The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1886-06-18

"Stop that.n II drain off a river from
its bed, and divert it to turn my mill
wheel, leaving the bed Of the river breed
ing place for malaria, the law says: "Quit
that outrage" And has not a good gov
ernment q right TO say that few men
shall not gorge themselves on the COM
forts and health and life of generationsP
Your rights end where my rights begin.
Monopoly, brazen- faced and iron-fin-
gered, vulture-hearted monopoly, offers
his hand to this republic. He stretches
it out over the lakes, and up the PennsyI-
vania and the Erie and New York Central
Railroads, and over the telegraph poles of
the continent, and says: "Here is nv
heart and hand; be mine forever" Let
the millions of people, North and South,
East and West, forbid the banns of that
marriage-forbid them at the ballot-box,
forbid them on the platform, forbid them
by great organizations, forbid them by
the overwhelming sentiments of an out
ragged 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-devouring monopoly that this land is
to be married.
Another suitor claiming the hand of this
Republic is Nihilism. He owns nothing
but a knife for universal blood letting and
nitro -glycerine bomb for universal explo-
sion. He believes in no God, no govern
ment, no Heaven, and no hell except what
he can make on earth. He slew the Gear
of Russia, keeps Emperor William Of Ger
many practically imprisoned, killed Abra-
ham Lincoln, would put to death every
King and President on earth, and if he
had the power would climb up until he
dvfu AEa Cd Of Tie
throne and take it himself-the universal
butcher. In France it is called Commun-
ism, in the United States it is called So
cialism, in Russia It is called Nihilism.
That last is the most graphic and de-
scriptive term. 1t means complete and
eternal smash up. 1t would make the
holding of property a crime, and it would
drive q dagger through your heart and
apply torch to your dwelling, and turn
over this whole land into the possession
of theft and lust aud rapine and murder.
Where does this monster live? In st.
LOUIS, in Chicago, in Brooklyn, in New
York; and in all the villages and cities of
this land. The devil of destruction is an
old devil, and he is to be seen at every
great fire where there is anything to steal,
and at every shipwreck where there is
anything valuable floating ashore, and at
every railroad accident where there are
overcoats and watches to be pur1oined.
On a small scale 1 saw it in my col
lege days, when in our literary society in
New York University we had an exquis-
tie and costly bust of Shakespeare, and one
morning we found hole bored into the
lips of the marble and a cigar inserted.
There has not for the last century been
fine picture in your art gallery or a grace
Il or TN in riro na fraenna
on your wall, or richly bound volume in
your library but would have been despoil-
ed if the hand of rufianism could have got
at it without peril of incarceration. Some-
times the evil spirit shows itself by throw
ing vitriol into beautiful face; sometimes
by wilfully soaring horse with velOci-
pede; sometimes by crashing the cart.
wheel against a carriage.
The philosophy of the whole business is
that there is a larger number of people
who either through their laziness or their
crime own nothing, and are mad at those
who, through industry and wit of their
own, or of their ancestors, are in possess
ion of large resources. The honest labor
ing classes never had anything to do with
such murderous enterprises. 1t is the viii
famous 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,
as wreckers, to carry off the
cargo. 1t offers it's hand 10 this
fair republic. It proposes to
tear to pieces the ballot box, the Iegis-
Iative hall, the Congressional assembly. IL
would take this land and divide it up, or,
rather, divide it down. 1t would give as
much to the idler as TO the worker, TO the
bad es to the good. Nihilism This
panther having prowled across other
lands has set its paws on our soil, and 1t is
only waiting for the time In which b
spring upon it's prey. It was Nihilism
that massaored the heroic policemen
of Chicago a few days ago, and
that burned the railroad property at
Pittsburgh during the great riots; it was
Nihilism that shot black people in our
Northern cities during the war; it was
Nihilism that again and again in San
Francisco and in New York mauled to
death the Chinese; 1t Is Nihilism that
glares out of the windows Of the drunk
cries upon sober people they go by.
Ahl it's power has never yet been tested.
It would, if it had the power, leave every
church, chapel, cathedral, school house,
COll6kS anu NUNS III hsu6Ss
Yet this Nihilism, with feet red with
slaughter, comes forth and offers its
hand for the republic. Shall the banns be
proclaimed2 If so, where shall the mar
riage altar be? and who viii be the Off
ciating priest? And what will be the
music? That altar will have TO be white
with bleached skulls, the officiating priest
must be a dripping assassin, the music
be the smethered groan of multitudin-
GUS victims, the garlands must be twisted
of nightshade, the fruit must be apples
of Sodom, the wine must be the blood Of
st. Bartholomew's massacre. No! It is
not to Nihilism, the sanguinital monster,
that this land is TO be married.
Another suitor for the hand of this Ma
tion is Infidelity. Mark you that all An
archists are infidels. Not one Of them be-
lieves in the Bi BILE, and very rarely any of
them believe in God. Their most con-
spicuous leader was the other day pulled
by theIeg from under a bed in house Of In
fanny, cursing and disappearing. The po-
lice of Chicago, exploring the dens Of the
Anarchists, found dynamite and vitriol
and Tom Paine's "Age Of Reason" and
obscene pictures, and complimentary biog-
raphies of thugs and assassins, but not
one Testament, not one Of Wesley's hymn
books, not one Roman Catholic breviary.
There are two wings to inhdeIity-the one
calls itself liberalism, and appears in
highly literary magazines, 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, infdelity Elegant in
fidelity proposes to conquer this land to
itself by the pen; Anarchy proposes 60
conquer It by bludgeon ana torch.
The only impulse In the right direction
that this world has ever had has come
from the Bible. IL was the mother Of Ro-
man law and Of healthfui Jurisprudence.
That book has been the mother Of all re-
forms and all charities-mother Of English
Magma Charta and American Declaration
of Independence. Benjamin Franklin,