St. Landry democrat. (Opelousas, La.) 1878-1894, 1885-05-23
Bill Nye to a Communist.

daily consent 10 share Ay W0dlGA
and dwell together in harmony with
me in fraternal sunshine, is duly re-
ceived. While I dislike to appear
cold and distant TO one who seems
so yearnful and SO clinging, and
while I do not wish to be regarded
as purse-proud or arrogant, | must
decline your kind offer to whack
up.
You had not heard, very likely,
that I am not now communist. |
used to be, I admit, and the society
no doubt neglected. to strike my
name off the roll Of active members.
For number Of years I was quite
active as a communist. [ would
have been more active, but I had
conscientious scruples against being
active in anything then.
While you may be perfectly sin
cere in your belief that the great
capitalists like MI. Gould and Mr.
Vanderbilt should divide with you,
YOU will have great difficulty in
making it perfectly clear to them.
They will probably demur, and de-
lay, and hem, and haw, and pro-
crastinate, until finally they will
get out of it in some way. Still, [
do not wish to throw cold water on
your enterprise. If the other capt.
falists look favorably on the plan, I
will cheerfully cooperate with
them. You go and see what you
can do with Mr.. Vanderbilt, and
them come to me.
You 60 on at some length to tell
me how the most of the wealth is
in the hands of few men, and then
you attack those men and refer to
them in way that makes my blood
run cold. You tell the millionaires
of America to beware, for the hot
breath of a bloody-handed Nemesis
is already III the air.
You may say to Nemesis, if you
please, that / have a double barrel
shotgun standing at the head OF my
bed every night, and that I am in
the Nemesis business. You also
refer to the fact that the sleuth-
hounds of eternal justice are camped
on the trail Of the pampered mil
lionaire, and you ask us to avaunt.
If you see the other sleuth-hounds
of your society within a week or
two, I wish you would say to them
that at q regular meeting Of the
millionaires Of this country, after
the minutes Of the previous meeting
had been read and approved, we
voted almost unanimously to dis
courage any sleuth-hound that we
found camped on our trail after 10
o'clock p. m. Sleuth- hounds who
want to ramble over our trails dur
ing Office hours may do 50 with the
almost IMMUNITY, but after 10
o'clock we want to use our trails
for other purposes. No man wants
to 60 to the great expense Of main
tanning trail winter and summer,
and then leave it out nights for 9TH
or people to use and return it when
they get ready.
/ do not censure you, however.
If you could convince every one OF
the utility of communism, it would
certainly be a great boon to you.
To those who are now engaged in
feeding themselves with fiat beer
ont Of a tomato can, such change
as you suggest would fall like ray
of sunshine in rat hole: but alas |!
it may never be. tried it awhile,
but my efforts were futile. The
effect Of my great struggle seemed
to be that mems hearts grew more
and more stony, and my pantaloons
got thinner and thinner on the seat
till it seemed to me that the world
never was SO cold. Then I made
some experiments in manual labor.
As [ began to work harder and sit
down less, / found that the world
was not so cold. 1t was only when
I sat down long time that I felt
how cold and rough the world real
" was.
Perhaps it is so with you. Sc
dentary habits and stale beer are
apt to make us morbid. Sitting on
the stone door stills of Railways and
public buildings during cold wealth
or is apt to give You an enormous