The intelligencer. [volume] (Lexington, Mo.) 1887-1891, 1891-02-14
WHITTIER ARE WE DRIFTING?

turn his eyes to where the thrifty
tradesman or industrious husbandman
piled his daily toll, and gaze upon II
picture in which the beaming face of
|contentment was even present.
Down in the villages where the hum
of humanity ladened every breeze-in
the villages, over whose housetops
foated the smoke of the factory as it
bore away in graceful, e~verchanging
c%onvolutions until it mingled invisibly
with the depths of ether, could be seer
the cheerful abodes of happiness and
love.
Out upon the broad fields where the
widening pastures smiled in the beau
tiful sunlight, OIL where the ripening
grain was waving and billowing in the
joyous winds; where the ringing echoes
OF the woodlands IKE sang chorus to
the trill of birds, were found n peace
and q contentment that made of home
a paradise, of occupation q round of
endless pleasure.
Then there was n condition, n ioy, a
happiness, that spoke of fruited hopes,
and aspirations. satisfied. There were
a thrift of habit and n garniture of cir
cumstance that placed their stamp
upon the lives of men and women that
filled their souls with happiness and
peace.
True, our cities then were small ones,
our towns mere villages, our villages
hamlets. Out from these were the smiling
field in spring, verdue clothed; in sum-
mer, laughing in the q~uickening sun
shine; in autumn, golden hued, purple
and brown, and in winter reposing be-
meath the drifted snow. Back of these
was the wilderness into which the cohort
of civilization were following close in
the wake of the swift videttes of day,
as morn after morn these chased across
the distant horizon the shadows of night.
To hill and mountain and plain
there was then no thrill of transconti-
mental railway train. The invisible
coursers of electricity bore no swift
messages along the singing telegraph
wire. These came later-came with
great cities, thrifty towns, growing
villages-those and other active con
comitants of n civilization that is with
out parallel, robust energy and expedi-
ton. But what q '~'Pandora's Box of
evils came following in the wake of
this civilizations march! Like the
tabled Harpies,-gaunt sisters of deceit,
wrong, and crimc-there came new
and strange things, methods and ener-
gies that struck from the lips of man
the overlooking cup of contentment,
changed laughter to lamentations and
smiles to tears.
There came multitudes of people,
affording opportunities for the amassing
OF wealth in a measure unheard Of and
u~neXampled. But it was lot that
wealth of simple plenty that is so great
a boon to man, but that which nourishes
the most ignoble ambition, surfeits
aspiration and begets a vanity whose
hot breath scorches the soul and burns
out all the nobler attributes of man.
With this wealth there came an in
satiate desire for power-power to
enslaye the poorer classes of humanity
and rob them of the fruits of their toll.
Like the breath exhaled from the Upas
tree, the desire for wealth, for power,
for ostentation and show, grew upon
the people, and before the hosts OF
ambition and yain-glory, of avarice and
parsimony, the gentle genii of content,
ment, hope and joy fled to realms un.
known. Fled that noble trust and con
fidencc man had in man; fled all those
purer, manlier traits that bind human.
ity in one vast brotherhood.
The result of this deplorable chang
in condition and character has been to
build up a mOnied aristocracy on thu
one hand, and to reduce to partia
serfdom and slavery two of the classe.
of Il population that were once thu
most prosperous and contented.
In the mad rush for success in tn,
accumulation of vast hordes of wealth
! the strong are trampling the veal
under foot, and, all needless of tn,
bones they are crushing, of the culver
! ing flesh they are lascerating, of tn
! sacred lives they are destroying, the,
press forward with the fierce, inhumai
' recklessness of wild beasts. Little the,
: reck of the homes they make desolate
of the eyes from which they wrin!
tears. What care they for the mouth
they make hungry, or of the hearts the,
. tortureP Human ties, even human life
is nought to them in that mad, absorb
ing last and chase for gold.
=, Whittier are we drifting? We NJ
longer have the great west as a sane
tuary for those who can flee the OPP
pressors' gall. The better portion o
.. this is occupied, and the occupants ar,
already paying q %ruinous tribute t.
plutocracy. Where will be the end
Is this country destined to the ruin anc
degradation that befell the pride o
Romeo Is the madness of the French
revolution to be repeated here? Goo
defend us from such a fate as that anc
|, yet the corruption of the Caesars ant
the tyranny of French %aristocracy were
: not more dangerous to human liberty
, and human veal than the ~plutocracy
of the America Republic.
GOOD COUNTRY ROADS.
Gov. Francis in his message to thu
Iaoislatura uroed that maoepras h,