It was not strange that General Grant was deceived by young Ward. No one supposes that the General is an acute and expert man of business. But men who ought to be acute and expert men of business—for that is their calling—were as completely deceived as General Grant. There are always hindsight philosophers and small-eyed sons of detraction to seize such an occasion as the late panic to criticise great and good men. General Grant’s vindication lies in the fact that there are very few moneyed men in New York whom Ferdinand Ward did not deceive.
The zeal with which some persons labor to make benevolence unpopular is one of the worst manifestations of human nature. Why can not the critics remember that very few men ever catch the disease of giving away large amounts of money? So uncommon a disorder ought to be given the benefit of a corner of that mantle of charity which is usually employed to cover a multitude of sins.
One of the most remarkable statements we have lately seen was made by the president of a brewers’ convention recently held at Rochester, N. Y. He said: “Our hope is based on the fact that prohibition can not last in a progressive state.” We have tried to analyze this “hope,” and the result is this: A progressive state is one in which the drink-sellers are powerful enough to overthrow prohibition. Progress has a peculiar signification in the drink-seller’s dictionary. We are at a loss to conjecture what truly progressive elements of a population should rise up to put down prohibition.
Among our reformers no class deserves more support than those who seek to improve the health of mankind. Some of them have exaggerated the value of this or that means; but the end they seek is a very useful one. We are coming to agreement on everything but food and sleep. We shall agree about these by-and-by. Plenty of sleep in the night—and wholesome food in moderation—these are two articles of the coming man’s health creed. The italicised words express the best evidence on the subject of longevity. A recent writer says that gluttony kills more people—who it may be said by parenthesis know no better—than tobacco and drink. Eating too much is the next evil to be reformed; then sleeping too little.
One of the beautiful customs of Brooklyn, N. Y., is to have a parade of the Sunday-school children of all denominations on one of the first warm days of May. This year fifty thousand children were in line, and the city kept holiday. The custom would bear transportation to other cities and towns.
