Year: 1877

pawn vi Hh<
freebooters. The man who wrote "My
Summer in a Garden" set forth the
fact that nature loves TO see hot con-
hict, and hence orders into each gar
den or plantation squad Of Canada
thistles or a grand army Of "puSSly."
Any observer must perceive that in
its dealing with man nature follows
the same law, and plants here a phi
losopher and there a robber here a
poet and there a cut-throat; here
Madonna, there a dirty tramp; here a
Samaritan, there a chickcn-thief or a
pirate. In harmony with this law Of
things, brigands have appeared in our
own America.


In the early years of all our oldest
readers, the house in the country was
never locked. All day Sunday while
the family were all away at church
service, which continued from morn
ing until evening, the farmhouse was
simply shut; and all night long all
through the summer time the windows
were open, and were only few feet
above the good mother earth. In that
good olden time if schoolgirl met
any man on her way to the log school
house, it was either old Mr.. Jones on
his way to mill, or il was Uncle Eph
looking for sheep which had not come
home for salt since "last Saturday
twas q week" All knew all, and no
one feared any one. But nature was
holding the tramp in the background.
Nature loves conflict The garden
must be sown with weeds. The farm.
house, the schoolgirl, the helpless wo
men, the family must have its enemy.
The brigand must come.


Theologians explain all these things
by the word depravity. Adam ate an
apple, and all this followed. That is a
very general statement OF the case. IT.
however, the eating of that apple i'm
paired the human constitution, yet it
must be confessed that there are condi-
tions under which the latent disease
becomes active again after repose of
generations. As meadow lands awaken
the sleeping energies of hay fever,
and as high mountain air, which can
not carry foreign elements, compel the
seeds of the malady TO lie in inaction,
so there are conditions which make
the "apple" which Adam ate act very
powerfully, almost like an Aslatic
cholera, upon the mental and spiritual
and physical man. A long war which
turns young men away from trades
and industry, and which also hardens
the nature; hard times, which make
the struggle for bread difficult one /;
immigration, which brings TO a new
land the worst citizens from old States /;
the growth of cities, which is always
a growth Of temptation and crime; all
these agencies come in to make the
scene change and to place every coun-
try home at the mercy Of that timer
ant monster, the brigand


With the growth Of crime the peace
regulations Of cities have become every
year more strict, and this has compel
led many criminals TO fly from the eye
and club Of the police and ply their
avocation among the isolated homes OF
the whole country. The homes being
often mile apart, and the fact that
the male members Of the house will be
almost certainly away from the house
in working hours, offer the modern
American brigand peculiar invitations
TO leave city life; and that they are
accepting the invitations is made evi
dent by every days report. Not only
in Pennsylvania, but from one end Of
the land to the other, the brigand wan
ders, differing from the brigand in
Italy or Mexico in dress only, and not
in bloody atrocity. The railway has
made the brigand a footman rather
than q mounted robber with boot and
spur, and has made him assume the
rags of beggar rather than dash along
in military trappings but within, the
Mexican cut-throat, the Spanish ban
dit, and our own brigand are one and
the Same parsonage.


And now every isolated home stands
exposed to them. The path of the
schoolgirl has along it new enemy
little better than the red man of the
former century, and the mother who
is alone in her house with her little
ones may as well recall the days OF her
great. grandmother and keep q muslSet
ready, not for the Indian, but for the
brigand. She must shoot.


1t is not easy to exaggcrate this evil.
The life and person Of each daughter
and mother are worthy Of all the
warnings that can be given, and of all
the preparations that can be made
against such foes. The homes that
wero left alone by the father and sons
should be no longer trusted thus TO
goodness Of tho times. The tramp is
about The school girl should no Ion
ger 90 along her path alone singing
and swinging her basket as in former
times. Tho times have changed, and
while much is for the better, much is
also for the worse. The nation, while
II is strong in the department of in.
dustry and education, and is marked
by progress Of the majority, is weak
in the work of detecting and punish
ing a criminal. Against the criminal
tramp each house must be its own
guardian, at least for the present. 1t
may be that the deeds of these crimi.
nails will soon arouse each State, and
that all these itinorants will be placed
upon government farms, and in gov
ernmcnt shops, whore they can pay
the State for their daily food, and
where they can be out of tho way Of
those homes which toll hard for peace
and happiness.


AMERICAN AND EUROPEAN


WORKMEN.