The Athena press. [volume] (Athena, Umatilla County, Or.) 18??-1942, 1895-03-22
DARKEST AMERICA.
Ballington Booth Says Americans Are
Humbugs.


General Ballington Booth ia a
letter to the N. Y. World on Ozark
est New York" among other things,
says:
have been disappointed in the
American people. expected to
find them extremely wise political
ly. | don't think ever saw such
humbug. There is so much clap
trap, so much appealing to preju-
dice, so little Of sound reasoning
and calm decisions in matters af-
fecting public safety.
They don't believe in grace.
They don't want grace. Grace is
no good for backing. They want
the backing Of the republican par
ty, or Mr.. Cleveland, or somebody
else. 1t is your ballot-box, Of
which you are SO proud, that is
to be your undoinglunless you wake
up to what the situation is.
The millionaire is on top now
and the great crowd is struggling
beneath in misery. They are the
sans culottes--the breechless fel.
lows. They see the milionaires
having every comfort, while it is
as much as they can do to make a
living, and the poorhouse at the
end when all is done. The next
revolution will not be by force. 1t
will be by your ballot-box, which
the breechless multitude has
just begun to know how to use.
One day they are going to turn
things upside down. They are the
many. The millionairs are the
few. The millionairs will then
be underneath, the breechless null
titude on top.
1t will be well if they stick to
voting only. 1t would have been
well in the French revolution if
they had let the breechless multi
tude vote at the start.
1t would have brought Napoleon
nearer by year or two. Isn't that
an important thing to think OFF
Isn't it better to lose your money
bag than your head?
Your problem here in darkest
America is no different from this
problem in other parts Of the civil
lized world. AS / said before, it is
the mere externals which are diff
ferent. If the breechless multitude
threatens here, it also threatens in
the older countries, but you have
so much more the advantage; your
chimney has not been smoking SO
long. The condition of life has
not hardened SO much. There is
the enthusiasm which comes to one
who has gone from ocean to ocean
in your eountry-tEe enthusiasm
of the realization Of your grand
possibilities.
I have the same feeling when |
look upon the Salvation army. 1t
is not what it is, hut whatit is
going to be; what it will be if it
was started. Yours is the country
meant to be free. Yours is
government instituted to guard
every mans right to life and haps
mess. When it guards the right
to life and happiness of every man
and woman, the poor fellow in the
tenement-house as well as the nil
lionaire, then there will bo no dark
est America and darkest New
York.
Saving a girl for $16. Will it
pay? We can save a girl for $16.
That is counting all wreckage. We
do this without legislative help.
Those we have saved are repaying
what they have cost. We keep
them for three years, and after
they have been with us SO long and
are tested, the past is buried and
forgotten, and they go out into the
world, nobody knowing their his
tory, and become wives and moth
ers, beautiful women, for they are
saved souls. The scheme, for men
will pay its own way.
said to his Excellency the gov
ernor Of Canada: @You want inn
migration. You want a simple
peasantry, who will be attached to
the soil. You want people not to
become pressmen, lawyers and doc
tors, not to proud to work for a
living, but men who have a stake
in the country. / will bring you
people who are tested. | will not
ask you any fees to induce them to
come. They will be men of two
classes, those who have been sub
merged and those who were never
submerged, but have been chained
to the wheel earning $3 to "a a
week.
"In one of the prisons | went into
here there were GAO men locked up.
They cost the state $4,000 per
annum to keep. Each man got
about a pound Of beefsteak day,
said to myself: Il can get thous.
ands of people who will commit
any reasonable crime for the sake
of being fed like that" Give me
those people and win not only
save the money but save the men +"
You need blood purifier. We
make this assertion with conf
dence, because it is fact that there
2 Il -.