1902 Ancient and Modern Vampires

== Note from Vila ==
Normally, I don’t post these sorts of “V Word” articles - they are more of a vintage pop culture thing and only interesting for how vampires were used and treated in daily life, not folkloric or really a part of how the vampire mythology developed -  But  somebody pissed Dr. T. J. Bowles right the fuck off and it sounds pretty damn similar to some of the twitter wars and FB raging that I’ve seen lately. 
And before you think he bitched out in the end with endorsing a newly organizing political party… I’ve done some research and the only Political Party formed during the time this editorial was written was the Socialist Party of America. So it’s 50/50. Either the one he joined failed to even get 30 members or they picked a new name before filing. He’s either shill or “went full pinko.” Something tells me he’d be for the #eattherich thing.
A bit of warning… he does get pretty racist with his comparisons about 2/3rds through. 
= Ancient and Modern Vampires =
By T. J. Bowles, M.D.
Blue-Grass Blade Lexington, Kentucky
Sun, Dec 21, 1902 Pgs 4 - 5
During the Seventeenth, eighteenth and the early part of the nineteenth centuries a large portion of the people of Europe believed in the existence of vampires.
These enemies of mankind were supposed to be the ghosts of dead men who left the body at night and came out of the grave and wandered about over the country, and sucked the blood from the bodies of men, women and children while they were asleep.
To put a stop to the ravages of these vampires, thousands and tens of thousands of graves were opened, the corpses were taken out, their heads were cut off, their hearts were torn out and a stake was driven through the body, and they were then reburied and by this process the depredations of vampires were prevented.
This is one of the strange superstitions and delusions that extensively prevailed not very long ago over large portions of Europe and influenced the conduct of millions of people.
Strange as it may seem, this superstition of blood sucking vampires has become a horrible reality in the United States of America in the morning of the Twentieth century.
But out vampires are not the ghosts of dead men – they are clothed with flesh and intensely alive and active – they are rotund, sleek and fat and dressed in purple and fine linen. Unlike the vampires of old who sucked the blood of their victims only at night, out vampires continue their nefarious work unceasingly, and suck the blood from the whole nation, every minute both by day and by night.
The vampires of former times knew nothing about the value of organization for mutual aid, but each one acted independently, and went forth at night thirsting for the blood of his sleeping victim, but our modern vampires have learned the immense benefits which spring from combines, trusts and syndicates devised schemes under the cover of law, they have no difficulty in robbing seventy-five millions of people each day of the fruits of their labor and the products of their toil. The blood sucking power of these modern vampires is absolute and unlimited.
Chauncey M. Depew, prominent as counselor of these vampires says “that fifty men living in the United States have it in their power by reason of their enormous wealth and the wealth which they control to come together within twenty-four hours, and arrive at an understanding by which every wheel of trade and commerce may be stopped from revolving, every avenue of trade blocked, and every electric railway struck dumb. These fifty men can paralyze the whole country, for they control and can create a panic whenever they desire it.”
This power far exceeds the power of any President or Court of Congress and unless the people arise in their might and overthrow it, liberty will in a few years disappear from our once happy country, and universal slavery will be the common lot of a once happy and prosperous people.
We can easily rid the country of these vampires, if all Americans will act in concert and in harmony under some great leader – loyal Republicans, loyal Democrats loyal Populists and loyal Socialists must lay aside their party prejudices, and unite all their forces into one great body bearing a new party name and victory will certainly perch upon our banner, and these vampires will be as effectually exterminated, as their European prototypes whose heads were cut off and stakes driven through their bodies.
Every man in the United States who loves humanity better than his party – every Republican who reveres the memory of Lincoln – every Democrat who cherishes the memory of Jefferson, every Christian who has any respect for Jesus Christ – every man of every party who rejoices that Washington and his immortal comrades drove the British invaders back across the sea, and founded this great Republic; every man who loves wife and child feels an interest in the generations yet to come – all men of all parties who possess any intelligence and virtue should unite at once and wage an unceasing warfare against those hydra headed monsters known as the Democratic and Republican parties; these are the great monsters in whose slimy folds the Goddess Liberty is being crushed to death. The leaders of these two great parties have done more to blacken and disgrace our common humanity than all other miscreants down to the present from Cain and Nero and Caligula down to the present hour. 
They have vastly enlarged the boundaries of crime and extended the possibilities of shameless infamy – the manner of waging war against the right and civilization by the Republican party in the name of Jehovah and destiny and the National honor surpasses in malevolence the record of all the crimes of the Duke of Alva and the Spanish Inquisition were virtues as white as snow when compared to the assassination of liberties of the American people in the name of God and our only hope is to crush them into fragments, grind them into dust and bury them out of sight forever.
The present leaders of this party Theodore Roosevelt and Marcus Hanna would be a disgrace to the savage tribes of Central Africa and Grover Cleveland and DE. B. Hill the present leaders of the eastern wing of the Democratic party sink into insignificance when compared to the cannibal chiefs of the Fiji Islanders.
Free Thinkers MUST steer clear of these infamous organizations and flee from them as they would from a pestilence for they both have their fiendish clutch upon the white throat of the Goddess of Liberty and unless their grip can be loosened they will soon plunge our blessed country into sorrow and desolation.
The helpless western wing of the Democratic party under the leadership of Mr. Wm. J. Bryan embodies much that is pure and noble in American politics and were it not for the fact that he belongs to an infamous church founded by the murder John Calvin he would make an ideal leader for the Free Thinkers of America but the truth is that Free Thinkers at present can find no political home in any existing organization and their duty politically speaking consists in building up the National Liberty Party which embodies in its platform all that is grand and good and noble and pure in the life of men and Nations. And I want to shake hands with at least one thousand great men and grand women at our Congress in Lexington, who will dedicate and devote their lives to the up-building of this, the best organization in the history of the world.
Muncie Ind.
=== Print Info ===
* Ancient and Modern Vampires
* By T. J. Bowles, M.D.
* Blue-Grass Blade Lexington, Kentucky
* Sun, Dec 21, 1902 
* Pgs 4 - 5
=== Citations ===
APA Bowles, T. J. (1902, December 21). Ancient and Modern Vampires. Blue-Grass Blade, pp. 4–6. https://vampireadamooc.tumblr.com/post/182420328439/normally-i-dont-post-these-sorts-of-v-word.
MLA Bowles, T. J. “Ancient and Modern Vampires.” Blue-Grass Blade, 21 Dec. 1902, pp. 4–6, vampireadamooc.tumblr.com/post/182420328439/normally-i-dont-post-these-sorts-of-v-word. Accessed 2 Apr. 2021.
Chicago Bowles, T. J. “Ancient and Modern Vampires.” Blue-Grass Blade. December 21, 1902. https://vampireadamooc.tumblr.com/post/182420328439/normally-i-dont-post-these-sorts-of-v-word.
Harvard Bowles, T. J. (1902) “Ancient and Modern Vampires,” Blue-Grass Blade, 21 December, pp. 4–6. Available at: https://vampireadamooc.tumblr.com/post/182420328439/normally-i-dont-post-these-sorts-of-v-word (Accessed: April 2, 2021).
Vancouver Bowles TJ. Ancient and Modern Vampires. Blue-Grass Blade [Internet]. Lexington, Kentucky; 1902Dec21 [cited 2021Apr2];:4–6. Available from: https://vampireadamooc.tumblr.com/post/182420328439/normally-i-dont-post-these-sorts-of-v-word
=== Images ===
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Category:Political Poetry
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