Abroad at Home: American Ramblings, Observations, and Adventures of Julian StreetStreet, Julian
General
Abroad at Home: American Ramblings, Observations, and Adventures of Julian Street
Street, Julian
United States -- Description and travel; United States -- Social life and customs -- 1865-1918
In the more intelligent circles the great objections to the Judge seemed
to rest upon the florid methods he has used to promote his causes, upon
the diversity of his interests, and upon the allegation that he had
become a demagogue.
One gentleman described him to me as "the most hated citizen of Colorado
in Colorado, and the most admired citizen of Colorado everywhere outside
the State."
"Lindsey has done the State harm, perhaps," said this gentleman, "by
what he has said about it, but he has done us a lot of good with his
reforms. The great trouble is that he has too many irons in the fire.
His court is a splendid thing; we all admit that. And he is peculiarly
suited to his work. But he has gotten into all kinds of movements and
has been so widely advertised that he has become a monumental egotist.
He believes in his various causes, but, more than anything else, he
believes in himself, in getting himself before the public and keeping
himself there. He has posed as a little god, and, as Shaw says: 'If you
pose as a little god, you must pose for better or for worse.'"
The Judge is a very small, slight man, with a high, bulging white
forehead, thin hair, a sharp, aquiline nose, a large, rolling black
mustache and very fine eyes, brown almost to blackness. The most
striking things about him are the eyes, the forehead, and the waxy
whiteness of his skin. He looks thin-skinned, but he seems to have
proved that, in the metaphorical sense at least, he is not.
He speaks of his causes quietly but very earnestly, and you feel, as you
listen to him, that he hardly ever thinks of other things. There is
something strange and very individual about him.
"The story of one American city," he said to me, "is the story of every
American city. Denver is no worse than the rest. Indeed, I believe it is
a cleaner and better city than most, and I have been in every city in
every State in this Union."
It has been said that "the worst thing about reform is the reformer."
You can say the same thing about authorship and authors, or about
plumbing and plumbers. It is only another way of saying that the human
element is the weak element. I have met a number of reformers and have
come to classify them under three general heads. Without considering the
branch of reform in which they are interested, but only their
characteristics as individuals, I should say that all professional
reformers might be divided as follows: First, zealots, or "inspired"
reformers; second, cold-blooded, theoretical, statistical reformers;
third, a small number of normal human beings, capable alike of feeling
and of reasoning clearly.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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