Jasper County Democrat, Volume 16, Number 81, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 January 1914 — WANING BARBARISM. [ARTICLE]

WANING BARBARISM.

In the New Year’s day dispatches was the following from Chicago: j The customary wild orgies were pulled off in Some of the cases anti ■hot. Is, bin, details were sternly suppressed by the proprietors and will not be learned until the witnesses sober up. The fact stands out boldly that Chicago is growing weary of the New Year orgies. The revelry and debauchery are no longer fashionable. There war marked diminution this year in the number of persons renting evening clothes and installment jewelry, standing off the butcher and grocer in order to make a splurge in some case. The whole thing is. of course, barbarous, and should be diseontenanced by civilized people. The jollity, is forced, and sentiment - fithere be any—-manufactured. The custom originated in the eating places of "dear old Broadway,” so greatly loved by' Mr. Gorge Cohan. From there it spread to little imitation Broadways all over the land, and to other classes thdn that—made up of stage folk;J

sports, t male and female; men about town, and visitors out for "a time," who. had left their consciences at home—which at first adopted it. It is all, o's course, veriy vulgar. There is about it none of that spirit —whether it be a solemn or a joyous one—that should mark the passring of the year. The only motive is the desire to “cut loose," and have "a devil of a time.” And nothing can be worse than to fix a definite time for it, and to ex'alt the debauch —or try to —to the dignity of a ceremony. There can be no poorer sort of "fun.” There is, it must be confessed. a certain-naturalness about the festivities when they are staged on "The Great Way,” for itself is nothing but a show place, with its parish restaurants and their still more garish custoriiers. But even there the thing is 'unreal —a mere performance.

Many who would not be influenced by moral argument are, one is glad to believe, coming to see the folly and stupidity of the Broadway type of New Year celebration. Perhaps it is just as well to allow the custom to wear itself out, as it seems to be doing in Chicago. Mdstmen prefer to be rational even in their pleasuers. Even the true “sport” must look with a pitying contempt at some of the things that are seen at these New Year’s eve riots. We trust that the disgust, with its 'accompanying reaction, now seen at Chicago, may spread throughout the country. The time has come to "reform it altogether.”—lndianapolis News.