New Ulm review. (New Ulm, Brown County, Minn.) 1892-1961, 1898-09-14
Some Gentle Revolutionists.

s aIe
still remains and will forever remain, az
a synonym for gentleness, benevolence
loving kindness. The man who woulc
represent Goldsmith to be revolution.
lst or an enemy of mankind would write
himself down an ass.
! Not long since, while lecturing IL
Ohio, | bought a copy of Goldsmith's
poems and re-read ssThe Deserted Vii
lage." I found it as enhancing as when
first perused it 80 years ago. The fol.
loving revolutionary" excerpt from
that poem sounds much like metrical
rendering of a speech by Henry George,
Thomas G.. Sherman o. Tom johnson. !
commend it most heartily to all who
read the signs of the times: Il
Ye friends 20 truth, ye statesmen who
survey, -.
The rich mans joys increase, the poor's
decay, ~.
IT'S yours to judge how wide the limits
stand
Between a splendid and happy land.
Proud swells the tide with loads of
weighted ore.
And shouting Folly halls them from her
shore.
Hoards, even beyond the miser's wish,
abound,
And rich men flock from all the world
around.
Yet count our gains. This wealth is but
name
That leaves our useful products still the
same.
Not so the loss. The man of wealth and
pride -.
Takes up space that many poor sup
Space tor his lake, his parks extended
bounds,
space for his horses, equipage and
hounds.
The robe that wraps his limbs in si]ken
sloth
Has robbed the neighboring fields OF
half their growth.
His seat, where solitary sports are seen,
Indignant spurns the cottage from the
green.
Around the world each needful produc,
flies
For all the luxuries the world supplies,
While thus the land, adorned for pleas
ure all,
In barren splendor feebly waits the fall
co.
plain,
Secure 20 please while youth confirm.
her reign,
Sights every borrowed charm that dress
supplies,
Nor shares with art the triumph of he
eyes,
But when those charms are past, fo
charms are frall,
When time advances and when lovers
fail,
She then shines forth, solicitous to bless
In all the glazing impotence of dress.
Thus fares the land, by luxury betrayed
In natures simplest charms at first ar
rayed; III.
But, verglng to decline, its splendors rise
Its vistas strike, its palaces surprise.
While, scourged by famine, from the smil
ing land "
The mournful peasant leads his humbl,
| band, ...~ =.
And while he sinks, without one arm t.
save, -.
The country blooms, garden and 1
grave! ..
And in this poem occurs the quotatio,
so familiar to the ears of men:
Ill fares the land, to fastening ills
prey,
Where wealth accumulates and men de
cay.
Princes and lords may flourish or ma,
| fade;
A breath can make them, as breath ha
made.
But bold peasant1y, their country
pride,
When once destroyed can never be sup
piled.
With prophetic eye the poet locke
forward to the present time, when, un
der the benign influences of Mckinley
ism, Dingleyism and the single gol
standard, New England farmers woul
be starved out, and abandoned farms
would abound on every hand in whs
was once thriving agricultural regio1
He drew his picture, which, after I'll
lapse Of $50 years, is true to nature, t
the situation in many New Englan
neighborhoods:
A time there was, ere England's gr1e1
began, 5.s
When every rood Of ground maintaine
+ its man.
f For him light Labor spread her whole
some store,
Just gave what life required, but CAV
no more
His best companions, Innocence an
s health,
And his hest riches, ignorance of wealth
But times are altered. Trades unfeelin,
st