The St. Charles herald. [volume] (Hahnville, La.) 1873-1993, 1917-02-03

that the world was entirely WITH niin'
"And amt it true. | ash OF you sa'ii
cred here tonight, If the rlch are ho'
getting richer aud the poor, my reno"
citizens, sinking slowly down into inc
Shiny jaws of the slough or despohu!
.Hurrah!" we answered franucally.
"And then you take the money
power. Who's got all the money III
this country? / tell you, little do we
realize the gravity Of this here coun-
try at this situation. The dollar that
the poor man earns by the sweat OF MS
brow is filched forth from his pocket
by the siren call of the financial octo-
pus."
'Hurrah!" we yelled again.
"You say politics! Bah! Politics is
rotten. We think we are free men In
America. but what good does vote
do? The most rotten and obliquitous
friend of the classes has got more
power l say than million free-born
voters of the masses, of whom we are
some right here in this room tonight
"Hurrah, hurrah. hurrah for the
masses /"
We didn't have to lead these cheers.
The rest of the visitors were frantic
with delight, and as Boggs responded
to every cheer with another superhu-
man shout of defiance against wicked
ness they laughed and shrieked with
glee. AS for us Gnothautiians, we sat
more or less quiet, partly from exhaus-
ton and partly from a solemn JOY
which was flooding our entire beings.
Boggs had already spoken three-Quar-
tiers of an hour and was still warming
up. The break must come soon.
It did. A few old ladies, subject to
headache, got up nervously and tot
tered away. Members Of Adelphi pied
with them to wait for the rest Of the
program. but they would not be per-
suaded. In another ten minutes dozen
visitors had tiptoed out. Boggs had
reached his final height and was grad
ually running down. Human strength
had found it's limitations. But he was
coming down, slowly and easily cruis-
ing from cloud to cloud, and discussing
religion, philosophy and literature in
fine but scrambled language. The au-
dience was melting rapidly now. The
cheering had stopped, but Boggs hadn't,
though the pale chairman pulled at his
coat every time he could reach him.
Not over half the visitors were left.
The moment Of triumph had arrived.
Quietly and with regret plastered deep
over our faces Club and got up and
oozed cautiously down the aisle. From
various parts of the room other Ono
delicately to freedom. In their wake
the rest of the visitors came-some
quietly, some with every evidence of
undue anxiety. And as we crowded
through the anteroom Boggs Numbered
on.
There were scandalous rumors next
day about that open meeting. 1t was
limited that the Adelphians not only
stopped Boggs by violence but that
they took him down In the Mushroom
and ducked him before they left for
home. don't believe this, because
Adelphi always had a reverence for
oratory and had been noted for its en-
enlargement. But Boggs did leave Adel-
phi and soon afterward presented his
application to Gnothautii. We took
him in, but were firm with him and
eventually made fine speaker of him.
What pleased us the most with the
whole affair was that, mad and dis
gusted as Adelphi was over their ruined
meeting, they couldn't blame anyone
but themselves, and didn't attempt to.
In fact, they kept so quiet about it that
we had to chase an Adelphian long
way during the next two years before
we could even mention the subject of
open meetings.
(Copyrisht)