Waterbury evening Democrat., 1888-01-28

pose them's the best clothes you got. Your heart may be just as white as if you had a better ivin'."
 The poor don't talk except when they have something to say. So Philip said nothing. to act in character.
 ..I suppose you think you're pretty hard up.n resumed the big whiskered man, who was no other than Graves, the man who had peered into his companions parlor window only an hour ago. And he glanced signifi- cantlv at Philips boots and soiled panta- looms.
 ssJest look at that little chap over wonder, all bowed up. He don't look very hearty, does hea Up to his house there's wife ali faded and broken, and two little cripples for children, whirin' and a screechin' from mornin' tonight. He would chop his head of to help them, but he is slow and weak, and don't git but ninety cents day, and Ls can't save them babies single ache nor ease their poor misshapen little bones one twinge It takes every penny to keep the wretched breath in lem all, and him and his wife, once as purity gal as ever you seen, has only to stand and see lem cry. They used to cry themselves, too, but that was long ago"
 Graves looked about him. Do you see that lean faced man with the hurt arm, at the end of the seat ye're on? We'll, he's got the smartest little boy in town. All he wanted was schoolin', and his father and mother saved and scrimped so he could have it. You oughter seen how proud they was to see their lad struttin' off to school while they kept thinkin' of him all day long in the mill. And they was never too tired to hear the boy tell them over the hard names he had learned. And then they would tell the neighbors, who sometimes got jealous, how they was savin' every cent and how their boy was goin' to col lege like old Breton's son. But there was no call for the neighbors to be jealous; the woman went to work one day when she was sick, and caught her death O cold and it took mint of money to nuss and then bury her. Then the man fell and got hurt and the little boy cried enough to break your heart when they took his books away" The face of the long whiskered man softened an instant, but he turned his head away.
 "He needn't a cried," he said gruf1y; "l don't know as he was any better than the rest of us."
 Now there came a little commotion on th.. platform.
 A man who sat head and shoulders above tho group on tho platform rose to his full height like young giant and came forward He looked down into the upturned faces fo, moment in silence, and Philip felt his steel blue eyes piercing him like sword.
 "Men," he began. Then he stopped speak ing moment. "Yes, men you are, in spite of all the degradation the rich and the pow
 srful can put upon you. The time is coming when the principles of equality vaunted ol he pages of so many lying constitutions, ant breathed on the lips of so many false tongued ShoM ho f,,11x Tl, time is coming when the work shall not be o. one side and the reward on the other We shall not always wear rags as the livery O.. our masters. Not always shall the poor ris, early and toll late, wear their skin till it be shriveled like parchment, and their bodies til they be ready to drop into the grave fol weariness, only to pluck the fruit of God bountiful earth for the lips of the idle and tho proud to taste. The gracious favors of tel thousand smiling hills and valleys are gath, cred only for the few, and those whose arro- 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 theil superiority. They point to six thousand years oppression of the poor, and say what has been must be. Yes, for six thousand years the groans of the poor have
 
 all the beauty and bounty of the great eartl 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 8 trumpet. But the knowledge they have given to make us better slaves is bursting our letters before their frightened eyes. The astonished people sec at last the black and monstrous in- justice of their subjection. They have num- bered their hosts, as countless as the sands oi the sea. 1t is the strength of their arms has girdled the earth with unceasing streams o1 wealth. It is the ingenuity of their brains has harnessed each of the untamed forces ot nature to service The infinite number o1 their cunning fingers has woven the fabrics ! to clothe Christendom, and their red blood poured out on a thousand battlefelds has bought vain triumphs for the pride of thei1 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 novels? Ought not such strong arms as yours be able to win enough to make one modest home happy, if you were not robbed The world is full of cheap comforts; the 1 aarvests are boundless, the storehouses burst ing, but each worthless pauper has as good ( | share as you who make the wealth. You cause 1 che increase; your hands till the teeming lands and work the tireless looms. Your shout ! lers bow beneath the products of your toi like muzzled oxen beating out the grain fol l lnpitying masters. Why will you endure it They tell you it is only right; their books teach gentle submission; their oily tongued speakers soothe you wiNl proverbs and con ! solng maxims, but all the wise men of cen ! turies and all the hundred thousand printing presses of today, heaping up books in every language like a new tower of Babel, cannot | turn lie into the truth"
 Philip sat leaning forward, his eyes fxet ! on the speaker ill a strange excitement. Cur ran's words came into his soul like moltel fire, consuming the chatf of years and leav ! ing path of light behind. He was full oi | wonder that he had been blind so long, mixet 1 with joy at his new piercing vision. He hae l forgotten how he had come there, and felt sudden desire to take the hand of every poo1 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 masl the poor assume to cover their distress, bu the eyes of them all were centered on theil orator.
 But you are poor, and with your wive and children are hungry for even the crus
 of bread your masters cast you. Though yo, were million to one, you are held to thei
 service, no matter how unjust, by the dail,