The Caucasian. (Clinton, N.C.) 188?-1913, 1893-10-26
ERA OF TRANSITION
Continued from hrs, page.


number Of people who sleep on boards,
and who drift from house with nowhere
10 sleep. approximate l0o, 600 daily. The
children Of this generation Of paupers
-.-em 10 increase with greater rapidIty
than the normal rate OF the increase 81
the average population ot the world.
HOPE.
While the evil elements of life have
thus been iIIt~nsif fed. VIZ take hope from
the fact that the better elements Of life
are aEo being intensified. The heroisrn
Of this hfe III it's crying wants, its needs,
is As brilliant in its individual examples
a. at any time in the history Of the
world. While crime and corruption and
debauchery have increased in the city,
the army of self sacrificing men and
women who are willing 10 give their
lives for the betterment Of mankind
daily increases.
We have the meancst men III New
York in the world perhaps. We also
have some Of the best men and women
in New York i'll the world. The intensi-
fcation of life in this ccl fury has intro
duced new element just here III our de-
velopment of civilization which must in
the immediate future tel as it has not
in the past.
WOMEN wOKKIItS.
The number of women that have pour
ed their lives into the current stream Of
active endeavor has been. within the last
20 years, increasing as never before In
the history Of the human race. Accord
ing to the report of the census of 1880,
there were in America among women
who earned their daily bread outside OF
domestic service the following numbers
in different professions: 10 lawyers, 1876
ministers, $50 authors, 5SS journalists,
2,061 artists. 2,136 architects, chemists,
pharmacists, 2, 100 stock ralsers and
ranchers, 8, AS government clerks, 2, 43S
physicians and surgeons, 1882 profess
sional musicians, SO, 800 farmers and
planters, 81 on clerks and Dookkeepers,
ID ,4G5 heads of commercial houses, 1851
600 public school teachers.
This was by the census Of 1880, but by
the report Of the last census Of 1890 there
is received the remarkable fact that in
these 10 years the army Of women who
earn their daily bread outside of their
| homes now reaches the enormous total
of 9, 700, 900.
For the first time III the history of
economies woman has entered as an ac-
tive factor. Her influence IN develop
ing the history Of the next generation
can but be marvellous. Her influence in
molding and fashiOning the life of socie-
to when thus brought III active contact
with xUorlipr forf.n f.npnnt no loco
than it has been in other spheres where
woman's influence has been felt when
woman's position is recognized as 1t
should be In the world of economies.
We stand upon the threshold Of an
| economic evolution, of ii new social
order. 1t means, sooner or later, that
| woman will be emanCipated from the
slavery in which she has lahOred In the
past, in an unequal struggle with man,
and that society i'll its working force will
be elevated and refined and humaniZed
by her touch, her sympathies and her
life
| POLITICAL EQUALITY OF THE COMMON PEG
PIE.
Third-The rise of the common people
| to political equality in government with
| the traditional ruling classes has been
accomplished within this century and
is but the beginning of a revolution that
is not yet accomplished. Robert Mac
| kenzie says: SIXTY years ago Europe
was an aggregate of despotic powers,
| disposing at their own pleasure of the
lives and property Of their subjects. To-
day the men of western Europe govern
themselves" Popular suffrage, more or
less closely approaching universal,
chooses the governing power. and by
methods more or less fl Give dictates
its policy.
One hundred and eighty million Euro
peans have risen from 4 degraded and
ever dissatisfied vassalagc to the rank of
| free and self governing men. This has
| been an accomplishment which has SIM
| ply put into the hands of the common
people the weapons with which they will
| fight their battles in the twentieth CEN
fury. The battles are vet to be fought;
the revolution is yet to be accomplished.
They have simply been given the ballot,
and the consciousness of their power has
only begun to dawn upon them.
In the early part OF the twentieth CEN
fury we may surely look for sufficient
Infusion of intelligence 70 bring this ire
mendous mass into the aggressive asser-
ion of the fullest rights Of manhood
Hitherto they have been dominated by
bosses. by tricky politicians, and they
have followed skillful leaders blindly.
AN EXPLOSION IMMINENT.
So intense are becoming these elements
Of corruption that it cannot continue
longer without an explosion. The lamp
has been lit, and it has been left burning.
A woman in western home during the
war sent servant into the cellar with a
lighted candle to look for some object.
The servant returned without the candle.
The housewife asked where she had left
it. She said that she had left it in bar
rel of sand in the cellar. The housewi fe
remembered that there was barrel Of
powder standing open in the cellar.
Without a moments hesitation she
rushed below and found that the igno-
rant girl had thrust the candle down into
the loose powder and left it burning. She
lifted it carefully and extinguished it.
The movement for universal suffrage
in this century has placed the candle OF
knowledge, without candlestick, in the
loose powder of the common people.
This light of knowledge is burning closer
and closer, and the heat is becoming
more and more intense with each mo-
ment. There is no power on earth, un.
der the earth or above the earth that
can remove that candle from its posi-.
ton. By a law as sure as the law OF
, gravitation, the fame Is approaching
the powder, nearer and nearer every
? day. When it reaches the end-that is
the point of actual, conscious contac,
with their mind-there will be an explo
sion that will unsettle thrones and ira
ditions, whether occupied by the car o.
S Russia or Richard Croker 1 of New
: York.
INFLUENCE OF EDUCATION.
Fourth-The universally of education
i is a factor in the closing of tho pipotoon+l