Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1888-01-14

| NOuAA1 AtlL 70 hplE one Jay MfleA HlB was
sick, and caught her death o cold and it took
mint Of money to nuss and then bury her.
Then tho man fell and got hurt and the little
boy cried enough to break your heart when
they took his books away" The face of tho
long whiskered man softened an instant, but
he turned his head away.
"He needn't cried,n he said gruffly; ''I
don't know as he was any better than the
rest of u.s."
Now there came a little commotion on the
platform.
A man who sat head aad shoulders above
the group on the platform rose to his full
height like young giant and came forward.
He looked down into the upturned faces for
"a moment in silence, and Philip felt his
steel blue eyes piercing him like a sword
"Men," he began Then he stopped speak
ing moment. Eyes, men you are, in spite
of all the degradation the rich and the pow
erful can put upon you. The time is coming
when the principles of equality Wanted on
the pages of so many lying constitutions and
breathed on the lips of so many false tongued
demagogues, shall be fully realized. The
time Is coming when the work shall not be on
one side and the reward on the other. We
| shall not always wear rags as the livery Of
our masters. Not always shall the poor rise
early and toll late, wear their skin till it be
shriveled like parchment, and their bodies till
they be ready to drop into the grave for
WEAKNESS, only to pluck the fruit of Gods
bountiful earth for the lips Of the idle and the
proud to taste. The gracious favors OF ten
thousand smiling hills and valleys are gath
cred only for the few, and those whose AFRO
gance and hardness of heart have least de
served them. And they tell us it must be SO;
that the few who are more capable and pru-
dent should thus be rewarded for their
I ~.
| years oppression of the poor, and say
what has been must be. Yes, for six
thousand years the groans of the poor have
| gone up, and as long the few, for whom alone
all the beauty and bounty of the great earth
| seemed to blossom, have answered with
curses and contempt" Now his magnificent
chest seemed to expand; his voice lost its pa
thetic tone and rang out like trumpet.
"But the knowledge they have given to
make us better slaves is bursting our letters
before their frightened eyes. The astonished
people see at last the black and monstrous in
justice of their subsection. They have num-
| bered their hosts, as countless as the sands Of
thesea 1t is the strength of their arms has
| girdled the earth with unceasing streams Of
wealth. 1t is the ingenuity of their brains
| has harnessed each of the untamed forces of
nature to service. The infinite number of
| their cunning fingers has woven the fabrics
to clothe Chiistendom, and their red blood
poured out on thousand battlei1elds has
bought vain triumphs for the pride of their
masters
His lips suddenly curled in majestic scorn.
"And how long will your patient, calloused
hands build palaces for the great, while you
| live in hovelsl Ought not such strong arms
| as yours be 6ble to win enough to make one
modest home happy, if you were not robbedl
The world is full Of cheap comforts; the
harvests are boundless, the storehouses burst
| ing, but each worthless pauper has as good
| share as you who make the wealth. You cause
the increase; your hands till the teeming lands
| and work the tireless LOOMS Your Shout
ders bow beneath tho products of your toll
| like muzzled oxen beating out the grainfo
Implying masters. Why viii you endure it,
They tell you it is only right; their books
teach gentle submission; their oily tongued
| speakers soothe you with proverbs and con-
soling maxims, but all the wise men Of CEN
turtles and all the hundred thousand printing
presses of today, heaping up books in every
language like a new tower of Babel, cannot
turn a lie into the truth"
Philip sat leaning forward, his eyes fixed
| on the speaker in strange excitement. Gu
rams words came into his soul like molten
| fire, consuming the chaif of years and leav-
! ing a path of light behind. He was full of
wonder that he had been blind so long, mixed
with joy at his new piercing vision. He had
/ forgotten how he had come there, and felt a
sudden desire to take the hand Of every poor
man in the room and pledge him his help.
But no one seemed touched as he was. The
same hard look was on each face, the mask
the poor assume to cover their distress, but
the eyes of them all were conferred on their
orator.
'But you are poor, and with your wives
and children are hungry for even tho crust
of bread your masters cast you. Though you
were a million to one, you are held to their
service, no matter how unjust, by the daily
recurring facts Of hunger and cold. Lookl
the fields are white with their harvests, tho
shops filed with their cloths, but the law
maliers and their pitiless police are in their
pay, and you must bow your meek necks and
/ thank your masters humbly for the trile
their greed vouchsafes you"
Philips heart thulnped painfully within his
faded coat. Could tue speaker give no hope
to the wretched listeners hanging on his lipsl
Must they cringe forever at the foot of
power2 Their thin, worn hands made the
bread, but it was snatched from their mouths
and dasl ont in scanty allowance as the
price of hopeless slavery. He had never seen
it before.
"Who is heF' he whispered to his compan-
ion. The man did not even turn his face |
from the speaker.
at is Curran. He belongs to the Labor
league" This, then, was tho agitator his ia
Their spoke of. And Bertha had pictured him |
rightly, with his clustering auburn hair. For |
moment he stood silent, while under the |
divine light in his eyes the souls of each one |
ripened for his next words.
"Alone you can do nothing, but united we |
can shake the world, and all over the land |
the oppressed are banding together. We are |
weak now, but when the long stihed voice of |
your wrongs finds utterance, the answering |
means of millions will rouse your souls to the |
resistless martyr pitch. Then it will seem |
sweet to die-yes, to starve-with your dear |
ones about you inspired with the same en- |
thuslasm. When the generation is born |
which dare starve but has forgotten how to |
yield, and even for the bread of life will not 1
sell its children into eternal slavery, then
will the gold of the rich rot worthless in |
their white hands till they divide with us our
common heritage"
He stopped and sat down, and as his en-
thusiasm faded from his face, Philip saw he
was not handsome. The eyes that had seemed
SO wonderful were too deep seated beneath |
his heavy brows, and his smooth shaved face |
was Scared from exposure to sun and storm;
yet while he had been speaking, pity and di-
vine wrath in turn melting and burning in
his eyes and lighting up his rugged cheeks,
he had seemed beautiful like an archangeL
The audience sat in silence moment, then
one man shufIled his feet uneasily, then an
other, and then all rose listlessly to their
feet. Philip thought their zest in life had
gone so long ago that they did not even miss
it; then he remembered what his life was,
bright as June morning. Did God love
him SO much better than these weary crea-
lures, whose only refuge was in hopeless
nessl Then he thought of Bertha waiting
for him and he hurried out. glad that he |