The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1898-10-23
LEGEND OF THE TALL POPPIEs
An Eastern Story and Its Local Applica-
ton.

ton.
Editor News and Observer: A free
rendition of an Oriental legend, with a
moral befitting other climes and times.
Tomorrow was to see the end of the
tutelage and start of the reign of Ha-
roun. the new Khalufeh of Bagdad.
The young prince had profted by the
wise forethought of his father of blessed
memory, who had provided him with
the most thoughtful tutors in all his
wide domains Most cherished by him
of all was the sage, Dooban, who to his
special school of Humanity tempered
by Justice" was revered as the Dean OF
the faculty.
Mutual love and confidence existed be-
tween the old man and the young. This
was TO be Dooban's last scholastic les
son, and it was given without a WORD
being spoken Master began the
Younger, ION the threshold of the throne
I'm given to understand that bad men
for their own selfish ends are lnstlgatlng
my more ignorant people to sedition ana
bloodshed. You, knowing my aversion
TO cruelty, tell me what I'm to do to
ouell it," Without Il word in reply the
sage pointed to the garden, where IN
struction was usually given and imblbed.
Without a word from either, the old man
began looping off the heads of the tallest
poppies with his cane, and then point
ed TO the palace. Arriving, he of deep
thought and few words, gave the other
70 know by sign that he wished reclta-
tion of the lesson given. IF | have
read Alright, oh, sage" was the reply,
of
gators to sedition and bloodshed, be-
ginning with the highest" Good boy,
and Prince of the Faithful, said the
sage. thou knowest thy lesson" And
nv the beard of the prophet I'll heed 1t,
auoth the other. If any aspiring knaVe
would by treason mount to tyranny, ny
instigating the murder of my people, OH
goes his head, or if he escapes the scy-
meters of my soldiers, he shall be drag
ged from his lurking place ana
furnish another pendant trunk to my
execution banyan tree. Said well, on
SageT' Yea, truly, oh Prince, thou
didst con thy lesson well, and hast re-
cited beseemingly. In critical Juncture
of State affairs when rogues and rascais
are trying to subvert and reverse the
true order of nature by putting the bet
ter element of the people at the bottom
and the baser on top. Wisdom, SANCTION
ed by Justice and sustained by Human
ity, enjoins the course you have wisely
resolved on" And so the first tirman OF
the young ruler on mounting the throne
was to embody the pith and point OF the
above. Public opinion of that day sus-
tanned it, as it has Illuminated its own
edict to like intent on divers like occa-
sions, one of which is now upon u.s.
Harken, We men of Runnymede and
Mecklenburg by descendancy; there are
bad men banded together now III North
Carolina by like vile purpose to degrade
their betters beyond endurance In order
to elevate themselves. Ii their deVillsh
teachings lead to bloody collisions be-
tween their misguided followers of an
ignorant and besotted race and your
brothers in the minority at isolated points
does not justice, humanity and sound
policy or rather self-preservation enjoin
that they be first treated by the rigid
rule laid down by the Sage of Bagdad
to his royal pupil in the kindergarten
lesson of the tallest peoples? Whilst
black powder burns, or the black jack
grows, or the lamp post throws out light, !
there is an unborn affirmative to that
question in the heart of every self-"e-
specting white man of Anglo-Saxon
lineage. The base-born instigators 10,
wholesale rapine and murder are pri-
marily responsible and reprehensible #
their teachings lead to that end and
should be primarily dealt with. Our race
is not the stuff for st. Domingo massa-
cres If attempted in any community,
"off with the heads of the very tallest
poppies" So say all of us.
w. J. G.