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THE ‘‘ONLOOKER'' Brief Comments and Reflections Anent Topical and Timely Events Succinctly Discussed From our Viewpoint The late Jack London once declared that th ' reading public invariably failed to distinguish truth from fiction. His contention was that a plot based on actual occurrence received no more credence in the minds of readers than a plot of a romantic story. No doubt London was right. Truth in its rougher aspect, as chronicled by newspapers, is believed —at least to a great extent. But the same truth, delitescent in redundancy of details, is called fiction. There is a well defined destinction between fiction and rom ance. The former we accept as a story of real life —as enacted by plausible characters. The plot of the fiction story is supposed to be based on the possible as we know it. Romance is purely imagina tive both as to plot and characters. But there are some stories known as fiction that are exact word pictures of the doings of real men and women in real places. The incidents narrated actually take place in the localities described. It is this class of fiction —which depicts real life —that made Jack London famous the world over. There was a simplicity and ruggedness about his real characters that made'them real to us de spite the descriptive detail that was necessary in order to make the story euphonious. What “O. Henry” gave the world in his wonderful stories of the city, London gave us in his tales of the sea. There is that in the works of these writers which makes us recognize the truth even when their characters are somewhat veiled by the form of verbal veneer made necessary by the technique of novel-writing. A single window, brightly gleaming in the darkness of night invariably stimulates curiosity. Hundreds oi illuminated windows on a well lighted street are of no interest because they are the rule. It is the exception that attracts interest. The solitary light focuses the attention, and curiosity runs rife. Yet the lone beacon has only a single message to tell. There is only one story “back” of the light. But consider the hundreds of stories that are concealed behind the room lights of a street in a big city. Some sad, some glad, few are vital, many are trivial. Charles Hanson Towne, in “A World of Windows,” portrays some life characters that move in the light behind the windows. The first verse of his poem contains the “motif:” “Behind my house are windows, Each lit with a yellow flame, And each one is a little world Set in a little frame.” The “Public Ledger” recently declared that “it is a curious fact that we are prone to entrust to writing more than we are willing to say.” We think “able to say” would have been as proper a “finale.” Many persons are able to express themselves perfectly in writing, but lack the facility of speech that enables trained speakers to ex press their thoughts orally. The ability to think quickly and to express thought easily and fluently is natural to only a few. Most men have to cultivate the practice —some never acquire it. And there is a <rrave doubt in our mind if we, “are prone to entrust to writing more than we are willing to say.” One may say many things and offer to do many things —orally. But placing these promises in writing —well, this is a more serious matter. It is instructive to note that the population of Japan proper now amounts to 53,356,295, making her fifth in population among the world’s nations —following China, Russia, the United States and Germany, in order. The expansion of territory during the big war added some millions, so that the population of Greater Japan is now 71,793,078. Japan’s population is growing at a rate greater than that of any other country except the United States. Her density of popu lation is even greater than that of Holland and Great Britain. Japan is badly in need of colonies. The European powers will hardly permit her to encroach further, on China. Australia, New Zealand and the Philippines, are the closest to Japanese territory —and are eminently suited for colonizing. The two former groups of islands belong to England —Japan’s ally. The logical ground for colonizing purposes would be the Philippines. True they belong to the United States —but they are “a long, long way from home!” In “Some Timely Hints,” a Missouri paper declares that “The best hen in the world cannot make eggs from thin air. Corn will help some but that alone doesn’t furnish all the elements.” The paper does not furnish a list of the necessary elements. A correspondent, writing to a farm paper, states that apple growers can make more money for themselves if they take “as much care in grading their fruit for size and condition as they do in grow ing the fruit.” The advise is pertinent, but in our judgment superfluous. Most of the crated or barreled apples we have purchased have been carefully graded. That is, the big ones were in the top layers. “More than five marriages are not permitted one person in Russia, and eighty years is the marriageable limit,” so we read in our “Interesting Information” column. Once again we are to point to our superiority in all things. In this free country we set no limit on the number of times one may marry, always provided the usual cermonies are observed. As for an eighty year age limit, the ilea seems absurd, preposterous and eg regrious to our youthful octogenarians. That is if they happen to be wealthy. A eontempory informs us that “The Romans used to coat their oysters with honey.” Cheap, very cheap, we Americans coat ours with money. A newspaper reports that “two destroyers were sunk in a col- in the North Sea recently. No information is furnished as to what the destroyers collided with. By "Ham" Carry the radiance of your soul in your face. Let the world have the benefit of it. Let your cheerfulness be felt for good wher ever you are, and let your smiles be scattered like the sunbeams, “on the just, as on che unjust.” Such disposition will yield a rich re ward, for its happy effects will come home to you and brighten your moments of thought. Cheerfulness makes the mind clear, gives tone to the thought adds grace and beauty to the countenance. Smiles are little things cheap to be fraught with so many blessings, both to the giver and to the receiver, pleasant little ripples to watch as we stand on the shores of everyday life. They are the higher and better responses of nature to the emotions of the soul. Let the children have the benefit of them, those little ones who need the sunshine of the heart to educate them, and would find a level for their buoyant natures in the cheerful, loving natures of those who lead them. Let them not be kept from the middle-aged who need the encouragement they bring. Give your smiles to the aged. They come to them like the quiet rain of Summer, making fresh and verdant the long, weary path of life. They look for them from you who are rejoicing in the fulness of life. Be gentle and indulgent to all. Love the true, the beautiful and the just. —Ex. Night By Mr. J. B. Fair Night; companion to that troubled mind, Where day’s vicissitudes have left unkind A spoken word, in haste perchance, or look, That though unreassuring self in sign mistook. Fair night; sweet night, and troubles all forgot, Sweet peace and thee impend now o’er my cot, Enfolded in thy kindly shroud of grey, I dream safe-anchored in the cosmic bay. What pleasant musings, would the mind now own; Fair as the breeze that o’er the sea is blown When storms have ceased their tumult strife, And calms bring back that beauty into life. Into the realms of that elySium shore, Adventure finds the unkown to explore, Where treasure rare, in valued price untold, Give of that wealth as though must need to mould. Here in these hours, with goddess Night I reign, Forgetful of where time has left a stain. And ere my musings shall have been half spent The magic from her breath, sweet sleep has lent. And musing spent, shall in that sleep dream on To see the sunsets there, to find new dawn, And all that sends to life a friendly beam. In thee, O Night, I live and have my dream. <||) — JURISPRUDENCE (Continued from page three) Constitution ot the United States, which provided for the election of a President to act as chief executive officer and to take the place of the king, and a Congress, consist ing of a House of Representatives and a Senate, which bodies in the future were to have the sole right to pass statutes regulat ing their affairs. The United States has, therefore, a “written constitution,” which is called by jurists an “inflexible constitu tion,” because its terms cannot be altered to meet extraordinary conditions, with the same facility as can the “unwritten consti tution” of England, which is called a “flexible constitution.” It must also be remembered that each in dividual state in the union has its own par ticular constitution; also that each state, within the limits of its own geographical boundaries, is as omnipotent and independ ent as is the United States, within its own peculiar sphere of action. The English Common Law, including both the civil and criminal law, is made the basis of the state constitutions, but of course changes have been made in it from time to time, by the law-making bodies in each state, to suit their own particular local conditions. The chief point to remember, however, is that each state is a sovereign and inde pendent unit, so far as the rights and du ties of its own citizens are concerned and it is not accountable to the Federal govern ment at Washington for any of its actions. The Federal Government takes cogniz ance of all matters where two or more slates are involved between themselves: where one citizen of one state has a dispute with another state or a citizen of that state; and it also has exclusive jurisdiction over matters which are admittedly of common interest to all the states, such as immigra tion, currency, the imposition of custom’s duties, the regulation of interstate com merce, the Indian affairs, etc. The broad principle which separates the respective ju risdictions of the Federal Government aud the State Government is that the Federal Government has exclusive power over all matters which are of common concern to 'the states as a whole, while the states have exclusive jurisdiction over such matters as are of purely local concern. As a result of this dual jurisdiction in the United States, there are both Federal and State courts throughout the entire counfry and it is often a nice question of law to determine which set of courts has jurisdiction over any given matter and it fre quently happens that matters which would appear at first blush to be purely local in terest are carried into the Federal Courts for determination, sometimes apparently for reasons best known to the lawyers, them selves. A CHEERFUL FACE In this connection, I wish to give voice to one word of praise for the Supreme Court of the United States, that august and dignified body, composed of the most learned jurists in the land, which is the Court of last Appeal in this country. Its members are appointed by the President, with the concurrence of the Senate, usually on their merit alone and not chiefly as a re sult of political pull, and so it has come to be recognized as one of the greatest courts in the world. I will not say the greatest court in the world because I think that we English-speaking people must all admit that the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, the highest court in the British Dominions, by reason of its venerable age, and the great heritage of precedents that it has handed down to the English-speaking world, including the United States of Amer ica, must still retain the premier place. With all due deference to the decisions of the state courts and the Federal Circuit Courts, it is very seldom that they are fol lowed by English courts, but on the other hand, the judgments of the Supreme Court of the United States are not only cited in English Courts but are actually followed as precedents, by all English Courts, where a precedent cannot be found in their own courts and I think that this is perhaps the greatest signal honor that we Britishers can pay to the dignity of that court and the soundness of its interpretations of the law. In conclusion I beg to apologise for en deavoring to treat such a vast and deep sub ject in so cursory a manner but if I have succeeded in making it clear that man, be ing essentially a social animal and hence compelled to live in constant contact with his fellow-citizens, could only safe-guard his true freedom by giving up a certain def inite part of it to the State: that within the territorial confines of each sovereign state, for this reason, there must exist a supreme law-making body capable of promulgating laws for the protection and enjoyment of that true freedom: that when we became citizens of that state we voluntarily acqui esced in the righteous existence of that body and undertook to obey its mandates: that public opinion, particularly in modern democratic countries, will nearly always en sure the adoption of pure and wholesome laws by that body, and that the sovereign law-making body is armed with the actual, physical force to ensure its laws being ob served by refractory citizens; if, 1 say, I have made these points clear in this brief paper, I shall feel tha{ perhaps it has not been written in vain and that the way has been, at least partially, prepared for a more detailed study of these individual local laws, enacted by the sovereign law-making body in our own native state, to which we are subject and with which each one of us ought to be familiar. REMARKS AND COMMENTS Interesting Philosophical Adaptions and Comments On Matters of Morals, Literature and Passing Events Life is eternal progress. Not to progress, is to die. Regrets are leaden soles to the march of a man’s progress. If you want your work to count, work with a song in your heart. Man’s greatest crime is the surrender of the right to rule himself. Every need has some resource to fill it, if you search patiently to find it. Worry is a strangler. The very word comes from the Dutch word “worgen”— to throttle. Your brief authority is not inherent in yourself: it is but dele gated to you by those you are required to lead, and by others of their kind whom you and yours must serve. .Patriotism isn’t just dying for your country. It’s trying to live for it—honestly and uprightly. Live every day so you can look at yourself in the mirror at night, and say: l You can work for me again tomorrow.” No estimate can be checked over too often. All of us for get something, sometime! The minute you get the idea you’re indispensable, you aren’t. It’ll be a sad day for the surgeons when they can’t think of anything else to cut out of the human anatomy. When you have nothing else to say —let the other fellow boast awhile. In this country the power of the man in and out of society is all but supreme. Wherever he is, he wields his magic wand, he overpowers and rules, and shadowy crowds yield to his spell. At his beck they join a crusade, or foreswear their own existence. As he dictates they are protoplasms and sporules, or divinities. They throb with his affections, they pant with his desires, and rise to his aspirations. They see as he sees, hear as he hears, and believe as he believes. This is the power for evil or for good. It is human Character of developed humanity that conducts us to our notion of the Character Divine. In proportion as the mys teries of man’s goodness unfold themselves to us, in that proportion do we obtain an insight into God’s. May we not say that in the huge mass of evil, as it rolls and swells, there is ever some good working imprisoned; working to ward deliverance and triumph? Life has two ecstatic moments: one when the spirit catches sight of Truth, the other when it recognizes a kindred spirit. Per haps it is only in the land of Truth that spirits can discern each other; as it is when they are helping each other on that they may best hope to arrive there. Men are led by strange ways. One should have tolerance for a man, hope of him; leave him to try yet what he will do. A mail-order house recently received the following letter from a customer: “I am returning the twin baby-carriage I ordered last month. Please send a single carriage in its place.” This is an argument against preparedness. Many business men fail because they overestimate their assets and because they do not know what it is costing them to do busi ness. Within recent years this subject has been much discussed, but since discussion generally antedates action by from one to five decades in this country, there has as yet been no great reform in this matter. Many manufacturers have but vague notions of what it costs them to manufacture the things they sell. A still greater number of retailers are in the dark as to their exact cost of doing business. Many of the latter class do not know the profit they are making on any lines they handle. Some would be at a loss to separate the pro fitable from the unprofitable lines. In this, as in many other mat ters, European nations have advanced much farther than we. In England, for example, a law has been passed which pro vides for the punishment of bankrupts who have failed to keep books or accounts sufficient to enable them to explain their financial trans actions and condition during the two years preceding the bank ruptcy proceedings. 'As yet this law applies only to those who seek advantage of the bankruptcy laws for a second time and does not apply to first offenders nor to non-trading bankrupts. In effect this puts a penalty on the failure to know the cost of doing business. A good cost-keeping system, well understood and faithfully followed, is the best form of business insurance. “Did you ever think, as you strive for gold, a dead man's hand a dollar can’t hold? You may pinch and tug, strive and save. But you’ll lose it all when you reach the grave. Did you ever think, as the hearse goes by, That it won’t be long till you and I Go riding out in the big plumed hack, And never remember coming back?” “Then while you are here, do all the good you can, to all the people you can, in all the ways you can, so that you may be known as ‘A Prince Among Men’.” By O. R. S.