THE WEST SHORE.
October.
As Kighf Page Monthly Illustrated Paper, publiihed at
Portland, Oregon, by
L. SAMUKL, j Whinpon-.
TERMS OF SUBSCRIPTION,
(Including Postage to any part of the United State:)
fJW copy, one year, I 5
Single Numben, .. cent.
Fruited by Oso. It. lllMR, cor. Front & Washington -ill.
DE MORTUIS NIL NISI BO NUM.
The origin of this maxim is not ascer.
uiiitJ, and the morality of it is more than
doubtful. The popular and practical ren
dering of it, is "Speak no evil of the
dead."
The precept is rigidly obeyed in the
composition of the ordinary obituary
particularly those published in the religious
press. These speak the language" of un
varied and unqualified eulogy. If the sub.
jeets of these culogiums ever done evil in
their lives, il does not "live after them,"
but contrary to and beyond the aphorism
of Marc Jiitmv, "is always interred with
I heir bones."
The speeches in Congress upon the an
j nouticeuiciit of the death of a member,
j usually partake of the same characteristic.
i' The tncink-r, wlinm living, so many dis-
trusted or ilcimunceil, when dead, is held
up lo the admiration of the world by his
, bereaved and gricf-slrk kcn" combers, as a
model Senator or Representative. It is
not generally conceded that even' Mason,
Odd I'ellow or member of any other social
society, while in the flesh, is either dis
tinguished for ability or virtue. Indeed,
borne of them are very justly regarded as
only common mortals, andBtoBay the least,
no belter than they should be. Hut no
woner has death assed on any one of them,
than the fraternal survivors rushainloprint
with a stereotycd preamble and resolu
tions, to the effect, that the deceased, whose
untimely loss ihey arc called upon lo de
plore, was a beloved and valuable member
ol the community and a paragon of well
doing and propriety.
If this indiscriminate practice of canon
izing a deceased Congressman or Urother
is to continue, as it bids fair to, and be
come a jKirt of the established ritual of
Congress and the social societies, it would
lc well to devise some means to hear both
hides of the question before pronouncing
sentence. As in the case of a crson pro
jtosed for sainthood in the Roman Catholic
Church, an AJlvcaAu Dinboli might be ap
KinteU for such occasions, whose duty it
would be to resist the projKwcd eulogy'by
calling attention to the faults of the de
ceased. If the duty of this Devil's Advocate was
honestly performed, it is safe to assume thai
the result would sometimes be in his favor;
ud the im ial friends of a deceased mortal
would lw cautious how ihey subjected his
claim lo post mortem
honors, to such an
otdeal.
The fact that he had
Riven a tithe of his
ill-gotten wealth to
the poor often for
the most seltish tea
nous would count but
little in his favor then;
for il ought never lo
W forgotten that mere
cluritv, however lav
ish, can never atone
(or or expiate a fraud
or theft, JtatUkhm
ami rtfvnljm-t must
. precede any claim lo
lorgivcness.
Vet in the ease of
private obituaries and
funeral obsequies,
Nomcthing will ul
wmvs lie allowed to ilw
partiality of surviving
fiiemU It cm hardly
be expected Out the
faults of the dead will
I specially noted
by those who sincerely mourn his loss.
But in the case of a popular favorite, the
sentiment of this maxim is often relied
upon to prevent a free and fair discussion
of bis merits and demerits. Upon the
death of a person who has occupied a
prominent position in business or public
affairs, his life and character are generally
considered legitimate subjects of comment
and criticism. But if the press of the
country is to be muzzled with the maxim
De morluis nil nisi bonum, 'what becomes of
the truth and what is the comment and the
deduction therefrom worth ? It has been
claimed that -this maxim should be read
w ith verum for bonum, Then it would re
quire us to speak only the truth of the
dead. To speak the truth of the dead
with good motives and justifiable ends, is
always proper on the part of a writer or
orator; and often it becomes his imperative
duty to do so. While tlie partial or paid
lessening heap cries to you to stop. Too would
like to buy thia, that and the other ; but you know
exactly how much money you have left, and it you
go on buying more things your purse will soon be
empty. You do not see inn wnen you nw..
Yon give your orderi freely, without thought or
calculation ; and when the day of payment comes,
you find that you have overrun the ConBtable.
On every hand we see people living on credit,
putting off pay day to the last, making in the end
tome desperate effort, either by begging or borrow
ing, to scrape the money together, and then
struggling on again, with the canker of care eating
at their hearts, to the inevitable goal of bank
ruptcy. If people would only make a push at the
beginning instead of the end, they would save
themselves all this misery. The great secret of
being solvent, and well-to-do, and comfortable, is
to get ahead of your expenses. Eat and drink this
month what you earned last month ; not what you
are going to earn next month.
There are, no doubt, many persons so un
fortunately situated that they can never accom
plish this. No man can guard against ill-health ;
no man can insure himself a well-conducted, help
ful family, or a permanent income. There will
always be people who cannot help their mis
fortunes. But, as a rule, those unfortunates are
the opposite extreme meanness in the treatment
of the horse. In looking at the construction of a
wrv lnnre oortion of our horse stables, I am some.
times led to think that the object of the builder
must have been to see how wildly ha could depart
from every principle of humanity and expediency
humanity in compelling a patient and faithful
animano remttiu jmimwu up m ww,uimu
filthy apartment expediency in thus sacrificing
not only the comfort, but the health, and conse
quently the usefulness and value of the animal,
Light is indispensitle to the plant and to the
man; is it less to the horse P If it is, why
When the tyrants of the old countries sought to
inflict their most fearful punishments, next to
death, confinement in a dark cell was considered
the most severe. Is it reasonable that the horse
whose native home is in the desert and wilderness
where there is nothing to obstruct the free light of
heaven is it reasonable, I ask, that he should not
suffer from confinement generally in our dark and
gloomy Btuulttt f I it nut a nkuuo, iu a land like
ours where glass enough for a moderate sized win
dow con be had for fifty cents, that a valuable
horse should be shut np in a dark stall or stable f
Let every horse owner's heart, if he has one,
answer.
" Is foul air wholesome for plants P Certainly '
not. Is it wholesome for men P Most emphati
cally, no I If not wholesome for plants or men, (
can it be for the howea P The answer is emphati
cally, no 1
" Why, then, are the majority of our stables con
strutted without the slightest regard to that most
important feature, ventilation? In thousands of
coses, an animal, than which none other love she
fresh air better, is doomed to confinement for days :
and nights at a time, in a stable, the atmosphere tt
which is so foul that a man would die in it. How )
many of the diseases to which our horses or sub- 1
iect, may be traced to this unpardonable error. (
I say unpardonable, for no man possessed of either
common sense or humanity, would thus punish :
one of his best and most faithful friends the i
horse. t
"A word in conclusion. Fanners I if yon
would have healthy, lively, serviceable horses, give (
them plenty of light; God will supply it, if yon l
will only furnish the means whereby it can bs '
made to reach your stables.
Look to the ventilation of your stable, if you '
would not have prematurely old and worn-out
horses. Depend upou it, plenty of light, ana
plenty of fresh air in your stabfes, will save yon
many a dollar in a lifetime." '
GOOD SAMARITAN HOSPITAL AND ORPHANAGE, PORTLAND, OREGON.
eulogist of the popular favorite is holding
him up as an example to the rising genera
tion, nnd pointing with pride to his public
benefactions, such as building Churches
and founding Orphan Asylums, the inde
pendent and imtartial critic should always
be at liberty to shade the picture with the
more significant facts, that he seldom, if
ever, worshiped God in the one, while
his unrestrained life and corrupting ex
ample had made the other a necessary
evil, Ity all means let us change the read
ing of the maxim so as to permit the truth
to be spoken of the dead whenever the
best interests of society demand it.
HINTS FOR HARD TIMES.
Credit nuver permits a man to know the real
value of money, nor to have full control over
his affairs. It presents all his expenses in the
aggregate and not in detail. Every one has
mora or leu of the miser's love of money of
the actual gold pieces and the crisp bank
notes. Now, if you have these thingt in your
pocket, you see them, as yon make your pur
chases, visibly diminishing uuder your eyes. The
far loss trouble to society than those in & hotter
position who bring their misfortunes upon them
selves by deliberate recklessness and extravagance.
You may holp a poor, honest, struggling nan, to
some purpose. But the utmost you can do for an
unthrift is thrown away. You give him money
you have earned by hard labor and saved by self
denial and economy, and he spends it in pleasures
which you have never permitted yourself to en-
The best pleasures, those which sweeten life
most, and leave not bitterness behiud, ore cheap
pleasures. What greater pleasures can a man en
joy than the sense of being free and independent P
The man with his fine house, his glittering car
riage, and his rich banquets, for which he is in
debt, is a slave, a prisoner, forever dragging his
chain behind him through all the grandeur of the
false world in which he moves.
GIVE YOUR HORSES LIGHT AND
AIR.
A correspondent gives some advice on the ven
tilation of stables, which every owner of a horse
should read and profit by. We have never seen
the subject more forcibly presented.
nistory informs us that a certain Emperor
loved a favorite horse so much that he had a gol
den manger made for him. This extravagance ap
pears unpardonable in the estimation of many,
now-a-days, and yet it is mora pardonable than
Family CounTKsiES. In tho family the law of
pleasing ought to extend from the highest to the .
lowest. You are bound to please your children;
and your children are bound to please each other; '
and you are bound to please your servants, if yon ?
expect them to please you. Some men are plea. '
ant in the household, and nowhore else. I have
known such men. They are good fathers and kind '
husbands. If you had seen them In their own
house you would have thought thnt thoy wen ',
angels, almost. But if you had seen them on ths (
street, or in the store, or anywhere else oat of tks
house, you would have thought them almost demo- r-
nioo. But the opposite is apt to be the case. Whoa
we are among our neighbors, or among strangers, f
we hold ourselves with self-respect, and endeavor I
to act with propriety ; but when we get home we i
say to ourselves, "I have played a part long ?
enough, and am now going to be natural." So we '
sit down, and we are ugly and snappish, and '
blunt, and disagreeable. We lay aside those thou- i
sand little courtesies that moke the roughest floor '
smooth, that make the hardest thing like velvet, ,
and that make life pleasant We expend all our
politeness in places where it will be profitable
where it will bring silver and gold. '
. y.
Correct Spbiuno. We would advise ill f
young people to acquire, in early life, the habit of ;'
correct speaking and writing; and to abandon, Si ;
early as possible, any use of slang words and f
phrases. The longer you live, the more difficult L
the language will be ; and if the golden age of ,
youth the proper season for the acquisition of J '
language be passed in its abuse, the unfortunate ' .
victim, if neglected, is, very properly, doomed to 1
talk slang for life. Money is not necessary to pro j
cure this education. Every man has u in his 1 '-
Sower. He has merely to use the language which . '
ie reads, instead of the slang which he hears ; to M
form his taste from the best of speakers and poets f
in the country. j
"" " ''rrmiK !
0. 8. X. CO. BLOCK, MOST STREET, BETWEEN ASH AND PK POBTLAXD.
Wifs and Lady. It is certainly i
uot iu good taste for a gentleman to i
speak of bis wife as his "Lady," or J '
to register tlieir names upou the
books of a hotel as "John Smith and (
Lady," or to ask a friend, "How il i
your Lady?" This is fnshiona-
ble vulgarity, and invariably betrayi !;
a lack of cultivs-1
inn Tli a farm
wife is for more ';
beautiful, appro-'
priate and refined '
whatever may be &
said to the contr-1
ry. Suppose f
lady should say, i
instead of "mj i
husband," "mj:
gentleman, " or :
suppose wo were
to spenk of "Mn.
Fitz Maurice and '
Gontlemnn " the
thin" would be .
absolutely ludi-;
crous, and its ob-;
verse is none the ,
less so, if rightly
considered. A
man's wife ia bi
wife, and not hi
lady and we mar
vel that the latter
term is not abso-:
lutely taboed U
such a connection, '
nt least by intel
ligent and edo-"'.
cated people. I