The Lakeland evening telegram. (Lakeland, Fla.) 1911-1922, 1912-12-27
hOstilities Of war.

nees of the New World
Reputable historians tell us that
ii was one unspeakable Outra &c, one
ruin, without discrimin- |
alton Of age or sex. Those who died |
not under the lash in tropical sun |
died in the darkness of the mines. |
Wherever an European had set his
IL OF in his lust for gold, there went
up from all over this land cry OF |
desolation and hopelessness.
Draper says: From sequestered |
sand banks, where the red flamingo |
fishes in the gray OF the morning; !
from feyer-stricken mangrove thick
cts, and the gloom of impenetrable |
forests; from hiding places in the |
llefts of rocks, and the solitude of |
Invisible caves; from the eternal
SHOWS of the Andes, where there were |
no witness but the all-seeing Sun,
there went up to God wall of des-
pair"
Millions upon millions, whole races
and nations were remOrselessly cut
If the same as the billions of wild
pigeons that formerly darkened the
earth have been in our day So ruth
loccly oytorminatod
Draper says that the bishop of Chi
apa affirmed that more than fifteen
millions were eXterminated in his
time.
How was justice administered?
Men were hanged, quartered and
burned for their political and relig-
ious opinions. Our readers are famil-
lar with the career of Lord Jeffreys,
made chief justice because he had
made saturnalia of crime. He wOr-
shipped at the shrine of the gallows,
and filled the sections Of England Wis
tied by him with terror, carnage and
riourning. Women, for mere idle
words. were sentenced to be whipped
At the carts tail through the market
towns; lad named Tutching. for a
mere trivial offense, was sentenced
! to be logged once fortnight for sew
on years. In a single term of court
eight hundred and fOrty-one human
beings were judicially condemned to
transportation to the West India Is
lands, suffering all the horrible pains
Of slave ship, and one-fifth were
thrown overheard to the sharks be-
fore their destination was reached.
What was the state of literature
More than half of the books, songs
and ballads that composed the litera-
ture of the seventeenth and eigh-
tenth centuries would now be en-
cluded from the mail as indecent and
improper to be read in the family
circle
Even in our recollection, works
such as Decameron's, pronounced
classics, were permitted the freedom
of the mails, but are now rigidly eX-
cluded.
We have seen slavery abolished,
duelinc abolished, Imprisonment for
debt abolished, logging as a punish
mcnt for crime abolished, prisons
made more healthful and sanitary
sectiOnalism largely abolished, and a
. more tolerant and better feeling eNX-
!. listing between political parties and
religious denominations.
Indeed, there never was such q
time in the history of the world whei
!. there was greater good feeling ant
: fellowship existing between tn,
churches, when there was more char
ity and hnevolence, when there wa
such studious care for the sick. aget
and unfortunate. There never was
time when our rich men and women
gave SO abundanlly OF their riches 1,
alleviate restitution and suffering.
We live in philanthropic age.
There never was time when s.
. many of the population. compared t
y the whole, enjoyed SO many comfort
& and when absolute restitution was $
u little, as compared with other ages.
II In the centuries Immediately pre-
e. ceding ours. the family was fortu
i nate that Toasted on meat once
IL week, and their homes and furnish
IL ings, compared with ours, were mer
L novels of wretchedness.
l. We can say with Macauley tina
re the more we study the annals of tn
10 past. the more We rejoice tina. W
e. live in merciful age. in an age i
n which cruelty is abhorred, and i
H. which pain, even when deserved,
e. inflicted reluctantly, and from,
|: sense of duty only, and the elias
NJ which has gained most 5v this Mora
D. and intellectual change is the elias