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Straws

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Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Mar 25, 1903

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 29, No. 12.

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Straws

Straws.—Just a few casual things—things pertaining to the representative elements of society—mark the exceeding worldliness of this Christian nation. Among the curious items paid for by the Federal Government for the use of senators, according to the secretary’s report, are 12 packs of playing cards, 3 packages of dominoes, 12 quarts of hair tonic, 162 pocketbooks, 9,100 grains of quinine, 5 pounds of snuff, besides bags for ladies, manicure sets, pocket-knives, etc., etc. In the assembly of the California Legislature a bill for local-option elections in municipalities was defeated; and the same day, in the Senate, the evening session had to be postponed, because so many members wanted leave of absence, the papers said, to attend a prize-fight in San Francisco. The newspapers, especially the great dailies, pose as the chief exponents of public sentiment, and those that pander most to the popular taste for entertainment give more space to prize-fights and gambling sports in general than to any other class of “news.” The prize-fight that lasts the longest and exhibits the most ferocity and brutality, receives the loudest applause and the highest praise from the crowds who patronize it and from the secular press.