The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1885-07-04

IBill Nye.l

Bill Nye.J
When Patrick Henry put his old
cast-iron spectacles back on the top
Of his head and whooped for liberty,
he did not know that some day we
would have more Of it than we know
what to do with. He little dreamed
that the time would come when we
would have more liberty than we
could pay for. When Mr.. Henry
sawed the air and shouted for liberty
or death, / do not believe that he
knew that the time would come when
liberty would stand knee deep in the
mud of Bedloe's island and yearn
for a solid place to stand upon.
It seems to me that we have too
much liberty in this country in some
ways. We have more liberty than
we have money. We guarantee that
every man in America shall fill him
self up full of liberty at our expense.
and the less of an American he is
the more liberty he can have. If he
desires to enjoy himself all he needs
is slight foreign accent and will
ingness to mix up with politics as
soon as be can get his baggage off
the steamer. The more l study
American institutions the more /
regret that l was not born foreigner.
so that / could have something to
say about the management of our,
great land. If | could not be for
eigner, / believe l would prefer to be
a Mormon or an Indian, not taxed.
l am often led to ask, in the lam
guage of the poet, els the Caucasian
played out ?" Most everybody can
have good deal of fun in this coun-
try except the American. He seems
to be SO busy paying his taxes all the
time that he has very little time to
mingle in the giddy whirl with the
alien. That is the reason that the
alien who rides across the United
States on the ''limited mail" and
writes book about us before break
fast wonders why we are always in
hurry. That is the reason we have
to throw our meals into ourselves
with dull thud and hardly have
time to maintain warm personal
friendship with our families.
We do not care much for wealth,
but we must have freedom, and free
dom costs money. We have adser-
tised to furnish bunch of freedom to
every man, woman or child who
comes to our shores, and we are 60
ing to deliver the goods whether we
have any left for ourselves or not.
What would the great world beyond
the seas say to Us if some day the
blue-eyed Mormon, with his heart
full of love for our female seminaries
aud our old women's home should
land upon our shores and find that
we we're using all the liberty our
selves?
What do we want of liberty, any
how? What could we do with it if
we had it2 II takes y man OF leisure
to enjoy liberty, and we have no
leisure whatever. 1t is q good thing
to keep 10 the house, "for the use of
guests only" but we don't need it
for ourselves.
Therefore am in favor Of q statue
of Liberty Enligbtening the World,
because it will show that we keep it
on tap winter and summer. We
want the whole broad world to re-
member that when it gets tired OF
oppression it can come here to
America and oppress us We are
used to it and we rather like it. II
we don't like il we can get on the
steamer and go abroad, where We
may visit the effete monarchies and
have high old time.
The sight OF the Goddess of liberty
standing thAre in New York harbor
night and day, bathing her feet in
the ripping sea, will be good thing.
It will be first rate. It may also be
productive of good in a direction
that many have no thought of. As
she stands there day after day bath
ing her feet in the broad Atlantic,
perhaps some moss grown Mormon
moving toward the far West. q con
frmed victim of the matrimonial
habit, may fix the bright picture in
his so called mind. and remembering
how, on his arrival in New York, be
saw Liberty bathing her feet with
impunity, he may be led in after
years to try it on himself