The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1893-02-24

spear IN AonO, 10 see whether the gar
leries and ecclesiastics would have him
let up or slain. And, loI many of the
thumbs are down.
In the worldly realms look at the
brutalities of the presidential election
eight years ago. Read the biographies
of Daniel Webster and Alexander FL.
Stevens and Horace Greeley and Charles
Sumner and Lucius Quintius Lamar
and James G. Blaine, and If the story
of defamation and calumny and scam
dalization and diatribe and scurrility
and lampoon and billingsgate and
damnable perfidy be accurately re-
corded, tell me in what respects our
political arena and the bowling and
disappearing galleries that again and
again look down upon it are better
than the Roman Colosseum. When
read a few days ago that the supreme
court of the United States had appro-
priately adjourned to pay hOnors to
the two last distinguished men men
toned, and American journalism,
north, south, east and west, went
into lamentations over their de-
parture and said all complimentary
things in regard to them, 1 asked.
when did the nation lie about these
men? Was it when, during their life,
it gave them malediction, or now.
since their death, when bestowing
upon them Qualification. The same
spirit of cruelty that you deplore in
the Roman Colosseum is seen in the
sharp appetite the world seems to have
for the downfall of good men, and in
the divorce of those whose marital life
was thought accordant, and in the alb
sconding of a bank cashier. Oh, my
friends, the world wants more of the
spirit of ''Let-him up" and less of the
spirit Of Thumbs down" There are
hundreds of men in the prisons of
America who ought to be discharged,
because they were the victims of cir
cumstances or have suffered enough.
There are in all professions and occupa-
lions men who are domineered over by
others and whose whole life is struggle
with monstrous opposition, and circum-
stances have their heel upon the throb-
bing and broken hearts For Gods
sake, let them up! Away with the
spirit of Thumbs down." What the
world wants is thousand men like
Telemachus to leap out of the gallery
into the arena, whether he be a Roman
Catholic monk or a Methodist steward,
or Presbyterian elder, and go in be-
tween the contestants. blessed are
the peacemalzers, for they shall be
called the children of God"
One-half the world is down and the
other half is up and the half that is
10 &c no 11o1 hot &c
If you, as asboSs workman, or as a con-
tractor, or as bishop, or as state or
national official, or as potent factor
in social life, or in any way, are OPP
pressing anyone, know that the same
devil that possessed the Roman
Colosseum Expresses you. The Do
cletians are not all dead. The cell
lars leading into the arena of life's
struggle are not all emptied of their
tigers The vivisection by young doc
tors of dogs and cats and birds most of
the time adds nothing to human dis
covery, but is only continuation of
Vespasian's Colosseum. The cruelties
of the world generally begin in nur-
series and in home circles, and in day
schools The child that tranfxes fly
two dogs into combat, or that DULLES
weak or crippled playmate, or the in
difference that serves a canary bird,
needs only to be developed in order to
make a frst-class Nero or a full armed
Apollyon. It'would be a good sentence
to be written on the top line of a child's
book, and fit inscription to be en-
broidered in the armchair of the sitting
room, and an appropriate motto for
judge and jury and district attorney
and sheriff to look at in the court room:
blessed are the merciful for they
shall obtain mercy"
And so the ruins of that Colosseum
preach to me. Indeed, the most i'm
pressive things on earth are ruins. The
four greatest structures ever built are
ruins. The Parthenon in ruins. The
temple of Dana in ruins. The temple
of Jerusalem in ruins. The Colosseum
in ruins. Indeed, the earth itself will
yet be pile of ruins; the mount
aims in ruins, the seas in ruins, the
cities in ruins, the hemiSpheres in ruins.
Yea, further than that, all up and
down the heavens are worlds burned
up, worlds wrecked, worlds extinct,
worlds abandoned. Worlds on worlds
in ruins! But am glad to say it is the
same old Heaven, and in ll'that world
there is not one ruin, and never will be
a ruin. Not one of the pearly gates
will ever become unhinged. Not one
of the amethystine towers will ever
fall. Not one of the mansions will ever
decay. Not one of the chariots will
ever be unwheeled. Not one of the
thrones will ever rock down. Oh!
make sure of Heaven, for it is an ever
lasting Heaven. Through Christ, the
Lord, get ready for residence in the