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About Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922 | View Entire Issue (Feb. 10, 1907)
1 8 - THE OMAHA SUNDAY REE; FEBRUARY 10, 1907. C v r Manufacturers of ' i c 3 C .-. v - ' . ' ('.-:.: . " : ' : " " ' --:: -,v i. m .- . y ! .- y ' ..,.,,, ; . . - , . ' . .. - J ... Si?.:- - . ! - TTOTUTTD A SMuvdn ' ; I- i' A' -1 WHEN WE RECEIVED IT ' I .i . i i, .... s nit , ... . .1 . ,: OMAHA ? PHONE 1773 And Our Wagon Will Call , 1 . W- w- . m- . if - w M " . .- 1 1 I , LVe can replace all broken or destroyed parts. WE GUARANTEE all repaired articles to be as GOOD AS NEW ! shades of Brass, Copper, Nickel, Gold or Silver Any Color on Any Metal 1 , Afar Equpmen, Communion Services and Ml CHURCH FIXTURES REFINISHED 1 J. -. . , mm A A' ' ' - fi' "'r 4,4:; .y?yy:- - - , f ' - - y,y'y . , ... 1 1 . ,'..1 ,v ' V WHEN WE DELIVERED IT SILVER CO 314 South Thirteenth Street BETWEEN FARNAM AND HARNEY STS. MUCKRAKE IN TflE BIBLE lint Mentioned There u One of the Affllctioni of Job. VANITY A CAUSE OF THE DISEASE Bat Their Waa aa Kllaa Eti Thca to Amntr tha Mackrakers, Edward W. Trniimd ' Polata Oat. NEW YORK. Feb. . There has recently been organlied In Montclalr an Informal little club known aa the Fellowship Circle. It la composed of about twenty men who are publisher, authors, newspaper men and illustrators, and- the club meets once a month at the house of some one 6t Us members. At the last meeting of the club, which waa held at the home of Dr. Arthur B. 'Boat wick, the subject for discussion waa "Yellow Journalism." Edward W. Town end read the following novel contribution to the history of muckraking The evening's subject, as announced, la "Yellow Journalism and the Muckraking Magualnea." This yeehis to be a com pound subject, yet easily resolves itself Into a simple one, for, as I understand the matter, a yellow journalist Is a muckraker who has become a magaslnlat. The murkraker is doubtless as old as civilization, but the first mention of him I have encountered Is In a Hebrew poem known to us as the Book of Job. The hero was a man whose excellence would have occasioned the muckraker. If none existed before his time, because "That man was perfect and upright, and One that feared God and eschewed evil." " With such an enticing target could the devil have fatted to create a muckraker for his especial undoing? I think not. He was a perfect and upright, therefore the vanity of the Imperfect and unfair rose up against him the - muckraker came forth. The first muckraker' to Interview- Job man who speaks the language of reproof has something t reprove. But remember, EUlphaa was the first muckraker Job had encountered, and he was not yet familiar with the devices of the tribe. He got to know them better when he had been "exposed" by others, by BUdad and by Zophar. It waa Zophar, by the way, who wrung the observation out of Job; "Man that is born of woman is of few days, and full of troubje;" and later, when the muckrukers had struck their gait, the per fect man was goaded to exclaim: "Miser able comforter are ye all!" He proceeds to conelder muckraking in language which seems to me to have a present day application. "Shall vain words have an endT" he asks; and finding that there is to be no end he continues, hoping to shut up his comforters, at least while he himself has the floor: "I could speak as ye do; If your soul were In my soul's stead I could heap up words against you. and shake mine head at you. He hath made me weary; and thou hast filled me with wrinkles. God hath delivered me to the ungodly, and turned me Into, the bands of the wicked. How long will' ye vex my soul, and break me In pieces with- words? These ten times ye have renroached me: ye are not ashamed that ye make your selves strange to me If, Indeed, ye will magnify yourselves!" Right there Job was getting on to their Job; they were all out to magnify them' selves. "How oft Is the candle of the wicked put out?" he asks at last, granting, for the sake of argument, that he Is wicked, and that the muckraker are trying to put out his candle. A to that, neither Zophar nor BU dad nor Eliphai gave answer. They couldn't. It wasn't In their contract to answer. They were sot trying to put out anybody's candle, but merely trimming It. that It might give light enough to war rant their calling it a horrible conflagration, do 1 liens mree men cearea to answer Job," says our authoi. and adds, "Then was kindled the wrath of Ellhu. the Buslte. because they had found no answer, and yet had condemned Job. I refer you to the early verses of the thirty-second chapter of Job for this In terestlng evidence that even In the days of the ancient Hebrew Doets. an Ellhu. lf have not said to blm: "If we e-say to .commune with Bulte. was put forward to give answer .k-. wlH th.-tti 4vaiI? tint whA Cn 1 . thee wilt thou be grieved? but who can withhold himself from speaking?" It ls no wonder that Job was discom fited when he encountered a man who could not be withheld from speaking, even when he had nothing to aay which any one wanted to hear, and that the perfect man. said In his bewilderment: "Doth the wild aaa bray when he hath grass? or loweth the ox over his fodder?" It was after the first murkraker had his Innings with Job that the perfect man was moved to ask: How forceful are right words! But what doth your arguing reprove?" Simple soul! lie supposed that the 8 Dr. Lyon , PERFECT ' Tooih Poutbr Cleanses &ad beautifies the toeUi svod purine the breath. TTced -by people of refinement ur orcr quarter of v century. Convenient for tourist. MtlFAAlO BY when Ihe muck rakers could not Justify their raklngs. There Is nothing new under the present administration. -Ellhus were always on hand to apeak when a Buslte was needed to say a few words to muck raking comforters. We may discover by searching' other books of the same unlmpeachaTle authority as that already quoted by what symptoms wVj can safely diagnose the disease of muck raking. It Is . vanity. Tbere can be no doubt about that. An abnormally vain man Is a potential muck raker, and should at once be Isolated and severely fumigated. Notoriety Is as the breath of their nostrils; more so, even, than I cents a word; though, doubtless, the vanity of tha muck raker Is fertilised by the price be receives for exploiting: bis disease. The Psalmist says: "Surely, men of low degree are vanity." and In Zecharlab we read: "For the idols have spoken vanity and the diviners have seen a lie, and have told false dreams; they comfort In vain." Indeed, we could weary ourselves multiplying- assertions found In the Bible that the muck raker la a vain peraoi-4f It were possible to weary of searching that book. A few more verses will show the curious fact that vanity is at once the cause and symptom of the dlseese of those we find described In Psalms as "The wicked who go astray as soon as they are bora, speak ing lies." We find the whole tribe of muck rakers, described la . Isetaa thus;. "Njjne calleth for Justice, nor any pleadeth for truth; they, trust la vanity and speak Ilea; they conceive mischief) and bring forth Iniquity." Again, In Eieklel: "Because ye have spoken vanity and seen lies, there fore, behold, I am against you. And my hand shall be upon the prophets who see vanity and that divine Ilea." Aa I understand Ezeklel, the much raker sees vanity because it is a palpable efflu vium rising like a mist out of his own heart, and making his vision murky. Excellent Jeremiah said of them: "And they bend their tongue like their bow for lies; but they are not valiant for the truth upon the earth." The book points out that the muck rakers' Industry la not cheerful to any but themselves. In Kxeklei this Is stated with admirable clearness, thus: "Be- of the righteous sad. whom made sad." , This thought leads us from the moral to the commercial aspect of muck raking.. Nothing in magazine journalism which is not cheerful can permanently succeed unless It chances to be well written, and their most ahamless . apologist has never said that a muck raker could write well. No magasine proprietor would indulge In even a natural propensity for muck raking If be thought it were Immoral and I have proved that it Is Immoral by authorities which magazine proprietors and editors would have obeyed If they had heard .of them before now. No; I speak of the com merclal aspect, assuming that it has been considered heretofore by those who believed the Industry moral. 6od did not make us sad; and the meas ure of our littleness compared to His Infinite greatness la manifest In one respect. In that, while God did not design ua to be sad. some men in all ages have endeavored to make us so. To this ungodly class the muck raker essentially belongs. It is godlike to be cheerful, and It la thus the Instinct of honest men; but to be cheer ful Is to be natural to attract attention from the general, and is .therefore dls esteemed by' the muck raker. But with malicious premeditation to set about the task of making people sad will gain noto riety which, to the vain. Is a welcpme es cape .from lives of concealed uselessnees. "If we cannot be known for doing welL at least let us be known for doing 111," they shriek, "and set the saddening muck rake flying." The bora muck raker cannot endure to waste his equivalent for fragrance on the desert air; it must be wafted In the market place, no matter how it offends the nostrils of the people. At least the people know it is there, though they suffer In the knowl edge. No muck raker ever perished from excess of decency. 80, we ask. Is It commercially wise for a magazine to do that Which though It mo mentarily attracts attention does It only to sadden? Attention, aa It Is Interpreted by the muck raker smd his publisher. Is success. But an attention which has in It the force of repulsion Is as unprofitable as the dream stolen from the eim; the awaken ing comes not alone with a sore heart, which can be hidden, but also with a sore head, which advertises Itself. To reduce our figure to literal speech, the magazine which attracts attention, that is, readers and advertisers, by making dis orderly noises In bad company Is preparing for Itself a lodge In some vast wilderness, where it will circulate only among carrion birds and carry no advertlsemeAts except of disinfectants- Healthy readers rebel when they realise that the cause of their sadness while reading a magazine Is a bad smell, and that they are not suffering from any complaint which a bad smell will cure. The muckraker is a poor judge of human nature; he does not discriminate In bis use of the evil which Is In man. In that respeet he is less crafty than the blackmailer, who preftts by his knowledge that there always are men who will pay to keep some muck out of print. So. I ask, U tt even good busi ness to print muck? I think not The mills are regrlndlng Into pulp the paper on which were piin.ed "The Treason of the Senate," "The Shame of the Cities," The Crime of Frenzied Finance," regrlnd lng into pulp to make sheets for the re printing of "Don Quixote," "The Pickwick Papers," "The Blglow Papers." Having disposed of the subject morally and commercially, ,we have only to con sider it politically. Is It good politics to print muck? No; It's rotten! Some one has said that he would. rather live under a government by the press than under a government without a press. I agree. I believe, that a majority of our law makers, our lair executives, our law ex pounders on the bench, are honest; but the machinery whlph put them In ' office is not in nonest hands, and the minority among them is dishonest and clever. The press, which is cheerfully alive to the fact that more honest men than rogues are In office, which Is alert to the evil de Vices of the rogues, as well as to the good Intentions of the honest; the press which sees and approves the efforts for good government, while It exposes the effort to do 111, that press is vitally necessary to our government. But the muckraker would destroy that government which the honest press pre serves. Ho does not search for the good to commend, but only for the evil to oon demn; he does not Instruct when the honeet majority is bedeviled by the dishonest min ority but shouts that all are dishonest and discourages those who strive to do well; he docs not exercise his ability, does not take advantage of , his opportunity to ap plaud the good but only to distort every ap pearance of evil Into proof that all la evil. He la feeding his vanity with muck, not his readers with truth. He would If he bad the power tear down our government, for bis - measures are neither remedial nor constructive. He Is a false prophet, who, like those spoken of In Isaiah, believes: "When the overflowing scounge shall pass through It shall not come unto us, for we have made lies our refuge." But. said Sophocles: ' Let them, then, mock and laugh at this man's woes; The time may come when they who did not care To see him living, In the need of war May groan that he Is dead; for SUU the base In purpose never know the good they have. Until they lose it. After all, my friends, I believe my deep est quarrel with the muckrakera la that they are such a saddening lot. I neve wearied myself seeking- td ohastea sin; It usually finds Its punishment without my aid, I notloe; yet I would like to help scourge the muckraker because they have sougfat to sadden the world. It Is an exoellent place of rssldenoei with every modern oonvenlanoe, light, sir, an uplifting view, with good society; and seems especially designed ' tor 'cheerful souls. And so It would be always were It not for the muckraker. Let ua rejoice that It la so; most of the time. In spite of htm, , 1 Naturally a girt would rather be beautiful than Intellectual. There are mora stupid men in the world than blind anea. Curious and Romantic Capers of Cupid Plantation Day Wedding. XB of the largest weddings ever held In North Carolina took place at Spray when MlssOray More head, daughter of Major and Mrs. J. Turner Morehead of New York, sua granddaughter of the late Governor Morehead of North Carolina, was married to Mr. Robert Lewis Parrlsh of Covington, Va. Two thousand invitations have been issued for the event. The wedding took place in the house which has been in the family possession for years, the birthplace of Miss More head, and Is now occupied by relatives, Mr. and Mrs. B. "Frank Mebane. Owing to the prominence of the Morehead family great preparations were made for the event. Seven houses, with the respective negro servants of each, with the respective by friends for the entertainment of the wedding guests. Plans for an old fashioned Southern country wedding were carried out to the let'err- The house was trimmed with a pro fusion of Virginia smllax and American Beauty rosea. The ceremony, was per formed at 9 o'clock. A supper was served to nearly 1,000 guests, followed by dancing and later, by a Virginia reel. In which four geaerations of the Morehead family participated. Weddlna Withoat Romance, As the result of F. D. Marvin, county superintendent of the poor, Traverse CKy, Mich., resolving himself into a matrimonial agency, Peter Schofelt of Buckley and Mrs. ChrUtlna Weese of Traverse City weie married. Mrs. Weese was divorced a short time ago and has been drifting toward the poor house, aid having been given her by the county. The superintendent knew that Mr. Schofelt wanted a housekeeper and wanted one badly, that ha waa willing to marry one, so be brought the couple together. At tha meeting cold facts alone figured, the groom's farm, two lota In Buckley and personal property being a great factor. Mrs. Weese had had experience with the .fickleness of men, so she looked the ground over carefully, going to Buckley for the purpose. Then she asked for time to think It over. In the meantime two other- women got wise and going to Buckley wooed Khufeit In such aa arduous manner -that he was frightened. When he waa 'around they were perfect doves, but when he left the house they met in a hand-to-hand encounter and were separated by him. In a spirit of revenge one Is said to have filled ber valise with silverware on her de parture and an officer was required to make bur give It up. ' Sobefelt waa attracted by. Mrs. Weese, however, and concluded to take her. The climax came when he found that she did not have money enough to pay the attorney who secured her divorce, so the prospec tive groom shelled out the necessary $30 aa first payment on his wife. For tha Fifth Time. Robert J. Burkett and Hannah M. Bur kett, who lived on a ranch north of Lander, Wyo., have Juat,been married for the fifth time, having been divorced four times since they first became husband and wife, twenty odd years ago. Within six months after their first mar riage In Montana, Mrs. Burkett applied for and obtained' a divorce from her hus band on the ground of cruelty. Within a year they remarried, quarreled soon after the second marriage, and Mrs. Burkett left ber husband, who obtained a divorce on the ground of desertion. The next divorce was obtained by the wife on the ground of desertion and nonsupport. The last divorce was obtained by the husband on the ground of desertion. Wis Brides an Case. Cupid's first venture In "bookmaklng" i has gone on record with the deuble elope ment of four Chicago young persons and proved to be such a financial success that for a week the elopers have been enjoying an expensive honeymoon off the proceeds. The novel Idea of getting married as a financial venture, relates the Chicago Tribune, was conceived by Fred Crelghton, 19 years of age, and netfed $170, clear money, at various odds. His bride waa Miss Blanche Miltimore, aged IS. When Crelghton and his bride told of their plans to his chum, William Eckhardt, JU years old, whose father runs the Walton garage, Walton Place and North State street, and whose sweetheart was Ruby Miltimore, the 16-year-old stater of Crelgh ton'e bride, the. plans wars soon laid In real romance fashion. They aU would elope In an automobile to be furnished by Eok bardt. The four were married with a double wedding. January 18, In Crown Point, IndM 'By Judge Nicholson, .and after a week's honeymoon they returned to Chicago. The' plans as formed were carried out to the letter. The one trouble In the course of true love only tended to give a- little more romantic savor to the escapade. That waa that when within three and a half miles of Crown Polat the automobile broke down. The Journey was finished oa foot, but within the given time necessary to win the 1170 In bets arranged by Crelghton. The story as a whole makes the average paper back love story look dull and un eventful. To begin with. Crelghton Is only aa offloe boy for Dr. T. ft. Oreaa, Dr. W. 3. Mitchell and Dr. Fred A. Blssett, aU of whom have offices adjoining one another at 3900 Cottage Grove avenue. He' Is stren uous, for, besides looking after his work aa office boy, he has been VVteoding the Wen dell Phillips High school of mornings, was an usher evenings at the Studebaker thea ter, and on the side found time for courting Miss Miltimore. "Well, I was driven to It." was the ex planation of young Crelghton last evening, shortly after the quartet had arrived In Chicago. "The doctors jollied the life out of me for trying to court a girl and keep up with all my other duties, and said they'd bet I'd never win her. When they talked of betting It looked like easy money for me, because I thought I knew pretty nearly how I stood In Miss Mlltlmore's good graces I asked them how much they'd bet. "That only encouraged them, and ' they said they'd make It ten to five. I said I'J take them up and limit the time to. forty eight hou-s. Then all the rest of my friends who heard of my bet wanted to game. I talked it over with Miss Milti more, and she said she was ready any old time. I figured out It was 1170 dear money, and have collected the cash." 0 Wedded In Trolley Car. A novel ceremony was performed In Jack son, Miss., when Miss Maud Smith became the wife of Meady Pierce. After securing a marriage license the prospective bridegroom negotiated with a magistrate to meet him" at a designated corner and accompany him on a street car ride. The accommodating justice did so and after boarding the car was Introduced to Miss Smith nd Informed that they desired to huse a marriage ceremony performed then and there. This was a little out of the ordinary, but the justice, still accommodating, made bis' preparations for tying the nuptial knot while the car speeded onward. Just before reaching the end of the track the couple announced that they were ready and, stand ing In the center of the car, were soon aa tightly tied as If the ceremony had been performed In the biggest and most elab orately decorated church In America, utch Cleanser TAKES ALL THE HA III) WOKK Ol X ' I.J'Kl'lXO THINGS CLEAN OldD J ,L, Is a wonderful window cleaner swiftly and completely removing all grime and scum no matter how thick or hard crusted without, the need of ahr pol- Ishlng. as It leaves no greasy film be hind It. Will Instantly loosen, absorb and carry away dirt that soap will not dis solve, pn surface where you dare not use sand for fear of scratching. Invaluable, too, for cleaning marble steps, brickwork, stonework, woodwork (painted or un puinted), bath tubs, sinks, pots, pans, kettles, metal work, etc Will not Injure the bands, but leaves them soft and white. OCD IN LARGE SIFTING TOP CANS 10c AT ALL grocers 10c THE CUDAHY PACK1X8 CO.. South Omaha.