Martinsburg independent. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1875-1900, 1886-06-05


proposes to tear to pieces the ballot box, the
legislative hall, the congressional assembly
1t would take this land and divide it I'D, or,
rather divide it down. It would give as
much to the idler as to the worker, 10 the
bad as to the good. Nihilisml this panther
having prowled across other lands has get
its paws on our soil. and it is only waiting
for The time in which to spring upon its
prey. II was Nihilism that massacred the
heroic policemen Of Chicago and st Louis
few days ago and that burned the railroad
property at Pittsburg during the great riots;
it was Nihilism that slew black people in our
northern ties during the war; 1t was Mill
ism that again and again in San Francisco
and in New York mau'ed to death the
Chinese; it is Nihilism that glares out of the
windows OF the drunkeries upon sober peo-
pie as they go by. Ali its power has never
yet been tested. II would, II It had the
power, leave every church, chapel,
cathedral, schoolhouse, college and home in
ashes
Let me say. it is the worst enemy of the
Iaboring classes in any country The honest
cry for reform lifted by the oppressed labor
ing man is drowned ous by the vociferations
ior Anarchy. Inc criminals ana the vaga-
bonds who range through our cities talking
about their rights, when their first right Is
the penitentiary-if they could DO
hushed up, and the down-trodd
Iaboring men of this country could
be heard, there would be more
bread for hungry children. In this land riot
and bloodshed never gained any wages for
the people, or gathered up any prosperity.
In this land the best weapon is not the club,
not the shillaleh, not firearms, but the ballot.
Let not our oppressed laboring men be be-
guled to coming under the bloody banner of
Nihilism. 1t will make your taxes heavier,
your wages smaller, your table scantier,
your children hungrier, your suffering
greater
Yet this Nihilism, with feet rcd of slaugh-
ter, comes forth and offers its hand for the
republic. Shall the banns be proclaimedi
If so, where shall the marriage altar be7 and
who will be the officiating priest? And
what will be the musicl That altar will
have to be white with bleached skulls,
the officiating priest must be a drip
ping assassin, the music must be the smoth-
cred groan of multtudinous 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, it is not to Nihilism, the
sanguinital monster. that this land is to be
married.
Another sutton for the hand Of this nation
is Iufidelty. Mark you that all Anarchists
are infidels. 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 house of infamy, cursing
and disappearing The police of Chicago,
exploring the dens of the Anarchists,
found dynamite, and vitriol, and Tom
Paine's cage of Reason" and OBJ
scene pictures and complimentary biog-
raphies of thugs and assassns; but not
one Testament, not one Of Wesley's hymn
books, not one Roman Catholic breviary
There are two wings to Infidelity. The one
calls itself Liberalism, and appears in highly
literary mag azines, and is for the educated
and refined; the other wing is in the form Of
Anarchy, and is for the vulgar. But both
wings belong to the same old filthy vulture,
Infidelityl Elegant Infidelity proposes to
conquer this land to itself by the pen;
Anarchy proposes to conquer 1t by the
bludgeon and torch.
When the midnight ruffians despoiled the
grave of A. T. Stewart, in st. Marks
churchyard, every body was shocked;
but lnfdelity proposes something worse
than that-the robbing of all the
graves of christendom of the hope of res
direction. 1t proposes to chisel out from
the tombstones of your Chris tian dead the
words, asleep in Jesus" and to substitute
the words, Observation-Disclosures In
fidelity proposes TO take the letter from the
worlds Father, inviting the nations to virtue
and happiness, and tear it up into fragments
so small that you cannot read word of it.
1t proposes 10 take the consolation from the
broken hearted, and the soothing pillow
from the dying. Infid,litv proposes TO swear
in the president of the United States and
the supreme court and the governors of
states and the witnesses in the court ROOM
with their right hand on Paine's Age
of Reason" or Voltaires PHILOSOPHY of
History" 1t proposes to take away
from this country the book that makes the
difference between the United States and the
United Kingdom of Dahomey, between
American civilization and Bornesian canni-
balism. If infidelity could destroy the
scriptures it would in 200 years turn the
civilized nations back to semi barbarism
and then from semi barbarism into midnight
savagery until the morals of msnagerie of
tigers, rattlesnakes and chimpanzees would
be better than the morals OF the shipwrecked
human race.
The only impulse in the right direction that
that this world has ever had has come from
the Bible 1t was the mother of Roman law
and Of healthful Jurisprudence. That book
has been the mother of all reforms and all
charities-mother of English Magma Charta
and American Declaration of Independence
Benjamin Franklin, holding that holy book
in his hand, stood before an intidel club at
Paris and read to them out of the prophesies
of Habakkuk, and the infidels, not knowing
what book it was. declared it was the best
poetry they had ever heard. That book
brought George Washington down on his
knees in the snow at Valley Forge, and led
the dying prince consort to ask some one to
sing "Rock of Ages"
tell you that the worst attempts ed crime
of the century is the attempt to destroy this
book; yet Infidelity, loathsome, stenchful,