The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1891-05-07
THE LAST BEIsHAzzAR yRAsT.

In the book OF Daniel you have fre-
qusntly read of Belshazzar, and you are
most likely familiar with the account
of Belshazzar's feast and the fall oi
Babylon. History often repeats her
sell, f,even IL she has to wander back two
thousand years in retrospect. We re-
member that BelshaZxar was the last OF
his tribe. He had great reputation In
his day, and deal OF notoriety, (Which
Ia often louder than true fancy has sur
vived him.
We shall not attempt a review Of
BelshaZZar's career, but we are now
fresh from a Protected millionaire't
feast In our modern Gotham, which
only yesterday was told to US, witt
| much elaboration, In all the telegraph
dispatches. To-day the great New
York dailies are at hand, filled with
descriptive pictures of this great feast.
The New York Mail and Express has O
full page view of the banquet table,
with the statesmen who have been
the tools and agents of monopoly and
greed In our National House and SEN
ate. All are seated except Mckinley
who is standing in the center, in front
| OF an elaborate floral column in the
center of the table, in the act of perpe.
trating his much worn speech on Pro-
lection.
First let us get glimpse of the table
| decorations. The table had bEen espec.
tally constructed for the occasion and
it was the joint art of Landscape
gardener ana a florist, working for
twenty-four hours, with the most pro.
fuse and reckless extravaganza. In the
Arena for April, we find very timely
| editorial, which seems exactly to hit
this banquet. 1t is an article on ex.
travagance and penury in our great
| metropolis Let it be remembered that
| while this modern feast of the Belshaz.
Ears was in full blast, the families OF
the coke workers Of Pennsylvania were
being evicted from their homes by
armed Pinkerton detectives, and that
over two million American laborers
were In enforced idleness. Here let us
quote an extract from an editorial in
the April Arena. .....
"Those who thoughtfully follow events
as they transpire in our great cities today
cannot fail TO be impressed with the many
points OF striking resemblance between
our civilization and the condition OF
Roman society under the Caesars, and the
state OF the French people during the clos.
ing years OF Louis Nv. and the early reign
of Louis XVI. II is an easy matter to cry
alarmtst when facts of startling signifi.
canoe are brought home, and to eulopise
life as we find It today, for such course
Is sure to meet the appreciation OF society.
Such Is the siren cry of every age and
never uttered with such vehemence and
recklessness as during the eclipse or de-
cline OF a nation. do not claim that our
Republic has entered the shadow OF de-
NIa IN.NN 10 .t,.aa H..
social conditions are SO strained that I'M
less the public mind is Quickened, unless
the conscience and intelligence of the
nation are aroused to the gravity of the
situation, the hour will soon strike when
cool, dispass ionate judgment will give
place to passion; when the frenzy of the
multitude who are now restless with dis
content will convulse society in reyolu-
tion.n
The Arena is not a Democratic organ
lt Is speaking of the existing condi-
tions purely from the independent
standpoint of humanitarian,
The great Belshazzar banquet in
New York was given by the men who
have amassed colossal fortunes in this
past two decades, through unjust and
oppressive laws of Congress. The men
who did the orations for the occasion
were their agents in Congress, and aid
| ed to pass these unjust laws. These
vast fortunes have all been made by
the arm of labor, but labor has been
robbed OF its share of the increment.
Here let us quote again from the able
editorial in the April Arena. Read and
ponder it well.
Each year during the past decade has
widened the gulf between the plutocrat
and the proletariat. The very system
which has enabled the former to thus
rapidly acquire almost unbounded wealth
without earning the same, has necessarily
blunted bis moral susceptlbilities until the
| ethical relation of the fortunate to the un.
fortunate is lost sight of; feeling of gen.
| eral indifference is exhibited by the very
rich toward the struggling bread-winners
whose every day is darkened by fear;
whose dreams are haunted by dread
whose life is terrible nightmare in which
his mind is constantly racked by con-
fused vision, wherein wife and children
| are starving or begging-sick, without
necessary food or treatment-virtue sold
| to drive back starvation-shame and the
Potter's Field are strongly mingled-a
kaleidoscope view of possible horrors.
And what makes this thought still more
impressive is the stolid Indifference dis
played by wealth toward want that cries
SO loudly for work that 1t may not starve
millionaires.n
And now, on this bright and fragrant
May morning, after bountiful Provi-
dence has watered the earth with gen.
erous and fructifying rain, let us read
the following Associated Press dispatch
from the coke regions:
PITTsBuRG, April 30.-A special from
Scottsdale says: Sheriff Mccormick has
resumed evictions and threw out sixteen
families this morning. The flfty-six men
brought from Carnegie's plant et Ade-
laide refused 70 work today. The sheriff
was busy all afternoon evicting families
at Summit, and according to latest re-
ports everything is quietin the region.