The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1899-06-02

| forever. Let Inc m1lloES OF Tie PeOpIt
north, south, east and west forbid the
banns cf that marriage, forbid them at
the ballot box, forbid them on the plat
form, forbid them by great organiza-
tions, forbid them by tic Overwhelming
sentiment of an outraged nation, forbid
them by the protest of the church Of
God, forbid them by prayer to high
Heaven That Herod shall not have
this Abigail 1t shall not be to ail-de-
vouring monopoly that this land is to
| be married
Another suitor claiming the hand Of
this republic is nibilism.
He owns nothing but a knife for uni
versal cutthroatery and a nitrogiycerin
| bomb for universal explosion. lie be-
lieves in no God, no government, no
Heaven and no hell except what he can
make on earth. He slew the ear of
Russia, keeps many a king practically
| imprisoned, killed Abraham Lincoln,
would put to death every king and pres
| ident on earth, and, if he had the power,
would climb up until he could drive
! the God of Heaven from His throne and
! take it himself, the universal butcher.
. In France it is called communism; in
the United States it is called anarchism;
! in Russia it is called nihilism, but that
! last is the most graphic and descriptive
| term. 1t means complete and eternal
| smash-up. 1t would make the holding
of property a crime, and it would drive
a dagger through your heart and put
a torch to yoslr dwelling and turn over
| this whole land into the possession Of
theft and lust and rapine and murder
Where does this monster live? In all
the towns and cities of this land. 1t Of
fers its hand to this fair republic. 1t
proposes to tear to pieces the ballot
box, the legislative hall, the congress
sional assembly. 1t would take this
land and divide it up, or, rather, dI-
vide it down. 1t would give as much to
the idler as to the worker, to the bad
as to the good Nihilism! This pan
ther, having prowled across other
lands, has set its paw on our soil, and It
is only waiting for the time in which
to spring upon its prey. 1t was nlhlllsm
that burned the railroad property at
Pittsburgh during the great riots; it
was nihilism that slew black people
in our northern cities during the war;
it was nihilism that mauled to death the
Chinese immigrants years ago; it is nj
hilism that glares out of the windows
of the drunkeries upon sober people
as they go by. All, it's power has never
yet been tested. I pray God its power
may never be fully tested. 1t would, if
it had the power, leave every church,
IL III IL
lege in ashes.
Let me say it is the worst enemy of
the laboring classes in any country.
The honest cry for reform lifted by op-
pressed laboring men is drowned out
by the vociferation for anarchy. The
criminals and the vagabonds who range
through our cities talking about their
rights, when their first right is the pen
itentiary-if they could be hushed up.
and the downtrodden laboring men Of
this country could be heard there
would be more bread for hungry chill
dren. In this land riot and bloodshed
never gained any wages for the people
or gathered up any prosperity. In this
land the best weapon is not the club,
not the shillalah, not firearms, but the
ballot. Let not our oppressed laboring
men be beguiled to coming under the
bloody banner of nihilism. twill make
your taxes heavier, your wages
smaller, your table scantier, your chill
dren hungrier, your suffering greater.
Yet this nihilism, with feet red of
slaughter, comes forth and offers its
hand for this republic. Shall the banrs
be proclaimed? If so, where shall the
marriage altar be, and who will be the
officiating priest, and what will be the
music? That altar will have to be
white with bleached skulls, the officiat
ing priest must be dripping assassin,
the music must be the smothered groan
of multitudinous victims, the garlands
must be twisted of night shade, the
fruits must be the apples of Sodom, the
wine must be the blood of ST. Bartholo-
news massacre. No! 1t is not to nj
hilism, the sanguinary monster, that
this land is to be married.
Another suitor for the hand of this
nation is infidelity. When the midnight |
rufians despoiled the grave of A. T.
Stewart in st. Marks churchyard ev-
erybody was shocked; but infdelity |
proposes something worse than that |
the robbing of all the graves of Chris |
tendon in the hope of resurrection. !
1t proposes to chisel out from the tomb |
stones of your Christian dead the words |
Asleep in Jesus" and substitute the |
words "Obliteration = annihilation."
Infidelity proposes to take the letter |
from the worlds Father, inviting the !
nations to virtue and happiness, and I
tear it up into fragments so small that |
you cannot read a word of it. 1t pro- /
poses to take the consolation from the |
broken-hearted and the soothing pillow |
from the dying. Infdelity proposes to |
swear in the president of the United |
States, and the supreme court, and the
governors of states, and the witnesses
in the courtroom with their right hand |
on Paine's. age of Reason" or Vol |
taire's PHILOSOPHY of History" 1t pro- |
poses to take away from this country
the book that makes the difference be-
tween the United States and the king
1om of Dahomey, between American
and Bornesian cannibaIism. |
If infdelity could destroy the Scrip
lures it would in 200 years turn the
civilized nations back to semibarbar-
sm, and then from semibarbarism into
midnight savagery. until the morals of
a menagerie of tigers, rattlesnakes and
would be better than the
morals of the shipwrecked human race
The only impulse in the right diree-
ion that this world has ever had has
come from the Bible. 1t was the moth