The Goodland republic. [volume] (Goodland, Kan.) 1891-1907, 1897-03-26
QUeER RAoEs b eEoPLE
QueeFest OF All are the People Of
These United States,

NHese united states
Col. Hidden Powers, Of Englewood, is
very much interested in a book on
Japan. from which he reads chapters
to his wife every evening after the
children have gone to bed. Last night
he read about the inhabitants Of Yezzo,
a province Of Japan, inhabited by about
$4,000 queer people who call themselves
Ainu.
They live in Japan, but are not jap
anese, and boast that they never will
be. They have a language OF their
own and they believe that they are de-
scended from a big white dog, and are
a short. squatty, stubborn race with
shocky black hair that grows along the
neck to the shoulders and sticks out
like the name of a mule. They are
great fighters, and when they can't
find an enemy to fight they institute
a wholesale slaughter among them
selves,
THAT'S the queerest race Of people
1 ever heard Of, remarked the colonel
as he closed the book.
81 don't know about that, said Mrs.
Powers, who was in a sarcastic humor.
Il think / know a race Of people quite
as queer as this Ainu race"
where do they live?"
'In country bounded on the north
by Canada and the British possessions,
on the east by the Atlantic ocean, on
the south by Mexico and the Gulf OF
Mexico, and on the west by the Pacific
ocean," replied Mrs. Powers, with a
grim smile.
"Why, my DEAR" said the colonel,
after moments reflection, that's the
United States"
you've guessed it, +" said Mrs. Powers,
what in the world do you mean
What is there queer about the people
of the United States?"
"a great many things"
For example?" queried the colonel
Don't you think it's a queer race
of people that win cross the ocean
to escape oppression, engage in a bloody
seven years war, take the chances OF
being hung as traitors, win their indie
pendence through unprecedented valoI
and then allow themselves to become
the abject slaves of the money power
the starved and bullied minions Of DEM
agogues, the subservient creatures bi
heartiess masters placed in power by
their own ballots?"
"Wby, my dear, I don't know"
"You don't know? Well, l do. I've
been doing a little reading and OBJ
servatiOn on my own account, and I've
made some interesting discoveries. ]
have found that we have plenty of
schOolhouses, but more mortgaged
farms; plenty of philanthropists, but
more absconded bankers; plenty OF
poorhouses, but more paupers than
they can hold; plenty of food, but no
money to buy it with; plenty of fac
tories, but few of them in operation;
plenty of tariff, but no revenue; plenty
Of"
stop, my dear; for heavens sake
stopI You've got hold of some crazy
populist paper and are quoting a lot
CT things"
Every one of which is true, and not
one of them taken from populist pa
per. You know you won't have such
publication in the house, and all the
papers l have read have been good
old-fashioned, in gold we trust jour
nails. But I have read these papers
with an open mind and not with an
intellect clouded with prejudice. In
these papers, not in the editorials, my
dear, but in the local news columns
and telegraph dispatches, have found
that we have plenty of poor people
here already, but that we invite more
to cross the ocean to compete at lower
wages with our own i'll paid Iaborers;
plenty of laws 10 punish men fol-
snatching a loaf of bread to save their
loved ones from starving, but no laws
that will reach the rich man who steals
a railroad or wrecks a bank; plenty Of
bond issues for the benefit of English
money sharks, but only one bond issue
placed before The people of the United
States; plenty of silver, but no business
sense to put it in circulation; plenty OF
taxes, but very little value left in the
property that is taxed; plenty Of trust.
to kill competition, but no patriots il
power TO kill trusts; plenty of schemes
/ to make the rich richer, but no endeavOI
to keep the poor from becoming poorer;
plenty of cuts in wages, but no cuts
of beef on the workingman's table,
plenty of Bradley Martins, but no more
Peter Coopers; plenty of talk in the
pulpit about rendering unto Caesar the
things which are Caesars, but little
talk about the poor which 'Ye have
always with you;' plenty of ostsnta
ton, but little chaFityi plenty of money
for foreign theatrical stars, but no rec
ognition for our own great actors
plenty of political jobs, but few job:
for humble industrians; plenty of can
non to train on strikers, citizens of oU
own country, but no courage to traiT
these cannon on the enemies of the ma
ton; plenty of cream, but it's all in the
cocoanut, and the rich own all the cocoa
nuts; plenty of sin, sorTowing, suffer
ing, suicide, murder and poverty, anC
little of virtue, JOY, peace, health, honol
and comfort, and all of this because VT
have a government of the rich, for IN,
rich and by the rich, instead of wha
it started out to be, might be and final
" must be-a government of the PEG