Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1884-12-13
Z" SHOTGUN In SOCIETY
A PRErrILY oON ukIvkD SATIRE.
Ooi. q. J. Arms Lectures sa the court
House In Beh.li os the soup FUND.-
Resume OF HE kenarhe.


benefit of the free soup fund, Col. q. J. /
Arms delivered his lecture on "The Shot. |
gun in Society,"" The lecture was in part
a prettily conceived satire on the shams
aud delusions with which society satisfies
itself for its many Woes and shortcomings.
AS a sort of text for his subject tue
lecturer related tho story Of MIR. Dck
Swiveller's bsdstead, which was so cou-
structed that, during the day, It repro.
sented bookcase we'll filled with books,
aud which Dick, from long nursing Of
the fraud, really believed or affected to
believe, was veritable bookcase. Thou
sands of individuals are subject
TO the same silly deIusions, but
the lecturer, instead of speaking
OF individual shams, chose to put
society on trial and expose its shams and
delusions. The individuals composing
society rs individuals, are generally right,
but as society are generally wrong. In.
temperance, for instance, is denounced by
almost every individual. but when 1t ia
| proposed to prohibit the use of intoxicat-
ing liquors, society shuts one eye and
winks at the evil with the other. So of
slavery from Jefferson down everyone
knew it TO be great wrong, but society
| would not touch it; society waited for
" something to turn up" and at last
something did turn up, and the slavery
question was settled by the shotgun, but
at what n fearful cost in money and
blood
WHAT THE SHOTGUN HAS DONE.
The lecturer said the shotgun had been
q powerful and fearful factor in the
worlds affairs in all ages. The pioneer,
who carried the axe iu his hand, carried
the shotgun on his shoulder. Our revo.
Il Int, fathara uikh ha hot Hral
the shot that woke the world, aud their
descendants in 1861, with the shotgun
gave liberty to every human being on the
continent. The shot gun of the vigilance
committees transformed San FIR Incisco
from den OF thieves to peacefnl law
abiding city. The lecturer thought the
shotgun was as emphatically our national
emblem as whisky was our national
beverage. On the first flag of our FORE
fathers was rsttlesnake with the words
Don't tread on me, for If you do IN
fight )" and our boys to-day, the little
sons of guns, are armiDg and going West
to fight the Indians. The lecturer was
not quite sure but that the Philadelphia
Committee of One Hundred should have
their attention called to the reforming in
tluenoe of the shotgun. The lecturer
wished to emphasize the many advantages
that the American NJ ton had secured by
} killing people but he wished to give equa
, emphasis to the fact that society ha.
J nothing SO gravely to fear rs this same
/ shotgun.
LABOR AND CAPITAL.
The speaker next referred to the labol
trouble-to the grasping greed of mono
) polies-to the unequal division of the
. profits of capital and labor-to the strike.
/. and lockouts during which capital lives a
ease while labor starves-to the pauper
ism which has become profession, will
its army Of tramps ever marching on il
increasing numbers-to the concentration
of property in few hands, while povert,
is overtaking the many. These thing
. portend trouble. Labor Is demanding al
r equal share in its partnership with capital
2 and it is beginning to learn that it can ge
= it. How BY the shotgun, whenever it 4
t needed. Only seven years ago com Nero
was paralyzed for weeks simply because
}. few thousand handlers OF freight rebellet
against the exactious of the railroad
monopolsts and yet there was engage,
d in this revolt but a single class of men
ss1SdR1RSss s1dR1Sas all the labor organizations Of tn
what would have been the result
They could have swept the nationa
guard and the regular army ont of exis,
ence, and have taken possession Of ever
railroad in the United States from Cap
I Cod to the Pacific-from the lakes to tn
j gulf. And had they done SO, even tn
Q law-abiding citizens of loyal Laucaste
would have acquiesoed In their triumph
{ the stockholders themselves would hsy
t acquiesced, and there would have bee
nobody to complain but the small band G
j monopolsts for whose use and behoo
4 railroads are built on the peoples land b
Q the peoples money.
THE P1TTsBURG RIOT.
The lecturer next recited the scenes {
, the Pittsburg riot in 1877, and Shove
that the rioters, had they been organize
and felt disposed to do so, could hay
successfully resisted all the troops tn
. state could have brought against them, an
. that they ceased their work OF destructio
not through coercion, but because the
were appalled, at the magnitude of the
owo victory.
But, Notwithstanding this great lesso
to society, the state has done nothin
since to provide against recurrence Q
3 the trouble, except to organize the mil
. .. tia-to fight the shotgun with the shot
a gun. And this is dangerous plaything
If conflict comes between capital an
! labor, the militia will be found on tn
= side of labor and against capital.
~ The lecturer thought, however, that ther
. was better arbitrament than the shotgun
: The ballot will do its work better than tn
y bullet, With education and universe
suffrage, labor can do anything. II cal
. tear to pieces every statute in the land; cal
: elect its own president, its own Congress
= its own legislature, 1t own local officers +
enact and administer its own laws, and 30
a cure to the majority the right to rule
= which under the shams OF society Is nov
denied them. The laborers will yet fin,
their Moses, and when he appears he vii
: rank with the mighty of the earth, an,
will teach 90, 900, 900 Of people to live an,
prosper under the golden rule.
A NUMBER OF SEAMS.
Col. Arms next discussed polygamy, th
Cincinnati riots, duelling, the privat
shooting of men to vindicate the honor O
women, the Buzzard hunt, and othe
D matters In which the shotgun has been tn
ruling factor, and in which the best kint
Of people persist in upholdng the law an,
Q furnishing crime, by defying the law an,
= becoming, themselves, criminals. Refer
, ring to the Mutt tragedy, he said the Law
0 clearly made Mutt q murderer publ,
: opinion made him o hero society com
. promised the matter and adopted the shan
9 of acquitting him on the ground that b,
. was insane when he shot Nicholas L
0 Dukes, but was sane Immediately befor,
and after tho shootip0