Little Falls herald. [volume] (Little Falls, Morrison County, Minn.) 1889-1950, 1905-03-31
LES NISERABLEs.

LES NISERABLEs.
Sentences from . lecture on Victor
Hugo's masterpiece, delivered at Gin
cinnati by Herbert S. Bjgelow.
The military hero il like . meteor.
With the flash Of his sword his glory
is gone. For its fighters the vorlo has
fulsome praise and short memories.
But the thinkers and livers Of man
kind shine as the stars in heaven.
Victor Hugo believed that in every
human soul there is primitive spark,
a divine element, incorruptible in
this world. immortal in the next. He
held that there was in every man an
angel whom ignorance could blacken
and hate traneform into tiend of
HE'LL
"For the unfortunates, society has
hard judgments and prison bars
Churches and state unite, with hang
mans moose and dungeon cell, to con-
denim and punish and kill these miser-
able ones. For the dieinherired child
rem of hunger and neglect we build
jails and scaffolds. pausing once q
week to worship with him who said
Judge not. Resist not evil. Love
your enemies -
The slums have been made by go
cial injustice. Vice and crime are but
the vomit of the slums. It is infamous
for the state to punish az criminal
the victims # it's own stupidity.
What men need is not law but liber
ty; justice and not punishment. Were
they truly free, they would prove
their inherent goodness. Ignorance
and hate are the evil spirits; ligh,
| and love are the saviors of mankind
This was the philosophy Of Victor
Hugo as it was Of Jesus, and Lei
Miserables is the Sermon on tn
Mount Of felton,
Jean Vatican spent nineteen year
in the salleys for stealing loaf O
bread. We have no use for that wore
galley now Thank God, that i
one word We have struck from on
law We may measure tn
progress of our race by the word
which it ooterows. In the diction
ary Of the future the obsolete mari
will be found after the words mon
opoly, poverty. millionaire. gallows
just as now we have relegsted tn
words galley and slave to the dea'
language Of q more barbarous time.
But let Us not grow comDlaisant
The equality Of men before the law i
still an ignorant or hypocritical boast
The other day Congress voted itsel
$3.50, 600 mileage money for 1eces
which did not occur. About the sam
time, it was reported that man i
Delaware, after q trial which cost tn
county $225. was tied to wnippin
post and flogged by the warden 70
stealing three mackerel valued q
twenty five cents. Who will say tina
big thieves stand on an equality wit
little ones, or shat human rights ar
as sacred IS property rights in tn
courts Of our Iand9'
jean Vsljean was angered tina
society should deprive him Of
chance to work. He saw the brea'
in the window. He thought Of tn
starving children at home. With
flash of resentment, he said II the.
will not let me work. III steal
An imprudent act, you say? Yes
imprudent, but not wicked. If Their
was any crime, it was the crime o
society in doing what is done even Il
this day-in permitting some to mon
opolize the common gifts Of God an,
condemning others to beg or etarv
or STEAL
Les Misersbles tells of tho hateful
nefs 81 force Ct the power Of love
When will the world forget tina
deathless story of the common sorrow
ana the common hopes: Jean Val
jean and the Good Bishop-they ar
the children of a noble genius Thes
lies. exalted by the greatness o
their love and their pity and thei
SORROW. are like the mountain peak
that raise above the clouds of night
flashing from their crimson heights
the light of better day. They tel
of the vast sunrise Of liberty that l
yet to dispel the gloom of ignorano
and shine upon a world where law
are Just and men are kind
There sre several social democra
members of the Wisconsin legislature