Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1882-04-14
rHs PATIENT ENDURANCE OF ABUSES.

FHs PATIENT ENDURANCE OF ABUSES.
Whoever has followed the evidence in
the trial OF Captain Sparks, of the ship
Gatherer, now proceeding at San Francis
co, must have expressed feeling of won
der at the patient endurance of the crew of
that vessel. For it appears that all
through the long voyage from Antwerp to
| San Francisco these men were being beat
en-, kicked and abused by two OF the
mates, SO continuously that there seems to
have been scarcely any intermission IN the
| Entertainment. So intolerable did TINS
ceaseless brutality become that two OF the
crew jumped overheard to escape It, VI
the others, one poor boy suffered the loss
of his eyesight, and seaman had his nose
broken. The deliberate cruelty OF the
mates is shown in the fact that when once
thew had established sore place on one of
their victims they always struck him there
afterwards. Thus the man whose nose had
been broken was every day struck on the
injured organ, so that his face was con-
tinually swollen, SO that he suffered per-
petual agony, and so that it will now be
necessary to excise the bones of the nose,
which have been completely destroyed.
And these are but small incidents in the
long catalogue of atrocities perpetrated by
the two mates with the sanction OF the
captain. 1t is in evidence that night and
day the ship resounded with the cries of
men who were being brutally beaten, and
that there was scarcely ever time when
blood could not be seen on some part of
the deck. Now, here were twenty-five
able-b bodied men who allowed two DULLES
to abuse and maltreat them for several
months, and never made the least attempt
to defend or relieve themselves Why did
the crew not unite, fall upon their tyrants,
and fling them overheard ? 1t may be said
that the fear of the consequences restrained
them. But it would have been easy
enough for them to have escaped those
consequences by taking the ship to some
QUIT the-way place, and there leaving
her. Such things have been done before,
and the men who thus avenged themselves
upon their prosecutors have succeeded in
evading punishment.
What was it, then, that SO cowed these
twenty-five men as to make them the
helpless prey of two ruffians whom they
could have overpowered at any time:
Partly no doubt the want of leadership
and organization, but mainly that habit of
endurance which makes men bear even the
worst abuses with patience which often
seems incomprehensible. The truth is that
as a rule men do not rise against oppression
of any kind until it has almost destroyed
them. 1t is not until they become con.
WINGED that the worst that can result from
the failure of their uprising cannot surpass
the evils they are suffering, that they are
ready for the attempt. History is full of
records of revolution and instruction, but
most historians have failed to trace the
slow growth of the rebellious movement,
or have noted the amazing patience of op-
pressed peoples, and their reluctance to
take the final plunge. So true is it that
we all would "rather bear the ills we have,
ethan fly to others that we know not of. "
What the people of France endured for
centuries before they rose in open resist
ance, has probably not yet been adequately
described. What Rome endured under the
Empire what the Grecian republics en-.
dured during the social wars; what the Irish
endured during the anti Catholic crusade;
what the Netherlands endured under Alva
what the French Huguenots and the Scot
fish Covenanters suffered what the Moors
endured at the hands of Spain; is but
family reflected in history. In all these
cases the extent of the patient suffering of
abuses was undoubtedly out of all proper
sion to the magnitude of the evils to be
feared from an uprising yet the apprehen-
sion of those evils sufficed to prevent any
movement for self-protecsion for long
periods.
1t is also true that organization and
discipline exercise a terrible restraining
influence over the masses of men. In the
higher stages of civilization few scat
tered policemen are sufficient to guard
scores OF millions of property, and to over.
awe professional crime and turbulence. In
such case as that of the Gatherer the
mere tradition of official authority proved
enough to paralyze the hands Of every man
on board. There they were, out upon the
broad ocean, beyond the reach of any pro-
cess Of Court, or Constable, or military
authority all the physical force at the
disposal of the crew but all the moral
force in the hands of the captain and
mates. And go these five-and-twenty men
were powerless to save themselves from
their prosecutors, and SO they patiently
endured outrages which would have JUST.
fed them, at any stage of the voyage, in
killing the mates and taking possession of
the ship. 1t is, however, through the
contemplation of cases such as this that
we may learn how difficult the struggle
for liberty has been, and why it has occu-
pied so many centuries. The natural ten
dency of the masses is to tolerate much.
Thankful if they can obtain the means Of
subsistence, absorbed in the material and
sordid conflict of existence, they willingly
abandon all external efforts after greater
freedom, and patiently bear the burdens
placed upon them by the minority, who,
through accident, force or fraud, have &C
quired ascendancy and position.
And as time passes the habits of sub
mission become stronger, even though the
burdens may increase, and the ruling mi
nority come to be regarded as separate
race, not subject to the general ills and
misfortunes. 1t requires many genera
tions of misgovernment and suffering to pave