Mexico weekly ledger., 1898-09-22

| Indignant spurns the cottage from the green.
Around the world each needful pr odrct dies
For all the Injuries the world sup plies,
| While thus the land. adorned for pleasure all,
In barren splendor feebly waits the fall.
| As some fair female, unadorned aid plain.
| Secure to please while youth confirms her
reign,
| plies
| Nor shares with art the triumph tf her eyes,
| But when those charms are past, for charms
are frail
| when time advances and when loy ers fail,
| She then shines forth, solicitous to bless.
In all the giaring impotence Of dr. ss-
Thus fares the land, by luxury betrayed,
In natures simplest charms ct frst arrayed;
But, verging to decline, its splendo rs rise, .
Its vtstas strike, its palaces surprise,
While, scourged by famine, from the smiling
land
And while he sinks, without one arm to save.
The country blooms, a garden AMI q gravel
And in this poem occurs the quota
| tion so familiar to the ears Of men:
| Ill fares the land, to Fastening ills a prey.
Where wealth accumulates and man decay.
| Princes and lords may flourish or may fade;
| A breath can make them, as a breath has made.
But a bold peasantry, their country's pride.
| When once destroyed can never be supplied.
0oldsmith,s Prophetic Eye.
With prophetic eye the poet looked
forward to the present time, when, IN
der the benign influences of Mckinley
ism, Dingleyism and the single gold
standard, New England farmers would
| be starved out, and abandoned farms
would abound on every hand in what
| was once q thriving agricultural region.
He drew this picture, which, after the
lapse Of 1870 years, is true TO nature, to
the situation in many New England
neighborhoods:
A time there was, ere England yriefs began,
When every rood of ground maintained its
man.
For him light Labor spread her. wholesome
store,
Just gave what life required, but gave nc
more
| His best companions, innocence and health,
AND his best riches, ignorance Of wealth.
But times are altered. Trades unfeeling train
Usurp the land and dispossess the swain.
Along the lawn, where scattered hemlets rose,
Unwieidy wealth and cumbrous Yomp repose,
And every want to luxury allied,
And every pans that folly pays 70 pride.
Those gentle hours that plenty tade to bloom,
Those calm desires that asked but little room,
Those healthful sports that graeed the peace
full scene,
Lived in each look and Frightened all the
green.
These, far departing, seek q kinder shore,
And rural mirth and manners are no more.
Even in the fertile agricultural Sec
tions Of the west, even in the Missis-
sippi valley, the richest large body Of
farming land in the world, the substi.
tuition Of the tenant farmer for the own
er of the soil goes on apaoe to the detri.
ment of the state.
The last census developed the saddest
fact that I ever read-that nearly one.
half of American householders do not
own their own homes. Almost half the
fathers and mothers, husbands and
wives of the land are h0useless and
homeless in a country which less than
400 years ago was a bowling wilder
ness, which 800 years ago was still a
virgin soil.
Uncle Sans Lost Land.
When I was a little child, my father
used to put me to sleep at night by
singing to me a song entitled "Uncle
Sam Is Rich Enough to Give Us All a
Farm" He was then. but dear un.
Gle is ''busted'' now as to lind because
unwise and reckless congresses granted
to corporations enough land to make
half a dozen states as big as Missouri.
Conditions in this country have grown
worse rather than better since 1890, the
date of the last census. That much can
be stated, I hope, without. laying my
self open to the charge of pessimism OF
anarchy. If practically so per cent Of
Wi householders were renters in 1890
and times have grown worse since then,
how many are renters now? Most prob
ably much more than one-talf.
Lord Chatham said: San English
mans house is his castle. It may be
frail and full of holes and cracks, SC
that the rains Of heaven pour in and
the winds whistle through it, but it is
nevertheless his castle, and the king,
with all his power, dare not cross its
threshold unbidden," or words to that
effect.
It is tTae now that an. Americans
house is his castle. If a man owns his
WI home, be it a town loi or a section
of farming land, it is his own. He is
free, and no boss, no landlord, al COM
mand him to move on.
No wonder Henry George and other
lovers Of his kind were iipprehensive
as to the future Of the masses Of the
people when they saw coming stealth
lily and swiftly upon ms the curse which
has been the blight of heland-the
curse of absentee 1andlordism.
o. Tr1r Al - TT-x1. Cav Uoc
rich enough to give MS all q farm. Now,
when a father locks into the faces Of
his prattling babes and pr,sses them to
his heart, he wonders whsre they are
to find homes in the days that lie be-
fore them. To this complexion has it
come at last through the uIiwisdom and
maladministration of the Republican
party. Surely, the American fathers and
mothers will wake from their lethargy
at last and hurl from power forever the
party which is rendering the masses
houseless and homeless.
Mark HANNAH Predieament.
Uneasy rests the head that wears a
crown is an old saying full of wisdom.
In the same line is, "All that glistens is
AOb 6OAA. 4OWs u10ICuo IAs AAoAAun 40 q
great and mighty parsonage and is gen.
orally supposed to have all things for
the asking. Not 80, however, as the fol
lowing true story will illu strate. This
is the greatest show town on earth, the
president, diplomatic corps, cabinet and
two houses of congress being the prin-
cipal performers. There are certain wise
denizens Of Washington who long since
made up their minds to make the most
Of the circus and who actually have
come to believe that the Hhow was ar
ranged for their special benefit and be-
hoof. To all such the auguration of a
president is a godsend fo. the particu-
lar purpose Of filling their pockets with
the coin of the realm.
There are two ways Of Heeing an in.
auguration. One is to stand down ON
the street in the cold lHarch wind,
hustled and squeezed by hilarious thou
sands, and the other 10 10 sit in the