176 MY AMERICAN FRIENDS

as visible as their living to what different con-
clusions should we all come! Placed in the dark
perspective of that night-view, how much that
we think and say about " modern life/' American
or other, would suddenly change from true to
false!

But here a distinction must be made. Along
with the tendency of the dark side to hide itself
in an " underworld/' and so make itself darker,
there is among men an effort to bring it to light
and to pass their time in contemplating it. If the
bright side shows more plainly in the streets and
public-places, the dark side figures more largely
in the news. The killing of men is no longer a
public spectacle, as it was in the gladiatorial
shows, but a sensational murder adds tens of
thousands to the circulation of the newspapers.
As I sit in my armchair in this hotel reading
an account of the latest gang fight in the under-
world, am I not passing my time in much the
same way as the Roman of old who sat in the
amphitheatre and watched the blood flow in the
arena ? I like to think not. I like to think
that I read such things by way of provoking
myself to oppose them, by way of rousing my
moral forces to make head against the evil in
the world. But is that true ? I am not so sure.
And so with the news in general.

Is the news that I read in the Chicago Tribune
to-day truly and fairly representative of what
went on in Chicago, or in the world, yesterday ?