The prison mirror. [volume] (Stillwater, Minn.) 1887-1894, 1890-09-25
The Gulf Between the Rich and the
Poor.


1t has come to the point in our cities that
there is no justice for rich man. Even if
his money is made confessedly by plunder.
he can come back from Canada, an Obse-
quious district attorney quash all indict-
ments against him. and plant judge send
him out free. There is more danger in such
a spectacle than in all the rawlings of Herr
Most. The people see 1.-The place of judg-
ment that iniquity is there" They see
''the tears of such as are oppressed, and
they have no comforter" and contempt of
justice and hatred of law begins to tester in
the hearts of the poor. There is no social
danger like that; for public order rests not
on clubs and bayOnets. but on that rever-
ence for law which makes them possible.
Human nature is like steam boiler, which
will bear wonderful but all exceedingly
definite amount of pressure. 1t gives little
sign of approaching the limit merely lit
tie fixing around the valves. But it reaches
the limit all at once. Then the world
stands aghast at the explosion which we
call revolution. Joseph Cook and others
have been criticised for speaking at the late
Temperance Congress of possible blOOdshed
before the settlement of the liquor problem.
The only wonder is that the idea should
surprise anybody. In fact, it has already
begun. The railroad riot in Pittsburg, the
courthouse riot in Cincinnati, and the Hay
market massacre in Chicago, the future his
tOrian will see to have been merely pre-
mOnitory putfs of smoke from the volcano,
and not. as history counts. very far apart.
1t becomes us to watch carefully against
crowding society to that point of compress
sion where the mass of men have nothing
to lose and little to live for, with the bal
ance rather in favor of dying. Then the
last argument, the bayOnet. fails against a
people whom it is of no use to kill. They
are the innumerable majority. A citizen
sOldiery sickens at the work of slaughter,
and, like the soldiers of France in the rev.
olutiOn, will walk over to the mob. guns
and all. Then what are you going to do?
How far are our great cities from that con-
ditiOn? Go through the ''slums" and see.
Look at the wan faces leaning from high
windows for breath of what is not the air
of heaven. See the pallid little children in
broken rOckiDg-chair sitting out on the
balconies of the fire escapes. or the five
yearold holding the two year-Old from fall
ing out as they lean over the windOwSill.
Coming on the elevated road through such
a scene one sultry evening lately, the writer
saw woman sitting near window with
look of unutterable sadness; and, while we
looked. stout man in shirt sleeves came
across the room, stopped down and kissed
her. She looked up at him pitifully but
despairingly. shook her head, and began
wiping away the tears. Then the swift
train whirled us from where hearts we're
breaking. 1t is ill for such men to reach
the point where they know that no toll. no
frugality, no self-denial can make things
any better tomorrow, or next year, or ten
years hence-that no work of arm or brain
can lift his face from the grindstone-and
that this-Or wOrSe-iS all the inheritance
he can leave his children. Then the sight
of carriage with gold-caparisOned horses.
a flash of diamond. or the sweep of silk
dress will make that man clinch his fist.
Thousands of such will pull down Bastile
with their bare hands. And in the midst
of all this social leaders withdraw into
little clique and parade and proclaim their
fewness-they are 1.-The four hundredv'
That in the midst of two millions. Such a
state of things is near the danger point. 1t
becomes all who care for the future of the
Republic to narrow the gulf between the
rich and the pOOr-tO cross it with generous
sympathies and kindly deeds Make it pos
sibIe for the poor to come over, they or
their children to be the wealthy of the fut-
ure, and all the tOilerS to come to the COM
fort line. For this the system of profit
sharing is full of hope. Let the rich be
most scrupulOusly obedient to the law-or
be made to be-as the English king sus-
tanned the Judge who punished the heir ap-