Oxford Democrat. [volume] (Paris, Me.) 1833-1933, 1898-10-04
PRESENT DAY THOUGHTS.

PRESENT DAY THOUGHTS.
BY q. GROsvENOR DAVE.
As to Anarchy An unwholcsome
ditch is not purified by simply curing
the diseases that arise from It. No mat
ter whose dead and honored hands dug
Il, Its obstructions must be removed un-
til only harmless stream flows through.
But this Is no talk about hygiene. The
ditch represents certain social c0ndi-
tions, and number Of European powers
figure as doctors who deal with the sick,
but shrink from the impure source.
A short time since the Empress OF
Austria, one time pleasure-loving, fox
hunting woman, but later with enough
Of sorrow In her life to make her seem
one with US, suddenly went out In the
darkness OF assassination. We all shud-
dered at the tragedy, not solely because
she was an Empress but because she was
also benevolent woman. Further than
that, our hearts dumbly protested when
we learned that the murderer had neither
been wronged by her nor anyone near
her.
Luchessi, insane with social hatred,
simply struck at her because she repre-
sented TO him system OF civilization
that gives nothing TO one and everything
to another. He himself Is a symptom OF
poison In the social ditch. Out Of what
slime then was this evil hand thrust
forth to killg As heedlessly as animals
his parents gave him being, and rs heart
lessly as only the human animal can do
his mother flung him out 20 live or to
die. Unfortunately he lived, and an In
stitution robbed him until ten Of every
semblsnce OF home. Thrust out at that
ridiculous age to shift for himself,
money and Its power became to his In
FAINT soul one god above all, worshipful
for ever. Then came young manhood
Of unskilled labor, with frequent starva-
ton pinches. Then the army, where
without parentage to boast OF there Was
nothing for him but the drudgery OF ex-
sspersting discipline. Then valet,
actually In contac; with wealth though
unable 10 rise and take Of its pleasures.
Gradually his souls protests against fate
soured him utterly, his intellect became
a slave instead OF q master, and at one
fell stroke the unknown evil Of the ditch
which society must cleanse sooner or
later, became power. His name will
be remembered as long as that OF the
stricken and afflicted woman whom he
hurried to the tomb Of the Hspsburgs.
The European powers are aroused and
q number Of poor, misguided creatures
like him will probably be put out OF
harms way In the next few weeks.
These learned governmental pundits find
IL easy 10 kill and thus cure patients,
but they are neither wise nor progressive
enough 10 try prevention. We may call
Luchessi a fool; because one or dozen
murdered monsrchs would make no
change In social conditions except that
the way would be harder for the poor
and downtrodden. He and his Ike are
wrong In expecting society TO quiver and
shrink and dissolve because OF hundred
murders. II will go msn-hunting relent-
lessly. But IL he is u fool, what shall be
said of rulers that hope TO cure anarchy
by killing anarchists They are only
combating symptoms and still neglect
ing the ditch OF social wrongs that first
began 10 be dug bick In dark ages, when
lords knew little and serfs knew less.
Unhesitatingly We can declare Luchessfs
method TO have been wrong. But 1t Is
wrong that grew out OF a wrong; aud II
4, be fair TO condemn him, IL Is right 10
condemn the conditions that made him a
brute.
Should all the sympathy be given TO
the royal mourners? You csn answer
mo" without by n hairs breadth be-
coming mawkish In your sentiment.
And the more you have known OF de-
feat In your plannings, OF industry re-
wsrded by idlenesss because of condi-
tions over which you have no control, OF
the steady dangling before your eyes OF
the one skeleton In your life that society
refuses TO forget, so much more will
your sympathies be divided between the
Empress and the bastard.
So long as privileges are inherited In
stead OF won by merit; so long as the
beauty and JOY and helpfulness OF our
later civilization are denied 10 one and
given 10 another for no reason except
birth; so long as perfectly proper hu-
man aspirations to eat and live and be
decent are crushed out beneath social
tyranny that arrogates the power OF
God and says to the rising desires OF the
human heart, Thus far and no farther"
Just so long will Europe have to deal
with the anarchistic missma that rises
for blind slaughter; for, to the misguid-
ed, government will seem to mean that
the interests of the many are subordinat-
ed to the advantage Of the few.
So long as illegitimstes endure life
long smirching at the hands OF mud
fiiuging purists whose thoughts at least
are conceived in iniquity; so long as the
children of the poor receive education
that only shows the hardness Of their
lot and still leaves them unfit to grapple
with Il; so long as men can be dragged
from labor that pays to the misery and
luuIlllty VI tuIOISSu army eciNiec, Soh-
scious all the time that their blood and
their Drawn are simply being used to
bolster up the ambitions Of lordly chance
lings on top; just so long will there be
the ansrchistic spirit; for custom and
law will seem to some poor souls simply
devised to make life unendurable and
any change enjoyable even though 1t
lead to the grave.
Such an episode stretches over the
social barriers of thousand years, and
proclaims in tones, insistent and solemn
that the lowliest can reach up to the
highest to do damage. And its lesson Is
that the highest In raising the lowliest
to better, more wholesome conditions,
raise them selves also and render life
sweeter and safer for all. Further than
this: the lesson is not for Europe alone,
but for America also, and not for our
neighbors alone but for the one who
reads this as well as for the one who
writes.
The Early Umbrella.
We may infer from the following an
nouncement, copied from The Female
Taller Of Dec IL, 1909, that the UNI