The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1893-01-17
A VOICE FROM THE PAST.
What Victor Hugo Said on the Question
of Labor.

much now as in the days of Spartan
HelOts.
l am one of them, and 1 add my
voice to that of the multitude that it
may reach the ears of the rich. Who
am |? One of the people. From whence
same |? From the bOttomless pit
How Am | named3 | am wretchedness
Ny lords, l have something to say x
you.
Nv lords, you are placed high. You
have power, o~pulence, pleasure, the
san immOvable at your zenith, un
limited authority, enjoyment undl
vided. a total forgetfulness of others.
90 he II. But there is something below
YOU: above YOU, perhaps. Ny lords, l
mfpart to you a novelty. The human
race exists,
am he who comes from the deaths.
Nv lords, you are the great and the
rich. That Is perllOus. You take ad
vantage of the night. But have a care,
there is greater power-the morning.
The dawn cannot be vanqulshed. 1t
has within it the outbreak of irresist-
IDLE day.
You. YOU are the dark clouds of priv
Hege. Be afraid. The true master Of
the house Is about to knock at the door
What il the father Of privileged
Chance What is his son? Abuse
Neither chance nor abuse is enduring.
They have both of them an evil to
morrow
come to warn you. l come to de
nounce to You your own bliss. 1t is
made out of the ills of others, Your
paradise is made out Of hell II of the
poor.
l come to open before you the
wealthy. the grand assize5 of the poor
-thet sovereign Who is the slave, that
convict who Is the judge.
I am bowed down under what have
to say. When TO begin7 | know not.
I have picked up in the vast trough
struggling pleas. Now what shall |
do with them2 They overwhelm me-
and l throw them pellmell before me.
I am a diver, and l bring up from
the depths "A pearl, the truth. l speak
because I know. | have experience;
Ihave seen. Suffering? No, the word
Is weak. . master in bliss! Poverty
i have gr )wn up in it winter-I have
shivered in it; famine-I have tasted
it; scorn-I have undergone it; the
plague have drank of it.
| felt 1t requisite That | should come
among you. Wayl Because of my
yesterdays rags. 1t was in order that
my voice might be raised among the
satiated that God cOmmingled me with
the hungered Oh! have pity. Oh!
you know not this fatal world, where
to you think thai you belong. So high,
you are outside of it. | Will tell you
what it Is.
Abandoned, an orphan. alone in "a
boundIess creation, | made my en'ry
into this gloom that you cali society.
The fir thing that | saw was law
800 ~, El-~> @F - o1Ihl~. ElO -01 III
was wealth-It Is Your wealth-undFT
tt g form Of d woman dead of cold and
hunger, the third was luxury under
the shape IF a haunted man chained To
prison walls; the fourth was your
palaces beneath which covered the
tramp
The human race has been made by
you slaves and cOnvicts. You have
made this earth a dungeon. Light is
wanting, air is wanting, virtue is want
ing.
Tha workers of this world those
fruits YOU enjoy, live in death. There
are little girls VINO begin 81 eight by
prostitution, and who end at twenty
by old age. Who among you have
been to Newcastle on Tyne2 There are
men i'll the mines there who chew coal
to fill the 4ch and cheat hunger.
LOOh Ju bU IStLlC dSf3II6. ~ anu Oh
work everywhere. Are you aware
that the Harlech fishermen eat grass
when the fishery fail ? Are YOU aware
that al Burton Lazars there are still
certain ltpers driven into the woods,
who are fired at if they come II of
their dens? In Peckridge they have
no beds in the novels and holes are dug
In the ground for children to sleep. sc
that in place beginning with the cradle
they begin with the tomb.
MeTcv, have mercy for the poor
Oh, [ c~onjure you have pityl
But no, you will not. know We all.
Devils bred in hell and dogs with heart,
Of OF Upward to your golden
thrones for ages has gone the cry Of
misery, the grOan of hunger and the
sob Of despair, and ye needed not.
What mercy thou hast given shall be
melted out To you in urn
Bear In mind that the series of kings
M with the sword was interrupted
by Cromwell armed with the axe.
Tremble! The incorruptible' disso
lutlons draw near; the clipped talon,
push out again; the %tOrn-out tongues
take to fight; become tongues of fire
scattered To the winds Of darkness, anC
they howl III the infinite. They who
are hungry show their idle teeth Para
discs butt over bells totter. There is
suffering, and that which is above leans
over, and that which is below gaps
open, The shadow asks to become
light. The damned d. cus5 the elect
1t Is the people who are onc0ming.
tell you 1t Is q mar who ascends. l
Is the red dawn of catastrophe.
What happiness to be again ridder
and beaten ana starved! What happi
ness to work forever for bread anC
water! What happiness to be fire,
from the delusion that cake is goo,
and life other than misery Was ther,
anything crazy than those ideas