The Labor enquirer., 1885-02-21
Al. starkweather, nartyr to
the Cause Of Industrial
Liberty.
Euls<ized by Those Who Know
Hin Well and 4 Appreciate
His Heroism.
Down on Your Knees, Ye World
lings, . Just Mans Spirit
Is Ger You.

falo. New York, in 1888
His parents we're poor. but respectable'
and could trace their descent back to
Plymouth Rock and beyond. bat We
place no emphasis on the distinction of
his ancestry. he whose life was nobler
than any pedigree and whose labon
mark new epoch for the name.
His early life was spent on his fathers
farm which has long since become q
crowded quarter of Buffalo.
The only educational advantages he
received were two winters at the public
school, SO that IN the ordinary sense of
the word he was comparatively unedu-
Gated, but in Its broader and truer sig
nifcance he was highly educated indeed,
for his mind was fully developed, un-.
folded, drawn out by reasoning and OBJ
servation. and as his natural intelligence
Twas of the highest order, he needed
none of the false embellishments which
shallow book learning gives.
Having heard many golden legends in
his cold north homeof the auriferous and
sunny land on the world's west rim. with
the enthusiastic daring of youth and the
adventurous spirit of his ancestors he
girt up his loins and followed the setting
sun to join the immortal caravan of Ar
gonauts who sought to conquer their
fate in the quest for gold. Failing to
find the fortune of his ambition on the
streets of San Francisco, he sought it in
Sacramento, failing there also, he pros
pected his way into Nevada where he
worked in the silver mines for several
years Getting tired of mining he next
turned bis attention to farming; for this
purpose he pre- empted l60 acres of gov
eminent land, paying for it i'm full. Be
fApon Nd Il Il toUe Bt1ts - csltiyssaun'
and was on the high road to af1uence
land ease when a land shark "a we'll
known lawyer of San Franciscol came
along and claimed his. ranch on the
| the ground of prior title, he having pre-
Evious to Starkweather's entry covered it
with .1ndian-script," that most infamous
fof American frauds In fighting this
land thief in the courts, he spent every
ldollar he had in the world and lost his
home and labor into the bargain.
4 =
Immediately after this loss he returned
! to San Francisco and worked in the
grain warehouses few years until his
| health began to fail when he was forced
to abandon hard labor and adopt the
business of petty trader, in fact. ped
dler, but not a la Solomon Levy with a
pack on his back and lie on bis tongue;
the special branch, that he followed was
that of selling stationery and account
| books to the business houses; this pur-
suit was always revolving to his high
sense of useful and honorable citizenship,
not that it was less useful or respectable
than banking, brokerage or merchandise
on large scale, but because he regarded
Il a.
the whole system of modern distribu-
| tion as gigantic swindle of both pro-
ducer and consumer. However, he was
fairly successful in this new enterprise
and had he possessed the faculty for
grasping and boarding might have accu-
mulated sufficient to enable him to e1-
plot others, but he was sadly lacking in
these respects, for had his income been
vastly greater, his disbursing capacity
would have been equal to any emer-
gency of superabundance-notthath he was
extravagant (unthrifty, orthe slave ofper-
sonal indulgence) but he could not keep
and see others in need; neither had he
| much weakness for almsgiving, but he
applied all he had where it would do the
most good, not in lifting an individual
but in raising all men.
During the last ten years OF his life he
wa. actively engaged in the labor reform
movement, but the first time he came
prominently before The public was in ~
during the Pittsburg riots when he
/ carried the banner announcing meetings
to sympathize with the strikers. On
this occasion he was arrested four times,
his banner taken away each time, but as
Quick as released on bail he would have
anotner one painted and start on his
! solitary parade as if nothing unusual had
happened.
Atthis time he introduced the Irish
Worldn to the Pacific coast readers as
being then one of the best reform papers
4 in the English language. During the
following three years he sold and distr-
buted free at least 100, 600 copies, the
reading of which must have borne some
/ GOOD fruit although We may not see the
harvest.
1 He was one of the earliest members OF
the Socialistic Labor party on this coast,
and with q few othen the organizer OF
1.-The frst English speaking section. II
v.a in connection with this organisation
that his life's most glorious work was
done. his deYotion to principle exempn-
fed and his heroism crystaiised. One
Of his most useful labors at thus tune was