The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1886-07-07

: OIL river IrOIIl lbS Oeu duu ulFelo ~ w eoi
my mill wheel, leaving the bed of the river 9
, breeding place for malaria, the law says
"Quit that outraged" And has not q
! government a right to say that few
men shall not gorge themselves on the
comfort and health and life of 6 nerations
| Your rights end where my rights begin.
Monopoly-brazen-faced ,iron-fngered. and
vulture-hearted, monopoly-offers his hand
to this Republic. He stretches it out over
the lakes and up the Pennsylvania and the
Erie and the New York Central Railroads,
and over the telegraph poles of the continent
and says: ''Here is my heart and hand: be
mine forever" Let the millions of the peo-
| pie, North, 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 sentiment Of an
outraged nation. forbid them by the protest
of the church of God, forbid them by prayers
! to high heaven. That Herod shall not have
this Abigail. It shall not he to all sevouring
monopoly that this land is to be married.
Another suitor claiming the hand of this
Republic is Nihilism He owns nothing but
knife for universal blood-letting and a
nitro-glycerine bomb for universal explo-
sion. He believes in no God, no government,
no heaven, and no hell except what he can
make on earth! He slew the Car of Russia,
tically imprisoned, kille1 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 universal butcher.
In France it is called Communism; in ths
United States it is called Socialism: Id
Russia it is called Nihilism, but that last is
the most graphic and descriptive term. It
means complete and eternal smash up 1t
would make the holding of property crime
heart and torch to your dwelling and turn
over this whole land into the pos session Of
theft and lust and rapine and murder
Where does this monster live? In st. Louis,
in Chicago, in Brooklyn, in New York, and
In all the cities and villages 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 wat"hes to be pur
loined. On small scale saw it in my col
lege days, when, in our literary soci.
sty in New York University. we had
an exquisite and costly bust Of
Shakespeare, and one morning we
found q hole bored into the lips Of the marble
and a cigar inserted There has not for the
last century been fine picture in your arr
gallery or graceful statue iu your parks or
q fine fresco on your wall or richly bound
album in your library but would have been
despoiled if the hand Of ruffian SIN could have
got at it without peril of incarceration. Some
times the evil spirit shows itself by throwing
vitriol into beautiful face, sometimes by
wilfully soaring horse with a velocipede,
sometimes by crashing its oartwheel against
a carriage.
The philosophy of the whole business is
that there is large 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 possessions of large re-
sources The honest laboring classes never
had anything to do with such murderous en-
terprises. It is the villainous classes who
would not work if they had plenty of
work offered them at large wages Many
of these suppose that by the demolI-
tion of law and order they would be
state would allow them as wreckers to carry
off some Of the cargo. 1t offers its hand to
this fair republic. It proposes to tear to
pieces the ballot box. the Legislative hall, the
Congressional assembly. 1t would take this
land and divide it up, or rather. divide 1t
down. 1t would give as much to the idler as
to the worker, to the had as to the good. Nj
hi!ism-this panther-having prowled across
other lands has set its paws on our soil, and
it is only waiting for the time in wi, which to
spring upon its prey. 1t 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 cities dur
ing the war; it was Nihilism that again and
again in San Francisco and New York
mauled to death the Chinese; it is Nihilism
that glares out of the windows of the drunk
cries upon sober people as they 60 by. Ah!
its power has never yet been used. 1t would,
if it had the power, have every church,
chapel, cathedral, school house, college and
home in ashes.
Let me say it is the worst enemy of the
laboring classes in any country. The honest
cry for reform lifted by oppressed laboring
men is drowned out by the vociferations for
anarchy. The criminals and the vagabonds
who range through our cities talking about
their rights when their first right is the peni-
tent:ary-if they could be hushed up, and
the downtrodden laboring 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 shillelah not fire arms,
but the ballot. Let not our oppressed labor
ing men be beguiled into coming under the
bloody banner Of Nihilism- 1t will make
your taxes heavier, your wages smaller,
your table scantier, your children hun
grier, your suffering greater. Yet this Mill
ism, with feet red with slaughter, comes forth
and offers its hand for this republic. Shall
the banns be proclaimed! II so, where shall
the marriage altar be? Aud who will be the
officiating priesta And what will be the
music9 That altar will have to be viii.
with bleached skulls, the music must be the
smothered groans of multitudinous victims,
the garlands must be twisted OF nightshade,
the fruits must be apples Of Sodom, the wine
must be the blood Of st. Bartholomew's mas
sacre No!i is not to Nihilism, the san
guinital monster, that this land is to be mar
ried
Another suitor for the hand Of this nation
is infidelity. Mark you that all anarchists
are infldels Not one Of them believes in the
Bible, and very rarely any Of them believe in
a God. Their most conspicuous leader was
the other day pulled by the leg from under
bed in house of infamy. cursing and bias
pheming The police of Chicago, exploring
the dens Of the Anarchists found dynamite
and vitriol and Tom Paine's Age Of Reason
and obscene pictures and complimentary
biographies 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 Infdelity. 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 thu same old filthy vulture.
Infdelity! Elegant inidelity, proposes to
conquer this land to itself by. the pen. An.
archy proposes to conquer it by bludgeon
end torch