People's party paper. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1891-1898, 1892-12-09

sometimes spent ten thousand dollars on
single meal. They had different places
to live at during the different seasons of
the year. 1t was considered in bad taste
to live in the same palace all the year.
Unless those aristocratic thieves had a
4" cottage" by the seaside for the sum-
mer, the other thieves, who had also got
ten their wealth by violating the law,
would turn up their noses at them as
they passed by. Those high-fying ras-
Gals also had slaves by the hundred to
wait on them. Some of these slaves were
black, but most of them were white.
Some of them dressed these refined rob-
bers some cooked, some washed, some
harnessed horses, some waited on the
table, some furnished the music, some
poured the wine, some danced to amuse
their lordly masters, and some Of them
worked in the fields-the very fields
which belonged to them, and which their
masters had taken away from them.
That was hard, wasn't it?
Now, while the few were having such
a good time on the money they had made
by trampling the law under foot, the
great mass of the people could hardly get
enough to eat and to wear. Their homes
were full of sadness and sickness and
suffering. Sometimes they starved to
death within few hundred yards of
where the rich law breakers were having
a feast which cost ten thousand dollars
where enough food was wasted and cast
away to feed a hundred men.
Now, as I have told you, these two
brothers both were brave soldiers and had
fought for their country in foreign lands
AS Tiberius, the elder, was coming home
from the wars, he passed through por-
ton of the country districts of Rome be-
fore he reached the city itself. He was
shocked to see the sad condition of the
farmers and laborers. He did not know
it was so bad. He had been living in the
city, and city people are slow to believe
that country people work hard and yet
suffer. Besides, Tiberius was rich man,
and not many rich men take pity on the
poor. Most of them seem to think be-
cause they have a nice time, it is no con-
Germ of theirs how other people live.
But Tiberius was a different sort of
man. His mother had taught him no
bier lessons. She had taught him tolove
right and to despise wrong. She had
taught him to feel for those who uniustly
suffered, no matter how poor they were
Besides this, be knew what the law
was. He knew that these poor men were
| in rags because the law had been violated:
because the land had been unlawfully
monopolized; because a few men, having
money on their side, had got control Of
| the many men who had only labor on
| their side. He saw that the masters had
grown wealthy by doing what the law
forbade; and that the farmers had be-
come slaves because they had no leader
and no union among themselves, and no
way to oppose their oppressors.
|
passed through the country on his way
home from the wars. He made up his
mind to fight the battle of these people.
He knew it would be dangerous as we'll
as doubtful; but to him the word duty
was a gospel-to do right his religion.
So he publicly announced that the rob-
bers ought to be made to give up the
lands they had taken. He showed that
the distress of the people came from bad
| laws and from the violations of the good
laws. Hesaid that the public lands ought
to be given back to the people SO that all
equally could enjoy that which belonged
to all. He made no war on the rich. He
simply attacked the advantages they had
| gained by doing wrong. He made no
war on private property. He simply
claimed that no man should take to him
self that which belonged to the public.
He believed in equal rights to all and
special privileges to none. He thought
that every citizen ought to have a fair
chance to earn living and to gain a
! home.
The people were delighted that they
had found a leader, but the land grab
bers were mad. They were full of malice
against Tiberius They said he was dis.
turbing the public peace and stirring up
strife. They said he was an incendiary
and ought to be killed.
But he knew he was right, and he
would not not turn back. He gathered
the people together and made them a
speech. A part of it is still to be seen,
as it was put down by the historian.
Here it is:
''The wild beasts of Italy have their
| dens and caves, but the brave men who
spill their blood in her cause have moth
| ing left but the light and the air. With
out houses, without any settled homes,
| they wander from place to place with
their wives and children. They fight
and die in order to advance the wealth
and luxury of the great. They are
called the masters of the world, while
they have not foot Of ground in their
| possession"
You can fancy how such words,
spoken to men who knew them to be
true, must have stirred the people. They
arose and followed their leader.
After the most bitter contest he car
ried the day His enemies stole the
ballot-box and ran off with it, but he
pushed right ahead with his plans. He