The Middleburgh post. [volume] (Middleburgh, Snyder Co., Pa.) 1883-1916, 1900-01-18

sad smile th2t was more pathetic to the
bishop and Mr. Maxwell than the young
mans grim despair-''yes. l have beg
ged. and have been to the charity or
CARNATIONS. and l have done every
thing when out of job. except steal
and lie. in order to get food and fuel.
dcn't I know that Jesus would have done
some Of the things have been obliged
to do for living, hut ! know ! have
never knowingly done wrong when out
OF work Sometimes | think maybe he
would have starved sooner than beg l
don t know
The old mans voice tremblcd. and he
looked around the room timidly A 81
lence followed. broken by fierce voice
from large, black haired, heavily
bearded man who sat three seats from
the bishop The minnie he spoke nearly
every man in the hall leaned forward
eagerly The man who had asked tho
question. what would Jesus do in my
caseg" slowly sat down and asked the
man next to him. Who's thN:?"
"That's Carlsen, the socialistic lead
er. Now you Il hear something.
"This is all bosh. to my mind. be-
gan Carlsen. while his great, bristling
beard shook with the deep. inward
anger of the man. 1.-The whole of our
system is at fault. What we call civil
ligation is rotten to the core. There is
no use trying to hide it or cover it mp
/ IN, ,Nf t-r 70 nd
| bines and capitalistic greed that means
simply death to thousands of innocent
men. women and children. | thank
God, if there is a God. which | very
much doubt that |, for one, have never
dared to marry and try to have home,
Homel Talk of hell Is there any big
ger than the one this man with his
three children has On his hands right
this minutey And he's only one out of
thousands, and yet this city and every
other big city in this country has its
thousands of professed Christians who
have all the Injuries and comforts and
who go to church Sundays and sing
their hymns about giving all to Jesus
and bearing the cross and following him
all the way and being savedl l don
say that there aren't some good men
and women among them, but let the
minister who has spoken to US here to-
night go into any one of dozen aris-
tocratic churches could name and pro-
pose to the members to take any such
pledge rs the one he's proposed here and
see how quick the people would laugh
at him for fool or n crank or a fanatic.
| Oh, mol That's not the remedy. That
can't ever amount to anything. We've
got to have a new start in the way Of
government. The whole thing needs re-
constructing. don't look for any re-
form worth anything to come ont Of
the churches. They are not with the
people They are with the aristocrats,
with the men Of money. The trusts and
monopolies have their greatest men in
the churches. The ministers as class
are their slaves. What we need is n
system that shall start from the COM
mon basis Of socialism founded on the
rights Of the common people,
Carlsen had evidently forgotten all
about the three minute rule and was
launching himself into regular ora
tion that meant, In his usual surround
ings, before his usual audience, an hour
at least, when the man just behind him
pulled him down unceremoniously and
rose. Carlson was angry at first and
threatened little disturbance, but the
bishop reminded him Of the rule, and
he subsided. with several mutterings
in his beard. while the next speaker be-
gan with a very strong eulogy on the
value of the single tax as q genuine
remedy for all the social ills He was
followed by a man who made bitter
attack on the churches and ministers
and declared that the two great obsta-
cles in the way Of all true reform were
the courts and the ecclesiastical ma
chimes.
When he sat down. o man who bore
every mark Of being street laborer
sprarg to his feet and poured ont a per-
feet torrent of abuse against the corpor-
ations, especially the railroads. The
minute his time was up big brawny
fellow who said he was metal worker
by trade claimed the floor and declared
that the remedy for the social wrongs
was trades unionism. This, he said,
would bring on the millennium for la.
Dor more than anything else. The next
man endeavored to give some reasons
why SO many persons were out of en-
ployment and condemned inventions az
the works of the devil. He was loudly
applauded by the rest Of the company.
Finally the bishop called time on the
free for all" and asked Rachel to sing.
Rachel Winslow had grown into a
very strong. healthful, humble Chris
tian during that wonderful year in
Raymond dating from the Sunday
when she first took the pledge to do as
Jesus would do, and her great talent Of
song had been fully consecrated to the
service Of her Master. When she began
to sing tonight at this settlement meet
ing, she had never prayed more deeply
for results to come from her voice-the
voice which she now regarded as the
r l.