Custer chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, Black Hills, D.T. [S.D.]) 1880-1890, 1886-06-19

nav H u ~ Oh iJoJh lS
bed and divert it to turn my mill wheel,
leaving the bed Of the river "A breeding
place for malaria, the law says: '.Quit
that outraged" And has not II good
government a right to say that a few
men shall not gorge themselves on the
comfort and health and life of genera
tons? Your rights end where my
rights begin.
Monopoly, brazen-faced and iron
fingered. vulture-hearted Monopoly Of
fers his hand to this republic.
lie stretches it out over the
lakes, and up the Pennsylvania
and the Erie and the New
York Central railroads. and owe the
telegraph poles Of the continent, and
says: ''Rere is my heart and hand; be
mine forever" Let the millions of the
people, north, south, east and west,
forbid the banns of that marriage-for-
bid them at the ballot-box, forbid them
on the platform, forbid them by great
organizations, forbid them by the over
whelming sentiments of an outraged
nation. forbid them by the protest of
the church of God, forbid them by
prayer to high heaven. That Herod
shall not have this Abigail. 1t shall
not be to all %dcvouring monopoly that
this land is to be married.
Another sutton claiming the band of
this republic is Nihilism. He owns
nothing but a knife for universal blood
letting. and a nitro-glycerine bomb for
universal explosion. He believes in no
no hell except what he can make on
earth! He slew the czar of Russia,
keeps Emperor William, of Germany,
practically imprisoned, killed Abraham
Lincoln, would put to death every king
and president on earth, and if he had
the power would climb up until he
could drive the God of heaven from his
throne and take it himself-the uni
versal butcher. In France it is called
communism; in the United States it is
called socialism; in Russia it is called
nihilism. That last is the most graphic
and descriptive term. 1t means COM
plete and eternal smashup. 1t would
make the holding of property a crime,
and it wonld drive a dagger through
your heart and apply a torch to your
dwelling; and turn over this whole
land into the possession of theft and
lust and rapine and murder.
Where does this monster livep In
St. Louis, in Chicago, in Brooklyn. in
New York, and in all the villages and
cities of this land. The devil of de-
struction is an old devil. and he is to
be seen at every great fire where there
is anything to steal, and at every ship.
wreck where there is anything valuable
floating ashore, and at every railroad
accident where there are o%vercoats and
watches to be purloincd. On a small
scale say it in my college days, when
in our literary society in New York
university, we had an exquisite and
costly bust of Shakespeare, and one
morning we found a hole bored into
the marble and "A cigar inserted. There
has not for the last century been a fine
picture in your art gallery, or a grace
full statue in your parks, or a fine
frcsco on your wall, or a richly bound
volume in your library, but would
have been spoiled if the hand of rufiian-
ism could have got at it without peril
of incarceration. Sometimes the evil
spirit shows itself by throwing vitrol
into the beautiful face; sometimes by
willfully soaring a horse with a veloci.
pede; sometimes by crashing a cart
wheel against a carriage.
The philosophy of the whole business
is. there is a large number of people
who either through their l~aziness OF
their crime own nothing and are mad
at those who through industry and wit
of their own, or their ancestors, are in
possession of large u The
honest laboring classes never had any.
thing to do with such murdcrous en-.
terprises. 1t is the vilIainous classes,
who would not work if they had plenty
OF work offered them at large wages.
Many OF these suppose that by the
demolition of law and order they
would be advantaged, and the parting
of the ship of state would allow them,
rs wreckers, to carry off the cargo. II
offers its hand to this fair republic. |,
proposes to tear to pieces the ballo,
box, the legislative hall, the congress
sional assembly. 1t would take this
land and divide it up, or, rather, divide
it down.
Yet this Nihilism with feet red OF
slaughter. comes forth and offers its
hand for the republic. Shall the banns
be proclaimedp II so where shall the
marriage altar beo and who will be the
officiating priest? And what will be
the musicp That altar will have TO be
white with bleached skulls, the officia-
ting priest must be a dripping assassin,
the music must be the smothered groan
of multitudinous victims, the garlands
must be twisted of nightshade, the fruit
must be apples of Sodom, the wine
must be the blood of St. Bartholomew
massacre. No! 1t is not to Nihilism,
the sanguinital monster. that this land
is to be married.
Another sutton for the hand of this
nation is infidelity. Mark you that all
Anarchists are inidels. Not one OF
them believes in the Bible. and very
rarely any of them believe in God.
Their most conspicuous leader was the
other day pulled by the leg from under
a bed in a house of infamy, cursing and