Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1921-09-16
r. CUNNINGHAM HURLS UP
A NEW INVISIBLE EMPIRE
Another Man Who Would BE King
Marches Away Under the Symbol
Of the Fiery Dollar-Mark

| ONE of thcsc fine days, when all the
" works of civilization are nicely reduced
TO ruin and there is no law, no government,
no troubling sense of decencv and social
obligation to inhibit independent and lively
minds, every man will be Emperor of his
own Invisible Empire. He will be his own
Grand Goblin, his own kligrapp, his own
kodo and kokokola and his own President
szld Congress and Supreme Court.
Life will be worth living then.
! No one will be bored. One may brighten
dull hours by putting on ones regalia and
numbering the neighbors' children or birn
ing the landlord at the stakc--provided that
one have the requisite energy and prowess.
One will be ones own Kleagle, and so every
citizen may experience the delight of paying
money to himself instead of to q hard eyed
| professional dollar snatcher.
But the sweet millennium is still in the
distant future. Folk who go a-kleagling
nowadays run great risks of unpleasant con-
ficts with less enterprsing people.
| That is why we arc moved to mourn for
the hitherto esteemed T. cunningham, sage
| Of the Tenth Ward, and to look on with
misgivings as he deserts Pcnrose for the
|
| friends to sit alone upon a political noun
taintop and there hoist the sign of the fiery
dollar mark-or is it to be a blazing ace of
diamonds over an invisible empire that he
hopes to make his very own. For T.
cunningham is sure to encounter many
| perils and hardships upon this wild ad-
| venture.
1t should surprise no one If he comes
tottering back without his watch or his
hat crying aloud for shelter and for balm
upon his wounds. Imperial Wizard Ware is
not the sort of autocrat who is likely to
share his authority with an alien. And the
realm over which he rules is filled with
savage and hungry minor kleaglcs and
kodos and klgrapps and kokokolas and
klokards who are pretty sure to have buckets
of tar and world of feathers for any one
who prcsumes to disturb the order of i'm
perial succession in which they move up
ward to cminencc and power.
What is Exalted Cyclops Hall saying in
| his secret soul about this new candidate for
the regency? What will the political kluxers
do to the Judge when they get him alone?
1t is not pleasant to dwell on these things
| even in imagination.
The Judge is a lover of liberty. he is
the champion Of oppressed pony players.
| In the school Of politics to which he belongs
it is held that every man, woman and child
in this community has an unqualified, an
unalienable right to the wholesome exercise
of the right wrist that is to be obtained by
free play at the game known as leaping
| dominoes.
In the Invisible Empire to which he is
| now declaring allegiance there are lot of
klcagcs and kligrapps and kokokolas and
klokards who pledge themselves to restore
full and free liberty of action to down
trodden drug peddlers and the merchants
of vice.
7. Kunningham's ambitions and his pride
seem, therefore, to be leading him into bad
company. Sternly resolutely, he goes away
| That is regrettabe because the Judge is in
many ways an alluring figure. He orna-
| ments political campaigns. He carries with
| him a pleasant air Of old times.
1t is a pity to see him moving into an
unknown wilderness like n lonely explorer
striding off to be an Imperial Wizard in the
| mystic cave of the Wares where the tar is
always boiling for such as he.
One is reminded again of the babe in the
woods. One feels that flags ought to be
half maSted. But it would be better to
have a committee appointed to succor r.
cunningham in the days of his dislluson-
ment-uness he be eaten alive before he
can return to civilization.
With great interest we shall watch the
progress of this intrepid man toward the
throne of an Imperial Wizard, his Cncoun-
ters with Clumps Of untamed political klca-
giles. We would earnestly advise him to
keep one hand on his wallet and the other
on his scarfpin while he is away.
1t is only fair to assume that T. Kun
ningham has answered the call of what he
considers n great cause
BootlcGgers vice promoters, gambling
syndicatcs, grafters and extortionsts camor
piteously for the freedom that is denied
them. In the bright millennium when every
man is his own Imperial Wizard and his
own KlCagc, and when tarring and feather
ing are taught in the public schools, every
one will be free to do as he likes. There
will be no police, no courts, no need for
order Murder, violence, gambling vice,
drug syndcates will be unchecked of course.
But the mistake of men who set up in
visible empires of one sort or another now
adays is to SUPPOSE that civilization can be
perfected in a day. 1t can't. We shall
have to wait and be patient.
In the invisible empire of Imperial Wizard
Ware the arrival of 7. cunningham will be
regarded as an act--a acontribution-of High
Providence in a time of need. Doubtless
it will be signalized by the usual klux salute
to suckers, which is three whistles and a
groan, given when money is paid into O
| oil Thot gip
one in which the whole voting population
should - and probably will - join as the
Tenth Wards cherished sage departs on his
journey into the mists.