MINING JOURNAL.
J. B. 01) Ell, Editor.
FROSTBURG, MD., MAY SI, 1881.
Abodt Reform. —The reform howl
er is abroad in certain counties of the
Stale telling the people of the faults,
follieu and errors they have committed,
and the misfortunes, poveity and
misery, which have thus been indicted
upon the public.
No doubt about it. We do many
grievous things, inflict many needless
wrongs upon ourselves —in public as
in private matters. We neglect the
gospel, the means of grace,.and num
berless duties; we are always some
how standing in our own light—ac
cording to some reformer. If we torn
around, adopt new theories of faith
and modes of living, we run chuck
up against some other reformer.
So it goes.
What shall we do about it?
Does the need of reform reach far
ther than legislative administration ? I
Suppose our noble governor owns one
hundred thousand dollars of stock in
some railroad corporation now en
gaged in repudiating a contract with
the State, and defying the laws and
sovereignty of the State, and destroy
ing a great State work, and seeking
to make its line an impassable barrier '
to tie progress of rival enterprises,
and perpetuating its monopoly of a
certain carrying trade at the contin
ual expense of large bodies of citizens
of the State, —does reform reach the
domain covered by these hypotheses ?
If so, should he not, like the snake
which sheds its hide, get rid of the
incubus? It were better for such
an one to go stark naked than wear a
shred which an enemy can use to des
troy his individuality as a reformer.
