The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1881-02-10
COL. BOB 1NGERsoLL.
BY DON PIATT.

Bob started out a radical reformer.
He was irritated to active wrath by the
tyranny of sectarian christianity, and he
assaulted the pulpit with the power Of a
bull and the laugh Of hyena.
Bob discovered ere long that his fol-
lowers would have shamed Falstaff;
that he was looked upon by respectable
people as a low, vulgar rufian, Not
one>tenth of our population believes in
Moses, but everybody having any re-
spect for public opinion believes in the
boudoir and barber-shop society and
religion.
This sort of thing man standing
alone may bear and fight out to dis
honorable grave. Tom Paine did. All
his services in behalf of his country in
the darkest hour Of its peril could not
save his respectability, and he went
down to his grave in company with Ben
edlct Arnold, who sought 20 betray his
country. But Tom snapped his infdel
fingers in scorn of the respectable peo-
pie, and died as he lived. But to man
pos ;essed of wife, children, brothers and
friends, who suffer with him, fights at a
disadvantage, Tor he sees the slow, un~
moving finger of public scorn pointed
at him, and he feels like one who is not
only buried alive, but buried with the
helpless, dependent ones he loves. and
knows that the name making his epitaph
will be their condemnation. All the
foul lies, scandals and abuse from NOR
tai fens and bogs, sucked up by the hot
sun of bigoted wrath, he knows will
poison the atmosphere of their social
life until death and forgetfulness would
be relief. ..,
Robert, animated by kind heart and
sympathies Of coarse sort, could not
bear this, and so he, like Ben Disraeli,
swung his keen intellect and clear
utterance into the support of the pow
erful class that grows rich on plunder
through vicious legislation.
He gave his support to mine-owners,
whose operations are gathered from the
pauper labor of Europe, against which
labor the system Of bounties are enacted
that enrich the owners.
He sustained the manufacturers, sus-
tanned through the same pernicous code
of laws, with factories worked on the
penitentiary system, and whose class
legislation insures capital bounty that
gives no augmentation to wages.
He is the Jealous advocate of heavy
corporations, that, possessed of our
highways of travel and traffic, rob stock
holders and producers alike, and through
their corrupt use of stolen money, over>
awe the Government itself.
He is the friend Of those animated
money>bags that, legislated into a privi-
legged class, do our banking and money
lending, and spawn upon the land a
host of spectators more Of pest to the
people than all the plaques of Egypt
combined. #.4.i1
To further aid and benefit this class,
made up Of all the respectable thieves in
our midst he favors a rotten civil serS
vice, that is SO debauched that to elect
or appoint an ofice-holder is to commits
sion rogue. ta.l1
In return for all this the Boudoir and
B Blrber-shop world opens its arms to
Bob. 1l@ttz3 eH@ hslo f
A senator with poltroon branded on
his brow, and his clothes foul with the
odor Of polluted marriages beds, and yet
a high priest among the purple and
fine-linen aristocrats, gives Bob patron
izing recognition.
Administer Of the gospel whose name
has been dragged through the drains Of
social rottenness, introduced Bob to his
political organization, rsa1..f
The President elect slaps him on his
back and calls him ''royal Bob, "
although the President has been a
preacher to the Christians.
The railroad kings give him special
cars that are rolling palaces, and the
most aristocratic homes are open to him
and hisii teti a tg' fq1n ft.1 a4 lc
Sampson is laboring for the Philis>
tines.
But Bob takes it out Of the dead and
half-forgotten Moses. The servant Of
money>changers is an assailaht of the
Jews. And while politically he is the
narrowest, 6ercest, most bigoted zealot,