The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1892-11-25

"~hSA "No ~ ~ = N@A'O0 NS "N-S'O
period of seven days to prevent the fire
from being extinguished, in order that
it might burn up and destroy the
in habitants. The horror and suffering
caused by that diabolical deed can
never be recounted. The anguish and
torture, the devastation and death
among the poor can only be conjectured!
Did it break up the unions? Did it
annihilate the Christians? Did it
extinguish the Hebrews? No.
Nero's hellish work was not yet fin
ished when his fire went out for want
of more food at the Servian wall. There
yet remains his day of retribution to be
visited upon the -" burners" They were
formally accused of having burned the
city and 10 be accused was to be
hunted down and punished without
judge or trial. The lynching first began
on the Christians, such as had not been
burned to death, but it soon became
the rage to seize and put to death any
one, Of any brotherhood, old or young,
male or female, of whatsoever nation.
ality or creed. Tacitus swoops them all
in as Christians, and while he persists
that they deserve punishment, he only
objects to the refined brutality with
which they were tortured in undergoing
death, Among other tortures, such
as being thrown into dens of lions
and tigers, naked and unarmed, to
be mangled, and while yet quivering,
swallowed by the half starved, glut-
tonous beasts, they were sewn up in
bags saturated with oil, dragged to
the tops of steep hills, the bags set
on fire and then cast rolling down
and amid the yells of the delirious
, pagan infurlates, left to slowly con
{ sumo in this igneous torture at the
foot of the steep. The cruel tyrant
and his relentless lords added anoth
er refinement to their atrocities by
smeariug their bodies with tar sc
gummy it would not flow, thus max
{ ing the coat en- inch thick, ther
mounting them on palanquin with
long arms by which il could be car
ried at night on the shoulders Of foul
soldiers and escorted through the
city, after being fired. The poor
, wretches were thus made to serve as
torchlights. Hundreds were IN this
manner pompously paraded through
E Rome, blazing, and mingl;ng then
cries of agony with the jeering an6
ridicule of hearLless Roman mob
1t is known that Rome, during these
: dissolute times, was infested will
| half starved dogs, friendless anc
prowling about for crumbs. Nero
gave them at least one feast HI
r had large numbers of the "burners'
( sewn up in skins with their limbs 81
/. pinioned that they could not figh
and thrown to these famished crea
lures to be devoured. The imagina
ton of the living age quails at thu
e contemplation of a humanity tina
= could have conceived and perpetrat
r ed such deeds of satanic vengeance
f Setting aside questions of barbar
/ ity, Nero certainly had reasons fo
, being alarmed for his imperial homo
j. and safety. He foresaw in thes'
f nesting brotherhoods a great ant
g rapidly rising power which nigh
$ become as strong as in the century
before. They must be effaced.'
: The British Encyclopedia, comment
Q ing on Augustus, says of them "Tht
almost complete effacement of the
( comitia was largely due to the fac'
that it had ceased to represent any
thing out the populace." TIE
comitia' was the annual election
and it shows that the bro:herhoods
and lower class. generally, so fal
outvoted the Roman lords and arts
tocracy that they were compelled tc
resort to the military arm tor theil
suppression. After Nero we find
little or no evidence that the broth
erhoods ever again got q political
foothold. The workingman fell under
the feudal system where he lies rot,
ting today.
The moral of this terrible story
asks its own question: Are we, OF
this, our own bright modern day,
going to have our brotherhood, our
political foothold, our liberties sup
pressed in the same refined manner
or shall we organize and control our
government, put down tyrants, and
be free
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