Jasper County Democrat, Volume 19, Number 64, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 November 1916 — GUT FAWKES DAT [ARTICLE]

GUT FAWKES DAT

The fifth of November marked the anniversary of three prominent events in English history—the discovery and prevention of the gunpowder plot in 1605, the Inauguration of the revolution of 1688 by the landing at Torbay of William 111, and the victory at Inkerman over the Russians in the Crimea in 1854. This date for nearly three centuries was celebrated with much rough humor as “Guy Fawkes day.’’ Guy Fawkes, who was arrested w>hile skulking in the cellars under the parliament house which had been stocked with barrels of gunpowder with which it was intended to blow up the place with all the legislators of the kingdom. It was expected that James I and his son, Prince Henry of Wales, would be present and would be killed in the general massacre. Until the early sixties a special service on the fifth of November formed a part of the ritual of the English book of common prayer. It was then by an ordinance of Queen Victoria in council, along with a service for the martyrdom of Charles I and the restoration of Charles 11, abolished. They day was made a holiday by the British parliament in January, 1606.

We picked up a daily paper the other day and noted that England had won a great victory. In the next column the kaiser was sweeping everything before him. Turning over a page we found Russia sweeping her foes into eternity, and Austria, Italf and the whole gang exterminating their enemies on every hand. Now if war is hell, just what is a war correspondent? Good men in public office are often hard to get, but human nature is so perverse that once we get them we are never satisfied until we get rid of them. The man who spends his time telling others how to do it usually winds up by having his neighbor do it when his own time comes. Don’t nag at your husband because he smokes, sister. It is better to smoke in this world than in the next. Skating on thin ice in the game of life is full of zest, until the ice breaks and you take the fatal plunge. The advent of November brings peace in Europe another month nearer. But, O Lord, how many years? Opportunity may knock at your door, but it won’t force its way through the keyhole. « Every time the dove of peace tries to light in Mexico the buzzards scare it away.