Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1886-02-19
from the butcher-shops, pickets from the

lIOll VlIC obASPoS
Roman fences, and various other weap-
ons, and with them fought their way to
the foothills, where they me- a wagon
train loaded with arms and supplies.
They secured the necessary weapons
whereby to 90 into a general wal busl-
ness and established themselves in the
crater of Mount Vesuvius.
Spartacus was a man OF wonderful
courage and great physical strength. 1t
had always been his theory that Il man
might as well die of old age as to feed
himself to a Roman mcnagerie. He
maintained that he would rather die in a
general free fight. where he had a
chance, than to be hauled around over
the arena by one leg behind aNumidian
lion.
So he took his little band and fought
his way to Vesuvius. There they had a
pleasant time, camping out nights and
robbing the Romans daytimes. The ex-
element of sleeping in a crater added a
wonderful charm to their lives. While
others slept cold in Capua, Spartacus
cuddled up the crater and kept COM
Portable.
For a long time the little party had it
all their own way. They shifted the air
of freedom and lived on Roman spring
chicken on the half-shell, and it beat the
arena business all hollow.
At last, however, an army of three
thousand men was sent against them
and Spartacus awoke n morning tc
find himself blocked up in his crater.
For a time the outlook was not cheer.
ing. Spartacus thought of telegraphing
the war department for reinforcements,
but finally decided not to do so.
Finally, with ladders made of wild
vines, the little garrison slipped out
through what had seemed an impossible
fissure in the crater, got in the rear of
the army and demolished it completely.
was. Fighting was his forte.
Spartacus was also a good public
speaker. One of his addresses to the
gladiators has been handed down to
posterity through the medium of the
Fifth Reader, q work that should be in
every household. In his speech he
states that he was not always thus. But
since he is thus, he believes that he has
not vet been successfully outthussed by
anybody.
He speaks of his early life in the
citron groves of Syrsilla, and how quiet
and reserved he had been, never daring
to say sgosh" within a mile of the
house; but finally how the Romans
landed on his coast and killed off his
family. Then he desired to be fighter.
He had killed more lions than any other
mar in Italy. He kept a big crew of
Romans busy, winter and summer,
catching fresh lions for him to stick. He
had killed a large number of men also.
At one matinee for ladies and chill
dren he had killed a prominent mar
from the north, and had done
it so fluently that he was encored t.iree
times. The stage manager then came
forward and asked that the audience
would please refrain from another en-
core as he had run out of men. but if
the ladies and children would kindly at
tend on the following Saturday, he
hoped to be prepared with a good pro-
gramme. In fact, he had Just heard
from his agent. who wrote him that
they had purchased two big lions, and
also had a robust gladiator up a tree.
He hoped that he could get into town in
a day or two with both attractions.
Spartacus finally stood at the head of
an army of one hundred thousand men,
all starting out from the little band of
seventy that cut loose from Capua with
borrowed clevers and axe-handles. This
war lasted but two years, during which
time Spartacus made Rome howl.
Spartacus had too much sense to attack
Rome. But at last his army was be-
trayed and disorganized. With nothing
but death or capture for him, he rode
out between the two contending armies,
shot his war-horse in order to save ex-
penses, and on foot rushed into the
thickest of the fight. This was positive
ly his last appearance. He killed q
large number of people, but at last
yielded to the great pressure that was
brought to bear upon him, and died.
Probably no man not actually en-
gagged in the practice of medicine ever
killed so many people as Spartacus. He
did not kill them because he dislikcd
them personally, but because he
thought it advisable to do so. Had
he lived till the present time he
would have done well as q lecturer.
''Ten years in the Arena, with Illus
t%rations,' would draw first-rate at this
time among a certain class of people
still living in this country, who lay
aside their work and go twenty miles
to attend a funeral, nolmatter whose
funeral it is, would no doubt enjoy
q bull-fight OIL the calm and refining joy
that lowered over the arena. Those
who have paid one hundred and seventy
five thousand dollars to see Colonel
John L. Sullivan disfigure a friend,
would, no doubt, have made it three
hundred and fifty thousand dollars if
the victim could have been killed and
dragged over the ring by the leg.
Two thousand years have not refined Us
so much that we need be pulled up with
false pride about tn. Y. Meycurv.