The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1898-08-31

sawswith- amusement q maddened peas
antry drag royalty from its throne and
religion from its ancient sanctuariee
By thA lurid glare Of. burning palaces
they saw mob of starving men and
women sweep kingdom from the earth
and a licentious nobility go down be-
fore storm that no human hand could
stay. The torch Of the incendiary lit
with a fearful distinctness the demon
In the human heart, as it sprang to its
feast Of blood. The burning flash of
avengfng steel glfnted along the ruins OF
dying state, and kings, princes and
noblemen alike withered and fell be-
meath the bloody ak of the guillotine.
The maddened populace demanded
drop for drop Of the blood that had been
pressed out of the people by slow tor
ture during the long, weary stretch of
ten centuries Of shame and sin.
The most terrible Reign of Terror
was not the one that lasted for three
months under the guidance Of Robe
sphere and Danton; it was the one
which had endured since the days of
Charlemagne.
The swift death by the ak was nothing
when compared to the lifelong death
from hunger, cold, insult, cruelty, and
the breaking of heartstrings which had
marked the existence of the French
peasant under Goth and Bourbon. A
single cemetery would contain all the
collins filled by that momentary reign
of terror, but all France was dotted with
the graves of the victims of that fear
and more awful terror which modern
education forbids to be taught in all its
vastness, and for which reason will
never be execrated as it deserves.
In spite of these calamities, so preg-
nant with warning, this country has de-
hberately established that society as
Its model, is initiating the methods en-
ployed by those dead dynasties, and is
today pathetically working out the
same destiny in tears, misery and blood.
We are treading the well-beaten path
strewn with the epitaphs Of dead ma
tons, and as we search among their
archives we find the one supreme and
potent cause Of their overthrow can be
summed up in the pregnant sentence
monopoly of money.
From the days of Greece and Rome
this has been the favorite method of the
ambitious few to enslave the toiling
millions. single span bridges the gulf
OF time from the perfumed patrician
arising from his dainty feast of nightin-
gales tongues to the public debauchee
who today silences criticism of his gil
gantic spoliations by vast educational
benefactions.
The modern Julius Didius collects
usury rent from poverty and prostitu-
ton to build church costing a million
dollars, while the victim of his greed
and avarice is dying for want of food.
One-third the working population of
our nation is living in enforced idle
ness; a million tramps roam our streets
rendering life and property insecure,
ana yet our press is dumb, our pulpit is
silent, and the individual who dares to
raise his voice in warning tones is held
up to the obloquy and scorn of the very
men who should be the first to uphold
his arm.
But, thank God, the days of heroes
and martyrs have not forever ended.
Every land and every age have had
them. They have walked in the shadow
OF the cross that humanity might be
free. 1t was this spirit that reared the
cabin OF the pioneer and hallowed it
with woman's love. 1t touched with
more than celestial sweetness the lips of
Patrick Henry and reused a nation in
defense of a new Magma Charta. 1t in
splred the immortal Jefferson to write
the constitution of his country. It up
held the arm of the noble Washington at
valley Forge, and sustained the patriotic
Jackson behind the cotton bales at New
Orleans.
Again humanity is crying out, and it
will not cry in vain. New heroes and
fresh martyrs will arise. Let us gather
new courage and press onward. until
truth shall be worshiped at every shrine,
and liberty has left no man bound to
the juggernaut Of plutocracy.
For freedoms battle once begun,
+ Bequeathed by bleeding sire to son.
Though bafied oft is ever won."
IL G. Bateman in Peoples Party Paper.