Willmar tribune. [volume] (Willmar, Minn.) 1895-1931, 1914-10-14
(ng, they had no definite objective, they

Ing, they had no DEFINITE OOJectlVe, they |
were just marching and showing them |
selves in the more prosperous parts
Of London. They were sample OF |
that great mass of unskilled, cheap |
labor which the new, still cheaper me- |
chanical powers had superseded for
evermore. They were being "scrap- |
ped"-as horses had been 'scrapped."
Barnet leaned over the parapet watch. |
ing the 20, his mind Quickened by hts |
own preca1ous condition. For time,
he says, he felt nothing but despair
at the sight; what should be done,
what could be done for this gathering
surplus Of humanity? They were 80
manifestly useless-and incapable
and pitiful.
What were they asking for?
They had been overtaken by unex-
pected things. Nobody had foreseen-
Just what the multitudinous shambling
enigma below meant 1t was an ap-
peal against the unexpected-an ap-
peal to those others who, more for
tunate. seemed wiser and more power
full, for something-for Intelligence.
This mute mass, weary footed, rank
following rank. protested its persuasion
that some Of these others must have
foreseen these dlslocations-that any
how they ought to have foreseen-and
arranged.
That was what this crowd of wreck
age was feeling and seeking so dumbly
to assert.
Things came to me like the turning
on Of light in darkened room," he
says. "These men were praying to
their fellow creatures as once they
prayed to God. The last thing that
men will realize about anything Is that
it Is inanlmate. They had transferred
their animation to mankind. They
still believed there was intelligence
somewhere, even If it was careless or
malignant 1t had only to be aroused
to be conscience stricken, to be moved
to exertion. And l saw, too, that as
yet there was no such intelligence.
The world waits for Intelligence. That
intelligence has still to be made. that
will for good and order has still to be
gathered together, out Of scraps Of i'm
pulse and wandering seeds Of benevo-
lence and whatever is fine and creative
in our souls into a common purpose
It's something still to come"
It Is characteristic of the widening
thought of the time that this not very
heroical young man who in any previ-
Gus age might well have been alto
gether occupied with the problem Of
his own individual necessities should
be able to stand there and generalize
about the needs Of the race.
! But upon all the stresses and con-
flicts Of that chaotic time there was al
ready dawning the light Of a new era.
The spirit of humanity was escaping,
even then it was escaping, from its ex-
IRENE Imprisonment In individuals
Salvation from the bitter intensities OF
self, which had been a conscious reli.
gious end for thousands Of years, which
men had sought in modification, in the
wilderness, in meditation and by innu
merable strange paths, was coming al
last with the effect Of naturalness into
the talk Of men, into the books they
read, into their unconscious gestures
into their newspapers and daily pur
poses and everyday acts. The broai
horizons, the magic possibilities, thai
the spirit Of the seeker had revealed t
them were charming them out Of those
ancient and instructive preoccupation!
from which the very threat Of hell an(
torment had failed to drive them. AND
this young man, homeless and wlthou
provision even for the immediate
hours, in the presence Of social disor
ganization, distress and perplexity, IL
blazing wilderness Of thoughtles'
pleasures that blotted out the stars
could think. as he tells US he thought.
II saw life plain" he wrote. II say
the gigantic task before US, and tn
very splendor Of its intricate and i'm
measurable difficulty filed me wit
exultation. saw that we have still
to discover government, that we hav
still to discover education, which l
the necessary reciprocal Of government
and that all this-in which my owl
little speck Of a life was so manifesto
overwhelmed-this and its yesterda
In Greece and Rome and Egypt wer
nothing. the mere first dust sWirls q
the beginning, the movements and dir
!. murmurings of sleeper who viii pre-!
emily be awake"
And then the story tells, with an e1
gaging simplicity, Of his descent frol
|, this ecstatic vision Of reality.
presently found myself again an
was beginning to feel cold and a Ii
tie hungry
a He bethought himself Of the job
4 Burns relief Offices which stood upo
: the Thames embankment He mad
, his way through the galleries of til
- booksellers and the National CALLER,
4 which had been open continuously da
4 and night to all decently dressed pc
4 pie now for more than twelve year
h and across the rose gardens Of Trafa
l. gar square. and so by the hotel colol
n made to the embankment. He had loI
known Of these admirable Office
"a which had swept the last begga
ID and matchsellers and all the casu
n INDECENT from the London streets, al
n he believed that he would as a matt
II Of course be able to procure tick
I'd for food and a nights lodging al
ID some indication Of possible emplo
g. ment.
at But he had not reckoned upon Il
49, ! now 1ahOr trOuhlQa and when he q
In to the embankment he found the of1c