
"there would seem to be abont as
much reason to hope for the con
version of a bear of baboon as o
such a person."
Georgetown's' mayor, 3uhn Cox,
said ALL riotous conduct was
caused by drink. Magistrate Joel
Brown, of the same town, shaved
down the mayor's estimate to four
fifths of the rioting (Georgetown
must have been a much noisier place
then than now) and further de
clared that if the police enforced the
laws properly there wouldn't
"one-half the riots that now prevan."'
It is interesting to note In the re
port of the second annual meeting
of the union no members from
Georgetown appeared, and a doleful
paragraph in the minutes declared
that "It is to be greatly regretted that
the temperance cause has made so
little advance in this community.'
Francis Scott Key, famous ht
American history as the author or
the national anthem, was at that
time United States District Attorney
for the District of Columbia. He is
quoted in the union minutes as de
claring that the sale of spirituous
liquors was the main cause of crime;
and said that the annual cost of
prosecuting and punishing crime
here was 521,008.14. He also takes
a slam at the police: "I am confi
dent," he writes, That a vigilant
poUce and the suppression of dram
shops would diminish it Ccrtmel at
least one-half. Of course, it must
be remembered that there was no
organized police in those days. A
few watchmen and constables, evi
dently asleep on the job, were all
we had.
HERE AND .THERE
Prmtrressman Blanton. the Gov
ernment clerks' enemy and union la
bor's greatest Congressional assail
ant, maoe more uwn tw bjjccuim m
his district promising that he would
get Congress to work by nine every
morning and would reform legisla
tive machinery in oiner ways. At
tViia nresent moment Mr. Blanton is
the greatest obstacle to progress
seen in congress since me cucuauau
Administration at least.
Before Blanton got started when
Congress meet at noon it did some
thing. Now he will not let it do
anything but adjourn.
"The Kaiser," remarks the sapient
Morning Herald "is getting off light,
but suppose he had stolen a sheep
or slapped a policeman."
Or parked his automobile on F
street.
We take pleasure in reproducing
the August 15 issue of the News of
jfort Washington, N. Y.:
"Mr. and Mrs. Samuel Stein
berger, of Washington, D. C.,
are visiting Mr. and Mrs. Mau
rice J. Engel. Manv of 'Roose
vlt's Neighbors,' who attended
the inauguration of Taft as
President, will remember Sam
'Smiling Sam,' as they call him
in Washington. His hotel in the
Capital City was the headquar
ters of the Nassau county con
tingent. Sam still had the smile
when he called yesterday at the
News office."
Glaring Neglect to Police the North
west Section.
On last Thursday night, about
10:30, a sailor and a girl were seen
walking across the Connecticut Ave
nue bridge, arm in arm. There was
not a policeman anywhere around to
herewith one of the leading items of prevent this "rranHaloa ocenrrence.
"