| Show communicated HOBBIES AND CRANKS it lie ie no uncommon thing thine for a man manor or woman to have a hobby which to them is the greatest thing on carthand eart hand they are often surprised that this hobby of theirs possesses posse sees no attraction whatever to others round bound this a large proportion of the thought of such persons persona revolve it may be a harmless things thing like the collection of postage stamps or it may be as serious a one as that which animated jack the ripper but between the two ex there is every diversity of pr preference ference amounting in severe oases cases to what might b be called monomania or that existence of mental obsession which justifies us in calling a man sa s a crank P hence men have sought for that universal solvent which had bad power to transmute all base metals into gold lor for that universal uni vereal elixir which was ane guarantee of indestructible health and everlasting life for tout that force which would secure the secret of perpetual motion motions beyond the sneer sand cavil of the scientific world social reformers without number have each had bad their panacea for the evils of society irom from the advocate of multiform and all pervading organization to go the undisguised anarchist who is the foe of any rule government or control license and liberty to such have been almost synonymous terms and labor for bread a crime so long as undistributed wealth was within reach of the despotism of unwelcome toll toil the last general industrial and commercial roial stagnation in the midst of bounteous harvests creative maebon erv cry and untold millions of boarded money demonstrates that the labor of the world and all its products can be manipulated by men who have a bobby whether that be gold silver paper or t the be three in oon human ingenuity works work in devious ways and crankiness can produce wide spread havoc bavo cand and ruin while exhibiting the softness of the cooing dove educational projects mire are and will be i the shuttlecock between rival parties on the to playground play ground of our common life professionalisms who know little or dr nothing of mans matias origin or destiny presume to dictate from the simple observation of faculty the culture of the whole they aim in ignorance to make the pyramid upon its apex assured that if it fall in any a direction it will be pyramidal in form at least rival schools of medicine have hobbies from infinitesimal doses of to the drenches nobes and douches of the herbalist and by nature meanwhile in most instances cheating the charlatans of medicine by sed recuperation or else yielding in sheer despair to the potency of ignorance and hiding tue the results thereof in the kindly grave great reformatory institutions seem to be based upon untenable views misconceptions of crime sanity and p verty diverty and methods which fall for lack jack of broad iders of man and things and madmen are confined for life criminals are held in restraint and when a sentence is served are turned out without anxiety as to re form while poverty voge vegetates to in crowded courts of cities and in mammoth establishments without a glimpse of liberty with but desultory and accidental ci or unintentional effort at the creation of self I independence once society seemingly deeming it easier to support than to educate or redeem the victims ot of its permitted conditions untold millions of treasure wrenched by taxation from a passive people or laid upon the altar by sympathetic and philanthropic souls ure are spent in futile ways only grazing as it were the outer fringe of these giant evil which mock at al modern pretensions to enlightenment in its deal with ith the problems of suffering humanity even the beneficence of religion to is made the football of respectability its ministers are in the main professionals si signals sio nals onal oaring caring little for the cleansing of the vice and sprinkling at a distance with the eau de cologne of ostentatious charity the purlieus purlie us ot of poverty and of living death in the great parliament of religions lately convened at chicago there was had but a reiteration of creed more christianity being expressed by the heathen than by its if most eloquent and gifted lea leaden leaders derm but the whole chris tian and heathen apparently were more bent beet upon riling airing their erudition than ban in considering how to apply the truths of revelation held by both alike to the redemption of ef the world the renovation t f society the increase of true intelligence or the practical application plin stion of the idea of universal brotherhood to the exigencies of our sadly defective civilization the hobby bobby of each one was creed and church it was more to be a catholic a baptist or a buddhist than it was to be a man and to divert the golden stream of pactolus Pac totua in a sectarian d direction i reo tion rather than to lift the incubus of poverty and sin irom from the stricken multitud multitude a of earth was it madame roland who exclaimed on her way to the scaffold ob liberty how many crimes have been committed in thy name had she been a religionist instead of a revolutionist she only needed to substitute the word religion PS in place of liberty yo to have made that rebuke which would have caused the cheek of professionalism to tingle wherever that to is found not perchance for its sins sin of commission so much as those of emission which have rea obe i as an it were to heavens in a commercial age men make v a bobby of trade for it they circumscribe the world and open the haunts of semi civilization compelling trade at the point of ther the bayout bay t and by the mouth of the cannon india china africa and the thea islands of the sea have suffered conquest at the dictum of this bobby worshiped by an asserted superior race this is not however confined to action on a gigantic scale large ci cities amal adaller ler towns and obscure villages have in them men who mounted on this bobby ride it to death it to is trade trade nothing but trado trad I 1 many worthy men no do doubt are engaged in this direction but when there is nothing vice ot of interest to a man in life he be is like one who is color blind there is a world but it is divested of its glow and beauty there is social lit but unless it to is an auxiliary to his bis business it has no charms tor for him there la in family life but he takes no time for its enjoyment A wife and family become secondary they are well provided for as a matter of course but home borne life is ie more than bread and dinner and clothing and amusements amusement even money lavishly spent pent on schools and what is ie called an education way may separate parents and children and raise a barrier in the face or of accord and i unity which is fatal to the highest spirit of genuine home borne there Is religion that best solace to the b human uman soul but its gentle influence is emoth smothered between the pages of the ledger credits and debits absorb and control the time and thought the body and brain A mau man beoo as fatally en in figures and goods as were the egyptians in the roaring sea there is intelligence in the world books and literature and art and bobence Boi ence but the man who makes make business his undivided hobby bobby only reads the trade paper speculates speculate upon what he be can buy or sell at a profit and like an eagle on the highest pinnacle of observation which looks not at the glorious world he sees seen but that which serves himself famine or plenty sunshine or showers shower trade traffic frame and deal bound alike the horizon of his future and his bis present who has not wondered at this that men should be satisfied with but one hobby one idea and yet after all it may be that in some way such men have moved the world unheard at first and all unnoted perhaps persist ence has secured in times time attention so the labors of the alchemist and the delvers into things unknown may have in the flight of time pioneered the way lor the triumphs of later science and benefits at large the of churchmen and the oon con of medical schools school may have proved on one band a highway for ethics and on the other that study of the human form divine 10 which evolves knowledge of function and certainty of law through the ore and smoke of intellectual war there may come if not already the peace of decisive authority and assurance of rest the use and benefit of diversified bobbies of positive craze may not always be clear at jhb time yet if these are the means by which providence works criticism may stand rebuked in provi proving dg that his thoughts are nota not as our thoughts nor his ways as ours even were men in general so straight that they leaned the other way by and by they will become becom more emore and more symmetrical and harmonious and the roundness of humanity will stand revealed men of one idea one hobby bobby one line fine 01 thought will move into more generous gene roue development and a grander manhood social industrial political medical scientific and religious culture will be blended for one common purpose the enlargement of the soul by the exercise of its inherent faculties and salvation of the physical as the tabernacle of the in dwelling spirit that he way may be all e in all beloved now are we the sons of go and abid it doth not yet appear what we snail shall be but we know that when he be appear eth we shall be like him and we shall see him as he ie |
