Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 35, Number 96, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 August 1903 — PAPERS BY THE PEOPLE. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

PAPERS BY THE PEOPLE.

NEGRO QUESTION A NATIONAL PROBLEM.

I y Rev. Lyman Abbott, C. D., ot New York, The negro question is a national problem, not a sectional one. The North and the South combined to bring the negro here, and because we in the North couldn’t use him In our Industrial development we let him go to the South. Later the-conscience of the North, re-enforcejd by commercial interests, it must be admitted, abolished

db. lyman Abbott, slavery. By national action we made the solution Of the negro problem a national question. It Is clear we of the North can’t compel by force the elevation of the black man. With the sword you can sever manacles, but you caunot lift up a man by the same medium. We must not go into the South with advice in a holier-than-thou spirit, nor acting as though we belonged to the wlser-than-thou class. Neither force nor Pbarlseelam ever converted a race. Suffrage must wait for education. Education Is primary; politlcal/Tlgbts are secondary. We have tried the experiment of giving the negro suffrage first and education afterward, and bitterly has the country suffered from our blunder. No man ever should receive the power to control other men until he is able to exercise such control. The negro race is at the present time inferior to the Anglo-Saxon race. We have t£n centuries of civilization behind us. They have had countless centuries of barbarism and two centuries of servitude behind them. The human race slowly emerges from the. brute. If we give power to the brute, the result will be wreck and ruin. I plead for the honor of the American people. Fifteen million men, ignorant, vicious, dishonest and intemperate, will be a terrible millstone to bang around the neck of the nation. Fifteen million men, chaste, honest, Industrious—what a power for the nation. Whether the African race will be fetters for the feet of the nation or wing 3 for flight depends upon education.

A PLEA FOR A SIMPLER LIFE.

By Dr. Andrew Wilson. British Physicist. I have been re-perusing that interesting little work by Dr. George Keith, entitled “Plea for a Simpler Life.” He reasons out quietly bis plea that a simpler mode of life Is what we should seek after diligently and practice. He supports his reasoning by the fruits of a long life spent iq medical practice; and he waxes eloquent, as becomes bis conviction that in this modern age we are too much given to the worship of tho golden

calf, and to the. glorification and. spoliation of the stomach. There Is no sober minded person, I Believe, who will not agree in the main with Dr. Keith's contentions. Plain living and high thinking are processes pretty much at a»discount In the present age. That the world eats too much and drinks too much, and spends much money on vain show and folly, we may well accept as truisms. The modern craving after luxury has had effects that are by no means limited to the upper ten. The race after pleasure Is one of the hardest to sustain, but It is pursued day by day with a porsistance worthy of a better cause. We are rich and prosperous, we live luxuriously, our foibles are costly, our entertainments are those of a Caesar. Truly It Is a marvelous age in one way, or, as an old friend of mine put It the other day, “it Is an age of the decline of faith, and of the apotheosis of the cook.” An Italian friend of mine once remarked upon what he called the English habit of celebrating everything by a dinner. “When you are born,” said ho, “your parents celebrate the event by a

dinner. When you are married, there Is what you call a ‘spread.’ When you die, there will likely be ‘funeral meats.’ When you win a battle, you dine and drink. When you lose, you do much the same—especially drink. When your corporations go to inspect a new sewer, they end up their task with a banquet. Even your clergy, when they meet to place a minister in a charge, must ‘celebrate’ by a dinner.” If we could exactly tabulate the mode of life of our distinguished men who have lived to a great age and been intellectually active to the last, I doubt not that we should find the rule of spare living thoroughly represented lu their histories. I think it Is so with our men of science, our great lawyers, our doctors, and our clergy, who live on far past the allotted span of threescore years and ten. The return to a simpler life, besides, would produce other results thati those of Increased health. Perhaps we should be less likely to lose our heads either In times of national disaster or in days of national rejoicing. We might also be content with less lavish display in life at large, and conduct all our ceremonials with more dignity and less garisbness. But the mob to-day will always call for color and light, just as the old Romans yelled for “bread and games.” Our own danger is tjiat “games and bread” are becoming the end of national Iffe instead mere accessories.

THE MARRIED WOMAN’S CRUSHED TALENT.

By Grace Noble. Six among ten of the most brilliant young women who recently graduated from a widely famed college of music are soon to be married. The question is being debated by those who have eagerly watched the progress of the pupils as to what will become of these talents? The more pessimistic say: “Their careers are over." Their success or their retrogression Is almost entirely within the power of the man whom they marry.

The man whom a woman loves can either make or crush her talent, however great or small that talent may be. To him she is refreshing; her music is a fad. He never listens to her play. He is irritated because she cannot entertain his frieuds wi.th popular music. She does not play when, lie is at home, and she stops mentioning Beethoven and Chopin and her dreams of studying with the world’s greatest teachers. Bitterly she realizes that she has not got the power to oppose him, and the fullness of her sacrifice comes to her. She takes up the thread of her life and locks away among her girlhood relics the aspirations of her early youth. *. , A middle aged woman who had In her youth given promise of a remarkable career said, in speaking to a talented student: “I was as ambitious as you are, my dear, but 1 married and my husband never liked to bear me play. I struggled with myself and I suppressed.my talent for his sake. Sometimes the old cravtng for my music comes to me and I forget him. Then I piny with all of tlio fervor of my starved senses. These are the happiest moments of my life.” Strange as It may seem this attitude ou the part of a husband is commonly found in the men who are wedded to talented women. With some It a deep rooted sense of Jealousy. Some men are afraid of their wives’ talents. Their achievements make them superior to their husbands, aad men are not fond of mental superiority in women. Most men also dread their wives’ absorption lu pursuing a chosen work, at the expense of domestic duties. When ambitious young women marry they should choose men who are in sympathy with their talents and tylio will help, instead of retard, them in their artistic progress; Even if women do not reach the pinnacle of fame In the continuation of their work they are safely prepared should necessity demand its practical use.