People's party paper. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1891-1898, 1892-12-30
BY THE FIRESIDE.
A ROMAN SLAVE.


death or sold into slavery.
The Romans were continually
reaching out for mora land and for
more wealth and more power, and
hence it was that slaves became more
numerous in the Roman country than
the free citizens. For they were ever
successful in their wars and brought
home great numbers of slaves from
every part Of the world. They we're
put to all sorts of service.
Some of them had hard tasks, 9th
ers easy ones. Some worked in the
house and some in the fields.
The only crime these slaves had
committed was that they loved their
own homes well enough to fight for
them, and had been defeated.
In the eyes Of the world it was
then, as now, bad thing to fail.
Many man has been hung for try
ing to do just what George Wash
ington succeeded in doing.
I remember to have read some
where about the way to tell those
mushrooms which are good to eat,
from those which are deadly pois-
on. 1t was this IT the mushroom
you eat makes you feel good all over
and whets your appetite for more,
it's all right. But if, on the other
hand, you are seized with mortal
pains and ingIoriously die, then you
may reasonably conclude that you
got hold of the wrong mushroom. It
takes this sort Of test to prove the
difference, because, otherwise, the
two kinds are just alike.
It's the same way with men. You
never can tell whether Reformer
is Patriot or a Traitor till you see
whether he succeeds or fails: wheth-
er his fellow mortals crown his head
with wreaths, or whether they whirl
in and chop it off with an axe.
If the Reformer succeeds and gets
his crown, as Washington did, then
History says he was Patriot.
If he fails and gets gallows, as
Emmett did, he is called Traitor.
Yet they both tried to do the very
same thing.
One of the tasks the Roman Slaves
were made to do was to fight each
other. Their Masters loved to see
blood flow especially the blood of
the people. So the strongest Of the
Slaves were trained to fight with
knives and swords, so that their
lordly Masters might have the pleas
ure of seeing them kill each other
according to strict scientific princi-
pies.
Sometimes Roman grandee died
and his sons took it into their heads
that it would please the departed to
see some good fighting going on at
his funeral. So they would bring
a few dozen of the male Slaves, arm
them with swords, and compel them
to cut one another to pieces.
In those days the body of the dead
was placed on large pile Of wood,
and, after everything had been done
which custom required, they would
set fire to the wood and burn up the
whole business, corpse and all. Then
they would gather up handful or
two of the ashes, put them in large
mouthed jug (Which they called urns),
neatly label it with the name of Gun
Gle Cato" or "Cousin Pompey" or
"Aunt Silvia" as the case may be,
and there was an end of it. The
Jug was put off to one side, on con-
venient shelf, and if there was ever
any demand for the remains of I'm
Gle Cato or Aunt Silvia, there they
were in the jug. There was no great
undertaker's bill for burial expenses
to take up half of the estate. The
ancient heathens were a slow people
in some respects, and it was left to
us modern Christians to invent that
form Of robbery.
Well, as I said, these poor Slaves
were frequently forced to fight and
mangle each other, and to die pit
liable death around the funeral fire,
in order that their Master might have
a departure fitting his rank. His
sons thought they owed him this lit
tie attention, and they had an idea
that it soothed him and made him
rest easier to have a few men killed
while he was being burnt.
Another and a more general way