Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1906-02-07
THE WIDOW AND THE TRUST.

IN Plttsburg there liyed November,
1905) a widow by the name OF Lot, aud
| she owned one small bit of land there
| in; and upon this parcel of Gods earth
stood her modest cottage the cottage
| to which her husband had led her a
bride, when she was Young and pretty
and he was young and strong.
Here they had lived and worked.
Messengers from the unseen world had
brought children to them: and the man
with the same thoughts, the same hopes
and fears that have made the hearts of
fathers and mothers thrill or ache since
! Eve sucked Cain and Abe.
| In that dim shanty in Pittsburg,
| Christmas Eve had come with Its equal
tread, as 1t had come to the lordliest
palace in the land; and as mother and
| father crept over the floor to fill the
| little stocking which hung upon the
| hearth, the angels of our better nature
softened their souls with tender sug-
gestions, even IS they melted yours and
mine In those years which cannot re
| turn.
Sickness and sorrow, health and joy,
toll and success, labor and failure,
good temper and bad. bright days and
dark, loyal friends and time servers, all
the endless variety of feeling and eX-
| perience which Life allots to US all, this
couple felt aud knew in the humble
home whereof | speak.
The husband died: the children grew
up and passed out into the world: the
| Widow was left alone; and the after
noon of life was drawing toward the
night. time in the home which had so
| long been hers
| One of the big companies composing
| the Steel Trust found itself in need of
more ground, to build on; and this adj
ditional ground which it coveted was
the home of the Widow Lot.
Would she sell?
No. She would not sell. Would she
accept $40, 900 for or little bit of land
and her little bit of house?
No. The land was consecrated soil
| to her; the house was her home; her
life had been spent there; she loved it;
| there was something in 1t which money
| could not buy; she had not much long.
er to live; he would stay there till the
Master called; no other place on earth
could compensate her for the loss of
| this; she was too old to be transplanted;
she must keep her home.
With an insolence born of the knowl-
| edge of the power of money, with a
| contempt for the weak and the poor
| which the rich and the strong make
more manifest in this country every
year, the Steel Trust outraged this old
woman, pulling down her house, seiz-
| ing upon her little home, doing it IN
| broad daylight, doing it deliberately
after putting her on notice that they
| were going to do lt-so sure were the
mighty me;i of the Steel Trust that her
shrill cries for help would find no echo
| and no response.
| They robbed her publicly, violently,
pitilessly, with never fear of God or
man to deter them,
The Steel Trust is worth more than
a billion of dollars. 1t has property in
many different states 1t owns land by
the thousands of acres. 1t owns houses
and lots by the hundred. 1t was able
to have bought what 1t wanted, from
those who were willing to sell, but it
chose to give loose rein to the lust of
power and to take from the Widow Lot
her bit of land-her all!--rather than be
content with what it already had, or to
| go elsewhere and buy what it needed
So the Trust took it-took it by force
of arms, took it in contempt of Law.
took it in defiance of Right, took 1t with
insolent disregard of Public Opinion
took it as the lion takes his prey, took
it as the ravIsher takes the helpless
victim Of his lust.
Woe unto the weak, in this land of
law and order, of churches and schools
OF Democracy which prostitutes itself
in the service Of the rich and the bru.
tally strong!
The poor have no rights which the
corporate millionaires are bound to re-
spect.-Thomes E. Watson, in his Mag
aZine.