Kansas agitator. [volume] (Garnett, Kan.) 1890-1905, 1896-11-13
SOME SAD PICTURES.
DRAWN FROM LIFE BY A MAN
WITHOUT A SOUL.
An Apt Illustration of How the Law
Makes Poverty Crime-It Is From
The Coming Nation - Breaking the
Laws of God and Man.

The Coming Nation - Breaking the
Laws of God and Man.
I was sitting in the park one day,
resting my brain with the chatter and
song of little birds, and feeling happy
In the thought that had been born in
free America, and fate had so ordered
my life that drIfted to the far west,
where men draw in the love Of liberty
with the very air they breathe.
/ know l have been told this flowery
story ever since / was old enough to
appreciate a lie.
On the grass, few rods from where
I sat, two men were reclining and talk
Ing a tone of voice too low for me
to understand. Their faces and
clothes were soiled with marks of box
car travel, and 1 knew they were stran-
gers.
Presently one man got up OF the
grass and came over to where l sat
musing and asked me il knew where
a willing man could find employment
l could not tell him. The town was
full of idle men all the time, and the
highways and byways were full of
voorhees, men, going up and down
this beggared continent in search OF
labor and chance to earn liveli-
hood
He went back to his companion with
detected air, and lay down again on
the grass. The happy little birds sang
joyously overhead the heavily laden
bee went drowsily homeward through
the balmy air; the tall weeds nodded
in the gentle autumn wind; the big
red ants at my feet went on laboring,
excavating new cells for the enlarge
ment of their great underground city;
the whippoorwills were congregating
overhead and skimming through the
air in graceful circles while waiting
for their pilot leader to order Hight
to the south to escape the cold storms
of the coming winter; the minister
rode by in his carriage, seated along
side of the prominent banker who
loans money at 10 per cent-and the
two men lay on the grass.
The city marshal came into the park.
He had been elected by the populists--
the great reform party-the party
pledged in their platform to protect the
oppressed poor.
He stopped in front of the two men
on the grass and asked them what
they were doing there. They told him
they were, resting. He asked them
what they had been working at. One
replied that he was hunting work.
had not worked for several months,
except the few odd jobs he obtained
to pay for meal.
The marshal asked them If they had
any money. The one had six dollars.
He produced it from his vest pocket
and showed it with pride. The other
mantle one who had talked with me
the one who said he was hunting
work, had but cents.
81 am compelled to arrest you for a
vagrant," said the marshal; and he laid
his hand on the reclining mans shout
der and ordered him to get up. He led
him away to the city jail, while his
companion, who possessed Sc in cash,
was left reclining on the grass.
There is nothing exciting about this
story. nothing romantic, and nothing
to show that we are liberty loving
people. sat there and saw it all.
did not raise my voice in protest
against this outrage. I was perfectly
helpless. 1t was the law. Poverty
has been made CT ime.
The birds still sang their happy songs
overhead, the bees went slowly wing
ING their way home with their load
of honey. The ants worked away at
NV feet: the whippoorwills collected
into a large flock and their leader led
them over the mountains toward the
sunny plains of sunny SOUTH" while
awav down in my heart cursed such
system of government in which men
are robbed of an opportunity to work,
and then imprisoned as Migrants be-
cause they are moneyless.
NV curiosity was aroused, so went
over and asked the man with the price
of liberty in his pocket how it hap
pened that he had money while his I'M
fortunate companion had scarcely any,
thing at all.
"It's simply my luck, stranger" he
replied. with a hardened grin. Il had
but so cents last night, but got into
a little game of draw with the boys
down at the water tank, and-well, luck
was in my favor, and smouched a
pair of kings just at the time when l
needed them, and skinned the crowd.
That's all"
And he turned over on his back,
nlaced both arms over his eyes and
went to sleep. He cared no more for
his companion in distress than he did
for hungry Chinaman on the opposite
side of the globe.
l started home with mingled feel
ing of pity and contempt sickening