Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1878-07-24
Letter from an Old JacEsenian Democrat
of Greenwood Township.
NEAR SEVEN STAR TAVERN,
July 20, 1878.

NEAR SEVEN STAR TAVERN,
July 20, 1878.
My Dear Mr.. Editor Since the Speaks
have been in this neck of timber, they have
only few time experienced weather as
warm as that of the past week. OF course
after such warm weather as ran the mer-
curry up TO 100, blood heat, .sSaturday
night" with all that implies, seems sweeter
than ever. Ii has been almost too warm for
sparkling, that is the kind that is done by
the boys and girls down here, for you must
know that in the region of the Stars things
are net all like the stars that twinkle, and
twinkle at you, and still you are not twin
kled any nearer. No, no, that isn't the
way down here; when a girls eyes twinkle
quite steady spell at you, it isn't the twin
kle of the stars that as much as say, " So
near you can come TO look at me, but you
can't get nearer than look" The steady
twinkle of the girls eyes down here means
more than that she means TO say, ''Come
and sit close by my side" Well, that's
what | mean when | say that it seems too
warm 10 spark, for who would like to be
sitting close up TO a web of calico on a
warm night ike this. For my part, if |
were young again and had to pass through
q sparkling comedy, I'd rather sit at one end
Of table with the girl at the other; but
there's no accounting for difference of
taste. Some say that to sit up alongside OF
your girl, with an arm around her, makes
man feel as if he had sort of a property
right in her, individual property right; it
would cause you TO feel as if you would
like 10 call her your own You DO know
that Old Andy Jackson was a great man for
individual property right. He was ready to
defend Mrs. Jackson against the whole
world, singly, OF as body There wasn't
anything loose, Frenchy, or communistic
about him, that makes TO difference whether
II is your girl, or some other fellows girl
or wife that you sit by. He believed strict
ly in the strictest honesty, and in the prin-
ciple of single possession. Knowing how
Old Andy felt on the possession question,
of one woman, and on the same strict ap-
plication as to other possessions, | could
not help but think how shocked he would
be if he could come TO life now, and hear
how certain set of men in this country
advocate Socialism, or Communism, which
is nothing short of having things in COM
mon, which is nothing short of free love,
Tom Paine and Voltaire infideliIy, and an
equal division of the earnings of every man
and woman. Old Andy would have died be-
fore he would have subscribed to such
sbomiha5le doctrines as that
Well, they said down at the Stars to-
night, that there are set OF men IN ms
country nov that are organizing to elect
men to office that are denouncing all men
who believe in the ownership OF property
They want to elect men to Office TO pass
laws that all the earnings of man shall be
put into a common fund, and then dealt out
hy some sort of government that shall be
a sort of a father to the nation, just as
father is father of a family. They expect
to have a fellow from California to come
East. TO talk to the people on the subject.
He denounces the right to hold property
by any single individual II is no new thing
for men to advocate such doctrines, that IS,
the holding of all things in common, for 1t
was advocated in days gone by. kearney'
the Californian, calls that freedom. He
doesn't know enough to know what he Is
talking about; he doesn't know that If, to-
night, all the property in this country, and
all the money were surrendered up to some
sort of a government, that said government
would be a complete despotism. Ihere
wouldn't be spark of freedom in 1t; II
would be the most complete despotism i'm
aginable. If he will take the trouble 70
study some-if he will learn, he may learn
that five hundred years ago society IN hu-
rope was governed good deal like the way
the Communists talk of governing it. The
Speaks used to govern that way 1t was IN
the hay days of the Nobility. The country
was divided into districts, and large scopes
of if was owned by a single family. They
owned the land, and the cattle and the peo'
pie on it. The people on it were not rea
slaves, but still their subsistence and habl
tation depended on the will of the head o
the district in which they lived, and they
were subjected to the nobility for all then
wants. His cause was their cause; they
fought for him when he wanted fighting
done for his king or for confederate noble
man, and in times of peace they TILED th'
land and raised cattle for their own sub
sistcnce, and returned part to the cenfra
family. They could not leave their BALL
wick without the permission of the noble
man, and his passport would pass such q
he favored through other sections as far a
the lord might be known or respected; bu
such thing as individual ownership out
side of the central or noble family was no
known. Those were days Of the Feuda
governments; but gradually men sprang u
here and there In Europe who believed u
individual money, and property ownership
md hot general ownership, who graduall