The great West. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1889-18??, 1891-05-01
Through all the Ages.

with the blood of serfs, fighting the
battles of the purple sashes. II
comes from every home, where earth
floors and misery answer the ques
ton whether life is worth it's strug
giles. But louder than all, it comes
up from the night time-not from the
agony of the wounded soldier, but
from the straw whereon more misery
has been born unto the worlds herit-
age of sorrow.
Did we say the loudest cry came
from the initial wall of the new born
unfortunate? Yes, but against that
sharp paEg of motherhood and wall
of infancy, there is the low, deep,
bass mutter of a myriad of millions
whose dark minds have been i'm
prisoned from the light OF knowledge
aye, so chained to ignorance that
the dainty aristocrat of fortune
taunts poverty with this miserable
fiing:-"they would not enjoy a high
er life if it were opened to them!"
No? Do we hear you, farmer, an
swer No, for you and your children!
Alas, yes-but why does not the
glorious visions of a higher life yield
rich Joy to you and your young?
Through all the ages there comes the
Voice: 1--WE have been walled in; the
earth has been for us-the sky for
others!'
That Voice has dropped low upon
the earth! 1t has echoed through
the by-ways. 1t has pierced the
walls OF novels. 1t has burrowed un-
der basement dens. 1t has assembled
unto attics. Everywhere, where pow
erty, and ignorance, and suffering,
and weary toll has brooded over the
unfortunate-there the Voice has
come, and it whispers, "For thee
came Christine was slain-but be-
hold he riseth in a new form-and his
name is Humanity! Arise and open
the doors of the prison-house of
ages!'
Aye, that Voice has gone beyond
the abode OF toll, and entered the
abode OF crime-the prisons where
Hovard's evangel led him on his
mission OF mercy. And it has whis-
pered to the vicious: "Wicked OBJ
preston has been the environment of
toil-wickedness and oppression
and for ages labor has been the vic
tim OF crime Give labor it's heritage
of equal opportunity, equal profits,
equal Joys, equal education-and the
vicious poor will disappear
Through all the ages has the spirit
OF Human Love wandered from peo-
pie to people without a homeland
when the Christ came his most won
derful saving was that he came to
bring not peace but a sword.
The Ages have conceived, and
brought forth a child-such an Off
spring as the pregnant womb Of
time alone could evolve: A new doc
trine is delivered: that chance, nor
design, nor craft, nor power, nor
wealth should make honest toll suffer
for ITSELF That power to do ill-to
cause suffering-to evolve ignorance
is the power to rob-and the pow
er is exercised. That when labor is
honest the fruits shall not be denied.
And through all the ages this doc
trine will grow. And Humanity will
plant it's feet upon it. And up from
the va 'leys OF humility and want will
arise new people in which chance
and cunning shall not be twin dicta-
tors.
And this doctrine has had apostles
in all ages-men wiser than their
times; men through whom the Voice
hath spoken. Each one has builded
his peculiar altar, and the incense
has gone abroad. 1t has, mayhap
been buried under mans inhumanity
but the germ has broken forth again
and the flame has lighted up a new
..ltar-often at the stake.
Through all the ages the door has
been closed, and the suffering have
themselves thrown the bolts. There
is an awakening now-but SO rusty
are the hinges, SO unused the thresh
hold, that it will be many a year be
fore that portal of justice is trodder
by the feet of the race. Fortunate in
deed if the great Battle OF Arranged
don, when the nations of the eartf
meet in one mighty shock of death
do not take place before that thresh
hold.
The ages are past-the dawn comes
let us welcome the newborn chile