Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1873-07-12
Beaeons Along the Shore.

we, as people, ought 10 learn some
thing from the experience of others.
We ought to take notice of the bea-
cons which have been erected in 9th
er countries, and thereby avoid the
biuneers which others have commit
ted. The plainest and simplest prin-
ciples of common sense and of self-in--
terest dictate such a, course. Yet it is
evident that We are. following in the
beaten track of European civilization,
and though so young, and having a
continent in which to work out our
destiny, We are beginning to feel some
of the curses that affiict even the most
advanced and enlightened nations in
the Old World.
What are few of their most striking
and impressive social characteristics ?
The colossal fortunes, idleness and
reveling luxury of the few, and the
grinding, starving poverty and wretch
edness of the toiling many These phe-
nOmena are at once causes and effects,
and from them results inevitable such
dire plaques that great portions of the
masses cry out In the very bitterness
of their souls, and consider life ca
lamity to be thrown off rather than a
blessing to be desired.
A fierce and terrible struggle is al
ways going on in one form or another,
openly or secretly, between the OPP
pressed and the oppressors. The Car
bonars, the Commune, the Information
ais, the dagger, the poisoned chalice,
and every internal machine which
men, frenzied by sense of intolerable
wrongs, can invent, naturally enough
are born of these conditions and do
their direful work.
Make the case your own, and ask
yourself how you would feel and act
in the premises? The laws of tyran-
ny, which the deposits of the middle
ages found means to impose on the
masses, have brought along with them
their own penalties, illustrating
through the centuries the eternal truth
that no wrong, however hedged about
with triple steel and ramparts reach
ing the heavens, can finally go unchal-
lenged, or the really guilty go unwhip-
ped of justice.
To arrange society so that the PEG.
pie can barely keep soul and body to-
gether, so that disease, and misery
and carking care shall be their con-
slant attendance, leaving them with nc
prospect and no hope of even a tOler-
able existence-and then erect asylums
and poor houses, with all the parapher-
MALTA of taxation, repression and cruel
ty, for the maintenance of the miser.
able victims when their physical and
moral energies actually give way, and
you have done work in the abused
name of philanthropy, which en-.
titles you to the wages of iniquity and
murder
Put society in Europe into the cru
cible and this, at least, comes out. Is
the picture overdrawn? We think
not The facts are too we'll known
there have been too many parliament
tary reports and too many probings OF
the public sores to admit of any doubt
upon the subject.
If we turn our eyes homeward, we
shall see ominous evidences of the es-
adjustment and steady growth of a
similar social system in this country
stretching away from ocean to ocean
and sowing the seeds over continent
for crop of the apples of Sodom.
There will be children born to-mor.
row, scarcely able to comprehend
when they become men, the extent OF
their possessions, though they may
never have earned dollar. On the
same day multitude of other children
will be born, that, when they become
men and women, will scarcely be able
to keep the wolf from their doors
though every limb and tendon throt
with pain from incessant toll.
We are adopting through ignorance,
or Indifference, or design, the inherent
vices and fatal tendencies of the old
civilization of Europe, which has, al
one time or another, drenched almost
every square mile of its soil in blood
Is it fitting that we should make no at
tempt even at improvement? THAT We
should hear the sullen roar of the dis
tant storm, and do nothing to avert it
or find shelter while we may?
Some of the richest men in this
country will have become so through
| the direct or indirect prostitution OF
! the powers of our Government and
the robbery of our people. Some OF
the monopolies which have been ere
ated or fostered by Government, claim
to own land enough by virtue of grants,
for which not a dollar has been paid
to form independent kingdoms. They
will take shelter behind the Constitu-
ton and claim the immunities and
prerOgratives of vested rights, as if the
Constitution were designed to destroy
all right and justice, create nabobs and
slaves, and pave the way for its own f.
nal overthrow.
Will the poor children of the future
be expected to ratify and maintain this
public plumber? Will they admit
that their predecessors had the right to
bind them with chains to poverty and
thraldom forever, in order that the
few who neither toll nor spin may dress
in purple and fare sumptuOusly every
day, in full possession of the vast do
mains which have come down to them
as heirlooms of legislative iniquity
Frankly, we don't believe that they
will or ought. E
To encourage by legislation, or per.
nit in this Republic line of policy
in servile imitation of the pauper- ma
king, class-creating, vice-engendering,
hope-crushing sociology over the wa,
ter, is to lay the foundations of bloody
social and political revolutions, and all
the nameless horrors that follow in
their tread. nt U.fs
The matter is pregnant with pro-
found interest, and vitality concerns
the future peace and prosperity of this
country. 1t cannot receive too soon
the serious attention of all thoughtful
citizens.-Ne,o Orleans Times.
Great Britain,
LONDON, July SIN the House Of
I