Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1911-03-27
THE TYRANNY OF CHATTELS.
Mans Mad Desire to Possess What He
Can't Rid Himself Of.

The people employed ut the furniture
repositories are all anarchists They
must be. They are in Il position to
see the penalties that one has to pay
for The folly of owning property.
man gives up his house in order to
travel. He will return in a year and
take another house. During the in
tervdl he sends his furniture to a de-
pository. That is to say, he pays other
people to make any use they please of
his property while at the same time
he is paying for the use Of Il substi-
TUE for it. This brings it home to
him. The tremendous conscientious
ness of the anarchists who do the re-
moval rubS it into him further. He
has things that he does not want. He
has things that are broken, things that
are shabby. things that are useless.
The anarchists will let linn off for
nothing. 1t all has To be carefully
packed as per contract.
\ strong anarchist takes the broken
Vine glass and wraps it tenderly in
shIvings. y clerky anarchist enters
il on the inventory: NO. 10,I6H. one
portion of broken wine glass" He un-
dcrlines this in red ink. to make il look
pretty. That piece Of glass goes off
to the depository in Il beautiful pam
technion aetuated by a motor There
il is unpacked Rent is paid for it, 1t
is insured II is kept in specially heat
ed rooms. \ night Waterman keeps
guard over its slumber. That is not
the worst. When the man takes am
other house. No. l0,36S comes back to
him again.
There is no way out of it. One can
never sell property, because it never
brings IL a 1.-THE of what one paid for
it. Evcn il one could afford the mon
ey. one could not afford the loss of
sclf-respect engendered by the discov-
cry Of ones imbecilitN. Therefore one
stores. One pays not to know the
worst one stores the novel. Tor
which. years ago. one paid six actual
shillings. at Il bookstall. one stores
the landscape by Goodoll bought when
that artist was 1T his zenith. 1t is bet
ter so--better than finding out what
they would fetch i'll the open market.
1t seems q reasonable belief that
furniture was made foi man, and not
man for the furniture. But we never
live up to it. We abase ourselves To Il
tdIiN Illutl III INtIi'I ~ III illtui W
clean and dust. and polish. II We do
not DO il ourselves. We pay some other
high priest to clean and dUSt and
polish. The sacrifice becomes greater
when the owner of property has the
misfortune To be a collector y eollec-
tor may be Il pure minded and noble
man, so far as me rest 1t his life is
CONCERNED. But where the collecting
faint has touched him h becomes Il
liar and sWin!lcr There is proba
bly, no known crime which pi0us
bibliophile would not eagerly commit
H. order to obtain the literary treasure
dearest 10 his heart--a pound nr so OF
paper with marks on II, . book. He
will only have it for Il VERY little time
before he leaves for k,nsal- Green.
And in Il little time NOR" nobody will
own it. because by the natural pro-
ccsscs of decay il viii Lave dsap-
peareu
One evil leads to another, and the
immoral collector has made the i'm
moral dealer. His immortality Is or
ganiZed. and has its special formulate.
When, for instance, you purchase from
him the ANTIQUE brass mlkpan, which
You do not want though YOU think You
do, he does not tell YOU that it was
made the day before yesterday. He
says, when | got that, sir. it was
impossible to buy any piece OF brass,
purporting to be old, in London with
out being told that when the dealer
acquired ii it was absolutely black.
3, fore now, an entire book has been
L &c.
mon form of insanity. the desire to
possess.
The desire to possess is Il desire to
have what we cannot keep. knowing
that we cannot keep our property, we
make arrangements for the disposal
of it after our death. The man who
makes ii will makes an enemy. AS 4
rule he makes many enemies. Those
who benefit by the will are not CRATE
full. Why be grateful to a man who
gives what he can no longer keep?
Those who have expected to benefit,
ana have received nothing. or have
received less than they expected or
have some irksome restraints put on
their enjoyment OF the benefit, feel
bitterly. They say nothing at the mo-
ment, because they have such fright
fully good taste. They allow Il decent
interval to elapse. \ decent interval
is from three to six weeks.
If this country ever became civilized
the tyranny OF property would be abol-
iShed, because the desire to possess
would vanish. Public clocks being
then trustworthy, nobody would dream
of possessing Il watch Why should
one possess a thing that requires your
own attention every night, and expert
interference 1T regular intervals. In
a civilized country, il man threw his
gold watch down in the street, no.
body would make IL rush for il. The
policeman would tell him that the
street was not the plac" to deposit
rubbish, and that he must take it to
the nearest destructor.
Similarly, nobody would dream of
owning Il motor-car. \ thing which
requires special attendant and a
special service is simply a nuisance.
The burden of possessing property
would be borne by the state. And from
the state one would hire the very
things that are at all essential. Theft
would be unknown. but pocket filling
would be Il punishable offense. The
It'd txtv