y needed to review a
corrupt civilization; and where is the civilization now, where was
there ever a civilization that was not corrupt? The function of
Diogenes is not performed either by the pulpit or the press. A
few special journals are terribly severe on special evils, but the
reformatory words of the press generally are few and far between, in
comparison to what is needed. The JOURNAL OF MAN does not
propose to fill the hiatus and make war upon the myriad evils of
society, but it must speak out, now and then, like Diogenes, especially
when others neglect their duty.

What is the condition of our legislative bodies? Where is there
one that does not provoke sharp criticism? The Albany correspondent
of the _N. Y. Sun_, speaking of the legislative adjournment, says;
"Mr. William F. Sheehan, leader of the Democratic minority to the
Assembly, summed up the work of the Legislature of 1887 when in
his address on the floor of the Assembly on the day of final adjournment,
he said: 'Prayer will ascend from thousands of hearts of the
citizens of this State at noon to-day for their deliverance from this
Legislature. It began its session with the corrupt election of a
United States Senator. It lived in bribery, and it dies a farce.'
No one here regrets the adjournment except the gamblers and the
lobbyists. Even the lobbyists would be glad for a vacation, as their
labors in bidding for the legislative cattle the last month have been
most arduous. The people of Albany look on the Legislature as a
pestilence to which they must yearly submit, and they welcome its
departure as a farmer does the going of a swarm of locusts from his
fields.

"Whatever else may be said about the Legislature of 1887, no one ever
accused it of being honest, and there is no doubt that it was
industrious."

This corrupt Legislature passed two very discreditable bills which
would have been made positively infamous if it had not been for the
active opposition of a few friends of liberty. One of these bills was
designed to add to the stringency of the present obstructive medical
law; the other was designed to assist the labors of Anthony Comstock
in interrupting the circulation of popular physiological literature,
under pretence of suppressing obscenity.

In the Legislature of Pennsylvania, the law designed to suppress the
cultivation of spiritual science by severe penalties, was favorably
reported by a committee but prevented by popular indignation from