Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1892-08-04

other things that no man shouid
exercise the right of sunTngs
or hold any of5ce Of honor.
profit or trust not even that Of ccn-
mitted to act 40 = director in any cor
poraticns public or private; nor prac-
tice his profession q any attorney At
law; nor teach any school, either pub-
lie or private; nor serve - a juror in
any court of the state; nor hold proper
ty in trust for tho benefit of any reli-
gious OF charitable body or society; nor
should any person be competent as 2
bishop, priest, deacon, minister, elder
persuasion, sect or denomination TO
teach or preach or solemnixe marriages
If such person had ever at any time
been in armed hostility to the United
States or the state of Missouri; or had
ever given aid, comfort countenance
or support to any person engaged in
such hostility; or had ever in any man.
ner contributed to the confederate
cause or sent into the confederate lines
ton of any kind; or had ever by any
act or word manifested any sympathy
with those engaged in the rebellion;
or had ever knowingly or willingly
harbored, aided or countenanced any
person engaged in marauding in this
state. have not repeated the whole
of these disqualifying provisions by
any manner Of means, but have TO
peated enough of them.
Before any man could exercise any
of these great and inestimable privi-
leges of citizenship, before he could
vote, teach or preach. he was required
by the law to take q solemn oath that
he had read the disqualifying clause OF
the constitution, was perfectly familiar
with IL, and. that he had never done
any of the things therein prohibited.
If any person attempted to hold and
exercise any of the offices, positions.
trusts, professions or functions" speci-
fed in the law, without first taking the
oath, he subjected himself to q fine OF
not less than $500 and imprisonment I'm
than six months; and If he falsely took
the oath, that Is II it could be shown
that he had done some of the prohibited
things, he was declared guilty OF per
jury and subjected himself to indict
ment and imprisonment In the penitcn-
tiary for q term Of not less than two
years.
OF course under the provisions Of this
barbarous and inquisitorial statute
stantly excluded from any participa.
ton whatever in the government Of
this state, county or municipality. But
/ said would not complain on his &C.
count He had slept in the bivouac,
sung love songs on the march, and
stcrmed with red dripping blade on
the open field. do not complain fol
him. But II some old father, growing
whittier about his temples with each
passing day, and bending lower beneath
the weight of anxieties multiplying,di did
stone think Of his boy walking tho
lone picket line somewhere in the south
land, with no company except the cold
cleaning stars, and no voice about him
save the moaning wind, and, looking
saw the old wife and mother sitting
silent there with q tear trembling or
her cheek, and he clasped her to his
heart, and knelt with her, and prayed
with her to the good God to seEd some
sweet angel with rustiing wing 70
hover above their 5oy-for that crime
that old man was dismantled of his
citizenship.
If, when this southern soldier boy
went out from the old home to the bat
tlefield, he left behind him q gentle.
sweet-faced sister, his kisses fresh upon
her quivering lips, and that grim-vis.
aged thing we called death had crept IN
trees waving in the moonlight D0
across the threshold and stolen tf.is
sweet child from her mothers arms ana
| borne her away; and if the old father
| had by some covert means sent letter
to his absent boy bearing the sad mes.
| sage of the blight at home-for that
crime he was despoiled of the noblcst
| prerogative Of the citizen.
/ = L.
tending armies surged back and forth,
a father had met his boy and given him
some little trinket prepared by loving
hands-had given him an apple plucked
from the old orchard under whose flow
ering umbrage he had played in child
hood-for that crime he stood dishOn-
ored before the law.
If some splendid, high-souled Missouri
boy, proud of his uniform and bearing
arms for the Union, had heard that his
brother in his suit of faded gray was
some army hospital of the south, and he
had found means to send him some mes
sage of love and something to tempt
the fever away-for that crime he was
disfranchised under the terms Of the
law.
If some old mani have one in mind
who had given all the years of his life
to study and teaching, who loved his
books and was proud of ''his boys"
many Of whom had gone forth into the
world equipped under his tltelage-if
he only thought of the soldier boys he
had loved in the old days, and prayed
for them or wept for them-for that
crime he was not only DISTINGUISHED,
but the doors of his school-room were
closed and he forbidden to follow his
profession.
You take my life
when ron DO take the means whereby live.
But worse than any Of these, than all
of these perhaps, IL some old father of
the holy faith, his thin locks white with
long years Of sanity life, had stopped
by the wayside to do some southern
warrior q kindness for sweet charity's
sake-to give him shelter or food or
drink-for that he was forbidden ever
again to lift his voice for the Master
either in warning or exhortation; for
hidden to appeal ever again to men for
q higher and purer and nobler life, or
to point them along the pathway
For all these do speak to-day. Their
wrongs come back to haunt and accuse
that old intolerant rndicalism which in
the day of its power made love crime
and of justice mockery. Do you think
1 exaggerate? Every man who lived in
Missouri twenty years ago and was
with the Drake constitution
and the force bills enacted under IL,
knows speak with moderation.
REGISTRATION.
Under these laws the governor APP
pointed . superintendent of registration
for each senatorial district. That
official was empowered toappoint three
registrars for each county in his dis
trict. to whom was committed the