Year: 1876

men who aspire to power at the expense of
| the institutions of their country. Cesar-we
mean the great Roman Cesar who made the
name illustrious-was warned to "beware of
the ides of March" but neither the cry of the
soothsayer, nor the frightful dreams of his
wife Calphurnia, nor the note put into his
hands when he was on his way to the Senate
House, could arrest the decree of fate or will
of the gods which had ordained that the ides
of March should be so fatal. Let the Amer
lean Cesar also beware Of the ides ofMarch.
That will be about the date of the termina-
ton of the Babcock trial, and the result may
have a great effect, not indeed in duplicating
| Caesar as a person, but in accomplishing the
downfall of Cesarism as o system. If it
shall be proved to the satisfaction of jury
that corruption has nestled within the very
walls of the imperial mansion that one stab
will be as fatal as were the twenty-three
daggers of the noble Roman assassins


Between the American and the Roman
Caesar there are some striking points of re-
semblance. Although Caesar had set his
heart on being made king he knew the
strong traditional hatred of the Roman peo-
pie to the very name of royalty, and he made
an insincere show of refusing the crown.
But, like the American Caesar in putting
away the crowning honor of a third term, he
did it in such a way as to convince beholders
that he really wanted it and hoped that the
reluctance of the people would be overcome.
The most annoying part of the Roman pro-
ceedings was their. shout of appreciation
when they witnessed his simulated refusal.
1t evinced too prompt readiness to take
him at his word and to strain it beyond his
intention. The American Caesar has been
subjected to q similar ordeal of modification.
The indorsing shouts which have been widely
raised in the form of anti-third term resolu-
tions in so many republican State conven-
tions must have grated on the nerves of the
American Caesar like the shouts of the Ro-
man populace on those of his great proto-
type. The Roman Cesar's refusal of the
crown in the presence of the people
did not quiet the suspicious of the friends
of the imperilled Republic; their confed-
eracy to destroy him proceeded with equal
secrecy and vigor, and the ides of March
proved to be the fatal day which they had
intended and the gods had ordained.


The part acted by Brutus il that stipend
Gus tragedy was it's most singular and inter-
esting feature. 1t is not probable that his
was the dagger that dealt the fatal stab for
among the twenty-three that we're dipped in
Caesars blood it could not be determined
which penetrated to the vital organs. And
yet Brutus, by the mere pointing of his
weapon before he delivered its stroke, did
more execution than all the rest. When the
destined victim saw Brutus among his assail-
ants, with his dagger pointed at his groin,
he released the hand of the assassin which
he had grasped at the first assault, and utter
ing the pathetic ''E ht, Broae?' the foremost
man of all this world veiled his sorrowing
face in his mantle and resigned himself to
his fate. The participation of his friend
Brutus broke his mighty heart. He had
spared the life of Brutus after the battle of
Pharsala he had long held such
relations with his mother that story was
current that Brutus was his own natural
son-an incredible story considering that
he was only fifteen years his senior-and he
had heaped honors and favors on him both
for the mothers sake and his own love of the
son. Considering the obligations under
which he had laid him he intuitively saw
that there was nobody he could trust when
Brutus turned against him, and so nothing
remained for him but to muffle his face in
his mantle and die with dignity.


Perhaps we tread on delicate ground in
continuing the parallel. The ides of March
have not yet come, and until they have not
only come but gone the fate of Caesar may
be thought to hang in doubt. If that should
prove tragic day there will be little ques-
ton as to who delivered the fatal stab.
When some Antony holds up the imperial
robe at Caesars funeral and exclaims, ''See
what q rent the envious Casca nader no.
body will doubt which Jealous officer of the
government is intended. But that wound
will not prove the most cruel one.
1t is when the American Caesar sees the
weapon of his loved and trusted Brutus
raised to strike that he will say, with mildly
reproachful looks, "Et tli Roscoe ?" and veil
his face for the end. Brutds really loved
Cesar He would have done anything to
serve him short of consenting to the over
throw Of the Republic. In joining tha con-
spirators he did naught in hate, but all in
honor; mot that he loved Caesar less, but
Rome more" BY the ides of March, let the
affair at st. Louis so as it may, it will be
manifest that Brutus has made arrangements
to displace Caesar, who will feel, when he
sees that this friend has deserted him, that
Casarism has gone into fatal eclipse. We
know not whether the friends of this Brutus
are practising the same arts with which the
Roman was so industriously piled, and are
causing him to find numerous notes left on
his desk or flung to his lodgings, stimulating
his ambition and calling on him to awake