The Labor enquirer., 1884-03-29


almost subsidized, for to-day that very
class Of pulling, idiotic, wealthy pukes ls
eyerywhere to be seen on our American
streets. Tho same disease that affected
the children of the English aristocracy
has already seized upon the children OF
our American millionaires. On the
steamboat, in the railway car, and
wherever you go. you behold the dude.
It is Gods ngn-board branded into the
faces Of the children of thieves, saying
that the poor and helpless shall not pc
robbed with impunity and that eternal
Justice will not be Knocked.
Meanwhile toiling men Of courage,
honesty, and muscle are studying the
labor question and resolving more and
more firmly from day to day that these
things shall not 20 on. As | look INTO
the sickly drooling faces of these wealthy
dudes as they pass me on the street l
often ask myself those fellows to
be the defenders of ill.gotten property
when the revolution comes and the
gauntlet of final conclusions is thrown
down by Labor to be wrestled for? Lo,
the dude answereth not. With the
same sickly simpering smile he passeth
me by. / pity this poor, puny thing, III
swaddled in stolen fine cloth, when he
shall wake up some morning from his hr'
soft couch to hard facts.
Nature has provided a sure law by
which in natural justice vast accumula-
tions Of property would in due time fall
to pieces by their own weight and be
re-distributed. The luxury and idleness
which attend abnormal wealth are sure
in few generations to produce en-
feebled minds and diseased. puny bodies
whicn are totally lncapacitated to hold
the booty together. But here arlstocratlc
governments step in and become the
guardians of the titled thief through
certain protective laws as entail and
primogeniturei exist, enormous proper
ties have wonderful tenacity, since,
although changing hands, the successors
to them pursue the same career OF greed
with fresh intelletcts and less enfeebled
bodies. Already various expedlents
have been adopted under our laws by
rich men through which their properties
may 60 on in perpetuity with as little
danger of disintegration as though they
were guarded by the special provisions
of aristoeratic governments.
Therefore, bear in mind that while
great properties may possibly change
hands in this country with greater
facility than in Great Britain property
itself as the creature of monopoly and
privile ge never dies and never loses a
whit of its power to>make labor its slave.
He who has come to see that the present
prerogatives of property are unnatural
and blaEphemous must never allow him
self to be seduced by the silly argument
that because we have no laws of entail
and primogeniture in this country prop
erty is less dangerous to the rights of
labor than in other lands. That prop
erty is less cruel to labor in this country
than in Great Britain l readily admit,
but this is simply because of our vast
natural wealth and thinness Of popula-
ton and not because property really en-
joys anv greater fundamental preroga-
tives in Britain than it does here.
read of late that the chief fashion,
able passtime of the English dude at
present is to make pilgrimages under
heavy police escort to the slums of Lon
don, take fashionable smell of the
squalor of London tenement houses,
throw out few bright pennies to the
wretched people, and then retire in good
order to the fashionable club houses.
This new sensational passtime is called
Stunning" by these dainty squeaking,
snobs and their royalty clad mistresses
who sometimes accompany them. 1t is
huge fun, besides standing for very
respectable mark Of piety and penance.
The London papers, however, record
that these stunning parties" do not
meet with very grateful reception on
the part of the London poor, and it is an
accepted fact in London society that
were not heavy police escort present
the Summers" would undoubtedly get
their scanty brains dubbed out. Thank
God that even these poor half-human
wretches have manhood enough left to
resent the insulting fashionable patron
age of the London Summers. The his
torians of the French revolution relate
that Just such parties used to sally out in
Paris in the days preceding the entrance
of the hungry mob into the city, and
with great emphasis Carlyle tells US that
when the slums arose in revolt these
patronizing Summers" of that day
were the first to be seized upon and
have their throats cut from ear to ear.
1t strikes me that the fashionable slum-
mers of London would do we'll to look
up history a little as touching the final
outcome of such dainty games in the
past, but they have probably no time
for that. How long before we shall see
Summing" parties in New York and
Chicago? Its certainly "really English" I"