The Idaho Republican. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1904-1932, 1915-06-04

mob rose UNNECESSARILY wider and
higher, past the massive stone walls,
in among the eight great towers, just
surrendered. Everywhere was tu-
multi, exultation, deafening and man.
iacal bewilderment, astounding
noises, yet furious dumb show. Part
ial shouts of tumult broke and leap
ed into the air like spray. Dead
|noblemen were hoisted up for lamps
to show what the common people
could do when once possessed of
united fury. st. Antoine's blood was
|up and the blood Of tyranny and
domination by the iron hand was
down.
The Bastille had fallen. But that
Iremorseful sea Of turbulent swaying
shapes, voices of vengeance and faces
hardened in the furnaces Of suffering
until the touch of pity could make
no mark on them we're not Modified
entirely in that first glow of victory.
lTyrannies of three generations could
not be atoned for In moment and
lyet the beasts for the moment we're
themselves again and skulked home
ward, like whipped ours.
Thus for transient moment civil
ization cast off its veneer of civiliza-
ton. united in single thought they
were taken back to the age when
might was right" when the con-
science of the human soul was unde-
Iyeloped, but animal passions ruled
lsupreme in the human heart. When
reason was dormant and the brute
supreme. When Gods grip upon his
human offsprings was loosened and
Gear Satan ruled through the spirit
of the mob.
| But what is the spirit of the mob?
What is this distracting psychic ele-
lment, which drives men insane,
makes women fiends and creates of
harmless children imps incarnate?
Is it the animal within us lying dor
mant and only aroused once in an
age, to kill and destroy. Or is it
la total of the individual madness
added into one frothing mass and
fermenting beneath the breast of a
community, state or nation, lacking
only leader who can control it, to
bring all under his sway?
Many men of many minds are men
, who live in different chimes, for it is
evident to all that common thoughts,
common sufferings, and common de-
sires, bring about social conscious
ness that when intensified by bitter
ness, made brutal by desperation, or
enraged by insane fervor, becomes
the spirit of the mob. But, when
merely agitated by the press, de-
nounced from the pulpit, and con
demned by the individual citizen it
Is called public opinion. And yet
again when insinuated by rumor,
limited at by the gossips, and only
half believed by thinking men and
lwomen, it is SANDER.
Il The, mob, public opinion, and
SANDER are the three degrees of So
, cial consciousness as directed against
an institution, person or, thing. The
! first is strictly animal, the second hui
q man and the third the incarnation OF
: satan himself.
Z That motley mob in Paris is only
! comparable to the wolf. That skulk-
| ing scavanger of the wilds. When
alone he is cunning coward, and
fees before even the suspicion OF
danger, but let him feel the spirit OF
the pack behind him, a more brutal
ferocious beast is not known to the
' animal world. Just so with the
wolves in human guise, those demo-
, gogues, who arouse the public ire
| only to satisfy their fiendish longing
r to wreak vengeance on some hapless
' victim. Those mobs which brutally
{ destroy life, be they north or south,
/ least or west, are wolfish in their
nature. An eye for an eye and a
, tooth for tooth does not mean that
laws shall be set aside; human insti-
tut:ons forfeited and civilization de-
t spised, but 1t implies just and rea-
, sonable punishment for crimes CON-
I mitted.
d We carry this same animal spirit
, G. the mob into our human institu-
!. tion of public opinion too frequently
a lily. We live in an age when the pulse
a |of public opinion is almost mob like
8 in every way. We have "would-be'
statesmen, who condemn all estab-
' lished things as wrong and corrupt
: only for their own ACKNOWLEDGMENT
We have professional agitators, who
e seek the approval Of the mob and
R,a<.