ANCIENT WIT ON MODERN WILES
Lippmann, C. R.
ANCIENT WIT ON MODERN WILES By C. R. LI ppm ANN HAVE the great minds of the past been endowed with a prophetic vision of this great nation of ours? Or is there "nothing new under the sun" because...
...Probably this Uncrowned King has an intuition simi-lar to Voltaire, when the latter penned the following: "When the populace takes to reasoning—all is lost...
...Captains of Industry, who have capitulated to Generals of High Finance, as well as Captains of Politics and their lesser pawns, will no doubt applaud the wisdom of Talleyrand's cynical chuckle: "Society is divided into two classes, the fleecers and the fleeced: it is better to belong to the fleecers...
...Seven Weeks...
...The General protested that this was not feasible, and when the King insisted, told him, "Your Majesty, your finger is not a bridge...
...Talleyrand must have had a superhuman, prophetic intuition about one of our end-of-the-century export products, viz., the American Heiress, whose chief use is the reparation and maintenance of ancient, noble castles and estates belonging to—or rather hypothecated by—what he calls "mud in silk stockings...
...Again, when the legislature spends a whole season in a performance of "Much Ado about Nothing," historical precedent comes to the rescue of our indignation...
...Did he have in mind that be jeweled gentleman, obese in purse and person, whom irreverent muck-rakers call the "Boss...
...But Solon, the Wise, robs us of this glory...
...This favorite son was haunted by freakish scruples about his inability to perform the new duties satisfactorily...
...Which may be freely translated into Twentieth Century Ameri-canese as "Tainted Money makes the mare go, likewise automobiles, yachts, divorces and other American Luxuries...
...for he must have had him in mind, when he said: "Laws are like cobwebs that entangle the weak, but are broken by the strong...
...To which he truth-fully...
...Or is there "nothing new under the sun" because human nature never changes...
...We wonder if Dr...
...For example, John Sheldon, a century or so ago, said, "They that govern most make least noise...
...No doubt the performance of these two Masters of American Civilization are justifiable under the rule laid down in Rome by Vespasio, in the first Century A. D., viz.: "Gold smells not...
...Other applications are left to the brainery of the (more or less) gentle reader with the advice not to indulge in more than a tea-spoon dose a day...
...Some 400 years ago the King of France was planning a campaign in conference with General Turenne...
...but rudelv replied...
...The home-hungry, prospective commuter might tell the landscape-word-painting real estate man that his fingers are no streets and sewers and side walks, which his nimble digit glibly outlines on the blue print...
...This is truly a "Golden Fleece" sentiment...
...Louis placed his finger on a certain point on the map and told Turenne to cross the river there...
...Thus the gold-thirsty investor might tell the Promotor who shows him the map that fingers are not ore veins...
...Wherefore, to save us from such a calamity, a kindly Providence sends us Campaign Orators, Brass Bands, Torch Light Parades, Bunting, Marching Clubs, etc., all liberally provided for by the Man-Higher-Up...
...Was it the selfsame vibrator of plum trees who inspired Pope to write that "Party spirit is the madness of many for the gain of the few...
...Johnson, a little over a hundred years ago, stole a peep into the future of our steel industry, when he wrote: "Much may be made of a Scotchman if he be caught young...
...Whereupon his delicate conscience was lullabied by his wise father with the remarks: "Doest thou not know, my son, with how little wisdom the world is governed...
...Speaker Popham, of the English Parliament was asked by Queen Elizabeth, after the House had adjourned, what had passed...
...When the representatives of the "peepul" (in name and of a few people in fact) with much oratory graft some new laws on the Statutory tree, and a little while afterwards the Courts chop off the new limb of legislative wisdom by declaring it unconstitutional, let us find consolation in history...
...This little incident "at Bridge party" has several latter-day American applications...
...That Ring-master of the Law, the astute Corporation Lawyer, under whose mental whip-cracking the various statutes and ordinances dance and prance to the tune of the financial brass band, is generally considered an Amercian invention and innovation...
...Some 400 years ago a Prime Minister of Sweden, by the euphonious and felicitous name of "Oxenstirn" (which in English means "bull's forehead"), had his son appointed to an important government position...
Vol. 1 • July 1909 • No. 30
