,,selected ,,works ,,of ,,voltairine ,,de ,,cleyre ,edited by ,,alexander ,,berkman ,biographical ,sketch by ,,hippolyte ,,havel ,,new ,,york ,,mother ,,earth ,,publishing ,,association #aiad ,set up and electrotyped4 ,published ,may1 #aiad4 ,,contents ,poems ,page ,the ,burial of ,my ,past ,self 4 4 4 4 4 4 #ag ,night on the ,graves 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 #ah ,the ,christian's ,faith 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 #ah ,the ,freethinker's ,plea 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 #bb ,to ,my ,mother 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 #bf ,betrayed 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 #bg ,optimism 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 #cc ,at the ,grave in ,waldheim 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 #cc ,the ,hurricane 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 #cd ,ut ,sementem ,feceris1 ,ita ,metes 4 4 4 4 #cf ,bastard ,born 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 #cf ,hymn 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 #db ,you and ,i 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 #db ,the ,toast of ,despair 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 #dd ,in ,memoriam--,to ,dyer ,d4 ,lum 4 4 4 4 4 #de ,out of the ,darkness 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 #dg ,mary ,wollstonecraft 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 #di ,the ,gods and the ,people 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 #ej ,john ,p4 ,altgeld 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 #ef ,the ,cry of the ,unfit 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 #ef ,in ,memoriam--,to ,gen4 ,m4 ,m4 ,trumbull 4 #eh ,the ,wandering ,jew 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 #eh ,the ,feast of ,vultures 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 #ei ,the ,suicide's ,defense 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 #fb ,a ,novel of ,color 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 #fd ,germinal 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 #fe ,light ,upon ,waldheim 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 #ff ,love's ,compensation 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 #ff ,the ,road ,builders 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 #fh ,angiolillo 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 #fi ,ave et ,vale 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 #gj ,marsh-,bloom 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 #gd ,written--in--,red 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 #ge ,essays ,page ,the ,dominant ,idea 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 #gi ,anarchism 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 #if ,anarchism and ,american ,traditions 4 4 #aah ,anarchism in ,literature 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 #acf ,the ,making of an ,anarchist 4 4 4 4 4 4 #aed ,the ,eleventh of ,november1 #ahhg 4 4 4 4 #afd ,crime and ,punishment 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 #agc ,in ,defense of ,emma ,goldman 4 4 4 4 4 4 #bje ,direct ,action 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 #bbj ,the ,paris ,commune 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 #bdc ,the ,mexican ,revolution 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 #bec ,thomas ,paine 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 #bgf ,dyer ,d4 ,lum 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 #bhd ,francisco ,ferrer 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 #big ,modern ,educational ,reform 4 4 4 4 4 4 #cba ,sex ,slavery 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 #cdb ,literature the ,mirror of ,man 4 4 4 4 4 #cei ,the ,drama of the ,nineteenth ,century 4 #cha ,sketches and ,stories ,page ,a ,rocket of ,iron 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 #dji ,the ,chain ,gang 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 #dad ,the ,heart of ,angiolillo 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 #dbj ,the ,reward of an ,apostate 4 4 4 4 4 4 #dcc ,at the ,end of the ,alley--,i 4 4 4 4 4 4 #dcg ,alone--,,ii 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 #dda ,to ,strive and ,fail 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 #ddf ,the ,sorrows of the ,body 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 #dea ,the ,triumph of ,youth 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 #ded ,the ,old ,shoemaker 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 #dfd ,where the ,white ,rose ,died 4 4 4 4 4 4 #dff ,transcriber's ,notes3 ,consistent spelling and hyphen usage are maintained within each poem_/essay4 ,punctuation typos with a single solution are corrected2 those having more than one solution remain unchanged4 ,in the essay ,literature the ,mirror of ,man1 the reference to ,bosworth's ,life of ,johnson is corrected to ,boswell's ,life of ,johnson4 ,words printed in the text as mixed small caps are surrounded by equal signs1 as in ,voltairine de ,cleyre4 ,introduction ,nature has the habit of now and then producing a type of human being far in advance of the times2 an ideal for us to emulate2 a being devoid of sham1 uncompromising1 and to whom the truth is sacred2 a being whose selfishness is so large that it takes in the whole human race and treats self only as one of the great mass2 a being keen to sense all forms of wrong1 and powerful in denunciation of it2 one who can reach into the future and draw it nearer4 ,such a being was ,voltairine de ,cleyre4 ,what could be added to this splendid tribute by ,jay ,fox to the memory of ,voltairine de ,cleyre8 ,these admirable words express the sentiments of all the friends and comrades of that remarkable woman whose whole life was dedicated to a dominant idea4 ,like many other women in public life1 ,voltairine de ,cleyre was a voluminous letter writer4 ,those letters addressed to her comrades1 friends1 and admirers would form her real biography2 in them we trace her heroic struggles1 her activity1 her beliefs1 her doubts1 her mental changes--in short1 her whole life1 mirrored in a manner no biographer will ever be able to equal4 ,to collect and publish this correspondence as a part of ,voltairine de ,cleyre's works is impossible2 the task is too big for the present undertaking4 ,but let us hope that we will find time and means to publish at least a part of this correspondence in the near future4 ,the average ,american still holds to the belief that ,anarchism is a foreign poison imported into the ,states from decadent ,europe by criminal paranoiacs4 ,hence the ridiculous attempt of our lawmakers to stamp out ,anarchy1 by passing a statute which forbids ,anarchists from other lands to enter the country4 ,those wise ,solons are ignorant of the fact that ,anarchist theories and ideas were propounded in our ,commonwealth ere ,proudhon or ,bakunin entered the arena of intellectual struggle and formulated their thesis of perfect freedom and economic independence in ,anarchy4 ,neither are they acquainted with the writings of ,lysander ,spooner1 ,josiah ,warren1 ,stephen ,pearl ,andrews1 ,william ,b4 ,greene1 or ,benjamin ,tucker1 nor familiar with the propagandistic work of ,albert ,r4 ,parsons1 ,dyer ,d4 ,lum1 ,c4 ,l4 ,james1 ,moses ,harman1 ,ross ,winn1 and a host of other ,anarchists who sprang from the native stock and soil4 ,to call their attention to these facts is quite as futile as to point out that the tocsin of revolt resounds in the writings of ,emerson1 ,thoreau1 ,hawthorne1 ,whitman1 ,garrison1 ,wendell ,phillips1 and other seers of ,america2 just as futile as to prove to them that the pioneers in the movement for woman's emancipation in ,america were permeated with ,anarchist thoughts and feelings4 ,hardened by a fierce struggle and strengthened by a vicious persecution1 those brave champions of sex-freedom defied the respectable mob by proclaiming their independence from prevailing cant and hypocrisy4 ,they inaugurated the tremendous sex revolt among the ,american women--a purely native movement which has yet to find its historian4 ,voltairine de ,cleyre belongs to this gallant array of rebels who swore allegiance to the cause of universal liberty1 thus forfeiting the respect of all honorable citizens1 and bringing upon their heads the persecution of the ruling class4 ,in the real history of the struggle for human emancipation1 her name will be found among the foremost of her time4 ,born shortly after the close of the ,civil ,war1 she witnessed during her life the most momentous transformation of the nation2 she saw the change from an agricultural community into an industrial empire2 the tremendous development of capital in this country1 with the accompanying misery and degradation of labor4 ,her life path was sketched ere she reached the age of womanhood3 she had to become a rebel6 ,to stand outside of the struggle would have meant intellectual death4 ,she chose the only way4 ,voltairine de ,cleyre was born on ,november #ag1 #ahff1 in the town of ,leslie1 ,michigan4 ,she died on ,june #f1 #aiab1 in ,chicago4 ,she came from ,french-,american stock1 on her mother's side of ,puritan descent4 ,her father1 ,auguste de ,cleyre1 was a native of western ,flanders1 but his family was of ,french origin4 ,he emigrated to ,america in #ahed4 ,being a freethinker and a great admirer of ,voltaire1 he insisted on the birthday of the child that the new member of the family should be called ,voltairine4 ,though born in ,leslie1 the earliest recollections of ,voltairine were of the small town of ,st4 ,john's1 in ,clinton ,county1 her parents having removed to that place a year after her birth4 ,voltairine did not have a happy childhood2 her earliest life was embittered by want of the common necessities1 which her parents1 hard as they tried1 could not provide4 ,a vein of sadness can be traced in her earliest poems--the songs of a child of talent and great fantasy4 ,a deep sorrow fell into her heart at the age of four1 when the teacher of the primary school refused to admit her because she was too young4 ,but she soon succeeded in forcing her entrance into the temple of knowledge4 ,an earnest student1 she was graduated from the grammar school at the age of twelve4 ,strength of mind does not seem to have been a characteristic of ,auguste de ,cleyre1 for he recanted his libertarian ideas1 returned to the fold of the church1 and became obsessed with the idea that the highest vocation for a woman was the life of a nun4 ,he determined to put the child into a convent4 ,thus began the great tragedy of ,voltairine's early life4 ,her beloved mother1 a member of the ,presbyterian ,church1 opposed this idea with all her strength1 but in vain3 the will of the lord of the household prevailed1 and the child was sent to the ,convent of ,our ,lady of ,lake ,huron1 at ,sarnia1 in the ,province of ,ontario1 ,canada4 ,here she experienced four years of terrible ordeal2 only after much repression1 insubordination1 and atonement1 she forced her way back into the living world4 ,in the sketch1 ,the ,making of an ,anarchist1 she tells us of the strain she underwent in that living tomb3 ,how ,i pity myself now1 when ,i remember it1 poor lonesome little soul1 battling solitary in the murk of religious superstition1 unable to believe and yet in hourly fear of damnation1 hot1 savage1 and eternal1 if ,i do not instantly confess and profess6 ,how well ,i recall the bitter energy with which ,i repelled my teacher's enjoinder1 when ,i told her ,i did not wish to apologize for an adjudged fault as ,i could not see that ,i had been wrong and would not feel my words4 ',it is not necessary1' said she1 'that we should feel what we say1 but it is always necessary that we obey our superiors4' ',i will not lie1' ,i answered hotly1 and at the same time trembled lest my disobedience had finally consigned me to torment6 ,i struggled my way out at last1 and was a freethinker when ,i left the institution1 three years later1 though ,i had never seen a book or heard a word to help me in my loneliness4 ,it had been like the ,valley of the ,shadow of ,death1 and there are white scars on my soul yet1 where ,ignorance and ,superstition burnt me with their hell-fire in those stifling days4 ,am ,i blasphemous8 ,it is their word1 not mine4 ,beside that battle of my young days all others have been easy1 for whatever was without1 within my own ,will was supreme4 ,it has owed no allegiance1 and never shall2 it has moved steadily in one direction1 the knowledge and assertion of its own liberty1 with all the responsibility falling thereon4 ,during her stay at the convent there was little communication between her and her parents4 ,in a letter from ,mrs4 ,eliza de ,cleyre1 the mother of ,voltairine1 we are informed that she decided to run away from the convent after she had been there a few weeks4 ,she escaped before breakfast1 and crossed the river to ,port ,huron2 but1 as she had no money1 she started to walk home4 ,after covering seventeen miles1 she realized that she never could do it2 so she turned around and walked back1 and entering the house of an acquaintance in ,port ,huron asked for something to eat4 ,they sent for her father1 who afterwards took her back to the convent4 ,what penance they inflicted she never told1 but at sixteen her health was so bad that the convent authorities let her come home for a vacation1 telling her1 however1 that she would find her every movement watched1 and that everything she said would be reported to them4 ,the result was that she started at every sound1 her hands shaking and her face as pale as death4 ,she was about five weeks from graduating at that time4 ,when her vacation was over1 she went back and finished her studies4 ,and then she started for home again1 but this time she had money enough for her fare1 and she got home to stay1 never to go back to the place that had been a prison to her4 ,she had seen enough of the convent to decide for herself that she could not be a nun4 ,the child who had sung3 ,there's a love supreme in the ,great ,hereafter1 ,the buds of ,earth are bloom in ,heaven1 ,the smiles of the world are ripples of laughter ,when back to its ,aidenn the soul is given1 ,and the tears of the world1 though long in flowing1 ,water the fields of the bye-and-bye2 ,they fall as dews on the sweet grass growing1 ,when the fountains of sorrow and grief run dry4 ,though clouds hang over the furrows now sowing ,there's a harvest sun-wreath in the ,after-sky4 ,no love is wasted1 no heart beats vainly1 ,there's a vast perfection beyond the grave2 ,up the bays of heaven the stars shine plainly-- ,the stars lying dim on the brow of the wave4 ,and the lights of our loves1 though they flicker and wane1 they ,shall shine all undimmed in the ether nave4 ,for the altars of ,god are lit with souls ,fanned to flaming with love where the star-wind rolls4 returned from the convent a strong-minded freethinker4 ,she was received with open arms by her mother1 almost as one returned from the grave4 ,with the exception of the education derived from books1 she knew no more than a child1 having almost no knowledge of practical things4 ,already in the convent she had succeeded in impressing her strong personality upon her surroundings4 ,her teachers could not break her2 they were therefore forced to respect her4 ,in a polemic with the editor of the ,catholic ,buffalo ,union and ,times1 a few years ago1 ,voltairine wrote3 ,if you think that ,i1 as your opponent1 deserve the benefit of truth1 but as a stranger you doubt my veracity1 ,i respectfully request you to submit this letter to ,sister ,mary ,medard1 my former teacher1 now ,superioress at ,windsor1 or to my revered friend1 ,father ,siegfried1 ,overbrook ,seminary1 ,overbrook1 ,pa41 who will tell you whether1 in their opinion1 my disposition to tell the truth may be trusted4 ,reaction from the repression and the cruel discipline of the ,catholic ,church helped to develop ,voltairine's inherent tendency toward free-thought2 the five-fold murder of the labor leaders in ,chicago1 in #ahhg1 shocked her mind so deeply that from that moment dates her development toward ,anarchism4 ,when in #ahhf the bomb fell on the ,haymarket ,square1 and the ,anarchists were arrested1 ,voltairine de ,cleyre1 who at that time was a free-thought lecturer1 shouted3 ,they ought to be hanged6 ,they were hanged1 and now her body rests in ,waldheim ,cemetery1 near the grave of those martyrs4 ,speaking at a memorial meeting in honor of those comrades1 in #aija1 she said3 ,for that ignorant1 outrageous1 bloodthirsty sentence ,i shall never forgive myself1 though ,i know the dead men would have forgiven me1 though ,i know those who loved them forgive me4 ,but my own voice1 as it sounded that night1 will sound so in my ears till ,i die--a bitter reproach and a shame4 ,i have only one word of extenuation for myself and the millions of others who did as ,i did that night--ignorance4 ,she did not remain long in ignorance4 ,in ,the ,making of an ,anarchist she describes why she became a convert to the idea and why she entered the movement4 ,till then1 she writes1 ,i believed in the essential justice of the ,american law and trial by jury4 ,after that ,i never could4 ,the infamy of that trial has passed into history1 and the question it awakened as to the possibility of justice under law has passed into clamorous crying across the world4 ,at the age of nineteen ,voltairine had consecrated herself to the service of humanity4 ,in her poem1 ,the ,burial of ,my ,past ,self1 she thus bids farewell to her youthful life3 ,and now1 ,humanity1 ,i turn to you2 ,i consecrate my service to the world6 ,perish the old love1 welcome to the new-- ,broad as the space-aisles where the stars are whirled6 ,yet the pure and simple free-thought agitation in its narrow circle could not suffice her4 ,the spirit of rebellion1 the spirit of ,anarchy1 took hold of her soul4 ,the idea of universal rebellion saved her2 otherwise she might have stagnated like so many of her contemporaries1 suffocated in the narrow surroundings of their intellectual life4 ,a lecture of ,clarence ,darrow1 which she heard in #ahhg1 led her to the study of ,socialism1 and then there was for her but one step to ,anarchism4 ,dyer ,d4 ,lum1 the fellow worker of the ,chicago martyrs1 had undoubtedly the greatest influence in shaping her development2 he was her teacher1 her confidant1 and comrade2 his death in #ahic was a terrible blow to ,voltairine4 ,voltairine spent the greater part of her life in ,philadelphia4 ,here1 among congenial friends1 and later among the ,jewish emigrants1 she did her best work4 ,in #ahig she went on a lecture tour to ,england and ,scotland1 and in #aijb1 after an insane youth had tried to take her life1 she went for a short trip to ,norway to recuperate from her wounds4 ,hers was a life of bitter economic struggle and an unceasing fight with physical weakness1 partly resulting from this very economic struggle4 ,one wonders how1 under such circumstances1 she could have produced such an amount of work4 ,her poems1 sketches1 propagandistic articles and essays may be found in the ,open ,court1 ,twentieth ,century1 ,magazine of ,poetry1 ,truth1 ,lucifer1 ,boston ,investigator1 ,rights of ,labor1 ,truth ,seeker1 ,liberty1 ,chicago ,liberal1 ,free ,society1 ,mother ,earth1 and in ,the ,independent4 ,she translated ,jean ,grave's ,moribund ,society and ,anarchy from the ,french1 and left an unfinished translation of ,louise ,michel's work on the ,paris ,commune4 ,in ,mother ,earth appeared her translations from the ,jewish of ,libin and ,peretz4 ,in collaboration with ,dyer ,d4 ,lum she wrote a novel on social questions1 which has unfortunately remained unfinished4 ,voltairine de ,cleyre's views on the sex-question1 on agnosticism and free-thought1 on individualism and communism1 on non-resistance and direct action1 underwent many changes4 ,in the year #aijb she wrote3 ,the spread of ,tolstoy's ',war and ,peace' and ',the ,slavery of ,our ,times1' and the growth of the numerous ,tolstoy clubs having for their purpose the dissemination of the literature of non-resistance1 is an evidence that many receive the idea that it is easier to conquer war with peace4 ,i am one of these4 ,i can see no end of retaliation1 unless some one ceases to retaliate4 ,she adds1 however3 ,but let no one mistake this for servile submission or meek abnegation2 my right shall be asserted no matter at what cost to me1 and none shall trench upon it without my protest4 ,but as she used to quote her comrade1 ,dyer ,d4 ,lum3 ,events proved to be the true schoolmasters4 ,the last years of her life were filled with the spirit of direct action1 and especially with the social importance of the ,mexican ,revolution4 ,the splendid propaganda work of ,wm4 ,c4 ,owen in behalf of this tremendous upheaval inspired her to great effort4 ,she1 too1 had found out by experience that only action counts1 that only a direct participation in the struggle makes life worth while4 ,voltairine de ,cleyre was one of the most remarkable personalities of our time4 ,she was a born iconoclast2 her spirit was too free1 her taste too refined1 to accept any idea that has the slightest degree of limitation4 ,a great sadness1 a knowledge that there is a universal pain1 filled her heart4 ,through her own suffering and through the suffering of others she reached the highest exaltation of mind2 she was conscious of all the vanities of life4 ,in the service of the poor and oppressed she found her life mission4 ,in an exquisite tribute to her memory1 ,leonard ,d4 ,abbott calls ,voltairine de ,cleyre a priestess of ,pity and of ,vengeance1 whose voice has a vibrant quality that is unique in literature4 ,we are convinced that her writings will live as long as humanity exists4 ,hippolyte ,havel4 ,,poems ,,the ,,burial ,,of ,,my ,,past ,,self ,poor ,heart1 so weary with thy bitter grief6 ,so thou art dead at last1 silent and chill6 ,the longed-for death-dart came to thy relief1 ,and there thou liest1 ,heart1 forever still4 ,dead eyes1 pain-pressed beneath their black-fringed pall6 ,dead cheeks1 dark-furrowed with so many tears6 ,so thou art passed far1 far beyond recall1 ,and all thy hopes are past1 and all thy fears4 ,thy lips are closed at length in the long peace6 ,pale lips6 so long they have thy woe repressed1 ,they seem even now when life has run its lease ,all dumbly pitiful in their mournful rest4 ,and now ,i lay thee in thy silent tomb1 ,printing thy brow with one last solemn kiss2 ,laying upon thee one fair lily bloom1 ,a symbol of thy rest2--oh1 rest is bliss4 ,no1 ,heart1 ,i would not call thee back again2 ,no1 no2 too much of suffering hast thou known2 ,but yet1 but yet1 it was not all in vain-- ,thy unseen tears1 thy solitary moan6 ,for out of sorrow joy comes uppermost2 ,where breaks the thunder soon the sky smiles blue2 ,a better love replaces what is lost1 ,and phantom sunlight pales before the true6 ,the seed must burst before the germ unfolds1 ,the stars must fade before the morning wakes2 ,down in her depths the mine the diamond holds2 ,a new heart pulses when the old heart breaks4 ,and now1 ,humanity1 ,i turn to you2 ,i consecrate my service to the world6 ,perish the old love1 welcome to the new-- ,broad as the space-aisles where the stars are whirled6 ,greenville1 ,mich41 #ahhe4 ,,night ,,on ,,the ,,graves ,o'er the sweet1 quiet homes in the silent grave-city1 ,softly the dewdrops1 the night-tears1 fall2 ,broadly about1 like the wide arms of pity1 ,the silver-shot darkness lies over all4 ,heroes1 asleep 'neath the red-hearted rose-wreaths1 ,leaf-crowned with honor1 flower-crowned with rest1 ,gently above you each moon-dripping bough breathes ,a far-echoed whisper1 ,sleep well2 ye are blest4 ,oh6 never1 as long as the heart pulses quicker ,at the dear name of ,country may yours be forgot2 ,nor may we1 till the last puny life spark shall flicker1 ,your deeds from the tablets of ,memory blot6 ,spirits afloat in the night-shrouds that bound us1 ,souls of the ,has-,been and of the ,to-,be1 ,keep the fair light of ,liberty shining around us1 ,till our souls may go back to the mighty ,,soul-,,sea4 ,st4 ,johns1 ,mich41 #ahhf 7,decoration ,day74 ,,the ,,christian',s ,,faith 7,the two following poems were written at that period of my life when the questions of the existence of ,god and the divinity of ,jesus had but recently been settled1 and they present the pros and cons which had been repeating themselves over and over again in my brain for some years47 ,we contrast light and darkness1--light of ,god1 ,and darkness from the ,stygian shades of hell2 ,fumes of the pit infernal rising up ,have clouded o'er the brain1 laid reason low2-- ,for when the eye looks on fair ,nature's face ,and sees not ,god1 then is she blind indeed6 ,no night so starless1 even in its gloom1 ,as his who wanders on without a hope ,in that great1 just ,hereafter all must meet6-- ,no heart so dull1 so heavy1 and so void1 ,as that which lives for this chill world alone6 ,no soul so groveling1 unaspiring1 base1 ,as that which1 here1 forgets the afterhere6 ,and still through all the darkness and the gloom ,its voice will not be stilled1 its hopes be quenched2 ,it cries1 it screams1 it struggles in its chains1 ,and bleeds upon the altar of the mind1-- ,unwilling sacrifice to thought misled4 ,the soul that knows no ,god can know no peace4 ,thus speaketh light1 the herald of our ,god6 ,in that far dawn where shone each rolling world ,first lit with shadowed splendor of the stars1 ,in that fair morning when ,creation sang ,its praise of ,god1 e'er yet it dreamed of sin1 ,pure and untainted as the source of life ,man dwelt in ,eden4 ,there no shadows came1 ,no question of the goodness of our ,lord1 ,until the prince of darkness tempted man1 ,and1 yielding to the newly born desire1 ,he fell6 ,sank in the mire of ignorance6 ,and ,man1 who put himself in ,satan's power1 ,since then has wandered far in devious ways1 ,seeing but now and then a glimpse of light1 ,till ,christ is come1 the living ,son of ,god6 ,far in his heavenly home he viewed the world1 ,saw all her sadness and her sufferings1 ,saw all her woes1 her struggles1 and her search ,for some path leading up from out the ,night4 ,within his breast the fount of tears was touched2 ,his great heart swelled with pity1 and he said3 ,father1 ,i go to save the world from sin4 ,ah6 ,what power but a soul divinely clad ,in purity1 in holiness and love1 ,could leave a home of happiness and light ,for this lost ,world of suffering and death8 ,he came3 the ,world tossed groaning in her sleep2 ,he touched her brow3 the nightmare passed away2 ,he soothed her heart1 red with the stain of sin2 ,and she forgot her guilt in penitence2 ,she washed the ruby out with pearls of tears4 ,he came1 he suffered1 and he died for us2 ,he felt the bitterest woes a soul can feel2 ,he probed the darkest depths of human grief2 ,he sounded all the deeps and shoals of pain2 ,was cursed for all his love2 thanked with the cross1 ,whereon he hung nailed1 bleeding1 glorified1 ,as the last smoke of holocaust divine4 ,ah6 ,this was all two thousand years ago6 ,two thousand years ago1 and still he cries1 ,with voice sweet calling through the distant dark3 ,o souls that labor1 struggling in your pain1 ,come unto me1 and ,i will give you rest6 ,for every woe of yours1 and every smart1 ,i1 too1 have felt3--the mockery1 the shame1 ,the sneer1 the scoffing lip1 the hate1 the lust1 ,the greed of gain1 the jealousy of man1 ,unstinted have been measured out to me4 ,i know them all1 ,i feel them all with you6 ,and ,i have known the pangs of poverty1 ,the cry of hunger and the weary heart ,of childhood burdened with the weight of age6 ,o sufferers1 ye all are mine to love6 ,the pulse-beats of my heart go out with you1 ,and every drop of agony that drips ,from my nailed hands adown this bitter cross1 ,cries out1 ',o ,god6 accept the sacrifice1 ,and ope the gates of heaven to the world6' ,ye vermin of the garret1 who do creep ,your weary lives away within its walls2 ,ye children of the cellar1 who behold ,the sweet1 pale light1 strained through the lothsome air ,and doled to you in tid-bits1 as a thing ,too precious for your use2 ye rats in mines1 ,who knaw within the black and somber pits ,to seek poor living for your little ones2 ,ye women who stitch out your lonely lives1 ,unmindful whether sun or stars keep watch2 ,ye slaves of wheels2 ye worms that bite the dust ,where pride and scorn have ground you 'neath the heel2 ,ye ,toilers of the earth1 ye weary ones1-- ,i know your sufferings1 ,i feel your woes2 ,my peace ,i give you2 in a little while ,the pain will all be over1 and the grave ,will sweetly close above your folded hands6 ,and then8--,ah1 ,death1 no conqueror art thou6 ,for ,i have loosed thy chains2 ,i have unbarred ,the gates of heaven6 ,in my ,father's house ,of many mansions ,i prepare a place2 ,and rest is there for every heart that toils6 ,oh1 all ye sick and wounded ones who grieve ,for the lost health that ne'er may come again2 ,ye who do toss upon a couch of pain1 ,upon whose brow disease has laid his hand1 ,within whose eyes the dull and heavy sight ,burns like a taper burning very low1 ,upon whose lips the purple fever-kiss ,rests his hot breath1 and dries the sickened palms1 ,scorches the flesh and e'en the very air2 ,ye who do grope along without the light2 ,ye who do stumble1 halting on your way2 ,ye whom the world despises as unclean2 ,know that the death-free soul has none of these3 ,the unbound spirit goes unto its ,god1 ,pure1 whole1 and beauteous as newly born6 ,oh1 all ye mourners1 weeping for the dead2 ,your tears ,i gather as the grateful rain ,which rises from the sea and falls again1 ,to nurse the withering flowers from its touch2 ,no drop is ever lost6 ,they fall again ,to nurse the blossoms of some other heart6 ,i would not dry one single dew of grief3 ,the sorrow-freighted lashes which bespeak ,the broken heart and soul are dear to me2 ,i mourn with them1 and mourning so ,i find ,the grief-bowed soul with weeping oft grows light6 ,but yet ye mourn for them not without hope3 ,beyond the woes and sorrows of the earth1 ,as stars still shine though clouds obscure the sight1 ,the friends ye mourn as lost immortal live2 ,and ye shall meet and know their souls again1 ,through death transfigured1 through love glorified6 ,oh1 all ye patient waiters for reward1 ,scorned and despised by those who know not worth1 ,i know your merit and ,i give you hope2 ,for in my ,father's law is justice found4 ,see how the seed-germ1 toiling underground1 ,waits patiently for time to burst its shell2 ,and by and by the golden sunlight warms ,the dark1 cold earth2 the germ begins to shoot4 ,and upward trends until two small green leaves ,unfold and wave and drink the pure1 fresh air4 ,the blossoms come and go with ,summer's breath1 ,and ,autumn brings the fruit-time in her hand4 ,so ye1 who patient watch and wait and hope1 ,trusting the sun may bring the blossoms out1 ,shall reap the fruited labor by and by4 ,i am your friend2 ,i wait and hope with you1 ,rejoice with you when the hard vict'ry's won6 ,and still for you1 ,o prisoners in cells1 ,i hold the dearest gifts of penitence1 ,forgiveness and charity and hope6 ,i stretch the hands of mercy through the bars2 ,white hands1--like doves they bring the branch of peace6 ,repent1 believe1--and ,i will expiate ,upon this bitter cross all your deep guilt6 ,oh1 take my gift1 accept my sacrifice6 ,i ask no other thing but only--trust6 ,oh1 all ye martyrs1 bleeding in your chains2 ,oh1 all ye souls that live for others' good2 ,oh1 all ye mourners1 all ye guilty ones1 ,and all ye suffering ones1 come unto me6 ,ye are all my brothers1 all my sisters1 all6 ,and as ,i love one1 so ,i love you all4 ,accept my love1 accept my sacrifice2 ,make not my cross more bitter than it is ,by shrinking from the peace ,i bring to you6 ,st4 ,johns1 ,mich41 ,april1 #ahhg4 ,,the ,,freethinker',s ,,plea ,grand eye of ,liberty1 light up my page6 ,like promised morning after night of age ,thy dawning youth breaks in the distant east6 ,thy cloudy robes like silken curtains creased ,and swung in folds are floating fair and free6 ,the shadows of the cycles turn and flee2 ,the budding stars1 bright minds that gemmed the night1 ,are bursting into broad1 bright-petaled light6 ,sweet ,liberty1 how pure thy very breath6 ,how dear in life1 how doubly dear in death6 ,ah1 slaves that suffer in your self-forged chains1 ,praying your ,christ to touch and heal your pains1 ,tear off your shackling irons1 unbind your eyes1 ,seize the grand hopes that burn along the skies6 ,worship not ,god in temples built of gloom2 ,far sweeter incense is the flower-bloom ,than all the fires that ,sacrifice may light2 ,and grander is the star-dome gleaming bright ,with glowing worlds1 than all your altar lamps ,pale flickering in your clammy1 vaulted damps2 ,and richer is the broad1 full1 fair sun sheen1 ,dripping its orient light in streams between ,the fretted shafting of the forest trees1 ,throwing its golden kisses to the breeze1 ,lifting the grasses with its finger-tips1 ,and pressing the young blossoms with warm lips1 ,show'ring its glory over plain and hill1 ,wreathing the storm and dancing in the rill2 ,far richer in wild freedom falling there1 ,shaking the tresses of its yellow hair1 ,than all subdued within the dim half-light ,of stained glass windows1 drooping into night4 ,oh1 grander far the massive mountain walls ,which bound the vista of the forest halls1 ,than all the sculptured forms which guard the piles ,that arch your tall1 dim1 gray1 cathedral aisles6 ,and gladder is the carol of a bird ,than all the anthems that were ever heard ,to steal in somber chanting from the tone ,of master voices praising the ,unknown4 ,in the great wild1 where foot of man ne'er trod1 ,there find we ,nature's church and ,nature's ,god6 ,here are no fetters6 though is free as air2 ,its flight may spread far as its wings may dare2 ,and through it all one voice cries1 ,god is love1 ,and love is ,god6 ,around1 within1 above1 ,behold the working of the perfect law1-- ,the law immutable in which no flaw ,exists1 and from which no appeal is made2 ,ev'n as the sunlight chases far the shade ,and shadows chase the light in turn again1 ,so every life is fraught with joy and pain2 ,the stinging thorn lies hid beside the rose2 ,the bud is blighted ere its leave unclose2 ,so pleasure born of ,hope may oft-time yield ,a stinging smart of thorns1 a barren field6 ,but let it be3 the buds will bloom again1 ,the fields will freshen in the summer rain2 ,and never storm scowls dark but still1 somewhere1 ,a bow is bending in the upper air4 ,then learn the law if thou wouldst live aright2 ,and know no unseen power1 no hand of might1 ,can set aside the law which wheels the stars2 ,no incompleteness its perfection mars2 ,the buds will wake in season1 and the rain will fall when clouds hang heavy1 and again ,the snows will tremble when the winter's breath ,congeals the cloud-tears1 as the touch of ,death ,congeals the last drop on the sufferer's cheek4 ,thus do all ,nature's tongues in chorus speak3 ,think not1 ,o man1 that thou canst e'er escape ,one jot of ,justice's law1 nor turn thy fate ,by yielding sacrifice to the ,unseen6 ,purged by thyself alone canst thou be clean4 ,one guide to happiness thou mayst learn3 ,love toward the world begets love in return4 ,and if to others you the measure mete ,of love1 be sure your harvest will be sweet2 ,but if ye sow broadcast the seed of hate1 ,ye'll reap again1 albeit ye reap it late4 ,then let your life-work swell the great flood-tide ,of love towards all the world2 the world is wide1 ,the sea of life is broad2 its waves stretch far2 ,no range1 no barrier1 its sweep may bar2 ,the world is filled1 is trodden down with pain2 ,the sea of life is gathered up of rain1-- ,a throat1 a bed1 a sink1 for human tears1 ,a burial of hopes1 a miasm of fears6 ,but see6 the sun of love shines softly out1 ,flinging its golden fingers all about1 ,pressing its lips in loving1 soft caress1 ,upon the world's pale cheek2 the pain grows less1 ,the tears are dried upon the quivering lashes1 ,an answering sunbeam 'neath the white lids flashes6 ,the sea of life is dimpled o'er with smiles1 ,the sun of love the cloud of woe beguiles1 ,and turns its heavy brow to forehead fair1 ,framed in the glory of its sun-gilt hair4 ,be thine the warming touch1 the kiss of love2 ,vainly ye seek for comfort from above1 ,vainly ye pray the ,gods to ease your pain2 ,the heavy words fall back on you again6 ,vainly ye cry for ,christ to smooth your way2 ,the thorns sting sharper while ye kneeling pray6 ,vainly ye look upon the world of woe1 ,and cry1 ,o ,god1 avert the bitter blow6 ,ye cannot turn the lightning from its track1 ,nor call one single little instant back2 ,the law swerves not1 and with unerring aim ,the shaft of justice falls2 he bears the blame ,who violates the rule3 do well your task1 ,for justice overtakes you all at last4 ,vainly ye patient ones await reward1 ,trusting th' ,almighty's angel to record ,each bitter tear1 each disappointed sigh2 ,reward descends not1 gifted from on high1 ,but is the outgrowth of the eternal law3 ,as from the earth the toiling seed-germs draw ,the food which gives them life and strength to bear ,the storms and suns which sweep the upper air1 ,so ye must draw from out the pregnant earth ,the metal true wherewith to build your worth2 ,so shall ye brave the howling of the blast1 ,and smile triumphant o'er the storm at last4 ,nor dream these trials are without their use2 ,between your joys and griefs ye cannot choose1 ,and say your life with either is complete3 ,ever the bitter mingles with the sweet4 ,the dews must press the petals down at night1 ,if in the dawning they would glisten bright2 ,if sunbeams needs must ripen out the grain ,not less the early blades must woo the rain3 ,if now your eyes be wet with weary tears1 ,ye'll gather them as gems in after years2 ,and if the rains now sodden down your path1 ,ye'll reap rich harvest in the aftermath4 ,ye idle mourners1 crying in your grief1 ,the souls ye weep have found the long relief3 ,why grieve for those who fold their hands in peace8 ,their sore-tried hearts have found a glad release2 ,their spirits sink into the solemn sea6 ,mourn ye the prisoner from his chains let free8 ,nay1 ope your ears unto the living cry ,that pleads for living comfort6 ,hark1 the sigh ,of million heartaches rising in your ears6 ,kiss back the living woes1 the living tears6 ,go down into the felon's gloomy cell2 ,send there the ray of love3 as tree-buds swell ,when spring's warm breath bids the cold winter cease1 ,so will his heart swell with the hope of peace4 ,be filled with love1 for love is ,nature's ,god2 ,the ,god which trembles in the tender sod1 ,the ,god which tints the sunset1 lights the dew1 ,sprinkles with stars the firmament's broad blue1 ,and draws all hearts together in a free ,wide sweep of love1 broad as the ether-sea4 ,no other law or guidance do we need2 ,the world's our church1 to do good is our creed4 ,st4 ,johns1 ,mich41 #ahhg4 ,,to ,,my ,,mother ,some souls there are which never live their life2 ,some suns there are which never pierce their cloud2 ,some hearts there are which cup their perfume in1 ,and yield no incense to the outer air4 ,cloud-shrouded1 flower-cupped heart3 such is thine own3 ,so dost thou live with all thy brightness hid2 ,so dost thou dwell with all thy perfume close2 ,rich in thy treasured wealth1 aye1 rich indeed-- ,and they are wrong who say thou dost not feel4 ,but ,i--,i need blue air and opened bloom2 ,to keep my music means that it must die2 ,and when the thrill1 the joy1 the love of life is gone1 ,i1 too1 am dead--a corpse1 though not entombed4 ,let me live then--but a while--the gloom soon comes1 ,the flower closes and the petals shut2 ,through them the perfume slips out1 like a soul-- ,the long1 still sleep of death--and then the ,grave4 ,cleveland1 ,ohio1 ,march1 #ahhi4 ,,betrayed ,so1 you're the chaplain6 ,you needn't say what you have come for2 ,i can guess4 ,you've come to talk about ,jesus' love1 and repentance and rest and forgiveness6 ,you've come to say that my sin is great1 yet greater the mercy ,heaven will mete1 ,if ,i1 like ,magdalen1 bend my head1 and pour my tears at your ,saviour's feet4 ,your promise is fair1 but ,i've little faith3 ,i relied on promises once before2 ,they brought me to this--this prison cell1 with its iron-barred window1 its grated door6 ,yet he1 too1 was fair who promised me1 with his tender mouth and his ,christ-like eyes2 ,and his voice was as sweet as the summer wind that sighs through the arbors of ,paradise4 ,and he seemed to me all that was good and pure1 and noble and strong1 and true and brave6 ,i had given the pulse of my heart for him1 and deemed it a precious boon to crave4 ,you say that ,jesus so loved the world he died to redeem it from its sin3 ,it isn't redeemed1 or no one could be so fair without1 and so black within4 ,i trusted his promise1 ,i gave my life2--the truth of my love is known on high1 ,if there is a ,god who knows all things2--his promise was false1 his love was a lie6 ,it was over soon1 ,oh6 soon1 the dream1--and me1 he had called his life1 his light1 ,he drove me away with a sneering word1 and you ,christians said that it served me right4 ,i was proud1 ,mr4 ,chaplain1 even then2 ,i set my face in the teeth of ,fate1 ,and resolved to live honestly1 come what might1 and sink beneath neither scorn nor hate4 ,yes1 and ,i prayed that the ,christ above would help to bear the bitter cross1 ,and put something here1 where my heart had been1 to fill up the aching void of loss4 ,it's easy for you to say what ,i should do1 but none of you ever dream how hard ,is the way that you ,christians make for us1 with your sin no more1 trust the ,lord4 ,when for days and days you are turned from work with cold politeness1 or open sneer1 ,you get so you don't trust a far-off ,god1 whose creatures are cold1 and they1 so near4 ,you hold your virtuous lives aloof1 and refuse us your human help and hand1 ,and set us apart as accursd things1 marked with a burning1 ,cain-like brand4 ,but ,i didn't bend1 though many days ,i was weary and hungry1 and worn and weak1 ,and for many a starless night ,i watched1 through tears that grooved down my pallid cheek4 ,they are all dry now6 ,they say ,i'm hard1 because ,i never weep or moan6 ,you can't draw blood when the heart's bled out6 you can't find tears or sound in a stone6 ,and ,i don't know why ,i should be mild and meek3 no one has been very mild to me4 ,you say that ,jesus would be--perhaps6 but ,heaven's a long way off1 you see4 ,that will do2 ,i know what you're going to say3 ,i can have it right here in this narrow cell4 ,the soul is slow to accept ,christ's heav'n when his followers chain the body in hell4 ,not but ,i'm just as well off here1--better1 perhaps1 than ,i was outside4 ,the world was a prison-house to me1 where ,i dwelt1 defying and defied4 ,i don't know but ,i'd think more of what you say1 if they'd given us both a common lot2 ,if justice to me had been justice to him1 and covered our names with an equal blot2 ,but they took him into the social court1 and pitied1 and said he'd been led astray2 ,in a month the stain on his name had passed1 as a cloud that crosses the face of day6 ,he joined the ,church1 and he's preaching now1 just as you are1 the love of ,god1 ,and the duty of sinners to kneel and pray1 and humbly to kiss the chastening rod4 ,if they'd dealt with me as they dealt by him1 may be ,i'd credit your ,christian love2 ,if they'd dealt with him as they dealt by me1 ,i'd have more faith in a just ,above4 ,i don't know1 but sometimes ,i used to think that she1 who was told there was no room ,in the inn at ,bethlehem1 might look down with softened eyes thro' the starless gloom4 ,christ wasn't a woman--he couldn't know the pain and endurance of it2 but she1 ,the mother who bore him1 she might know1 and ,mary in ,heaven might pity me4 ,still that was useless3 it didn't bring a single mouthful for me to eat1 ,nor work to get it1 nor sheltering from the dreary wind and the howling street4 ,heavenly pity won't pass as coin1 and earthly shame brings a higher pay4 ,sometimes ,i was tempted to give it up1 and go1 like others1 the easier way2 ,but ,i didn't2 no1 sir1 ,i kept my oath1 though my baby lay in my arms and cried1 ,and at last1 to spare it--,i poisoned it2 and kissed its murdered lips when it died4 ,i'd never seen him since it was born 7he'd said that it wasn't his1 you know72 ,but ,i took its body and laid it down at the steps of his door1 in the pallid glow ,of the winter morning2 and when he came1 with a love-tune hummed on those lips of lies1 ,it lay at his feet1 with its pinched white face staring up at him from its dead1 blue eyes2 ,i hadn't closed them2 they were like his1 and so was the mouth and the curled gold hair1 ,and every feature so like his own1--for ,i am dark1 sir1 and he is fair4 ',twas a moment of triumph1 that showed me yet there was a passion ,i could feel1 ,when ,i saw him bend o'er its meagre form1 and1 starting backwards1 cry out and reel6 ,if there is a time when all souls shall meet the reward of the deeds that are done in the clay1 ,when accused and accuser stand face to face1 he will cry out so in the ,judgment ,day6 ,the rest8 ,oh1 nothing4 ,they hunted me1 and with virtuous lawyers' virtuous tears ,to a virtuous jury1 convicted me2 and ,i'm sentenced to stay here for twenty years4 ,do ,i repent8 ,yes1 ,i do2 but wait till ,i tell you of what ,i repent1 and why4 ,i repent that ,i ever believed a man could be anything but a living lie6 ,i repent because every noble thought1 or hope1 or ambition1 or earthly trust1 ,is as dead as dungeon-bleached bones in me1--as dead as my child in its murdered dust6 ,do ,i repent that ,i killed the babe8 ,am ,i repentant for that1 you ask8 ,i'll answer the truth as ,i feel it1 sir2 ,i leave to others the pious mask4 ,am ,i repentant because ,i saved its starving body from ,famine's teeth8 ,because ,i hastened what time would do1 to spare it pain and relieve its death8 ,am ,i repentant because ,i held it were better a grave should have no name ,than a living being1 whose only care must come from a mother weighed with shame8 ,am ,i repentant because ,i thought it were better the tiny form lay hid ,from the heartless stings of a brutal world1 unknown1 unnamed1 'neath a coffin lid8 ,am ,i repentant for the act1 the last on earth in my power1 to save ,from the long-drawn misery of life1 in the early death and the painless grave8 ,i'm glad that ,i did it6 ,start if you will6 ,i'll repeat it over2 ,i say ,i'm glad6 ,no1 ,i'm neither a fiend1 nor a maniac--don't look as if ,i were going mad6 ,did ,i not love it8 ,yes1 ,i loved with a strength that you1 sir1 can never feel2 ,it's only a strong love can kill to save1 tho' itself be torn where time cannot heal4 ,you see my hands--they are red with its blood6 ,yet ,i would have cut them1 bit by bit1 ,and fed them1 and smiled to see it eat1 if that would have saved and nourished it6 ,beg6 ,i did beg1--and pray6 ,i did pray6 ,god was as stony and hard as ,earth1 ,and ,christ was as deaf as the stars that watched1 or the night that darkened above his birth6 ,and ,i--,i feel stony now1 too1 like them2 deaf to sorrow and mute to grief6 ,am ,i heartless8--yes3--it-is-all-cut-,,out6 ,torn6 ,gone6 ,all gone6 ,like my dead belief4 ,do ,i not fear for the judgment hour8 ,so unrepentant1 so hard and cold8 ,wait6 ,it is little ,i trust in that2 but if ever the scrolled sky shall be uprolled1 ,and the lives of men shall be read and known1 and their acts be judged by their very worth1 ,and the ,christ you speak of shall come again1 and the thunders of ,justice shake the earth1 ,you will hear the cry1 ,who murdered here8 ,come forth to the judgment1 false heart and eyes1 ,that pulsed with accursd strength of lust1 and loaded faith with envenomed lies6 ,come forth to the judgment1 haughty dames1 who scathed the mother with your scorn1 ,and answer here1 to the poisoned child1 who decreed its murder ere it was born8 ,come forth to the judgment ye who heaped the gold of earth in your treasured hoard1 ,and answer1 'guilty1' to those who stood all naked and starving1 beneath your board4 ,depart1 accursd6 ,i know you not6 ,ye heeded not the command of ,heaven1 ',unto the least of these ye give1 it is even unto the ,master given4' ,judgment6 ,ah1 sir1 to see that day1 ,i'd willingly pass thro' a hundred hells6 ,i'd believe1 then1 the ,justice that hears each voice buried alive in these prison cells6 ,but1 no--it's not that2 that will never be6 ,i trusted too long1 and ,he answered not4 ,there is no avenging ,god on high6--we live1 we struggle1 and--we rot4 ,yet does ,justice come6 and1 ,o ,future ,years6 sorely ye'll reap1 and in weary pain1 ,when ye garner the sheaves that are sown to-day1 when the clouds that are gathering fall in rain6 ,the time will come1 aye6 the time will come1 when the child ye conceive in lust and shame1 ,quickened1 will mow you like swaths of grass1 with a sickle born of ,steel and ,flame4 ,aye1 tremble1 shrink1 in your drunken den1 coward1 traitor1 and ,child of ,lie6 ,the unerring avenger stands close to you1 and the dread hour of parturition's nigh6 ,aye6 wring your hands1 for the air is black6 thickly the cloud-troops whirl and swarm6 ,see6 yonder1 on the horizon's verge1 play the lightning-shafts of the coming storm6 ,adrian1 ,mich41 ,july1 #ahhi4 ,,optimism ,there's a love supreme in the great hereafter1 ,the buds of earth are blooms in heaven2 ,the smiles of the world are ripples of laughter ,when back to its ,aidenn the soul is given3 ,and the tears of the world1 though long in flowing1 ,water the fields of the bye-and-bye2 ,they fall as dews on the sweet grass growing ,when the fountains of sorrow and grief run dry4 ,though clouds hang over the furrows now sowing ,there's a harvest sun-wreath in the ,after-sky6 ,no love is wasted1 no heart beats vainly1 ,there's a vast perfection beyond the grave2 ,up the bays of heaven the stars shine plainly1 ,the stars lying dim on the brow of the wave4 ,and the lights of our loves1 though they flicker and wane1 they ,shall shine all undimmed in the ether-nave4 ,for the altars of ,god are lit with souls ,fanned to flaming with love where the star-wind rolls4 ,st4 ,johns1 ,michigan1 #ahhi4 ,,at ,,the ,,grave ,,in ,,waldheim ,quiet they lie in their shrouds of rest1 ,their lids kissed close 'neath the lips of peace2 ,over each pulseless and painless breast ,the hands lie folded and softly pressed1 ,as a dead dove presses a broken nest2 ,ah1 broken hearts were the price of these6 ,the lips of their anguish are cold and still1 ,for them are the clouds and the gloom all past2 ,no longer the woe of the world can thrill ,the chords of those tender hearts1 or fill ,the silent dead-house6 ,the people's will ,has mapped asunder the strings at last4 ,the people's will6 ,ah1 in years to come1 ,dearly ye'll weep that ye did not save6 ,do ye not hear now the muffled drum1 ,the tramping feet and the ceaseless hum1 ,of the million marchers1--trembling1 dumb1 ,in their tread to a yawning1 giant grave8 ,and yet1 ah6 yet there's a rift of white6 ',tis breaking over the martyrs' shrine6 ,halt there1 ye doomed ones1--it scathes the night1 ,as lightning darts from its scabbard bright ,and sweeps the face of the sky with light6 ,no more shall be spilled out the blood-red wine6 ,these are the words it has written there1 ,keen as the lance of the northern morn2 ,the sword of ,justice gleams in its glare1 ,and the arm of ,justice1 upraised and bare1 ,is true to strike1 aye1 'tis strong to dare2 ,it will fall where the curse of our land is born4 ,no more shall the necks of the nations be crushed1 ,no more to dark ,tyranny's throne bend the knee2 ,no more in abjection be ground to the dust6 ,by their widows1 their orphans1 our dead comrades' trust1 ,by the brave heart-beats stilled1 by the brave voices hushed1 ,we swear that humanity yet shall be free6 ,pittsburg1 #ahhi4 ,,the ,,hurricane,a 7,we are the birds of the coming storm4--,august ,spies47 ,the tide is out1 the wind blows off the shore2 ,bare burn the white sands in the scorching sun2 ,the sea complains1 but its great voice is low4 ,bitter thy woes1 ,o ,people1 ,and the burden ,hardly to be borne6 ,wearily grows1 ,o ,people1 ,all the aching ,of thy pierced heart1 bruised and torn6 ,but yet thy time is not1 ,and low thy moaning4 ,desert thy sands6 ,not yet is thy breath hot1 ,vengefully blowing2 ,it wafts o'er lifted hands4 ,the tide has turned2 the vane veers slowly round2 ,slow clouds are sweeping o'er the blinding light2 ,white crests curl on the sea1--its voice grows deep4 ,angry thy heart1 ,o ,people1 ,and its bleeding ,fire-tipped with rising hate6 ,thy clasped hands part1 ,o ,people1 ,for thy praying ,warmed not the desolate6 ,god did not hear thy moan3 ,now it is swelling ,to a great drowning cry2 ,a dark wind-cloud1 a groan1 ,now backward veering ,from that deaf sky6 ,the tide flows in1 the wind roars from the depths1 ,the whirled-white sand heaps with the foam-white waves2 ,thundering the sea rolls o'er its shell-crunched wall6 ,strong is thy rage1 ,o ,people1 ,in its fury ,hurling thy tyrants down6 ,thou metest wage1 ,o ,people4 ,very swiftly1 ,now that thy hate is grown3 ,thy time at last is come2 ,thou heapest anguish1 ,where thou thyself wert bare6 ,no longer to thy dumb ,god clasped and kneeling1 ,thou answerest thine own prayer4 ,sea ,isle ,city1 ,n4 ,j41 ,august1 #ahhi4 ,a ,since the death of the author this poem has been put to music by the young ,american composer1 ,george ,edwards4 ,,ut ,,sementem ,,feceris1 ,,ita ,,metes 7,to the ,czar1 on a woman1 a political prisoner1 being flogged to death in ,siberia47 ,how many drops must gather to the skies ,before the cloud-burst comes1 we may not know2 ,how hot the fires in under hells must glow ,ere the volcano's scalding lavas rise1 ,can none say2 but all wot the hour is sure6 ,who dreams of vengeance has but to endure6 ,he may not say how many blows must fall1 ,how many lives be broken on the wheel1 ,how many corpses stiffen 'neath the pall1 ,how many martyrs fix the blood-red seal2 ,but certain is the harvest time of ,hate6 ,and when weak moans1 by an indignant world ,re-echoed1 to a throne are backward hurled1 ,who listens1 hears the mutterings of ,fate6 ,philadelphia1 ,february1 #ahij4 ,,bastard ,,born ,why do you clothe me with scarlet of shame8 ,why do you point with your finger of scorn8 ,what is the crime that you hissingly name ,when you sneer in my ears1 ,thou bastard born8 ,am ,i not as the rest of you1 ,with a hope to reach1 and a dream to live8 ,with a soul to suffer1 a heart to know ,the pangs that the thrusts of the heartless give8 ,i am no monster6 ,look at me-- ,straight in my eyes1 that they do not shrink6 ,is there aught in them you can see ,to merit this hemlock you make me drink8 ,this poison that scorches my soul like fire1 ,that burns and burns until love is dry1 ,and ,i shrivel with hate1 as hot as a pyre1 ,a corpse1 while its smoke curls up to the sky8 ,will you touch my hand8 ,it is flesh like yours2 ,perhaps a little more brown and grimed1 ,for it could not be white while the drawers' and hewers'1 ,my brothers1 were calloused and darkened and slimed4 ,yet touch it6 ,it is no criminal's hand6 ,no children are toiling to keep it fair6 ,it is free from the curse of the stolen land1 ,it is clean of the theft of the sea and air6 ,it has set no seals to a murderous law1 ,to sign a bitter1 black league with death6 ,no covenants false do these fingers draw ,in the name of ,the ,state to barter ,faith6 ,it bears no stain of the yellow gold ,that earth's wretches give as the cost of heaven6 ,no priestly garment of silken fold ,i wear as the price of their sins forgiven6 ,still do you shrink6 ,still ,i hear the hiss ,between your teeth1 and ,i feel the scorn ,that flames in your gaze6 ,well1 what is this1 ,this crime ,i commit1 being bastard born8 ,what6 ,you whisper my eyes are gray1 ,the color of hers1 up there on the hill1 ,where the white stone gleams1 and the willow spray ,falls over her grave in the starlight still6 ,my hands are shaped like those quiet hands1 ,folded away from their life1 their care2 ,and the sheen that lies on my short1 fair strands ,gleams darkly down on her buried hair6 ,my voice is toned like that silent tone ,that might1 if it could1 break up through the sod ,with such rebuke as would shame your stone1 ,stirring the grass-roots in their clod6 ,and my heart-beats thrill to the same strong chords2 ,and the blood that was hers is mine to-day2 ,and the thoughts she loved1 ,i love2 and the words ,that meant most to her1 to me most say6 ,she was my mother--,i her child6 ,could ten thousand priests have made us more8 ,do you curse the bloom of the heather wild8 ,do you trample the flowers and cry impure8 ,do you shun the bird-songs' silver shower8 ,does their music arouse your curling scorn ,that none but ,god blessed them8 ,the whitest flower1 ,the purest song1 were but bastard born6 ,this is my sin1--,i was born of her6 ,this is my crime1--that ,i reverence deep6 ,god1 that her pale corpse may not stir1 ,press closer down on her lids--the sleep6 ,would you have me hate her8 ,me1 who knew ,that the gentlest soul in the world looked there1 ,out of the gray eyes that pitied you ,e'en while you cursed her8 ,the long brown hair ,that waved from her forehead1 has brushed my cheek1 ,when her soft lips have drunk up my salt of grief2 ,and the voice1 whose echo you hate1 would speak ,the hush of pity and love's relief6 ,and those still hands that are folded now ,have touched my sorrows for years away6 ,would you have me question her whence and how ,the love-light streamed from her heart's deep ray8 ,do you question the sun that it gives its gold8 ,do you scowl at the cloud when it pours its rain ,till the fields that were withered and burnt and old ,are fresh and tender and young again8 ,do you search the source of the breeze that sweeps ,the rush of the fever from tortured brain8 ,do you ask whence the perfume that round you creeps ,when your soul is wrought to the quick with pain8 ,she was my ,sun1 my ,dew1 my ,air1 ,the highest1 the purest1 the holiest2 ,peace--was the shade of her beautiful hair1 ,love--was all that ,i knew on her breast6 ,would you have me forget8 ,or remembering ,say that her love had bloomed from ,hell8 ,then ,blessed be ,hell6 ,and let ,heaven sing ,te ,deum laudamus1 until it swell ,and ring and roll to the utterest earth1 ,that the damned are free1--since out of sin ,came the whiteness that shamed all ransomed worth ,till ,god opened the gates1 saying ,enter in6 99 99 99 99 99 ,what6 ,in the face of the witness ,i bear ,to her measureless love and her purity1 ,still of your hate would you make me to share1 ,despising that she gave life to me8 ,you would have me stand at her helpless grave1 ,to dig through its earth with a venomed dart6 ,this is ,honor6 and ,right6 and ,brave6 ,to fling a stone at her pulseless heart6 ,this is ,virtue6 ,to blast the lips ,speechless beneath the ,silence dread6 ,to lash with ,slander's scorpion whips ,the voiceless1 defenseless1 helpless dead6 99 99 99 99 99 ,god6 ,i turn to an adder now6 ,back upon you ,i hurl your scorn6 ,bind the scarlet upon your brow6 ,ye it is1 who are bastard born6 ,touch me not6 ,these hands of mine ,despise your fairness--the leper's white6 ,tanned and hardened and black with grime1 ,they are clean beside your souls to-night6 ,basely born6 ',tis ye are base6 ,ye who would guerdon holy trust ,with slavish law to a tyrant race1 ,to sow the earth with the seed of lust4 ,base6 ,by ,heaven6 ,prate of peace1 ,when your garments are red with the stain of wars4 ,reeling with passion's mad release ,by your sickly gaslight damn the stars6 ,blurred with wine ye behold the snow ,smirched with the foulness that blots within6 ,what of purity can ye know1 ,ye ten-fold children of ,hell and ,sin8 ,ye to judge her6 ,ye to cast ,the stone of wrath from your house of glass6 ,know ye the ,law1 that ye dare to blast ,the bell of gold with your clanging brass8 ,know ye the harvest the reapers reap ,who drop in the furrow the seed of scorn8 ,out of this anguish ye harrow deep1 ,ripens the sentence3 ,ye1 bastard born6 ,ay1 sin-begotten1 hear the curse2 ,not mine--not hers--but the fatal ,law6 ,who bids one suffer1 shall suffer worse2 ,who scourges1 himself shall be scourgd raw6 ,for the thoughts ye think1 and the deeds ye do1 ,move on1 and on1 till the flood is high1 ,and the dread dam bursts1 and the waves roar through1 ,hurling a cataract dirge to the sky6 ,to-night ye are deaf to the beggar's prayer2 ,to-morrow the thieves shall batter your wall6 ,ye shall feel the weight of a starved child's care ,when your warders under the ,mob's feet fall6 ',tis the roar of the whirlwind ye invoke ,when ye scatter the wind of your brother's moans2 ',tis the red of your hate on your own head broke1 ,when the blood of the murdered spatters the stones6 ,hark ye6 ,out of the reeking slums1 ,thick with the fetid stench of crime1 ,boiling up through their sickening scums1 ,bubbles that burst through the crimson wine1 ,voices burst--with terrible sound1 ,crying the truth your dull souls ne'er saw6 ,we are your sentence6 ,the wheel turns round6 ,the bastard spawn of your bastard law6 ,this is bastard3 ,that ,man should say ,how ,love shall love1 and how ,life shall live6 ,setting a tablet to groove ,god's way1 ,measuring how the divine shall give6 99 99 99 99 99 ,o1 ,evil ,hearts6 ,ye have maddened me1 ,that ,i should interpret the voice of ,god6 ,quiet6 ,quiet6 ,o angered ,sea6 ,quiet6 ,i go to her blessed sod6 99 99 99 99 99 ,mother1 ,mother1 ,i come to you6 ,down in your grasses ,i press my face6 ,under the kiss of their cold1 pure dew1 ,i may dream that ,i lie in the dear old place6 ,mother1 sweet ,mother1 take me back1 ,into the bosom from whence ,i came6 ,take me away from the cruel rack1 ,take me out of the parching flame6 ,fold me again with your beautiful hair1 ,speak to this terrible heaving ,sea6 ,over me pour the soothing of prayer1 ,the words of the ,love-child of ,galilee3 ,peace--be still6 ,still1--could ,i but hear6 ,softly1--,i listen4--,o fierce heart1 cease6 ,softly1--,i breathe not1--low1--in my ear1-- ,mother1 ,mother--,i heard you6--,peace6 ,enterprise1 ,kansas1 ,january1 #ahia4 ,,hymn 7,this hymn was written at the request of a ,christian ,science friend who proposed to set it to music4 ,it did not represent my beliefs either then or since1 but rather what ,i wish might be my beliefs1 had ,i not an inexorable capacity for seeing things as they are1--a vast scheme of mutual murder1 with no justice anywhere1 and no ,god in the soul or out of it47 ,i am at peace--no storm can ever touch me2 ,on my clear heights the sunshine only falls2 ,far1 far below glides the phantom voice of sorrows1 ,in peace-lifted light the ,silence only calls4 ,ah1 ,soul1 ascend6 ,the mountain way1 up-leading1 ,bears to the heights whereon the ,blest have trod6 ,lay down the burden2--stanch the heart's sad bleeding2 ,be ye at peace1 for know that ,ye are ,god6 ,not long the way1 not far in a dim heaven2 ,in the locked ,self seek ye the guiding star3 ,clear shine its rays1 illumining the shadow2 ,there1 where ,god is1 there1 too1 ,o ,souls ye are4 ,ye are at one1 and bound in ,him forever1 ,ev'n as the wave is bound in the great sea2 ,never to drift beyond1 below ,him1 never6 ,whole as ,god is1 so1 even so1 are ye4 ,philadelphia1 #ahib4 ,,you ,,and ,i 7,a reply to ,you and ,i in the ,golden ,weather1 by ,dyer ,d4 ,lum47 ,you and ,i1 in the sere1 brown weather1 ,when clouds hang thick in the frowning sky1 ,when rain-tears drip on the bloomless heather1 ,unheeding the storm-blasts will walk together1 ,and look to each other--,you and ,i4 ,you and ,i1 when the clouds are shriven ,to show the cliff-broods of lightnings high2 ,when over the ramparts1 swift1 thunder-driven1 ,rush the bolts of ,hate from a ,hell-lit ,heaven1 ,will smile at each other--,you and ,i4 ,you and ,i1 when the bolts are falling1 ,the hot air torn with the earth's wild cries1 ,will lean through the darkness where ,death is calling1 ,will search through the shadows where ,night is palling1 ,and find the light in each other's eyes4 ,you and ,i1 when black sheets of water ,drench and tear us and drown our breath1 ,below this laughter of ,hell's own daughter1 ,above the smoke of the storm-girt slaughter1 ,will hear each other and gleam at ,death4 ,you and ,i1 in the gray night dying1 ,when over the east-land the dawn-beams fly1 ,down in the groans1 in the low1 faint crying1 ,down where the thick blood is blackly lying1 ,will reach out our weak arms1 ,you and ,i4 ,you and ,i1 in the cold1 white weather1 ,when over our corpses the pale lights lie1 ,will rest at last from the dread endeavor1 ,pressed to each other1 for parting--never6 ,our dead lips together1 ,you and ,i4 ,you and ,i1 when the years in flowing ,have left us behind with all things that die1 ,with the rot of our bones shall give soil for growing ,the loves of the ,future1 made sweet for blowing ,by the dew of the kiss of a last good-bye6 ,philadelphia1 #ahib4 ,,the ,,toast ,,of ,,despair ,we have cried1--and the ,gods are silent2 ,we have trusted1--and been betrayed2 ,we have loved1--and the fruit was ashes2 ,we have given1--the gift was weighed4 ,we know that the heavens are empty1 ,that friendship and love are names2 ,that truth is an ashen cinder1 ,the end of life's burnt-out flames4 ,vainly and long have we waited1 ,through the night of the human roar1 ,for a single song on the harp of ,hope1 ,or a ray from a day-lit shore4 ,songs aye come floating1 marvelous sweet1 ,and bow-dyed flashes gleam2 ,but the sweets are ,lies1 and the weary feet ,run after a marsh-light beam4 ,in the hour of our need the song departs1 ,and the sea-moans of sorrow swell2 ,the siren mocks with a gurgling laugh ,that is drowned in the deep death-knell4 ,the light we chased with our stumbling feet ,as the goal of happier years1 ,swings high and low and vanishes1-- ,the bow-dyes were of our tears4 ,god is a lie1 and ,faith is a lie1 ,and a tenfold lie is ,love2 ,life is a problem without a why1 ,and never a thing to prove4 ,it adds1 and subtracts1 and multiplies1 ,and divides without aim or end2 ,its answers all false1 though false-named true1-- ,wife1 husband1 lover1 friend4 ,we know it now1 and we care no more2 ,what matters life or death8 ,we tiny insects emerge from earth1 ,suffer1 and yield our breath4 ,like ants we crawl on our brief sand-hill1 ,dreaming of mighty things1-- ,lo1 they crunch1 like shells in the ocean's wrath1 ,in the rush of ,time's awful wings4 ,the sun smiles gold1 and the planets white1 ,and a billion stars smile1 still2 ,yet1 fierce as we1 each wheels towards death1 ,and cannot stay his will4 ,then build1 ye fools1 your mighty things1 ,that ,time shall set at naught2 ,grow warm with the song the sweet ,lie sings1 ,and the false bow your tears have wrought4 ,for us1 a truce to ,gods1 loves1 and hopes1 ,and a pledge to fire and wave2 ,a swifter whirl to the dance of death1 ,and a loud huzza for the ,grave6 ,philadelphia1 #ahib4 ,,in ,,memoriam 7,to ,dyer ,d4 ,lum1 my friend and teacher1 who died ,april #f1 #ahic47 ,great silent heart6 ,these barren drops of grief ,are not for you1 attained unto your rest2 ,this sterile salt upon the withered leaf ,of love1 is mine--mine the dark burial guest4 ,far1 far within that deep1 untroubled sea ,we watched together1 walking on the sands1 ,your soul has melted1--painless1 silent1 free2 ,mine the wrung heart1 mine the clasped1 useless hands4 ,into the whirl of life1 where none remember1 ,i bear your image1 ever unforgot2 ,the ,whip-poor-will1 still wailing in ,december1 ,cries the same cry--cries1 cries1 and ceases not4 ,the future years with all their waves of faces ,roll shoreward singing the great undertone2 ,yours is not there2--in the old1 well-loved places ,i look1 and pass1 and watch the sea alone4 ,alone along the gleaming1 white sea-shore1 ,the sea-spume spraying thick around my head1 ,through all the beat of waves and winds that roar1 ,i go1 remembering that you are dead4 ,that you are dead1 and nowhere is there one ,like unto you2--and nowhere ,love leaps ,death2-- ,and nowhere may the broken race be run2-- ,nowhere unsealed the seal that none gainsaith4 ,yet in my ear that deep1 sweet undertone ,grows deeper1 sweeter1 solemner to me1-- ,dreaming your dreams1 watching the light that shone ,so whitely to you1 yonder1 on the sea4 ,your voice is there1 there in the great life-sound-- ,your eyes are there1 out there1 within the light2 ,your heart1 within the pulsing ,race-heart drowned1 ,beats in the immortality of ,right4 ,o ,life1 ,i love you for the love of him ,who showed me all your glory and your pain6 ,unto ,nirvana--so the deep tones sing-- ,and there--and there--we--shall--be--one--again4 ,greensburg1 ,pa41 ,april #ith1 #ahic4 ,,out ,,of ,,the ,,darkness ,who am ,i8 ,only one of the commonest common people1 ,only a worked-out body1 a shriveled and withered soul1 ,what right have ,i to sing then8 ,none2 and ,i do not1 ,i cannot4 ,why ruin the rhythm and rhyme of the great world's songs with moaning8 ,i know not--nor why whistles must shriek1 wheels ceaselessly mutter2 ,nor why all ,i touch turns to clanging and clashing and discord2 ,i know not2--,i know only this1--,i was born to this1 live in it hourly1 ,go round with it1 hum with it1 curse with it1 would laugh with it1 had it laughter2 ,it is my breath--and that breath goes outward from me in moaning4 ,o you1 up there1 ,i have heard you2 ,i am ,god's image defaced1 ,in heaven reward awaits me1 hereafter ,i shall be perfect2 ,ages you've sung that song1 but what is it to me1 think you8 ,if you heard down here in the smoke and the smut1 in the smear and the offal1 ,in the dust1 in the mire1 in the grime and in the slime1 in the hideous darkness1 ,how the wheels turn your song into sounds of horror and loathing and cursing1 ,the offer of lust1 the sneer of contempt and acceptance1 thieves' whispers1 ,the laugh of the gambler1 the suicide's gasp1 the yell of the drunkard1 ,if you heard them down here you would cry1 ,the reward of such is damnation1 ,if you heard them1 ,i say1 your song of rewarded hereafter would fail4 ,you1 too1 with your science1 your titles1 your books1 and your long explanations ,that tell me how ,i am come up out of the dust of the cycles1 ,out of the sands of the sea1 out of the unknown primeval forests1-- ,out of the growth of the world have become the bud and the promise1-- ,out of the race of the beasts have arisen1 proud and triumphant1-- ,you1 if you knew how your words rumble round in the wheels of labor6 ,if you knew how my hammering heart beats1 ,liar1 liar1 you lie6 ,out of all buds of the earth we are most blasted and blighted6 ,what beast of all the beasts is not prouder and freer than we8 ,you1 too1 who sing in high words of the glory of ,man universal1 ,the beauty of sacrifice1 debt of the future1 the present immortal1 ,the glory of use1 absorption by ,death of the being in ,being1 ,you1 if you knew what jargon it makes1 down here1 would be quiet4 ,oh1 is there no one to find or to speak a meaning to me1 ,to me as ,i am1--the hard1 the ignorant1 withered-souled worker8 ,to me upon whom ,god and ,science alike have stamped failure1 ,to me who know nothing but labor1 nothing but sweat1 dirt1 and sorrow1 ,to me whom you scorn and despise1 you up there who sing while ,i moan8 ,to me as ,i am1--for me as ,i am--not dying but living2 ,not my future1 my present6 my body1 my needs1 my desires6 ,is there no one1 ,in the midst of this rushing of phantoms--of ,gods1 of ,science1 of ,logic1 ,of ,philosophy1 ,morals1 ,religion1 ,economy1--all this that helps not1 ,all these ghosts at whose altars you worship1 these ponderous1 marrowless ,fictions1 ,is there no one who thinks1 is there nothing to help this dull moaning me8 ,philadelphia1 ,april1 #ahic4 ,,mary ,,wollstonecraft ,the dust of a hundred years ,is on thy breast1 ,and thy day and thy night of tears ,are centurine rest4 ,thou to whom joy was dumb1 ,life a broken rhyme1 ,lo1 thy smiling time is come1 ,and our weeping time4 ,thou who hadst sponge and myrrh ,and a bitter cross1 ,smile1 for the day is here ,that we know our loss2-- ,loss of thine undone deed1 ,thy unfinished song1 ,th' unspoken word for our need1 ,th' unrighted wrong2 ,smile1 for we weep1 we weep1 ,for the unsoothed pain1 ,the unbound wound burned deep1 ,that we might gain4 ,mother of sorrowful eyes ,in the dead old days1 ,mother of many sighs1 ,of pain-shod ways2 ,mother of resolute feet ,through all the thorns1 ,mother soul-strong1 soul-sweet1-- ,lo1 after storms ,have broken and beat thy dust ,for a hundred years1 ,thy memory is made just1 ,and the just man hears4 ,thy children kneel and repeat3 ,though dust be dust1 ,though sod and coffin and sheet ,and moth and rust ,have folded and molded and pressed1 ,yet they cannot kill2 ,in the heart of the world at rest ,she liveth still4 ,philadelphia1 ,april #bgth1 #ahic4 ,,the ,,gods ,,and ,,the ,,people ,what have you done1 ,o skies1 ,that the millions should kneel to you8 ,why should they lift wet eyes1 ,grateful with human dew8 ,why should they clasp their hands1 ,and bow at thy shrines1 ,o heaven1 ,thanking thy high commands ,for the mercies that thou hast given8 ,what have those mercies been1 ,o thou1 who art called the ,good1 ,who trod through a world of sin1 ,and stood where the felon stood8 ,what is that wondrous peace ,vouchsafed to the child of dust1 ,for whom all doubt shall cease ,in the light of thy perfect trust8 ,how hast ,thou heard their prayers ,smoking up from the bleeding sod1 ,who1 crushed by their weight of cares1 ,cried up to ,thee1 ,most ,high ,god8 99 99 99 99 99 ,where the swamps of ,humanity sicken1 ,read the answer1 in dumb1 white scars6 ,you1 ,skies1 gave the sore and the stricken ,the light of your far-off stars6 ,the children who plead are driven1 ,shelterless1 through the street1 ,receiving the mercy of ,heaven ,hard-frozen in glittering sleet6 ,the women who prayed for pity1 ,who called on the saving ,name1 ,through the walks of your merciless city ,are crying the rent of shame4 ,the starving1 who gazed on the plenty ,in which they might not share1 ,have died in their hunger1 rent by ,the anguish of unheard prayer6 ,the weary who plead for remission1 ,for a moment1 only1 release1 ,have sunk1 with unheeded petition3 ,this is the ,christ-pledged ,peace4 ,these are the mercies of ,heaven1 ,these are the answers of ,god1 ,to the prayers of the agony-shriven1 ,from the paths where the millions plod6 ,the silent scorn of the sightless6 ,the callous ear of the deaf6 ,the wrath of might to the mightless6 ,the shroud1 and the mourning sheaf6 ,light--to behold their squalor6 ,breath--to draw in life's pain6 ,voices to plead and call for ,heaven's help6--hearts to bleed--in vain6 99 99 99 99 99 ,what have you done1 ,o ,church1 ,that the weary should bless your name8 ,should come with faith's holy torch ,to light up your altar'd fane8 ,why should they kiss the folds ,of the garment of your ,high ,priest8 ,or bow to the chalice that holds ,the wine of your ,sacred ,feast8 ,have you blown out the breath of their sighs8 ,have you strengthened the weak1 the ill8 ,have you wiped the dark tears from their eyes1 ,and bade their sobbings be still8 ,have you touched1 have you known1 have you felt1 ,have you bent and softly smiled ,in the face of the woman1 who dwelt ,in lewdness--to feed her child8 ,have you heard the cry in the night ,going up from the outraged heart1 ,masked from the social sight ,by the cloak that but angered the smart8 ,have you heard the children's moan1 ,by the light of the skies denied8 ,answer1 ,o ,walls of ,stone1 ,in the name of your ,crucified6 99 99 99 99 99 ,out of the clay of their heart-break1 ,from the red dew of its sod1 ,you have mortar'd your brick1 for ,christ's sake1 ,and reared a palace to ,god6 ,your painters have dipped their brushes ,in the tears and the blood of the race1 ,whom1 ,,living1 your dark frown crushes-- ,and limned--a ,,dead ,savior's face6 ,you have seized1 in the name of ,god1 the ,child's crust from famine's dole2 ,you have taken the price of its body ,and sung a mass for its soul6 ,you have smiled on the man1 who1 deceiving1 ,paid exemption to ease your wrath6 ,you have cursed the poor fool who believed him1 ,though her body lay prone in your path6 ,you have laid the seal on the lip6 ,you have bid us to be content6 ,to bow 'neath our master's whip1 ,and give thanks for the scourge--heav'n sent4 ,these1 ,o ,church1 are your thanks2 ,these are the fruits without flaw1 ,that flow from the chosen ranks ,who keep in your perfect law2 ,doors hard-locked on the homeless6 ,stained glass windows for bread6 ,on the living1 the law of dumbness1 ,and the law of need1 for--the dead6 ,better the dead1 who1 not needing1 ,go down to the vaults of the ,earth1 ,than the living whose hearts lie bleeding1 ,crushed by you at their very birth4 99 99 99 99 99 ,what have you done1 ,o ,state1 ,that the toilers should shout your ways2 ,should light up the fires of their hate ,if a traitor should dare dispraise8 ,how do you guard the trust ,that the people repose in you8 ,do you keep to the law of the just1 ,and hold to the changeless true8 ,what do you mean when you say ,the home of the free and brave8 ,how free are your people1 pray8 ,have you no such thing as a slave8 ,what are the lauded rights1 ,broad-sealed1 by your ,sovereign ,grace8 ,what are the love-feeding sights ,you yield to your subject race8 99 99 99 99 99 ,the rights6--,ah6 the right to toil1 ,that another1 idle1 may reap2 ,the right to make fruitful the soil ,and a meagre pittance to keep6 ,the right of a woman to own ,her body1 spotlessly pure1 ,and starve in the street--alone6 ,the right of the wronged--to endure6 ,the right of the slave--to his yoke6 ,the right of the hungry--to pray6 ,the right of the toiler--to vote ,for the master who buys his day6 ,you have sold the sun and the air6 ,you have dealt in the price of blood6 ,you have taken the lion's share ,while the lion is fierce for food6 ,you have laid the load of the strong ,on the helpless1 the young1 the weak6 ,you have trod out the purple of wrong2-- ,beware where its wrath shall wreak6 ,let the ,voice of the ,people be heard6 ,o---- ,you strangled it with your rope6 ,denied the last dying word1 ,while your ,trap and your ,gallows spoke6 ,but a thousand voices rise ,where the words of the martyr fell2 ,the seed springs fast to the ,skies ,watered deep from that bloody well6 99 99 99 99 99 ,hark6 ,low down you will hear ,the storm in the underground6 ,listen1 ,tyrants1 and fear6 ,quake at that muffled sound6 ,heavens1 that mocked our dust1 ,smile on1 in your pitiless blue6 ,silent as you are to us1 ,so silent are we to you6 ,churches that scourged our brains6 ,priests that locked fast our hands6 ,we planted the torch in your chains3 ,now gather the burning brands6 ,states that have given us ,,law1 ,when we asked for ,,the ,,right ,,to ,,earn ,,bread6 ,the ,sword that ,damocles saw ,by a hair swings over your head6 ,what ye have sown ye shall reap3 ,teardrops1 and ,blood1 and ,hate1 ,gaunt gather before your ,seat1 ,and knock at your palace gate6 ,there are murderers on your ,thrones6 ,there are thieves in your ,justice-halls6 ,white ,leprosy cancers their stones1 ,and gnaws at their worm-eaten walls6 ,and the ,hand of ,belshazzar's ,feast ,writes over1 in flaming light3 ,thought's kingdom no more to the ,priest2 ,nor the ,law of ,right unto ,might4 ,,john ,p4 ,,altgeld 7,after an incarceration of six long years in ,joliet state prison for an act of which they were entirely innocent1 namely1 the throwing of the ,haymarket bomb1 in ,chicago1 ,may #dth1 #ahhf1 ,oscar ,neebe1 ,michael ,schwab and ,samuel ,fielden1 were liberated by ,gov4 ,altgeld1 who thus sacrificed his political career to an act of justice47 ,there was a tableau6 ,liberty's clear light ,shone never on a braver scene than that4 ,here was a prison1 there a ,man who sat ,high in the ,halls of state6 ,beyond1 the might ,of ignorance and ,mobs1 whose hireling press ,yells at their bidding like the slaver's hounds1 ,ready with coarse caprice to curse or bless1 ,to make or unmake rulers6--,lo1 there sounds ,a grating of the doors6 ,and three poor men1 ,helpless and hated1 having naught to give1 ,come from their long-sealed tomb1 look up1 and live1 ,and thank this ,man that they are free again4 ,and ,he--to all the world this ,man dares say1 ,curse as you will6 ,i have been just this day4 ,philadelphia1 ,june1 #ahic4 ,,the ,,cry ,,of ,,the ,,unfit ,the gods have left us1 the creeds have crumbled2 ,there are none to pity and none to care3 ,our fellows have crushed us where we have stumbled2 ,they have made of our bodies a bleeding stair4 ,loud rang the bells in the ,christmas steeples2 ,we heard them ring through the bitter morn3 ,the promise of old to the weary peoples ,came floating sweetly1--,christ is born4 ,but the words were mocking1 sorely mocking1 ,as we sought the sky through our freezing tears1 ,we children1 who've hung the ,christmas stocking1 ,and found it empty two thousand years4 ,no1 there is naught in the old creed for us2 ,love and peace are to those who win2 ,to them the delight of the golden chorus1 ,to us the hunger and shame and sin4 ,why then live on since our lives are fruitless1 ,since peace is certain and death is rest2 ,since our masters tell us the strife is bootless1 ,and ,nature scorns her unwelcome guest8 ,you who have climbed on our aching bodies1 ,you who have thought because we have toiled1 ,priests of the creed of a newer goddess1 ,searchers in depths where the ,past was foiled4 ,speak in the name of the faith that you cherish6 ,give us the truth6 ,we have bought it with woe6 ,must we forever thus worthlessly perish1 ,burned in the desert and lost in the snow8 ,trampled1 forsaken1 foredoomed1 and forgotten1-- ,helplessly tossed like the leaf in the storm8 ,bred for the shambles1 with curses begotten1 ,useless to all save the rotting grave-worm8 ,give us some anchor to stay our mad drifting6 ,give1 for your own sakes6 for lo1 where our blood1 ,a red tide to drown you1 is steadily lifting6 ,help6 or you die in the terrible flood6 ,philadelphia1 #ahic4 ,,in ,,memoriam ,to ,gen4 ,m4 ,m4 ,trumbull4 7,no man better than ,gen4 ,trumbull defended my martyred comrades in ,chicago47 ,back to thy breast1 ,o ,mother1 turns thy child1 ,he whom thou garmentedst in steel of truth1 ,and sent forth1 strong in the glad heart of youth1 ,to sing the wakening song in ears beguiled ,by tyrants' promises and flatterers' smiles2 ,these searched his eyes1 and knew nor threats nor wiles ,might shake the steady stars within their blue1 ,nor win one truckling word from off those lips1-- ,no--not for gold nor praise1 nor aught men do ,to dash the ,sun of ,honor with eclipse1 ,o ,mother ,liberty1 those eyes are dark1 ,and the brave lips are white and cold and dumb2 ,but fair in other souls1 through time to come1 ,fanned by thy breath glows the ,immortal ,spark4 ,philadelphia1 ,may1 #ahid4 ,,the ,,wandering ,,jew 7,the above poem was suggested by the reading of an article describing an interview with the wandering ,jew1 in which he was represented as an incorrigible grumbler4 ,the ,jew has been1 and will continue to be1 the grumbler of earth1--until the prophetic ideal of justice shall be realized3 ,,blessed ,,be ,,he47 ,go on4--,,thou shalt go on till ,i come4 ,pale1 ghostly ,vision from the coffined years1 ,planting the cross with thy world-wandering feet1 ,stern ,watcher through the centuries' storm and beat1 ,in those sad eyes1 between those grooves of tears1-- ,those eyes like caves where sunlight never dwells ,and stars but dimly shine--stand sentinels ,that watch with patient hope1 through weary days1 ,that somewhere1 sometime1 ,he indeed may come1 ,and thou at last find thee a resting place1 ,blast-driven leaf of ,man1 within the tomb4 ,aye1 they have cursed thee with the bitter curse1 ,and driven thee with scourges o'er the world2 ,tyrants have crushed thee1 ,ignorance has hurled ,its black anathema2--but ,death's pale hearse1 ,that bore them graveward1 passed them silently2 ,and vainly didst thou stretch thy hands and cry1 ,take me instead2--not yet for thee the time1 ,not yet--not yet3 thy bruised and mangled limbs ,must still drag on1 still feed the ,vulture1 ,crime1 ,with bleeding flesh1 till rust its steel beak dims4 ,aye1 till ,he come1--,he1--freedom1 justice1 peace-- ,till then shalt thou cry warning through the earth1 ,unheeding pain1 untouched by death and birth1 ,proclaiming ,woe1 woe1 woe1 till men shall cease ,to seek for ,christ within the senseless skies1 ,and1 joyous1 find him in each other's eyes4 ,then shall be builded such a tomb for thee ,shall beggar kings' as diamonds outshine dew6 ,the ,universal ,heart of ,man shall be ,the sacred urn of the accursed ,jew4 ,philadelphia1 #ahid4 ,,the ,,feast ,,of ,,vultures 7,as the three ,anarchists1 ,vaillant1 ,henry and ,caserio1 were led to their several executions1 a voice from the prison cried loudly1 ,vive l'anarchie6 ,through watch and ward the cry escaped1 and no man owned the voice2 but the cry is still resounding through the world47 ,a moan in the gloam in the air-peaks heard-- ,the ,bird of ,omen--the wild1 fierce ,bird1 ,aflight ,in the night1 ,like a whizz of light1 ,arrowy winging before the storm1 ,far away flinging1 ,the whistling1 singing1 ,white-curdled drops1 wind-blown and warm1 ,from its beating1 flapping1 ,thunderous wings2 ,crashing and clapping ,the split night swings1 ,and rocks and totters1 ,bled of its levin1 ,and reels and mutters ,a curse to ,heaven6 ,reels and mutters and rolls and dies1 ,with a wild light streaking its black1 blind eyes4 ,far1 far1 far1 ,through the red1 mad morn1 ,like a hurtling star1 ,through the air upborne1 ,the ,herald-,singer1 ,the ,terror-,bringer1 ,speeds--and behind1 through the cloud-rags torn1 ,gather and wheel a million wings1 ,clanging as iron where the hammer rings2 ,the whipped sky shivers1 ,the ,white ,gate shakes1 ,the ripped throne quivers1 ,the dumb ,god wakes1 ,and feels in his heart the talon-stings-- ,the dead bodies hurled from beaks for slings4 ,ruin6 ,ruin6 the ,whirlwind cries1 ,and it leaps at his throat and tears his eyes2 ,death for death1 as ye long have dealt2 ,the heads of your victims your heads shall pelt2 ,the blood ye wrung to get drunk upon1 ,drink1 and be poisoned6 ,on1 ,herald1 on6 ,behold1 behold1 ,how a moan is grown6 ,a cry hurled high 'gainst a scaffold's joist6 ,the ,voice of ,defiance--the loud1 wild ,voice6 ,whirled ,through the world1 ,a smoke-wreath curled 7,breath 'round hot kisses7 around a fire6 ,see6 the ground hisses ,with curses1 and glisses ,with red-streaming blood-clots of long-frozen ire1 ,waked by the flying ,wild voice as it passes2 ,groaning and crying1 ,the surge of the masses ,rolls and flashes ,with thunderous roar-- ,seams and lashes ,the livid shore-- ,seams and lashes and crunches and beats1 ,and drags a ragged wall to its howling retreats6 ,swift1 swift1 swift1 ',thwart the blood-rain's fall1 ,through the fire-shot rift ,of the broken wall1 ,the prophet-crying ,the storm-strong sighing1 ,flies--and from under ,night's lifted pall1 ,swarming1 menace ten million darts1 ,uplifting fragments of human shards6 ,ah1 white teeth chatter1 ,and dumb jaws fall1 ,while winged fires scatter ,till gloom gulfs all ,save the boom of the cannon that storm the forts ,that the people bombard with their comrades' hearts2 ,vengeance6 ,vengeance6 the voices scream1 ,and the vulture pinions whirl and stream6 ,knife for knife1 as ye long have dealt2 ,the edge ye whetted for us be felt1 ,ye chopper of necks1 on your own1 your own6 ,bare it1 ,coward6 ,on1 ,prophet1 on6 ,behold how high ,rolls a prison cry6 ,philadelphia1 ,august #ahid4 ,,the ,,suicide',s ,,defense 7,of all the stupidities wherewith the law-making power has signaled its own incapacity for dealing with the disorders of society1 none appears so utterly stupid as the law which punishes an attempted suicide4 ,to the question ,what have you to say in your defense8 ,i conceive the poor wretch might reply as follows37 ,to say in my defense8 ,defense of what8 ,defense to whom8 ,and why defense at all8 ,have ,i wronged any8 ,let that one accuse6 ,some priest there mutters ,i have outraged ,god6 ,let ,god then try me1 and let none dare judge ,himself as fit to put ,heaven's ermine on6 ,again ,i say1 let the wronged one accuse4 ,aye1 silence6 ,there is none to answer me4 ,and whom could ,i1 a homeless1 friendless tramp1 ,to whom all doors are shut1 all hearts are locked1 ,all hands withheld--whom could ,i wrong1 indeed ,by taking that which benefited none ,and menaced all8 ,aye1 since ye will it so1 ,know then your risk4 ,but mark1 'tis not defense1 ',tis accusation that ,i hurl at you4 ,see to't that ye prepare your own defense4 ,my life1 ,i say1 is an eternal threat ,to you and yours2 and therefore it were well ,to have foreborne your unasked services4 ,and why8 ,because ,i hate you6 ,every drop ,of blood that circles in your plethoric veins ,was wrung from out the gaunt and sapless trunks ,of men like me1 who in your cursed mills ,were crushed like grapes within the wine-press ground4 ,to us ye leave the empty skin of life2 ,the heart of it1 the sweet of it1 ye pour ,to fete your dogs and mistresses withal6 ,your mistresses6 ,our daughters6 ,bought1 for bread1 ,to grace the flesh that once was father's arms6 ,yes1 ,i accuse you that ye murdered me6 ,ye killed the ,man--and this that speaks to you ,is but the beast that ye have made of me6 ,what6 ,is it life to creep and crawl and beg1 ,and slink for shelter where rats congregate8 ,and for one's ideal dream of a fat meal8 ,is it1 then1 life1 to group like pigs in sties1 ,and bury decency in common filth1 ,because1 forsooth1 your income must be made1 ,though human flesh rot in your plague-rid dens8 ,is it1 then1 life1 to wait another's nod1 ,for leave to turn yourself to gold for him8 ,would it be life to you8 ,and was ,i less ,than you8 ,was ,i not born with hopes and dreams ,and pains and passions even as were you8 ,but these ye have denied4 ,ye seized the earth1 ,though it was none of yours1 and said3 ,hereon ,shall none rest1 walk or work1 till first to me ,ye render tribute6 ,every art of man1 ,born to make light of the burdens of the world1 ,ye also seized1 and made a tenfold curse ,to crush the man beneath the thing he made4 ,houses1 machines1 and lands--all1 all are yours2 ,and us you do not need4 ,when we ask work ,ye shake your heads4 ,homes8--,ye evict us4 ,bread8-- ,here1 officer1 this fellow's begging4 ,jail's ,the place for him6 ,after the stripes1 what next8-- ,poison6--,i took it6--,now you say 'twas sin ,to take this life which troubled you so much4 ,sin to escape insult1 starvation1 brands ,of felony1 inflicted for the crime ,of asking food6 ,ye hypocrites6 ,within ,your secret hearts the sin is that ,i failed6 ,because ,i failed ye judge me to the stripes1 ,and the hard toil denied when ,i was free4 ,so be it4 ,but beware6--,a prison cell's ,an evil bed to grow morality6 ,black swamps breed black miasms2 sickly soils ,yield poison fruit2 snakes warmed to life will sting4 ,this time ,i was content to go alone2 ,perchance the next ,i shall not be so kind4 ,philadelphia1 ,september1 #ahid4 ,a ,,novel ,,of ,,color 7,the following is a true and particular account of what happened on the night of ,december #aa1 #ahie2 but it is likely to be unintelligible to all save the ,chipmunks and the ,elephant1 who1 however1 will no doubt recognize themselves47 ,chapter ,i4 ,chipmunks three sat on a tree1 ,and they were as green as green could be2 ,they cracked nuts early1 they cracked nuts late1 ,and chirruped and chirruped1 and ate and ate2 ',tis a pity of chipmunks without nuts1 ,and a gnawing hunger in their guts2 ,but they should be wise like you and me1 ,and color themselves to suit the tree4 ,ah chee1 ah chee1 ah chee1 ah chee6 ,gay chaps are we1 we chipmunks three6 ,an elephant white in sorry plight1 ,hungry and dirty and sad bedight1 ,straggled one day on the nutting ground2 ,lo1 chattered the chipmunks1 our chance is found6 ,behold the beast's color2 were he as we1 ,green and sleek and nut-full were he6 ,but the beast is big1 and the beast is white1 ,and his skin full of emptiness serves him right6 ,ah chee1 ah chee1 ah chee1 ah chee6 ,let us 'sit on him1 sit on him1' chipmunks three4 ,chapter ,,ii4 ,three chipmunks green right gay were seen ,to leap on the beast his brows between2 ,they munched at his ears and chiffered his chin1 ,and sat and sat and sat on him6 ,not a single available spot of hide ,where a well-sleeked chipmunk could sit with pride1 ,but was chipped and chipped and chip-chip-munked1 ,till aught but an elephant must have flunked4 ,ah chee1 ah chee1 ah chee1 ah chee6 ,what a ride we're having1 we chipmunks three6 ,chapter ,,iii4 ,br-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-f-f-f-f-f666 ,chapter ,,iv4 ,what was it blew8 ,ah whew1 ah whew6 ,three green chipmunks have all turned blue6 ,the elephant smiles a peaceful smile1 ,and lifts off a tree-trunk sans haste or guile4 ,seize him1 seize him6 ,he's stealing our tree6 ,we're undone1 undone1 shriek the chipmunks three4 ,the elephant calmly upraised his trunk1 ,and said1 ,did ,i hear a green chipmunk8 99 99 99 99 99 ,ah chee1 ah chee1 ah chee1 ah choo6 ,chippy1 you're blue6 ,so're you6 ,so're you6 ,philadelphia1 ,december1 #ahie4 ,,germinal 7,the last word of ,angiolillo47 ,germinal6--,the ,field of ,mars is plowing1 ,and hard the steel that cuts1 and hot the breath ,of the great ,oxen1 straining flanks and bowing ,beneath his goad1 who guides the share of ,death4 ,germinal6--,the ,dragon's teeth are sowing1 ,and stern and white the sower flings the seed ,he shall not gather1 though full swift the growing2 ,straight down ,death's furrow treads1 and does not heed4 ,germinal6--,the ,helmet ,heads are springing ,far up the ,field of ,mars in gleaming files2 ,with wild war notes the bursting earth is ringing4 99 99 99 99 99 ,within his grave the sower sleeps1 and smiles4 ,london1 ,october1 #ahig4 ,,light ,,upon ,,waldheim 7,the figure on the monument over the grave of the ,chicago martyrs in ,waldheim ,cemetery is a warrior woman1 dropping with her left hand a crown upon the forehead of a fallen man just past his agony1 and with her right drawing a dagger from her bosom47 ,light upon ,waldheim6 ,and the earth is gray2 ,a bitter wind is driving from the north2 ,the stone is cold1 and strange cold whispers say3 ,what do ye here with ,death8 ,go forth6 ,go forth6 ,is this thy word1 ,o ,mother1 with stern eyes1 ,crowning thy dead with stone-caressing touch8 ,may we not weep o'er him that martyred lies1 ,slain in our name1 for that he loved us much8 ,may we not linger till the day is broad8 ,nay1 none are stirring in this stinging dawn-- ,none but poor wretches that make no moan to ,god3 ,what use are these1 ,o thou with dagger drawn8 ,go forth1 go forth6 ,stand not to weep for these1 ,till1 weakened with your weeping1 like the snow ,ye melt1 dissolving in a coward peace6 ,light upon ,waldheim6 ,brother1 let us go6 ,london1 ,october1 #ahig4 ,,love',s ,,compensation ,i went before ,god1 and he said1 ,what fruit of the life ,i gave8 ,father1 ,i said1 ,it is dead1 ,and nothing grows on the grave4 ,wroth was the ,lord and stern3 ,hadst thou not to answer me8 ,shall the fruitless root not burn1 ,and be wasted utterly8 ,father1 ,i said1 forgive6 ,for thou knowest what ,i have done2 ,that another's life might live ,mine turned to a barren stone4 ,but the ,father of ,life sent fire ,and burned the root in the grave2 ,and the pain in my heart is dire ,for the thing that ,i could not save4 ,for the thing it was laid on me ,by the ,lord of ,life to bring2 ,fruit of the ungrown tree ,that died for no watering4 ,another has gone to ,god1 ,and his fruit has pleased ,him well2 ,for he sitteth high1 while ,i--plod ,the dry ways down towards hell4 ,though thou knowest1 thou knowest1 ,lord1 ,whose tears made that fruit's root wet2 ,yet thou drivest me forth with a sword1 ,and thy ,guards by the ,gate are set4 ,thou wilt give me up to the fire1 ,and none shall deliver me2 ,for ,i followed my heart's desire1 ,and ,i labored not for thee3 ,i labored for him thou hast set ,on thy right hand1 high and fair2 ,thou lovest him1 ,lord2 and yet ',twas my love won ,him there4 ,but this is the thing that hath been1 ,hath been since the world began1-- ,that love against self must sin1 ,and a woman die for a man4 ,and this is the thing that shall be1 ,shall be till the whole world die1 ,kismet3--,my doom is on me6 ,why murmur since ,i am ,i8 ,philadelphia1 ,august1 #ahih4 ,,the ,,road ,,builders 7,who built the beautiful roads8 queried a friend of the present order1 as we walked one day along the macadamised driveway of ,fairmount ,park47 ,i saw them toiling in the blistering sun1 ,their dull1 dark faces leaning toward the stone1 ,their knotted fingers grasping the rude tools1 ,their rounded shoulders narrowing in their chest1 ,the sweat drops dripping in great painful beads4 ,i saw one fall1 his forehead on the rock1 ,the helpless hand still clutching at the spade1 ,the slack mouth full of earth4 ,and he was dead4 ,his comrades gently turned his face1 until ,the fierce sun glittered hard upon his eyes1 ,wide open1 staring at the cruel sky4 ,the blood yet ran upon the jagged stone2 ,but it was ended4 ,he was quite1 quite dead3 ,driven to death beneath the burning sun1 ,driven to death upon the road he built4 ,he was no hero1 he2 a poor1 black man1 ,taking the will of ,god and asking naught2 ,think of him thus1 when next your horse's feet ,strike out the flint spark from the gleaming road2 ,think that for this1 this common thing1 ,the ,road1 ,a human creature died2 'tis a blood gift1 ,to an o'erreaching world that does not thank4 ,ignorant1 mean and soulless was he8 ,well1-- ,still human2 and you drive upon his corpse4 ,philadelphia1 ,july #bd1 #aijj4 ,,angiolillo ,we are the souls that crept and cried in the days when they tortured men2 ,his was the spirit that walked erect1 and met the beast in its den4 ,ours are the eyes that were dim with tears for the thing they shrunk to see2 ,his was the glance that was crystal keen with the light that makes men free4 ,ours are the hands that were wrung in pain1 in helpless pain and shame2 ,his was the resolute hand that struck1 steady and keen to its aim4 ,ours are the lips that quivered with rage1 that cursed and prayed in a breath3 ,his was the mouth that opened but once to speak from the throat of ,death4 ,assassin1 ,assassin6 the ,world cries out1 with a shake of its dotard head2 ,germinal6 rings back the grave where lies the ,dead that is not dead4 ,germinal1 ,germinal1 sings the ,wind that is driving before the ,storm2 ,few are the drops that have fallen yet1--scattered1 but red and warm4 ,germinal1 ,germinal1 sing the ,fields1 where furrows of men are plowed2 ,ye shall gather a harvest over-rich1 when the ear at the full is bowed4 ,springing1 springing1 at every breath1 the ,word of invincible strife1 ,the word of the ,dead1 that is calling loud down the battle ranks of ,life6 ,for these are the ,dead that live1 though the earth upon them lie3 ,but the doers of deeds of the ,night of the ,dead1 they are the ,live that die4 ,torresdale1 ,pa41 ,august #a1 #aijj4 ,,ave ,,et ,,vale ,comrades1 what matter the watch-night tells ,that a ,new ,year comes or goes8 ,what to us are the crashing bells ,that clang out the ,century's close8 ,what to us is the gala dress8 ,the whirl of the dancing feet8 ,the glitter and blare in the laughing press1 ,and din of the merry street8 ,do we not know that our brothers die ,in the cold and the dark to-night8 ,shelterless faces turned toward the sky ,will not see the ,new ,year's light6 ,wandering children1 lonely1 lost1 ,drift away on the human sea1 ,while the price of their lives in a glass is tossed ,and drunk in a revelry6 ,ah1 know we not in their feasting halls ,where the loud laugh echoes again1 ,that brick and stone in the mortared walls ,are the bones of murdered men8 ,slowly murdered6 ,by day and day1 ,the beauty and strength are reft1 ,till the ,man is sapped and sucked away1 ,and a ,human ,rind is left6 ,a ,human ,rind1 with old1 thin hair1 ,and old1 thin voice to pray ,for alms in the bitter winter air1-- ,a knife at his heart alway4 ,and the pure in heart are impure in flesh ,for the cost of a little food3 ,lo1 when the ,gleaner of ,time shall thresh1 ,let these be accounted good4 ,for these are they who in bitter blame ,eat the bread whose salt is sin2 ,whose bosoms are burned with the scarlet shame1 ,till their hearts are seared within4 ,the cowardly jests of a hundred years ,will be thrown where they pass to-night1 ,too callous for hate1 and too dry for tears1 ,the saddest of human blight4 ,do we forget them1 these broken ones1 ,that our watch to-night is set8 ,nay1 we smile in the face of the year that comes ,because we do not forget4 ,we do not forget the tramp on the track1 ,thrust out in the wind-swept waste1 ,the curses of ,man upon his back1 ,and the curse of ,god in his face4 ,the stare in the eyes of the buried man ,face down in the fallen mine2 ,the despair of the child whose bare feet ran ,to tread out the rich man's wine2 ,the solemn light in the dying gaze ,of the babe at the empty breast1 ,the wax accusation1 the sombre glaze ,of its frozen and rigid rest2 ,they are all in the smile that we turn to the east ,to welcome the ,century's dawn2 ,they are all in our greeting to ,night's high priest1 ,as we bid the ,old ,year begone4 ,begone and have done1 and go down and be dead ,deep drowned in your sea of tears6 ,we smile as you die1 for we wait the red ,morn-gleam of a hundred-years ,that shall see the end of the age-old wrong1-- ,the reapers that have not sown1-- ,the reapers of men with their sickles strong ,who gather1 but have not strown4 ,for the earth shall be his and the fruits thereof ,and to him the corn and wine1 ,who labors the hills with an even love ,and knows not thine and mine4 ,and the silk shall be to the hand that weaves1 ,the pearl to him who dives1 ,the home to the builder2 and all life's sheaves ,to the builder of human lives4 ,and none go blind that another see1 ,or die that another live2 ,and none insult with a charity ,that is not theirs to give4 ,for each of his plenty shall freely share ,and take at another's hand3 ,equals breathing the ,common ,air ,and toiling the ,common ,land4 ,a dream8 ,a vision8 ,aye1 what you will2 ,let it be to you as it seems3 ,of this ,nightmare ,real we have our fill2 ,to-night is for pleasant dreams4 ,dreams that shall waken the hope that sleeps ,and knock at each torpid ,heart ,till it beat drum taps1 and the blood that creeps ,with a lion's spring upstart6 ,for who are we to be bound and drowned ,in this river of human blood8 ,who are we to lie in a swound1 ,half sunk in the river mud8 ,are we not they who delve and blast ,and hammer and build and burn8 ,without us not a nail made fast6 ,not a wheel in the world should turn6 ,must we1 the ,giant1 await the grace ,that is dealt by the puny hand ,of him who sits in the feasting place1 ,while we1 his ,blind ,jest1 stand ,between the pillars8 ,nay1 not so3 ,aye1 if such thing were true1 ,better were ,gaza again1 to show ,what the giant's rage may do6 ,but yet not this3 it were wiser far ,to enter the feasting hall ,and say to the ,masters1 ,these things are ,not for you alone1 but all4 ,and this shall be in the ,century ,that opes on our eyes to-night2 ,so here's to the struggle1 if it must be1 ,and to him who fights the fight4 ,and here's to the dauntless1 jubilant throat ,that loud to its ,comrade sings1 ,till over the earth shrills the mustering note1 ,and the ,world ,strike's signal rings4 ,philadelphia1 ,january #a1 #aija4 ,,marsh-,,bloom 7,to ,gaetano ,bresci47 ,requiem1 requiem1 requiem1 ,blood-red blossom of poison stem ,broken for ,man1 ,swamp-sunk leafage and dungeon bloom1 ,seeded bearer of royal doom1 ,what now is the ban8 ,what to thee is the island grave8 ,with desert wind and desolate wave ,will they silence ,death8 ,can they weight thee now with the heaviest stone8 ,can they lay aught on thee with ,be alone1 ,that hast conquered breath8 ,lo1 it is finished--a man for a king6 ,mark you well who have done this thing3 ,the flower has roots2 ,bitter and rank grow the things of the sea2 ,ye shall know what sap ran thick in the tree ,when ye pluck its fruits4 ,requiem1 requiem1 requiem1 ,sleep on1 sleep on1 accursed of them ,who work our pain2 ,a wild ,marsh-blossom shall blow again ,from a buried root in the slime of men1 ,on the day of the ,great ,red ,rain4 ,philadelphia1 ,july1 #aija4 ,,written--,,in--,,red,a 7,to ,our ,living ,dead in ,mexico's ,struggle47 ,written in red their protest stands1 ,for the ,gods of the ,world to see2 ,on the dooming wall their bodiless hands ,have blazoned ,upharsin1 and flaring brands ,illumine the message3 ,seize the lands6 ,open the prisons and make men free6 ,flame out the living words of the dead ,written--in--red4 ,gods of the ,world6 ,their mouths are dumb6 ,your guns have spoken and they are dust4 ,but the shrouded ,living1 whose hearts were numb1 ,have felt the beat of a wakening drum ,within them sounding--the ,dead ,men's tongue-- ,calling3 ,smite off the ancient rust6 ,have beheld ,resurrexit1 the word of the ,dead1 ,written--in--red4 ,bear it aloft1 ,o roaring flame6 ,skyward aloft1 where all may see4 ,slaves of the ,world6 ,our cause is the same2 ,one is the immemorial shame2 ,one is the struggle1 and in ,one name-- ,manhood--we battle to set men free4 ,uncurse us the ,land6 burn the words of the ,dead1 ,written--in--red4 ,a ,voltairine de ,cleyre's last poem4 ,,essays ,the ,dominant ,idea ,in everything that lives1 if one looks searchingly1 is limned the shadow line of an idea--an idea1 dead or living1 sometimes stronger when dead1 with rigid1 unswerving lines that mark the living embodiment with the stern1 immobile cast of the non-living4 ,daily we move among these unyielding shadows1 less pierceable1 more enduring than granite1 with the blackness of ages in them1 dominating living1 changing bodies1 with dead1 unchanging souls4 ,and we meet1 also1 living souls dominating dying bodies--living ideas regnant over decay and death4 ,do not imagine that ,i speak of human life alone4 ,the stamp of persistent or of shifting ,will is visible in the grass-blade rooted in its clod of earth1 as in the gossamer web of being that floats and swims far over our heads in the free world of air4 ,regnant ideas1 everywhere6 ,did you ever see a dead vine bloom8 ,i have seen it4 ,last summer ,i trained some morning-glory vines up over a second-story balcony2 and every day they blew and curled in the wind1 their white1 purple-dashed faces winking at the sun1 radiant with climbing life4 ,higher every day the green heads crept1 carrying their train of spreading fans waving before the sun-seeking blossoms4 ,then all at once some mischance happened1--some cut-worm or some mischievous child tore one vine off below1 the finest and most ambitious one1 of course4 ,in a few hours the leaves hung limp1 the sappy stem wilted and began to wither2 in a day it was dead1--all but the top1 which still clung longingly to its support1 with bright head lifted4 ,i mourned a little for the buds that could never open now1 and pitied that proud vine whose work in the world was lost4 ,but the next night there was a storm1 a heavy1 driving storm1 with beating rain and blinding lightning4 ,i rose to watch the flashes1 and lo6 the wonder of the world6 ,in the blackness of the mid-,night1 in the fury of wind and rain1 the dead vine had flowered4 ,five white1 moon-faced blossoms blew gaily round the skeleton vine1 shining back triumphant at the red lightning4 ,i gazed at them in dumb wonder4 ,dear1 dead vine1 whose will had been so strong to bloom that in the hour of its sudden cut-off from the feeding earth it sent the last sap to its blossoms2 and1 not waiting for the morning1 brought them forth in storm and flash1 as white night-glories1 which should have been the children of the sun4 ,in the daylight we all came to look at the wonder1 marveling much1 and saying1 ,surely these must be the last4 ,but every day for three days the dead vine bloomed2 and even a week after1 when every leaf was dry and brown1 and so thin you could see through it1 one last bud1 dwarfed1 weak1 a very baby of a blossom1 but still white and delicate1 with five purple flecks1 like those on the live vine beside it1 opened and waved at the stars1 and waited for the early sun4 ,over death and decay the ,dominant ,idea smiled3 the vine was in the world to bloom1 to bear white trumpet blossoms dashed with purple2 and it held its will beyond death4 ,our modern teaching is that ideas are but attendant phenomena1 impotent to determine the actions or relations of life1 as the image in the glass which should say to the body it reflects3 ,i shall shape thee4 ,in truth we know that directly the body goes from before the mirror1 the transient image is nothingness2 but the real body has its being to live1 and will live it1 heedless of vanished phantoms of itself1 in response to the ever-shifting pressure of things without it4 ,it is thus that the so-called ,materialist ,conception of ,history1 the modern ,socialists1 and a positive majority of ,anarchists would have us look upon the world of ideas1--shifting1 unreal reflections1 having naught to do in the determination of ,man's life1 but so many mirror appearances of certain material relations1 wholly powerless to act upon the course of material things4 ,mind to them is in itself a blank mirror1 though in fact never wholly blank1 because always facing the reality of the material and bound to reflect some shadow4 ,to-day ,i am somebody1 to-morrow somebody else1 if the scenes have shifted2 my ,ego is a gibbering phantom1 pirouetting in the glass1 gesticulating1 transforming1 hourly or momentarily1 gleaming with the phosphor light of a deceptive unreality1 melting like the mist upon the hills4 ,rocks1 fields1 woods1 streams1 houses1 goods1 flesh1 blood1 bone1 sinew1--these are realities1 with definite parts to play1 with essential characters that abide under all changes2 but my ,ego does not abide2 it is manufactured afresh with every change of these4 ,i think this unqualified determinism of the material is a great and lamentable error in our modern progressive movement2 and while ,i believe it was a wholesome antidote to the long-continued blunder of ,middle ,age theology1 viz43 that ,mind was an utterly irresponsible entity making laws of its own after the manner of an ,absolute ,emperor1 without logic1 sequence1 or relation1 ruler over matter1 and its own supreme determinant1 not excepting ,god 7who was himself the same sort of a mind writ large7--while ,i do believe that the modern reconception of ,materialism has done a wholesome thing in pricking the bubble of such conceit and restoring man and his soul to its place in nature1 ,i nevertheless believe that to this also there is a limit2 and that the absolute sway of ,matter is quite as mischievous an error as the unrelated nature of ,mind2 even that in its direct action upon personal conduct1 it has the more ill effect of the two4 ,for if the doctrine of free-will has raised up fanatics and persecutors1 who1 assuming that men may be good under all conditions if they merely wish to be so1 have sought to persuade other men's wills with threats1 fines1 imprisonments1 torture1 the spike1 the wheel1 the axe1 the fagot1 in order to make them good and save them against their obdurate wills2 if the doctrine of ,spiritualism1 the soul supreme1 has done this1 the doctrine of ,materialistic ,determinism has produced shifting1 self-excusing1 worthless1 parasitical characters1 who are this now and that at some other time1 and anything and nothing upon principle4 ,my conditions have made me so1 they cry1 and there is no more to be said2 poor mirror-ghosts6 how could they help it6 ,to be sure1 the influence of such a character rarely reaches so far as that of the principled persecutor2 but for every one of the latter1 there are a hundred of these easy1 doughy characters1 who will fit any baking tin1 to whom determinist self-excusing appeals2 so the balance of evil between the two doctrines is about maintained4 ,what we need is a true appraisement of the power and rle of the ,idea4 ,i do not think ,i am able to give such a true appraisement2 ,i do not think that any one--even much greater intellects than mine--will be able to do it for a long time to come4 ,but ,i am at least able to suggest it1 to show its necessity1 to give a rude approximation of it4 ,and first1 against the accepted formula of modern ,materialism1 ,men are what circumstances make them1 ,i set the opposing declaration1 ,circumstances are what men make them2 and ,i contend that both these things are true up to the point where the combating powers are equalized1 or one is overthrown4 ,in other words1 my conception of mind1 or character1 is not that it is a powerless reflection of a momentary condition of stuff and form1 but an active modifying agent1 reacting on its environment and transforming circumstances1 sometimes greatly1 sometimes1 though not often1 entirely4 ,all over the kingdom of life1 ,i have said1 one may see dominant ideas working1 if one but trains his eyes to look for them and recognize them4 ,in the human world there have been many dominant ideas4 ,i cannot conceive that ever1 at any time1 the struggle of the body before dissolution can have been aught but agony4 ,if the reasoning that insecurity of conditions1 the expectation of suffering1 are circumstances which make the soul of man uneasy1 shrinking1 timid1 what answer will you give to the challenge of old ,ragnar ,lodbrog1 to that triumphant death-song hurled out1 not by one cast to his death in the heat of battle1 but under slow prison torture1 bitten by serpents1 and yet singing3 ,the goddesses of death invite me away--now end ,i my song4 ,the hours of my life are run out4 ,i shall smile when ,i die8 ,nor can it be said that this is an exceptional instance1 not to be accounted for by the usual operation of general law1 for old ,king ,lodbrog the ,skalder did only what his fathers did1 and his sons and his friends and his enemies1 through long generations2 they set the force of a dominant idea1 the idea of the superascendant ego1 against the force of torture and of death1 ending life as they wished to end it1 with a smile on their lips4 ,but a few years ago1 did we not read how the helpless ,kaffirs1 victimized by the ,english for the contumacy of the ,boers1 having been forced to dig the trenches wherein for pleasant sport they were to be shot1 were lined up on the edge1 and seeing death facing them1 began to chant barbaric strains of triumph1 smiling as they fell8 ,let us admit that such exultant defiance was owing to ignorance1 to primitive beliefs in gods and hereafters2 but let us admit also that it shows the power of an idea dominant4 ,everywhere in the shells of dead societies1 as in the shells of the sea-slime1 we shall see the force of purposive action1 of intent within holding its purpose against obstacles without4 ,i think there is no one in the world who can look upon the steadfast1 far-staring face of an ,egyptian carving1 or read a description of ,egypt's monuments1 or gaze upon the mummied clay of its old dead men1 without feeling that the dominant idea of that people in that age was to be enduring and to work enduring things1 with the immobility of their great still sky upon them and the stare of the desert in them4 ,one must feel that whatever other ideas animated them1 and expressed themselves in their lives1 this was the dominant idea4 ,that which was must remain1 no matter at what cost1 even if it were to break the everlasting hills3 an idea which made the live humanity beneath it1 born and nurtured in the coffins of caste1 groan and writhe and gnaw its bandages1 till in the fullness of time it passed away3 and still the granite mould of it stares with empty eyes out across the world1 the stern old memory of the ,thing-that-was4 ,i think no one can look upon the marbles wherein ,greek genius wrought the figuring of its soul1 without feeling an apprehension that the things are going to leap and fly2 that in a moment one is like to be set upon by heroes with spears in their hands1 by serpents that will coil around him2 to be trodden by horses that may trample and flee2 to be smitten by these gods that have as little of the idea of stone in them as a dragon-fly1 one instant poised upon a wind-swayed petal edge4 ,i think no one can look upon them without realizing at once that those figures came out of the boil of life2 they seem like rising bubbles about to float into the air1 but beneath them other bubbles rising1 and others1 and others1--there will be no end of it4 ,when one's eyes are upon one group1 one feels that behind one1 perhaps1 a figure is uptoeing to seize the darts of the air and hurl them on one's head2 one must keep whirling to face the miracle that appears about to be wrought--stone leaping6 ,and this though nearly every one is minus some of the glory the old ,greek wrought into it so long ago2 even the broken stumps of arms and legs live4 ,and the dominant idea is ,activity1 and the beauty and strength of it4 ,change1 swift1 ever-circling ,change6 ,the making of things and the casting of them away1 as children cast away their toys1 not interested that these shall endure1 so that they themselves realize incessant activity4 ,full of creative power1 what matter if the creature perished4 ,so there was an endless procession of changing shapes in their schools1 their philosophies1 their dramas1 their poems1 till at last it wore itself to death4 ,and the marvel passed away from the world4 ,but still their marbles live to show what manner of thoughts dominated them4 ,and if we wish to know what master-thought ruled the lives of men when the medival period had had time to ripen it1 one has only at this day to stray into some quaint1 out-of-the-way ,english village1 where a strong old towered ,church yet stands in the midst of little straw-thatched cottages1 like a brooding mother-hen surrounded by her chickens4 ,everywhere the greatening of ,god1 and the lessening of ,man3 the ,church so looming1 the home so little4 ,the search for the spirit1 for the enduring thing 7not the poor endurance of granite which in the ages crumbles1 but the eternal71 the eternal1--and contempt for the body which perishes1 manifest in studied uncleanliness1 in mortifications of the flesh1 as if the spirit should have spat its scorn upon it4 ,such was the dominant idea of that middle age which has been too much cursed by modernists4 ,for the men who built the castles and the cathedrals were men of mighty works1 though they made no books1 and though their souls spread crippled wings1 because of their very endeavors to soar too high4 ,the spirit of voluntary subordination for the accomplishment of a great work1 which proclaimed the aspiration of the common soul1--that was the spirit wrought into the cathedral stones2 and it is not wholly to be condemned4 ,in waking dream1 when the shadow-shapes of world-ideas swim before the vision1 one sees the ,middle-,age ,soul an ill-contorted1 half-formless thing1 with dragon wings and a great1 dark1 tense face1 strained sunward with blind eyes4 ,if now we look around us to see what idea dominates our own civilization1 ,i do not know that it is even as attractive as this piteous monster of the old darkness4 ,the relativity of things has altered3 ,man has risen and ,god has descended4 ,the modern village has better homes and less pretentious churches4 ,also the conception of dirt and disease as much-sought afflictions1 the patient suffering of which is a meet offering to win ,god's pardon1 has given place to the emphatic promulgation of cleanliness4 ,we have ,public ,school nurses notifying parents that pediculosis capitis is a very contagious and unpleasant disease2 we have cancer associations gathering up such cancers as have attached themselves to impecunious persons1 and carefully experimenting with a view to cleaning them out of the human race2 we have tuberculosis societies attempting the ,herculean labor of clearing the ,augean stables of our modern factories of the deadly bacillus1 and they have got as far as spittoons with water in them in some factories2 and others1 and others1 and others1 which1 while not yet overwhelmingly successful in their avowed purposes1 are evidence sufficient that humanity no longer seeks dirt as a means of grace4 ,we laugh at those old superstitions1 and talk much about exact experimental knowledge4 ,we endeavor to galvanize the ,greek corpse1 and pretend that we enjoy physical culture4 ,we dabble in many things2 but the one great real idea of our age1 not copied from any other1 not pretended1 not raised to life by any conjuration1 is the ,much ,making of ,things1--not the making of beautiful things1 not the joy of spending living energy in creative work2 rather the shameless1 merciless driving and over-driving1 wasting and draining of the last bit of energy1 only to produce heaps and heaps of things1--things ugly1 things harmful1 things useless1 and at the best largely unnecessary4 ,to what end are they produced8 ,mostly the producer does not know2 still less does he care4 ,but he is possessed with the idea that he must do it1 every one is doing it1 and every year the making of things goes on more and faster2 there are mountain ranges of things made and making1 and still men go about desperately seeking to increase the list of created things1 to start fresh heaps and to add to the existing heaps4 ,and with what agony of body1 under what stress and strain of danger and fear of danger1 with what mutilations and maimings and lamings they struggle on1 dashing themselves out against these rocks of wealth6 ,verily1 if the vision of the ,medival ,soul is painful in its blind staring and pathetic striving1 grotesque in its senseless tortures1 the ,soul of the ,modern is most amazing with its restless1 nervous eyes1 ever searching the corners of the universe1 its restless1 nervous hands ever reaching and grasping for some useless toil4 ,and certainly the presence of things in abundance1 things empty and things vulgar and things absurd1 as well as things convenient and useful1 has produced the desire for the possession of things1 the exaltation of the possession of things4 ,go through the business street of any city1 where the tilted edges of the strata of things are exposed to gaze1 and look at the faces of the people as they pass1--not at the hungry and smitten ones who fringe the sidewalks and plaint dolefully for alms1 but at the crowd1--and see what idea is written on their faces4 ,on those of the women1 from the ladies of the horse-shows to the shop girls out of the factory1 there is a sickening vanity1 a consciousness of their clothes1 as of some jackdaw in borrowed feathers4 ,look for the pride and glory of the free1 strong1 beautiful body1 lithe-moving and powerful4 ,you will not see it4 ,you will see mincing steps1 bodies tilted to show the cut of a skirt1 simpering1 smirking faces1 with eyes cast about seeking admiration for the gigantic bow of ribbon in the overdressed hair4 ,in the caustic words of an acquaintance1 to whom ,i once said1 as we walked1 ,look at the amount of vanity on all these women's faces1 ,no3 look at the little bit of womanhood showing out of all that vanity6 ,and on the faces of the men1 coarseness6 ,coarse desires for coarse things1 and lots of them3 the stamp is set so unmistakably that the wayfarer though a fool need not err therein4 ,even the frightful anxiety and restlessness begotten of the creation of all this1 is less distasteful than the abominable expression of lust for the things created4 ,such is the dominant idea of the western world1 at least in these our days4 ,you may see it wherever you look1 impressed plainly on things and on men2 very likely1 if you look in the glass1 you will see it there4 ,and if some archologist of a long future shall some day unbury the bones of our civilization1 where ashes or flood shall have entombed it1 he will see this frightful idea stamped on the factory walls he shall uncover1 with their rows and rows of square lightholes1 their tons upon tons of toothed steel1 grinning out of the skull of this our life2 its acres of silk and velvet1 its square miles of tinsel and shoddy4 ,no glorious marbles of nymphs and fawns1 whose dead images are yet so sweet that one might wish to kiss them still2 no majestic figures of winged horses1 with men's faces and lions' paws casting their colossal symbolism in a mighty spell forward upon ,time1 as those old stone chimeras of ,babylon yet do2 but meaningless iron giants1 of wheels and teeth1 whose secret is forgotten1 but whose business was to grind men up1 and spit them out as housefuls of woven stuffs1 bazaars of trash1 wherethrough other men might wade4 ,the statues he shall find will bear no trace of mythic dream or mystic symbol2 they will be statues of merchants and iron-masters and militiamen1 in tailored coats and pantaloons and proper hats and shoes4 ,but the dominant idea of the age and land does not necessarily mean the dominant idea of any single life4 ,i doubt not that in those long gone days1 far away by the banks of the still ,nile1 in the abiding shadow of the pyramids1 under the heavy burden of other men's stolidity1 there went to and fro restless1 active1 rebel souls who hated all that the ancient society stood for1 and with burning hearts sought to overthrow it4 ,i am sure that in the midst of all the agile ,greek intellect created1 there were those who went about with downbent eyes1 caring nothing for it all1 seeking some higher revelation1 willing to abandon the joys of life1 so that they drew near to some distant1 unknown perfection their fellows knew not of4 ,i am certain that in the dark ages1 when most men prayed and cowered1 and beat and bruised themselves1 and sought afflictions1 like that ,st4 ,teresa who said1 ,let me suffer1 or die1 there were some1 many1 who looked on the world as a chance jest1 who despised or pitied their ignorant comrades1 and tried to compel the answers of the universe to their questionings1 by the patient1 quiet searching which came to be ,modern ,science4 ,i am sure there were hundreds1 thousands of them1 of whom we have never heard4 ,and now1 to-day1 though the ,society about us is dominated by ,thing-,worship1 and will stand so marked for all time1 that is no reason any single soul should be4 ,because the one thing seemingly worth doing to my neighbor1 to all my neighbors1 is to pursue dollars1 that is no reason ,i should pursue dollars4 ,because my neighbors conceive they need an inordinate heap of carpets1 furniture1 clocks1 china1 glass1 tapestries1 mirrors1 clothes1 jewels--and servants to care for them1 and detectives to keep an eye on the servants1 judges to try the thieves1 and politicians to appoint the judges1 jails to punish the culprits1 and wardens to watch in the jails1 and tax collectors to gather support for the wardens1 and fees for the tax collectors1 and strong houses to hold the fees1 so that none but the guardians thereof can make off with them1--and therefore1 to keep this host of parasites1 need other men to work for them1 and make the fees2 because my neighbors want all this1 is that any reason ,i should devote myself to such a barren folly8 and bow my neck to serve to keep up the gaudy show8 ,must we1 because the ,middle ,age was dark and blind and brutal1 throw away the one good thing it wrought into the fibre of ,man1 that the inside of a human being was worth more than the outside8 that to conceive a higher thing than oneself and live toward that is the only way of living worthily8 ,the goal strived for should1 and must1 be a very different one from that which led the medival fanatics to despise the body and belabor it with hourly crucifixions4 ,but one can recognize the claims and the importance of the body without therefore sacrificing truth1 honor1 simplicity1 and faith1 to the vulgar gauds of body-service1 whose very decorations debase the thing they might be supposed to exalt4 ,i have said before that the doctrine that men are nothing and circumstances all1 has been1 and is1 the bane of our modern social reform movements4 ,our youth1 themselves animated by the spirit of the old teachers who believed in the supremacy of ideas1 even in the very hour of throwing away that teaching1 look with burning eyes to the social ,east1 and believe that wonders of revolution are soon to be accomplished4 ,in their enthusiasm they foreread the gospel of ,circumstances to mean that very soon the pressure of material development must break down the social system--they give the rotten thing but a few years to last2 and then1 they themselves shall witness the transformation1 partake in its joys4 ,the few years pass away and nothing happens2 enthusiasm cools4 ,behold these same idealists then1 successful business men1 professionals1 property owners1 money lenders1 creeping into the social ranks they once despised1 pitifully1 contemptibly1 at the skirts of some impecunious personage to whom they have lent money1 or done some professional service gratis2 behold them lying1 cheating1 tricking1 flattering1 buying and selling themselves for any frippery1 any cheap little pretense4 ,the ,dominant ,social ,idea has seized them1 their lives are swallowed up in it2 and when you ask the reason why1 they tell you that ,circumstances compelled them so to do4 ,if you quote their lies to them1 they smile with calm complacency1 assure you that when ,circumstances demand lies1 lies are a great deal better than truth2 that tricks are sometimes more effective than honest dealing2 that flattering and duping do not matter1 if the end to be attained is desirable2 and that under existing ,circumstances life isn't possible without all this2 that it is going to be possible whenever ,circumstances have made truth-telling easier than lying1 but till then a man must look out for himself1 by all means4 ,and so the cancer goes on rotting away the moral fibre1 and the man becomes a lump1 a squash1 a piece of slippery slime1 taking all shapes and losing all shapes1 according to what particular hole or corner he wishes to glide into1 a disgusting embodiment of the moral bankruptcy begotten by ,thing-,worship4 ,had he been dominated by a less material conception of life1 had his will not been rotted by the intellectual reasoning of it out of its existence1 by its acceptance of its own nothingness1 the unselfish aspirations of his earlier years would have grown and strengthened by exercise and habit2 and his protest against the time might have been enduringly written1 and to some purpose4 ,will it be said that the ,pilgrim fathers did not hew1 out of the ,new ,england ice and granite1 the idea which gathered them together out of their scattered and obscure ,english villages1 and drove them in their frail ships over the ,atlantic in midwinter1 to cut their way against all opposing forces8 ,were they not common men1 subject to the operation of common law8 ,will it be said that ,circumstances aided them8 ,when death1 disease1 hunger1 and cold had done their worst1 not one of those remaining was willing by an easy lie to return to material comfort and the possibility of long days4 ,had our modern social revolutionists the vigorous and undaunted conception of their own powers that these had1 our social movements would not be such pitiful abortions1--core-rotten even before the outward flecks appear4 ,give a labor leader a political job1 and the system becomes all right1 laugh our enemies2 and they point mockingly to ,terence ,powderly and his like2 and they quote ,john ,burns1 who as soon as he went into ,parliament declared3 ,the time of the agitator is past2 the time of the legislator has come4 ,let an ,anarchist marry an heiress1 and the country is safe1 they sneer3--and they have the right to sneer4 ,but would they have that right1 could they have it1 if our lives were not in the first instance dominated by more insistent desires than those we would fain have others think we hold most dear8 ,it is the old story3 ,aim at the stars1 and you may hit the top of the gatepost2 but aim at the ground1 and you will hit the ground4 ,it is not to be supposed that any one will attain to the full realization of what he purposes1 even when those purposes do not involve united action with others2 he will fall short2 he will in some measure be overcome by contending or inert opposition4 ,but something he will attain1 if he continues to aim high4 ,what1 then1 would ,i have8 you ask4 ,i would have men invest themselves with the dignity of an aim higher than the chase for wealth2 choose a thing to do in life outside of the making of things1 and keep it in mind1--not for a day1 nor a year1 but for a lifetime4 ,and then keep faith with themselves6 ,not be a light-o'-love1 to-day professing this and to-morrow that1 and easily reading oneself out of both whenever it becomes convenient2 not advocating a thing to-day1 and to-morrow kissing its enemies' sleeve1 with that weak1 coward cry in the mouth1 ,circumstances make me4 ,take a good look into yourself1 and if you love ,things and the power and the plenitude of ,things better than you love your own dignity1 human dignity1 ,oh1 say so1 say so6 ,say it to yourself1 and abide by it4 ,but do not blow hot and cold in one breath4 ,do not try to be a social reformer and a respected possessor of ,things at the same time4 ,do not preach the straight and narrow way while going joyously upon the wide one4 ,preach the wide one1 or do not preach at all2 but do not fool yourself by saying you would like to help usher in a free society1 but you cannot sacrifice an armchair for it4 ,say honestly1 ,i love armchairs better than free men1 and pursue them because ,i choose2 not because circumstances make me4 ,i love hats1 large1 large hats1 with many feathers and great bows2 and ,i would rather have those hats than trouble myself about social dreams that will never be accomplished in my day4 ,the world worships hats1 and ,i wish to worship with them4 ,but if you choose the liberty and pride and strength of the single soul1 and the free fraternization of men1 as the purpose which your life is to make manifest1 then do not sell it for tinsel4 ,think that your soul is strong and will hold its way2 and slowly1 through bitter struggle perhaps1 the strength will grow4 ,and the foregoing of possessions for which others barter the last possibility of freedom1 will become easy4 ,at the end of life you may close your eyes1 saying3 ,i have not been dominated by the ,dominant ,idea of my ,age2 ,i have chosen mine own allegiance1 and served it4 ,i have proved by a lifetime that there is that in man which saves him from the absolute tyranny of ,circumstance1 which in the end conquers and remoulds ,circumstance1--the immortal fire of ,individual ,will1 which is the salvation of the ,future4 ,let us have ,men1 ,men who will say a word to their souls and keep it--keep it not when it is easy1 but keep it when it is hard--keep it when the storm roars and there is a white-streaked sky and blue thunder before1 and one's eyes are blinded and one's ears deafened with the war of opposing things2 and keep it under the long leaden sky and the gray dreariness that never lifts4 ,hold unto the last3 that is what it means to have a ,dominant ,idea1 where the same idea has been worked out by a whole and unmake ,circumstance4 ,anarchism ,there are two spirits abroad in the world1--the spirit of ,caution1 the spirit of ,dare1 the spirit of ,quiescence1 the spirit of ,unrest2 the spirit of ,immobility1 the spirit of ,change2 the spirit of ,hold-fast-to-that-which-you-have1 the spirit of ,let-go-and-fly-to-that-which-you-have-n ot2 the spirit of the slow and steady builder1 careful of its labors1 loath to part with any of its achievements1 wishful to keep1 and unable to discriminate between what is worth keeping and what is better cast aside1 and the spirit of the inspirational destroyer1 fertile in creative fancies1 volatile1 careless in its luxuriance of effort1 inclined to cast away the good together with the bad4 ,society is a quivering balance1 eternally struck afresh1 between these two4 ,those who look upon ,man1 as most ,anarchists do1 as a link in the chain of evolution1 see in these two social tendencies the sum of the tendencies of individual men1 which in common with the tendencies of all organic life are the result of the action and counteraction of inheritance and adaptation4 ,inheritance1 continually tending to repeat what has been1 long1 long after it is outgrown2 adaptation continually tending to break down forms4 ,the same tendencies under other names are observed in the inorganic world as well1 and anyone who is possessed by the modern scientific mania for ,monism can easily follow out the line to the vanishing point of human knowledge4 ,there has been1 in fact1 a strong inclination to do this among a portion of the more educated ,anarchists1 who having been working men first and ,anarchists by reason of their instinctive hatred to the boss1 later became students and1 swept away by their undigested science1 immediately conceived that it was necessary to fit their ,anarchism to the revelations of the microscope1 else the theory might as well be given up4 ,i remember with considerable amusement a heated discussion some five or six years since1 wherein doctors and embryo doctors sought for a justification of ,anarchism in the development of the amoeba1 while a fledgling engineer searched for it in mathematical quantities4 ,myself at one time asserted very stoutly that no one could be an ,anarchist and believe in ,god at the same time4 ,others assert as stoutly that one cannot accept the spiritualist philosophy and be an ,anarchist4 ,at present ,i hold with ,c4 ,l4 ,james1 the most learned of ,american ,anarchists1 that one's metaphysical system has very little to do with the matter4 ,the chain of reasoning which once appeared so conclusive to me1 namely1 that ,anarchism being a denial of authority over the individual could not co-exist with a belief in a ,supreme ,ruler of the universe1 is contradicted in the case of ,leo ,tolstoy1 who comes to the conclusion that none has a right to rule another just because of his belief in ,god1 just because he believes that all are equal children of one father1 and therefore none has a right to rule the other4 ,i speak of him because he is a familiar and notable personage1 but there have frequently been instances where the same idea has been worked out by a whole sect of believers1 especially in the earlier 7and persecuted7 stages of their development4 ,it no longer seems necessary to me1 therefore1 that one should base his ,anarchism upon any particular world conception2 it is a theory of the relations due to man and comes as an offered solution to the societary problems arising from the existence of these two tendencies of which ,i have spoken4 ,no matter where those tendencies come from1 all alike recognize them as existent2 and however interesting the speculation1 however fascinating to lose oneself back1 back in the molecular storm-whirl wherein the figure of man is seen merely as a denser1 fiercer group1 a livelier storm centre1 moving among others1 impinging upon others1 but nowhere separate1 nowhere exempt from the same necessity that acts upon all other centers of force1--it is by no means necessary in order to reason oneself into ,anarchism4 ,sufficient are a good observant eye and a reasonably reflecting brain1 for anyone1 lettered or unlettered1 to recognize the desirability of ,anarchistic aims4 ,this is not to say that increased knowledge will not confirm and expand one's application of this fundamental concept2 7the beauty of truth is that at every new discovery of fact we find how much wider and deeper it is than we at first thought it74 ,but it means that first of all ,anarchism is concerned with present conditions1 and with the very plain and common people2 and is by no means a complex or difficult proposition4 ,anarchism1 alone1 apart from any proposed economic reform1 is just the latest reply out of many the past has given1 to that daring1 breakaway1 volatile1 changeful spirit which is never content4 ,the society of which we are part puts certain oppressions upon us1--oppressions which have arisen out of the very changes accomplished by this same spirit1 combined with the hard and fast lines of old habits acquired and fixed before the changes were thought of4 ,machinery1 which as our ,socialistic comrades continually emphasize1 has wrought a revolution in ,industry1 is the creation of the ,dare ,spirit2 it has fought its way against ancient customs1 privilege1 and cowardice at every step1 as the history of any invention would show if traced backward through all its transformations4 ,and what is the result of it8 ,that a system of working1 altogether appropriate to hand production and capable of generating no great oppressions while industry remained in that state1 has been stretched1 strained to fit production in mass1 till we are reaching the bursting point2 once more the spirit of ,dare must assert itself--claim new freedoms1 since the old ones are rendered null and void by the present methods of production4 ,to speak in detail3 in the old days of ,master and ,man--not so old but what many of the older workingmen can recall the conditions1 the workshop was a fairly easy-going place where employer and employed worked together1 knew no class feelings1 chummed it out of hours1 as a rule were not obliged to rush1 and when they were1 relied upon the principle of common interest and friendship 7not upon a slave-owner's power7 for overtime assistance4 ,the proportional profit on each man's labor may even have been in general higher1 but the total amount possible to be undertaken by one employer was relatively so small that no tremendous aggregations of wealth could arise4 ,to be an employer gave no man power over another's incomings and outgoings1 neither upon his speech while at work1 nor to force him beyond endurance when busy1 nor to subject him to fines and tributes for undesired things1 such as ice-water1 dirty spittoons1 cups of undrinkable tea and the like2 nor to the unmentionable indecencies of the large factory4 ,the individuality of the workman was a plainly recognized quantity3 his life was his own2 he could not be locked in and driven to death1 like a street-car horse1 for the good of the general public and the paramount importance of ,society4 ,with the application of steam-power and the development of ,machinery1 came these large groupings of workers1 this subdivision of work1 which has made of the employer a man apart1 having interests hostile to those of his employes1 living in another circle altogether1 knowing nothing of them but as so many units of power1 to be reckoned with as he does his machines1 for the most part despising them1 at his very best regarding them as dependents whom he is bound in some respects to care for1 as a humane man cares for an old horse he cannot use4 ,such is his relation to his employes2 while to the general public he becomes simply an immense cuttle-fish with tentacles reaching everywhere1--each tiny profit-sucking mouth producing no great effect1 but in aggregate drawing up such a body of wealth as makes any declaration of equality or freedom between him and the worker a thing to laugh at4 ,the time is come therefore when the spirit of ,dare calls loud through every factory and workshop for a change in the relations of master and man4 ,there must be some arrangement possible which will preserve the benefits of the new production and at the same time restore the individual dignity of the worker1--give back the bold independence of the old master of his trade1 together with such added freedoms as may properly accrue to him as his special advantage from society's material developments4 ,this is the particular message of ,anarchism to the worker4 ,it is not an economic system2 it does not come to you with detailed plans of how you1 the workers1 are to conduct industry2 nor systemized methods of exchange2 nor careful paper organizations of the administration of things4 ,it simply calls upon the spirit of individuality to rise up from its abasement1 and hold itself paramount in no matter what economic reorganization shall come about4 ,be men first of all1 not held in slavery by the things you make2 let your gospel be1 ,things for men1 not men for things4 ,socialism1 economically considered1 is a positive proposition for such reorganization4 ,it is an attempt1 in the main1 to grasp at those great new material gains which have been the special creation of the last forty or fifty years4 ,it has not so much in view the reclamation and further assertion of the personality of the worker as it has a just distribution of products4 ,now it is perfectly apparent that ,anarchy1 having to do almost entirely with the relations of men in their thoughts and feelings1 and not with the positive organization of production and distribution1 an ,anarchist needs to supplement his ,anarchism by some economic propositions1 which may enable him to put in practical shape to himself and others this possibility of independent manhood4 ,that will be his test in choosing any such proposition1--the measure in which individuality is secured4 ,it is not enough for him that a comfortable ease1 a pleasant and well-ordered routine1 shall be secured2 free play for the spirit of change--that is his first demand4 ,every ,anarchist has this in common with every other ,anarchist1 that the economic system must be subservient to this end2 no system recommends itself to him by the mere beauty and smoothness of its working2 jealous of the encroachments of the machine1 he looks with fierce suspicion upon an arithmetic with men for units1 a society running in slots and grooves1 with the precision so beautiful to one in whom the love of order is first1 but which only makes him sniff--,pfaugh6 it smells of machine oil4 ,there are1 accordingly1 several economic schools among ,anarchists2 there are ,anarchist ,individualists1 ,anarchist ,mutualists1 ,anarchist ,communists and ,anarchist ,socialists4 ,in times past these several schools have bitterly denounced each other and mutually refused to recognize each other as ,anarchists at all4 ,the more narrow-minded on both sides still do so2 true1 they do not consider it is narrow-mindedness1 but simply a firm and solid grasp of the truth1 which does not permit of tolerance towards error4 ,this has been the attitude of the bigot in all ages1 and ,anarchism no more than any other new doctrine has escaped its bigots4 ,each of these fanatical adherents of either collectivism or individualism believes that no ,anarchism is possible without that particular economic system as its guarantee1 and is of course thoroughly justified from his own standpoint4 ,with the extension of what ,comrade ,brown calls the ,new ,spirit1 however1 this old narrowness is yielding to the broader1 kindlier and far more reasonable idea1 that all these economic conceptions may be experimented with1 and there is nothing un-,anarchistic about any of them until the element of compulsion enters and obliges unwilling persons to remain in a community whose economic arrangements they do not agree to4 7,when ,i say do not agree to ,i do not mean that they have a mere distaste for1 or that they think might well be altered for some other preferable arrangement1 but with which1 nevertheless1 they quite easily put up1 as two persons each living in the same house and having different tastes in decoration1 will submit to some color of window shade or bit of bric-a-brac which he does not like so well1 but which nevertheless1 he cheerfully puts up with for the satisfaction of being with his friend4 ,i mean serious differences which in their opinion threaten their essential liberties4 ,i make this explanation about trifles1 because the objections which are raised to the doctrine that men may live in society freely1 almost always degenerate into trivialities1--such as1 what would you do if two ladies wanted the same hat8 etc4 ,we do not advocate the abolition of common sense1 and every person of sense is willing to surrender his preferences at times1 provided he is not compelled to at all costs47 ,therefore ,i say that each group of persons acting socially in freedom may choose any of the proposed systems1 and be just as thorough-going ,anarchists as those who select another4 ,if this standpoint be accepted1 we are rid of those outrageous excommunications which belong properly to the ,church of ,rome1 and which serve no purpose but to bring us into deserved contempt with outsiders4 ,furthermore1 having accepted it from a purely theoretical process of reasoning1 ,i believe one is then in an attitude of mind to perceive certain material factors in the problem which account for these differences in proposed systems1 and which even demand such differences1 so long as production is in its present state4 ,i shall now dwell briefly upon these various propositions1 and explain1 as ,i go along1 what the material factors are to which ,i have just alluded4 ,taking the last first1 namely1 ,anarchist ,socialism1--its economic program is the same as that of political ,socialism1 in its entirety2--,i mean before the working of practical politics has frittered the ,socialism away into a mere list of governmental ameliorations4 ,such ,anarchist ,socialists hold that the ,state1 the ,centralized ,government1 has been and ever will be the business agent of the property-owning class2 that it is an expression of a certain material condition purely1 and with the passing of that condition the ,state must also pass2 that ,socialism1 meaning the complete taking over of all forms of property from the hands of men as the indivisible possession of ,man1 brings with it as a logical1 inevitable result the dissolution of the ,state4 ,they believe that every individual having an equal claim upon the social production1 the incentive to grabbing and holding being gone1 crimes 7which are in nearly all cases the instinctive answer to some antecedent denial of that claim to one's share7 will vanish1 and with them the last excuse for the existence of the ,state4 ,they do not1 as a rule1 look forward to any such transformations in the material aspect of society1 as some of the rest of us do4 ,a ,londoner once said to me that he believed ,london would keep on growing1 the flux and reflux of nations keep on pouring through its serpentine streets1 its hundred thousand 'buses keep on jaunting just the same1 and all that tremendous traffic which fascinates and horrifies continue rolling like a great flood up and down1 up and down1 like the sea-sweep1--after the realization of ,anarchism1 as it does now4 ,that ,londoner's name was ,john ,turner2 he said1 on the same occasion1 that he believed thoroughly in the economics of ,socialism4 ,now this branch of the ,anarchist party came out of the old ,socialist party1 and originally represented the revolutionary wing of that party1 as opposed to those who took up the notion of using politics4 ,and ,i believe the material reason which accounts for their acceptance of that particular economic scheme is this 7of course it applies to all ,european ,socialists7 that the social development of ,europe is a thing of long-continued history2 that almost from time immemorial there has been a recognized class struggle2 that no workman living1 nor yet his father1 nor his grandfather1 nor his great-grandfather has seen the land of ,europe pass in vast blocks from an unclaimed public inheritance into the hands of an ordinary individual like himself1 without a title or any distinguishing mark above himself1 as we in ,america have seen4 ,the land and the land-holder have been to him always unapproachable quantities1--a recognized source of oppression1 class1 and class-possession4 ,again1 the industrial development in town and city--coming as a means of escape from feudal oppression1 but again bringing with it its own oppressions1 also with a long history of warfare behind it1 has served to bind the sense of class fealty upon the common people of the manufacturing towns2 so that blind1 stupid1 and ,church-ridden as they no doubt are1 there is a vague1 dull1 but very certainly existing feeling that they must look for help in association together1 and regard with suspicion or indifference any proposition which proposes to help them by helping their employers4 ,moreover1 ,socialism has been an ever recurring dream through the long story of revolt in ,europe2 ,anarchists1 like others1 are born into it4 ,it is not until they pass over seas1 and come in contact with other conditions1 breathe the atmosphere of other thoughts1 that they are able to see other possibilities as well4 ,if ,i may venture1 at this point1 a criticism of this position of the ,anarchist ,socialist1 ,i would say that the great flaw in this conception of the ,state is in supposing it to be of simple origin2 the ,state is not merely the tool of the governing classes2 it has its root far down in the religious development of human nature2 and will not fall apart merely through the abolition of classes and property4 ,there is other work to be done4 ,as to the economic program1 ,i shall criticise that1 together with all the other propositions1 when ,i sum up4 ,anarchist ,communism is a modification1 rather an evolution1 of ,anarchist ,socialism4 ,most ,anarchist ,communists1 ,i believe1 do look forward to great changes in the distribution of people upon the earth's surface through the realization of ,anarchism4 ,most of them agree that the opening up of the land together with the free use of tools would lead to a breaking up of these vast communities called cities1 and the formation of smaller groups or communes which shall be held together by a free recognition of common interests only4 ,while ,socialism looks forward to a further extension of the modern triumph of ,commerce--which is that it has brought the products of the entire earth to your door-step--free ,communism looks upon such a fever of exportation and importation as an unhealthy development1 and expects rather a more self-reliant development of home resources1 doing away with the mass of supervision required for the systematic conduct of such world exchange4 ,it appeals to the plain sense of the workers1 by proposing that they who now consider themselves helpless dependents upon the boss's ability to give them a job1 shall constitute themselves independent producing groups1 take the materials1 do the work 7they do that now71 deposit the products in the warehouses1 taking what they want for themselves1 and letting others take the balance4 ,to do this no government1 no employer1 no money system is necessary4 ,there is only necessary a decent regard for one's own and one's fellow-worker's self-hood4 ,it is not likely1 indeed it is devoutly to be hoped1 that no such large aggregations of men as now assemble daily in mills and factories1 will ever come together by mutual desire4 7,a factory is a hot-bed for all that is vicious in human nature1 and largely because of its crowding only47 ,the notion that men cannot work together unless they have a driving-master to take a percentage of their product1 is contrary both to good sense and observed fact4 ,as a rule bosses simply make confusion worse confounded when they attempt to mix in a workman's snarls1 as every mechanic has had practical demonstration of2 and as to social effort1 why men worked in common while they were monkeys yet2 if you don't believe it1 go and watch the monkeys4 ,they don't surrender their individual freedom1 either4 ,in short1 the real workmen will make their own regulations1 decide when and where and how things shall be done4 ,it is not necessary that the projector of an ,anarchist ,communist society shall say in what manner separate industries shall be conducted1 nor do they presume to4 ,he simply conjures the spirit of ,dare and ,do in the plainest workmen--says to them3 ,it is you who know how to mine1 how to dig1 how to cut2 you will know how to organize your work without a dictator2 we cannot tell you1 but we have full faith that you will find the way yourselves4 ,you will never be free men until you acquire that same self-faith4 ,as to the problem of the exact exchange of equivalents which so frets the reformers of other schools1 to him it does not exist4 ,so there is enough1 who cares8 ,the sources of wealth remain indivisible forever2 who cares if one has a little more or less1 so all have enough8 ,who cares if something goes to waste8 ,let it waste4 ,the rotted apple fertilizes the ground as well as if it had comforted the animal economy first4 ,and1 indeed1 you who worry so much about system and order and adjustment of production to consumption1 you waste more human energy in making your account than the precious calculation is worth4 ,hence money with all its retinue of complications and trickeries is abolished4 ,small1 independent1 self-resourceful1 freely cooperating communes--this is the economic ideal which is accepted by most of the ,anarchists of the ,old ,world to-day4 ,as to the material factor which developed this ideal among ,europeans1 it is the recollection and even some still remaining vestiges of the medival village commune--those oases in the great ,sahara of human degradation presented in the history of the ,middle ,ages1 when the ,catholic ,church stood triumphant upon ,man in the dust4 ,such is the ideal glamored with the dead gold of a sun which has set1 which gleams through the pages of ,morris and ,kropotkin4 ,we in ,america never knew the village commune4 ,white ,civilization struck our shores in a broad tide-sheet and swept over the country inclusively2 among us was never seen the little commune growing up from a state of barbarism independently1 out of primary industries1 and maintaining itself within itself4 ,there was no gradual change from the mode of life of the native people to our own2 there was a wiping out and a complete transplantation of the latest form of ,european civilization4 ,the idea of the little commune1 therefore1 comes instinctively to the ,anarchists of ,europe1--particularly the continental ones2 with them it is merely the conscious development of a submerged instinct4 ,with ,americans it is an importation4 ,i believe that most ,anarchist ,communists avoid the blunder of the ,socialists in regarding the ,state as the offspring of material conditions purely1 though they lay great stress upon its being the tool of ,property1 and contend that in one form or another the ,state will exist so long as there is property at all4 ,i pass to the extreme ,individualists1--those who hold to the tradition of political economy1 and are firm in the idea that the system of employer and employed1 buying and selling1 banking1 and all the other essential institutions of ,commercialism1 centering upon private property1 are in themselves good1 and are rendered vicious merely by the interference of the ,state4 ,their chief economic propositions are3 land to be held by individuals or companies for such time and in such allotments as they use only2 redistribution to take place as often as the members of the community shall agree2 what constitutes use to be decided by each community1 presumably in town meeting assembled2 disputed cases to be settled by a so-called free jury to be chosen by lot out of the entire group2 members not coinciding in the decisions of the group to betake themselves to outlying lands not occupied1 without let or hindrance from any one4 ,money to represent all staple commodities1 to be issued by whomsoever pleases2 naturally1 it would come to individuals depositing their securities with banks and accepting bank notes in return2 such bank notes representing the labor expended in production and being issued in sufficient quantity1 7there being no limit upon any one's starting in the business1 whenever interest began to rise more banks would be organized1 and thus the rate per cent would be constantly checked by competition71 exchange would take place freely1 commodities would circulate1 business of all kinds would be stimulated1 and1 the government privilege being taken away from inventions1 industries would spring up at every turn1 bosses would be hunting men rather than men bosses1 wages would rise to the full measure of the individual production1 and forever remain there4 ,property1 real property1 would at last exist1 which it does not at the present day1 because no man gets what he makes4 ,the charm in this program is that it proposes no sweeping changes in our daily retinue2 it does not bewilder us as more revolutionary propositions do4 ,its remedies are self-acting ones2 they do not depend upon conscious efforts of individuals to establish justice and build harmony2 competition in freedom is the great automatic valve which opens or closes as demands increase or diminish1 and all that is necessary is to let well enough alone and not attempt to assist it4 ,it is sure that nine ,americans in ten who have never heard of any of these programs before1 will listen with far more interest and approval to this than to the others4 ,the material reason which explains this attitude of mind is very evident4 ,in this country outside of the ,negro question we have never had the historic division of classes2 we are just making that history now2 we have never felt the need of the associative spirit of workman with workman1 because in our society it has been the individual that did things2 the workman of to-day was the employer to-morrow2 vast opportunities lying open to him in the undeveloped territory1 he shouldered his tools and struck out single-handed for himself4 ,even now1 fiercer and fiercer though the struggle is growing1 tighter and tighter though the workman is getting cornered1 the line of division between class and class is constantly being broken1 and the first motto of the ,american is the ,lord helps him who helps himself4 ,consequently this economic program1 whose key-note is let alone1 appeals strongly to the traditional sympathies and life habits of a people who have themselves seen an almost unbounded patrimony swept up1 as a gambler sweeps his stakes1 by men who played with them at school or worked with them in one shop a year or ten years before4 ,this particular branch of the ,anarchist party does not accept the ,communist position that ,government arises from ,property2 on the contrary1 they hold ,government responsible for the denial of real property 7viz43 to the producer the exclusive possession of what he has produced74 ,they lay more stress upon its metaphysical origin in the authority-creating ,fear in human nature4 ,their attack is directed centrally upon the idea of ,authority2 thus the material wrongs seem to flow from the spiritual error 7if ,i may venture the word without fear of misconstruction71 which is precisely the reverse of the ,socialistic view4 ,truth lies not between the two1 but in a synthesis of the two opinions4 ,anarchist ,mutualism is a modification of the program of ,individualism1 laying more emphasis upon organization1 co-operation and free federation of the workers4 ,to these the trade union is the nucleus of the free co-operative group1 which will obviate the necessity of an employer1 issue time-checks to its members1 take charge of the finished product1 exchange with different trade groups for their mutual advantage through the central federation1 enable its members to utilize their credit1 and likewise insure them against loss4 ,the mutualist position on the land question is identical with that of the ,individualists1 as well as their understanding of the ,state4 ,the material factor which accounts for such differences as there are between ,individualists and ,mutualists1 is1 ,i think1 the fact that the first originated in the brains of those who1 whether workmen or business men1 lived by so-called independent exertion4 ,josiah ,warren1 though a poor man1 lived in an ,individualist way and made his free-life social experiment in small country settlements1 far removed from the great organized industries4 ,tucker also1 though a city man1 has never had personal association with such industries4 ,they had never known directly the oppressions of the large factory1 nor mingled with workers' associations4 ,the ,mutualists had2 consequently their leaning towards a greater ,communism4 ,dyer ,d4 ,lum spent the greater part of his life in building up workmen's unions1 himself being a hand worker1 a book-binder by trade4 ,i have now presented the rough skeleton of four different economic schemes entertained by ,anarchists4 ,remember that the point of agreement in all is3 no compulsion4 ,those who favor one method have no intention of forcing it upon those who favor another1 so long as equal tolerance is exercised toward themselves4 ,remember1 also1 that none of these schemes is proposed for its own sake1 but because through it1 its projectors believe1 liberty may be best secured4 ,every ,anarchist1 as an ,anarchist1 would be perfectly willing to surrender his own scheme directly1 if he saw that another worked better4 ,for myself1 ,i believe that all these and many more could be advantageously tried in different localities2 ,i would see the instincts and habits of the people express themselves in a free choice in every community2 and ,i am sure that distinct environments would call out distinct adaptations4 ,personally1 while ,i recognize that liberty would be greatly extended under any of these economies1 ,i frankly confess that none of them satisfies me4 ,socialism and ,communism both demand a degree of joint effort and administration which would beget more regulation than is wholly consistent with ,ideal ,anarchism2 ,individualism and ,mutualism1 resting upon property1 involve a development of the private policeman not at all compatible with my notions of freedom4 ,my ideal would be a condition in which all natural resources would be forever free to all1 and the worker individually able to produce for himself sufficient for all his vital needs1 if he so chose1 so that he need not govern his working or not working by the times and seasons of his fellows4 ,i think that time may come2 but it will only be through the development of the modes of production and the taste of the people4 ,meanwhile we all cry with one voice for the freedom to try4 ,are these all the aims of ,anarchism8 ,they are just the beginning4 ,they are an outline of what is demanded for the material producer4 ,if as a worker1 you think no further than how to free yourself from the horrible bondage of capitalism1 then that is the measure of ,anarchism for you4 ,but you yourself put the limit there1 if there it is put4 ,immeasurably deeper1 immeasurably higher1 dips and soars the soul which has come out of its casement of custom and cowardice1 and dared to claim its ,self4 ,ah1 once to stand unflinchingly on the brink of that dark gulf of passions and desires1 once at last to send a bold1 straight-driven gaze down into the volcanic ,me1 once1 and in that once1 and in that once forever1 to throw off the command to cover and flee from the knowledge of that abyss1--nay1 to dare it to hiss and seethe if it will1 and make us writhe and shiver with its force6 ,once and forever to realize that one is not a bundle of well-regulated little reasons bound up in the front room of the brain to be sermonized and held in order with copy-book maxims or moved and stopped by a syllogism1 but a bottomless1 bottomless depth of all strange sensations1 a rocking sea of feeling wherever sweep strong storms of unaccountable hate and rage1 invisible contortions of disappointment1 low ebbs of meanness1 quakings and shudderings of love that drives to madness and will not be controlled1 hungerings and moanings and sobbing that smite upon the inner ear1 now first bent to listen1 as if all the sadness of the sea and the wailing of the great pine forests of the ,north had met to weep together there in that silence audible to you alone4 ,to look down into that1 to know the blackness1 the midnight1 the dead ages in oneself1 to feel the jungle and the beast within1--and the swamp and the slime1 and the desolate desert of the heart's despair--to see1 to know1 to feel to the uttermost1--and then to look at one's fellow1 sitting across from one in the street-car1 so decorous1 so well got up1 so nicely combed and brushed and oiled and to wonder what lies beneath that commonplace exterior1--to picture the cavern in him which somewhere far below has a narrow gallery running into your own--to imagine the pain that racks him to the finger-tips perhaps while he wears that placid ironed-shirt-front countenance--to conceive how he too shudders at himself and writhes and flees from the lava of his heart and aches in his prison-house not daring to see himself--to draw back respectfully from the ,self-gate of the plainest1 most unpromising creature1 even from the most debased criminal1 because one knows the nonentity and the criminal in oneself--to spare all condemnation 7how much more trial and sentence7 because one knows the stuff of which man is made and recoils at nothing since all is in himself1--this is what ,anarchism may mean to you4 ,it means that to me4 ,and then1 to turn cloudward1 starward1 skyward1 and let the dreams rush over one--no longer awed by outside powers of any order--recognizing nothing superior to oneself--painting1 painting endless pictures1 creating unheard symphonies that sing dream sounds to you alone1 extending sympathies to the dumb brutes as equal brothers1 kissing the flowers as one did when a child1 letting oneself go free1 go free beyond the bounds of what fear and custom call the possible1--this too ,anarchism may mean to you1 if you dare to apply it so4 ,and if you do some day1--if sitting at your work-bench1 you see a vision of surpassing glory1 some picture of that golden time when there shall be no prisons on the earth1 nor hunger1 nor houselessness1 nor accusation1 nor judgment1 and hearts open as printed leaves1 and candid as fearlessness1 if then you look across at your low-browed neighbor1 who sweats and smells and curses at his toil1--remember that as you do not know his depth neither do you know his height4 ,he too might dream if the yoke of custom and law and dogma were broken from him4 ,even now you know not what blind1 bound1 motionless chrysalis is working there to prepare its winged thing4 ,anarchism means freedom to the soul as to the body1--in every aspiration1 every growth4 ,a few words as to the methods4 ,in times past ,anarchists have excluded each other on these grounds also2 revolutionists contemptuously said ,quaker of peace men2 savage ,communists anathematized the ,quakers in return4 ,this too is passing4 ,i say this3 all methods are to the individual capacity and decision4 ,there is ,tolstoy1--,christian1 non-resistant1 artist4 ,his method is to paint pictures of society as it is1 to show the brutality of force and the uselessness of it2 to preach the end of government through the repudiation of all military force4 ,good6 ,i accept it in its entirety4 ,it fits his character1 it fits his ability4 ,let us be glad that he works so4 ,there is ,john ,most--old1 work-worn1 with the weight of prison years upon him1--yet fiercer1 fiercer1 bitterer in his denunciations of the ruling class than would require the energy of a dozen younger men to utter--going down the last hills of life1 rousing the consciousness of wrong among his fellows as he goes4 ,good6 ,that consciousness must be awakened4 ,long may that fiery tongue yet speak4 ,there is ,benjamin ,tucker--cool1 self-contained1 critical1--sending his fine hard shafts among foes and friends with icy impartiality1 hitting swift and cutting keen1--and ever ready to nail a traitor4 ,holding to passive resistance as most effective1 ready to change it whenever he deems it wise4 ,that suits him2 in his field he is alone1 invaluable4 ,and there is ,peter ,kropotkin appealing to the young1 and looking with sweet1 warm1 eager eyes into every colonizing effort1 and hailing with a child's enthusiasm the uprisings of the workers1 and believing in revolution with his whole soul4 ,him too we thank4 ,and there is ,george ,brown preaching peaceable expropriation through the federated unions of the workers2 and this is good4 ,it is his best place2 he is at home there2 he can accomplish most in his own chosen field4 ,and over there in his coffin cell in ,italy1 lies the man whose method was to kill a king1 and shock the nations into a sudden consciousness of the hollowness of their law and order4 ,him too1 him and his act1 without reserve ,i accept1 and bend in silent acknowledgement of the strength of the man4 ,for there are some whose nature it is to think and plead1 and yield and yet return to the address1 and so make headway in the minds of their fellowmen2 and there are others who are stern and still1 resolute1 implacable as ,judah's dream of ,god2--and those men strike--strike once and have ended4 ,but the blow resounds across the world4 ,and as on a night when the sky is heavy with storm1 some sudden great white flare sheets across it1 and every object starts sharply out1 so in the flash of ,bresci's pistol shot the whole world for a moment saw the tragic figure of the ,italian people1 starved1 stunted1 crippled1 huddled1 degraded1 murdered2 and at the same moment that their teeth chattered with fear1 they came and asked the ,anarchists to explain themselves4 ,and hundreds of thousands of people read more in those few days than they had ever read of the idea before4 ,ask a method8 ,do you ask ,spring her method8 ,which is more necessary1 the sunshine or the rain8 ,they are contradictory--yes2 they destroy each other--yes1 but from this destruction the flowers result4 ,each choose that method which expresses your self-hood best1 and condemn no other man because he expresses his ,self otherwise4 ,anarchism and ,american ,traditions ,american traditions1 begotten of religious rebellion1 small self-sustaining communities1 isolated conditions1 and hard pioneer life1 grew during the colonization period of one hundred and seventy years from the settling of ,jamestown to the outburst of the ,revolution4 ,this was in fact the great constitution-making epoch1 the period of charters guaranteeing more or less of liberty1 the general tendency of which is well described by ,wm4 ,penn in speaking of the charter for ,pennsylvania3 ,i want to put it out of my power1 or that of my successors1 to do mischief4 ,the revolution is the sudden and unified consciousness of these traditions1 their loud assertion1 the blow dealt by their indomitable will against the counter force of tyranny1 which has never entirely recovered from the blow1 but which from then till now has gone on remolding and regrappling the instruments of governmental power1 that the ,revolution sought to shape and hold as defenses of liberty4 ,to the average ,american of to-day1 the ,revolution means the series of battles fought by the patriot army with the armies of ,england4 ,the millions of school children who attend our public schools are taught to draw maps of the siege of ,boston and the siege of ,yorktown1 to know the general plan of the several campaigns1 to quote the number of prisoners of war surrendered with ,burgoyne2 they are required to remember the date when ,washington crossed the ,delaware on the ice2 they are told to ,remember ,paoli1 to repeat ,molly ,stark's a widow1 to call ,general ,wayne ,mad ,anthony ,wayne1 and to execrate ,benedict ,arnold2 they know that the ,declaration of ,independence was signed on the ,fourth of ,july1 #aggf1 and the ,treaty of ,paris in #aghc2 and then they think they have learned the ,revolution--blessed be ,george ,washington6 ,they have no idea why it should have been called a revolution instead of the ,english war1 or any similar title3 it's the name of it1 that's all4 ,and name-worship1 both in child and man1 has acquired such mastery of them1 that the name ,american ,revolution is held sacred1 though it means to them nothing more than successful force1 while the name ,revolution applied to a further possibility1 is a spectre detested and abhorred4 ,in neither case have they any idea of the content of the word1 save that of armed force4 ,that has already happened1 and long happened1 which ,jefferson foresaw when he wrote3 ,the spirit of the times may alter1 will alter4 ,our rulers will become corrupt1 our people careless4 ,a single zealot may become persecutor1 and better men be his victims4 ,it can never be too often repeated that the time for fixing every essential right1 on a legal basis1 is while our rulers are honest1 ourselves united4 ,from the conclusion of this war we shall be going down hill4 ,it will not then be necessary to resort every moment to the people for support4 ,they will be forgotten1 therefore1 and their rights disregarded4 ,they will forget themselves in the sole faculty of making money1 and will never think of uniting to effect a due respect for their rights4 ,the shackles1 therefore1 which shall not be knocked off at the conclusion of this war1 will be heavier and heavier1 till our rights shall revive or expire in a convulsion4 ,to the men of that time1 who voiced the spirit of that time1 the battles that they fought were the least of the ,revolution2 they were the incidents of the hour1 the things they met and faced as part of the game they were playing2 but the stake they had in view1 before1 during1 and after the war1 the real ,revolution1 was a change in political institutions which should make of government not a thing apart1 a superior power to stand over the people with a whip1 but a serviceable agent1 responsible1 economical1 and trustworthy 7but never so much trusted as not to be continually watched71 for the transaction of such business as was the common concern1 and to set the limits of the common concern at the line where one man's liberty would encroach upon another's4 ,they thus took their starting point for deriving a minimum of government upon the same sociological ground that the modern ,anarchist derives the no-government theory2 viz41 that equal liberty is the political ideal4 ,the difference lies in the belief1 on the one hand1 that the closest approximation to equal liberty might be best secured by the rule of the majority in those matters involving united action of any kind 7which rule of the majority they thought it possible to secure by a few simple arrangements for election71 and1 on the other hand1 the belief that majority rule is both impossible and undesirable2 that any government1 no matter what its forms1 will be manipulated by a very small minority1 as the development of the ,state and ,united ,states governments has strikingly proved2 that candidates will loudly profess allegiance to platforms before elections1 which as officials in power they will openly disregard1 to do as they please2 and that even if the majority will could be imposed1 it would also be subversive of equal liberty1 which may be best secured by leaving to the voluntary association of those interested in the management of matters of common concern1 without coercion of the uninterested or the opposed4 ,among the fundamental likenesses between the ,revolutionary ,republicans and the ,anarchists is the recognition that the little must precede the great2 that the local must be the basis of the general2 that there can be a free federation only when there are free communities to federate2 that the spirit of the latter is carried into the councils of the former1 and a local tyranny may thus become an instrument for general enslavement4 ,convinced of the supreme importance of ridding the municipalities of the institutions of tyranny1 the most strenuous advocates of independence1 instead of spending their efforts mainly in the general ,congress1 devoted themselves to their home localities1 endeavoring to work out of the minds of their neighbors and fellow-colonists the institutions of entailed property1 of a ,state-,church1 of a class-divided people1 even the institution of ,african slavery itself4 ,though largely unsuccessful1 it is to the measure of success they did achieve that we are indebted for such liberties as we do retain1 and not to the general government4 ,they tried to inculcate local initiative and independent action4 ,the author of the ,declaration of ,independence1 who in the fall of '#gf declined a re-election to ,congress in order to return to ,virginia and do his work in his own local assembly1 in arranging there for public education which he justly considered a matter of common concern1 said his advocacy of public schools was not with any view to take its ordinary branches out of the hands of private enterprise1 which manages so much better the concerns to which it is equal2 and in endeavoring to make clear the restrictions of the ,constitution upon the functions of the general government1 he likewise said3 ,let the general government be reduced to foreign concerns only1 and let our affairs be disentangled from those of all other nations1 except as to commerce1 which the merchants will manage the better the more they are left free to manage for themselves1 and the general government may be reduced to a very simple organization1 and a very inexpensive one2 a few plain duties to be performed by a few servants4 ,this then was the ,american tradition1 that private enterprise manages better all that to which it is equal4 ,anarchism declares that private enterprise1 whether individual or co-operative1 is equal to all the undertakings of society4 ,and it quotes the particular two instances1 ,education and ,commerce1 which the governments of the ,states and of the ,united ,states have undertaken to manage and regulate1 as the very two which in operation have done more to destroy ,american freedom and equality1 to warp and distort ,american tradition1 to make of government a mighty engine of tyranny1 than any other cause1 save the unforeseen developments of ,manufacture4 ,it was the intention of the ,revolutionists to establish a system of common education1 which should make the teaching of history one of its principal branches2 not with the intent of burdening the memories of our youth with the dates of battles or the speeches of generals1 nor to make of the ,boston ,tea ,party ,indians the one sacrosanct mob in all history1 to be revered but never on any account to be imitated1 but with the intent that every ,american should know to what conditions the masses of people had been brought by the operation of certain institutions1 by what means they had wrung out their liberties1 and how those liberties had again and again been filched from them by the use of governmental force1 fraud1 and privilege4 ,not to breed security1 laudation1 complacent indolence1 passive acquiescence in the acts of a government protected by the label home-made1 but to beget a wakeful jealousy1 a never-ending watchfulness of rulers1 a determination to squelch every attempt of those entrusted with power to encroach upon the sphere of individual action--this was the prime motive of the revolutionists in endeavoring to provide for common education4 ,confidence1 said the revolutionists who adopted the ,kentucky ,resolutions1 is everywhere the parent of despotism2 free government is founded in jealousy1 not in confidence2 it is jealousy1 not confidence1 which prescribes limited constitutions to bind down those whom we are obliged to trust with power2 our ,constitution has accordingly fixed the limits to which1 and no further1 our confidence may go4 99 99 99 ,in questions of power1 let no more be heard of confidence in man1 but bind him down from mischief by the chains of the ,constitution4 ,these resolutions were especially applied to the passage of the ,alien laws by the monarchist party during ,john ,adams' administration1 and were an indignant call from the ,state of ,kentucky to repudiate the right of the general government to assume undelegated powers1 for1 said they1 to accept these laws would be to be bound by laws made1 not with our consent1 but by others against our consent--that is1 to surrender the form of government we have chosen1 and to live under one deriving its powers from its own will1 and not from our authority4 ,resolutions identical in spirit were also passed by ,virginia1 the following month2 in those days the ,states still considered themselves supreme1 the general government subordinate4 ,to inculcate this proud spirit of the supremacy of the people over their governors was to be the purpose of public education6 ,pick up to-day any common school history1 and see how much of this spirit you will find therein4 ,on the contrary1 from cover to cover you will find nothing but the cheapest sort of patriotism1 the inculcation of the most unquestioning acquiescence in the deeds of government1 a lullaby of rest1 security1 confidence1--the doctrine that the ,law can do no wrong1 a ,te ,deum in praise of the continuous encroachments of the powers of the general government upon the reserved rights of the ,states1 shameless falsification of all acts of rebellion1 to put the government in the right and the rebels in the wrong1 pyrotechnic glorifications of union1 power1 and force1 and a complete ignoring of the essential liberties to maintain which was the purpose of the revolutionists4 ,the anti-,anarchist law of post-,mc,kinley passage1 a much worse law than the ,alien and ,sedition acts which roused the wrath of ,kentucky and ,virginia to the point of threatened rebellion1 is exalted as a wise provision of our ,all-,seeing ,father in ,washington4 ,such is the spirit of government-provided schools4 ,ask any child what he knows about ,shays's rebellion1 and he will answer1 ,oh1 some of the farmers couldn't pay their taxes1 and ,shays led a rebellion against the court-house at ,worcester1 so they could burn up the deeds2 and when ,washington heard of it he sent over an army quick and taught 'em a good lesson--,and what was the result of it8 ,the result8 ,why--why--the result was--,oh yes1 ,i remember--the result was they saw the need of a strong federal government to collect the taxes and pay the debts4 ,ask if he knows what was said on the other side of the story1 ask if he knows that the men who had given their goods and their health and their strength for the freeing of the country now found themselves cast into prison for debt1 sick1 disabled1 and poor1 facing a new tyranny for the old2 that their demand was that the land should become the free communal possession of those who wished to work it1 not subject to tribute1 and the child will answer ,no4 ,ask him if he ever read ,jefferson's letter to ,madison about it1 in which he says3 ,societies exist under three forms1 sufficiently distinguishable4 #a4 ,without government1 as among our ,indians4 #b4 ,under government wherein the will of every one has a just influence2 as is the case in ,england in a slight degree1 and in our ,states in a great one4 #c4 ,under government of force1 as is the case in all other monarchies1 and in most of the other republics4 ,to have an idea of the curse of existence in these last1 they must be seen4 ,it is a government of wolves over sheep4 ,it is a problem not clear in my mind that the first condition is not the best4 ,but ,i believe it to be inconsistent with any great degree of population4 ,the second state has a great deal of good in it4444 ,it has its evils1 too1 the principal of which is the turbulence to which it is subject4444 ,but even this evil is productive of good4 ,it prevents the degeneracy of government1 and nourishes a general attention to public affairs4 ,i hold that a little rebellion now and then is a good thing4 ,or to another correspondent3 ,god forbid that we should ever be twenty years without such a rebellion6444 ,what country can preserve its liberties if its rulers are not warned from time to time that the people preserve the spirit of resistance8 ,let them take up arms4444 ,the tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants4 ,it is its natural manure4 ,ask any school child if he was ever taught that the author of the ,declaration of ,independence1 one of the great founders of the common school1 said these things1 and he will look at you with open mouth and unbelieving eyes4 ,ask him if he ever heard that the man who sounded the bugle note in the darkest hour of the ,crisis1 who roused the courage of the soldiers when ,washington saw only mutiny and despair ahead1 ask him if he knows that this man also wrote1 ,government at best is a necessary evil1 at worst an intolerable one1 and if he is a little better informed than the average he will answer1 ,oh well1 he was an infidel6 ,catechize him about the merits of the ,constitution which he has learned to repeat like a poll-parrot1 and you will find his chief conception is not of the powers withheld from ,congress1 but of the powers granted4 ,such are the fruits of government schools4 ,we1 the ,anarchists1 point to them and say3 ,if the believers in liberty wish the principles of liberty taught1 let them never intrust that instruction to any government2 for the nature of government is to become a thing apart1 an institution existing for its own sake1 preying upon the people1 and teaching whatever will tend to keep it secure in its seat4 ,as the fathers said of the governments of ,europe1 so say we of this government also after a century and a quarter of independence3 ,the blood of the people has become its inheritance1 and those who fatten on it will not relinquish it easily4 ,public education1 having to do with the intellect and spirit of a people1 is probably the most subtle and far-reaching engine for molding the course of a nation2 but commerce1 dealing as it does with material things and producing immediate effects1 was the force that bore down soonest upon the paper barriers of constitutional restriction1 and shaped the government to its requirements4 ,here1 indeed1 we arrive at the point where we1 looking over the hundred and twenty-five years of independence1 can see that the simple government conceived by the revolutionary republicans was a foredoomed failure4 ,it was so because of 7#a7 the essence of government itself2 7#b7 the essence of human nature2 7#c7 the essence of ,commerce and ,manufacture4 ,of the essence of government1 ,i have already said1 it is a thing apart1 developing its own interests at the expense of what opposes it2 all attempts to make it anything else fail4 ,in this ,anarchists agree with the traditional enemies of the ,revolution1 the monarchists1 federalists1 strong government believers1 the ,roosevelts of to-day1 the ,jays1 ,marshalls1 and ,hamiltons of then1--that ,hamilton1 who1 as ,secretary of the ,treasury1 devised a financial system of which we are the unlucky heritors1 and whose objects were twofold3 ,to puzzle the people and make public finance obscure to those that paid for it2 to serve as a machine for corrupting the legislatures2 for he avowed the opinion that man could be governed by two motives only1 force or interest2 force being then out of the question1 he laid hold of interest1 the greed of the legislators1 to set going an association of persons having an entirely separate welfare from the welfare of their electors1 bound together by mutual corruption and mutual desire for plunder4 ,the ,anarchist agrees that ,hamilton was logical1 and understood the core of government2 the difference is1 that while strong governmentalists believe this is necessary and desirable1 we choose the opposite conclusion1 ,,no ,,government ,,whatever4 ,as to the essence of human nature1 what our national experience has made plain is this1 that to remain in a continually exalted moral condition is not human nature4 ,that has happened which was prophesied3 we have gone down hill from the ,revolution until now2 we are absorbed in mere money-getting4 ,the desire for material ease long ago vanquished the spirit of '#gf4 ,what was that spirit8 ,the spirit that animated the people of ,virginia1 of the ,carolinas1 of ,massachusetts1 of ,new ,york1 when they refused to import goods from ,england2 when they preferred 7and stood by it7 to wear coarse homespun cloth1 to drink the brew of their own growths1 to fit their appetites to the home supply1 rather than submit to the taxation of the imperial ministry4 ,even within the lifetime of the revolutionists the spirit decayed4 ,the love of material ease has been1 in the mass of men and permanently speaking1 always greater than the love of liberty4 ,nine hundred and ninety-nine women out of a thousand are more interested in the cut of a dress than in the independence of their sex2 nine hundred and nine-nine men out of a thousand are more interested in drinking a glass of beer than in questioning the tax that is laid on it2 how many children are not willing to trade the liberty to play for the promise of a new cap or a new dress8 ,this it is which begets the complicated mechanism of society2 this it is which1 by multiplying the concerns of government1 multiplies the strength of government and the corresponding weakness of the people2 this it is which begets indifference to public concern1 thus making the corruption of government easy4 ,as to the essence of ,commerce and ,manufacture1 it is this3 to establish bonds between every corner of the earth's surface and every other corner1 to multiply the needs of mankind1 and the desire for material possession and enjoyment4 ,the ,american tradition was the isolation of the ,states as far as possible4 ,said they3 ,we have won our liberties by hard sacrifice and struggle unto death4 ,we wish now to be let alone and to let others alone1 that our principles may have time for trial2 that we may become accustomed to the exercise of our rights2 that we may be kept free from the contaminating influence of ,european gauds1 pagents1 distinctions4 ,so richly did they esteem the absence of these that they could in all fervor write3 ,we shall see multiplied instances of ,europeans coming to ,america1 but no man living will ever see an instance of an ,american removing to settle in ,europe1 and continuing there4 ,alas6 ,in less than a hundred years the highest aim of a ,daughter of the ,revolution was1 and is1 to buy a castle1 a title1 and a rotten lord1 with the money wrung from ,american servitude6 ,and the commercial interests of ,america are seeking a world-empire6 ,in the earlier days of the revolt and subsequent independence1 it appeared that the manifest destiny of ,america was to be an agricultural people1 exchanging food stuffs and raw materials for manufactured articles4 ,and in those days it was written3 ,we shall be virtuous as long as agriculture is our principal object1 which will be the case as long as there remain vacant lands in any part of ,america4 ,when we get piled upon one another in large cities1 as in ,europe1 we shall become corrupt as in ,europe1 and go to eating one another as they do there4 ,which we are doing1 because of the inevitable development of ,commerce and ,manufacture1 and the concomitant development of strong government4 ,and the parallel prophecy is likewise fulfilled3 ,if ever this vast country is brought under a single government1 it will be one of the most extensive corruption1 indifferent and incapable of a wholesome care over so wide a spread of surface4 ,there is not upon the face of the earth to-day a government so utterly and shamelessly corrupt as that of the ,united ,states of ,america4 ,there are others more cruel1 more tyrannical1 more devastating2 there is none so utterly venal4 ,and yet even in the very days of the prophets1 even with their own consent1 the first concession to this later tyranny was made4 ,it was made when the ,constitution was made2 and the ,constitution was made chiefly because of the demands of ,commerce4 ,thus it was at the outset a merchant's machine1 which the other interests of the country1 the land and labor interests1 even then foreboded would destroy their liberties4 ,in vain their jealousy of its central power made them enact the first twelve amendments4 ,in vain they endeavored to set bounds over which the federal power dare not trench4 ,in vain they enacted into general law the freedom of speech1 of the press1 of assemblage and petition4 ,all of these things we see ridden rough-shod upon every day1 and have so seen with more or less intermission since the beginning of the nineteenth century4 ,at this day1 every police lieutenant considers himself1 and rightly so1 as more powerful than the ,general ,law of the ,union2 and that one who told ,robert ,hunter that he held in his fist something stronger than the ,constitution1 was perfectly correct4 ,the right of assemblage is an ,american tradition which has gone out of fashion2 the police club is now the mode4 ,and it is so in virtue of the people's indifference to liberty1 and the steady progress of constitutional interpretation towards the substance of imperial government4 ,it is an ,american tradition that a standing army is a standing menace to liberty2 in ,jefferson's presidency the army was reduced to #c1jjj men4 ,it is ,american tradition that we keep out of the affairs of other nations4 ,it is ,american practice that we meddle with the affairs of everybody else from the ,west to the ,east ,indies1 from ,russia to ,japan2 and to do it we have a standing army of #hc1bea men4 ,it is ,american tradition that the financial affairs of a nation should be transacted on the same principles of simple honesty that an individual conducts his own business2 viz41 that debt is a bad thing1 and a man's first surplus earnings should be applied to his debts2 that offices and office-holders should be few4 ,it is ,american practice that the general government should always have millions of debt1 even if a panic or a war has to be forced to prevent its being paid off2 and as to the application of its income1 office-holders come first4 ,and within the last administration it is reported that #ii1jjj offices have been created at an annual expense of #fc1jjj1jjj4 ,shades of ,jefferson6 ,how are vacancies to be obtained8 ,those by deaths are few2 by resignation none4 ,roosevelt cuts the knot by making #ii1jjj new ones6 ,and few will die1--and none resign4 ,they will beget sons and daughters1 and ,taft will have to create #ii1jjj more6 ,verily1 a simple and a serviceable thing is our general government4 ,it is ,american tradition that the ,judiciary shall act as a check upon the impetuosity of ,legislatures1 should these attempt to pass the bounds of constitutional limitation4 ,it is ,american practice that the ,judiciary justifies every law which trenches on the liberties of the people and nullifies every act of the ,legislature by which the people seek to regain some measure of their freedom4 ,again1 in the words of ,jefferson3 ,the ,constitution is a mere thing of wax in the hands of the ,judiciary1 which they may twist and shape in any form they please4 ,truly1 if the men who fought the good fight for the triumph of simple1 honest1 free life in that day1 were now to look upon the scene of their labors1 they would cry out together with him who said3 ,i regret that ,i am now to die in the belief that the useless sacrifice of themselves by the generation of '#gf to acquire self-government and happiness to their country1 is to be thrown away by the unwise and unworthy passions of their sons1 and that my only consolation is to be that ,i shall not live to see it4 ,and now1 what has ,anarchism to say to all this1 this bankruptcy of republicanism1 this modern empire that has grown up on the ruins of our early freedom8 ,we say this1 that the sin our fathers sinned was that they did not trust liberty wholly4 ,they thought it possible to compromise between liberty and government1 believing the latter to be a necessary evil1 and the moment the compromise was made1 the whole misbegotten monster of our present tyranny began to grow4 ,instruments which are set up to safeguard rights become the very whip with which the free are struck4 ,anarchism says1 ,make no laws whatever concerning speech1 and speech will be free2 so soon as you make a declaration on paper that speech shall be free1 you will have a hundred lawyers proving that freedom does not mean abuse1 nor liberty license2 and they will define and define freedom out of existence4 ,let the guarantee of free speech be in every man's determination to use it1 and we shall have no need of paper declarations4 ,on the other hand1 so long as the people do not care to exercise their freedom1 those who wish to tyrannize will do so2 for tyrants are active and ardent1 and will devote themselves in the name of any number of gods1 religious and otherwise1 to put shackles upon sleeping men4 ,the problem then becomes1 ,is it possible to stir men from their indifference8 ,we have said that the spirit of liberty was nurtured by colonial life2 that the elements of colonial life were the desire for sectarian independence1 and the jealous watchfulness incident thereto2 the isolation of pioneer communities which threw each individual strongly on his own resources1 and thus developed all-around men1 yet at the same time made very strong such social bonds as did exist2 and1 lastly1 the comparative simplicity of small communities4 ,all this has mostly disappeared4 ,as to sectarianism1 it is only by dint of an occasional idiotic persecution that a sect becomes interesting2 in the absence of this1 outlandish sects play the fool's role1 are anything but heroic1 and have little to do with either the name or the substance of liberty4 ,the old colonial religious parties have gradually become the pillars of society1 their animosities have died out1 their offensive peculiarities have been effaced1 they are as like one another as beans in a pod1 they build churches and--sleep in them4 ,as to our communities1 they are hopelessly and helplessly interdependent1 as we ourselves are1 save that continuously diminishing proportion engaged in all around farming2 and even these are slaves to mortgages4 ,for our cities1 probably there is not one that is provisioned to last a week1 and certainly there is none which would not be bankrupt with despair at the proposition that it produce its own food4 ,in response to this condition and its correlative political tyranny1 ,anarchism affirms the economy of self-sustenance1 the disintegration of the great communities1 the use of the earth4 ,i am not ready to say that ,i see clearly that this will take place2 but ,i see clearly that this must take place if ever again men are to be free4 ,i am so well satisfied that the mass of mankind prefer material possessions to liberty1 that ,i have no hope that they will ever1 by means of intellectual or moral stirrings merely1 throw off the yoke of oppression fastened on them by the present economic system1 to institute free societies4 ,my only hope is in the blind development of the economic system and political oppression itself4 ,the great characteristic looming factor in this gigantic power is ,manufacture4 ,the tendency of each nation is to become more and more a manufacturing one1 an exporter of fabrics1 not an importer4 ,if this tendency follows its own logic1 it must eventually circle round to each community producing for itself4 ,what then will become of the surplus product when the manufacturer shall have no foreign market8 ,why1 then mankind must face the dilemma of sitting down and dying in the midst of it1 or confiscating the goods4 ,indeed1 we are partially facing this problem even now2 and so far we are sitting down and dying4 ,i opine1 however1 that men will not do it forever2 and when once by an act of general expropriation they have overcome the reverence and fear of property1 and their awe of government1 they may waken to the consciousness that things are to be used1 and therefore men are greater than things4 ,this may rouse the spirit of liberty4 ,if1 on the other hand1 the tendency of invention to simplify1 enabling the advantages of machinery to be combined with smaller aggregations of workers1 shall also follow its own logic1 the great manufacturing plants will break up1 population will go after the fragments1 and there will be seen not indeed the hard1 self-sustaining1 isolated pioneer communities of early ,america1 but thousands of small communities stretching along the lines of transportation1 each producing very largely for its own needs1 able to rely upon itself1 and therefore able to be independent4 ,for the same rule holds good for societies as for individuals1--those may be free who are able to make their own living4 ,in regard to the breaking up of that vilest creation of tyranny1 the standing army and navy1 it is clear that so long as men desire to fight1 they will have armed force in one form or another4 ,our fathers thought they had guarded against a standing army by providing for the voluntary militia4 ,in our day we have lived to see this militia declared part of the regular military force of the ,united ,states1 and subject to the same demands as the regulars4 ,within another generation we shall probably see its members in the regular pay of the general government4 ,since any embodiment of the fighting spirit1 any military organization1 inevitably follows the same line of centralization1 the logic of ,anarchism is that the least objectionable form of armed force is that which springs up voluntarily1 like the minute-men of ,massachusetts1 and disbands as soon as the occasion which called it into existence is past3 that the really desirable thing is that all men--not ,americans only--should be at peace2 and that to reach this1 all peaceful persons should withdraw their support from the army1 and require that all who make war shall do so at their own cost and risk2 that neither pay nor pensions are to be provided for those who choose to make man-killing a trade4 ,as to the ,american tradition of non-meddling1 ,anarchism asks that it be carried down to the individual himself4 ,it demands no jealous barrier of isolation2 it knows that such isolation is undesirable and impossible2 but it teaches that by all men's strictly minding their own business1 a fluid society1 freely adapting itself to mutual needs1 wherein all the world shall belong to all men1 as much as each has need or desire1 will result4 ,and when ,modern ,revolution has thus been carried to the heart of the whole world--if it ever shall be1 as ,i hope it will1--then may we hope to see a resurrection of that proud spirit of our fathers which put the simple dignity of ,man above the gauds of wealth and class1 and held that to be an ,american was greater than to be a king4 ,in that day there shall be neither kings nor ,americans1--only ,men2 over the whole earth1 ,,men4 ,anarchism ,in ,literature ,in the long sweep of seventeen hundred years which witnessed the engulfment of a moribund ,roman civilization1 together with its borrowed ,greek ideals1 under the red tide of a passionate barbarism that leaped to embrace the idea of ,triumph over ,death1 and spat upon the ,grecian ,joys of ,life with the superb contempt of the ,norse savage1 there was1 for ,europe and ,america1 but one great animating ,word in ,art and ,literature--,christianity4 ,it boots not here to inquire how close or how remote the ,christian ideal as it developed was in comparison with the teachings of the ,nazarene4 ,distorted1 blackened1 almost effaced1 it was yet some faint echo from the hillsides of ,olivet1 some indistinct vision of the ,cross1 some dull perception of the white glory of renunciation1 that shaped the dreams of the evolving barbarian1 and moulded all his work1 whether of stone or clay1 upon canvas or parchment4 ,wherever we turn we find a general fixup or caste1 an immovable solidity of orders built upon orders1 an unquestioning subordination of the individual1 ruling every effort of genius4 ,ascetic shadow upon all2 nowhere does a sun-ray of self-expression creep1 save as through water1 thin and perturbed4 ,the theologic pessimism which appealed to the fighting man as a proper extension of his own superstition--perhaps hardly that1 for ,heaven was but a change of name for ,valhalla1--fell heavily upon the man of dreams1 whose creations must come forth1 lifeless1 after the uniform model1 who must bless and ban not as he saw before his eyes but as the one eternal purpose demanded4 ,at last the barbarian is civilized2 he has accomplished his own refinement--and his own rottenness4 ,still he preaches 7and practices7 contempt of death--when others do the dying6 ,still he preaches submission to the will of ,god--but that others may submit to him6 ,still he proclaims the ,cross--but that others may bear it4 ,where ,rome was in the glut of her vanity and her blood-drunkenness--limbs wound in cloth of gold suppurating with crime1 head boastfully nodding as ,jove and feet rocking upon slipping slime--there stand the ,empires and ,republics of those whose forefathers slew ,rome4 ,and now for these three hundred years the ,men of ,dreams have been watching the ,christian ,ideal go bankrupt4 ,one by one as they have dared1 and each according to his mood1 they have spoken their minds2 some have reasoned1 and some have laughed1 and some have appealed1 logician1 satirist1 and exhorter all feeling in their several ways that humanity stood in need of a new moral ideal4 ,consciously or unconsciously1 within the pale of the ,church or without1 this has been the spirit moving upon the face of the waters within them1 and at last the creation is come forth1 the dream that is to touch the heart-strings of the ,world anew1 and make it sing a stronger song than any it has sung of old4 ,mark you1 it must be stronger1 wider1 deeper1 or it cannot be at all4 ,it must sing all that has been sung1 and something more4 ,its mission is not to deny the past but to reaffirm it and explain it1 all of it2 and to-day too1 and to-morrow too4 ,and this ,ideal1 the only one that has power to stir the moral pulses of the world1 the only ,word that can quicken ,dead ,souls who wait this moral resurrection1 the only ,word which can animate the dreamer1 poet1 sculptor1 painter1 musician1 artist of chisel or pen1 with power to fashion forth his dream1 is ,anarchism4 ,for ,anarchism means fulness of being4 ,it means the return of ,greek radiance of life1 ,greek love of beauty1 without ,greek indifference to the common man2 it means ,christian earnestness and ,christian ,communism1 without ,christian fanaticism and ,christian gloom and tyranny4 ,it means this because it means perfect freedom1 material and spiritual freedom4 ,the light of ,greek idealism failed because with all its love of life and the infinite diversity of beauty1 and all the glory of its free intellect1 it never conceived of material freedom2 to it the ,helot was as eternal as the ,gods4 ,therefore the ,gods passed away1 and their eternity was as a little wave of time4 ,the ,christian ideal has failed because with all its sublime ,communism1 its doctrine of universal equality1 it was bound up with a spiritual tyranny seeking to mould into one pattern the thoughts of all humanity1 stamping all men with the stamp of submission1 throwing upon all the dark umber of life lived for the purpose of death1 and fruitful of all other tyrannies4 ,anarchism will succeed because its message of freedom comes down the rising wind of social revolt first of all to the common man1 the material slave1 and bids him know that he1 too1 should have an independent will1 and the free exercise thereof2 that no philosophy1 and no achievement1 and no civilization is worth considering or achieving1 if it does not mean that he shall be free to labor at what he likes and when he likes1 and freely share all that free men choose to produce2 that he1 the drudge of all the ages1 is the cornerstone of the building without whose sure and safe position no structure can nor should endure4 ,and likewise it comes to him who sits in fear of himself1 and says3 ,fear no more1 neither what is without or within4 ,search fully and freely your ,self2 hearken to all the voices that rise from that abyss from which you have been commanded to shrink4 ,learn for yourself what these things are4 ,belike what they have told you is good1 is bad2 and this cast mould of goodness1 a vile prison-house4 ,learn to decide your own measure of restraint4 ,value for yourself the merits of selfishness and unselfishness2 and strike you the balance between these two3 for if the first be all accredited you make slaves of others1 and if the second1 your own abasement raises tyrants over you2 and none can decide the matter for you so well as you for yourself2 for even if you err you learn by it1 while if he errs the blame is his1 and if he advises well the credit is his1 and you are nothing4 ,be yourself2 and by self-expression learn self-restraint4 ,the wisdom of the ages lies in the reassertion of all past positivisms1 and the denial of all negations1 that is1 all that has been claimed by the individual for himself is good1 but every denial of the freedom of another is bad2 whereby it will be seen that many things supposed to be claimed for oneself involve the freedom of others and must be surrendered because they do not come within the sovereign limit1 while many things supposed to be evil1 since they in nowise infringe upon the liberty of others are wholly good1 bringing to dwarfed bodies and narrow souls the vigor and full growth of healthy exercise1 and giving a rich glow to life that had else paled out like a lamp in a grave-vault4 ,to the sybarite it says1 ,learn to do your own share of hard work2 you will gain by it2 to the ,man with the ,hoe1 ,think for yourself and boldly take your time for it4 ,the division of labor which makes of one man a ,brain and of another a ,hand is evil4 ,away with it4 ,this is the ethical gospel of ,anarchism to which these three hundred years of intellectual ferment have been leading4 ,he who will trace the course of literature for three hundred years will find innumerable bits of drift here and there1 indicative of the moral and intellectual revolt4 ,protestantism itself1 in asserting the supremacy of the individual conscience1 fired the long train of thought which inevitably leads to the explosion of all forms of authority4 ,the great political writers of the eighteenth century1 in asserting the right of self-government1 carried the line of advance one step further4 ,america had her ,jefferson declaring3 ,societies exist under three forms3 #a4 ,without government as among the ,indians4 #b4 ,under governments wherein every one has a just influence4 #c4 ,under governments of force4 ,it is a problem not clear in my mind that the first condition is not the best4 ,she had1 or she and ,england together had1 her ,paine1 more mildly asserting3 ,governments are1 at best1 a necessary evil4 ,and ,england had also ,godwin1 who1 though still milder in manner and consequently less effective during the troublous period in which he lived1 was nevertheless more deeply radical than either1 presaging that application of the political ideal to economic concerns so distinctive of modern ,anarchism4 ,my neighbor1 says he1 has just as much right to put an end to my existence with dagger or poison as to deny me that pecuniary assistance without which ,i must starve4 ,nor did he stop here3 he carried the logic of individual sovereignty into the chiefest of social institutions1 and declared that the sex relation was a matter concerning the individuals sharing it only4 ,thus he says3 ,the institution of marriage is a system of fraud4444 ,marriage is law and the worst of all laws4444 ,marriage is an affair of property and the worst of all properties4 ,so long as two human beings are forbidden by positive institution to follow the dictates of their own mind prejudice is alive and vigorous4444 ,the abolition of marriage will be attended with no evils4 ,we are apt to consider it to ourselves as the harbinger of brutal lust and depravity2 but it really happens in this1 as in other cases1 that the positive laws which are made to restrain our vices1 irritate and multiply them4 ,the grave and judicial style of ,political ,justice prevented its attaining the great popularity of ,the ,rights of ,man1 but the indirect influence of its author bloomed in the rich profusion of ,shelleyan fancy1 and in all that coterie of young litterateurs who gathered about ,godwin as their revered teacher4 ,nor was the principle of no-government without its vindication from one who moved actively in official centers1 and whose name has been alternately quoted by conservatives and radicals1 now with veneration1 now with execration4 ,in his essay ,on ,government1 ,edmund ,burke1 the great political weathercock1 aligned himself with the germinating movement towards ,anarchism when he exclaimed3 ,they talk of the abuse of government2 the thing1 the thing itself is the abuse6 ,this aphoristic utterance will go down in history on its own merits1 as the sayings of great men often do1 stripped of its accompanying explanations4 ,men have already forgotten to inquire how and why he said it2 the words stand1 and will continue a living message1 long after the thousands of sheets of rhetoric which won him the epithet of the ,dinner-bell of the ,house have been relegated to the dust of museums4 ,in later days an essayist whose brilliancy of style and capacity for getting on all sides of a question connect him with ,burke in some manner as his spiritual offspring1 has furnished the ,anarchists with one of their most frequent quotations4 ,in his essay on ,john ,milton1 ,macaulay declares1 ,the only cure for the evils of newly acquired liberty is--more liberty4 ,that he nevertheless possessed a strong vein of conservatism1 sat in parliament1 and took part in legal measures1 simply proves that he had his tether and could not go the length of his own logic2 that is no reason others should not4 ,the ,anarchists accept this fundamental declaration and proceed to its consequence4 ,but the world-thought was making way1 not only in ,england1 where1 indeed1 constitutional phlegmatism1 though stirred beyond its wont by the events of the close of the last century1 acted frigidly upon it1 but throughout ,europe4 ,in ,france1 ,rabelais drew the idyllic picture of the ,abbey of ,thelemes1 a community of persons agreeing to practise complete individual freedom among themselves4 ,rousseau1 however erroneous his basis for the ,social ,contract1 moved all he touched with his belief that humanity was innately good1 and capable of so manifesting itself in the absence of restrictions4 ,furthermore1 his ,confessions appears the most famous fore-runner of the tendency now shaping itself in ,literature--that of the free expression of a whole man--not in his stage-character only1 but in his dressing-room1 not in his decent1 scrubbed and polished moral clothes alone1 but in his vileness and his meanness and his folly1 too1 these being indisputable factors in his moral life1 and no solution but a false one to be obtained by hiding them and playing they are not there4 ,this truth1 acknowledged in ,america1 in our own times1 by two powerful writers of very different cast1 is being approached by all the manifold paths of the soul's travel4 ,i have in me the capacity for every crime1 says ,emerson the transcendentalist4 ,and ,whitman1 the stanch proclaimer of blood and sinew1 and the gospel of the holiness of the body1 makes himself one with drunken revelers and the creatures of debauchery as well as with the anchorite and the ,christ-soul1 that fulness of being may be declared4 ,in the genesis of these declarations we shall find the ,confessions4 ,it is not the ,social ,contract alone that is open to the criticism of having reasoned from false premises2 all the early political writers we have named were equally mistaken1 all suffering from a like insufficiency of facts4 ,partly this was the result of the habit of thought fostered by the ,church for seventeen hundred years1--which habit was to accept by faith a sweeping generalization and fit all future discoveries of fact into it2 but partly also it is in the nature of all idealism to offer itself1 however vaguely in the mist of mind-struggle1 and allow time to correct and sharpen the detail4 ,probably initial steps will always be taken with blunders1 while those who are not imaginative enough to perceive the half-shapen figure will nevertheless accept it later and set it upon a firm foundation4 ,this has been the task of the modern historian1 who1 no less than the political writer1 consciously or unconsciously1 is swayed by the ,anarchistic ideal and bends his services towards it4 ,it is understood that when we speak of history we do not allude to the unspeakable trash contained in public school text-books 7which in general resemble a cellar junk-shop of chronologies1 epaulettes1 bad drawings1 and silly tales1 and are a striking instance of the corrupting influence of ,state management of education1 by which the mediocre1 nay the absolutely empty1 is made to survive71 history which is undertaken with the purpose of discovering the real course of the development of human society4 ,among such efforts1 the broken but splendid fragment of his stupendous project1 is ,buckle's ,history of ,civilization1--a work in which the author breaks away utterly from the old method of history writing1 viz4 that of recording court intrigues1 the doings of individuals in power as a matter of personal interest1 the processions of military pageant1 to inquire into the real lives and conditions of the people1 to trace their great upheavals1 and in what consisted their progress4 ,gervinus in ,germany1 who1 within only recent years1 drew upon himself a prosecution for treason1 took a like method1 and declared that progress consists in a steady decline of centralized power and the development of local autonomy and the free federation4 ,supplementing the work of the historian proper1 there has arisen a new class of literature1 itself the creation of the spirit of free inquiry1 since1 up till that had asserted itself1 such writings were impossible2 it embraces a wide range of studies into the conditions and psychology of prehistoric ,man1 of which ,sir ,john ,lubbock's works will serve as the type4 ,from these1 dark as the subject yet is1 we are learning the true sources of all authority1 and the agencies which are rendering it obsolete2 moreover1 a curious cycle of development reveals itself2 namely1 that starting from the point of no authority unconsciously accepted1 ,man1 in the several manifestations of his activity1 evolves through stages of belief in many authorities to one authority1 and finally to no authority again1 but this time conscious and reasoned4 ,crowning the work of historian and prehistorian1 comes the labor of the sociologist4 ,herbert ,spencer1 with infinite patience for detail and marvelous power of classification and generalization1 takes up the facts of the others1 and deduces from them the great ,law of ,equal ,freedom3 ,a man should have the freedom to do whatsoever he wills1 provided that in the doing thereof he infringes not the equal freedom of every other man4 ,the early edition of ,social ,statics is a logical1 scientific1 and bold statement of the great fundamental freedoms which ,anarchists demand4 ,from the rather taxing study of authors like these1 it is a relief to turn to those intermediate writers who dwell between them and the pure fictionists1 whose writings are occupied with the facts of life as related to the affections and aspirations of humanity1 among whom1 representative men1 we immediately select ,emerson1 ,thoreau1 ,edward ,carpenter4 ,now1 indeed1 we cease to reason upon the past evolution of liberty1 and begin to feel it2 begin to reach out after what it shall mean4 ,none who are familiar with the thought of ,emerson can fail to recognize that it is spiritual ,anarchism2 from the serene heights of self-possession1 the ,ego looks out upon its possibilities1 unawed by aught without4 ,and he who has dwelt in dream by ,walden1 charmed by that pure life he has not himself led but wished that1 like ,thoreau1 he might lead1 has felt that call of the ,anarchistic ,ideal which pleads with men to renounce the worthless luxuries which enslave them and those who work for them1 that the buried soul which is doomed to mummy cloths by the rush and jangle of the chase for wealth1 may answer the still small voice of the ,resurrection1 there1 in the silence1 the solitude1 the simplicity of the free life4 ,a similar note is sounded in ,carpenter's ,civilization3 ,its ,cause and ,cure1 a work which is likely to make the ,civilizer see himself in a very different light than that in which he usually beholds himself4 ,and again the same vibration shudders through ,the ,city of ,dreadful ,night1 the masterpiece of an obscure genius who was at once essayist and poet of too high and rare a quality to catch the ear stunned by strident commonplaces1 but loved by all who seek the violets of the soul1 one ,thomson1 known to literature as ,b4 ,v4 ,similarly obscure1 and similarly sympathetic is the ,english ,peasant1 by ,richard ,heath1 a collection of essays so redolent of abounding love1 so overflowing with understanding for characters utterly contradictory1 painted so tenderly and yet so strongly1 that none can read them without realizing that here is a man1 who1 whatever he believes he believes1 in reality desires freedom of expression for the whole human spirit1 which implies for every separate unit of it4 ,something of the ,emersonian striving after individual attainment plus the passionate sympathy of ,heath is found in a remarkable book1 which is too good to have obtained a popular hearing1 entitled ,the ,story of ,my ,heart4 ,no more daring utterance was ever given voice than this3 ,i pray to find the ,highest ,soul1--greater than deity1 better than ,god4 ,in the concluding pages of the tenth chapter of this wonderful little book occur the following lines3 ,that any human being should dare to apply to another the epithet of 'pauper' is to me the greatest1 the vilest1 the most unpardonable crime that could be committed4 ,each human being1 by mere birth1 has a birthright in this earth and all its productions2 and if they do not receive it1 then it is they who are injured2 and it is not the 'pauper'--oh6 inexpressibly wicked world6--it is the well-to-do who are the criminals4 ,it matters not in the least if the poor be improvident1 drunken1 or evil in any way4 ,food and drink1 roof and clothes1 are the inalienable right of every child born into the light4 ,if the world does not provide it freely--not as a grudging gift1 but as a right1 as the son of the house sits down to breakfast1--then is the world mad4 ,but the world is not mad1 only in ignorance4 ,in catholic sympathy like this1 in heart-hunger after a wider righteousness1 a higher idea than ,god1 does the ,anarchistic ideal come to those who have lived through old phases of religious and social beliefs and found them wanting4 ,it is the ,shelleyan outburst3 ,more life and fuller life we want4 ,he was the ,prometheus of the movement1 he1 the wild bird of song1 who flew down into the heart of storm and night1 singing unutterably sweet the song of the free man and woman as he passed4 ,poor ,shelley6 ,happy ,shelley6 ,he died not knowing the triumph of his genius2 but also he died while the white glow within was yet shining higher1 higher6 ,in the light of it1 he smiled above the world2 had he lived1 he might have died alive1 as ,swinburne and as ,tennyson whose old days belie their early strength4 ,yet men will remember ,slowly comes a hungry people as a lion drawing nigher4 ,glares at one who nods and winks beside a slowly dying fire4 and ,let the great ,world swing forever down the ringing grooves of ,change4 and ,glory to ,man in the highest for ,man is the ,master of ,things and ,while three men hold together1 ,the kingdoms are less by three until the end of kingdoms and of kings1 though their authors take refuge in the kingdom and quaver palsied hymns to royalty with their cracked voices and broken lutes4 ,for this is the glory of the living ideal1 that all that is in accord with it lives1 whether the mouthpiece through which it spoke would recall it or not4 ,the manifold voice which is one speaks out through all the tongues of genius in its greatest moments1 whether it be a ,heine writing1 in supreme contempt1 ,for the ,law has got long arms1 ,priests and ,parsons have long tongues ,and the ,people have long ears1 a ,nekrassoff cursing the railroad built of men1 a ,hugo painting the battle of the individual man with ,nature1 with the ,law1 with ,society1 a ,lowell crying3 ,law is holy ay1 but what law8 ,is there nothing more divine ,than the patched up broils of ,congress1--venal1 full of meat and wine8 ,is there1 say you1 nothing higher--naught1 ,god save us1 that transcends ,laws of cotton texture wove by vulgar men for vulgar ends8 ,law is holy3 but not your law1 ye who keep the tablets whole ,while ye dash the ,law in pieces1 shatter it in life and soul4 and again1 ,one faith against a whole world's unbelief1 ,one soul against the flesh of all mankind4 ,nor do the master dramatists lag behind the lyric writers2 they1 too1 feel the intense pressure within1 which is1 quoting the deathword of a man of far other stamp1 germinal4 ,ibsen's drama1 intensely real1 common1 accepting none of the received rules as to the conventional plot1 but having to do with serious questions of the lives of the plain people1 holds ever before us the supreme duty of truth to one's inner being in defiance of ,custom and ,law2 it is so in ,nora1 who renounces all notions of family duty to find herself2 it is so in ,dr4 ,stockman1 who maintains the rectitude of his own soul against the authorities and against the mob2 it should have been so in ,mrs4 ,alving1 who learns too late that her yielding to social custom has brought a fore-ruined life into the world besides wrecking her own2 the ,master ,builder1 ,john ,gabriel ,borkman1 all his characters are created to vindicate the separate soul supreme within its sphere2 those that are miserable and in evil condition are so because they have not lived true to themselves but in obedience to some social hypocrisy4 ,gerhart ,hauptmann likewise feels the new pulsation3 he has no hero1 no heroine1 no intrigue2 his picture is the image of the headless and tailless body of struggle1--the struggle of the common man4 ,it begins in the middle1 it ends in nothing--as yet4 ,to end in defeat would be to premise surrender--a surrender humanity does not intend2 to triumph would be to anticipate the future1 and paint life other than it is4 ,hence it ends where it began1 in murmurs4 ,thus his ,weavers4 ,octave ,mirbeau1 likewise1 offers his criticism on a world of sheep in ,the ,bad ,shepherds1 and ,sara ,bernhardt plays it4 ,in ,england and ,america we have another phase of the rebel drama--the drama of the bad woman1 as a distinct figure in social creation with a right to be herself4 ,have we not the ,second ,mrs4 ,tanqueray who comes to grief through an endeavor to conform to a moral standard that does not fit8 ,and have we not ,zaza1 who is worth a thousand of her respectable lover and his respectable wife8 ,and does not all the audience go home in love with her8 ,and begin to quest the libraries for literary justifications of their preference8 ,and these are not hard to find1 for it is in the novel particularly1 the novel which is the special creation of the last century1 that the new ideal is freest4 ,in a recent essay in reply to ,walter ,besant1 ,henry ,james pleads most ,anarchistically for his freedom in the novel4 ,all such pleas will always come as justifications1 for as to the freedom it is already won1 and all the formalists from ,besant to the end of days will never tempt the litterateurs into chains again4 ,but the essay is well worth reading as a specimen of right reasoning on art4 ,as in other modes of literary expression this tendency in the novel dates back2 and it is strange enough that out of the mouth of a toady like ,walter ,scott should have spoken the free1 devil-may-care1 outlaw spirit 7read notably ,quentin ,durward71 which is1 perhaps1 the first phase of self-assertion that has the initial strength to declare itself against the tyranny of ,custom2 this is why it happens that the fore-runners of social change are often shocking in their rudeness and contempt of manners1 and1 in fact1 more or less uncomfortable persons to have to do with4 ,but they have their irresistible charm all the same1 and ,scott1 who was a true genius despite his toadyism1 felt it and responded to it1 by always making us love his outlaws best no matter how gently he dealt with kings4 ,another phase of the free man appears in ,george ,borrow's rollicking1 full-blooded1 out-of-door gypsies who do not take the trouble to despise law1 but simply ignore it1 live unconscious of it altogether4 ,george ,meredith1 in another vein1 develops the strong soul over-riding social barriers4 ,our own ,hawthorne in his preface to the ,scarlet ,letter1 and still more in the ,marble ,faun1 depicts the vacuity of a life sucking a parasitic existence through government organization1 and asserts over and over that the only strength is in him or her--and it is noteworthy that the strongest is in her--who resolutely chooses and treads an unbeaten path4 ,from far away ,africa1 there speaks again the note of soul rebellion in the exquisite ,dreams of ,olive ,schreiner1 wherethrough ,the ,hunter walks alone4 ,grant ,allen1 too1 in numerous works1 especially ,the ,woman ,who ,did1 voices the demand for self-hood4 ,morris gives us his idyllic ,news from ,nowhere4 ,zola1 the fertile creator of dungheaps crowned with lilies1 whose pages reek with the stench of bodies1 laboring1 debauching1 rotting1 until the words of ,christ cry loud in the ears of him who would put the vision away1 ,whited sepulchres1 full of dead men's bones and all uncleanliness--,zola was more than an unconscious ,anarchist1 he is a conscious one1 did so proclaim himself4 ,and close beside him1 ,maxim ,gorki1 ,spokesman of the ,tramp1 ,visionary of the ,despised1 who whatever his personal political views may be1 and notwithstanding the condemnations he has visited upon the ,anarchist1 is still an ,anarchistic voice in literature4 ,and over against these1 austere1 simple1 but oh6 so loving1 the critic who shows the world its faults but does not condemn1 the man who first took the way of renunciation and then preached it1 the ,christian whom the ,church casts out1 the ,anarchist whom the worst government in the world dares not slay1 the author of ,resurrection and ,the ,slavery of ,our ,times4 ,they come together1 from the side of passionate hate and limitless love--the volcano and the sea--they come together in one demand1 freedom from this wicked and debasing tyranny called ,government1 which makes indescribable brutes of all who feel its touch1 but worse still of all who touch it4 ,as for contemporaneous light literature1 there are magazine articles and papers innumerable displaying here and there the grasp of the idea4 ,have we not the ,philistine and its witty editor1 boldly proclaiming in ,anarchistic spelling1 ,i am an ,anarkist8 ,by the way1 he may now expect a visitation of the ,criminal ,anarchy law4 ,and a few years since1 ,julian ,hawthorne1 writing in the ,denver ,post1 inquired1 ,did you ever notice that all the interesting people you meet are ,anarchists8 ,reason why3 there is no other living dream to him who has character enough to be interesting4 ,it is the uninteresting1 the dull1 the ready-made minds who go on accepting ,dead limbs of gibbeted gods1 as they accept their dinner and their bed1 which someone else prepares4 ,let two names1 standing for strangely opposing appeals yet standing upon common ground1 close this sketch--two strong flashes of the prismatic fires which blent together in the white ray of our ,ideal4 ,the first1 ,nietzsche1 he who proclaims the ,overman1 the receiver of the mantle of ,max ,stirner1 the scintillant rhetorician1 the pride of ,young ,germany1 who would have the individual acknowledge nothing1 neither science1 nor logic1 nor any other creation of his thought1 as having authority over him1 its creator4 ,the last1 ,whitman1 the great sympathetic1 all-inclusive ,quaker1 whose love knew no limits1 who said to ,society's most utterly despised outcast1 ,not until the sun excludes you1 will ,i exclude you1 and who1 whether he be called poet1 philosopher1 or peasant was supremely ,anarchist1 and in a moment of weariness with human slavery1 cried3 ,i think ,i could turn and live with animals1 they seem so placid and self-contained1 ,i stand and look at them long and long4 ,they do not sweat and whine about their conditions1 ,they do not lie awake in the dark and weep for their sins1 ,they do not make me sick discussing their duty to ,god2 ,not one is dissatisfied1 not one is demented with the mania of owning things2 ,not one kneels to another1 nor to his kind that lived thousands of years ago1 ,not one is respectable or unhappy over the whole earth4 ,the ,making of an ,anarchist ,here was one guard1 and here was the other at this end2 ,i was here opposite the gate4 ,you know those problems in geometry of the hare and the hounds--they never run straight1 but always in a curve1 so1 see8 ,and the guard was no smarter than the dogs2 if he had run straight to the gate he would have caught me4 ,it was ,peter ,kropotkin telling of his escape from the ,petro-,paulovsky fortress4 ,three crumbs on the table marked the relative position of the outwitted guards and the fugitive prisoner2 the speaker had broken them from the bread on which he was lunching and dropped them on the table with an amused smile4 ,the suggested triangle had been the starting-point of the life-long exile of the greatest man1 save ,tolstoy alone1 that ,russia has produced2 from that moment began the many foreign wanderings and the taking of the simple1 love-given title ,comrade1 for which he had abandoned the ,prince1 which he despises4 ,we were three together in the plain little home of a ,london workingman--,will ,wess1 a one-time shoemaker--,kropotkin1 and ,i4 ,we had our tea in homely ,english fashion1 with thin slices of buttered bread2 and we talked of things nearest our hearts1 which1 whenever two or three ,anarchists are gathered together1 means present evidences of the growth of liberty and what our comrades are doing in all lands4 ,and as what they do and say often leads them into prisons1 the talk had naturally fallen upon ,kropotkin's experience and his daring escape1 for which the ,russian government is chagrined unto this day4 ,presently the old man glanced at the time1 and jumped briskly to his feet3 ,i am late4 ,good-by1 ,voltairine2 good-by1 ,will4 ,is this the way to the kitchen8 ,i must say good-by to ,mrs4 ,turner and ,lizzie4 ,and out to the kitchen he went1 unwilling1 late though he was1 to leave without a hand-clasp to those who had so much as washed a dish for him4 ,such is ,kropotkin1 a man whose personality is felt more than any other in the ,anarchist movement--at once the gentlest1 the most kindly1 and the most invincible of men4 ,communist as well as ,anarchist1 his very heart-beats are rhythmic with the great common pulse of work and life4 ,communist am not ,i1 though my father was1 and his father before him during the stirring times of '#dh1 which is probably the remote reason for my opposition to things as they are3 at bottom convictions are mostly temperamental4 ,and if ,i sought to explain myself on other grounds1 ,i should be a bewildering error in logic2 for by early influences and education ,i should have been a nun1 and spent my life glorifying ,authority in its most concentrated form1 as some of my schoolmates are doing at this hour within the mission houses of the ,order of the ,holy ,names of ,jesus and ,mary4 ,but the old ancestral spirit of rebellion asserted itself while ,i was yet fourteen1 a schoolgirl at the ,convent of ,our ,lady of ,lake ,huron1 at ,sarnia1 ,ontario4 ,how ,i pity myself now1 when ,i remember it1 poor lonesome little soul1 battling solitary in the murk of religious superstition1 unable to believe and yet in hourly fear of damnation1 hot1 savage1 and eternal1 if ,i do not instantly confess and profess6 ,how well ,i recall the bitter energy with which ,i repelled my teacher's enjoinder1 when ,i told her that ,i did not wish to apologize for an adjudged fault1 as ,i could not see that ,i had been wrong1 and would not feel my words4 ,it is not necessary1 said she1 that we should feel what we say1 but it is always necessary that we obey our superiors4 ,i will not lie1 ,i answered hotly1 and at the same time trembled lest my disobedience had finally consigned me to torment6 ,i struggled my way out at last1 and was a freethinker when ,i left the institution1 three years later1 though ,i had never seen a book or heard a word to help me in my loneliness4 ,it had been like the ,valley of the ,shadow of ,death1 and there are white scars on my soul yet1 where ,ignorance and ,superstition burnt me with their hell-fire in those stifling days4 ,am ,i blasphemous8 ,it is their word1 not mine4 ,beside that battle of my young days all others have been easy1 for whatever was without1 within my own ,will was supreme4 ,it has owed no allegiance1 and never shall2 it has moved steadily in one direction1 the knowledge and the assertion of its own liberty1 with all the responsibility falling thereon4 ,this1 ,i am sure1 is the ultimate reason for my acceptance of ,anarchism1 though the specific occasion which ripened tendencies to definition was the affair of #ahhf-g1 when five innocent men were hanged in ,chicago for the act of one guilty who still remains unknown4 ,till then ,i believed in the essential justice of the ,american law and trial by jury4 ,after that ,i never could4 ,the infamy of that trial has passed into history1 and the question it awakened as to the possibility of justice under law has passed into clamorous crying across the world4 ,with this question fighting for a hearing at a time when1 young and ardent1 all questions were pressing with a force which later life would in vain hear again1 ,i chanced to attend a ,paine ,memorial ,convention in an out-of-the-way corner of the earth among the mountains and the snow-drifts of ,pennsylvania4 ,i was a freethought lecturer at this time1 and had spoken in the afternoon on the lifework of ,paine2 in the evening ,i sat in the audience to hear ,clarence ,darrow deliver an address on ,socialism4 ,it was my first introduction to any plan for bettering the condition of the working-classes which furnished some explanation of the course of economic development1 and ,i ran to it as one who has been turning about in darkness runs to the light4 ,i smile now at how quickly ,i adopted the label ,socialist and how quickly ,i cast it aside4 ,let no one follow my example2 but ,i was young4 ,six weeks later ,i was punished for my rashness1 when ,i attempted to argue for my faith with a little ,russian ,jew1 named ,mozersky1 at a debating club in ,pittsburgh4 ,he was an ,anarchist1 and a bit of a ,socrates4 ,he questioned me into all kinds of holes1 from which ,i extricated myself most awkwardly1 only to flounder into others he had smilingly dug while ,i was getting out of the first ones4 ,the necessity of a better foundation became apparent3 hence began a course of study in the principles of sociology and of modern ,socialism and ,anarchism as presented in their regular journals4 ,it was ,benjamin ,tucker's ,liberty1 the exponent of ,individualist ,anarchism1 which finally convinced me that ,liberty is not the ,daughter but the ,mother of ,order4 ,and though ,i no longer hold the particular economic gospel advocated by ,tucker1 the doctrine of ,anarchism itself1 as then conceived1 has but broadened1 deepened1 and intensified itself with years4 ,to those unfamiliar with the movement1 the various terms are confusing4 ,anarchism is1 in truth1 a sort of ,protestantism1 whose adherents are a unit in the great essential belief that all forms of external authority must disappear to be replaced by self-control only1 but variously divided in our conception of the form of future society4 ,individualism supposes private property to be the cornerstone of personal freedom2 asserts that such property should consist in the absolute possession of one's own product and of such share of the natural heritage of all as one may actually use4 ,communist-,anarchism1 on the other hand1 declares that such property is both unrealizable and undesirable2 that the common possession and use of all the natural sources and means of social production can alone guarantee the individual against a recurrence of inequality1 and its attendants1 government and slavery4 ,my personal conviction is that both forms of society1 as well as many intermediations1 would1 in the absence of government1 be tried in various localities1 according to the instincts and material condition of the people1 but that well founded objections may be offered to both4 ,liberty and experiment alone can determine the best forms of society4 ,therefore ,i no longer label myself otherwise than as ,anarchist simply4 ,i would not1 however1 have the world think that ,i am an ,anarchist by trade4 ,outsiders have some very curious notions about us1 one of them being that ,anarchists never work4 ,on the contrary1 ,anarchists are nearly always poor1 and it is only the rich who live without work4 ,not only this1 but it is our belief that every healthy human being will1 by the laws of his own activity1 choose to work1 though certainly not as now1 for at present there is little opportunity for one to find his true vocation4 ,thus ,i1 who in freedom would have selected otherwise1 am a teacher of language4 ,some twelve years since1 being in ,philadelphia and without employment1 ,i accepted the proposition of a small group of ,russian ,jewish factory workers to form an evening class in the common ,english branches4 ,i know well enough that behind the desire to help me to make a living lay the wish that ,i might thus take part in the propaganda of our common cause4 ,but the incidental became once more the principal1 and a teacher of working men and women ,i have remained from that day4 ,in those twelve years that ,i have lived and loved and worked with foreign ,jews ,i have taught over a thousand1 and found them1 as a rule1 the brightest1 the most persistent and sacrificing students1 and in youth dreamers of social ideals4 ,while the intelligent ,american has been cursing him as the ignorant foreigner1 while the short-sighted workingman has been making life for the sheeny as intolerable as possible1 silent and patient the despised man has worked his way against it all4 ,i have myself seen such genuine heroism in the cause of education practiced by girls and boys1 and even by men and women with families1 as would pass the limits of belief to the ordinary mind4 ,cold1 starvation1 self-isolation1 all endured for years in order to obtain the means for study2 and1 worse than all1 exhaustion of body even to emaciation--this is common4 ,yet in the midst of all this1 so fervent is the social imagination of the young that most of them find time besides to visit the various clubs and societies where radical thought is discussed1 and sooner or later ally themselves either with the ,socialist ,sections1 the ,liberal ,leagues1 the ,single ,tax ,clubs1 or the ,anarchist ,groups4 ,the greatest ,socialist daily in ,america is the ,jewish ,vorwaerts1 and the most active and competent practical workers are ,jews4 ,so they are among the ,anarchists4 ,i am no propagandist at all costs1 or ,i would leave the story here2 but the truth compels me to add that as the years pass and the gradual filtration and absorption of ,american commercial life goes on1 my students become successful professionals1 the golden mist of enthusiasm vanishes1 and the old teacher must turn for comradeship to the new youth1 who still press forward with burning eyes1 seeing what is lost forever to those whom common success has satisfied and stupified4 ,it brings tears sometimes1 but as ,kropotkin says1 ,let them go2 we have had the best of them4 ,after all1 who are the really old8 ,those who wear out in faith and energy1 and take to easy chairs and soft living2 not ,kropotkin1 with his sixty years upon him1 who has bright eyes and the eager interest of a little child2 not fiery ,john ,most1 the old war-horse of the revolution1 unbroken after his ten years of imprisonment in ,europe and ,america2 not grey-haired ,louise ,michel1 with the aurora of the morning still shining in her keen look which peers from behind the barred memories of ,new ,caledonia2 not ,dyer ,d4 ,lum1 who still smiles in his grave1 ,i think2 nor ,tucker1 nor ,turner1 nor ,theresa ,clairmunt1 nor ,jean ,grave--not these4 ,i have met them all1 and felt the springing life pulsating through heart and hand1 joyous1 ardent1 leaping into action4 ,not such are the old1 but your young heart that goes bankrupt in social hope1 dry-rotting in this stale and purposeless society4 ,would you be always young8 ,then be an ,anarchist1 and live with the faith of hope1 though you be old4 ,i doubt if any other hope has the power to keep the fire alight as ,i saw it in #ahig1 when we met the ,spanish exiles released from the fortress of ,montjuich4 ,comparatively few persons in ,america ever knew the story of that torture1 though we distributed fifty thousand copies of the letters smuggled from the prison1 and some few newspapers did reprint them4 ,they were the letters of men incarcerated on mere suspicion for the crime of an unknown person1 and subjected to tortures the bare mention of which makes one shudder4 ,their nails were torn out1 their heads compressed in metal caps1 the most sensitive portions of the body twisted between guitar strings1 their flesh burned with red hot irons2 they had been fed on salt codfish after days of starvation1 and refused water2 ,juan ,oll1 a boy nineteen years old1 had gone mad2 another had confessed to something he had never done and knew nothing of4 ,this is no horrible imagination4 ,i who write have myself shaken some of those scarred hands4 ,indiscriminately1 four hundred people of all sorts of beliefs--,republicans1 trade unionists1 ,socialists1 ,free ,masons1 as well as ,anarchists--had been cast into dungeons and tortured in the infamous zero4 ,is it a wonder that most of them came out ,anarchists8 ,there were twenty-eight in the first lot that we met at ,euston ,station that ,august afternoon1--homeless wanderers in the whirlpool of ,london1 released without trial after months of imprisonment1 and ordered to leave ,spain in forty-eight hours6 ,they had left it1 singing their prison songs2 and still across their dark and sorrowful eyes one could see the eternal ,maytime bloom4 ,they drifted away to ,south ,america chiefly1 where four or five new ,anarchist papers have since arisen1 and several colonizing experiments along ,anarchist lines are being tried4 ,so tyranny defeats itself1 and the exile becomes the seed-sower of the revolution4 ,and not only to the heretofore unaroused does he bring awakening1 but the entire character of the world movement is modified by this circulation of the comrades of all nations among themselves4 ,originally the ,american movement1 the native creation which arose with ,josiah ,warren in #ahbi1 was purely individualistic2 the student of economy will easily understand the material and historical causes for such development4 ,but within the last twenty years the communist idea has made great progress1 owing primarily to that concentration in capitalist production which has driven the ,american workingman to grasp at the idea of solidarity1 and1 secondly1 to the expulsion of active communist propagandists from ,europe4 ,again1 another change has come within the last ten years4 ,till then the application of the idea was chiefly narrowed to industrial matters1 and the economic schools mutually denounced each other2 to-day a large and genial tolerance is growing4 ,the young generation recognizes the immense sweep of the idea through all the realms of art1 science1 literature1 education1 sex relations and personal morality1 as well as social economy1 and welcomes the accession to the ranks of those who struggle to realize the free life1 no matter in what field4 ,for this is what ,anarchism finally means1 the whole unchaining of life after two thousand years of ,christian asceticism and hypocrisy4 ,apart from the question of ideals1 there is the question of method4 ,how do you propose to get all this8 is the question most frequently asked us4 ,the same modification has taken place here4 ,formerly there were ,quakers and ,revolutionists2 so there are still4 ,but while they neither thought well of the other1 now both have learned that each has his own use in the great play of world forces4 ,no man is in himself a unit1 and in every soul ,jove still makes war on ,christ4 ,nevertheless1 the spirit of peace grows2 and while it would be idle to say that ,anarchists in general believe that any of the great industrial problems will be solved without the use of force1 it would be equally idle to suppose that they consider force itself a desirable thing1 or that it furnishes a final solution to any problem4 ,from peaceful experiment alone can come final solution1 and that the advocates of force know and believe as well as the ,tolstoyans4 ,only they think that the present tyrannies provoke resistance4 ,the spread of ,tolstoy's ,war and ,peace and ,the ,slavery of ,our ,times1 and the growth of numerous ,tolstoy clubs having for their purpose the dissemination of the literature of non-resistance1 is an evidence that many receive the idea that it is easier to conquer war with peace4 ,i am one of these4 ,i can see no end of retaliations unless someone ceases to retaliate4 ,but let no one mistake this for servile submission or meek abnegation2 my right shall be asserted no matter at what cost to me1 and none shall trench upon it without my protest4 ,good-natured satirists often remark that the best way to cure an ,anarchist is to give him a fortune4 ,substituting corrupt for cure1 ,i would subscribe to this2 and believing myself to be no better than the rest of mortals1 ,i earnestly hope that as so far it has been my lot to work1 and work hard1 and for no fortune1 so ,i may continue to the end2 for let me keep the integrity of my soul1 with all the limitations of my material conditions1 rather than become the spineless and ideal-less creation of material needs4 ,my reward is that ,i live with the young2 ,i keep step with my comrades2 ,i shall die in the harness with my face to the east--the ,east and the ,light4 ,the ,eleventh of ,november1 #ahhg ,memorial ,oration,a ,let me begin my address with a confession4 ,i make it sorrowfully and with self-disgust2 but in the presence of great sacrifice we learn humility1 and if my comrades could give their lives for their belief1 why1 let me give my pride4 ,yet ,i would not give it1 for personal utterance is of trifling importance1 were it not that ,i think at this particular season it will encourage those of our sympathizers whom the recent outburst of savagery may have disheartened1 and perhaps lead some who are standing where ,i once stood to do as ,i did later4 ,this is my confession3 ,fifteen years ago last ,may when the echoes of the ,haymarket bomb rolled through the little ,michigan village where ,i then lived1 ,i1 like the rest of the credulous and brutal1 read one lying newspaper headline1 ,anarchists throw a bomb in a crowd in the ,haymarket in ,chicago1 and immediately cried out1 ,they ought to be hung4--,this1 though ,i had never believed in capital punishment for ordinary criminals4 ,for that ignorant1 outrageous1 bloodthirsty sentence ,i shall never forgive myself1 though ,i know the dead men would have forgiven me1 though ,i know those who loved them forgive me4 ,but my own voice1 as it sounded that night1 will sound so in my ears till ,i die1--a bitter reproach and shame4 ,what had ,i done8 ,credited the first wild rumor of an event of which ,i knew nothing1 and1 in my mind1 sent men to the gallows without asking one word of defense6 ,in one wild1 unbalanced moment threw away the sympathies of a lifetime1 and became an executioner at heart4 ,and what ,i did that night millions did1 and what ,i said millions said4 ,i have only one word of extenuation for myself and all those people--ignorance4 ,i did not know what ,anarchism was4 ,i had never seen it used save in histories1 and there it was always synonymous with social confusion and murder4 ,i believed the newspapers4 ,i thought these men had thrown that bomb1 unprovoked1 into a mass of men and women1 from a wicked delight in killing4 ,and so thought all those millions of others4 ,but out of those millions there were some few thousand--,i am glad ,i was one of them--who did not let the matter rest there4 ,i know not what resurrection of human decency first stirred within me after that1--whether it was an intellectual suspicion that may be ,i did not know all the truth of the case and could not believe the newspapers1 or whether it was the old strong undercurrent of sympathy which often prompts the heart to go out to the accused1 without a reason2 but this ,i do know that though ,i was no ,anarchist at the time of the execution1 it was long and long before that1 that ,i came to the conclusion that the accusation was false1 the trial a farce1 that there was no warrant either in justice or in law for their conviction2 and that the hanging1 if hanging there should be1 would be the act of a society composed of people who had said what ,i said on the first night1 and who had kept their eyes and ears fast shut ever since1 determined to see nothing and to know nothing but rage and vengeance4 ,till the very end ,i hoped that mercy might intervene1 though justice did not2 and from the hour ,i knew neither would nor ever could again1 ,i distrusted law and lawyers1 judges and governors alike4 ,and my whole being cried out to know what it was these men had stood for1 and why they were hanged1 seeing it was not proven they knew anything about the throwing of the bomb4 ,little by little1 here and there1 ,i came to know that what they had stood for was a very high and noble ideal of human life1 and what they were hanged for was preaching it to the common people1--the common people who were as ready to hang them1 in their ignorance1 as the court and the prosecutor were in their malice6 ,little by little ,i came to know that these were men who had a clearer vision of human right than most of their fellows2 and who1 being moved by deep social sympathies1 wished to share their vision with their fellows1 and so proclaimed it in the market-place4 ,little by little ,i realized that the misery1 the pathetic submission1 the awful degradation of the workers1 which from the time ,i was old enough to begin to think had borne heavily upon my heart1 7as they must bear upon all who have hearts to feel at all71 had smitten theirs more deeply still1--so deeply that they knew no rest save in seeking a way out1--and that was more than ,i had ever had the sense to conceive4 ,for me there had never been a hope there should be no more rich and poor2 but a vague idea that there might not be so rich and so poor1 if the workingmen by combining could exact a little better wages1 and make their hours a little shorter4 ,it was the message of these men1 7and their death swept that message far out into ears that would never have heard their living voices71 that all such little dreams are folly4 ,that not in demanding little1 not in striking for an hour less1 not in mountain labor to bring forth mice1 can any lasting alleviation come2 but in demanding1 much1--all1--in a bold self-assertion of the worker to toil any hours he finds sufficient1 not that another finds for him1--here is where the way out lies4 ,that message1 and the message of others1 whose works1 associated with theirs1 their death drew to my notice1 took me up1 as it were1 upon a mighty hill1 wherefrom ,i saw the roofs of the workshops of the little world4 ,i saw the machines1 the things that men had made to ease their burden1 the wonderful things1 the iron genii1 ,i saw them set their iron teeth in the living flesh of the men who made them2 ,i saw the maimed and crippled stumps of men go limping away into the night that engulfs the poor1 perhaps to be thrown up in the flotsam and jetsam of beggary for a time1 perhaps to suicide in some dim corner where the black surge throws its slime4 ,i saw the rose fire of the furnace shining on the blanched face of the man who tended it1 and knew surely as ,i knew anything in life1 that never would a free man feed his blood to the fire like that4 ,i saw swart bodies1 all mangled and crushed1 borne from the mouths of the mines to be stowed away in a grave hardly less narrow and dark than that in which the living form had crouched ten1 twelve1 fourteen hours a day2 and ,i knew that in order that ,i might be warm--,i1 and you1 and those others who never do any dirty work--those men had slaved away in those black graves1 and been crushed to death at last4 ,i saw beside city streets great heaps of horrible colored earth1 and down at the bottom of the trench from which it was thrown1 so far down that nothing else was visible1 bright gleaming eyes1 like a wild animal's hunted into its hole4 ,and ,i knew that free men never chose to labor there1 with pick and shovel in that foul1 sewage-soaked earth1 in that narrow trench1 in that deadly sewer gas ten1 eight1 even six hours a day4 ,only slaves would do it4 ,i saw deep down in the hull of the ocean liner the men who shoveled the coal--burned and seared like paper before the grate2 and ,i knew that the record of the beautiful monster1 and the pleasure of the ladies who laughed on the deck1 were paid for with these withered bodies and souls4 ,i saw the scavenger carts go up and down1 drawn by sad brutes driven by sadder ones2 for never a man1 a man in full possession of his self-hood1 would freely choose to spend all his days in the nauseating stench that forces him to swill alcohol to neutralize it4 ,and ,i saw in the lead works how men were poisoned1 and in the sugar refineries how they went insane2 and in the factories how they lost their decency2 and in the stores how they learned to lie2 and ,i knew it was slavery made them do all this4 ,i knew the ,anarchists were right1--the whole thing must be changed1 the whole thing was wrong1--the whole system of production and distribution1 the whole ideal of life4 ,and ,i questioned the government then2 they had taught me to question it4 ,what have you done--you the keepers of the ,declaration and the ,constitution--what have you done about all this8 ,what have you done to preserve the conditions of freedom to the people8 ,lied1 deceived1 fooled1 tricked1 bought and sold and got gain6 ,you have sold away the land1 that you had no right to sell4 ,you have murdered the aboriginal people1 that you might seize the land in the name of the white race1 and then steal it away from them again1 to be again sold by a second and a third robber4 ,and that buying and selling of the land has driven the people off the healthy earth and away from the clean air into these rot-heaps of humanity called cities1 where every filthy thing is done1 and filthy labor breeds filthy bodies and filthy souls4 ,our boys are decayed with vice before they come to manhood2 our girls--ah1 well might ,john ,harvey write3 ,another begetteth a daughter white and gold1 ,she looks into the meadow land water1 and the world ,knows her no more2 they have sought her field and fold ,but the ,city1 the ,city hath bought her1 ,it hath sold ,her piecemeal1 to students1 rats1 and reek of the graveyard mould4 ,you have done this thing1 gentlemen who engineer the government2 and not only have you caused this ruin to come upon others2 you yourselves are rotten with this debauchery4 ,you exist for the purpose of granting privileges to whoever can pay most for you1 and so limiting the freedom of men to employ themselves that they must sell themselves into this frightful slavery or become tramps1 beggars1 thieves1 prostitutes1 and murderers4 ,and when you have done all this1 what then do you do to them1 these creatures of your own making8 ,you1 who have set them the example in every villainy8 ,do you then relent1 and remembering the words of the great religious teacher to whom most of you offer lip service on the officially religious day1 do you go to these poor1 broken1 wretched creatures and love them8 ,love them and help them1 to teach them to be better8 ,no3 you build prisons high and strong1 and there you beat1 and starve1 and hang1 finding by the working of your system human beings so unutterably degraded that they are willing to kill whomsoever they are told to kill at so much monthly salary4 ,this is what the government is1 has always been1 the creator and defender of privilege2 the organization of oppression and revenge4 ,to hope that it can ever become anything else is the vainest of delusions4 ,they tell you that ,anarchy1 the dream of social order without government1 is a wild fancy4 ,the wildest dream that ever entered the heart of man is the dream that mankind can ever help itself through an appeal to law1 or to come to any order that will not result in slavery wherein there is any excuse for government4 ,it was for telling the people this that these five men were killed4 ,for telling the people that the only way to get out of their misery was first to learn what their rights upon this earth were2--freedom to use the land and all within it and all the tools of production--and then to stand all together and take them1 themselves1 and not to appeal to the jugglers of the law4 ,abolish the law--that is abolish privilege1--and crime will abolish itself4 ,they will tell you these men were hanged for advocating force4 ,what6 ,these creatures who drill men in the science of killing1 who put guns and clubs in hands they train to shoot and strike1 who hail with delight the latest inventions in explosives1 who exult in the machine that can kill the most with the least expenditure of energy1 who declare a war of extermination upon people who do not want their civilization1 who ravish1 and burn1 and garotte and guillotine1 and hang1 and electrocute1 they have the impertinence to talk about the unrighteousness of force6 ,true1 these men did advocate the right to resist invasion by force4 ,you will find scarcely one in a thousand who does not believe in that right4 ,the one will be either a real ,christian or a non-resistant ,anarchist4 ,it will not be a believer in the ,state4 ,no1 no2 it was not for advocating forcible resistance on principle1 but for advocating forcible resistance to their tyrannies1 and for advocating a society which would forever make an end of riches and poverty1 of governors and governed4 ,the spirit of revenge1 which is always stupid1 accomplished its brutal act4 ,had it lifted its eyes from its work1 it might have seen in the background of the scaffold that bleak ,november morning the dawn-light of ,anarchy whiten across the world4 ,so it came first1--a gleam of hope to the proletaire1 a summons to rise and shake off his material bondage4 ,but steadily1 steadily the light has grown1 as year by year the scientist1 the literary genius1 the artist1 and the moral teacher1 have brought to it the tribute of their best work1 their unpaid work1 the work they did for love4 ,to-day it means not only material emancipation1 too2 it comes as the summing up of all those lines of thought and action which for three hundred years have been making towards freedom2 it means fulness of being1 the free life4 ,and ,i say it boldly1 notwithstanding the recent outburst of condemnation1 notwithstanding the cry of lynch1 burn1 shoot1 imprison1 deport1 and the ,scarlet ,letter ,a to be branded low down upon the forehead1 and the latest excuse for that fond esthetic decoration the button1 that for two thousand years no idea has so stirred the world as this1--none which had such living power to break down barriers of race and degree1 to attract prince and proletaire1 poet and mechanic1 ,quaker and ,revolutionist4 ,no other ideal but the free life is strong enough to touch the man whose infinite pity and understanding goes alike to the hypocrite priest and the victim of ,siberian whips2 the loving rebel who stepped from his title and his wealth to labor with all the laboring earth2 the sweet strong singer who sang ,no ,master1 high or low2 the lover who does not measure his love nor reckon on return2 the self-centered one who will not rule1 but also will not ruled be2 the philosopher who chanted the ,over-man2 the devoted woman of the people2 ay1 and these too1--these rebellious flashes from the vast cloud-hung ominous obscurity of the anonymous1 these souls whom governmental and capitalistic brutality has whipped and goaded and stung to blind rage and bitterness1 these mad young lions of revolt1 these ,winkelrieds who offer their hearts to the spears4 ,a ,delivered on ,november #aa1 #aija1 in ,chicago4 ,crime and ,punishment ,men are of three sorts3 the turn backs1 the rush-aheads1 and the indifferents4 ,the first and second are comparatively few in number4 ,the really conscientious conservative1 eternally looking backward for his models and trying hard to preserve that which is1 is almost as scarce an article as the genuine radical1 who is eternally attacking that which is and looking forward to some indistinct but glowing vision of a purified social life4 ,between them lies the vast nitrogenous body of the indifferents1 who go through life with no large thoughts or intense feelings of any kind1 the best that can be said of them being that they serve to dilute the too fierce activities of the other two4 ,into the callous ears of these indifferents1 nevertheless1 the opposing voices of conservative and radical are continually shouting2 and for years1 for centuries1 the conservative wins the day1 not because he really touches the consciences of the indifferent so much 7though in a measure he does that7 as because his way causes his hearer the least mental trouble4 ,it is easier to this lazy1 inert mentality to nod its head and approve the continuance of things as they are1 than to listen to proposals for change1 to consider1 to question1 to make an innovating decision4 ,these require activity1 application1--and nothing is so foreign to the hibernating social conscience of your ordinary individual4 ,i say social conscience1 because ,i by no means wish to say that these are conscienceless people2 they have1 for active use1 sufficient conscience to go through their daily parts in life1 and they think that is all that is required4 ,of the lives of others1 of the effects of their attitude in cursing the existences of thousands whom they do not know1 they have no conception2 they sleep2 and they hear the voices of those who cry aloud about these things1 dimly1 as in dreams2 and they do not wish to awaken4 ,nevertheless1 at the end of the centuries they always awaken4 ,it is the radical who always wins at last4 ,at the end of the centuries institutions are reviewed by this aroused social conscience1 are revised1 sometimes are utterly rooted out4 ,thus it is with the institutions of ,crime and ,punishment4 ,the conservative holds that these things have been decided from all time2 that crime is a thing-in-itself1 with no other cause than the viciousness of man2 that punishment was decreed from ,mt4 ,sinai1 or whatever holy mountain happens to be believed in in his country2 that society is best served by strictness and severity of judgment and punishment4 ,and he wishes only to make his indifferent brothers keepers of other men's consciences along these lines4 ,he would have all men be hunters of men1 that crime may be tracked down and struck down4 ,the radical says3 ,all false1 all false and wrong4 ,crime has not been decided from all time3 crime1 like everything else1 has had its evolution according to place1 time1 and circumstance4 ,the demons of our sires become the saints that we adore1--and the saints1 the saints and the heroes of our fathers1 are criminals according to our codes4 ,abraham1 ,david1 ,solomon1--could any respectable member of society admit that he had done the things they did8 ,crime is not a thing-in-itself1 not a plant without roots1 not a something proceeding from nothing2 and the only true way to deal with it is to seek its causes as earnestly1 as painstakingly1 as the astronomer seeks the causes of the perturbations in the orbit of the planet he is observing1 sure that there must be one1 or many1 somewhere4 ,and ,punishment1 too1 must be studied4 ,the holy mountain theory is a failure4 ,punishment is a failure4 ,and it is a failure not because men do not hunt down and strike enough1 but because they hunt down and strike at all2 because in the chase of those who do ill1 they do ill themselves2 they brutalize their own characters1 and so much the more so because they are convinced that this time the brutal act is done in accord with conscience4 ,the murderous deed of the criminal was against conscience1 the torture or the murder of the criminal by the official is with conscience4 ,thus the conscience is diseased and perverted1 and a new class of imbruted men created4 ,we have punished and punished for untold thousands of years1 and we have not gotten rid of crime1 we have not diminished it4 ,let us consider then4 ,the indifferentist shrugs his shoulders and remarks to the conservative3 ,what have ,i to do with it8 ,i will hunt nobody and ,i will save nobody4 ,let every one take care of himself4 ,i pay my taxes2 let the judges and the lawyers take care of the criminals4 ,and as for you1 ,mr4 ,radical1 you weary me4 ,your talk is too heroic4 ,you want to play ,atlas and carry the heavens on your shoulders4 ,well1 do it if you like4 ,but don't imagine ,i am going to act the stupid ,hercules and transfer your burden to my shoulders4 ,rave away until you are tired1 but let me alone4 ,i will not let you alone4 ,i am no ,atlas4 ,i am no more than a fly2 but ,i will annoy you1 ,i will buzz in your ears2 ,i will not let you sleep4 ,you must think about this4 ,that is about the height and power of my voice1 or of any individual voice1 in the present state of the question4 ,i do not deceive myself4 ,i do not imagine that the question of crime and punishment will be settled till long1 long after the memory of me shall be as completely swallowed up by time as last year's snow is swallowed by the sea4 ,two thousand years ago a man whose soul revolted at punishment1 cried out3 ,judge not1 that ye be not judged1 and yet men and women who have taken his name upon their lips as holy1 have for all those two thousand years gone on judging as if their belief in what he said was only lip-belief2 and they do it to-day4 ,and judges sit upon benches and send men to their death1--even judges who do not themselves believe in capital punishment2 and prosecutors exhaust their eloquence and their tricks to get men convicted2 and women and men bear witness against sinners2 and then they all meet in church and pray1 ,forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us6 ,do they mean anything at all by it8 ,and ,i know that just as the voice of ,jesus was not heard1 and is not heard1 save here and there2 just as the voice of ,tolstoy is not heard1 save here and there2 and others great and small are lost in the great echoless desert of indifferentism1 having produced little perceptible effect1 so my voice also will be lost1 and barely a slight ripple of thought be propagated over that dry and fruitless expanse2 even that the next wind of trial will straighten and leave as unimprinted sand4 ,nevertheless1 by the continued and unintermitting action of forces infinitesimal compared with the human voice1 the greatest effects are at length accomplished4 ,a wave-length of light is but the fifty-thousandth part of an inch1 yet by the continuous action of waves like these have been produced all the creations of light1 the entire world of sight1 out of masses irresponsive1 dark1 colorless4 ,and doubt not that in time this cold and irresponsive mass of indifference will feel and stir and realize the force of the great sympathies which will change the attitude of the human mind as a whole towards ,crime and ,punishment1 and erase both from the world4 ,not by lawyers and not by judges shall the final cause of the criminal be tried2 but lawyer and judge and criminal together shall be told by the ,social ,conscience1 ,depart in peace4 99 99 99 99 99 ,a great ethical teacher once wrote words like unto these3 ,i have within me the capacity for every crime4 ,few1 reading them1 believe that he meant what he said4 ,most take it as the sententious utterance of one who1 in an abandonment of generosity1 wished to say something large and leveling4 ,but ,i think he meant exactly what he said4 ,i think that with all his purity ,emerson had within him the turbid stream of passion and desire2 for all his hard-cut granite features he knew the instincts of the weakling and the slave2 and for all the sweetness1 the tenderness1 and the nobility of his nature1 he had the tiger and the jackal in his soul4 ,i think that within every bit of human flesh and spirit that has ever crossed the enigma bridge of life1 from the prehistoric racial morning until now1 all crime and all virtue were germinal4 ,out of one great soul-stuff are we sprung1 you and ,i and all of us2 and if in you the virtue has grown and not the vice1 do not therefore conclude that you are essentially different from him whom you have helped to put in stripes and behind bars4 ,your balance may be more even1 you may be mixed in smaller proportions altogether1 or the outside temptation has not come upon you4 ,i am no disciple of that school whose doctrine is summed up in the teaching that ,man's ,will is nothing1 his ,material ,surroundings all4 ,i do not accept that popular socialism which would make saints out of sinners only by filling their stomachs4 ,i am no apologist for characterlessness1 and no petitioner for universal moral weakness4 ,i believe in the individual4 ,i believe that the purpose of life 7in so far as we can give it a purpose1 and it has none save what we give it7 is the assertion and the development of strong1 self-centered personality4 ,it is therefore that no religion which offers vicarious atonement for the misdoer1 and no philosophy which rests on the cornerstone of irresponsibility1 makes any appeal to me4 ,i believe that immeasurable mischief has been wrought by the ceaseless repetition for the last two thousand years of the formula3 ,not through any merit of mine shall ,i enter heaven1 but through the sacrifice of ,christ4--,not through the sacrifice of ,christ1 nor any other sacrifice1 shall any one attain strength1 save in so far as he takes the spirit and the purpose of the sacrifice into his own life and lives it4 ,nor do ,i see anything as the result of the teaching that all men are the helpless victims of external circumstance and under the same conditions will act precisely alike1 than a lot of spineless1 nerveless1 bloodless crawlers in the tracks of stronger men1--too desirous of ease to be honest1 too weak to be successful rascals4 ,let this be put as strongly as it can now1 that nothing ,i shall say hereafter may be interpreted as a gospel of shifting and shirking4 ,but the difference between us1 the ,anarchists1 who preach self-government and none else1 and ,moralists who in times past and present have asked for individual responsibility1 is this1 that while they have always framed creeds and codes for the purpose of holding others to account1 we draw the line upon ourselves4 ,set the standard as high as you will2 live to it as near as you can2 and if you fail1 try yourself1 judge yourself1 condemn yourself1 if you choose4 ,teach and persuade your neighbor if you can2 consider and compare his conduct if you please2 speak your mind if you desire2 but if he fails to reach your standard or his own1 try him not1 judge him not1 condemn him not4 ,he lies beyond your sphere2 you cannot know the temptation nor the inward battle nor the weight of the circumstances upon him4 ,you do not know how long he fought before he failed4 ,therefore you cannot be just4 ,let him alone4 ,this is the ethical concept at which we have arrived1 not by revelation from any superior power1 not through the reading of any inspired book1 not by special illumination of our inner consciousness2 but by the study of the results of social experiment in the past as presented in the works of historians1 psychologists1 criminologists1 sociologists and legalists4 ,very likely so many ists sound a little oppressive1 and there may be those to whom they may even have a savor of pedantry4 ,it sounds much simpler and less ostentatious to say ,thus saith the ,lord1 or ,the ,good ,book says4 ,but in the meat and marrow these last are the real presumptions1 these easy-going claims of familiarity with the will and intent of ,omnipotence4 ,it may sound more pedantic to you to say1 ,i have studied the accumulated wisdom of man1 and drawn certain deductions therefrom1 than to say ,i had a talk with ,god this morning and he said thus and so2 but to me the first statement is infinitely more modest4 ,moreover there is some chance of its being true1 while the other is highly imaginative fiction4 ,this is not to impugn the honesty of those who inherit this survival of an earlier mental state of the race1 and who accept it as they accept their appetites or anything else they find themselves born with4 ,nor is it to belittle those past efforts of active and ardent souls who claimed direct divine inspiration as the source of their doctrines4 ,all religions have been1 in their great general outlines1 the intuitive graspings of the race at truths which it had not yet sufficient knowledge to demonstrate1--rude and imperfect statements of ideas which were yet but germinal1 but which1 even then1 mankind had urgent need to conceive1 and upon which it afterwards spent the efforts of generations of lives to correct and perfect4 ,thus the very ethical concept of which ,i have been speaking as peculiarly ,anarchistic1 was preached as a religious doctrine by the fifteenth century ,tolstoy1 ,peter ,chilciky2 and in the sixteenth century1 the fanatical sect of the ,anabaptists shook ,germany from center to circumference by a doctrine which included the declaration that pleadings in courts of law1 oaths1 capital punishment1 and all absolute power were incompatible with the ,christian faith4 ,it was an imperfect illumination of the intellect1 such only as was possible in those less enlightened days1 but an illumination that defined certain noble conceptions of justice4 ,they appealed to all they had1 the ,bible1 the inner light1 the best that they knew1 to justify their faith4 ,we to whom a wider day is given1 who can appeal not to one book but to thousands1 who have the light of science which is free to all that can command the leisure and the will to know1 shining white and open on these great questions1 dim and obscure in the days of ,peter ,chilciky1 we should be the last to cast a sneer at them for their heroic struggle with tyranny and cruelty2 though to-day the man who would claim their claims on their grounds would justly be rated atavist or charlatan4 ,nothing or next to nothing did the ,anabaptists know of history4 ,for genuine history1 history which records the growth of a whole people1 which traces the evolution of its mind as seen in its works of peace1--its literature1 its art1 its constructions--is the creation of our own age4 ,only within the last seventy-five years has the purpose of history come to have so much depth as this4 ,before that it was a mere register of dramatic situations1 with no particular connection1 a chronicle of the deeds of prominent persons1 a list of intrigues1 scandals1 murders big and little2 and the great people1 the actual builders and preservers of the race1 the immense patient1 silent mass who painfully filled up all the waste places these destroyers made1 almost ignored4 ,and no man sought to discover the relations of even the recorded acts to any general causes2 no man conceived the notion of discovering what is political and moral growth or political and moral suicide4 ,that they did not do so is because writers of history1 who are themselves incarnations of their own time spirit1 could not get beyond the unscientific attitude of mind1 born of ignorance and fostered by the ,christian religion1 that man is something entirely different from the rest of organized life2 that he is a free moral agent1 good if he pleases and bad if he pleases1 that is1 according as he accepts or rejects the will of ,god2 that every act is isolated1 having no antecedent1 morally1 but the will of its doer4 ,nor until modern science had fought its way past prisons1 exilements1 stakes1 scaffolds1 and tortures1 to the demonstration that man is no free-will freak thrust by an omnipotent joker upon a world of cause and sequence to play havoc therein1 but just a poor differentiated bit of protoplasm as much subject to the general processes of matter and mind as his ancient progenitor in the depths of the ,silurian sea1 not until then was it possible for any real conception of the scope of history to begin4 ,not until then was it said3 ,the actions of men are the effects of large and general causes4 ,humanity as a whole has a regularity of movement as fixed as the movement of the tides2 and given certain physical and social environments1 certain developments may be predicted with the certainty of a mathematical calculation4 ,thus crime1 which for so many ages men have gone on punishing more or less light-heartedly1 so far from having its final cause in individual depravity1 bears a steady and invariable relation to the production and distribution of staple food supplies1 a thing over which society itself at times can have no control 7as on the occasion of great natural disturbances71 and in general does not yet know how to manage wisely3 how much less1 then1 the individual6 ,this regularity of the recurrence of crime was pointed out long before by the greatest statisticians of ,europe1 who1 indeed1 did not go so far as to question why it was so1 nor to compare these regularities with other regularities1 but upon whom the constant repetition of certain figures in the statistics of murder1 suicide1 assault1 etc41 made a profound impression4 ,it was left to the new historians1 the great pioneer among whom was ,h4 ,t4 ,buckle in ,england1 to make the comparisons in the statistics1 and show that individual crimes as well as virtues are always calculable from general material conditions4 ,this is the basis from which we argue1 and it is a basis established by the comparative history of civilizations4 ,in no other way could it have been really established4 ,it might have been guessed at1 and indeed was4 ,but only when the figures are before us1 figures obtained by millions of observations extending over different grades of civilization1 with different laws1 different opinions1 different habits1 different morals 7,i am quoting ,buckle71 only then are we able to say surely that the human mind proceeds with a regularity of operation overweighing all the creeds and codes ever invented1 and that if we would begin to understand the problem of the treatment of crime1 we must go to something far larger than the moral reformation of the criminal4 ,no prayers1 no legal enactments1 will ever rid society of crime4 ,if they would1 there have been prayers enough and preachments enough and laws enough and prisons enough to have done it long ago4 ,but pray that the attraction of gravitation shall cease4 ,will it cease8 ,enact that water shall freeze at #ajj heat4 ,will it freeze8 ,and no more will men be sane and honest and just when they are compelled to live in an insane1 dishonest1 and unjust society1 when the natural operation of the very elements of their being is warred upon by statutes and institutions which must produce outbursts destructive both to themselves and to others4 ,away back in #ahce ,quetelet1 the ,french statistician1 wrote3 ,experience demonstrates1 in fact1 by every possible evidence1 this opinion1 which may seem paradoxical at first1 that it is society which prepares the crime1 and that the guilty one is but the instrument which executes it4 ,every crime1 therefore1 is a charge against society which can only be rightly replied to when society consents to look into its own errors and rectify the wrong it has done4 ,this is one of the results which must1 in the end1 flow from the labors of the real historians2 one of the reasons why history was worth writing at all4 ,now the next point in the problem is the criminal himself4 ,admitting what cannot be impeached1 that there is cause and sequence in the action of man2 admitting the pressure of general causes upon all alike1 what is the reason that one man is a criminal and another not8 ,from the days of the ,roman jurisconsults until now the legalists themselves have made a distinction between crimes against the law of nature and crimes merely against the law of society4 ,from the modern scientific standpoint no such distinction can be maintained4 ,nature knows nothing about crime1 and nothing ever was a crime until the social ,conscience made it so4 ,neither is it easy when one reads their law books1 even accepting their view-point1 to understand why certain crimes were catalogued as against the law of nature1 and certain others as of the more artificial character4 ,but ,i presume what were in general classed as crimes against nature were ,acts of ,violence committed against persons4 ,aside from these we have a vast1 an almost interminable number of offenses big and little1 which are in the main attacks upon the institution of property1 concerning which some very different things have to be said than concerning the first4 ,as to these first there is no doubt that these are real crimes1 by which ,i mean simply anti-social acts4 ,any action which violates the life or liberty of any individual is an anti-social act1 whether done by one person1 by two1 or by a whole nation4 ,and the greatest crime that ever was perpetrated1 a crime beside which all individual atrocities diminish to nothing1 is ,war2 and the greatest1 the least excusable of murderers are those who order it and those who execute it4 ,nevertheless1 this chiefest of murderers1 the ,government1 its own hands red with the blood of hundreds of thousands1 assumes to correct the individual offender1 enacting miles of laws to define the varying degrees of his offense and punishment1 and putting beautiful building stone to very hideous purposes for the sake of caging and tormenting him therein4 ,we do get a fig from a thistle--sometimes6 ,out of this noisome thing1 the prison1 has sprung the study of criminology4 ,it is very new1 and there is considerable painstaking nonsense about it4 ,but the main results are interesting and should be known by all who wish to form an intelligent conception of what a criminal is and how he should be treated4 ,these men who are cool and quiet and who move among criminals and study them as ,darwin did his plants and animals1 tell us that these prisoners are reducible to three types3 ,the ,born ,criminal1 the ,criminaloid1 and the ,accidental ,criminal4 ,i am inclined to doubt a great deal that is said about the born criminal4 ,prof4 ,lombroso gives us very exhaustive reports of the measurements of their skulls and their ears and their noses and their thumbs and their toes1 etc4 ,but ,i suspect that if a good many respectable1 decent1 never-did-a-wrong-thing-in-their-lives people were to go up for measurement1 malformed ears and disproportionately long thumbs would be equally found among them if they took the precaution to represent themselves as criminals first4 ,still1 however few in number 7and they are really very few71 there are some born criminals1--people who through some malformation or deficiency or excess of certain portions of the brain are constantly impelled to violent deeds4 ,well1 there are some born idiots and some born cripples4 ,do you punish them for their idiocy or for their unfortunate physical condition8 ,on the contrary1 you pity them1 you realize that life is a long infliction to them1 and your best and tenderest sympathies go out to them4 ,why not to the other1 equally a helpless victim of an evil inheritance8 ,granting for the moment that you have the right to punish the mentally responsible1 surely you will not claim the right to punish the mentally irresponsible6 ,even the law does not hold the insane man guilty4 ,and the born criminal is irresponsible2 he is a sick man1 sick with the most pitiable chronic disease2 his treatment is for the medical world to decide1 and the best of them1--not for the prosecutor1 the judge1 and the warden4 ,it is true that many criminologists1 including ,prof4 ,lombroso himself1 are of opinion that the best thing to do with the born criminal is to kill him at once1 since he can be only a curse to himself and others4 ,very heroic treatment4 ,we may inquire1 ,is he to be exterminated at birth because of certain physical indications of his criminality8 ,such neo-,spartanism would scarcely commend itself to any modern society4 ,moreover the diagnosis might be wrong1 even though we had a perpetual and incorruptible commission of the learned to sit in inquiry upon every pink-skinned little suspect three days old6 ,what then8 ,is he to be let go1 as he is now1 until he does some violent deed and then be judged more hardly because of his natural defect8 ,either proposition seems not only heartless and wicked but1--what the respectable world is often more afraid of being than either1--ludicrous4 ,if one is really a born criminal he will manifest criminal tendencies in early life1 and being so recognized should be cared for according to the most humane methods of treating the mentally afflicted4 ,the second1 or criminaloid1 class is the most numerous of the three4 ,these are criminals1 first1 because being endowed with strong desires and unequal reasoning powers they cannot maintain the uneven battle against a society wherein the majority of individuals must all the time deny their natural appetites1 if they are to remain unstained with crime4 ,they are1 in short1 the ordinary man 7who1 it must be admitted1 has a great deal of paste in him7 plus an excess of wants of one sort and another1 but generally physical4 ,society outside of prisons is full of these criminaloids1 who sometimes have in place of the power of genuine moral resistance a sneaking cunning by which they manage to steer a shady course between the crime and the punishment4 ,it is true these people are not pleasant subjects to contemplate2 but then1 through that very stage of development the whole human race has had to pass in its progress from the beast to the man1--the stage1 ,i mean1 of overplus of appetite opposed by weak moral resistance2 and if now some1 it is not certain that their number is very great1 have reversed the proportion1 it is only because they are the fortunate inheritors of the results of thousands of years of struggle and failure1 struggle and failure1 but struggle again4 ,it is precisely these criminaloids who are most sinned against by society1 for they are the people who need to have the right of doing things made easy1 and who1 when they act criminally1 need the most encouragement to help the feeble and humiliated moral sense to rise again1 to try again4 ,the third class1 the ,accidental or ,occasional ,criminals1 are perfectly normal1 well balanced people1 who1 through tremendous stress of outward circumstance1 and possibly some untoward mental disturbance arising from those very notions of the conduct of life which form part of their moral being1 suddenly commit an act of violence which is at utter variance with their whole former existence2 such as1 for instance1 the murder of a seducer by the father of the injured girl1 or of a wife's paramour by her husband4 ,if ,i believed in severity at all ,i should say that these were the criminals upon whom society should look with most severity1 because they are the ones who have most mental responsibility4 ,but that also is nonsense2 for such an individual has within him a severer judge1 a more pitiless jailer than any court or prison1--his conscience and his memory4 ,leave him to these2 or no1 in mercy take him away from these whenever you can2 he will suffer enough1 and there is no fear of his action being repeated4 ,now all these people are with us1 and it is desirable that something be done to help the case4 ,what does ,society do8 ,or rather what does ,government do with them8 ,remember we are speaking now only of crimes of violence4 ,it hangs1 it electrocutes1 it exiles1 it imprisons4 ,why8 ,for punishment4 ,and why punishment8 ,not1 says ,blackstone1 by way of atonement or expiation for the crime committed1 for that must be left to the just determination of the ,supreme ,being1 but as a precaution against future offenses of the same kind4 ,this is supposed to be effected in three ways3 either by reforming him1 or getting rid of him altogether1 or by deterring others by making an example of him4 ,let us see how these precautions work4 ,exile1 which is still practised by some governments1 and imprisonment are1 according to the theory of law1 for the purpose of reforming the criminal that he may no longer be a menace to society4 ,logic would say that anyone who wished to obliterate cruelty from the character of another must himself show no cruelty2 one who would teach regard for the rights of others must himself be regardful4 ,yet the story of exile and prison is the story of the lash1 the iron1 the chain and every torture that the fiendish ingenuity of the non-criminal class can devise by way of teaching criminals to be good6 ,to teach men to be good1 they are kept in airless cells1 made to sleep on narrow planks1 to look at the sky through iron grates1 to eat food that revolts their palates1 and destroys their stomachs1--battered and broken down in body and soul2 and this is what they call reforming men6 ,not very many years ago the ,philadelphia dailies told us 7and while we cannot believe all of what they say1 and are bound to believe that such cases are exceptional1 yet the bare facts were true7 that ,judge ,gordon ordered an investigation into the workings of the ,eastern ,penitentiary officials2 and it was found that an insane man had been put into a cell with two sane ones1 and when he cried in his insane way and the two asked that he be put elsewhere1 the warden gave them a strap to whip him with2 and they tied him in some way to the heater1 with the strap1 so that his legs were burned when he moved2 all scarred with the burns he was brought into the court1 and the other men frankly told what they had done and why they had done it4 ,this is the way they reform men4 ,do you think people come out of a place like that better8 with more respect for society8 with more regard for the rights of their fellow men8 ,i don't4 ,i think they come out of there with their hearts full of bitterness1 much harder than when they went in4 ,that this is often the case is admitted by those who themselves believe in punishment1 and practice it4 ,for the fact is that out of the ,criminaloid class there develops the ,habitual ,criminal1 the man who is perpetually getting in prison2 no sooner is he out than he does something else and gets in again4 ,the brand that at first scorched him has succeeded in searing4 ,he no longer feels the ignominy4 ,he is a jail-bird1 and he gets to have a cynical pride in his own degradation4 ,every man's hand is against him1 and his hand is against every man's4 ,such are the reforming effects of punishment4 ,yet there was a time when he1 too1 might have been touched1 had the right word been spoken4 ,it is for society to find and speak that word4 ,this for prison and exile4 ,hanging8 electrocution8 ,these of course are not for the purpose of reforming the criminal4 ,these are to deter others from doing as he did2 and the supposition is that the severer the punishment the greater the deterrent effect4 ,in commenting upon this principle ,blackstone says3 ,we may observe that punishments of unreasonable severity 444 have less effect in preventing crimes and amending the manners of a people than such as are more merciful in general4444 ,he further quotes ,montesquieu3 ,for the excessive severity of laws hinders their execution2 when the punishment surpasses all measure1 the public will frequently1 out of humanity1 prefer impunity to it4 ,again ,blackstone3 ,it is a melancholy truth that among the variety of actions which men are daily liable to commit1 no less than one hundred and sixty have been declared by act of ,parliament to be felonies 444 worthy of instant death4 ,so dreadful a list instead of diminishing increases the number of offenders4 ,robert ,ingersoll1 speaking on ,crimes ,against ,criminals before the ,new ,york ,bar ,association1 a lawyer addressing lawyers1 treating of this same period of which ,blackstone writes1 says3 ,there is something in injustice1 in cruelty1 which tends to defeat itself4 ,there never were so many traitors in ,england as when the traitor was drawn and quartered1 when he was tortured in every possible way1--when his limbs1 torn and bleeding1 were given to the fury of mobs1 or exhibited pierced by pikes or hung in chains4 ,the frightful punishments produced intense hatred of the government1 and traitors increased until they became powerful enough to decide what treason was and who the traitors were and to inflict the same torments on others4 ,the fact that ,blackstone was right and ,ingersoll was right in saying that severity of punishment increases crime1 is silently admitted in the abrogation of those severities by acts of ,parliament and acts of ,congress4 ,it is also shown by the fact that there are no more murders1 proportionately1 in ,states where the death penalty does not exist than in those where it does4 ,severity is therefore admitted by the ,state itself to have no deterrent influence on the intending criminal4 ,and to take the matter out of the province of the ,state1 we have only to instance the horrible atrocities perpetrated by white mobs upon negroes charged with outrage4 ,nothing more fiendishly cruel can be imagined2 yet these outrages multiply4 ,it would seem1 then1 that the notion of making a horrible example of the misdoer is a complete failure4 ,as a specific example of this1 ,ingersoll 7in this same lecture7 instanced that a few years before a man was hanged in ,alexandria1 ,va4 ,one who witnessed the execution on that very day murdered a peddler in the ,smithsonian grounds at ,washington4 ,he was tried and executed2 and one who witnessed his hanging went home and on the same day murdered his wife4 ,evidently the brute is rather aroused than terrified by scenes of execution4 ,what then8 ,if extreme punishments do not deter1 and if what are considered mild punishments do not reform1 is any measure of punishment conceivable or attainable which will better our case8 ,before answering this question let us consider the class of crimes which so far has not been dwelt upon1 but which nevertheless comprises probably nine-tenths of all offenses committed4 ,these are all the various forms of stealing1--robbery1 burglary1 theft1 embezzlement1 forgery1 counterfeiting1 and the thousand and one ramifications and offshoots of the act of taking what the law defines as another's4 ,it is impossible to consider crimes of violence apart from these1 because the vast percentage of murders and assaults committed by the criminaloid class are simply incidental to the commission of the so-called lesser crime4 ,a man often murders in order to escape with his booty1 though murder was no part of his original intention4 ,why1 now1 have we such a continually increasing percentage of stealing8 ,will you persistently hide your heads in the sand and say it is because men grow worse as they grow wiser8 that individual wickedness is the result of all our marvelous labors to compass sea and land1 and make the earth yield up her wealth to us8 ,dare you say that8 ,it is not so4 ,the reason men steal is because their rights are stolen from them before they are born4 ,a human being comes into the world2 he wants to eat1 he wants to breathe1 he wants to sleep2 he wants to use his muscles1 his brain2 he wants to love1 to dream1 to create4 ,these wants constitute him1 the whole man2 he can no more help expressing these activities than water can help running down hill4 ,if the freedom to do any of these things is denied him1 then by so much he is a crippled creature1 and his energy will force itself into some abnormal channel or be killed altogether4 ,now ,i do not mean that he has a natural right to do these things inscribed on any lawbook of ,nature4 ,nature knows nothing of rights1 she knows power only1 and a louse has as much natural right as a man to the extent of its power4 ,what ,i do mean to say is that man1 in common with many other animals1 has found that by associative life he conquers the rest of nature1 and that this society is slowly being perfected2 and that this perfectionment consists in realizing that the solidarity and safety of the whole arises from the freedom of the parts2 that such freedom constitutes ,man's ,social ,right2 and that any institution which interferes with this right will be destructive of the association1 will breed criminals1 will work its own ruin4 ,this is the word of the sociologist1 of the greatest of them1 ,herbert ,spencer4 ,now do we see that all men eat1--eat well8 ,you know we do not4 ,some have so much that they are sickened with the extravagance of dishes1 and know not where next to turn for a new palatal sensation4 ,they cannot even waste their wealth4 ,some1 and they are mostly the hardest workers1 eat poorly and fast1 for their work allows them no time to enjoy even what they have4 ,some1--,i have seen them myself in the streets of ,new ,york this winter1 and the look of their wolfish eyes was not pleasant to see--stand in long lines waiting for midnight and the plate of soup dealt out by some great newspaper office1 stretching out1 whole blocks of them1 as other men wait on the first night of some famous star at the theater6 ,some die because they cannot eat at all4 ,pray tell me what these last have to lose by becoming thieves4 ,and why shall they not become thieves8 ,and is the action of the man who takes the necessities which have been denied to him really criminal8 ,is he morally worse than the man who crawls in a cellar and dies of starvation8 ,i think not4 ,he is only a little more assertive4 ,cardinal ,manning said3 ,a starving man has a natural right to his neighbor's bread4 ,the ,anarchist says3 ,a hungry man has a social right to bread4 ,and there have been whole societies and races among whom that right was never questioned4 ,and whatever were the mistakes of those societies1 whereby they perished1 this was not a mistake1 and we shall do well to take so much wisdom from the dead and gone1 the simple ethics of the stomach which with all our achievement we cannot despise1 or despising1 shall perish as our reward4 ,but1 you will say1 and say truly1 to begin by taking loaves means to end by taking everything and murdering1 too1 very often4 ,and in that you draw the indictment against your own system4 ,if there is no alternative between starving and stealing 7and for thousands there is none71 then there is no alternative between society's murdering its members1 or the members disintegrating society4 ,let ,society consider its own mistakes1 then3 let it answer itself for all these people it has robbed and killed3 let it cease its own crimes first6 ,to return to the faculties of ,man4 ,all would breathe2 and some do breathe4 ,they breathe the air of the mountains1 of the seas1 of the lakes1--even the atmosphere in the gambling dens of ,monte ,carlo1 for a change6 ,some1 packed thickly together in closed rooms where men must sweat and faint to save tobacco1 breathe the noisome reek that rises from the spittle of their consumptive neighbors4 ,some1 mostly babies1 lie on the cellar doors along ,bainbridge street1 on summer nights1 and bathe their lungs in that putrid air where a thousand lungs have breathed before1 and grow up pale and decayed looking as the rotting vegetables whose exhalations they draw in4 ,some1 far down underground1 meet the choke-damp1 and--do not breathe at all6 ,do you expect healthy morals out of all these poisoned bodies8 ,some sleep4 ,they have so much time that they take all manner of expensive drugs to try what sleeping it off a different way is like6 ,some sleep upon none too easy beds a few short hours1 too few not to waken more tired than ever1 and resume the endless grind of waking life4 ,some sleep bent over the books they are too tired to study1 though the mind clamors for food after the long day's physical toil4 ,some sleep with hand upon the throttle of the engine1 after twenty-six hours of duty1 and--crash6--they have sleep enough6 ,some use their muscles3 they use them to punch bags1 and other gentlemen's stomachs when their heads are full of wine4 ,some use them to club other men and women1 at #b4ej a day4 ,some exhaust them welding them into iron1 or weaving them into wool1 for ten or eleven hours a day4 ,and some become atrophied sitting at desks till they are mere specters of men and women4 ,some love2 and there is no end to the sensualities of their love1 because all normal expressions have lost their savor through excess4 ,some love1 and see their love tried and worn and threadbare1 a skeleton of love1 because the practicality of life is always there to repress the purely emotional4 ,some are stricken in health1 so robbed of power to feel1 that they never love at all4 ,and some dream1 think1 create2 and the world is filled with the glory of their dreams4 ,but who knows the glory of the dream that never was born1 lost and dead and buried away somewhere there under the roofs where the exquisite brain was ruined by the heavy labor of life8 ,and what of the dream that turned to madness and destroyed the thing it loved the best8 ,these are the things that make criminals1 the perverted forces of man1 turned aside by the institution of property1 which is the giant social mistake to-day4 ,it is your law which keeps men from using the sources and the means of wealth production unless they pay tribute to other men2 it is this1 and nothing else1 which is responsible for all the second class of crimes and all those crimes of violence incidentally committed while carrying out a robbery4 ,let me quote here a most sensible and appropriate editorial which recently appeared in the ,philadelphia ,north ,american1 in comment upon the proposition of some foolish preacher to limit the right of reproduction to rich families3 ,the earth was constructed1 made habitable1 and populated without the advice of a commission of superior persons1 and until they appeared and began meddling with affairs1 making laws and setting themselves up as rulers1 poverty and its evil consequences were unknown to humanity4 ,when social science finds a way to remove obstructions to the operation of natural law and to the equitable distribution of the products of labor1 poverty will cease to be the condition of the masses of people1 and misery1 ,,crime and problems of population will disappear4 ,and they will never disappear until it does4 ,all hunting down of men1 all punishments1 are but so many ineffective efforts to sweep back the tide with a broom4 ,the tide will fling you1 broom and all1 against the idle walls that you have built to fence it in4 ,tear down those walls or the sea will tear them down for you4 ,have you ever watched it coming in1--the sea8 ,when the wind comes roaring out of the mist and a great bellowing thunders up from the water8 ,have you watched the white lions chasing each other towards the walls1 and leaping up with foaming anger as they strike1 and turn and chase each other along the black bars of their cage in rage to devour each other8 ,and tear back8 ,and leap in again8 ,have you ever wondered in the midst of it all which particular drops of water would strike the wall8 ,if one could know all the factors one might calculate even that4 ,but who can know them all8 ,of one thing only we are sure3 some must strike it4 ,they are the criminals1 those drops of water pitching against that silly wall and broken4 ,just why it was these particular ones we cannot know2 but some had to go4 ,do not curse them2 you have cursed them enough4 ,let the people free4 ,there is a class of crimes of violence which arises from another set of causes than economic slavery--acts which are the result of an antiquated moral notion of the true relations of men and women4 ,these are the ,nemesis of the institution of property in love4 ,if every one would learn that the limit of his right to demand a certain course of conduct in sex relations is himself2 that the relation of his beloved ones to others is not a matter for him to regulate1 any more than the relations of those whom he does not love2 if the freedom of each is unquestioned1 and whatever moral rigors are exacted are exacted of oneself only2 if this principle is accepted and followed1 crimes of jealousy will cease4 ,but religions and governments uphold this institution and constantly tend to create the spirit of ownership1 with all its horrible consequences4 ,ah1 you will say1 perhaps it is true2 perhaps when this better social condition is evolved1 and this freer social spirit1 we shall be rid of crime1--at least nine-tenths of it4 ,but meanwhile must we not punish to protect ourselves8 ,the protection does not protect4 ,the violent man does not communicate his intention2 when he executes it1 or attempts its execution1 more often than otherwise it is some unofficial person who catches or stops him4 ,if he is a born criminal1 or in other words an insane man1 he should1 ,i reiterate1 be treated as a sick person--not punished1 not made to suffer4 ,if he is one of the accidental criminals1 his act will not be repeated2 his punishment will always be with him4 ,if he is of the middle class1 your punishment will not reform him1 it will only harden him2 and it will not deter others4 ,as for thieves1 the great thief is within the law1 or he buys it2 and as for the small one1 see what you do6 ,to protect yourself against him1 you create a class of persons who are sworn to the service of the club and the revolver2 a set of spies2 a set whose business it is to deal constantly with these unhappy beings1 who in rare instances are softened thereby1 but in the majority of cases become hardened to their work as butchers to the use of the knife2 a set whose business it is to serve cell and lock and key2 and lastly1 the lowest infamy of all1 the hangman4 ,does any one want to shake his hand1 the hand that kills for pay8 ,now against all these persons individually there is nothing to be said3 they may probably be very humane1 well-intentioned persons when they start in2 but the end of all this is imbrutement4 ,one of our dailies recently observed that the men in charge of prisons have but too often been men who ought themselves to have been prisoners4 ,the ,anarchist does not agree with that4 ,he would have no prisons at all4 ,but ,i am quite sure that if that editor himself were put in the prison-keeper's place1 he too would turn hard4 ,and the opportunities of the official criminal are much greater than those of the unofficial one4 ,lawyer and governmentalist as he was1 ,ingersoll said3 ,it is safe to say that governments have committed far more crimes than they have prevented4 ,then why create a second class of parasites worse than the first8 ,why not put up with the original one8 ,moreover1 you have another thing to consider than the simple problem of a wrong inflicted upon a guilty man4 ,how many times has it happened that the innocent man has been convicted6 ,i remember an instance of a man so convicted of murder in ,michigan4 ,he had served twenty-seven years in ,jackson penitentiary 7for ,michigan is not a hang-,state7 when the real murderer1 dying1 confessed4 ,and the ,state pardoned that innocent man6 ,because it was the quickest legal way to let him out6 ,i hope he has been able to pardon the ,state4 ,not very long ago a man was hanged here in this city4 ,he had killed his superintendent4 ,some doctors said he was insane2 the government experts said he was not4 ,they said he was faking insanity when he proclaimed himself ,jesus ,christ4 ,and he was hanged4 ,afterwards the doctors found two cysts in his brain4 ,the ,state of ,pennsylvania had killed a sick man6 ,and as long as punishments exist1 these mistakes will occur4 ,if you accept the principle at all1 you must accept with it the blood-guilt of innocent men4 ,not only this1 but you must accept also the responsibility for all the misery which results to others whose lives are bound up with that of the convict1 for even he is loved by some one1 much loved perhaps4 ,it is a foolish thing to turn adrift a house full of children1 to become criminals in turn1 perhaps1 in order to frighten some indefinite future offender by making an example of their father or mother4 ,yet how many times has it not happened6 ,and this is speaking only from the practical1 selfish side of the matter4 ,there is another1 one from which ,i would rather appeal to you1 and from which ,i think you would after all prefer to be appealed to4 ,ask yourselves1 each of you1 whether you are quite sure that you have feeling enough1 understanding enough1 and have you suffered enough1 to be able to weigh and measure out another man's life or liberty1 no matter what he has done8 ,and if you have not yourself1 are you able to delegate to any judge the power which you have not8 ,the great ,russian novelist1 ,dostoyevsky1 in his psychological study of this same subject1 traces the sufferings of a man who had committed a shocking murder2 his whole body and brain are a continual prey to torture4 ,he gives himself up1 seeking relief in confession4 ,he goes to prison1 for in barbarous ,russia they have not the barbarity of capital punishment for murderers1 unless political ones4 ,but he finds no relief4 ,he remains for a year1 bitter1 resentful1 a prey to all miserable feelings4 ,but at last he is touched by love1 the silent1 unobtrusive1 all-conquering love of one who knew it all and forgave it all4 ,and the regeneration of his soul began4 ,the criminal slew1 says ,tolstoy3 are you better1 then1 when you slay8 ,he took another's liberty2 and is it the right way1 therefore1 for you to take his8 ,violence is no answer to violence4 ,have good will ,to all that lives1 letting unkindness die1 ,and greed and wrath2 so that your lives be made ,as soft airs passing by4 ,so said ,lord ,buddha1 the ,light of ,asia4 ,and another said3 ,ye have heard that it hath been said 'an eye for an eye1 and a tooth for a tooth'2 but ,i say unto you1 resist not him that is evil4 ,yet the vengeance that the great psychologist saw was futile1 the violence that the greatest living religious teacher and the greatest dead ones advised no man to wreak1 that violence is done daily and hourly by every little-hearted prosecutor who prosecutes at so much a day1 by every petty judge who buys his way into office with common politicians' tricks1 and deals in men's lives and liberties as a trader deals in pins1 by every neat-souled and cheap-souled member of the unco guid whose respectable bargain-counter maxims of morality have as much effect to stem the great floods and storms that shake the human will as the waving of a lady's kid glove against the tempest4 ,those who have not suffered cannot understand how to punish2 those who have understanding will not4 ,i said at the beginning and ,i say again1 ,i believe that in every one of us all things are germinal3 in judge and prosecutor and prison-keeper too1 and even in those small moral souls who cut out one undeviating pattern for all men to fit1 even in them there are the germs of passion and crime and sympathy and forgiveness4 ,and some day things will stir in them and accuse them and awaken them4 ,and that awakening will come when suddenly one day there breaks upon them with realizing force the sense of the unison of life1 the irrevocable relationship of the saint to the sinner1 the judge to the criminal2 that all personalities are intertwined and rushing upon doom together4 ,once in my life it was given to me to see the outward manifestation of this unison4 ,it was in #ahig4 ,we stood upon the base of the ,nelson monument in ,trafalgar ,square4 ,below were ten thousand people packed together with upturned faces4 ,they had gathered to hear and see men and women whose hands and limbs were scarred all over with the red-hot irons of the tortures in the fortress of ,montjuich4 ,for the crime of an unknown person these twenty-eight men and women1 together with four hundred others1 had been cast into that terrible den and tortured with the infamies of the inquisition to make them reveal that of which they knew nothing4 ,after a year of such suffering as makes the decent human heart sick only to contemplate1 with nothing proven against them1 some even without trial1 they were suddenly released with orders to leave the country within twenty-four hours4 ,they were then in ,trafalgar ,square1 and to the credit of old ,england be it said1 harlot and mother of harlots though she is1 for there was not another country among the great nations of the earth to which those twenty-eight innocent people could go4 ,for they were paupers impoverished by that cruel ,state of ,spain in the terrible battle for their freedom2 they would not have been admitted to free ,america4 ,when ,francesco ,gana1 speaking in a language which most of them did not understand1 lifted his poor1 scarred hands1 the faces of those ten thousand people moved together like the leaves of a forest in the wind4 ,they waved to and fro1 they rose and fell2 the visible moved in the breath of the invisible4 ,it was the revelation of the action of the ,unconscious1 the fatalistic unity of man4 ,sometimes1 even now as ,i look upon you1 it is as if the bodies that ,i see were as transparent bubbles wherethrough the red blood boils and flows1 a turbulent stream churning and tossing and leaping1 and behind us and our generation1 far1 far back1 endlessly backwards1 where all the bubbles are broken and not a ripple remains1 the silent pouring of the ,great ,red ,river1 the unfathomable ,river1--backwards through the unbroken forest and the untilled plain1 backwards through the forgotten world of savagery and animal life1 back somewhere to its dark sources in deep ,sea and old ,night1 the rushing ,river of ,blood--no fancy--real1 tangible blood1 the blood that hurries in your veins while ,i speak1 bearing with it the curses and the blessings of the ,past4 ,through what infinite shadows has that river rolled6 ,through what desolate wastes has it not spread its ooze6 ,through what desperate passages has it been forced6 ,what strength1 what invincible strength is in that hot stream6 ,you are just the bubble on its crest2 where will the current fling you ere you die8 ,at what moment will the fierce impurities borne from its somber and tenebrous past be hurled up in you8 ,shall you then cry out for punishment if they are hurled up in another8 if1 flung against the merciless rocks of the channel1 while you swim easily in the midstream1 they fall back and hurt other bubbles8 ,can you not feel that ,men are the heart-beats of ,man1 the plumes that feather his wings1 ,storm-worn since being began with the wind and the thunder of things4 ,things are cruel and blind2 their strength detains and deforms4 ,and the wearying wings of the mind still beat up the stream of their storms4 ,still1 as one swimming up-stream1 they strike out blind in the blast1 ,in thunder of vision and dream1 and lightning of future and past4 ,we are baffled and caught in the current and bruised upon edges of shoals3 ,as weeds or as reeds in the torrent of things are the wind-shaken souls4 ,spirit by spirit goes under1 a foam-bell's bubble of breath1 ,that blows and opens asunder and blurs not the mirror of ,death4 ,is it not enough that things are cruel and blind8 ,must we also be cruel and blind8 ,when the whole thing amounts to so little at the most1 shall we embitter it more1 and crush and stifle what must so soon be crushed and stifled anyhow8 ,can we not1 knowing what remnants of things dead and drowned are floating through us1 haunting our brains with specters of old deeds and scenes of violence1 can we not learn to pardon our brother to whom the specters are more real1 upon whom greater stress was laid8 ,can we not1 recalling all the evil things that we have done1 or left undone only because some scarcely perceptible weight struck down the balance1 or because some kindly word came to us in the midst of our bitterness and showed that not all was hateful in the world2 can we not understand him for whom the balance was not struck down1 the kind word unspoken8 ,believe me1 forgiveness is better than wrath1--better for the wrong-doer1 who will be touched and regenerated by it1 and better for you4 ,and you are wrong if you think it is hard3 it is easy1 far easier than to hate4 ,it may sound like a paradox1 but the greater the injury the easier the pardon4 ,let us have done with this savage idea of punishment1 which is without wisdom4 ,let us work for the freedom of man from the oppressions which make criminals1 and for the enlightened treatment of all the sick4 ,and though we may never see the fruit of it1 we may rest assured that the great tide of thought is setting our way1 and that ,while the tired wave1 vainly breaking1 ,seems here no painful inch to gain1 ,far back1 through creeks and inlets making1 ,comes silent1 flooding in1 the main4 ,in ,defense of ,emma ,goldman and the ,right of ,expropriation ,the light is pleasant1 is it not1 my friends8 ,it is good to look into each other's faces1 to see the hands that clasp our own1 to read the eyes that search our thoughts1 to know what manner of lips give utterance to our pleasant greetings4 ,it is good to be able to wink defiance at the ,night1 the cold1 unseeing ,night4 ,how weird1 how gruesome1 how chilly it would be if ,i stood here in blackness1 a shadow addressing shadows1 in a house of blindness6 ,yet each would know that he was not alone2 yet might we stretch hands and touch each other1 and feel the warmth of human presence near4 ,yet might a sympathetic voice ring thro' the darkness1 quickening the dragging moments4--,the lonely prisoners in the cells of ,blackwell's ,island have neither light nor sound6 ,the short day hurries across the sky1 the short day still more shortened in the gloomy walls4 ,the long chill night creeps up so early1 weaving its sombre curtain before the imprisoned eyes4 ,and thro' the curtain comes no sympathizing voice1 beyond the curtain lies the prison silence1 beyond that the cheerless1 uncommunicating land1 and still beyond the icy1 fretting river1 black and menacing1 ready to drown4 ,a wall of night1 a wall of stone1 a wall of water6 ,thus has the great ,state of ,new ,york answered ,emma ,goldman2 thus have the classes replied to the masses2 thus do the rich respond to the poor2 thus does the ,institution of ,property give its ultimatum to ,hunger6 ,give us work1 said ,emma ,goldman2 if you will not give us work1 then give us bread2 if you do not give us either work or bread1 then we shall take bread4 ,it wasn't a very wise remark to make to the ,state of ,new ,york1 that is--,wealth and its watch-dogs1 the ,police4 ,but ,i fear me much that the apostles of liberty1 the fore-runners of revolt1 have never been very wise4 ,there is a record of a seditious person1 who once upon a time went about with a few despised followers in ,palestine1 taking corn out of other people's corn-fields1 7on the ,sabbath day1 too74 ,that same person1 when he wished to ride into ,jerusalem told his disciples to go forward to where they would find a young colt tied1 to unloose it and bring it to him1 and if any one interfered or said anything to them1 were to say3 ,my master hath need of it4 ,that same person said3 ,give to him that asketh of thee1 and from him that taketh away thy goods ask them not back again4 ,that same person once stood before the hungry multitudes of ,galilee and taught them1 saying3 ,the ,scribes and the ,pharisees sit in ,moses' seat2 therefore whatever they bid you observe1 that observe and do4 ,but do not ye after their works1 for they say1 and do not4 ,for they bind heavy burdens1 and grievous to be borne1 and lay them on men's shoulders2 but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers4 ,but all their works they do to be seen of men2 they make broad their phylacteries1 and enlarge the borders of their garments3 and love the uppermost rooms at feasts1 and the chief seats in the synagogues1 and greeting in the markets1 and to be called of men1 ',rabbi1 ,rabbi4' ,and turning to the ,scribes and the ,pharisees1 he continued3 ,woe unto you1 ,scribes and ,pharisees1 hypocrites6 for ye devour widows' houses1 and for a pretense make long prayers3 therefore shall ye receive the greater damnation4 ,woe unto you ,scribes and ,pharisees1 hypocrites6 for ye pay tithe of mint1 and anise1 and cummin1 and have omitted the weightier matters of the law1 judgement1 and mercy1 and faith3 these ought ye to have done and not left the other undone4 ,ye blind guides1 that strain at a gnat and swallow a camel6 ,woe unto you1 ,scribes and ,pharisees1 hypocrites6 for ye make clean the outside of the cup and platter1 but within they are full of extortion and excess4 ,woe unto you1 ,scribes and ,pharisees1 hypocrites6 ,for ye are like unto whited sepulchres1 which indeed appear beautiful outward1 but within are full of dead men's bones and all uncleanness4 ,even so ye outwardly appear righteous unto men1 but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity4 ,woe unto you1 ,scribes and ,pharisees1 hypocrites6 ,because ye build the tombs of the prophets and garnish the sepulchres of the righteous2 and say ',if we had been in the days of our fathers we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets'4 ,wherefore ye be witnesses unto yourselves that ye are the children of them which killed the prophets4 ,fill ye up then the measure of your fathers6 ,ye serpents6 ,ye generation of vipers6 ,how can ye escape the damnation of hell6 ,yes2 these are the words of the outlaw who is alleged to form the foundation stone of modern civilization1 to the authorities of his day4 ,hypocrites1 extortionists1 doers of iniquity1 robbers of the poor1 blood-partakers1 serpents1 vipers1 fit for hell6 ,it wasn't a very wise speech1 from beginning to end4 ,perhaps he knew it when he stood before ,pilate to receive his sentence1 when he bore his heavy crucifix up ,calvary1 when nailed upon it1 stretched in agony1 he cried3 ,my ,god1 my ,god1 why hast thou forsaken me6 ,no1 it wasn't wise--but it was very grand4 ,this grand1 foolish person1 this beggar-tramp1 this thief who justified the action of hunger1 this man who set the ,right of ,property beneath his foot1 this ,individual who defied the ,state1 do you know why he was so feared and hated1 and punished8 ,because1 as it is said in the record1 the common people heard him gladly2 and the accusation before ,pontius ,pilate was1 we found this fellow perverting the whole nation4 ,he stirreth up the people1 teaching throughout all ,jewry4 ,ah1 the dreaded common people6 ,when ,cardinal ,manning wrote3 ,necessity knows no law1 and a starving man has a natural right to a share of his neighbor's bread1 who thought of arresting ,cardinal ,manning8 ,his was a carefully written article in the ,fortnightly ,review4 ,who read it8 ,not the people who needed bread4 ,without food in their stomachs1 they had not fifty cents to spend for a magazine4 ,it was not the voice of the people themselves asserting their rights4 ,no one for one instant imagined that ,cardinal ,manning would put himself at the head of ten thousand hungry men to loot the bakeries of ,london4 ,it was a piece of ethical hair-splitting to be discussed in after-dinner speeches by the wine-muddled gentlemen who think themselves most competent to consider such subjects when their dress-coats are spoiled by the vomit of gluttony and drunkenness4 ,but when ,emma ,goldman stood in ,union ,square and said1 ,if they do not give you work or bread1 take bread1 the common people heard her gladly2 and as of old the wandering carpenter of ,nazareth addressed his own class1 teaching throughout all ,jewry1 stirring up the people against the authorities1 so the dressmaker of ,new ,york addressing the unemployed working-people of ,new ,york was the menace of the depths of society1 crying in its own tongue4 ,the authorities heard and were afraid3 therefore the triple wall4 ,it is the old1 old story4 ,when ,thomas ,paine1 one hundred years ago1 published the first part of ,the ,rights of ,man1 the part in which he discusses principles only1 the edition was a high-priced one1 reaching comparatively few readers4 ,it created only a literary furore4 ,when the second part appeared1 the part in which he treats of the application of principles1 in which he declares that men should not petition for rights but take them1 it came out in a cheap form1 so that one hundred thousand copies were sold in a few weeks4 ,that brought down the prosecution of the government4 ,it had reached the people that might act1 and prosecution followed prosecution till ,botany ,bay was full of the best men of ,england4 ,thus were the limitations of speech and press declared1 and thus will they ever be declared so long as there are antagonistic interests in human society4 ,understand me clearly4 ,i believe that the term constitutional right of free speech is a meaningless phrase1 for this reason3 the ,constitution of the ,united ,states1 and the ,declaration of ,independence1 and particularly the latter1 were1 in their day1 progressive expressions of progressive ideals4 ,but they are1 throughout1 characterized by the metaphysical philosophy which dominated the thought of the last century4 ,they speak of inherent rights1 inalienable rights1 natural rights1 etc4 ,they declare that men are equal because of a supposed metaphysical something-or-other1 called equality1 existing in some mysterious way apart from material conditions1 just as the philosophers of the eighteenth century accounted for water being wet by alleging a metaphysical wetness1 existing somehow apart from matter4 ,i do not say this to disparage those grand men who dared to put themselves against the authorities of the monarchy1 and to conceive a better ideal of society1 one which they certainly thought would secure equal rights to men2 because ,i realize fully that no one can live very far in advance of the time-spirit1 and ,i am positive in my own mind that1 unless some cataclysm destroys the human race before the end of the twentieth century1 the experience of the next hundred years will explode many of our own theories4 ,but the experience of this age has proven that metaphysical quantities do not exist apart from materials1 and hence humanity can not be made equal by declarations on paper4 ,unless the material conditions for equality exist1 it is worse than mockery to pronounce men equal4 ,and unless there is equality 7and by equality ,i mean equal chances for every one to make the most of himself71 unless1 ,i say1 these equal chances exist1 freedom1 either of thought1 speech1 or action1 is equally a mockery4 ,i once read that one million angels could dance at the same time on the point of a needle2 possibly one million angels might be able to get a decent night's lodging by virtue of their constitutional rights2 one single tramp couldn't4 ,and whenever the tongues of the non-possessing class threaten the possessors1 whenever the disinherited menace the privileged1 that moment you will find that the ,constitution isn't made for you4 ,therefore ,i think ,anarchists make a mistake when they contend for their constitutional rights4 ,as a prominent lawyer1 ,mr4 ,thomas ,earle ,white1 of ,philadelphia1 himself an ,anarchist1 said to me not long since3 ,what are you going to do about it8 ,go into the courts1 and fight for your legal rights8 ,anarchists haven't got any4 ,well1 says the governmentalist1 you can't consistently claim any4 ,you don't believe in constitutions and laws4 ,exactly so2 and if any one will right my constitutional wrongs1 ,i will willingly make him a present of my constitutional rights4 ,at the same time ,i am perfectly sure no one will ever make this exchange2 nor will any help ever come to the wronged class from the outside4 ,salvation on the vicarious plan isn't worth despising4 ,redress of wrongs will not come by petitioning the powers that be4 ,he has rights who dare maintain them4 ,the ,lord helps them who help themselves4 7,and when one is able to help himself1 ,i don't think he is apt to trouble the ,lord much for his assistance47 ,as long as the working people fold hands and pray the gods in ,washington to give them work1 so long they will not get it4 ,so long as they tramp the streets1 whose stones they lay1 whose filth they clean1 whose sewers they dig1 yet upon which they must not stand too long lest the policeman bid them move on2 so long as they go from factory to factory1 begging for the opportunity to be a slave1 receiving the insults of bosses and foremen1 getting the old ,no1 the old shake of the head1 in these factories which they build1 whose machines they wrought2 so long as they consent to herd like cattle1 in the cities1 driven year after year1 more and more1 off the mortgaged land1 the land they cleared1 fertilized1 cultivated1 rendered of value2 so long as they stand shivering1 gazing through plate glass windows at overcoats1 which they made but cannot buy1 starving in the midst of food they produced but cannot have2 so long as they continue to do these things vaguely relying upon some power outside themselves1 be it god1 or priest1 or politician1 or employer1 or charitable society1 to remedy matters1 so long deliverance will be delayed4 ,when they conceive the possibility of a complete international federation of labor1 whose constituent groups shall take possession of land1 mines1 factories1 all the instruments of production1 issue their own certificates of exchange1 and1 in short1 conduct their own industry without regulative interference from law-makers or employers1 then we may hope for the only help which counts for aught--self-help2 the only condition which can guarantee free speech 7and no paper guarantee needed74 ,but meanwhile1 while we are waiting1 for there is yet much grist of the middle class to be ground between the upper and nether millstones of economic evolution2 while we await the formation of the international labor trust2 while we watch for the day when there are enough of people with nothing in their stomachs and desperation in their heads1 to go about the work of expropriation2 what shall those do who are starving now8 ,that is the question which ,emma ,goldman had to face2 and she answered it by saying3 ,ask1 and if you do not receive1 take--take bread4 ,i do not give you that advice4 ,not because ,i do not think the bread belongs to you2 not because ,i do not think you would be morally right in taking it2 not that ,i am not more shocked and horrified and embittered by the report of one human being starving in the heart of plenty1 than by all the ,pittsburgs1 and ,chicagos1 and ,homesteads1 and ,tennessees1 and ,coeur d',alenes1 and ,buffalos1 and ,barcelonas1 and ,parises2 not that ,i do not think one little bit of sensitive human flesh is worth all the property rights in ,new ,york city2 not that ,i do not think the world will ever be saved by the sheep's virtue of going patiently to the shambles2 not that ,i do not believe the expropriation of the possessing classes is inevitable1 and that that expropriation will begin by just such acts as ,emma ,goldman advised1 viz43 the taking possession of wealth already produced2 not that ,i think you owe any consideration to the conspirators of ,wall ,street1 or those who profit by their operations1 as such1 nor ever will till they are reduced to the level of human beings having equal chances with you to earn their share of social wealth1 and no more4 ,i have said that ,i do not give you the advice given by ,emma ,goldman1 not that ,i would have you forget the consideration the expropriators have shown to you2 that they have advised lead for strikers1 strychnine for tramps1 bread and water as good enough for working people2 not that ,i cannot hear yet in my ears the words of one who said to me of the ,studebaker ,wagon ,works' strikers1 ,if ,i had my way ,i'd mow them down with ,gatling guns1 not that ,i would have you forget the electric wire of ,fort ,frick1 nor the ,pinkertons1 nor the militia1 nor the prosecutions for murder and treason2 not that ,i would have you forget the #dth of ,may1 when your constitutional right of free speech was vindicated1 nor the #aath of ,november when it was assassinated2 not that ,i would have you forget the single dinner at ,delmonico's which ,ward ,mc,allister tells us cost ten thousand dollars6 ,would ,i have you forget that the wine in the glasses was your children's blood8 ,it must be a rare drink--children's blood6 ,i have read of the wonderful sparkle on costly champagne--,i have never seen it4 ,if ,i did ,i think it would look to me like mothers' tears over the little1 white1 wasted forms of dead babies--dead because there was no milk in their breasts6 ,yes1 ,i want you to remember that these rich are blood-drinkers1 tearers of human flesh1 gnawers of human bones6 ,yes1 if ,i had the power ,i would burn your wrongs upon your hearts in characters that should glow like coals in the night6 ,i have not a tongue of fire as ,emma ,goldman has2 ,i cannot stir the people2 ,i must speak in my own cold1 calculated way4 7,perhaps that is the reason ,i am allowed to speak at all47 ,but if ,i had the power1 my will is good enough4 ,you know how ,shakespeare's ,marc ,antony addressed the populace at ,rome3 ,i am no orator1 as ,brutus is1 ,but as you know me well1 a plain blunt man ,that love my friend4 ,and that they know full well ,that gave me public leave to speak of him4 ,for ,i have neither wit1 nor words1 nor worth1 ,action1 nor utterance1 nor the power of speech ,to stir men's blood4 ,i only speak right on4 ,i tell you that which you yourselves do know1 ,show you sweet ,csar's wounds1 poor1 poor dumb mouths1 ,and bid them speak for me4 ,but were ,i ,brutus ,and ,brutus ,antony1 there were an ,antony ,would ruffle up your spirits1 and put a tongue ,in every wound of ,csar's1 that should move ,the stones of ,rome to rise and mutiny4 ,if1 therefore1 ,i do not give you the advice which ,emma ,goldman gave1 let not the authorities suppose it is because ,i have any more respect for their constitution and their law than she has1 or that ,i regard them as having any rights in the matter4 ,no6 ,my reasons for not giving that advice are two4 ,first1 if ,i were giving advice at all1 ,i would say3 ,my friends1 that bread belongs to you4 ,it is you who toiled and sweat in the sun to sow and reap the wheat2 it is you who stood by the thresher1 and breathed the chaff-filled atmosphere in the mills1 while it was ground to flour2 it is you who went into the eternal night of the mine and risked drowning1 fire damp1 explosion1 and cave-in1 to get the fuel for the fire that baked it2 it is you who stood in the hell-like heat1 and struck the blows that forged the iron for the ovens wherein it is baked2 it is you who stand all night in the terrible cellar shops1 and tend the machines that knead the flour into dough2 it is you1 you1 you1 farmer1 miner1 mechanic1 who make the bread2 but you haven't the power to take it4 ,at every transformation wrought by toil1 some one who didn't toil has taken part from you2 and now he has it all1 and you haven't the power to take it back6 ,you are told you have the power because you have the numbers4 ,never make so silly a blunder as to suppose that power resides in numbers4 ,one good1 level-headed policeman with a club1 is worth ten excited1 unarmed men2 one detachment of well-drilled militia has a power equal to that of the greatest mob that could be raised in ,new ,york ,city4 ,do you know ,i admire compact1 concentrated power4 ,let me give you an illustration4 ,out in a little town in ,illinois there is a certain capitalist1 and if ever a human creature sweat and ground the grist of gold from the muscle of man1 it is he4 ,well1 once upon a time1 his workmen1 7not his slaves1 his workmen17 were on strike2 and fifteen hundred muscular ,polacks armed with stones1 brick-bats1 red-hot pokers1 and other such crude weapons as a mob generally collects1 went up to his house for the purpose of smashing the windows1 and so forth2 possibly to do as those people in ,italy did the other day with the sheriff who attempted to collect the milk tax4 ,he alone1 one man1 met them on the steps of his porch1 and for two mortal hours1 by threats1 promises1 cajoleries held those fifteen hundred ,poles at bay4 ,and finally they went away1 without smashing a pane of glass or harming a hair of his head4 ,now that was power2 and you can't help but admire it1 no matter if it was your enemy who displayed it2 and you must admit that so long as numbers can be overcome by such relative quantity1 power does not reside in numbers4 ,therefore1 if ,i were giving advice1 ,i would not say1 take bread1 but take counsel with yourselves how to get the power to take bread4 ,there is no doubt but that power is latently in you2 there is no doubt it can be developed2 there is no doubt the authorities know this1 and fear it1 and are ready to exert as much force as is necessary to repress any signs of its development4 ,and this is the explanation of ,emma ,goldman's imprisonment4 ,the authorities do not fear you as you are2 they only fear what you may become4 ,the dangerous thing was the voice crying in the wilderness1 foretelling the power which was to come after it4 ,you should have seen how they feared it in ,philadelphia4 ,they got out a whole platoon of police and detectives1 and executed a military manoeuvre to catch the woman who had been running around under their noses for three days4 ,and when she walked up to them1 then they surrounded and captured her1 and guarded the city hall where they kept her over night1 and put a detective in the next cell to make notes4 ,why so much fear8 ,did they shrink from the stab of the dressmaker's needle8 ,or did they dread some stronger weapon8 ,ah6 the accusation before the ,new ,york ,pontius ,pilate was3 ,she stirreth up the people4 ,and ,pilate sentenced her to the full limit of the law1 because1 he said1 ,you are more than ordinarily intelligent4 ,why is intelligence dealt thus harshly with8 ,because it is the beginning of power4 ,strive1 then1 for power4 ,my second reason for not repeating ,emma ,goldman's words is1 that ,i1 as an ,anarchist1 have no right to advise another to do anything involving a risk to himself2 nor would ,i give a fillip for an action done by the advice of some one else1 unless it is accompanied by a well-argued1 well settled conviction on the part of the person acting1 that it really is the best thing to do4 ,anarchism1 to me1 means not only the denial of authority1 not only a new economy1 but a revision of the principles of morality4 ,it means the development of the individual1 as well as the assertion of the individual4 ,it means self-responsibility1 and not leader-worship4 ,i say it is your business to decide whether you will starve and freeze in sight of food and clothing1 outside of jail1 or commit some overt act against the institution of property and take your place beside ,timmermann and ,goldman4 ,and in saying this ,i mean to cast no reflection whatever upon ,miss ,goldman for doing otherwise4 ,she and ,i hold many different views on both ,economy and ,morals2 and that she is honest in hers she has proved better than ,i have proved mine4 ,miss ,goldman is a ,communist2 ,i am an ,individualist4 ,she wishes to destroy the right of property2 ,i wish to assert it4 ,i make my war upon privilege and authority1 whereby the right of property1 the true right in that which is proper to the individual1 is annihilated4 ,she believes that co-operation would entirely supplant competition2 ,i hold that competition in one form or another will always exist1 and that it is highly desirable it should4 ,but whether she or ,i be right1 or both of us be wrong1 of one thing ,i am sure3 the spirit which animates ,emma ,goldman is the only one which will emancipate the slave from his slavery1 the tyrant from his tyranny--the spirit which is willing to dare and suffer4 ,that which dwells in the frail body in the prison-room to-night is not the ,new ,york dressmaker alone4 ,transport yourselves there in thought a moment2 look steadily into those fair1 blue eyes1 upon the sun-brown hair1 the sea-shell face1 the restless hands1 the woman's figure2 look steadily till in place of the person1 the individual of time and place1 you see that which transcends time and place1 and flits from house to house of life1 mocking at death4 ,swinburne in his magnificent ,before a ,crucifix1 says3 ,with iron for thy linen bands1 ,and unclean cloths for winding-sheet1 ,they bind the people's nail-pierced hands1 ,they hide the people's nail-pierced feet3 ,and what man1 or what angel known ,shall roll back the sepulchral stone8 ,perhaps in the presence of this untrammeled spirit we shall feel that something has rolled back the sepulchral stone2 and up from the cold wind of the grave is borne the breath that animated ,anaxagoras1 ,socrates1 ,christ1 ,hypatia1 ,john ,huss1 ,bruno1 ,robert ,emmet1 ,john ,brown1 ,sophia ,perovskaya1 ,parsons1 ,fischer1 ,engel1 ,spies1 ,lingg1 ,berkman1 ,pallas2 and all those1 known and unknown1 who have died by tree1 and axe1 and fagot1 or dragged out forgotten lives in dungeons1 derided1 hated1 tortured by men4 ,perhaps we shall know ourselves face to face with that which leaps from the throat of the strangled when the rope chokes1 which smokes up from the blood of the murdered when the axe falls2 that which has been forever hunted1 fettered1 imprisoned1 exiled1 executed1 and never conquered4 ,lo1 from its many incarnations it comes forth again1 the immortal ,race-,christ of the ,ages6 ,the gloomy walls are glorified thereby1 the prisoner is transfigured1 and we say1 reverently we say3 ,o sacred ,head1 ,o desecrate1 ,o labor-wounded feet and hands1 ,o blood poured forth in pledge to fate ,of nameless lives in divers lands6 ,o slain1 and spent1 and sacrificed ,people6 ,the grey-grown1 speechless ,christ4 ,direct ,action ,from the standpoint of one who thinks himself capable of discerning an undeviating route for human progress to pursue1 if it is to be progress at all1 who1 having such a route on his mind's map1 has endeavored to point it out to others2 to make them see it as he sees it2 who in so doing has chosen what appeared to him clear and simple expressions to convey his thoughts to others1--to such a one it appears matter for regret and confusion of spirit that the phrase ,direct ,action has suddenly acquired in the general mind a circumscribed meaning1 not at all implied in the words themselves1 and certainly never attached to it by himself or his co-thinkers4 ,however1 this is one of the common jests which ,progress plays on those who think themselves able to set metes and bounds for it4 ,over and over again1 names1 phrases1 mottoes1 watchwords1 have been turned inside out1 and upside down1 and hindside before1 and sideways1 by occurrences out of the control of those who used the expressions in their proper sense2 and still1 those who sturdily held their ground1 and insisted on being heard1 have in the end found that the period of misunderstanding and prejudice has been but the prelude to wider inquiry and understanding4 ,i rather think this will be the case with the present misconception of the term ,direct ,action1 which through the misapprehension1 or else the deliberate misrepresentation1 of certain journalists in ,los ,angeles1 at the time the ,mc,namaras pleaded guilty1 suddenly acquired in the popular mind the interpretation1 ,forcible ,attacks on ,life and ,property4 ,this was either very ignorant or very dishonest of the journalists2 but it has had the effect of making a good many people curious to know all about ,direct ,action4 ,as a matter of fact1 those who are so lustily and so inordinately condemning it1 will find on examination that they themselves have on many occasions practised direct action1 and will do so again4 ,every person who ever thought he had a right to assert1 and went boldly and asserted it1 himself1 or jointly with others that shared his convictions1 was a direct actionist4 ,some thirty years ago ,i recall that the ,salvation ,army was vigorously practising direct action in the maintenance of the freedom of its members to speak1 assemble1 and pray4 ,over and over they were arrested1 fined1 and imprisoned2 but they kept right on singing1 praying1 and marching1 till they finally compelled their persecutors to let them alone4 ,the ,industrial ,workers are now conducting the same fight1 and have1 in a number of cases1 compelled the officials to let them alone by the same direct tactics4 ,every person who ever had a plan to do anything1 and went and did it1 or who laid his plan before others1 and won their co-operation to do it with him1 without going to external authorities to please do the thing for them1 was a direct actionist4 ,all co-operative experiments are essentially direct action4 ,every person who ever in his life had a difference with any one to settle1 and went straight to the other persons involved to settle it1 either by a peaceable plan or otherwise1 was a direct actionist4 ,examples of such action are strikes and boycotts2 many persons will recall the action of the housewives of ,new ,york who boycotted the butchers1 and lowered the price of meat2 at the present moment a butter boycott seems looming up1 as a direct reply to the price-makers for butter4 ,these actions are generally not due to any one's reasoning overmuch on the respective merits of directness or indirectness1 but are the spontaneous retorts of those who feel oppressed by a situation4 ,in other words1 all people are1 most of the time1 believers in the principle of direct action1 and practisers of it4 ,however1 most people are also indirect or political actionists4 ,and they are both these things at the same time1 without making much of an analysis of either4 ,there are only a limited number of persons who eschew political action under any and all circumstances2 but there is nobody1 nobody at all1 who has ever been so impossible as to eschew direct action altogether4 ,the majority of thinking people are really opportunists1 leaning1 some1 perhaps1 more to directness1 some more to indirectness1 as a general thing1 but ready to use either means when opportunity calls for it4 ,that is to say1 there are those who hold that balloting governors into power is essentially a wrong and foolish thing2 but who1 nevertheless1 under stress of special circumstance1 might consider it the wisest thing to do1 to vote some individual into office at that particular time4 ,or there are those who believe that1 in general1 the wisest way for people to get what they want is by the indirect method of voting into power some one who will make what they want legal2 yet who1 all the same1 will occasionally1 under exceptional conditions1 advise a strike2 and a strike1 as ,i have said1 is direct action4 ,or they may do as the ,socialist ,party agitators1 who are mostly declaiming now against direct action1 did last summer1 when the police were holding up their meetings4 ,they went in force to the meeting-places1 prepared to speak whether-or-no2 and they made the police back down4 ,and while that was not logical on their part1 thus to oppose the legal executors of the majority's will1 it was a fine1 successful piece of direct action4 ,those who1 by the essence of their belief1 are committed to ,direct ,action only are--just who8 ,why1 the non-resistants2 precisely those who do not believe in violence at all6 ,now do not make the mistake of inferring that ,i say direct action means non-resistance2 not by any means4 ,direct action may be the extreme of violence1 or it may be as peaceful as the waters of the ,brook of ,siloa that go softly4 ,what ,i say is1 that the real non-resistants can believe in direct action only1 never in political action4 ,for the basis of all political action is coercion2 even when the ,state does good things1 it finally rests on a club1 a gun1 or a prison1 for its power to carry them through4 ,now every school child in the ,united ,states has had the direct action of certain non-resistants brought to his notice by his school history4 ,the case which every one instantly recalls is that of the early ,quakers who came to ,massachusetts4 ,the ,puritans had accused the ,quakers of troubling the world by preaching peace to it4 ,they refused to pay church taxes2 they refused to bear arms2 they refused to swear allegiance to any government4 7,in so doing1 they were direct actionists2 what we may call negative direct actionists47 ,so the ,puritans1 being political actionists1 passed laws to keep them out1 to deport1 to fine1 to imprison1 to mutilate1 and finally1 to hang them4 ,and the ,quakers just kept on coming 7which was positive direct action72 and history records that after the hanging of four ,quakers1 and the flogging of ,margaret ,brewster at the cart's tail through the streets of ,boston1 the ,puritans gave up trying to silence the new missionaries2 that ,quaker persistence and ,quaker non-resistance had won the day4 ,another example of direct action in early colonial history1 but this time by no means of the peaceable sort1 was the affair known as ,bacon's ,rebellion4 ,all our historians certainly defend the action of the rebels in that matter1 as reason is1 for they were right4 ,and yet it was a case of violent direct action against lawfully constituted authority4 ,for the benefit of those who have forgotten the details1 let me briefly remind them that the ,virginia planters were in fear of a general attack by the ,indians2 with reason4 ,being political actionists1 they asked1 or ,bacon as their leader asked1 that the governor grant him a commission to raise volunteers in their own defense4 ,the governor feared that such a company of armed men would be a threat to him2 also with reason4 ,he refused the commission4 ,whereupon the planters resorted to direct action4 ,they raised the volunteers without the commission1 and successfully fought off the ,indians4 ,bacon was pronounced a traitor by the governor2 but the people being with him1 the governor was afraid to proceed against him4 ,in the end1 however1 it came so far that the rebels burned ,jamestown2 and but for the untimely death of ,bacon1 much more might have been done4 ,of course the reaction was very dreadful1 as it usually is where a rebellion collapses1 or is crushed4 ,yet even during the brief period of success1 it had corrected a good many abuses4 ,i am quite sure that the political-action-at-all-costs advocates of those times1 after the reaction came back into power1 must have said3 ,see to what evils direct action brings us6 ,behold1 the progress of the colony has been set back twenty-five years2 forgetting that if the colonists had not resorted to direct action1 their scalps would have been taken by the ,indians a year sooner1 instead of a number of them being hanged by the governor a year later4 ,in the period of agitation and excitement preceding the revolution1 there were all sorts and kinds of direct action from the most peaceable to the most violent2 and ,i believe that almost everybody who studies ,united ,states history finds the account of these performances the most interesting part of the story1 the part which dents into his memory most easily4 ,among the peaceable moves made1 were the non-importation agreements1 the leagues for wearing homespun clothing and the committees of correspondence4 ,as the inevitable growth of hostility progressed1 violent direct action developed2 e4 g41 in the matter of destroying the revenue stamps1 or the action concerning the tea-ships1 either by not permitting the tea to be landed1 or by putting it in damp storage1 or by throwing it into the harbor1 as in ,boston1 or by compelling a tea-ship owner to set fire to his own ship1 as at ,annapolis4 ,these are all actions which our commonest text-books record1 certainly not in a condemnatory way1 not even in an apologetic one1 though they are all cases of direct action against legally constituted authority and property rights4 ,if ,i draw attention to them1 and others of like nature1 it is to prove to unreflecting repeaters of words that direct action has always been used1 and has the historical sanction of the very people now reprobating it4 ,george ,washington is said to have been the leader of the ,virginia planters' non-importation league3 he would now be enjoined1 probably1 by a court1 from forming any such league2 and if he persisted1 he would be fined for contempt4 ,when the great quarrel between the ,north and the ,south was waxing hot and hotter1 it was again direct action which preceded and precipitated political action4 ,and ,i may remark here that political action is never taken1 nor even contemplated1 until slumbering minds have first been aroused by direct acts of protest against existing conditions4 ,the history of the anti-slavery movement and the ,civil ,war is one of the greatest of paradoxes1 although history is a chain of paradoxes4 ,politically speaking1 it was the slave-holding ,states that stood for greater political freedom1 for the autonomy of the single ,state against the interference of the ,united ,states2 politically speaking1 it was the non-slave-holding ,states that stood for a strong centralized government1 which1 ,secessionists said1 and said truly1 was bound progressively to develop into more and more tyrannical forms4 ,which happened4 ,from the close of the ,civil ,war on1 there has been continuous encroachment of the federal power upon what was formerly the concern of the ,states individually4 ,the wage-slaves1 in their struggles of to-day1 are continually thrown into conflict with that centralized power1 against which the slave-holder protested 7with liberty on his lips but tyranny in his heart74 ,ethically speaking1 it was the non-slave-holding ,states that1 in a general way1 stood for greater human liberty1 while the ,secessionists stood for race-slavery4 ,in a general way only2 that is1 the majority of northerners1 not being accustomed to the actual presence of negro slavery about them1 thought it was probably a mistake2 yet they were in no great ferment of anxiety to have it abolished4 ,the ,abolitionists only1 and they were relatively few1 were the genuine ethicals1 to whom slavery itself--not secession or union--was the main question4 ,in fact1 so paramount was it with them1 that a considerable number of them were themselves for the dissolution of the union1 advocating that the ,north take the initiative in the matter of dissolving1 in order that the northern people might shake off the blame of holding negroes in chains4 ,of course1 there were all sorts of people with all sorts of temperaments among those who advocated the abolition of slavery4 ,there were ,quakers like ,whittier 7indeed it was the peace-at-all-costs ,quakers who had advocated abolition even in early colonial days72 there were moderate political actionists1 who were for buying off the slaves1 as the cheapest way2 and there were extremely violent people1 who believed and did all sorts of violent things4 ,as to what the politicians did1 it is one long record of how-not-to-do-it1 a record of thirty years of compromising1 and dickering1 and trying to keep what was as it was1 and to hand sops to both sides when new conditions demanded that something be done1 or be pretended to be done4 ,but the stars in their courses fought against ,sisera2 the system was breaking down from within1 and the direct actionists from without1 as well1 were widening the cracks remorselessly4 ,among the various expressions of direct rebellion was the organization of the underground railroad4 ,most of the people who belonged to it believed in both sorts of action2 but however much they theoretically subscribed to the right of the majority to enact and enforce laws1 they didn't believe in it on that point4 ,my grandfather was a member of the underground2 many a fugitive slave he helped on his way to ,canada4 ,he was a very patient1 law-abiding man1 in most respects1 though ,i have often thought he probably respected it because he didn't have much to do with it2 always leading a pioneer life1 law was generally far from him1 and direct action imperative4 ,be that as it may1 and law-respecting as he was1 he had no respect whatever for slave laws1 no matter if made by ten times of a majority2 and he conscientiously broke every one that came in his way to be broken4 ,there were times when in the operation of the underground1 violence was required1 and was used4 ,i recollect one old friend relating to me how she and her mother kept watch all night at the door1 while a slave for whom a posse was searching hid in the cellar2 and though they were of ,quaker descent and sympathies1 there was a shot-gun on the table4 ,fortunately it did not have to be used that night4 ,when the fugitive slave law was passed1 with the help of the political actionists of the ,north who wanted to offer a new sop to the slave-holders1 the direct actionists took to rescuing recaptured fugitives4 ,there was the rescue of ,shadrach1 and the rescue of ,jerry1 the latter rescuers being led by the famous ,gerrit ,smith2 and a good many more successful and unsuccessful attempts4 ,still the politicals kept on pottering and trying to smooth things over1 and the ,abolitionists were denounced and decried by the ultra-law-abiding pacificators1 pretty much as ,wm4 ,d4 ,haywood and ,frank ,bohn are being denounced by their own party now4 ,the other day ,i read a communication in the ,chicago ,daily ,socialist from the secretary of the ,louisville local1 ,socialist ,party1 to the national secretary1 requesting that some safe and sane speaker be substituted for ,bohn1 who had been announced to speak there4 ,in explaining why1 ,mr4 ,dobbs1 secretary1 makes this quotation from ,bohn's lecture3 ,had the ,mc,namaras been successful in defending the interests of the working class1 they would have been right1 just as ,john ,brown would have been right1 had he been successful in freeing the slaves4 ,ignorance was the only crime of ,john ,brown1 and ignorance was the only crime of the ,mc,namaras4 ,upon this ,mr4 ,dobbs comments as follows3 ,we dispute emphatically the statements here made4 ,the attempt to draw a parallel between the open--if mistaken--revolt of ,john ,brown on the one hand1 and the secret and murderous methods of the ,mc,namaras on the other1 is not only indicative of shallow reasoning1 but highly mischievous in the logical conclusions which may be drawn from such statements4 ,evidently ,mr4 ,dobbs is very ignorant of the life and work of ,john ,brown4 ,john ,brown was a man of violence2 he would have scorned anybody's attempt to make him out anything else4 ,and when once a person is a believer in violence1 it is with him only a question of the most effective way of applying it1 which can be determined only by a knowledge of conditions and means at his disposal4 ,john ,brown did not shrink at all from conspiratical methods4 ,those who have read the autobiography of ,frederick ,douglas and the ,reminiscences of ,lucy ,colman1 will recall that one of the plans laid by ,john ,brown was to organize a chain of armed camps in the mountains of ,west ,virginia1 ,north ,carolina1 and ,tennessee1 send secret emissaries among the slaves inciting them to flee to these camps1 and there concert such measures as times and conditions made possible for further arousing revolt among the negroes4 ,that this plan failed was due to the weakness of the desire for liberty among the slaves themselves1 more than anything else4 ,later on1 when the politicians in their infinite deviousness contrived a fresh proposition of how-not-to-do-it1 known as the ,kansas-,nebraska ,act1 which left the question of slavery to be determined by the settlers1 the direct actionists on both sides sent bogus settlers into the territory1 who proceeded to fight it out4 ,the pro-slavery men1 who got in first1 made a constitution recognizing slavery1 and a law punishing with death any one who aided a slave to escape2 but the ,free ,soilers1 who were a little longer in arriving1 since they came from more distant ,states1 made a second constitution1 and refused to recognize the other party's laws at all4 ,and ,john ,brown was there1 mixing in all the violence1 conspiratical or open2 he was a horse-thief and a murderer1 in the eyes of decent1 peaceable1 political actionists4 ,and there is no doubt that he stole horses1 sending no notice in advance of his intention to steal them1 and that he killed pro-slavery men4 ,he struck and got away a good many times before his final attempt on ,harper's ,ferry4 ,if he did not use dynamite1 it was because dynamite had not yet appeared as a practical weapon4 ,he made a great many more intentional attacks on life than the two brothers ,secretary ,dobbs condemns for their murderous methods4 ,and yet1 history has not failed to understand ,john ,brown4 ,mankind knows that though he was a violent man1 with human blood upon his hands1 who was guilty of high treason and hanged for it1 yet his soul was a great1 strong1 unselfish soul1 unable to bear the frightful crime which kept #d1jjj1jjj people like dumb beasts1 and thought that making war against it was a sacred1 a ,god-called duty1 7for ,john ,brown was a very religious man--a ,presbyterian74 ,it is by and because of the direct acts of the fore-runners of social change1 whether they be of peaceful or warlike nature1 that the ,human ,conscience1 the conscience of the mass1 becomes aroused to the need for change4 ,it would be very stupid to say that no good results are ever brought about by political action2 sometimes good things do come about that way4 ,but never until individual rebellion1 followed by mass rebellion1 has forced it4 ,direct action is always the clamorer1 the initiator1 through which the great sum of indifferentists become aware that oppression is getting intolerable4 ,we have now an oppression in the land1--and not only in this land1 but throughout all those parts of the world which enjoy the very mixed blessings of ,civilization4 ,and just as in the question of chattel slavery1 so this form of slavery has been begetting both direct action and political action4 ,a certain per cent4 of our population 7probably a much smaller per cent4 than politicians are in the habit of assigning at mass meetings7 is producing the material wealth upon which all the rest of us live2 just as it was the #d1jjj1jjj chattel blacks who supported all the crowd of parasites above them4 ,these are the land workers and the industrial workers4 ,through the unprophesied and unprophesiable operation of institutions which no individual of us created1 but found in existence when he came here1 these workers1 the most absolutely necessary part of the whole social structure1 without whose services none can either eat1 or clothe1 or shelter himself1 are just the ones who get the least to eat1 to wear1 and to be housed withal--to say nothing of their share of the other social benefits which the rest of us are supposed to furnish1 such as education and artistic gratifications4 ,these workers have1 in one form or another1 mutually joined their forces to see what betterment of their condition they could get2 primarily by direct action1 secondarily through political action4 ,we have had the ,grange1 the ,farmers' ,alliance1 ,co-operative ,associations1 ,colonization ,experiments1 ,knights of ,labor1 ,trade ,unions1 and ,industrial ,workers of the ,world4 ,all of them have been organized for the purpose of wringing from the masters in the economic field a little better price1 a little better conditions1 a little shorter hours2 or on the other hand1 to resist a reduction in price1 worse conditions1 or longer hours4 ,none of them has attempted a final solution of the social war4 ,none of them1 except the ,industrial ,workers1 has recognized that there is a social war1 inevitable so long as present legal-social conditions endure4 ,they accepted property institutions as they found them4 ,they were made up of average men1 with average desires1 and they undertook to do what appeared to them possible and very reasonable things4 ,they were not committed to any particular political policy when they were organized1 but were associated for direct action of their own initiation1 either positive or defensive4 ,undoubtedly there were1 and are1 among all these organizations1 members who looked beyond immediate demands2 who did see that the continuous development of forces now in operation was bound to bring about conditions to which it is impossible that life continue to submit1 and against which1 therefore1 it will protest1 and violently protest2 that it will have no choice but to do so2 that it must do so1 or tamely die2 and since it is not the nature of life to surrender without struggle1 it will not tamely die4 ,twenty-two years ago ,i met ,farmers' ,alliance people who said so1 ,knights of ,labor who said so1 ,trade ,unionists who said so4 ,they wanted larger aims than those to which their organizations were looking2 but they had to accept their fellow members as they were1 and try to stir them to work for such things as it was possible to make them see4 ,and what they could see was better prices1 better wages1 less dangerous or tyrannical conditions1 shorter hours4 ,at the stage of development when these movements were initiated1 the land workers could not see that their struggle had anything to do with the struggle of those engaged in the manufacturing or transporting service2 nor could these latter see that theirs had anything to do with the movement of the farmers4 ,for that matter very few of them see it yet4 ,they have yet to learn that there is one common struggle against those who have appropriated the earth1 the money1 and the machines4 ,unfortunately the great organization of the farmers frittered itself away in a stupid chase after political power4 ,it was quite successful in getting the power in certain ,states2 but the courts pronounced its laws unconstitutional1 and there was the burial hole of all its political conquests4 ,its original program was to build its own elevators1 and store the products therein1 holding these from the market till they could escape the speculator4 ,also1 to organize labor exchanges1 issuing credit notes upon products deposited for exchange4 ,had it adhered to this program of direct mutual aid1 it would1 to some extent1 for a time at least1 have afforded an illustration of how mankind may free itself from the parasitism of the bankers and the middlemen4 ,of course1 it would have been overthrown in the end1 unless it had so revolutionized men's minds by the example as to force the overthrow of the legal monopoly of land and money2 but at least it would have served a great educational purpose4 ,as it was1 it went after the red herring1 and disintegrated merely from its futility4 ,the ,knights of ,labor subsided into comparative insignificance1 not because of failure to use direct action1 nor because of its tampering with politics1 which was small1 but chiefly because it was a heterogeneous mass of workers who could not associate their efforts effectively4 ,the ,trade ,unions grew strong about as the ,k4 of ,l4 subsided1 and have continued slowly but persistently to increase in power4 ,it is true the increase has fluctuated2 that there have been set-backs2 that great single organizations have been formed and again dispersed4 ,but on the whole1 trade unions have been a growing power4 ,they have been so because1 poor as they are1 inefficient as they are1 they have been a means whereby a certain section of the workers have been able to bring their united force to bear directly upon their masters1 and so get for themselves some portion of what they wanted1--of what their conditions dictated to them they must try to get4 ,the strike is their natural weapon1 that which they themselves forged4 ,it is the direct blow of the strike which nine times out of ten the boss is afraid of4 7,of course there are occasions when he is glad of one1 but that's unusual47 ,and the reason he dreads a strike is not so much because he thinks he cannot win out against it1 but simply and solely because he does not want an interruption of his business4 ,the ordinary boss isn't in much dread of a class-conscious vote2 there are plenty of shops where you can talk ,socialism or any other political program all day long2 but if you begin to talk ,unionism1 you may forthwith expect to be discharged1 or at best warned to shut up4 ,why8 ,not because the boss is so wise as to know that political action is a swamp in which the workingman gets mired1 or because he understands that political ,socialism is fast becoming a middle-class movement2 not at all4 ,he thinks ,socialism is a very bad thing2 but it's a good way off6 ,but he knows that if his shop is unionized1 he will have trouble right away4 ,his hands will be rebellious1 he will be put to expense to improve his factory conditions1 he will have to keep workingmen that he doesn't like1 and in case of strike he may expect injury to his machinery or his buildings4 ,it is often said1 and parrot-like repeated1 that the bosses are class-conscious1 that they stick together for their class interest1 and are willing to undergo any sort of personal loss rather than be false to those interests4 ,it isn't so at all4 ,the majority of business people are just like the majority of workingmen2 they care a whole lot more about their individual loss or gain than about the gain or loss of their class4 ,and it is his individual loss the boss sees1 when threatened by a union4 ,now everybody knows that a strike of any size means violence4 ,no matter what any one's ethical preference for peace may be1 he knows it will not be peaceful4 ,if it's a telegraph strike1 it means cutting wires and poles1 and getting fake scabs in to spoil the instruments4 ,if it is a steel rolling mill strike1 it means beating up the scabs1 breaking the windows1 setting the gauges wrong1 and ruining the expensive rollers together with tons and tons of material4 ,if it's a miners' strike1 it means destroying tracks and bridges1 and blowing up mills4 ,if it is a garment workers' strike1 it means having an unaccountable fire1 getting a volley of stones through an apparently inaccessible window1 or possibly a brickbat on the manufacturer's own head4 ,if it's a street-car strike1 it means tracks torn up or barricaded with the contents of ash-carts and slop-carts1 with overturned wagons or stolen fences1 it means smashed or incinerated cars and turned switches4 ,if it is a system federation strike1 it means dead engines1 wild engines1 derailed freights1 and stalled trains4 ,if it is a building trades strike1 it means dynamited structures4 ,and always1 everywhere1 all the time1 fights between strike-breakers and scabs against strikers and strike-sympathizers1 between ,people and ,police4 ,on the side of the bosses1 it means search-lights1 electric wires1 stockades1 bull-pens1 detectives and provocative agents1 violent kidnapping and deportation1 and every device they can conceive for direct protection1 besides the ultimate invocation of police1 militia1 ,state constabulary1 and federal troops4 ,everybody knows this2 everybody smiles when union officials protest their organizations to be peaceable and law-abiding1 because everybody knows they are lying4 ,they know that violence is used1 both secretly and openly2 and they know it is used because the strikers cannot do any other way1 without giving up the fight at once4 ,nor do they mistake those who thus resort to violence under stress for destructive miscreants who do what they do out of innate cussedness4 ,the people in general understand that they do these things1 through the harsh logic of a situation which they did not create1 but which forces them to these attacks in order to make good in their struggle to live1 or else go down the bottomless descent into poverty1 that lets ,death find them in the poorhouse hospital1 the city street1 or the river-slime4 ,this is the awful alternative that the workers are facing2 and this is what makes the most kindly disposed human beings1--men who would go out of their way to help a wounded dog1 or bring home a stray kitten and nurse it1 or step aside to avoid walking on a worm--resort to violence against their fellow-men4 ,they know1 for the facts have taught them1 that this is the only way to win1 if they can win at all4 ,and it has always appeared to me one of the most utterly ludicrous1 absolutely irrelevant things that a person can do or say1 when approached for relief or assistance by a striker who is dealing with an immediate situation1 to respond with1 ,vote yourself into power6 when the next election is six months1 a year1 or two years away4 ,unfortunately1 the people who know best how violence is used in union warfare1 cannot come forward and say3 ,on such a day1 at such a place1 such and such a specific action was done1 and as the result such and such a concession was made1 or such and such a boss capitulated4 ,to do so would imperil their liberty1 and their power to go on fighting4 ,therefore those that know best must keep silent1 and sneer in their sleeves1 while those that know little prate4 ,events1 not tongues1 must make their position clear4 ,and there has been a very great deal of prating these last few weeks4 ,speakers and writers1 honestly convinced1 ,i believe1 that political action1 and political action only1 can win the workers' battle1 have been denouncing what they are pleased to call direct action 7what they really mean is conspiratical violence7 as the author of mischief incalculable4 ,one ,oscar ,ameringer1 as an example1 recently said at a meeting in ,chicago that the ,haymarket bomb of '#hf had set back the eight-hour movement twenty-five years1 arguing that the movement would have succeeded then but for the bomb4 ,it's a great mistake4 ,no one can exactly measure in years or months the effect of a forward push or a reaction4 ,no one can demonstrate that the eight-hour movement could have been won twenty-five years ago4 ,we know that the eight-hour day was put on the statute books of ,illinois in #ahga1 by political action1 and has remained a dead letter4 ,that the direct action of the workers could have won it1 then1 can not be proved2 but it can be shown that many more potent factors than the ,haymarket bomb worked against it4 ,on the other hand1 if the reactive influence of the bomb was really so powerful1 we should naturally expect labor and union conditions to be worse in ,chicago than in the cities where no such thing happened4 ,on the contrary1 bad as they are1 the general conditions of labor are better in ,chicago than in most other large cities1 and the power of the unions is more developed there than in any other ,american city except ,san ,francisco4 ,so if we are to conclude anything for the influence of the ,haymarket bomb1 keep these facts in mind4 ,personally ,i do not think its influence on the labor movement1 as such1 was so very great4 ,it will be the same with the present furore about violence4 ,nothing fundamental has been altered4 ,two men have been imprisoned for what they did 7twenty-four years ago they were hanged for what they did not do72 some few more may yet be imprisoned4 ,but the forces of life will continue to revolt against their economic chains4 ,there will be no cessation in that revolt1 no matter what ticket men vote or fail to vote1 until the chains are broken4 ,how will the chains be broken8 ,political actionists tell us it will be only by means of working-class party action at the polls2 by voting themselves into possession of the sources of life and the tools2 by voting that those who now command forests1 mines1 ranches1 waterways1 mills and factories1 and likewise command the military power to defend them1 shall hand over their dominion to the people4 ,and meanwhile8 ,meanwhile be peaceable1 industrious1 law-abiding1 patient1 and frugal 7as ,madero told the ,mexican peons to be1 after he had sold them to ,wall ,street76 ,even if some of you are disfranchised1 don't rise up even against that1 for it might set back the party4 ,well1 ,i have already stated that some good is occasionally accomplished by political action1--not necessarily working-class party action either4 ,but ,i am abundantly convinced that the occasional good accomplished is more than counterbalanced by the evil2 just as ,i am convinced that though there are occasional evils resulting from direct action1 they are more than counterbalanced by the good4 ,nearly all the laws which were originally framed with the intention of benefiting the workers1 have either turned into weapons in their enemies' hands1 or become dead letters1 unless the workers through their organizations have directly enforced the observance4 ,so that in the end1 it is direct action that has to be relied on anyway4 ,as an example of getting the tarred end of a law1 glance at the anti-trust law1 which was supposed to benefit the people in general1 and the working class in particular4 ,about two weeks since1 some #bej union leaders were cited to answer to the charge of being trust formers1 as the answer of the ,illinois ,central to its strikers4 ,but the evil of pinning faith to indirect action is far greater than any such minor results4 ,the main evil is that it destroys initiative1 quenches the individual rebellious spirit1 teaches people to rely on some one else to do for them what they should do for themselves1 what they alone can do for themselves2 finally renders organic the anomalous idea that by massing supineness together until a majority is acquired1 then1 through the peculiar magic of that majority1 this supineness is to be transformed into energy4 ,that is1 people who have lost the habit of striking for themselves as individuals1 who have submitted to every injustice while waiting for the majority to grow1 are going to become metamorphosed into human high-explosives by a mere process of packing6 ,i quite agree that the sources of life1 and all the natural wealth of the earth1 and the tools necessary to co-operative production1 must become free of access to all4 ,it is a positive certainty to me that unionism must widen and deepen its purposes1 or it will go under2 and ,i feel sure that the logic of the situation will force them to see it gradually4 ,they must learn that the workers' problem can never be solved by beating up scabs1 so long as their own policy of limiting their membership by high initiation fees and other restrictions helps to make scabs4 ,they must learn that the course of growth is not so much along the line of higher wages1 but shorter hours1 which will enable them to increase membership1 to take in everybody who is willing to come into the union4 ,they must learn that if they want to win battles1 all allied workers must act together1 act quickly 7serving no notice on bosses71 and retain their freedom so to do at all times4 ,and finally they must learn that even then 7when they have a complete organization71 they can win nothing permanent unless they strike for everything1--not for a wage1 not for a minor improvement1 but for the whole natural wealth of the earth4 ,and proceed to the direct expropriation of it all6 ,they must learn that their power does not lie in their voting strength1 that their power lies in their ability to stop production4 ,it is a great mistake to suppose that the wage-earners constitute a majority of the voters4 ,wage-earners are here to-day and there to-morrow1 and that hinders a large number from voting2 a great percentage of them in this country are foreigners without a voting right4 ,the most patent proof that ,socialist leaders know this is so1 is that they are compromising their propaganda at every point to win the support of the business class1 the small investor4 ,their campaign papers proclaimed that their interviewers had been assured by ,wall ,street bond purchasers that they would be just as ready to buy ,los ,angeles bonds from a socialist as a capitalist administration2 that the present ,milwaukee administration has been a boon to the small investor2 their reading notices assure their readers in this city that we need not go to the great department stores to buy1--buy rather of ,so-and-so on ,milwaukee ,avenue1 who will satisfy us quite as well as a big business institution4 ,in short1 they are making every desperate effort to win the support1 and to prolong the life1 of that middle-class which socialistic economy says must be ground to pieces1 because they know they cannot get a majority without them4 ,the most that a working-class party could do1 even if its politicians remained honest1 would be to form a strong faction in the legislatures1 which might1 by combining its vote with one side or the other1 win certain political or economic palliatives4 ,but what the working-class can do1 when once they grow into a solidified organization1 is to show the possessing classes1 through a sudden cessation of all work1 that the whole social structure rests on them2 that the possessions of the others are absolutely worthless to them without the workers' activity2 that such protests1 such strikes1 are inherent in the system of property1 and will continually recur until the whole thing is abolished1--and having shown that1 effectively1 proceed to expropriate4 ,but the military power1 says the political actionist2 we must get political power1 or the military will be used against us6 ,against a real ,general ,strike1 the military can do nothing4 ,oh1 true1 if you have a ,socialist ,briand in power1 he may declare the workers public officials and try to make them serve against themselves6 ,but against the solid wall of an immobile working-mass1 even a ,briand would be broken4 ,meanwhile1 until this international awakening1 the war will go on as it has been going1 in spite of all the hysteria which well-meaning people1 who do not understand life and its necessities1 may manifest2 in spite of all the shivering that timid leaders have done2 in spite of all the reactionary revenges that may be taken2 in spite of all the capital politicians make out of the situation4 ,it will go on because ,life cries to live1 and ,property denies its freedom to live2 and ,life will not submit4 ,and should not submit4 ,it will go on until that day when a self-freed ,humanity is able to chant ,swinburne's ,hymn of ,man3 ,glory to ,man in the highest1 ,for ,man is the master of ,things4 ,the ,paris ,commune ,the ,paris ,commune1 like other spectacular events in human history1 has become the clinging point for many legends1 alike among its enemies and among its friends4 ,indeed1 one must often question which was the real ,commune1 the legend or the fact1--what was actually lived1 or the conception of it which has shaped itself in the world-mind during those forty odd years that have gone since the #ahth of ,march1 #ahga4 ,it is thus with doctrines1 it is thus with personalities1 it is thus with events4 ,which is the real ,christianity1 the simple doctrine attributed to ,christ or the practical preaching and realizing of organized ,christianity8 ,which is the real ,abraham ,lincoln1--the clever politician who emancipated the chattel slaves as an act of policy1 or the legendary apostle of human liberty1 who rises like a gigantic figure of iconoclastic right smiting old wrongs and receiving the martyr's crown therefor8 ,which is the real ,commune1--the thing that was1 or the thing our orators have painted it8 ,which will be the influencing power in the days that are to come8 ,our ,commune commemorators are wont to say1 and surely they believe1 that the declaration of the ,commune was the spontaneous assertion of independence by the ,parisian masses1 consciously alive to the fact that the national government of ,france had treated them most outrageously in the matter of defense against the ,prussian army4 ,they believe that the farce of the situation in which the city found itself1 had opened the eyes of the general populace to the fact that the national government1 so far from serving the supposed prime purpose of government1 viz41 as a means of defense against a foreign invader1 was in reality a thing so apart from them and their interests that it preferred to leave them to the mercy of the ,prussians1 to endangering its own supremacy by assisting in their defense1 or permitting them to defend themselves4 ,it is a pity that this legendary figure of ,awakened ,paris is not a true one4 ,the ,commune1 in fact1 was not the work of the whole people of ,paris1 nor of a majority of the people of ,paris4 ,the ,commune was really established by a comparatively small number of able1 nay brilliant1 and supremely devoted men and women from every walk in life1 but with a relatively high percentage of military men1 engineers1 and political journalists1 some of whom had time and again been in prison before for seditious writing or acts of rebellion4 ,they flocked in from their exile in the neighboring countries1 thinking that now they saw the opportunity for retrieving former errors1 and arousing the people to renew and to extend the struggle of #ahdh4 ,it is true that there were also teachers1 artists1 designers1 architects and builders1 skilled craftsmen of every sort4 ,and perhaps no chapter in the whole story is more inspiring than the description of the gatherings of the workers1 which took place night after night in every quarter of the beleaguered city1 previous to the #ahth of ,march and thereafter4 ,to such meetings went those who burned with fervor of faith in what the people might and would accomplish1 and1 with the radiant vision of a new social day shining in their eyes1 endeavored to make it clear to those who listened4 ,one almost catches the redolence of outbursting faith1 that rising of the sap of hope and courage and daring1 like an incense of spring2 almost feels himself there1 partaking in the work1 the danger1 the glorious1 mistaken assurance which was theirs4 ,and yet the truth must have been that these apostles of the ,commune were blinded by their own enthusiasm1 deafened by the enthusiasm they evoked in others1 to the fact that the great unvoiced majority who did not attend public meetings1 who sat within their houses or kept silent in the shops1 were not converted or affected by their teachings4 ,we are told by those who should know1 the survivors among the ,communards themselves1 that the actual number of persons who were aggressive1 moving spirits in the great uprising was not greatly above #b1jjj4 ,the mass of the people were1 as they would probably be in this city to-day under like circumstances1 indifferent as to what went on over their heads1 so that the peace and quiet of their individual lives was restored1 so that the siege of the ,prussians was raised1 and themselves permitted to go about their business4 ,if the ,commune could assure that1 good luck to it6 ,they were tired of the siege2 and they longed for their old familiar miseries to which they were in some respect accustomed2 they hardly dreamed of anything better4 ,but1 as is usually the case when strategic moments arise1 these same plain1 stolid1 indifferent people1 who neither know nor care about fine theories of political right1 municipal sovereignty1 and so forth1 see more directly into the logic of a situation than those who have confused their minds with much theorizing4 ,likewise the people of ,paris in general1 when the ,commune had become an established fact1 saw that the only consequent proceeding would be to make war economically as well as politically1 to cut off any source of supply to the national army which lay within the city4 ,instead of doing that1 the government of the ,commune1 anxious to prove itself more law-abiding than the old regime1 stupidly defended the property right of its enemies1 and continued to let the ,bank of ,france furnish supplies to those who were financing the army of ,versailles1 the very army which was to cut their throats4 ,naturally1 the plain people grew disgusted with so senseless a program1 and in the main took no part in the final struggle with the ,versailles troops1 nor even opposed the idea of their entrance into the city4 ,probably a goodly number even drew a sigh of relief at the prospect of a return to the smaller evil of the two4 ,little enough did they dream that the way back lay through their own blood1 and that they1 who had never lifted hand or voice for the ,commune1 would become its martyrs4 ,little did they conceive the wild revenge of ,law and ,order upon ,rebellion1 the saturnalia of restored ,power4 ,did they sleep1 ,i wonder1 on the night before the #bjth of ,may1 when that dark thunder of vengeance was gathering to break8 ,many slept well the next night1 and still sleep2 for then began a murder grim and great1--a murder whose painted image1 even after these forty years have risen and sunk upon it1 sends the blood shuddering backward1 and sets the teeth in uttermost horror and hate4 ,mac,mahon placarded the streets with peace and sent his troops to make it2 in the name of that ,peace1 ,gallifet1 an incarnation of hell1 set his men the example and rode up and down the streets of ,paris1 dashing out children's brains4 ,did a hand appear at a shutter1 the window was riddled with bullets4 ,did a cry of protest escape from any throat1 the house was invaded1 its inhabitants driven out1 lined against the walls1 and shot where they stood4 ,the doctors and the nurses at the bedsides of the wounded1 the very sick in the hospitals1 themselves were slaughtered where they lay4 ,such was ,mac,mahon's peace4 ,after the street massacres1 the organized massacres at the bastions1 the stakes of ,satory1 the huddled masses of prisoners1 the grim visitor with the lantern1 the ghastly call to rise and follow1 the trenches dug by the condemned in the slippery1 blood-soaked ground for their own corpses to fall in4 ,thirty thousand people butchered6 ,butchered by the sateless vengeance of authority and the insane blood-lust of the professional soldier6 ,butchered without a pretence of reason1 a shadow of inquiry1 merely as the gust of insensate rage blew6 ,after the orgy of fury1 the orgy of the inquisition4 ,the gathering of the prisoners in cellar holes1 where they must squat or lie upon damp earth1 and see the light daily only for some short half hour when an unexpellable sun ray shot through some unstopped crevice4 ,the shifting of them day and night across the country1 sometimes in stock yard wagons1 stifled1 starved1 and jammed together1 as even our butchering civilization is ashamed to jam pigs for the slaughter2 sometimes by dreadful marches1 mostly by night1 often with the rain beating on them1 the butts of the soldiers' muskets striking them1 as they lagged through weakness or through lameness4 ,then the detention prisons1 with their long-drawn agonies of hunger1 cold1 vermin1 and disease1 and the ever-looming darkness of waiting death4 ,follow the tortures of friends and relatives of ,communards or suspected ,communards1 to make them betray the whereabouts of their friends4 ,could they who had seen these things forgive and forget8 ,they who had seen ten year old children lashed to make them tell where their fathers were8 ,women driven mad before the terrible choice of giving up their sons who had fought1 or their daughters who had not1 to the brutality of the soldiery4 ,after the tortures of the hunt1 the tortures of the trials1 solemn farces1 cat-like cruelties4 ,then the long hopeless line of exiles marching from the prison to the port1 crowded on the transport ships1 watched like caged animals1 forbidden to speak1 the cannon always threatening above them1 and so drifted away1 away to exile lands1 to barren islands and fever shores--there to waste away in loneliness1 in uselessness1 in futile dreams of freedom that ended in chains upon the ankles or death on the coral reefs--all this was the ,mercy and the ,wisdom shown by the national government to the rebel city whose works are the glory of ,france1 and whose beauty is the ,beauty of the ,world4 ,whatever other lesson we have to learn1 this one is certain3 the glutless revenge of restored ,authority4 ,if ever one rebels1 let him rebel to the end2 there is no hope so futile as hope in either the justice or the mercy of a power against which a rebellion has been raised4 ,no faith so simple or so foolish as faith in the discrimination1 the judgement1 or the wisdom of a reconquering government4 ,whether at that time the essential principle of the independent ,commune could have been realized or not1 through a general response of the other cities of ,france by like action 7in case ,paris had continued to maintain the struggle some months longer71 ,i am not historian enough1 nor historic prophet enough1 to say4 ,i incline to think not4 ,but certainly the struggle would have been far other1 far more fruitful in its results1 both then and later1 7even if finally overthrown71 had it really been a movement of all those people who were so indiscriminately murdered for it1 so vilely tortured1 so mercilessly exiled4 ,for had it really been the deliberate expression of a million people's will to be free1 they would have seized whatever supplies were being furnished the enemy from within their own gates2 they would have repudiated property rights created by the very power they were seeking to overthrow4 ,they would have seen what was necessary1 and done it4 ,had the real ,communards themselves seen the logic of their own effort1 and understood that to overset the political system of dependence which enslaves the ,communes they must overset the economic institutions which beget the centralized ,state2 had they proclaimed a general communalization of the city's resources they might have won the people to full faith in the struggle and aroused a ten-fold effort to win out4 ,if that again had been followed by a like contagion in the other cities of ,france1 7which was a possibility7 the flame might have caught throughout ,latin ,europe1 and those countries might now be giving a practical example of the extension of a modified ,socialism and local autonomy4 ,this is what is likely to happen at the next similar outbreak1 if politicians are so impolitic as to provoke the like4 ,there are those among the best social students who feel sure that such will be the course of progress4 ,i frankly say that ,i cannot see the path of future progress1--my vision is not large enough1 nor my viewpoint high enough4 ,where others perhaps behold the morning sunlight1 ,i can discern only mists--blowing dust and moving glooms which obscure the future4 ,i do not know where the path leads nor how it goes4 ,only when looking backward1 ,i can catch glimpses of that long1 terrible1 toilsome way by which humanity has gone forward2 even that ,i do not see clearly1--just stretches of it here and there4 ,but ,i see enough of it to know that never has it been a straight1 undeviating line4 ,always the path winds and returns1 and even in the moment of gaining something1 there is something lost4 ,against the onslaught of ,nature1 ,man collects his social strength1 and loses thereby the freedom of his more isolated condition4 ,against the inconveniences of primitive society1 he hurls his inventive genius1--compasses land1 sea1 and air1--and by the very act of conquering his limitations binds fresh fetters on himself1 creating a wealth which he enslaves himself to produce6 ,and this is the ,path of ,progress1 which there was no foreseeing6 ,what waits them8 ,and what hope is there8 ,and what help is there8 ,what waits8 ,the ,unknown waits1 as it has always waited1--dark1 vague1 immense1 impenetrable--the ,mystery which allures the young and strong saying1 ,come and cope with me2 the ,mystery from which the old and wise shrink back1 saying1 ,better to endure the evils that we have than fly to others that we know not of2 the old and wise1 but alas6 the cold-blooded6 ,the ,mystery of the still unbound strengths of earth1 sun1 and depths1 the loosing of any one of which may so alter the face of all that has been done that what now we think a guarantee of liberty may become the very chain of slavery1 as has been the case before with freedoms laboriously won by act1 and then set down in words for unborn men to abide by4 ,and yet--,it waits4 ,are you strong and courageous8 ,the ,unknown invites you to the struggle1 dares you to its conquering4 ,nay1 it is perhaps your future beloved1 waiting to reward your daring passion with the fervors of fresh creation4 ,are you feeble and timid of spirit8 ,bow your head to the ground4 ,still you must meet the future2 still you must go in the track of the others4 ,you may hinder them1 you may make them lag2 you cannot stop them1 nor yourself4 ,struggle waits--abortive struggle1 crushed struggle1 mistaken struggle1 long and often4 ,and worse than all this1 ,waiting waits1--the long dead-level of inaction1 when no one does anything1 when even the daring can only move in self-returning circles2 when no one knows what to do1 except to endure the ever-tightening pressure of intolerable conditions1 how to better which he knows not2 when living appears a monotonous journey through a featureless wilderness1 wherein the same pitiless word ,useless stares at one from every aimless path one seeks to follow in the despairing search for a way out4 ,and happier is he who perishes in the mistaken struggle than he who1 with a hot and chafing soul1 but with clear discernment1 sees that he is doomed to go on indefinitely in submission to the wrongs that are4 ,what hope is there8 ,that the increasing pressure of conditions may quicken intelligences2 that even out of mistaken struggle1 frustrate struggle1 unforeseen good consequences may flow1 just as out of undeniable improvements in material life1 unforeseeable ill results are consequent4 ,the ,commune hoped to free ,paris1 and by so setting an example free many other cities4 ,it went down in utter defeat1 and no city was freed thereby4 ,but out of this defeat the knowledge and skill of craftsmanship of its people went abroad over other lands1 both into civilized centers and to wild waste places2 and wherever its art went1 its idea went also1 so that the ,commune1 the idealized ,commune1 has become a watchword through the workshops of the world1 wherever there are even a few workers seeking to awaken their fellows4 ,there are those who have definite hopes2 those who think they know precisely how overwork and underwork and poverty1 and all their consequences of spiritual enslavement1 are to be abolished4 ,such are they who think they can see the way of progress broad and clear through the slit in a ballot box4 ,i fear their works will have some uncalculated consequences also1 if ever they execute them2 ,i fear their narrowly enclosed view deceives them much4 ,climbing a hill is a different affair from voting oneself at the top4 ,no matter3 ,man always hopes2 ,life always hopes4 ,when a definite object cannot be outlined1 the indomitable spirit of hope still impels the living mass to move toward something--something that shall somehow be better4 ,what help is there8 ,no help from outside power2 no help from overhead2 no help from the ,sky1 pray to it ever so much2 no help from the strong hand of wise men1 nor of good men1 however wise or good4 ,such help always ends in despotism4 ,nor yet is there help in the abnegation of generous fanatics whose efforts end in deplorable fiasco1 as did the ,commune4 ,help lies only in the general will of those who do the work to say how1 when1 and where they shall do it4 ,the force of the lesson of the ,commune is that people cannot be made free who have not conceived freedom2 yet through such examples they may learn to conceive it4 ,it cannot be bestowed as a gift2 it must be taken by those who want it4 ,let us hope that those who would have given it1 bought that much by their sacrifice1 that they touched the unseeing eyes of the somnambulist proletariat with a light which has made them dream1 at least1 of waking4 ,the ,mexican ,revolution ,that a nation of people considering themselves enlightened1 informed1 alert to the interests of the hour1 should be so generally and so profoundly ignorant of a revolution taking place in their backyard1 so to speak1 as the people of the ,united ,states are ignorant of the present revolution in ,mexico1 can be due only to profoundly and generally acting causes4 ,that people of revolutionary principles and sympathies should be so1 is inexcusable4 ,it is as one of such principles and sympathies that ,i address you1--as one interested in every move the people make to throw off their chains1 no matter where1 no matter how1--though naturally my interest is greatest where the move is such as appears to me to be most in consonance with the general course of progress1 where the tyranny attacked is what appears to me the most fundamental1 where the method followed is to my thinking most direct and unmistakable4 ,and ,i add that those of you who have such principles and sympathies are in the logic of your own being bound1 first1 to inform yourselves concerning so great a matter as the revolt of millions of people--what they are struggling for1 what they are struggling against1 and how the struggle stands--from day to day1 if possible2 if not1 from week to week1 or month to month1 as best you can2 and second1 to spread this knowledge among others1 and endeavor to do what little you can to awaken the consciousness and sympathy of others4 ,one of the great reasons why the mass of the ,american people know nothing of the ,revolution in ,mexico1 is1 that they have altogether a wrong conception of what revolution means4 ,thus ninety-nine out of a hundred persons to whom you broach the subject will say1 ,why1 ,i thought that ended long ago4 ,that ended last ,may2 and this week the press1 even the ,daily ,socialist1 reports1 ,a new revolution in ,mexico4 ,it isn't a new revolution at all2 it is the same revolution1 which did not begin with the armed rebellion of last ,may1 which has been going on steadily ever since then1 and before then1 and is bound to go on for a long time to come1 if the other nations keep their hands off and the ,mexican people are allowed to work out their own destiny4 ,what is a revolution8 and what is this revolution8 ,a revolution means some great and subversive change in the social institutions of a people1 whether sexual1 religious1 political1 or economic4 ,the movement of the ,reformation was a great religious revolution2 a profound alteration in human thought--a refashioning of the human mind4 ,the general movement towards political change in ,europe and ,america about the close of the eighteenth century1 was a revolution4 ,the ,american and the ,french revolutions were only prominent individual incidents in it1 culminations of the teachings of the ,rights of ,man4 ,the present unrest of the world in its economic relations1 as manifested from day to day in the opposing combinations of men and money1 in strikes and bread-riots1 in literature and movements of all kinds demanding a readjustment of the whole or of parts of our wealth-owning and wealth-distributing system1--this unrest is the revolution of our time1 the economic revolution1 which is seeking social change1 and will go on until it is accomplished4 ,we are in it2 at any moment of our lives it may invade our own homes with its stern demand for self-sacrifice and suffering4 ,its more violent manifestations are in ,liverpool and ,london to-day1 in ,barcelona and ,vienna to-morrow1 in ,new ,york and ,chicago the day after4 ,humanity is a seething1 heaving mass of unease1 tumbling like surge over a slipping1 sliding1 shifting bottom2 and there will never be any ease until a rock bottom of economic justice is reached4 ,the ,mexican revolution is one of the prominent manifestations of this world-wide economic revolt4 ,it possibly holds as important a place in the present disruption and reconstruction of economic institutions1 as the great revolution of ,france held in the eighteenth century movement4 ,it did not begin with the odious government of ,diaz nor end with his downfall1 any more than the revolution in ,france began with the coronation of ,louis ,,xvi1 or ended with his beheading4 ,it began in the bitter and outraged hearts of the peasants1 who for generations have suffered under a ready-made system of exploitation1 imported and foisted upon them1 by which they have been dispossessed of their homes1 compelled to become slave-tenants of those who robbed them2 and under ,diaz1 in case of rebellion to be deported to a distant province1 a killing climate1 and hellish labor4 ,it will end only when that bitterness is assuaged by very great alteration in the land-holding system1 or until the people have been absolutely crushed into subjection by a strong military power1 whether that power be a native or a foreign one4 ,now the political overthrow of last ,may1 which was followed by the substitution of one political manager for another1 did not at all touch the economic situation4 ,it promised1 of course2 politicians always promise4 ,it promised to consider measures for altering conditions2 in the meantime1 proprietors are assured that the new government intends to respect the rights of landlords and capitalists1 and exhorts the workers to be patient and--frugal6 ,frugal6 ,yes1 that was the exhortation in ,madero's paper to men who1 when they are able to get work1 make twenty-five cents a day4 ,a man owning #e1jjj1jjj acres of land exhorts the disinherited workers of ,mexico to be frugal6 ,the idea that such a condition can be dealt with by the immemorial remedy offered by tyrants to slaves1 is like the idea of sweeping out the sea with a broom4 ,and unless that frugality1 or in other words1 starvation1 is forced upon the people by more bayonets and more strategy than appear to be at the government's command1 the ,mexican revolution will go on to the solution of ,mexico's land question with a rapidity and directness of purpose not witnessed in any previous upheaval4 ,for it must be understood that the main revolt is a revolt against the system of land tenure4 ,the industrial revolution of the cities1 while it is far from being silent1 is not to compare with the agrarian revolt4 ,let us understand why4 ,mexico consists of twenty-seven states1 two territories and a federal district about the capital city4 ,its population totals about #ae1jjj1jjj4 ,of these1 #d1jjj1jjj are of unmixed ,indian descent1 people somewhat similar in character to the ,pueblos of our own southwestern states1 primitively agricultural for an immemorial period1 communistic in many of their social customs1 and like all ,indians1 invincible haters of authority4 ,these ,indians are scattered throughout the rural districts of ,mexico1 one particularly well-known and much talked of tribe1 the ,yaquis1 having had its fatherland in the rich northern state of ,sonora1 a very valuable agricultural country4 ,the ,indian population--especially the ,yaquis and the ,moquis--have always disputed the usurpations of the invaders' government1 from the days of the early conquest until now1 and will undoubtedly continue to dispute them as long as there is an ,indian left1 or until their right to use the soil out of which they sprang without paying tribute in any shape is freely recognized4 ,the communistic customs of these people are very interesting1 and very instructive too2 they have gone on practising them all these hundreds of years1 in spite of the foreign civilization that was being grafted upon ,mexico 7grafted in all senses of the word72 and it was not until forty years ago 7indeed the worst of it not till twenty-five years ago71 that the increasing power of the government made it possible to destroy this ancient life of the people4 ,by them1 the woods1 the waters1 and the lands were held in common4 ,any one might cut wood from the forest to build his cabin1 make use of the rivers to irrigate his field or garden patch 7and this is a right whose acknowledgment none but those who know the aridity of the southwest can fully appreciate the imperative necessity for74 ,tillable lands were allotted by mutual agreement before sowing1 and reverted to the tribe after harvesting1 for reallotment4 ,pasturage1 the right to collect fuel1 were for all4 ,the habits of mutual aid which always arise among sparsely settled communities were instinctive with them4 ,neighbor assisted neighbor to build his cabin1 to plough his ground1 to gather and store this crop4 ,no legal machinery existed--no taxgatherer1 no justice1 no jailer4 ,all that they had to do with the hated foreign civilization was to pay the periodical rent-collector1 and to get out of the way of the recruiting officer when he came around4 ,those two personages they regarded with spite and dread2 but as the major portion of their lives was not in immediate contact with them1 they could still keep on in their old way of life in the main4 ,with the development of the ,diaz regime1 which came into power in #ahgf 7and when ,i say the ,diaz regime ,i do not especially mean the man ,diaz1 for ,i think he has been both overcursed and overpraised1 but the whole force which has steadily developed centralized power from then on1 and the whole policy of civilizing ,mexico1 which was the ,diaz boast71 with its development1 ,i say1 this ,indian life has been broken up1 violated with as ruthless a hand as ever tore up a people by the roots and cast them out as weeds to wither in the sun4 ,historians relate with horror the iron deeds of ,william the ,conqueror1 who in the eleventh century created the ,new ,forest by laying waste the farms of ,england1 destroying the homes of the people to make room for the deer4 ,but his edicts were mercy compared with the action of the ,mexican government toward the ,indians4 ,in order to introduce progressive civilization the ,diaz regime granted away immense concessions of land1 to native and foreign capitalists--chiefly foreign indeed1 though there were enough of native sharks as well4 ,mostly these concessions were granted to capitalistic combinations1 which were to build railroads 7and in some cases did so in a most uncalled for and uneconomic way71 develop mineral resources1 or establish modern industries4 ,the government took no note of the ancient tribal rights or customs1 and those who received the concessions proceeded to enforce their property rights4 ,they introduced the unheard of crime of trespass4 ,they forbade the cutting of a tree1 the breaking of a branch1 the gathering of the fallen wood in the forests4 ,they claimed the watercourses1 forbidding their free use to the people2 and it was as if one had forbidden to us the rains of heaven4 ,the unoccupied land was theirs2 no hand might drive a plow into the soil without first obtaining permission from a distant master--a permission granted on the condition that the product be the landlord's1 a small1 pitifully small1 wage1 the worker's4 ,nor was this enough3 in #ahid was passed ,the ,law of ,unappropriated ,lands4 ,by that law1 not only were the great stretches of vacant1 in the old time common1 land appropriated1 but the occupied lands themselves to which the occupants could not show a legal title were to be denounced2 that is1 the educated and the powerful1 who were able to keep up with the doings of the government1 went to the courts and said that there was no legal title to such and such land1 and put in a claim for it4 ,and the usual hocus-pocus of legality being complied with 7the actual occupant of the land being all the time blissfully unconscious of the law1 in the innocence of his barbarism supposing that the working of the ground by his generations of forbears was title all-sufficient7 one fine day the sheriff comes upon this hapless dweller on the heath and drives him from his ancient habitat to wander an outcast4 ,such are the blessings of education4 ,mankind invents a written sign to aid its intercommunication2 and forthwith all manner of miracles are wrought with the sign4 ,even such a miracle as that a part of the solid earth passes under the mastery of an impotent sheet of paper2 and a distant bit of animated flesh which never even saw the ground1 acquires the power to expel hundreds1 thousands1 of like bits of flesh1 though they grew upon that ground as the trees grow1 labored it with their hands1 and fertilized it with their bones for a thousand years4 ,this law of unappropriated lands1 says ,william ,archer1 has covered the country with ,naboth's ,vineyards4 ,i think it would require a ,biblical prophet to describe the abomination of desolation it has made4 ,it was to become lords of this desolation that the men who play the game--landlords who are at the same time governors and magistrates1 enterprising capitalists seeking investments--connived at the iniquities of the ,diaz regime2 ,i will go further and say devised them4 ,the ,madero family alone owns some #h1jjj square miles of territory2 more than the entire state of ,new ,jersey4 ,the ,terrazas family1 in the state of ,chihuahua1 owns #be1jjj square miles2 rather more than the entire state of ,west ,virginia1 nearly one-half the size of ,illinois4 ,what was the plantation owning of our southern states in chattel slavery days1 compared with this8 ,and the peon's share for his toil upon these great estates is hardly more than was the chattel slave's--wretched housing1 wretched food1 and wretched clothing4 ,it is to slaves like these that ,madero appeals to be frugal4 ,it is of men who have thus been disinherited that our complacent fellow-citizens of ,anglo-,saxon origin1 say3 ,mexicans6 ,what do you know about ,mexicans8 ,their whole idea of life is to lean up against a fence and smoke cigarettes4 ,and pray1 what idea of life should a people have whose means of life in their own way have been taken from them8 ,should they be so mighty anxious to convert their strength into wealth for some other man to loll in8 ,it reminds me very much of the answer given by a negro employee on the works at ,fortress ,monroe to a companion of mine who questioned him good-humoredly on his easy idleness when the foreman's back was turned4 ,ah ain't goin' to do no white man's work1 fo' ,ah don' get no white man's pay4 ,but for the ,yaquis1 there was worse than this4 ,not only were their lands seized1 but they were ordered1 a few years since1 to be deported to ,yucatan4 ,now ,sonora1 as ,i said1 is a northern state1 and ,yucatan one of the southernmost4 ,yucatan hemp is famous1 and so is ,yucatan fever1 and ,yucatan slavery on the hemp plantations4 ,it was to that fever and that slavery that the ,yaquis were deported1 in droves of hundreds at a time1 men1 women and children--droves like cattle droves1 driven and beaten like cattle4 ,they died there1 like flies1 as it was meant they should4 ,sonora was desolated of her rebellious people1 and the land became pacific in the hands of the new landowners4 ,too pacific in spots4 ,they had not left people enough to reap the harvests4 ,then the government suspended the deportation act1 but with the provision that for every crime committed by a ,yaqui1 five hundred of his people be deported4 ,this statement is made in ,madero's own book4 ,now what in all conscience would any one with decent human feeling expect a ,yaqui to do8 ,fight6 ,as long as there was powder and bullet to be begged1 borrowed1 or stolen2 as long as there is a garden to plunder1 or a hole in the hills to hide in6 ,when the revolution burst out1 the ,yaquis and other ,indian peoples1 said to the revolutionists3 ,promise us our lands back1 and we will fight with you4 ,and they are keeping their word1 magnificently4 ,all during the summer they have kept up the warfare4 ,early in ,september1 the ,chihuahua papers reported a band of #a1jjj ,yaquis in ,sonora about to attack ,el ,anil2 a week later #ejj ,yaquis had seized the former quarters of the federal troops at ,pitahaya4 ,this week it is reported that federal troops are dispatched to ,ponoitlan1 a town in ,jalisco1 to quell the ,indians who have risen in revolt again because their delusion that the ,maderist government was to restore their land has been dispelled4 ,like reports from ,sinaloa4 ,in the terrible state of ,yucatan1 the ,mayas are in active rebellion2 the reports say that the authorities and leading citizens of various towns have been seized by the malcontents and put in prison4 ,what is more interesting is1 that the peons have seized not only the leading citizens1 but still more to the purpose have seized the plantations1 parceled them1 and are already gathering the crops for themselves4 ,of course1 it is not the pure ,indians alone who form the peon class of ,mexico4 ,rather more than double the number of ,indians are mixed breeds2 that is1 about #h1jjj1jjj1 leaving less than #c1jjj1jjj of pure white stock4 ,the mestiza1 or mixed breed population1 have followed the communistic instincts and customs of their ,indian forbears2 while from the ,latin side of their make-up1 they have certain tendencies which work well together with their ,indian hatred of authority4 ,the mestiza1 as well as the ,indians1 are mostly ignorant in book-knowledge1 only about sixteen per cent4 of the whole population of ,mexico being able to read and write4 ,it was not within the program of the civilizing regime to spend money in putting the weapon of learning in the people's hands4 ,but to conclude that people are necessarily unintelligent because they are illiterate1 is in itself a rather unintelligent proceeding4 ,moreover1 a people habituated to the communal customs of an ancient agricultural life do not need books or papers to tell them that the soil is the source of wealth1 and they must get back to the land1 even if their intelligence is limited4 ,accordingly1 they have got back to the land4 ,in the state of ,morelos1 which is a small1 south-central state1 but a very important one--being next to the ,federal ,district1 and by consequence to the city of ,mexico--there has been a remarkable land revolution4 ,general ,zapata1 whose name has figured elusively in newspaper reports now as having made peace with ,madero1 then as breaking faith1 next wounded and killed1 and again resurrected and in hiding1 then anew on the warpath and proclaimed by the provisional government the arch-rebel who must surrender unconditionally and be tried by court-martial2 who has seized the strategic points on both the railroads running through ,morelos1 and who just a few days ago broke into the federal district1 sacked a town1 fought successfully at two or three points1 with the federals1 blew out two railroad bridges and so frightened the deputies in ,mexico ,city that they are clamoring for all kinds of action2 this ,zapata1 the fires of whose military camps are springing up now in ,guerrero1 ,oaxaca and ,puebla as well1 is an ,indian with a long score to pay1 and all an ,indian's satisfaction in paying it4 ,he appears to be a fighter of the style of our revolutionary ,marion and ,sumter2 the country in which he is operating is mountainous1 and guerilla bands are exceedingly difficult of capture2 even when they are defeated1 they have usually succeeded in inflicting more damage than they have received1 and they always get away4 ,zapata has divided up the great estates of ,morelos from end to end1 telling the peasants to take possession4 ,they have done so4 ,they are in possession1 and have already harvested their crops4 ,morelos has a population of some #bab1jjj4 ,in ,puebla reports in ,september told us that eighty leading citizens had waited on the governor to protest against the taking possession of the land by the peasantry4 ,the troops were deserting1 taking horses and arms with them4 ,it is they no doubt who are now fighting with ,zapata4 ,in ,chihuahua1 one of the largest states1 prisons have been thrown open and the prisoners recruited as rebels2 a great hacienda was attacked and the horses run off1 whereupon the peons rose and joined the attacking party4 ,in ,sinaloa1 a rich northern state--famous in the southwestern ,united ,states some years ago as the field of a great co-operative experiment in which ,mr4 ,c4 ,b4 ,hoffman1 one of the former editors of ,the ,chicago ,daily ,socialist1 was a leading spirit--this week's paper reports that the former revolutionary general1 ,juan ,banderas1 is heading an insurrection second in importance only to that led by ,zapata4 ,in the southern border state of ,chiapas1 the taxes in many places could not be collected4 ,last week news items said that the present government had sent ,general ,paz there1 with federal troops1 to remedy that state of affairs4 ,in ,tabasco1 the peons refused to harvest the crops for their masters2 let us hope they have imitated their brothers in ,morelos and gathered them for themselves4 ,the ,maderists have announced that a stiff repressive campaign will be inaugurated at once2 if we are to believe the papers1 we are to believe ,madero guilty of the imbecility of saying1 ,five days after my inauguration the rebellion will be crushed4 ,just why the crushing has to wait till five days after the inauguration does not appear4 ,i conceive there must have been some snickering among the reactionary deputies if such an announcement was really made2 and some astonished query among his followers4 ,what are we to conclude from all these reports8 ,that the ,mexican people are satisfied8 ,that it's all good and settled8 ,what should we think if we read that the people1 not of ,lower but of ,upper1 ,california had turned out the ranch owners1 had started to gather in the field products for themselves and that the ,secretary of ,war had sent ,united ,states troops to attack some thousands of armed men 7,zapata has had #c1jjj under arms the whole summer and that force is now greatly increased7 who were defending that expropriation8 if we read that in the state of ,illinois the farmers had driven off the tax collector8 that the coast states were talking of secession and forming an independent combination8 that in ,pennsylvania a division of the federal army was to be dispatched to overpower a rebel force of fifteen hundred armed men doing guerilla work from the mountains8 that the prison doors of ,maryland1 within hailing distance of ,washington ,city1 were being thrown open by armed revoltees8 ,should we call it a condition of peace8 ,regard it a proof that the people were appeased8 ,we would not3 we would say that revolution was in full swing4 ,and the reason you have thought it was all over in ,mexico1 from last ,may till now1 is that the ,chicago press1 like the eastern1 northern1 and central press in general1 has said nothing about this steady march of revolt4 ,even ,the ,socialist has been silent4 ,now that the flame has shot up more spectacularly for the moment1 they call it a new revolution4 ,that the papers pursue this course is partly due to the generally acting causes that produce our northern indifference1 which ,i shall presently try to explain1 and partly to the settled policy of capitalized interest in controlling its mouthpieces in such a manner as to give their present henchmen1 the ,maderists1 a chance to pull their chestnuts out of the fire4 ,they invested some #aj1jjj1jjj in this bunch1 in the hope that they may be able to accomplish the double feat of keeping capitalist possessions intact and at the same time pacifying the people with specious promises4 ,they want to lend them all the countenance they can1 till the experiment is well tried2 so they deliberately suppress revolutionary news4 ,among the later items of interest reported by the ,los ,angeles ,times are those which announce an influx of ex-officials and many-millioned landlords of ,mexico1 who are hereafter to be residents of ,los ,angeles4 ,what is the meaning of it8 ,simply that life in ,mexico is not such a safe and comfortable proposition as it was1 and that for the present they prefer to get such income as their agents can collect without themselves running the risk of actual residence4 ,of course it is understood that some of this notable efflux 7the supporters of ,reyes1 for example1 who have their own little rebellions in ,tabasco and ,san ,luis ,potosi this week7 are political reactionists1 scheming to get back the political loaves and fishes into their own hands4 ,but most are simply those who know that their property right is safe enough to be respected by the ,maderist government1 but that the said government is not strong enough to put down the innumerable manifestations of popular hatred which are likely to terminate fatally to themselves if they remain there4 ,nor is all of this fighting revolutionary2 not by any means4 ,some is reactionary1 some probably the satisfaction of personal grudge1 much1 no doubt1 the expression of general turbulency of a very unconscious nature4 ,but granting all that may be thrown in the balance1 the main thing1 the mighty thing1 the regenerative revolution is the ,reappropriation of the land by the peasants4 ,thousands upon thousands of them are doing it4 ,ignorant peasants3 peasants who know nothing about the jargon of land reformers or of ,socialists4 ,yes3 that's just the glory of it6 ,just the fact that it is done by ignorant people2 that is1 people ignorant of book theories2 but not ignorant1 not so ignorant by half1 of life on the land1 as the theory-spinners of the cities4 ,their minds are simple and direct2 they act accordingly4 ,for them1 there is one way to get back to the land2 i4 e41 to ignore the machinery of paper land-holding 7in many instances they have burned the records of the title-deeds7 and proceed to plough the ground1 to sow and plant and gather1 and keep the product themselves4 ,economists1 of course1 will say that these ignorant people1 with their primitive institutions and methods1 will not develop the agricultural resources of ,mexico1 and that they must give way before those who will so develop its resources2 that such is the law of human development4 ,in the first place1 the abominable political combination1 which gave away1 as recklessly as a handful of soap-bubbles1 the agricultural resources of ,mexico--gave them away to the millionaire speculators who were to develop the country--were the educated men of ,mexico4 ,and this is what they saw fit to do with their higher intelligence and education4 ,so the ignorant may well distrust the good intentions of educated men who talk about improvements in land development4 ,in the second place1 capitalistic land-ownership1 so far from developing the land in such a manner as to support a denser population1 has depopulated whole districts1 immense districts4 ,in the third place1 what the economists do not say is1 that the only justification for intense cultivation of the land is1 that the product of such cultivation may build up the bodies of men 7by consequence their souls7 to richer and fuller manhood4 ,it is not merely to pile up figures of so many million bushels of wheat and corn produced in a season2 but that this wheat and corn shall first go into the stomachs of those who planted it--and in abundance2 to build up the brawn and sinew of the arms that work the ground1 not meanly maintaining them in a half-starved condition4 ,and second1 to build up the strength of the rest of the nation who are willing to give needed labor in exchange4 ,but never to increase the fortunes of idlers who dissipate it4 ,this is the purpose1 and the only purpose1 of tilling soil2 and the working of it for any other purpose is waste1 waste both of land and of men4 ,in the fourth place1 no change ever was1 or ever can be1 worked out in any society1 except by the mass of the people4 ,theories may be propounded by educated people1 and set down in books1 and discussed in libraries1 sitting-rooms and lecture-halls2 but they will remain barren1 unless the people in mass work them out4 ,if the change proposed is such that it is not adaptable to the minds of the people for whose ills it is supposed to be a remedy1 then it will remain what it was1 a barren theory4 ,now the conditions in ,mexico have been and are so desperate that some change is imperative4 ,the action of the peasants proves it4 ,even if a strong military dictator shall arise1 he will have to allow some provision going towards peasant proprietorship4 ,these unlettered1 but determined1 people must be dealt with now2 there is no such thing as waiting till they are educated up to it4 ,therefore the wisdom of the economists is wisdom out of place--rather1 relative unwisdom4 ,the people never can be educated1 if their conditions are to remain what they were under the ,diaz regime4 ,bodies and minds are both too impoverished to be able to profit by a spread of theoretical education1 even if it did not require unavailable money and indefinite time to prepare such a spread4 ,whatever economic change is wrought1 then1 must be such as the people in their present state of comprehension can understand and make use of4 ,and we see by the reports what they understand4 ,they understand they have a right upon the soil1 a right to use it for themselves1 a right to drive off the invader who has robbed them1 to destroy landmarks and title-deeds1 to ignore the taxgatherer and his demands4 ,and however primitive their agricultural methods may be1 one thing is sure2 that they are more economical than any system which heaps up fortunes by destroying men4 ,moreover1 who is to say how they may develop their methods once they have a free opportunity to do so8 ,it is a common belief of the ,anglo-,saxon that the ,indian is essentially lazy4 ,the reasons for his thinking so are two3 under the various tyrannies and robberies which white men in general1 and ,anglo-,saxons in particular 7they have even gone beyond the ,spaniard7 have inflicted upon ,indians1 there is no possible reason why an ,indian should want to work1 save the idiotic one that work in itself is a virtuous and exalted thing1 even if by it the worker increases the power of his tyrant4 ,as ,william ,archer says3 ,if there are men1 and this is not denied1 who work for no wage1 and with no prospect or hope of any reward1 it would be curious to know by what motive other than the lash or the fear of the lash1 they are induced to go forth to their labor in the morning4 ,the second reason is1 that an ,indian really has a different idea of what he is alive for than an ,anglo-,saxon has4 ,and so have the ,latin peoples4 ,this different idea is what ,i meant when ,i said that the mestiza have certain tendencies inherited from the ,latin side of their make-up which work well together with their ,indian hatred of authority4 ,the ,indian likes to live2 to be his own master2 to work when he pleases and stop when he pleases4 ,he does not crave many things1 but he craves the enjoyment of the things that he has4 ,he feels himself more a part of nature than a white man does4 ,all his legends are of wanderings with nature1 of forests1 fields1 streams1 plants1 animals4 ,he wants to live with the same liberty as the other children of earth4 ,his philosophy of work is1 ,work so as to live care-free4 ,this is not laziness2 this is sense--to the person who has that sort of make-up4 ,your ,latin1 on the other hand1 also wants to live2 and having artistic impulses in him1 his idea of living is very much in gratifying them4 ,he likes music and song and dance1 picture-making1 carving1 and decorating4 ,he doesn't like to be forced to create his fancies in a hurry2 he likes to fashion them1 and admire them1 and improve and refashion them1 and admire again2 and all for the fun of it4 ,if he is ordered to create a certain design or a number of objects at a fixed price in a given time1 he loses his inspiration2 the play becomes work1 and hateful work4 ,so he1 too1 does not want to work1 except what is requisite to maintain himself in a position to do those things that he likes better4 ,your ,anglo-,saxon's idea of life1 however1 is to create the useful and the profitable--whether he has any use or profit out of it or not--and to keep busy1 busy2 to bestir himself like the ,devil in a holy water font4 ,like all other people1 he makes a special virtue of his own natural tendencies1 and wants all the world to get busy2 it doesn't so much matter to what end this business is to be conducted1 provided the individual--scrabbles4 ,whenever a true ,anglo-,saxon seeks to enjoy himself1 he makes work out of that too1 after the manner of a certain venerable ,english shopkeeper who in company with his son visited the ,louvre4 ,being tired out with walking from room to room1 consulting his catalogue1 and reading artists' names1 he dropped down to rest2 but after a few moments rose resolutely and faced the next room1 saying1 ,well1 ,alfred1 we'd better be getting through our work4 ,there is much question as to the origin of the various instincts4 ,most people have the impression that the chief source of variation lies in the difference in the amount of sunlight received in the native countries inhabited of the various races4 ,whatever the origin is1 these are the broadly marked tendencies of the people4 ,and ,business seems bent not only upon fulfilling its own fore-ordained destiny1 but upon making all the others fulfill it too4 ,which is both unjust and stupid4 ,there is room enough in the world for the races to try out their several tendencies and make their independent contributions to the achievements of humanity1 without imposing them on those who revolt at them4 ,granting that the population of ,mexico1 if freed from this foreign busy idea which the government imported from the north and imposed on them with such severity in the last forty years1 would not immediately adopt improved methods of cultivation1 even when they should have free opportunity to do so1 still we have no reason to conclude that they would not adopt so much of it as would fit their idea of what a man is alive for2 and if that actually proved good1 it would introduce still further development4 ,so that there would be a natural1 and therefore solid1 economic growth which would stick2 while a forced development of it through the devastation of the people is no true growth4 ,the only way to make it go1 is to kill out the ,indians altogether1 and transport the busy crowd there1 and then keep on transporting for several generations1 to fill up the ravages the climate will make on such an imported population4 ,the ,indian population of our states was in fact dealt with in this murderous manner4 ,i do not know how grateful the reflection may be to those who materially profited by its extermination2 but no one who looks forward to the final unification and liberation of man1 to the incorporation of the several goodnesses of the various races in the one universal race1 can ever read those pages of our history without burning shame and fathomless regret4 ,i have spoken of the meaning of revolution in general2 of the meaning of the ,mexican revolution--chiefly an agrarian one2 of its present condition4 ,i think it should be apparent to you that in spite of the electoral victory of the now ruling power1 it has not put an end even to the armed rebellion1 and cannot1 until it proposes some plan of land restoration2 and that it not only has no inward disposition to do1 but probably would not dare to do1 in view of the fact that immense capital financed it into power4 ,as to what amount of popular sentiment was actually voiced in the election1 it is impossible to say4 ,the dailies informed us that in the ,federal ,district where there are #a1jjj1jjj voters1 the actual vote was less than #dej1jjj4 ,they offered no explanation4 ,it is impossible to explain it on the ground that we explain a light vote in our own communities1 that the people are indifferent to public questions2 for the people of ,mexico are not now indifferent1 whatever else they may be4 ,two explanations are possible3 the first1 and most probable1 that of governmental intimidation2 the second1 that the people are convinced of the uselessness of voting as a means of settling their troubles4 ,in the less thickly populated agricultural states1 this is very largely the case2 they are relying upon direct revolutionary action4 ,but although there was guerilla warfare in the ,federal ,district1 even before the election1 ,i find it unlikely that more than half the voting population there abstained from voting out of conviction1 though ,i should be glad to be able to believe they did4 ,however1 ,madero and his aids are in1 as was expected2 the question is1 how will they stay in8 ,as ,diaz did1 and in no other way--if they succeed in developing ,diaz's sometime ability2 which so far they are wide from having done1 though they are resorting to the most vindictive and spiteful tactics in their persecution of the genuine revolutionists1 wherever such come near their clutch4 ,to this whole turbulent situation three outcomes are possible3 #a4 ,a military dictator must arise1 with sense enough to make some substantial concessions1 and ability enough to pursue the crushing policy ably2 or #b4 ,the ,united ,states must intervene in the interests of ,american capitalists and landholders1 in case the peasant revolt is not put down by the ,maderist power4 ,and that will be the worst thing that can possibly happen1 and against which every worker in the ,united ,states should protest with all his might2 or #c4 ,the ,mexican peasantry will be successful1 and freedom in land become an actual fact4 ,and that means the death-knell of great land-holding in this country also1 for what people is going to see its neighbor enjoy so great a triumph1 and sit on tamely itself under landlordism8 ,whatever the outcome be1 one thing is certain3 it is a great movement1 which all the people of the world should be eagerly watching4 ,yet as ,i said at the beginning1 the majority of our population know no more about it than of a revolt on the planet ,jupiter4 ,first because they are so1 so1 busy2 they scarcely have time to look over the baseball score and the wrestling match2 how could they read up on a revolution6 ,second1 they are supremely egotistic and concerned in their own big country with its big deeds--such as divorce scandals1 vice-grafting1 and auto races4 ,third1 they do not read ,spanish1 and they have an ancient hostility to all that smells ,spanish4 ,fourth1 from our cradles we were told that whatever happened in ,mexico was a joke4 ,revolutions1 or rather rebellions1 came and went1 about like ,april showers1 and they never meant anything serious4 ,and in this indeed there was only too much truth--it was usually an excuse for one place-hunter to get another one's scalp4 ,and lastly1 as ,i have said1 the majority of our people do not know that a revolution means a fundamental change in social life1 and not a spectacular display of armies4 ,it is not much a few can do to remove this mountain of indifference2 but to me it seems that every reformer1 of whatever school1 should wish to watch this movement with the most intense interest1 as a practical manifestation of a wakening of the landworkers themselves to the recognition of what all schools of revolutionary economics admit to be the primal necessity--the social repossession of the land4 ,and whether they be victorious or defeated1 ,i1 for one1 bow my head to those heroic strugglers1 no matter how ignorant they are1 who have raised the cry ,land and ,liberty1 and planted the blood-red banner on the burning soil of ,mexico4 ,thomas ,paine ,to speak of ,thomas ,paine is to mention in one breath daring tempered by judgment1 courage both mental and physical1 foresight and prudence coupled with unstinted generosity1 patience and endurance for the long race1 constancy to the unwon ideal1 that superior power over men1 conferred by no extrinsic dictum1 typified best perhaps by the loadstone1 which always bursts forth in times of revolution from the unexpected place1 the unbought and the unsought glory of the man who is a hero because a hero is required and does not measure his services nor reckon on their reward2 not that he underrates himself2 7it is as impossible as it is undesirable that a powerful personality should not know itself as such7 but simply that in the moment of decisions the value of self is abandoned4 ,so far as any or all of these qualities are concerned ,thomas ,paine is a name for them all1 in their highest expression4 ,and one feels in approaching him that there is something like treason in paying him any but a perfect tribute4 ,yet such is the position into which ,i am forced1--to say less than ,i should1 less than ,i would had not words and the art of using them almost failed me4 ,i do not like lecturers who come before the public with apologies1 nor do ,i propose to make any2 ,i simply say this to let you know that ,i shall feel1 perhaps more keenly than any of you1 my failure to do ,paine justice4 ,for the half century that his history has been being unmined from the cellar of calumny and filth that the orthodox had cast upon it1 unmined chiefly by small groups of freethinkers scattered here and there and spreading his words among men1 like the little foxes with the firebrands going in among the corn1 the principal endeavor has been to establish ,paine's reputation as a great reformer in religion4 ,and such he undoubtedly was4 ,whoever reads his ,age of ,reason in anything but a spirit of predisposition against it1 must feel this1 however much he may disagree with ,paine's criticism1 or consider that he has come short in his constructive philosophy4 ,and it is meet1 too1 that the book that cost him most1 both before and after death1 should be the one selected for defense4 ,nevertheless the effect has been rather to lose sight of what appear to me greater thoughts and acts4 ,for just as the orthodox have forgotten1 so have many freethinkers forgotten1 his immense labors in the field of active struggle against the domination of man by man4 ,it is true that his mind did not transcend the mental vesture of the time1 and it was all the better in one of his marvelous capacities for swinging masses of men that it did not4 ,the lonely heralds of the opening dawn go upon their paths solitary2 no matter how much they desire to draw others with them1 they cannot4 ,and had ,paine been one of these that break through the forms of thought such as was ,copernicus1 or ,kant1 or ,darwin1 he would have been at constant war with himself4 ,half his nature would have chosen the lonely path2 the other half1 the zealot1 the propagandist1 would have cried out1 they must go with me2 ,i must do something to make them go with me4 ,now the secret of ,paine's success was that he was so thoroughly at one with himself1 he believed so utterly what he preached1 he had faith1 he hoped1 and so strongly that others were drawn to believe and to hope4 ,for spite of all intellectual pride this is the man whom we love and admire2 this is the man who overcomes us1 who gets his way2 this man consistent in himself1 who has a remedy for the world's wrongs and hopes everything from it6 ,from the point of vantage of #ajj years' experience it is seen that ,paine's political creed1 like his religious one1 will no longer fit4 ,but that does not matter4 ,neither will ours fit in a hundred years1 and none of us1 no1 not one1 is great enough to foresee where the misfit will arise4 ,it is not our business to bear the evils of the thrice unborn upon our necks2 nor was it ,paine's to bear ours4 ,yet while not claiming for him the prophetic gift1 it is still true that he did see the moral patchwork in our constitution1 the trouble of #ahab brewing1 and the greater trouble of '#fa-'fe4 ,when he first came to this country he wrote a number of contributions to the ,pennsylvania ,magazine1 in one of which he pleaded justice for the negro1 basing his plea then as always upon the natural equality of man irrespective of color4 ,afterwards when the constitution was framed1 he objected that nothing had been done for the negro1 and in his letters to the ,american people1 written after his imprisonment in ,france1 in which the constitution was caustically reviewed1 he cries out again for this yoked man not yet to be freed for more than half a hundred years1--foreseeing that nothing good can in the end come from slavery1 that every evil must bring a compensating evil4 ,the soldiers' graves in the ,national cemeteries1 the thousands of limping1 haggard tatters and rags of white men attest how well ,paine foresaw ,time's revenges4 ,in the letter to ,washington1 partially unjust as it is in view of the fact that ,gouverneur ,morris and not ,washington was responsible for the failure to save ,paine from prison in ,france1 as we now know1 thanks to ,moncure ,conway1 but which ,paine did not know1--in this letter1 ,i say1 will be found the most terrible arraignment of the constitution ever penned4 ,we who are ,anarchists are called traitors for much calmer talk4 ,yet here was the man whose pen had done more for the revolution than ,washington's sword1 as his bitterest enemy declared2 who believed heart and soul in the republic1 who had given his money and his substance and taken the chances of his life in battle for it2 the man whose devotion to ,america could not be gainsaid2 this man declared that the ,american constitution was the mirror of the most vicious features of the ,british constitution1 a fecund soil for monopolies with all their ills4 ,it is we who experience those ills1 we who know what a gigantic tool of oppression the constitution and the cumbersome machinery of the lawmaking power have become4 ,yet probably even we do not feel so keenly as he the fatal blunder2 for while we know how it grinds us in our flesh and souls1 rears its prisons and scaffolds for us1 we have had the yoke about our necks always1--while he had once seen the country free4 ,he had been through all the battle1 had fought his fight and won his victory1 only to see it lost through cowardice of thought4 ,that was indeed bitter2 and it is that bitter outcry against this sacrifice which marks ,paine out among most of his time for influence on future history4 ,the fact that he was the initiator of the direct movement for political independence in ,america1 in the famous meeting where ,adams1 ,franklin and ,washington all shrank from uttering the thought heavy upon their souls1 is a matter of past history4 ,the fact that he was the one man in ,america to write the right thing at the right time1 his voice the wind to sweep the scattering flames of insubordination and revolt into the conflagration of revolution2 the fact that he proposed and headed with the whole contents of his purse the subscription to save the army when even ,washington was in despair at the prospect of mutiny and desertion among the soldiers2 the fact that he raised all the feeling possible against the fiction of divine rights and so got himself hunted out of ,england2 the fact that he took the most active part possible in aiding the work of the ,french revolutionists1 which he believed would be the beginning of the breakdown of monarchy throughout ,europe and the building up either of one universal continental republic or a confederation of sister republics2 the fact that he was the one man in the convention who dared to stand for the life of ,louis the ,,xvi1 and thereby got himself suspected1 thrown into prison1 and condemned to death--all these facts are of import in reading the character of the man1 and in comprehending the record of those days when they were making history fast4 ,yet none of these has so much influence upon the demands of to-day as the voice of discontent crying for eternal vigilance1 which sounds through these almost unknown letters4 ,these are the things which it will pay to reprint in the day when ,american liberty feels in its tomb the first stirrings of the resurrection4 ,did we like ,paine believe in ,god1 we might say ,pray ,god it may not be far away4 ,such are the characters whose historic influence is greatest2 they who hew1 and hew hard to the line laid down for them by the events of their time2 yet are not blinded by the stir and roll of things2 who see clearly where the deflection from the line is likely to occur1 and where it will lead2 who raise the warning treble that goes shrilling to the future1 startling1 waking with its eerie cry custom-dulled ears1 and sodden souls1 who start to ask1 was it not a ghost of the ,revolution8 ,in that day which may not be so distant as we fear1 ,paine will be more alive than ever2 he will be watching at a million firesides with the old keen1 strong eyes4 ,while ,i have deprecated the fact that the religious reformer has been exalted to the neglect of the political one1 ,i cannot omit that part of his life-work so well-known to all1 yet never old4 ,the ,age of ,reason has long been both exaggerated and despised as an iconoclastic work4 ,but we are indebted to ,conway1 the greatest of ,paine students1 who out of the many biographies he has written has chosen that of ,paine to be the master-piece of his life 7and it is a work which any author might be proud to regard his master-piece71 to him ,i say we are indebted for a different view of the ,age of ,reason4 ,i know not whether ,mr4 ,conway's own ,unitarian bias may not have influenced him2 it is possible4 ,it is possible that his eager search for positivism may have unconsciously determined his attitude towards the great hero1 and modified his interpretation of ,paine's words4 ,i believe it has2 because ,i believe that is inevitable4 ,i believe we read our own ideals into other people1 and must do so if we think at all4 ,but making all allowance for the biographer's prejudgment1 ,conway has still a magnificent argument for putting ,paine in the defendant's position4 ,we are no longer to view the book as an attack upon religion but as its defense1--the defense of what is beneficial1 permanent1 necessary1 in the religious element of human nature against the scribes and pharisees on the one hand and the philistines on the other4 ,it was the plea for the redemption of the edifice from the dirt and cobwebs1 the protest against smashing the stones to kill the spiders4 ,the great prerequisite to the understanding of the ,age of ,reason is an acquaintance with the literature of that time--especially ,french literature4 ,the pamphlets1 periodicals1 and books are the crystals wherein the ,zeitgeist of the #ahth century is preserved4 ,without this acquaintance we cannot realize how the people continually thought1 and what was new and what was old1 what was acceptable and what unacceptable to them4 ,and we shall find by it that the fashion of sneering popularized by ,voltaire1 and so admirably embodied by the finesse of the ,french language 7always a language of double meanings and hemi-demi-semi-shaded insinuations71 the still more reprehensible habit of deducing immense generals from very scanty particulars1 or in fact contriving the generals first and then fitting in or suavely waiving the particulars altogether1 had so permeated not only ,french philosophy1 but the heads of the common people as well1 that religion had become almost a byword1 a baseless superstition unaccounted for by1 and unnecessary according to1 the all-accepted theory of ,natural ,law4 ,to defend it1 to maintain that there was something else in it1 was equivalent to pleading for the life of the ,king before the convention6 ,that was to maintain that there were claims of the human--after the ,king had been stripped2 this was to say that underneath the gewgaws and tinsel of religions the undying heart of man1 the man of all the past1 had been expressing its noblest aspirations4 ,and ,paine stripped off the tinsel and said1 ,put your hand here1--it beats2 and because he tore the tinsel1 the orthodox would have stoned him2 and because he said it beats1 the philosophers would have whetted the knife4 ,and between the two he stood firm1 proclaiming what he believed1 not counting the cost4 ,we may not believe as he2 most of us do not4 ,but that is the man we love3 who has something in him superior to the judgments of men2 who holds steadfast--steadfast even in persecution1 even to death4 ,perhaps there is no more pathetic thing than the last years1 the death1 and the burial of ,paine4 ,the world would have been poorer had he died sooner2 but to him1 to the man1 the gun-shot or the guillotine had been kinder than the unhappy life rejected by the nation he had given all to free1 shunned by political cowards and persecuted by religious bigots1--even on his death-bed4 ,but though so lonely1 so pathetically lonely1 there is something that sends a fine1 cold thrill along the nerves in that strange procession and burial--that poor procession1 that procession of the ,hicksite ,quaker1 the two negroes1 the widowed ,frenchwoman and her son4 ,i wonder what sort of day it was2 whether the sun shone or the clouds lowered over the solitary grave on the little farm1 when ,margaret ,bonneville said to her child1 ,stand you there at his feet1 for ,france2 and ,i will here1 for ,america4 ,i do not know where the negroes and the ,hicksite stood when that august corpse was lowered to the depths1 but there1 close1 somewhere1 stood the unfreed race1 for whom he had vainly plead1 and there1 close1 somewhere1 the soul's revolt at spiritual masters4 ,and from that tomb there went away the scattering fires1 of the risen ghost1 the '#fa living ,paine1 the ,grand ,reality4 ,dyer ,d4 ,lum 7,february #ae1 #ahci--;,april #f1 #ahic7 ,one of the silent martyrs whose graves are trodden to the level by their fellows' feet1 almost before it is seen that they have fallen1 completed his martyrdom one year ago to-night4 ,there are thousands of such1 why then commemorate this one8 ,let our answer be that in this one we commemorate all the others1 and if we have chosen his day and name1 it is because his genius1 his work1 his character was one of those rare gems produced in the great mine of suffering and flashing backward with all its changing lights the hopes1 the fears1 the gaieties1 the griefs1 the dreams1 the doubts1 the loves1 the hates1 the sum of that which is buried1 low down there1 in the human mine4 ,no more modest a man than ,dyer ,d4 ,lum ever lived2 partly1 nay mostly1 indeed1 it was inborn1 instinctive2 but it was also fostered by his conception of life1 which led him to consider self as the veriest of soap-bubbles1 a thing to be dispelled by the merest whiff of wind1 so to speak2 and therefore1 personal recognition or personal gain as the most silly1 as well as unworthy1 of motives4 ,for this reason his works have often gone where his name did not1 and thousands of persons have been influenced by his logic and his sentiments who never heard of his personality4 ,indeed there were some of us who wondered when he died1 what certain labor leaders would henceforth do for a cheap scribe to furnish them brains4 ,i have often heard him quote as his motto1 both for organization and for literary effort1 the expressive sentence3 ,get in your work4 ,let fools take the credit if they want it1 was the implication of his tone1 and ,i shall never forget the delightful smile with which he repeated ,charles ,mackay's lines1 most singularly transposing the author's meaning3 ,grub little moles----4 ,he took an especial pleasure in grubbing1 and smiling when a streak of sunlight fell on some one else4 ,i have said that this distinguishing characteristic1 so fruitful in results in his later life1 was partly instinctive and partly a philosophic conviction4 ,the instinctive side may be best understood by a brief sketch of his ancestry4 ,it is generally complained that the troublesome people who are never satisfied to let society alone1 must necessarily be foreigners2 at least they can never belong to the same nation as we1 the good1 the respectable4 ,the easy method of laying everything pestilent to the charge of the foreigner1 will not serve a conservative ,american against ,dyer ,d4 ,lum4 ,the first of the ,lums to set foot in this country was ,samuel ,l41 a ,scotchman1 in the year #agcb4 ,they rooted in ,new ,england soil1 and at the time of the ,revolution1 ,dyer's great grandfather was a minute-man in the very town1 ,northampton1 where his own corpse was laid a year ago4 ,on the maternal side the ,tappan family were also revolutionists1 and back of revolutionists ,reformationists in the days of ,queen ,elizabeth1 and still back of that1 ,crusaders4 ,all this would be important enough and indeed even distinguishing1 were ,i relating it by way of gilding refined gold2 but they acquire meaning the moment we regard them as data for a character4 ,they are fraught with mysterious symbolism1 and he himself becomes a symbol of the deep-rooted faith of humanity1 when we see that subterranean stream of blood running from ,jerusalem through ,europe and across the sea to ,america4 ,it shows how profound is the well-spring of devotion to cause in the human heart2 through how many centuries the spirit of rebellion lives4 ,but what1 say you1 had it to do with his instinctive modesty8 ,this3 the devotee of a cause is never the devotee of self4 ,now as to his philosophic convictions1 it would be easy to deliver a whole lecture upon them2 and unfortunately his profoundest work on that subject has not yet been printed4 ,of course1 ,i can present them but briefly4 ,i must preface that1 as you will no doubt observe later on1 his beliefs were in his own case a plain testimony to their own correctness4 ,it sounds ridiculous to say that a thing can prove itself2 but you will understand me when ,i explain that he regarded the conscious life of man1 which includes1 of course1 his processes of reasoning and therefore his philosophy1 as the merest fragment of him2 that this process itself1 which we are wont so fondly to consider as setting us higher than the brute1 is but an upgrowth of our instincts4 ,man1 the race ,man1 psychologically as well as bodily1 might be likened to a tree1 which every year adds small new growths whose bright green verdure opens to the sunlight1 while below and supporting them quivers the great dark green mass of the tree1 which year after year repeats itself1 whispering in its shadows the old whispers of the centuries4 ,the new verdure would represent the conscious life and growth of individuals1 budding upward in response to the conditions surrounding them and adding what tiny mite they may to the experience of the race2 but beneath and through1 and all about them rustle the traditions of the dead--dead as individuals1 but living1 more potently living than ever1 in the great trunk and branches of unconscious1 or instinctive life4 ,and as the shape of the newly budding leaf1 the shade of its green1 the length of its stem1 its size1 are determined more by the nature of the tree than by surrounding circumstances1 so the philosophy of the individual is determined by the instinctive life of the race4 ,the winter of death comes2 the individual withers like the leaf2 but the small item of growth that he has added is there1 brown and barren though the twig appear4 ,from him new buds will shoot1 though its own leaves hereafter rustle in the deep green shadows of unconsciousness4 ,as time passes away useless boughs wither and die1 and are stricken utterly from the life of the race2 such are the worthless lives1 the abnormal growths1 which no longer add anything either to the beauty or the service of the whole4 ,or1 to adopt one of ,comrade ,lum's own figures1 the useless or brutish elements in man slowly sink down like sediment deposited by the moving current4 ,now1 in a case where we are able to trace a strain of blood as far back as this of his1 and further are able to look at the conscious work of the man1 and see that the one was the offspring of the other1 modified of course by circumstances1 we are able to make the seemingly absurd statement that the belief proves its own correctness4 ,let me particularize concerning this belief4 ,first he was in all his writings the advocate of resistance1 the champion of rebellion4 ,but long before he had reduced the matter to a syllogism1 he was a resistant in fact4 ,what else could you expect from the ,crusader1 the ,reformationist1 the ,revolutionist8 ,it might be said by the people who believe in the supreme influence of circumstances1 that it was his social environment which made him such--that given the ideal social order and he would have been as mild a pacificator as ,jesus3 which is equivalent to saying that given the outward circumstances and an ear of wheat will grow from a seed corn4 ,lum was the resistant1 the man of action2 the man who while scarcely more than a boy1 enlisted as a volunteer in the #abeth ,new ,york infantry to fight a cause he then deemed just2 who being taken prisoner1 twice effected his escape2 who sick of the inaction of superiors1 while a third-time prisoner waiting to be exchanged1 took his exchange in his own hands1 at the risk of death for desertion1 and within a month re-enlisted in the cavalry1 where by sheer force of daring he rose from private to captain2 the man who smashed the idol of the ,greenback movement1 sooner than let him betray its voters1 reckless himself of the rebound of hate from the politicians2 the man who cast all business prospects and journalistic hopes aside as so much chaff1 when he picked up the fallen banner of the fight in ,chicago1 by editing the paper of ,albert ,parsons1 then in prison and doomed to die2 the man who could say to his well-beloved friend1 when that friend asked him whether he should petition ,governor ,oglesby for his life1 knowing that that petition would be granted1 the man who1 under these circumstances could say3 ,die1 ,parsons2 the man who poor1 defeated1 dirty1 ragged1 hungry1 could proudly refuse the proffered hand of the then king of the labor movement1 that king who had kept his kingdom by repudiating the martyrs of ,chicago from the limitless height of one soul over another1 answer there's blood on it1 ,powderly2 the man who faced a public audience to defend the shooting of ,frick by ,alexander ,berkman1 a few days after the occurrence1 because he felt that when another has done a thing which you approve as leading in the direction of your own aspirations1 it is your duty to share the effects of the counterblast his action may have provoked2 the man who seized the unknown ,monster1 ,death1 with a smile on his lips--all of this man was germinating in the child of the pious home who even when a mere boy had dared ,jehovah4 ,having weighed ,him1 tried ,him1 found ,him naught1 he threw the ,jewish ,god and cosmogony overboard with as much equanimity as he would have eaten his dinner1 and set about finding a more reasonable explanation of phenomena4 ,in this1 as in all other matters1 the man of action has a certain advantage over a pure theorist1 which is this3 he plunges immediately into the conflict1 he throws the gauntlet1 rashly sometimes1 but boldly2 he settles the question at once2 if there is any suffering attached to the attempt1 he suffers once and has done with it2 while the theorist1 the fellow who walks tiptoe round the edge of the battle-field1 dies a hundred times and still suffers on4 ,my own conversion from orthodoxy to freethought was of this latter sort4 ,i never dared ,god2 ,i always tried to propitiate him with prayers and tears even while ,i was doubting his existence2 ,i suffered hell a thousand times while ,i was wondering where it was located4 ,but my teacher winked at the heavens1 braved hell1 and then tossed the whole affair aside with a joke4 ,nevertheless1 he did not1 as nearly all of our modern image-breakers have done1 deny all religions in their entirety1 because he had run a lance through a stuffed ,mumbo-,jumbo4 ,indeed1 the spirit of devotion to something greater than ,self1 which will be found as the kernel of every religion1 was so thoroughly in him1 or indeed was he himself that whether he fancied himself willing it or not1 his inclinations directed all his conscious efforts to read the riddle of life into the channel of ,buddhism4 ,i do not know whether he ever accepted its peculiarly fanciful side or not2 but if he did1 it was early corrected by a no less characteristic trait1 also an inheritance of the ,tappan family1 that of critical analysis4 ,an omnivorous reader1 he was always abreast of the times in matters of scientific discovery2 and his inexorable logic would never have permitted him to retain a creed which necessitated any doctoring of facts2 he rather doctored the creed to fit the facts and thus evolved a species of modern ,buddhism which he called ,evolutional ,ethics1 whose principles may be briefly stated as follows3 ,man is the continuation of the process of evolution up to date4 ,he is thus united to all other products of evolution1 and is governed by the same laws4 ,the two factors which determine form in the organic world are adaptation and inheritance2 and since evolution is no less a matter of psychology than physiology1 the soul of man as well as the soul of animals and plants1 must be moulded by these factors4 ,that inheritance tends to crystallize existing forms1 while adaptation1 or the influence of environment1 ever tends to modification of forms1 whether physical or intellectual4 ,that mind as much as body is unconscious1 so far as there is perfect adaptation to surroundings2 and that only when inharmony of the organism with the environment as the result of change in the latter1 arises1 can there be consciousness4 ,that this consciousness is a state of pain1 more or less sharply defined2 and will continue to increase in intensity until the necessary adaptation is accomplished1 when as a result a feeling of satisfaction or pleasure will ensue1 gradually sinking into the blissful unconsciousness of perfect harmony4 ,that progress thus demands this stepping constantly up the rough stairway of pain2 and that not even one step is passed until moistened by the blood of many generations4 ,that the path up the mountain side is not laid out by us1 but for us1 and that we must travel there whether it pleases us or not4 ,that the chances are it will not please us2 that our whole lives1 in so far as they are conscious1 will probably be one record of never achieved struggle2 and that rest will come only when we descend to the unconsciousness of ,death4 ,thus he was a pessimist of the darkest hue2 and yet he never wasted a moment's regret on the facts4 ,he watched this passing spectre man1 gliding among the whirling dance of atoms1 contemplated his final extinction with composure1 sneered at metaphysicians while he himself was buried in metaphysics1 and cracked jokes either at his own expense or somebody else's4 ,the result of all this speculation was the conclusion that man1 being a social animal1 must adapt himself to social ends 7not determined by him but for him--unconsciously72 that therefore the one who sets himself and his egotistic desires against the social ideal is the supreme traitor4 ,he had a peculiar power of expressing volumes in an epithet2 and the epithet he gave to the ,egoist was ,dung-,beetle4 ,for the sake of those who may not be familiar with the insect referred to1 ,i may explain that a dung-beetle is a sort of bug that exhibits its instincts by rolling a ball of dung1 and who sometimes appears to meditate when he rolls over the ball that the universe has turned bottom up--because he has4 ,now1 it is well known that the greater part of the reform camp--particularly the ,anarchistic camp--is made up of ,dung-,beetles1 ,i mean of ,egoists2 people who declare that the desire for pleasure is the motive of action1 who think a great deal of their egos and don't care a rap for society4 ,the result was they sharpened their pencils and wrote scathing editorials denouncing him4 ,to which he answered never a word4 ,first1 because he didn't consider himself worth fighting about2 and second1 if he had1 he was altogether too good a general to do it4 ,his opponents were a disputatious sort1 who liked nothing better than argument2 he knew what his enemy wanted and didn't do it4 ,but when a question worth discussing arose1 then woe to those who had courted the rapier of his wit1 or challenged to duel with the diamond-tipped dagger of his sarcasm4 ,he could answer columns with a paragraph4 ,i do not know whether this philosophy of his had crystallized in his own mind before he became an ,anarchist or not4 ,i believe1 however1 it had not2 ,i think it grew along with his other conceptions1 being broadened and corrected1 and in turn broadening and correcting his thought in other channels4 ,but at any rate1 fully developed or not1 it certainly influenced his conclusions on economic subjects greatly4 ,true to his instincts he was always at the front of battle1 and when the war closed his first move was to attach himself to the ,greenback party1 the first widespread expression of organized protest against monopoly of the means of production in ,america4 ,he still had faith in the saving grace of politics1 and was active enough in the agitation to be nominated for ,lieut4 ,governor of ,massachusetts with ,wendell ,phillips for ,governor4 ,the fight1 which besides being a demand for fiat money1 embodied a short-hour movement1 took on a national character2 and ,dyer ,d4 ,lum with five others1 including ,albert ,r4 ,parsons1 was appointed on a committee to push the matter before ,congress4 ,this was in #ahhj4 ,six years later1 time and the tide had driven both of them into the great current of ,socialism1 and final repudiation of politics as a means of attaining ,socialistic ideals4 ,and here came in the philosophy of the unconscious4 ,the socialization of industry was the next step up the mountain side1 not because men wished or planned it2 but the pressure of surroundings made it the only possible move2 but on the other hand the reactionary1 system-building ,socialism advocated by the great master ,marx1 and all his train of little repeaters1 was seen to be at variance with a no less marked feature of the evolving social ideal1 viz41 elasticity1 mobility1 constantly increasing differentiation2 which is only possible when units of society are left free to adapt themselves to the slightest changes1 unforced by the opinions of other people who know nothing of the matters in question1 but who1 being in the majority 7for where is ignorance not in the majority87 could suppress the free movements of the minority by enacting their ignorance into laws4 ,thus it will be seen that he looked forward to free ,socialism as the industrial ideal2 the requirements of that ideal are laid down in his ,economics of ,anarchy4 ,a few of his caustic sentences may here be quoted3 ,the ,statist assumes that rights increase in some metaphysical manner1 and become incarnate in half the whole plus one4 ,politics discovers wisdom by taking a general poll of ignorance4 ,every appeal to legislation to do aught but undo is as futile as sending a flag of truce to the enemy for munitions of war4 ,when ,caesar conquered ,greece1 he subjugated ,olympus1 and the ,gods now measure tape behind counters with ,christian decorum4 ,lum had faith in humankind4 ,he always trusted the people2 the people that maligned him1 the people that injured him1 the people that killed him4 ,when ,i asked him once why he did not get angry at an individual who industriously circulated lies about him1 he answered with a twinkling laugh1 ,for the same reason that ,i don't kick the house-cat4 ,and yet he had an abiding faith in that man1 and other similar men1 to work out the judgments of the human race1 undisturbed by the fact that they let their only honest leaders die in garrets4 ,and underneath the speculative philosopher who confused you with long words2 underneath the cold logician who mercilessly scouted at sentiment2 underneath the pessimistic poet that sent the mournful cry of the whip-poor-will echoing through the widowed chambers of the heart1 that hung and sung over the festival walls of ,life the wreaths and dirges of ,death2 underneath the gay joker who delighted to play tricks on politicians1 police and detectives2 was the man who took the children on his knees and told them stories while the night was falling1 the man who gave up a share of his own meagre meals to save five blind kittens from drowning2 the man who lent his arm to a drunken washerwoman whom he did not know1 and carried her basket for her1 that she might not be arrested and locked up2 the man who gathered four-leafed clovers and sent them to his friends1 wishing them all the luck which superstition attached to them2 the man whose heart was beating with the great common heart1 who was one with the simplest and the poorest4 ,lum held that evolutional ethics1 or ,anarchist ethics1 in fact1 must take account of both the altruistic and egoistic impulses2 that while determining causes will ever lie in the mysterious realm of the unconscious life1 consciousness may discern the trend of development and throw in its quota of influence for or against4 ,that in its endeavor to comprehend the trend of development1 it should take fair account of ancient truths1 however enveloped in superstitious husks2 should aim to extract the virtue even in the much mistaken altruistic doctrines of vicarious atonement and personal abasement2 and while emphasizing the negation of human rulership as destructive of the possibilities of true growth1 at the same time to acknowledge the vain conceit of self as anything more than a temporary grouping of instinct developed in beast1 in plant1 in man2 to acknowledge the individual creature as a sort of mirrored reflection of the cosmos1 constantly shifting1 now scintillant1 now vague and evanescent1 now gone forever as ,death breaks the mirror4 ,the notion of immortality which grows from such a conception of self is purged of the old vain conceit4 ,it has been most beautifully voiced in ,george ,eliot's ,choir ,invisible1 ,mr4 ,lum's favorite poem2 and in the lines is expressed the last great limitless shadow which engulfs even this immortality1 the blind1 tremendous darkness which lies at the end of all1 the sense of the invincibility of which must have lain upon our teacher's soul when after the last searching1 inexplicable1 farewell look into a friend's eyes he went out into the ,april night and took his last walk in the roar of the great city--he who should soon be so silent6 ,most of his comrades were surprised4 ,they said3 ,i never thought ,dyer ,d4 ,lum would go alone4 ,but ,i who know how often and how wearily he said ,what's the use1 am sure that that mocking question lay at his heart1 and paralyzed the will to do4 ,like ,olive ,schreiner's stars in the ,african ,farm1 the soul about to depart sees the earth so coldly--all the ages are as one night--and like them he watches little helpless creatures of the earth come out and crawl awhile upon its skin1 then go back beneath it1 and it does not matter--nothing matters4 ,francisco ,ferrer ,in all unsuccessful social upheavals there are two terrors3 the ,red--that is1 the people1 the mob2 the ,white--that is1 the reprisal4 ,when a year ago to-day the lightning of the ,white ,terror shot out of that netherest blackness of ,social ,depth1 the ,spanish ,torture ,house1 and laid in the ditch of ,montjuich a human being who but a moment before had been the personification of manhood1 in the flower of life1 in the strength and pride of a balanced intellect1 full of the purpose of a great and growing undertaking1--that of the ,modern ,schools1--humanity at large received a blow in the face which it could not understand4 ,stunned1 bewildered1 shocked1 it recoiled and stood gaping with astonishment4 ,how to explain it8 ,the average individual--certainly the average individual in ,america--could not believe it possible that any group of persons calling themselves a government1 let it be of the worst and most despotic1 could slay a man for being a teacher1 a teacher of modern sciences1 a builder of hygienic schools1 a publisher of text-books4 ,no3 they could not believe it4 ,their minds staggered back and shook refusal4 ,it was not so2 it could not be so4 ,the man was shot1--that was sure4 ,he was dead1 and there was no raising him out of the ditch to question him4 ,the ,spanish government had certainly proceeded in an unjustifiable manner in court-martialing him and sentencing him without giving him a chance at defense4 ,but surely he had been guilty of something2 surely he must have rioted1 or instigated riot1 or done some desperate act of rebellion2 for never could it be that in the twentieth century a country of ,europe could kill a peaceful man whose aim in life was to educate children in geography1 arithmetic1 geology1 physics1 chemistry1 singing1 and languages4 ,no3 it was not possible6--,and1 for all that1 it was possible2 it was done1 on the #acth of ,october1 one year ago to-day1 in the face of ,europe1 standing with tied hands to look on at the murder4 ,and from that day on1 controversy between the awakened who understood1 the reactionists who likewise understood1 and their followers on both sides who have half understood1 has surged up and down and left confusion pretty badly confounded in the mind of him who did not understand1 but sought to4 ,the men who did him to death1 and the institutions they represent have done all in their power to create the impression that ,ferrer was a believer in violence1 a teacher of the principles of violence1 a doer of acts of violence1 and an instigator of widespread violence perpetrated by a mass of people4 ,in support of the first they have published reports purporting to be his own writings1 have pretended to reproduce seditious pictures from the walls of his class-rooms1 have declared that he was seen mingling with the rebels during the ,catalonian uprising of last year1 and that upon trial he was found guilty of having conceived and launched the ,spanish rebellion against the ,moroccan war4 ,and that his death was a just act of reprisal4 ,on the other hand1 we have had a storm of indignant voices clamoring in his defense1 alternately admitting and denying him to be a revolutionist1 alternately contending that his schools taught social rebellion and that they taught nothing but pure science2 we have had workmen demonstrating and professors and litterateurs protesting on very opposite grounds2 and almost none were able to give definite information for the faith that was in them4 ,and indeed it has been very difficult to obtain exact information1 and still is so4 ,after a year's lapse1 it is yet not easy to get the facts disentangled from the fancies1--the truths from the lies1 and above all from the half-lies4 ,and even when we have the truths as to the facts1 it is still difficult to valuate them1 because of ,american ignorance of ,spanish ignorance4 ,please understand the phrase4 ,america has not too much to boast of in the way of its learning2 but yet it has that much of common knowledge and common education that it does not enter into our minds to conceive of a population #fh of which are unable to read and write1 and a good share of the remaining #cb can only read1 not write2 neither does it at all enter our heads to think that of this #cb of the better informed1 the most powerful contingent is composed of those whose distinct1 avowed1 and deliberate purpose it is to keep the ignorant ignorant4 ,whatever may be the sins of ,government in this country1 or of the ,churches--and there are plenty of such sins--at least they have not 7save in the case of negro slaves7 constituted themselves a conspiratical force to keep out enlightenment1--to prevent the people from learning to read and write1 or to acquire whatever scientific knowledge their economic circumstances permitted them to4 ,what the unconscious conspiracy of economic circumstance has done1 and what conscious manipulations the ,government school is guilty of1 to render higher education a privilege of the rich and a maintainer of injustice is another matter4 ,but it cannot be charged that the rulers of ,america seek to render the people illiterate4 ,people1 therefore1 who have grown up in a general atmosphere of thought which regards the government as a provider of education1 even as a compeller of education1 do not1 unless their attention is drawn to the facts1 conceive of a state of society in which government is a hostile force1 opposed to the enlightenment of the people1--its politicians exercising all their ingenuity to sidetrack the demand of the people for schools4 ,how much less do they conceive the hostile force and power of a ,church1 having behind it an unbroken descent from feudal ages1 whose direct interest it is to maintain a closed monopoly of learning1 and to keep out of general circulation all scientific information which would tend to destroy the superstitions whereby it thrives4 ,i say that the ,american people in general are not informed as to these conditions1 and therefore the phenomenon of a teacher killed for instituting and maintaining schools staggers their belief4 ,and when they read the assertions of those who defend the murder1 that it was because his schools were instigating the overthrow of social order in ,spain1 they naturally exclaim3 ,ah1 that explains it6 ,the man taught sedition1 rebellion1 riot1 in his schools6 ,that is the reason4 ,now the truth is1 that what ,ferrer was teaching in his schools was really instigating the overthrow of the social order of ,spain2 furthermore it was not only instigating it1 but it was making it as certain as the still coming of the daylight out of the night of the east4 ,but not by the teaching of riot2 of the use of dagger1 bomb1 or knife2 but by the teaching of the same sciences which are taught in our public schools1 through a generally diffused knowledge of which the power of ,spain's despotic ,church must crumble away4 ,likewise it was laying the primary foundation for the overthrow of such portions of the ,state organization as exist by reason of the general ignorance of the people4 ,the ,social ,order of ,spain ought to be overthrown2 must be overthrown1 will be overthrown2 and ,ferrer was doing a mighty work in that direction4 ,the men who killed him knew and understood it well4 ,and they consciously killed him for what he really did2 but they have let the outside world suppose they did it1 for what he did not do4 ,knowing there are no words so hated by all governments as sedition and rebellion1 knowing that such words will make the most radical of governments align itself with the most despotic at once1 knowing there is nothing which so offends the majority of conservative and peace-loving people everywhere as the idea of violence unordered by authority1 they have wilfully created the impression that ,ferrer's schools were places where children and youths were taught to handle weapons1 and to make ready for armed attacks on the government4 ,they have1 as ,i said before1 created this impression in various ways2 they have pointed to the fact that the man who in #aijf made the attack on ,alfonso's life1 had acted as a translator of books used by ,ferrer in his schools2 they have scattered over ,europe and ,america pictures purporting to be reproductions of drawings in prominent wall-spaces in his schools1 recommending the violent overthrow of the government4 ,as to the first of these accusations1 ,i shall consider it later in the lecture2 but as to the last1 it should be enough to remind any person with an ordinary amount of reflection1 that the schools were public places open to any one1 as our schools are2 and that if any such pictures had existed1 they would have been sufficient cause for shutting up the schools and incarcerating the founder within a day after their appearance on the walls4 ,the ,spanish ,government has that much sense of how to preserve its own existence1 that it would not allow such pictures to hang in a public place for one day4 ,nor would books preaching sedition have been permitted to be published or circulated4--,all this is foolish dust sought to be thrown in foolish eyes4 ,no2 the real offense was the real thing that he did4 ,and in order to appreciate its enormity1 from the ,spanish ruling force's standpoint1 let us now consider what that ruling force is1 what are the economic and educational conditions of the ,spanish people1 why and how ,ferrer founded the ,modern ,schools1 and what were the subjects taught therein4 ,up to the year #aheg there existed no legal provision for general elementary education in ,spain4 ,in that year1 owing to the liberals having gotten into power in ,madrid1 after a bitter contest aroused partially by the general political events of ,europe1 a law making elementary education compulsory was passed4 ,this was two years before ,ferrer's birth4 ,now it is one thing for a political party1 temporarily in possession of power1 to pass a law4 ,it is quite another thing to make that law effective1 even when wealth and general sentiment are behind it4 ,but when joined to the fact that there is a strong opposition is added the fact that this opposition is in possession of the greatest wealth of the country1 that the people to be benefited are often quite as bitterly opposed to their own enlightenment as those who profit by their ignorance1 and that those who do ardently desire their own uplift are extremely poor1 the difficulty of practicalizing this educational law is partially appreciated4 ,ferrer's own boyhood life is an illustration of how much benefit the children of the peasantry reaped from the educational law4 ,his parents were vine dressers2 they were eminently orthodox and believed what their priest 7who was probably the only man in the little village of ,alella able to read7 told them3 that the ,liberals were the emissaries of ,satan and that whatever they did was utterly evil4 ,they wanted no such evil thing as popular education about1 and would not that their children should have it4 ,accordingly1 even at #ac years of age1 the boy was without education1--a circumstance which in after years made him more anxious that others should not suffer as he had4 ,it is self-understood that if it was difficult to found schools in the cities where there existed a degree of popular clamor for them1 it was next to impossible in the rural districts where people like ,ferrer's parents were the typical inhabitants4 ,the best result obtained by this law in the #bj years from #aheg to #ahgg was that1 out of #af1jjj1jjj people1 #d1jjj1jjj were then able to read and write1--#ge remaining illiterate4 ,at the end of #aijg the proportion was altered to #f1jjj1jjj literate out of #ah1ejj1jjj population1 which may be considered as a fairly correct approximate of the present condition4 ,one of the very great accounting causes for this situation is the extreme poverty of the mass of the populace4 ,in many districts of ,spain a laborer's wages are less than #a4jj a week1 and nowhere do they equal the poorest workman's wages in ,america4 ,of course1 it is understood that the cost of living is likewise low2 but imagine it as low as you please1 it is still evident that the income of the workers is too small to permit them to save anything1 even from the most frugal living4 ,the dire struggle to secure food1 clothing and shelter is such that little energy is left wherewith to aspire to anything1 to demand anything1 either for themselves or their children4 ,unless1 therefore1 the government provided the buildings1 the books1 and appliances1 and paid the teachers' salaries1 it is easy to see that the people most in need of education are least able1 and least likely1 to provide it for themselves4 ,furthermore the government itself1 unless it can tax the wealthier classes for it1 cannot out of such an impoverished source wring sufficient means to provide adequate schools and school equipments4 ,now1 the wealthiest classes are just the religious orders4 ,according to the statement of ,monsignor ,jos ,valeda de ,gunjado1 these orders own two-thirds of the money of the country and one-third of the wealth in property4 ,these orders are utterly opposed to all education except such as they themselves furnish--a lamentable travesty on learning4 ,as a writer who has investigated these conditions personally1 observes1 in reply to the question1 ,does not the ,church provide numbers of schools1 day and night1 at its own expense8--,it does1--unhappily for ,spain4 ,it provides schools whose principal aim is to strengthen superstition1 follow a mediaeval curriculum1 keep out scientific light1--and prevent other and better schools from being established4 ,a ,spanish educational journal 7,la ,escuela ,espanola71 not ,ferrer's journal1 declared in #aijg that these schools were largely without light or ventilation1 dens of death1 ignorance1 and bad training4 ,it was estimated that #ej1jjj children died every year in consequence of the mischievous character of the school rooms4 ,and even to schools like these1 there were half a million children in ,spain who could gain no admittance4 ,as to the teachers1 they are allowed a salary ranging from #ej4jj to #ajj4jj a year2 but this is provided1 not by the ,state1 but through voluntary donations from the parents4 ,so that a teacher1 in addition to his legitimate functions1 must perform those of collector of his own salary4 ,now conceive that he is endeavoring to collect it from parents whose wages amount to two or three dollars a week2 and you will not be surprised at the case reported by a ,madrid paper in #aijc of a master's having canvassed a district to find how many parents would contribute if he opened a school4 ,out of one hundred families1 three promised their support6 ,is it any wonder that the law of compulsory education is a mockery8 ,how could it be anything else8 ,now let us look at the products of this popular ignorance1 and we shall presently understand why the ,church fosters it1 why it fights education2 and also why the ,catalonian insurrection of #aiji1 which began as a strike of workers in protest against the ,moroccan war1 ended in mob attacks upon convents1 monasteries1 and churches4 ,i have already quoted the statement of a high ,spanish prelate that the religious orders of ,spain own two-thirds of the money of ,spain1 and one-third of the wealth in property4 ,whether this estimate is precisely correct or not1 it is sufficiently near correctness to make us aware that at least a great portion of the wealth of the country has passed into their hands1--a state not widely differing from that existing in ,france prior to the great ,revolution4 ,before the insurrection of last year1 the city of ,barcelona alone had #afe convents1 many of which were exceedingly rich4 ,the province of ,catalonia maintained #b1cjj of these institutions4 ,aside from these religious orders with their accumulations of wealth1 the ,church itself1 the united body of priests not in orders1 is immensely wealthy4 ,conceive that in the ,cathedral at ,toledo there is an image of the ,virgin whose wardrobe alone would be sufficient to build hundreds of schools4 ,imagine that this doll1 which is supposed to symbolize the forlorn young woman who in her pain and sorrow and need was driven to seek shelter in a stable1 whose life was ever lowly1 and who is called the ,mother of ,sorrows1--imagine that this image of her has become a vulgar coquette sporting a robe whereinto are sown #he1jjj pearls1 besides as many more sapphires1 amethysts1 and diamonds6 ,oh1 what a decoration for the mother of the ,carpenter of ,nazareth6 ,what a vision for the dying eyes on the ,cross to look forward to6 ,what an outcome of the gospel of salvation free to the poor and lowly1 taught by the poorest and the lowliest1--that the humble keeper of the humble household of the despised little village of ,judea should be imaged forth as a ,queen of ,gauds1 bedizened with a crown worth #be1jjj and bracelets valued at #aj1jjj more4 ,the ,virgin ,mary1 the ,daughter of the ,stable1 transformed into a diamond merchant's showcase6 ,and this in the midst of men and women working for just enough to keep the skin upon the bone2 in the midst of children who are denied the primary necessities of childhood4 ,now ,i ask you1 when the fury of these people burst1 as under the provocation they received it was inevitable that it should burst1 was it any wonder that it manifested itself in mob violence against the institutions which mock their suffering by this useless1 senseless1 criminal waste of wealth in the face of utter need8 ,will some one now whisper in our ears that there are women in ,america who decorate themselves with more jewels than the ,virgin of ,toledo1 and throw away the price of a school on a useless decoration in a single night2 while within a radius of five miles from them there are also uneducated children1 for whom our ,school ,boards can provide no place8 ,yes1 it is so2 let them remember the mobs of ,barcelona6 ,and let me remember ,i am talking about ,spain6 ,the question naturally intrudes1 ,how does the ,church1 how do the religious orders manage to accumulate such wealth8 ,remember first that they are old1 and of unbroken continuance for hundreds of years4 ,that various forms of acquisition1 in operation for centuries1 would produce immense accumulations1 even supposing nothing but legitimate purchases and gifts4 ,but when we consider the actual means whereby money is daily absorbed from the people by these institutions we receive a shock which sets all our notions of the triumph of ,modern ,science topsy-turvy4 ,it is almost impossible to realize1 and yet it is true1 that the ,spanish ,church still deals in that infamous graft against which ,martin ,luther hurled the splendid force of his wrath four hundred years ago4 ,the ,church of ,spain still sells indulgences4 ,every ,catholic bookstore1 and every priest1 has them for sale4 ,they are called bulas4 ,their prices range from about #ae to #be cents1 and they constitute an elastic excuse for doing pretty much what the possessor pleases to do1 providing it is not a capital crime1 for a definitely named period4 ,probably there is no one in ,america so little able to believe this condition to exist1 as the ordinary well-informed ,roman ,catholic4 ,i have myself listened to priests of the ,roman faith giving the conditions on which pardon for venal offenses might be obtained2 and they had nothing to do with money4 ,they consisted in saying a certain number of prayers at stated periods1 with specified intent4 ,while that may be a very illogical way of putting things together that have no connection1 there is nothing in it to offend one's ideas of honesty4 ,the enlightened conscience of an entire mass of people has demanded that a spiritual offense be dealt with by spiritual means4 ,it would revolt at the idea that such grace could be written out on paper and sold either to the highest bidder or for a fixed price4 ,but now conceive what happens where a people are illiterate1 regarding written documents with that superstitious awe which those who cannot read always have for the mysterious language of learning2 regarding them besides with the combination of fear and reverence which the ignorant believer entertains for the visible sign of ,supernatural ,power1 the ,power which holds over him the threat of eternal punishment1--and you will have what goes on in ,spain4 ,add to this that such a condition of fear and gullibility on the side of the people1 is the great opportunity of the religious grafter4 ,whatever number of honest1 self-sacrificing1 devoted people may be attracted to the service of the ,church1 there will certainly be found also1 the cheat1 the impostor1 the searcher for ease and power4 ,these indulgences1 which for #ae or #be cents pardon the buyer for his past sins1 but are good only till he sins again1 constitute a species of permission to do what otherwise is forbidden2 the most expensive one1 the #be;c-one1 is practically a license to hold stolen property up to a certain amount4 ,both rich and poor buy these things1 the rich of course paying a good deal more than the stipulated sum4 ,but it hardly requires the statement that an immense number of the very poor buy them also4 ,and from this horrible traffic the ,church of ,spain annually draws millions4 ,there are other sources of income such as the sale of scapulars1 agnus-deis1 charms1 and other pieces of trumpery1 which goes on all over the ,catholic world also1 but naturally to no such extent as in ,spain1 ,portugal1 and ,italy1 where popular ignorance may be again measured by the materialism of its religion4 ,now1 is it reasonable to suppose that the individuals who are thriving upon these sales1 want a condition of popular enlightenment8 ,do they not know how all this traffic would crumble like the ash of a burnt-out fire1 once the blaze of science were to flame through ,spain8 ,they ,,educate6 ,yes2 they educate the people to believe in these barbaric relics of a dead time1--for their own material interest4 ,spain and ,portugal are the last resort of the mediaeval church2 the monasticism and the ,jesuitry which have been expelled from other ,european countries1 and compelled to withdraw from ,cuba and the ,philippines1 have concentrated there2 and there they are making their last fight4 ,there they will go down into their eternal grave2 but not till ,science has invaded the dark corners of the popular intellect4 ,the political condition is parallel with the religious condition of the people1 with the exception that the ,state is poor while the ,church is rich4 ,there are some elements in the government which are opposed to the ,church religiously1 which nevertheless do not wish to see its power as an institution upset1 because they foresee that the same people who would overthrow the ,church1 would later overthrow them4 ,these1 too1 wish to see the people kept ignorant4 ,nevertheless1 there have been numerous political rebellions in ,spain1 having for their object the establishment of a republic4 ,in #ahfh there occurred such a rebellion1 under the leadership of ,ruiz ,zorilla4 ,at that time1 ,ferrer was not quite #bj years old4 ,he had acquired an education by his own efforts4 ,he was a declared ,republican1 as it seems that every young1 ardent1 bright-minded youth1 seeing what the condition of his country was1 and wishing for its betterment1 would be4 ,zorilla was for a short time ,minister of ,public ,instruction1 under the new government1 and very zealous for popular education4 ,naturally he became an object of admiration and imitation to ,ferrer4 ,in the early eighties1 after various fluctuations of political power1 ,zorilla1 who had been absent from ,spain1 returned to it1 and began the labor of converting the soldiers to republicanism4 ,ferrer was then a director of railways1 and of much service to ,zorilla in the practical work of organization4 ,in #ahhe this movement culminated in an abortive revolution1 wherein both ,ferrer and ,zorilla took active part1 and were accordingly compelled to take refuge in ,france upon the failure of the insurrection4 ,it is therefore certain that from his entrance into public agitation till the year #ahhe1 ,ferrer was an active revolutionary republican1 believing in the overthrow of ,spanish tyranny by violence4 ,there is no question that at that time he said and wrote things which1 whether we shall consider them justifiable or not1 were openly in favor of forcible rebellion4 ,such utterances charged against him at the alleged trial in #aiji1 which were really his1 were quotations from this period4 ,remember he was then #bf years old4 ,when the trial occurred1 he was #ej years old4 ,what had been his mental evolution during those #bd years8 ,in ,paris1 where1 with the exception of a short intermission in #ahhi when he visited ,spain1 he remained for about fifteen years1 he naturally drifted into a method of making a living quite common to educated exiles in a foreign land2 viz41 giving private lessons in his native language4 ,but while this is with most a mere temporary makeshift1 which they change for something else as soon as they are able1 to ,ferrer it revealed what his real business in life should be2 he found teaching to be his genuine vocation2 so much so that he took part in several movements for popular education in ,paris1 giving much free service4 ,this participation in the labor of training the mind1 which is always a slow and patient matter1 began to have its effect on his conceptions of political change4 ,slowly the idea of a ,spain regenerated through the storm blasts of revolution1 mightily and suddenly1 faded out of his belief1 being replaced1 probably almost insensibly1 by the idea that a thorough educational enlightenment must precede political transformation1 if that transformation were to be permanent4 ,this conviction he voiced with strange power and beauty of expression1 when he said to his old revolutionary ,republican friend1 ,alfred ,naquet3 ,time respects those works alone which ,time itself has helped to build4 ,naquet himself1 old and sinking man as he is1 is at this day and hour heart and soul for forcible revolution2 admitting all the evils which it engenders and all the dangers of miscarriage which accompany it1 he still believes1 to quote his own words1 that ,revolutions are not only the marvelous accoucheurs of societies2 they are also fecundating forces4 ,they fructify men's intelligences2 and if they determine the final realization of matured evolutions1 they also become1 through their action on human minds1 points of departure for newer evolutions4 ,yet he1 who thus sings the paean of the uprisen people1 with a fire of youth and an ardor of love that sound like the singing of some strong young blacksmith marching at the head of an insurgent column1 rather than the quavering voice of an old spent man2 he1 who was the warm personal friend of ,ferrer for many years1 and who would surely have wished that his ideal love should also have been his friend's love1 he expressly declares that ,ferrer was of those who feel themselves drawn to the field of preparative labor1 making sure the ground over which the ,revolution may march to enduring results4 ,this then was the ripened condition of his mind1 especially after the death of ,zorilla1 and all his subsequent life and labor is explicable only with this understanding of his mental attitude4 ,in the confusion of deafening voices1 it has been declared that not only did he not take part in last year's manifestations1 nor instigate them2 but that he in fact had become a ,tolstoyan1 a non-resistant4 ,this is not true3 he undoubtedly understood that the introduction of popular education into ,spain means revolt1 sooner or later4 ,and he would certainly have been glad to see a successful revolt overthrow the monarchy at ,madrid4 ,he did not wish the people to be submissive2 it is one of the fundamental teachings of the schools he founded that the assertive spirit of the child is to be encouraged2 that its will is not to be broken2 that the sin of other schools is the forcing of obedience4 ,he hoped to help to form a young ,spain which would not submit2 which would resist1 resist consciously1 intelligently1 steadily4 ,he did not wish to enlighten people merely to render them more sensitive to their pains and deprivations1 but that they might so use their enlightenment as to rid themselves of the system of exploitation by ,church and ,state which is responsible for their miseries4 ,by what means they would choose to free themselves1 he did not make his affair4 ,how and when were these schools founded8 ,it was during his long sojourn in ,paris1 that he had as a private pupil in ,spanish1 a middle-aged1 wealthy1 unmarried1 ,catholic lady4 ,after much conflict over religion between teacher and pupil1 the latter modified her orthodoxy greatly2 and especially after her journeys to ,spain1 where she herself saw the condition of public instruction4 ,eventually she became interested in ,ferrer's conceptions of education1 and his desire to establish schools in his own country4 ,and when she died in #aijj 7she was then somewhat over #ej years old7 she devised a certain part of her property to ,ferrer1 to be used as he saw fit1 feeling assured no doubt that he would see fit to use it not for his personal advantage1 but for the purpose so dear to his heart4 ,which he did4 ,the bequest amounted to about #aej1jjj2 and the first expenditure was for the establishment of the ,modern ,school of ,barcelona1 in the year #aija4 ,it should be said that this was not the first of the ,modern ,school movement in ,spain2 for previous to that1 and for several years1 there had sprung up1 in various parts of the country1 a spontaneous movement towards self-education2 a very heroic effort1 in a way1 considering that the teachers were generally workingmen who had spent their day in the shops1 and were using the remainder of their exhausted strength to enlighten their fellow-workers and the children4 ,these were largely night-schools4 ,as there were no means behind these efforts1 the buildings in which they were held were of course unsuitable2 there was no proper plan of work2 no sufficient equipment1 and little co-ordination of labor4 ,a considerable percentage of these schools were already on the decline1 when ,ferrer1 equipped with his splendid organizing ability1 his teacher's experience1 and ,mlle4 ,meunier's endowment1 opened the ,barcelona ,school1 having as pupils eighteen boys and twelve girls4 ,so proper to the demand was this effort1 that at the end of four years' earnest activity1 fifty schools had been established1 ten in ,barcelona1 and forty in the provinces4 ,in #aijf1 that is1 after five years' work1 a banquet was held on ,good ,friday1 at which #a1gjj pupils were present4 ,from #cj to #a1gjj1--that is something4 ,and a banquet in ,catholic ,spain on ,good ,friday6 ,a banquet of children who have bade good-bye to the salvation of the soul by the punishment of the stomach6 ,we here may laugh2 but in ,spain it was a triumph and a menace1 which both sides understood4 ,i have said that ,ferrer brought to his work splendid organizing ability4 ,this he speedily put to purpose by enlisting the co-operation of a number of the greatest scientists of ,europe in the preparation of text-books embodying the discoveries of science1 couched in language comprehensible to young minds4 ,so far1 ,i am sorry to say1 ,i have not succeeded in getting copies of these manuals2 the ,spanish government confiscated most of them1 and has probably destroyed them4 ,still there are some uncaptured sets 7one is already in the ,british ,museum7 and ,i make no doubt that within a year or so we shall have translations of most of them4 ,there were thirty of these manuals all told1 comprising the work of the three sections1 primary1 intermediate1 and superior1 into which the pupils were divided4 ,from what ,i have been able to find out about these books1 ,i believe the most interesting of them all would be the ,first ,reading ,book4 ,it was prepared by ,dr4 ,odon de ,buen1 and is said to be at the same time a speller1 a grammar and an illustrated manual of evolution1 the majestic story of the evolution of the cosmos from the atom to the thinking being1 related in a language simple1 comprehensible to the child4 #bj1jjj copies of this book were rapidly sold4 ,imagine what that meant to ,catholic schools6 ,that the babies of ,spain should learn nothing about eternal punishment for their deadly sins1 and should learn that they are one in a long line of unfolding life that started in the lowly sea-slime6 ,the books on geography1 physics1 and minerology were written in like manner and with like intent by the same author2 on anthropology1 ,dr4 ,enguerrand wrote1 and on evolution1 ,dr4 ,letourneau of ,paris4 ,among the very suggestive works was one on ,the ,universal ,substance1 a collaborate production of ,albert ,bloch and ,paraf ,javal1 in which the mysteries of existence are resolved into their chemical equivalents1 so that the foundations for magic and miracle are unceremoniously cleared out of the intellectual field4 ,this book was prepared at ,ferrer's special request1 as an antidote to ancestral leanings1 inherited superstitions1 the various outside influences counteracting the influences of the school4 ,the methods of instruction were modeled after earlier attempts in ,france1 and were based on the general idea that physical and intellectual education must continually supplement each other4 ,that no one is really educated1 so long as his knowledge is merely the recollection of what he has read or seen in a book4 ,accordingly a lesson often consisted of a visit to a factory1 a workshop1 a studio1 or a laboratory1 where things were explained and illustrated2 or in a class journey to the hills1 or the sea1 or the open country1 where the geological or topographical conditions were studied1 or botanical specimens collected and individual observation encouraged4 ,very often even book classes were held out of doors1 and the children insensibly put in touch with the great pervading influences of nature1 a touch too often lost1 or never felt at all1 in our city environments4 ,how different was all this from the incomprehensible theology of the ,catholic schools to be learned and believed but not understood1 the impractical rehearsing of strings of words characteristic of mediaeval survivals6 ,no wonder the ,modern ,schools grew and grew1 and the hatred of the priests waxed hotter and hotter4 ,their opportunity came2 indeed1 they did not wait long4 ,in the year #aijf1 on the #cast day of ,may1 not so very long after that ,good ,friday banquet1 occurred the event which they seized upon to crush the ,modern ,school and its founder4 ,i am not here to speak either for or against ,mateo ,morral4 ,he was a wealthy young man1 of much energy and considerable learning4 ,he had helped to enrich the library of the ,modern ,school and being an excellent linguist1 he had offered to make translations of text-books4 ,ferrer had accepted the offer4 ,that is all ,morral had to do with the ,modern ,school4 ,but on the day of royal festivities1 ,morral had it in his head to throw a bomb where it would do some royal hurt4 ,he missed his calculations1 and the hurt intended did not take place2 but after a short interval1 finding himself about to be captured1 he killed himself4 ,think of him as you please3 think that he was a madman who did a madman's act2 think that he was a generous enthusiast who in an outburst of long chafing indignation at his country's condition wanted to strike a blow at a tyrannical monarchy1 and was willing to give his own life in exchange for the tyrant's2 or better than this1 reserve your judgment1 and say that you know not the man nor his personal condition1 nor the special external conditions that prompted him2 and that without such knowledge he cannot be judged4 ,but whatever you think of ,morral1 pray why was ,ferrer arrested and the ,modern ,school of ,barcelona closed8 ,why was he thrown in prison and kept there for more than a year8 ,why was it sought to railroad him before a ,court ,martial1 and that attempt failing1 the civil trial postponed for all that time8 ,why8 ,why8 ,because ,ferrer taught science to the children of ,spain1--and for no other thing4 ,his enemies would have killed him then2 but having been compelled to yield an open trial1 by the outcry of ,europe1 they were also compelled to release him4 ,but ,i imagine ,i hear1 yea hear1 the resolute mutter behind the closed walls of the monasteries1 the day ,ferrer went free4 ,go1 then2 we shall get you again4 ,and then---- ,and then they would do what three years later they did1--damn him to the ditch of ,montjuich4 ,yea1 they shut their lips together like the thin lips of ,fate and--waited4 ,the hatred of an order has something superb in it1--it hates so relentlessly1 so constantly1 so transcendently2 its personnel changes1 its hate never alters2 it wears one priest's face or another's2 itself is identical1 inexorable2 it pursues to the end4 ,did ,ferrer know this8 ,undoubtedly in a general way he did4 ,and yet he was so far from conceiving its appalling remorselessness1 that even when he found himself in prison again1 and utterly in their power1 he could not believe that he would not be freed4 ,what was this opportunity for which the ,jesuitry of ,spain waited with such terrible security8 ,the ,catalonian uprising4 ,how did they know it would come8 ,as any sane man1 not over-optimistic1 knows that uprising must come in ,spain4 ,ferrer hoped to sap away the foundations of tyranny through peaceful enlightenment4 ,he was right4 ,but they are also right who say that there are other forces hurling towards those foundations2 the greatest of these1--,starvation4 ,now it was plain and simple ,starvation that rose to rend its starvers when the ,catalonian women rose in mobs to cry against the command that was taking away their fathers and sons to their death in ,morocco4 ,the ,spanish people did not want the ,moroccan war2 the ,government1 in the interest of a number of capitalists1 did2 but like all governments and all capitalists1 it wanted workingmen to do the dying4 ,and they did not want to die1 and leave their wives and children to die too4 ,so they rebelled4 ,at first it was the conscious1 orderly protest of organized workingmen4 ,but ,starvation no more respects the commands of workingmen's unions1 than the commands of governments1 and other orderly bodies4 ,it has nothing to lose3 and it gets away1 in its fury1 from all management2 and it riots4 ,where ,churches and ,monasteries are offensively rich and at ease in the face of ,hunger1 ,hunger takes its revenge4 ,it has long fangs1 it rends1 and tears1 and tramples--the innocent with the guilty--always4 ,it is very horrible6 ,but remember1--remember how much more horrible is the long1 slow systematic crushing1 wasting1 drying of men upon their bones1 which year after year1 century after century1 has begotten the ,monster1 ,hunger4 ,remember the #ej1jjj innocent children annually slaughtered1 the blinded and the crippled children1 maimed and forsaken by social power2 and behind the smoke and flame of the burning convents of ,july1 #aiji1 see the staring of those sightless eyes4 ,ferrer instigate that mad frenzy6 ,oh1 no2 it was a mightier than ,ferrer6 ,our ,lady of ,pain--,our ,lady of ,hunger--,our ,lady with uncut nails and wolf-like teeth--,our ,lady who bears the ,man-flesh in her body that cannon are to tear--,our ,lady the ,workingwoman of ,spain1 ahungered4 ,she incarnated the ,red ,terror4 ,and the enemies of ,ferrer in #aijf1 as in #aiji1 knew that such things would come2 and they bided their time4 ,it is one of those pathetic things which destiny deals1 that it was only for love's sake--and most for the love of a little child--who died moreover--that the uprising found ,ferrer in ,spain at all4 ,he had been in ,england1 investigating schools and methods there from ,april until the middle of ,june4 ,word came that his sister-in-law and his niece were ill1 so the #aith of ,june found him at the little girl's bedside4 ,he intended soon after to go to ,paris1 but delayed to make some inquiries for a friend concerning the proceedings of the ,electrical ,society of ,barcelona4 ,so the storm caught him as it caught thousands of others4 ,he went about the business of his publishing house as usual1 making the observations of an interested spectator of events4 ,to his friend ,naquet he sent a postal card on the #bfth of ,july1 in which he spoke of the heroism of the women1 the lack of co-ordination in the people's movements1 and the total absence of leaders1 as a curious phenomenon4 ,hearing soon after that he was to be arrested1 he secluded himself for five weeks4 ,the ,white ,terror was in full sway2 #c1jjj men1 women1 and children had been arrested1 incarcerated1 inhumanly treated4 ,then the ,chief ,prosecutor issued the statement that ,ferrer was the director of the revolutionary movement4 ,too indignant to listen to the appeals of his friends1 he started to ,barcelona to give himself up and demand trial4 ,he was arrested on the way4 ,and they court-martialed him4 ,the proceedings were utterly infamous4 ,no chance to confront witnesses against him2 no opportunity to bring witnesses2 not even the books accused of sedition allowed to offer their mute testimony in their own defense2 no opportunity given to his defender to prepare2 letters sent from ,england and ,france to prove what had been the doomed man's purposes and occupations during his stay there1 lost in transit2 the old articles of twenty-four years before1 made to appear as if recent utterances2 forgeries imposed2 and with all this1 nothing but hearsay evidence even from his accusers2 and yet--he was sentenced to death4 ,sentenced to death and shot4 ,and all ,modern ,schools closed1 and his property sequestrated4 ,and the ,virgin of ,toledo may wear her gorgeous robes in peace1 since the shadow of the darkness has stolen back over the circle of light he lit4 ,only1--somewhere1 somewhere1 down in the obscurity--hovers the menacing figure of her rival1 ,our ,lady of ,pain4 ,she is still now1--but she is not dead4 ,and if all things be taken from her1 and the light not allowed to come to her1 nor to her children1--then--some day--she will set her own lights in the darkness4 ,ferrer--,ferrer is with the immortals4 ,his work is spreading over the world2 it will yet return1 and rid ,spain of its tyrants4 ,modern ,educational ,reform ,questions of genuine importance to large masses of people1 are not posed by a single questioner1 nor even by a limited number4 ,they are put with more or less precision1 with more or less consciousness of their scope and demand by all classes involved4 ,this is a fair test of its being a genuine question1 rather than a temporary fad4 ,such is the test we are to apply to the present inquiry1 ,what is wrong with our present method of ,child ,education8 ,what is to be done in the way of altering or abolishing it8 ,the posing of the question acquired a sudden prominence1 through the world-shocking execution of a great educator for alleged complicity in the revolutionary events of ,spain during the ,moroccan war4 ,people were not satisfied with the ,spanish government's declarations as to this official murder2 they were not convinced that they were being told the truth4 ,they inquired why the ,government should be so anxious for that man's death4 ,and they learned that as a teacher he had founded schools wherein ideas hostile to governmental programs for learning1 were put in practice4 ,and they have gone on asking to know what these ideas were1 how they were taught1 and how can those same ideas be applied to the practical questions of education confronting them in the persons of their own children4 ,but it would be a very great mistake to suppose that the question was raised out of nothingness1 or out of the brilliancy of his own mind1 by ,francisco ,ferrer4 ,if it were1 if he were the creator of the question instead of the response to it1 his martyr's death could have given it but an ephemeral prominence which would speedily have subsided4 ,on the contrary1 the inquiry stimulated by that tragic death was but the first loud articulation of what has been asked in thousands of school-rooms1 millions of homes1 all over the civilized world4 ,it has been put1 by each of the three classes concerned1 each in its own peculiar way1 from its own peculiar viewpoint1--by the ,educator1 by the ,parent1 and by the ,child itself4 ,there is a fourth personage who has had a great deal to say1 and still has2 but to my mind he is a pseudo-factor1 to be eliminated as speedily as possible4 ,i mean the ,statesman4 ,he considers himself profoundly important1 as representing the interests of society in general4 ,he is anxious for the formation of good citizens to support the ,state1 and directs education in such channels as he thinks will produce these4 ,i prefer to leave the discussion of his peculiar functions for a later part of this address1 here observing only that if he is a legitimate factor1 if by chance he is a genuine educator strayed into statesmanship1 as a statesman he is interested only from a secondary motive2 i4 e41 he is not interested in the actual work of schools1 in the children as persons1 but in the producing of a certain type of character to serve certain subsequent ends4 ,the criticism offered by the child itself upon the prevailing system of instruction1 is the most simple1--direct2 and at the same time1 the critic is utterly unconscious of its force4 ,who has not heard a child say1 in that fretted whine characteristic of a creature who knows its protest will be ineffective3 ,but what do ,i have to learn that for8--,oh1 ,i don't see what ,i have to know that for2 ,i can't remember it anyway4 ,i hate to go to school2 ,i'd just as lief take a whipping6 ,my teacher's a mean old thing2 she expects you to sit quiet the whole morning1 and if you just make the least little noise1 she keeps you in at recess4 ,why do we have to keep still so long8 ,what good does it do8 ,i remember well the remark made to me once by one of my teachers--and a very good teacher1 too1 who nevertheless did not see what her own observation ought to have suggested4 ,school-children1 she said1 regard teachers as their natural enemies4 ,the thought which it would have been logical to suppose would have followed this observation is1 that if children in general are possessed of that notion1 it is because there is a great deal in the teacher's treatment of them which runs counter to the child's nature3 that possibly this is so1 not because of natural cussedness on the part of the child1 but because of inapplicability of the knowledge taught1 or the manner of teaching it1 or both1 to the mental and physical needs of the child4 ,i am quite sure no such thought entered my teacher's mind1--at least regarding the system of knowledge to be imposed2 being a sensible woman1 she perhaps occasionally admitted to herself that she might make mistakes in applying the rules1 but that the body of knowledge to be taught was indispensable1 and must somehow be injected into children's heads1 under threat of punishment1 if necessary1 ,i am sure she never questioned4 ,it did not occur to her any more than to most teachers1 that the first business of an educator should be to find out what are the needs1 aptitudes1 and tendencies of children1 before he or she attempts to outline a body of knowledge to be taught1 or rules for teaching it4 ,it does not occur to them that the child's question1 ,what do ,i have to learn that for8 is a perfectly legitimate question2 and if the teacher cannot answer it to the child's satisfaction1 something is wrong either with the thing taught1 or with the teaching2 either the thing taught is out of rapport with the child's age1 or his natural tendencies1 or his condition of development2 or the method by which it is taught repels him1 disgusts him1 or at best fails to interest him4 ,when a child says1 ,i don't see why ,i have to know that2 ,i can't remember it anyway1 he is voicing a very reasonable protest4 ,of course1 there are plenty of instances of wilful shirking1 where a little effort can overcome the slackness of memory2 but every teacher who is honest enough to reckon with himself knows he cannot give a sensible reason why things are to be taught which have so little to do with the child's life that to-morrow1 or the day after examination1 they will be forgotten2 things which he himself could not remember were he not repeating them year in and year out1 as a matter of his trade4 ,and every teacher who has thought at all for himself about the essential nature of the young humanity he is dealing with1 knows that six hours of daily herding and in-penning of young1 active bodies and limbs1 accompanied by the additional injunction that no feet are to be shuffled1 no whispers exchanged1 and no paper wads thrown1 is a frightful violation of all the laws of young life4 ,any gardener who should attempt to raise healthy1 beautiful1 and fruitful plants by outraging all those plants' instinctive wants and searchings1 would meet as his reward--sickly plants1 ugly plants1 sterile plants1 dead plants4 ,he will not do it2 he will watch very carefully to see whether they like much sunlight1 or considerable shade1 whether they thrive on much water or get drowned in it1 whether they like sandy soil1 or fat mucky soil2 the plant itself will indicate to him when he is doing the right thing4 ,and every gardener will watch for indications with great anxiety4 ,if he finds the plant revolts against his experiments1 he will desist at once1 and try something else2 if he finds it thrives1 he will emphasize the particular treatment so long as it seems beneficial4 ,but what he will surely not do1 will be to prepare a certain area of ground all just alike1 with equal chances of sun and amount of moisture in every part1 and then plant everything together without discrimination1--mighty close together6--saying beforehand1 ,if plants don't want to thrive on this1 they ought to want to2 and if they are stubborn about it1 they must be made to4 ,or if a raiser of animals were to start in feeding them on a regimen adapted not to their tastes but to his2 if he were to insist on stuffing the young ones with food only fitted for the older ones2 if he were to shut them up and compel them somehow to be silent1 stiff1 and motionless for hours together1--he would--well1 he would very likely be arrested for cruelty to animals4 ,of course there is this difference between the grower of plants or animals and the grower of children2 the former is dealing with his subject as a superior power with a force which will always remain subject to his1 while the latter is dealing with a force which is bound to become his equal1 and taking it in the long and large sense1 bound ultimately to supersede him4 ,the fear of the footfalls of the young generation is in his ears1 whether he is aware of it or not1 and he instinctively does what every living thing seeks to do2 viz41 to preserve his power4 ,since he cannot remain forever the superior1 the dictator1 he endeavors to put a definite mould upon that power which he must share--to have the child learn what he has learned1 as he has learned it1 and to the same end that he has learned it4 ,the grower of flowers1 or fruits1 or vegetables1 or the raiser of animals1 secure in his forever indisputable superiority1 has nothing to fear when he inquires into the ways of his subjects2 he will never think3 ,but if ,i heed such and such manifestation of the flower's or the animal's desire or repulsion1 it will develop certain tendencies as a result1 which will eventually overturn me and mine1 and all that ,i believe in and labor to preserve4 ,the grower of children is perpetually beset by this fear4 ,he must not listen to a child's complaint against the school3 it breaks down the mutual relation of authority and obedience2 it destroys the faith of the child that his olders know better than he2 it sets up little centers of future rebellion in the brain of every child affected by the example4 ,no3 complaint as to the wisdom of the system must be discouraged1 ignored1 frowned down1 crushed by superior dignity2 if necessary1 punished4 ,the very best answer a child ever gets to its legitimate inquiry1 ,why do ,i have to learn such and such a thing8 is1 ,wait till you get older1 and you will understand it all4 ,just now you are a little too young to understand the reasons4--7,in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred the answerer got the same reply to his own question twenty years before2 and he has never found out since1 either74 ,do as we tell you to1 now1 say the teachers1 and be sure that we are instructing you for your good4 ,the explanations will become clear to you some time4 ,and the child smothers his complaint1 cramps his poor little body to the best of his ability1 and continues to repeat definitions which mean nothing to him but strings of long words1 and rules which to him are simply torture--apparatus invented by his natural enemies to plague children4--,i recall quite distinctly the bitter resentment ,i felt toward the inverted divisor4 ,the formula was easy enough to remember3 ,invert the terms of the divisor and proceed as in multiplication of fractions4 ,i memorized it in less than a minute1 and followed the prescription1 and got my examples1 correct4 ,but ,oh1 how1 how was the miracle accomplished8 ,why should a fraction be made to stand on its head8 and how did that change a division suddenly into a multiplication8--,and ,i never found out till ,i undertook to teach some one else1 years afterward4 ,yet the thing could have been made plain then2 perhaps would have been1 but for the fact that as a respectful pupil ,i was so trained to think that my teachers' methods must not be questioned or their explanations reflected upon1 that ,i sat mute1 mystified1 puzzled1 and silently indignant4 ,in the end ,i swallowed it as ,i did a lot of other pre-digested knowledge 787 and consented to use its miraculous nature1 very much as my ,christian friends use the body and blood of ,christ to wash their sins away without very well understanding the modus operandi4 ,another advantage which the botanical or zological cultivator has over the child-grower1 by which incidentally the plants and animals profit1 is that since he is not seeking to produce a universal type1 but rather to develop as many new and interesting types as he can1 he is very studious to notice the inclinations of his subjects1 observing possible beginnings of differentiation1 and adapting his treatment to the development of such beginnings4 ,of course he also does what no child-cultivator could possibly do1--he ruthlessly destroys weaklings2 and as the superior intermeddling divinity1 he fosters those special types which are more serviceable to himself1 irrespective of whether they are more serviceable to plant or animal life apart from man4 ,but is the fact that children are of the same race as ourselves1 the fact that their development should be regarded from the point of how best shall they serve themselves1 their own race and generation1 not that of a discriminating overlord1 assuming the power of life and death over them1--a reason for us to disregard their tendencies1 aptitudes1 likes and dislikes1 altogether8--a reason for us to treat their natural manifestations of non-adaptation to our methods of treatment with less consideration than we give to a fern or a hare8 ,i should1 on the contrary1 suppose it was a reason to consider them all the more4 ,i think the difficulty lies in the immeasurable vanity of the human adult1 particularly the pedagogical adult1 7,i presume ,i may say it with less offense since ,i am a teacher myself71 which does not permit him to recognize as good any tendency in children to fly in the face of his conceptions of a correct human being2 to recognize that may be here is something highly desirable1 to be encouraged1 rather than destroyed as pernicious4 ,a flower-gardener doesn't expect to make another voter or householder out of his fern1 so he lets it show what it wants to be1 without being at all horrified at anything it does2 but your teacher has usually well-defined conceptions of what men and women have to be4 ,and if a boy is too lively1 too noisy1 too restless1 too curious1 to suit the concept1 he must be trimmed and subdued4 ,and if he is lazy1 he has to be spurred with all sorts of whips1 which are offensive both to the handler and the handled4 ,the weapons of shaming and arousing the spirit of rivalry are two which are much used1--the former with sometimes fatal results1 as in the case of the nine year old boy who recently committed suicide because his teacher drew attention to his torn coat1 or young girls who have worried themselves into fevers from a scornful word respecting their failures in scholarship1 and arousing rivalry brings an evil train behind it of spites and jealousies4 ,i do not say1 as some enthusiasts do1 there are no bad children1 or there are no lazy children2 but ,i am quite sure that both badness and laziness often result from lack of understanding and lack of adaptation2 and that these can only be attained by teachers comprehending that they must seek to understand as well as to be understood4 ,badness is sometimes only dammed up energy1 which can no more help flooding over than dammed up water4 ,laziness is often the result of forcing a child to a task for which it has no natural liking1 while it would be energetic enough1 given the thing it liked to do4 ,at any rate1 it is worth while to try to find out what is the matter1 in the spirit of a searcher after truth4 ,which is the first point ,i want to establish3 ,that the general complaints of children are true criticisms of the school system2 and ,superintendents of ,public ,instruction1 ,boards of ,education1 and ,teachers have as their first duty to heed and consider these complaints4 ,let us now consider the complaints of parents4 ,it must be admitted that the parents of young children1 particularly their mothers1 and especially these latter when they are the wives of workingmen with good-sized families1 regard the school rather as a convenience for getting rid of the children during a certain period of the day than anything else4 ,they are not to be blamed for this4 ,they have obeyed the imperative mandate of nature in having families1 with no very adequate conception of what they were doing2 they find themselves burdened with responsibilities often greatly beyond their capacity4 ,they have all they can do1 sometimes more than they can do1 to manage the financial end of things1 to see to their children's material wants and to get through the work of a house2 very often they are themselves deficient in even the elementary knowledge of the schools2 they feel that their children need to know a great deal that they have never known1 but they are utterly without the ability to say whether what they learn is useful and important or not4 ,with the helplessness of ignorance towards wisdom1 they receive the system provided by the ,state on trust1 presuming it is good2 and with the pardonable relief of busy and overburdened people1 they look at the clock as school hour approaches1 and breathe a sigh of relief when the last child is out of the house4 ,they would be shocked at the idea that they regard their children as nuisances2 they would vigorously defend themselves by saying that they feel that the children are in better hands than their own1 safe and well treated4 ,but before long even these ignorant ones observe that their children have learned a number of things which are not good4 ,they have mixed with a crowd of others1 and somewhere among them they have learned bad language1 bad ideas1 and bad habits4 ,these are complaints which may be heard from intelligent1 educated1 and conservative parents also1--parents who may be presumed to be satisfied with the spirit and general purpose of the knowledge imparted in the class-room4 ,also the children suffer in health through their schools2 and later on1 when the cramming and crowding of their brains goes on in earnest1 as it does in the higher grades1 and particularly the ,high ,schools1 ,oh then springs up a terrible crop of headache1 nervous prostration1 hysterics1 over-delicacy1 anaemia1 heart-palpitation 7especially among the girls71 and a harvest of other physical disorders which were very probably planted back in the primary departments1 and fostered in the higher rooms4 ,the students are so overtrained that they often become good for nothing in the house1 the parents say1 and too late the mothers discover that they themselves become servants to the whimsical little ladies and gentlemen they have raised up1 who are more interested in text-books than in practical household matters4 ,such are the ordinary complaints heard on every side1 uttered by those who really have no fault to find with the substance of the instruction itself1--some because they do not know1 and some because it fairly represents their own ideas4 ,the complaint becomes much more vital and definite when it proceeds from a parent who is an informed person1 with a conception of life at variance with that commonly accepted4 ,i will instance that of a ,philadelphia physician1 who recently said to me3 ,in my opinion many of the most horrid effects of malformations which ,i have to deal with1 are the results of the long hours of sitting imposed on children in the schools4 ,it is impossible for a healthy active creature to sit stiffly straight so many hours2 no one can do it4 ,they will inevitably twist and squirm themselves down into one position or another which throws the internal organs out of position1 and which by iteration and reiteration results in a continuously accentuating deformity4 ,motherhood often becomes extremely painful and dangerous through the narrowing of the pelvis produced in early years of so much uncomfortable sitting4 ,i believe that the sort of schooling which necessitates it should not begin till a child is fourteen years of age4 ,he added also that the substance of our education should be such as would fit the person for the conditions and responsibilities he or she may reasonably be expected to encounter in life4 ,since the majority of boys and girls will most likely become fathers and mothers in the future1 why does not our system of education take account of it1 and instruct the children not in the ,latin names of bones and muscles so much1 as in the practical functioning and hygiene of the body8 ,every teacher knows1 and most of our parents know1 that no subject is more carefully ignored by our text-books on physiology than the reproductive system4 ,a like book on zology has far more to say about the reproduction of animals than is thought fit to be said by human beings to human beings about themselves4 ,and yet upon such ignorance often depends the ruin of lives4 ,such is the criticism of an intelligent physician1 himself the father of five children4 ,it is a typical complaint of those who have to deal with the physical results of our school system4 ,a still more forcible complaint is rising up from a class of parents who object not only negatively1 but positively1 to the instruction of the schools4 ,these are saying3 ,i do not want to have my children taught things which are positively untrue1 nor truths which have been distorted to fit some one's political or religious conception4 ,i do not want any sort of religion or politics to be put into his head4 ,i want the accepted facts of natural science and discovery to be taught him1 in so far as they are within the grasp of his intellect4 ,i do not want them colored with the prejudice of any system4 ,i want a school system which will be suited to his physical well-being4 ,i want what he learns to become his1 by virtue of its appealing to his taste1 his aptitude for experiment and proof2 ,i do not want it to be a foreign stream pouring over his lips like a brook over its bed1 leaving nothing behind4 ,i do not want him to be tortured with formal examinations1 nor worried by credit marks with averages and per cents and tenths of per cents1 which haunt him waking and sleeping1 as if they were the object of his efforts4 ,and more than that1 and above all1 ,i do not want him made an automaton4 ,i do not want him to become abjectly obedient4 ,i do not want his free initiative destroyed4 ,i want him1 by virtue of his education1 to be well-equipped bodily and mentally to face life and its problems4 ,this is my second point3 ,that parents1 conservatives and radicals1 criticise the school #ast1 ,as the producer of unhealthy bodies2 #b;d1 ,as teaching matter inappropriate to life2 or rather1 perhaps1 as not teaching what is appropriate to life2 #c;d1 ,as perverting truth to serve a political and religious system2 and as putting an iron mould upon the will of youth1 destroying all spontaneity and freedom of expression4 ,the third critic is the teacher4 ,owing to his peculiarly dependent position1 it is very1 very seldom that any really vital criticism comes out of the mouth of an ordinary employ in the public school service3 first1 if he has any subversive ideas1 he dares not voice them for fear of his job2 second1 it is extremely unlikely that any one with subversive ideas either will apply for the job1 or having applied1 will get it2 and third1 if through some fortuitous combination of circumstances1 a rebellious personage has smuggled himself into the camp1 with the naive notion that he is going to work reforms in the system1 he finds before long that the system is rather remoulding him2 he falls into the routine prescribed1 and before long ceases to struggle against it4 ,still1 however conservative and system-logged teachers may be1 they will all agree upon one criticism2 viz41 that they have too much to do2 that it is utterly impossible for them to do justice to every pupil2 that with from thirty to fifty pupils all depending upon one teacher for instruction1 it is out of the question to give any single one sufficient attention1 to say nothing of any special attention which his peculiar backwardness might require4 ,he could do so only at the expense of injustice to the rest4 ,and1 indeed1 the best teacher in the world could not attend properly to the mental needs of fifty children1 nor even of thirty4 ,furthermore1 this overcrowding makes necessary the stiff regulation1 the formal discipline1 in the maintenance of which so much of the teacher's energy is wasted4 ,the everlasting roll-call1 the record of tardiness and absence1 the eye forever on the watch to see who is whispering1 the ear forever on the alert to catch the scraper of feet1 the mischievous disturber1 the irrepressible noisemaker2 with such a divided and subdivided attention1 how is it possible to teach8 ,here and there we find a teacher with original ideas1 not of subjects to be taught1 but of the means of teaching4 ,sometimes there is one who inwardly revolts at what he has to teach1 and takes such means as he can to counteract the glorifications of political aggrandizement1 with which our geographies and histories are redolent4 ,in general1 however1 public school teachers1 like government clerks1 believe very much in the system whereby they live4 ,what they do find fault with1 and what they have very much reason to find fault with1 is not the school system1 but the counteracting influences of bad homes4 ,teachers are often heard to say that they think they could do far better with the children1 if they had entire control of them1 or1 as they more commonly express themselves1 if only their parents had some common sense6 ,lessons of order1 neatness1 cleanliness1 and hygiene1 are often entirely thrown away1 because the children regard them as statements to be memorized1 not things to be practised4 ,those children whose mothers know nothing of ventilation1 the necessity for exercise1 the chemistry of food1 and the functioning of the organs of the body1 will forget instructions because they are never made part of their lives4 7,which criticism is a sort of confirmation of that sage observation3 ,if you want to reform a man1 begin with his grandmother47 ,so much for criticism4 ,what1 now1 can we offer in the way of suggestions for reform8 ,speaking abstractly1 ,i should say that the purpose of education should be to furnish a child with such fundamental knowledge and habits as will preserve and strengthen his body1 and make him a self-reliant social being1 having an all-around acquaintance with the life which is to surround him and an adaptability to circumstances which will render him able to meet varying conditions4 ,but we are immediately confronted by certain practical queries1 when we attempt to conceive such a school system4 ,the fact is that the training of the body should be begun in very early childhood2 and can never be rightly done in a city4 ,no other animal than man ever conceived such a frightful apparatus for depriving its young of the primary rights of physical existence as the human city4 ,the mass of our city children know very little of nature4 ,what they have learned of it through occasional picnics1 excursions1 visits in the country1 etc41 they have learned as a foreign thing1 having little relation to themselves2 their natural habitat is one of lifeless brick and mortar1 wire and iron1 poles1 pavements1 and noise4 ,yet all this ought to be utterly foreign to children4 ,this ought to be the thing visited once in a while1 not lived in4 ,there is no pure air in a city2 it is all poisoned4 ,yet the first necessity of lunged animals--especially little ones--is pure air4 ,moreover1 every child ought to know the names and ways of life of the things it eats2 how to grow them1 etc4 ,how are gardens possible in a city8 ,every child should know trees1 not as things he has read about1 but as familiar presences in his life1 which he recognizes as quickly as his eyes greet them4 ,he should know his oneness with nature1 not through the medium of a theory1 but through feeling it daily and hourly4 ,he should know the birds by their songs1 and by the quick glimpse of them among the foliage2 the insect in its home1 the wild flower on its stalk1 the fruit where it hangs4 ,can this be done in a city8 ,it is the city that is wrong1 and its creations can never be right2 they may be improved2 they can never be what they should4 ,let me quote ,luther ,burbank here3 he expressed so well1 and just in the tumultuous disorder and un-coordination dear to a child's soul1 the early rights of children4 ,every child should have mud-pies1 grasshoppers1 water-bugs1 tadpoles1 frogs1 mud-turtles1 elderberries1 wild strawberries1 acorns1 chestnuts1 trees to climb1 brooks to wade in1 water-lilies1 woodchucks1 bats1 bees1 butterflies1 various animals to pet1 hay-fields1 pine-cones1 rocks to roll1 sand1 snakes1 huckleberries1 and hornets2 and any child who has been deprived of these has been deprived of the best part of his education4 ,he is of opinion that until ten years of age1 these things should be the real educators of children1--not books4 ,i agree with him4 ,but neither city homes nor city schools can give children these things4 ,furthermore1 ,i believe that education should be integral2 that the true school must combine physical and intellectual education from the beginning to the end4 ,but ,i am confronted by the fact that this is impossible to the mass of the people1 because of the economic condition in which we are all floundering4 ,what is possible can be only a compromise4 ,physical education will go on in the home principally1 and intellectual education in the school4 ,something might be done to organize the teaching of parents2 lectures and demonstrations at the public schools might be given weekly1 in the evenings1 for parents1 by competent nurses or hygienists4 ,but they would remain largely ineffective4 ,until the whole atrocious system of herding working people in close-built cities1 by way of making them serviceable cogwheels in the capitalistic machine for grinding out rent and profit1 comes to an end1 the physical education of children will remain at best a pathetic compromise4 ,we have left to consider what may be done in the way of improving intellectual education4 ,what is really necessary for a child to know which he is not taught now8 and what is taught that is unnecessary8 ,as to reading and writing there is no dispute1 though there is much dispute about the way of doing it4 ,but beyond that children should know--things2 from their earlier school days they should know the geography of their own locality1 not rehearsing it from a book1 but by going over the ground1 having the relations of places explained to them1 and by being shown how to model relief maps themselves4 ,they should know the indications of the weather1 being taught the use of instruments for measuring air-pressures1 temperatures1 amount of sunshine1 etc42 they should know the special geology of their own locality1 the nature of the soil and its products1 through practical exhibition2 they should be allowed to construct1 from clay1 stone1 or brick1 such little buildings as they usually like to make1 and from them the simple principles of geometry taught4 ,you see1 every school needs a big yard1 and play-rooms with tools in them1--the use of which tools they should be taught4 ,arithmetic1 to be sure1 they need to know--but arithmetic connected with things4 ,let them learn fractions by cutting up things and putting them together1 and not be bothered by abstractions running into the hundreds of thousands1 the millions1 which never in time will they use4 ,and drop all that tiresome years' work in interest and per cent2 if decimals are understood1 every one who has need will be amply able to work out systems of interest when necessary4 ,children should know the industrial life through which they live1 into which they are probably going4 ,they should see how cloth is woven1 thread is spun1 shoes are made1 iron forged and wrought2 again not alone by written description1 but by eye-witness4 ,they should1 as they grow older1 learn the history of the arts of peace4 ,what they do not need to know1 is so much of the details of the history of destruction2 the general facts and results of wars are sufficient4 ,they do not need to be impressed with the details of killings1 which they sensibly forget1 and inevitably also4 ,moreover1 the revolting patriotism which is being inculcated1 whereby children learn to be proud of their country1 not for its contributions to the general enlightenment of humanity1 but for its crimes against humanity2 whereby they are taught to consider themselves1 their country1 their flag1 their institutions1 as things to be upheld and maintained1 right or wrong2 whereby the stupid and criminal life of the soldier is exalted as honorable1 should be wholly omitted from the educational system4 ,however1 it is utterly impossible to expect that it will be1 by anything short of general public sentiment against it2 and at present such sentiment is for it4 ,i have alluded before to the function of the statesman in directing education4 ,so long as schools are maintained by governments1 the ,statesman1 not the true educator1 will determine what sort of history is to be taught2 and it will be what it is now1 only continually growing worse4 ,political institutions must justify themselves to the young generation4 ,they begin by training childish minds to believe that what they do is to be accepted1 not criticised4 ,a history becomes little better than a catechism of patriotic formulas in glorification of the ,state4 ,now there is no way of escaping this1 for those who disapprove it1 short of eliminating the statesman1 establishing voluntarily supported schools1 wherein wholly different notions shall be taught2 in which the spirit of teaching history shall be one of honest statement and fearless criticism2 wherein the true image of war and the army and all that it means shall be honestly given4 ,the really ,ideal ,school1 which would not be a compromise1 would be a boarding school built in the country1 having a farm attached1 and workshops where useful crafts might be learned1 in daily connection with intellectual training4 ,it presupposes teachers able to train little children to habits of health1 order1 and neatness1 in the utmost detail1 and yet not tyrants or rigid disciplinarians4 ,in free contact with nature1 the children would learn to use their limbs as nature meant1 feel their intimate relationship with the growing life of other sorts1 form a profound respect for work and an estimate of the value of it2 wish to become real doers in the world1 and not mere gatherers in of other men's products2 and with the respect for work1 the appreciation of work1 the desire to work1 will come the pride of the true workman who will know how to maintain his dignity and the dignity of what he does4 ,at present the major portion of our working people are sorry they are working people 7as they have good reason to be74 ,they take little joy or pride in what they do2 they consider themselves as less gifted and less valuable persons in society than those who have amassed wealth and1 by virtue of that amassment1 live upon their employees2 or those who by attaining book knowledge have gotten out of the field of manual production1 and lead an easier life4 ,they educate their children in the hope that these1 at least1 may attain that easier existence1 without work1 which has been beyond them4 ,even when such parents themselves have dreams of a reorganization of society1 wherein all shall labor and all have leisure due1 they impress upon the children that no one should be a common workingman if he can help it4 ,workingmen are slaves1 and it is not well to be a slave4 ,our radicals fail to realize that to accomplish the reorganization of work1 it is necessary to have workers1--and workers with the free spirit1 the rebellious spirit1 which will consider its own worth and refuse to accept the slavish conditions of capitalism4 ,these must be bred in schools where work is done1 and done proudly1 and in full consciousness of its value2 where the dubious services of the capitalist will likewise be rated at their true worth2 and no man reckoned as above another1 unless he has done a greater social service4 ,where political institutions and the politicians who operate them--judges1 lawmakers1 or executives--will be candidly criticised1 and repudiated when justice dictates so1 whether in the teaching of their past history1 or their present actions in current events4 ,whether the workers1 upon whom so many drains are already made1 will be able to establish and maintain such schools1 is a question to be solved upon trial through their organizations4 ,the question is1 ,will you breed men for the service of the ,cannon1 to be aimed at you in the hour of ,strikes and ,revolts1 men to uphold the machine which is crushing you1 or will you train them in the knowledge of the true worth of ,labor and a determination to reorganize it as it should be8 ,sex ,slavery ,night in a prison cell6 ,a chair1 a bed1 a small washstand1 four blank walls1 ghastly in the dim light from the corridor without1 a narrow window1 barred and sunken in the stone1 a grated door6 ,beyond its hideous iron latticework1 within the ghastly walls1--a man6 ,an old man1 gray-haired and wrinkled1 lame and suffering4 ,there he sits1 in his great loneliness1 shut in from all the earth4 ,there he walks1 to and fro1 within his measured space1 apart from all he loves6 ,there1 for every night in five long years to come1 he will walk alone1 while the white age-flakes drop upon his head1 while the last years of the winter of life gather and pass1 and his body draws near the ashes4 ,every night1 for five long years to come1 he will sit alone1 this chattel slave1 whose hard toil is taken by the ,state1--and without recompense save that the ,southern planter gave his negroes1--every night he will sit there so within those four white walls4 ,every night1 for five long years to come1 a suffering woman will lie upon her bed1 longing1 longing for the end of those three thousand days2 longing for the kind face1 the patient hand1 that in so many years had never failed her4 ,every night1 for five long years to come1 the proud spirit must rebel1 the loving heart must bleed1 the broken home must lie desecrated4 ,as ,i am speaking now1 as you are listening1 there within the cell of that accursed penitentiary whose stones have soaked up the sufferings of so many victims1 murdered1 as truly as any outside their walls1 by that slow rot which eats away existence inch-meal1--as ,i am speaking now1 as you are listening1 there sits ,moses ,harman6 ,why8 ,why1 when murder now is stalking in your streets1 when dens of infamy are so thick within your city that competition has forced down the price of prostitution to the level of the wages of your starving shirt-makers2 when robbers sit in ,state and national ,senate and ,house1 when the boasted bulwark of our liberties1 the elective franchise1 has become a ,u4 ,s4 dice-box1 wherewith great gamblers play away your liberties2 when debauchees of the worst type hold all your public offices and dine off the food of fools who support them1 why1 then1 sits ,moses ,harman there within his prison cell8 ,if he is so great a criminal1 why is he not with the rest of the spawn of crime1 dining at ,delmonico's or enjoying a trip to ,europe8 ,if he is so bad a man1 why in the name of wonder did he ever get in the penitentiary8 ,ah1 no2 it is not because he has done any evil thing2 but because he1 a pure enthusiast1 searching1 searching always for the cause of misery of the kind which he loved with that broad love of which only the pure soul is capable1 searched for the data of evil4 ,and searching so he found the vestibule of life to be a prison cell2 the holiest and purest part of the temple of the body1 if indeed one part can be holier or purer than another1 the altar where the most devotional love in truth should be laid1 he found this altar ravished1 despoiled1 trampled upon4 ,he found little babies1 helpless1 voiceless little things1 generated in lust1 cursed with impure moral natures1 cursed1 prenatally1 with the germs of disease1 forced into the world to struggle and to suffer1 to hate themselves1 to hate their mothers for bearing them1 to hate society and to be hated by it in return1--a bane upon self and race1 draining the lees of crime4 ,and he said1 this felon with the stripes upon his body1 ,let the mothers of the race go free6 ,let the little children be pure love children1 born of the mutual desire for parentage4 ,let the manacles be broken from the shackled slave1 that no more slaves be born1 no more tyrants conceived4 ,he looked1 this obscenist1 looked with clear eyes into this ill-got thing you call morality1 sealed with the seal of marriage1 and saw in it the consummation of immorality1 impurity1 and injustice4 ,he beheld every married woman what she is1 a bonded slave1 who takes her master's name1 her master's bread1 her master's commands1 and serves her master's passion2 who passes through the ordeal of pregnancy and the throes of travail at his dictation1--not at her desire2 who can control no property1 not even her own body1 without his consent1 and from whose straining arms the children she bears may be torn at his pleasure1 or willed away while they are yet unborn4 ,it is said the ,english language has a sweeter word than any other1--home4 ,but ,moses ,harman looked beneath the word and saw the fact1--a prison more horrible than that where he is sitting now1 whose corridors radiate over all the earth1 and with so many cells1 that none may count them4 ,yes1 our ,masters6 ,the earth is a prison1 the marriage-bed is a cell1 women are the prisoners1 and you are the keepers6 ,he saw1 this corruptionist1 how in those cells are perpetrated such outrages as are enough to make the cold sweat stand upon the forehead1 and the nails clench1 and the teeth set1 and the lips grow white in agony and hatred4 ,and he saw too how from those cells might none come forth to break her fetters1 how no slave dare cry out1 how all these murders are done quietly1 beneath the shelter-shadow of home1 and sanctified by the angelic benediction of a piece of paper1 within the silence-shade of a marriage certificate1 ,adultery and ,rape stalk freely and at ease4 ,yes1 for that is adultery where woman submits herself sexually to man1 without desire on her part1 for the sake of keeping him virtuous1 keeping him at home1 the women say4 7,well1 if a man did not love me and respect himself enough to be virtuous without prostituting me1 he might go1 and welcome4 ,he has no virtue to keep47 ,and that is rape1 where a man forces himself sexually upon a woman whether he is licensed by the marriage law to do it or not4 ,and that is the vilest of all tyranny where a man compels the woman he says he loves1 to endure the agony of bearing children that she does not want1 and for whom1 as is the rule rather than the exception1 they cannot properly provide4 ,it is worse than any other human oppression2 it is fairly ,god-like6 ,to the sexual tyrant there is no parallel upon earth2 one must go to the skies to find a fiend who thrusts life upon his children only to starve and curse and outcast and damn them6 ,and only through the marriage law is such tyranny possible4 ,the man who deceives a woman outside of marriage 7and mind you1 such a man will deceive in marriage too7 may deny his own child1 if he is mean enough4 ,he cannot tear it from her arms--he cannot touch it6 ,the girl he wronged1 thanks to your very pure and tender morality-standard1 may die in the street for want of food4 ,he cannot force his hated presence upon her again4 ,but his wife1 gentlemen1 his wife1 the woman he respects so much that he consents to let her merge her individuality into his1 lose her identity and become his chattel1 his wife he may not only force unwelcome children upon1 outrage at his own good pleasure1 and keep as a general cheap and convenient piece of furniture1 but if she does not get a divorce 7and she cannot for such cause7 he can follow her wherever she goes1 come into her house1 eat her food1 force her into the cell1 kill her by virtue of his sexual authority6 ,and she has no redress unless he is indiscreet enough to abuse her in some less brutal but unlicensed manner4 ,i know a case in your city where a woman was followed so for ten years by her husband4 ,i believe he finally developed grace enough to die2 please applaud him for the only decent thing he ever did4 ,oh1 is it not rare1 all this talk about the preservation of morality by marriage law6 ,o splendid carefulness to preserve that which you have not got6 ,o height and depth of purity1 which fears so much that the children will not know who their fathers are1 because1 forsooth1 they must rely upon their mother's word instead of the hired certification of some priest of the ,church1 or the ,law6 ,i wonder if the children would be improved to know what their fathers have done4 ,i would rather1 much rather1 not know who my father was than know he had been a tyrant to my mother4 ,i would rather1 much rather1 be illegitimate according to the statutes of men1 than illegitimate according to the unchanging law of ,nature4 ,for what is it to be legitimate1 born according to law8 ,it is to be1 nine cases out of ten1 the child of a man who acknowledges his fatherhood simply because he is forced to do so1 and whose conception of virtue is realized by the statement that a woman's duty is to keep her husband at home2 to be the child of a woman who cares more for the benediction of ,mrs4 ,grundy than the simple honor of her lover's word1 and conceives prostitution to be purity and duty when exacted of her by her husband4 ,it is to have ,tyranny as your progenitor1 and slavery as your prenatal cradle4 ,it is to run the risk of unwelcome birth1 legal constitutional weakness1 morals corrupted before birth1 possibly a murder instinct1 the inheritance of excessive sexuality or no sexuality1 either of which is disease4 ,it is to have the value of a piece of paper1 a rag from the tattered garments of the ,social ,contract1 set above health1 beauty1 talent or goodness2 for ,i never yet had difficulty in obtaining the admission that illegitimate children are nearly always prettier and brighter than others1 even from conservative women4 ,and how supremely disgusting it is to see them look from their own puny1 sickly1 lust-born children1 upon whom lie the chain-traces of their own terrible servitude1 look from these to some healthy1 beautiful natural child1 and say1 ,what a pity its mother wasn't virtuous6 ,never a word about their children's fathers' virtue1 they know too much6 ,virtue6 ,disease1 stupidity1 criminality6 ,what an obscene thing virtue is6 ,what is it to be illegitimate8 ,to be despised1 or pitied1 by those whose spite or whose pity isn't worth the breath it takes to return it4 ,to be1 possibly1 the child of some man contemptible enough to deceive a woman2 the child of some woman whose chief crime was belief in the man she loved4 ,to be free from the prenatal curse of a slave mother1 to come into the world without the permission of any law-making set of tyrants who assume to corner the earth1 and say what terms the unborn must make for the privilege of coming into existence4 ,this is legitimacy and illegitimacy6 ,choose4 ,the man who walks to and fro in his cell in ,lansing penitentiary to-night1 this vicious man1 said3 ,the mothers of the race are lifting their dumb eyes to me1 their sealed lips to me1 their agonizing hearts to me4 ,they are seeking1 seeking for a voice6 ,the unborn in their helplessness1 are pleading from their prisons1 pleading for a voice6 ,the criminals1 with the unseen ban upon their souls1 that has pushed them1 pushed them to the vortex1 out of their whirling hells1 are looking1 waiting for a voice6 ,i will be their voice4 ,i will unmask the outrages of the marriage-bed4 ,i will make known how criminals are born4 ,i will make one outcry that shall be heard1 and let what will be1 be6 ,he cried out through the letter of ,dr4 ,markland1 that a young mother lacerated by unskilful surgery in the birth of her babe1 but recovering from a subsequent successful operation1 had been stabbed1 remorselessly1 cruelly1 brutally stabbed1 not with a knife1 but with the procreative organ of her husband1 stabbed to the doors of death1 and yet there was no redress6 ,and because he called a spade a spade1 because he named that organ by its own name1 so given in ,webster's dictionary and in every medical journal in the country1 because of this ,moses ,harman walks to and fro in his cell to-night4 ,he gave a concrete example of the effect of sex slavery1 and for it he is imprisoned4 ,it remains for us now to carry on the battle1 and lift the standard where they struck him down1 to scatter broadcast the knowledge of this crime of society against a man and the reason for it2 to inquire into this vast system of licensed crime1 its cause and its effect1 broadly upon the race4 ,the ,cause6 ,let woman ask herself1 ,why am ,i the slave of ,man8 ,why is my brain said not to be the equal of his brain8 ,why is my work not paid equally with his8 ,why must my body be controlled by my husband8 ,why may he take my labor in the household1 giving me in exchange what he deems fit8 ,why may he take my children from me8 ,will them away while yet unborn8 ,let every woman ask4 ,there are two reasons why1 and these ultimately reducible to a single principle--the authoritarian1 supreme-power1 ,god-idea1 and its two instruments1 the ,church--that is1 the priests--and the ,state--that is1 the legislators4 ,from the birth of the ,church1 out of the womb of ,fear and the fatherhood of ,ignorance1 it has taught the inferiority of woman4 ,in one form or another through the various mythical legends of the various mythical creeds1 runs the undercurrent of the belief in the fall of man through the persuasion of woman1 her subjective condition as punishment1 her natural vileness1 total depravity1 etc42 and from the days of ,adam until now the ,christian ,church1 with which we have specially to deal1 has made woman the excuse1 the scapegoat for the evil deeds of man4 ,so thoroughly has this idea permeated ,society that numbers of those who have utterly repudiated the ,church1 are nevertheless soaked in this stupefying narcotic to true morality4 ,so pickled is the male creation with the vinegar of ,authoritarianism1 that even those who have gone further and repudiated the ,state still cling to the god1 ,society as it is1 still hug the old theological idea that they are to be heads of the family--to that wonderful formula of simple proportion that ,man is the head of the ,woman even as ,christ is the head of the ,church4 ,no longer than a week since an ,anarchist 787 said to me1 ,i will be boss in my own house--a ,communist-,anarchist1 if you please1 who doesn't believe in my house4 ,about a year ago a noted libertarian speaker said1 in my presence1 that his sister1 who possessed a fine voice and had joined a concert troupe1 should stay at home with her children2 that is her place4 ,the old ,church idea6 ,this man was a ,socialist1 and since an ,anarchist2 yet his highest idea for woman was serfhood to husband and children1 in the present mockery called home4 ,stay at home1 ye malcontents6 ,be patient1 obedient1 submissive6 ,darn our socks1 mend our shirts1 wash our dishes1 get our meals1 wait on us and mind the children6 ,your fine voices are not to delight the public nor yourselves2 your inventive genius is not to work1 your fine art taste is not to be cultivated1 your business faculties are not to be developed2 you made the great mistake of being born with them1 suffer for your folly6 ,you are women6 therefore housekeepers1 servants1 waiters1 and child's nurses6 ,at ,macon1 in the sixth century1 says ,august ,bebel1 the fathers of the ,church met and proposed the decision of the question1 ,has woman a soul8 ,having ascertained that the permission to own a nonentity wasn't going to injure any of their parsnips1 a small majority vote decided the momentous question in our favor4 ,now1 holy fathers1 it was a tolerably good scheme on your part to offer the reward of your pitiable salvation or damnation 7odds in favor of the latter7 as a bait for the hook of earthly submission2 it wasn't a bad sop in those days of ,faith and ,ignorance4 ,but fortunately fourteen hundred years have made it stale4 ,you1 tyrant radicals 7871 have no heaven to offer1--you have no delightful chimeras in the form of merit cards2 you have 7save the mark7 the respect1 the good offices1 the smiles--of a slave-holder6 ,this in return for our chains6 ,thanks6 ,the question of souls is old--we demand our bodies1 now4 ,we are tired of promises1 ,god is deaf1 and his church is our worst enemy4 ,against it we bring the charge of being the moral 7or immoral7 force which lies behind the tyranny of the ,state4 ,and the ,state has divided the loaves and fishes with the ,church1 the magistrates1 like the priests take marriage fees2 the two fetters of ,authority have gone into partnership in the business of granting patent-rights to parents for the privilege of reproducing themselves1 and the ,state cries as the ,church cried of old1 and cries now3 ,see how we protect women6 ,the ,state has done more4 ,it has often been said to me1 by women with decent masters1 who had no idea of the outrages practiced on their less fortunate sisters1 ,why don't the wives leave8 ,why don't you run1 when your feet are chained together8 ,why don't you cry out when a gag is on your lips8 ,why don't you raise your hands above your head when they are pinned fast to your sides8 ,why don't you spend thousands of dollars when you haven't a cent in your pocket8 ,why don't you go to the seashore or the mountains1 you fools scorching with city heat8 ,if there is one thing more than another in this whole accursed tissue of false society1 which makes me angry1 it is the asinine stupidity which with the true phlegm of impenetrable dullness says1 ,why don't the women leave6 ,will you tell me where they will go and what they shall do8 ,when the ,state1 the legislators1 has given to itself1 the politicians1 the utter and absolute control of the opportunity to live2 when1 through this precious monopoly1 already the market of labor is so overstocked that workmen and workwomen are cutting each others' throats for the dear privilege of serving their lords2 when girls are shipped from ,boston to the south and north1 shipped in carloads1 like cattle1 to fill the dives of ,new ,orleans or the lumber-camp hells of my own state 7,michigan71 when seeing and hearing these things reported every day1 the proper prudes exclaim1 ,why don't the women leave1 they simply beggar the language of contempt4 ,when ,america passed the fugitive slave law compelling men to catch their fellows more brutally than runaway dogs1 ,canada1 aristocratic1 unrepublican ,canada1 still stretched her arms to those who might reach her4 ,but there is no refuge upon earth for the enslaved sex4 ,right where we are1 there we must dig our trenches1 and win or die4 ,this1 then1 is the tyranny of the ,state2 it denies1 to both woman and man1 the right to earn a living1 and grants it as a privilege to a favored few who for that favor must pay ninety per cent4 toll to the granters of it4 ,these two things1 the mind domination of the ,church1 and the body domination of the ,state are the causes of ,sex ,slavery4 ,first of all1 it has introduced into the world the constructed crime of obscenity3 it has set up such a peculiar standard of morals that to speak the names of the sexual organs is to commit the most brutal outrage4 ,it reminds me that in your city you have a street called ,callowhill4 ,once it was called ,gallows' ,hill1 for the elevation to which it leads1 now known as ,cherry ,hill1 has been the last touching place on earth for the feet of many a victim murdered by the ,law4 ,but the sound of the word became too harsh2 so they softened it1 though the murders are still done1 and the black shadow of the ,gallows still hangs on the ,city of ,brotherly ,love4 ,obscenity has done the same2 it has placed virtue in the shell of an idea1 and labelled all good which dwells within the sanction of ,law and respectable 787 custom2 and all bad which contravenes the usage of the shell4 ,it has lowered the dignity of the human body1 below the level of all other animals4 ,who thinks a dog is impure or obscene because its body is not covered with suffocating and annoying clothes8 ,what would you think of the meanness of a man who would put a skirt upon his horse and compel it to walk or run with such a thing impeding its limbs8 ,why1 the ,society for the ,prevention of ,cruelty to ,animals would arrest him1 take the beast from him1 and he would be sent to a lunatic asylum for treatment on the score of an impure mind4 ,and yet1 gentlemen1 you expect your wives1 the creatures you say you respect and love1 to wear the longest skirts and the highest necked clothing1 in order to conceal the obscene human body4 ,there is no society for the prevention of cruelty to women4 ,and you1 yourselves1 though a little better1 look at the heat you wear in this roasting weather6 ,how you curse your poor body with the wool you steal from the sheep6 ,how you punish yourselves to sit in a crowded house with coats and vests on1 because dead ,mme4 ,grundy is shocked at the vulgarity of shirt sleeves1 or the naked arm6 ,look how the ideal of beauty has been marred by this obscenity notion4 ,divest yourselves of prejudice for once4 ,look at some fashion-slaved woman1 her waist surrounded by a high-board fence called a corset1 her shoulders and hips angular from the pressure above and below1 her feet narrowest where they should be widest1 the body fettered by her everlasting prison skirt1 her hair fastened tight enough to make her head ache and surmounted by a thing of neither sense nor beauty1 called a hat1 ten to one a hump upon her back like a dromedary1--look at her1 and then imagine such a thing as that carved in marble6 ,fancy a statue in ,fairmount ,park with a corset and bustle on4 ,picture to yourselves the image of the equestrienne4 ,we are permitted to ride1 providing we sit in a position ruinous to the horse2 providing we wear a riding-habit long enough to hide the obscene human foot1 weighed down by ten pounds of gravel to cheat the ,wind in its free blowing1 so running the risk of disabling ourselves completely should accident throw us from the saddle4 ,think how we swim6 ,we must even wear clothing in the water1 and run the gauntlet of derision1 if we dare battle in the surf minus stockings6 ,imagine a fish trying to make headway with a water-soaked flannel garment upon it4 ,nor are you yet content4 ,the vile standard of obscenity even kills the little babies with clothes4 ,the human race is murdered1 horribly1 in the name of ,dress4 ,and in the name of ,purity what lies are told6 ,what queer morality it has engendered4 ,for fear of it you dare not tell your own children the truth about their birth2 the most sacred of all functions1 the creation of a human being1 is a subject for the most miserable falsehood4 ,when they come to you with a simple1 straightforward question1 which they have a right to ask1 you say1 ,don't ask such questions1 or tell some silly hollow-log story2 or you explain the incomprehensibility by another--,god6 ,you say ,god made you4 ,you know you are lying when you say it4 ,you know1 or you ought to know1 that the source of inquiry will not be dammed up so4 ,you know that what you could explain purely1 reverently1 rightly 7if you have any purity in you71 will be learned through many blind gropings1 and that around it will be cast the shadow-thought of wrong1 embryo'd by your denial and nurtured by this social opinion everywhere prevalent4 ,if you do not know this1 then you are blind to facts and deaf to ,experience4 ,think of the double social standard the enslavement of our sex has evolved4 ,women considering themselves very pure and very moral1 will sneer at the street-walker1 yet admit to their homes the very men who victimized the street-walker4 ,men1 at their best1 will pity the prostitute1 while they themselves are the worst kind of prostitutes4 ,pity yourselves1 gentlemen--you need it6 ,how many times do you see where a man or woman has shot another through jealousy6 ,the standard of purity has decided that it is right1 it shows spirit1 it is justifiable to--murder a human being for doing exactly what you did yourself1--love the same woman or same man6 ,morality6 ,honor6 ,virtue66 ,passing from the moral to the physical phase2 take the statistics of any insane asylum1 and you will find that1 out of the different classes1 unmarried women furnish the largest one4 ,to preserve your cruel1 vicious1 indecent standard of purity 787 you drive your daughters insane1 while your wives are killed with excess4 ,such is marriage4 ,don't take my word for it2 go through the report of any asylum or the annals of any graveyard4 ,look how your children grow up4 ,taught from their earliest infancy to curb their love natures--restrained at every turn6 ,your blasting lies would even blacken a child's kiss4 ,little girls must not be tomboyish1 must not go barefoot1 must not climb trees1 must not learn to swim1 must not do anything they desire to do which ,madame ,grundy has decreed improper4 ,little boys are laughed at as effeminate1 silly girl-boys if they want to make patchwork or play with a doll4 ,then when they grow up1 ,oh6 ,men don't care for home or children as women do6 ,why should they1 when the deliberate effort of your life has been to crush that nature out of them4 ,women can't rough it like men4 ,train any animal1 or any plant1 as you train your girls1 and it won't be able to rough it either4 ,now will somebody tell me why either sex should hold a corner on athletic sports8 ,why any child should not have free use of its limbs8 ,these are the effects of your purity standard1 your marriage law4 ,this is your work--look at it6 ,half your children dying under five years of age1 your girls insane1 your married women walking corpses1 your men so bad that they themselves often admit ,prostitution holds against ,purity a bond of indebtedness4 ,this is the beautiful effect of your god1 ,marriage1 before which ,natural ,desire must abase and belie itself4 ,be proud of it6 ,now for the remedy4 ,it is in one word1 the only word that ever brought equity anywhere--,liberty6 ,centuries upon centuries of liberty is the only thing that will cause the disintegration and decay of these pestiferous ideas4 ,liberty was all that calmed the blood-waves of religious persecution6 ,you cannot cure serfhood by any other substitution4 ,not for you to say in this way shall the race love4 ,let the race alone4 ,will there not be atrocious crimes8 ,certainly4 ,he is a fool who says there will not be4 ,but you can't stop them by committing the arch-crime and setting a block between the spokes of ,progress-wheels4 ,you will never get right until you start right4 ,as for the final outcome1 it matters not one iota4 ,i have my ideal1 and it is very pure1 and very sacred to me4 ,but yours1 equally sacred1 may be different and we may both be wrong4 ,but certain am ,i that with free contract1 that form of sexual association will survive which is best adapted to time and place1 thus producing the highest evolution of the type4 ,whether that shall be monogamy1 variety1 or promiscuity matters naught to us2 it is the business of the future1 to which we dare not dictate4 ,for freedom spoke ,moses ,harman1 and for this he received the felon's brand4 ,for this he sits in his cell to-night4 ,whether it is possible that his sentence be shortened1 we do not know4 ,we can only try4 ,those who would help us try1 let me ask to put your signatures to this simple request for pardon addressed to ,benjamin ,harrison4 ,to those who desire more fully to inform themselves before signing2 ,i say3 ,your conscientiousness is praiseworthy--come to me at the close of the meeting and ,i will quote the exact language of the ,markland letter4 ,to those extreme ,anarchists who cannot bend their dignity to ask pardon for an offense not committed1 and of an authority they cannot recognize1 let me say3 ,moses ,harman's back is bent1 low bent1 by the brute force of the ,law1 and though ,i would never ask anyone to bow for himself1 ,i can ask it1 and easily ask it1 for him who fights the slave's battle4 ,your dignity is criminal2 every hour behind the bars is a seal to your partnership with ,comstock4 ,no one can hate petitions worse than ,i2 no one has less faith in them than ,i4 ,but for my champion ,i am willing to try any means that invades no other's right1 even though ,i have little hope in it4 ,if1 beyond these1 there are those here to-night who have ever forced sexual servitude from a wife1 those who have prostituted themselves in the name of ,virtue1 those who have brought diseased1 immoral or unwelcome children to the light1 without the means of provision for them1 and yet will go from this hall and say1 ,moses ,harman is an unclean man--a man rewarded by just punishment1 then to you ,i say1 and may the words ring deep within your ears ,,until ,,you ,,die3 ,go on6 ,drive your sheep to the shambles6 ,crush that old1 sick1 crippled man beneath your ,juggernaut6 ,in the name of ,virtue1 ,purity and ,morality1 do it6 ,in the name of ,god1 ,home1 and ,heaven1 do it6 ,in the name of the ,nazarene who preached the golden rule1 do it6 ,in the name of ,justice1 ,principle1 and ,honor1 do it6 ,in the name of ,bravery and ,magnanimity put yourself on the side of the robber in the government halls1 the murderer in the political convention1 the libertine in public places1 the whole brute force of the police1 the constabulary1 the court1 and the penitentiary1 to persecute one poor old man who stood alone against your licensed crime6 ,do it4 ,and if ,moses ,harman dies within your ,kansas ,hell1 be satisfied when you have murdered him6 ,kill him6 ,and you hasten the day when the ,future shall bury you ten thousand fathoms deep beneath its curses4 ,kill him6 ,and the stripes upon his prison clothes shall lash you like the knout6 ,kill him6 ,and the insane shall glitter hate at you with their wild eyes1 the unborn babes shall cry their blood upon you1 and the graves that you have filled in the name of ,marriage1 shall yield food for a race that will pillory you1 until the memory of your atrocity has become a nameless ghost1 flitting with the shades of ,torquemada1 ,calvin and ,jehovah over the horizon of the ,world6 ,would you smile to see him dead8 ,would you say1 ,we are rid of this obscenist8 ,fools6 ,the corpse would laugh at you from its cold eyelids6 ,the motionless lips would mock1 and the solemn hands1 the pulseless1 folded hands1 in their quietness would write the last indictment1 which neither ,time nor you can efface4 ,kill him6 ,and you write his glory and your shame6 ,moses ,harman in his felon stripes stands far above you now1 and ,moses ,harman dead will live on1 immortal in the race he died to free6 ,kill him6 ,literature the ,mirror of ,man ,perhaps ,i had better say the ,mirror-reflection1--the reflection of all that he has been and is1 the hinting fore-flashing of something of what he may become4 ,in so considering it1 let it be understood that ,i speak of no particular form of literature1 but the entire body of a people's expressed thought1 preserved either traditionally1 in writing1 or in print4 ,the majority of lightly thinking1 fairly read people1 who make use of the word literature rather easily1 do so with a very indistinct idea of its content4 ,to them it usually means a certain limited form of human expression1 chiefly works of the imagination--poetry1 drama1 the various forms of the novel4 ,history1 philosophy1 science are rather frowning names1--stern second cousins1 as it were1 to the beguiling companions of their pleasant leisure hours1--not legitimately literature4 ,biography1--well1 it depends on who writes it6 ,if it can be made so much like a work of fiction that the subject sketched serves the purposes of a fictive hero1 why then--maybe4 ,to such talkers about literature1 evidence of familiarity with it1 and title to have one's opinions thereon asked and respected1 are witnessed by the ability to run glibly off the names of the personages in the dramas of ,ibsen1 ,bjrnson1 ,maeterlinck1 ,hauptmann or ,shaw2 or in the novels of ,gorki1 ,andreyev1 ,tolstoy1 ,zola1 ,maupassant1 ,hardy1 and the dozen or so of lesser lights who revolve with these through the cycle of the magazine issues4 ,not only do these same people thus limit the field of literature1 7at least in their ordinary conversation1--if you press them they will dubiously admit that the field may be extended7 but they are also possessed of the notion that only one particular mode even of fiction1 is in fact the genuine thing4 ,that this mode has not always been in vogue they are aware2 and they allow other modes to have been literature in the past1 as a sort of kindly concession to the past--a blanket-indulgence to its unevolved state4 ,at present1 however1 no indulgences are allowed2 whatever is not the mode1 is anathema2 it is not literature at all4 ,when confronted by the very great names of the ,past1 which they can neither consign to oblivion1 nor patronize by toleration for their undeveloped condition1 names which are names for all ages1 which they need to use as conjuration words in their comparisons and criticisms1 names such as ,shakespeare or ,hugo1 they complacently close their eyes to contradictions and swear that fundamentally these men's works are in the modern mode1 the accepted mode1 the one and only enduring mode1 the mode that they approve4 ,which is8--,i hear you ask4 ,which is what they are pleased to call ,realism4 ,if you wish to know how far they are obsessed by this notion1 go pick yourself a quiet corner in some caf where light literature readers meet to make comparisons1 and listen to the comments4 ,before very long1 voices will be getting loud about some character at present stalking across the pages of the magazines1 or bestirring itself among the latest ton of novel2 and the dispute will be1 ,does such a type exist8--,of course he exists1--,he does not exist1--,he must exist1--,he cannot exist1--,under such conditions1--,there are no such conditions1--,but be reasonable3 you have not been in all places1 and you cannot say there may not be such conditions2 supposing-- ,all right3 ,i will give you the conditions2 all the same1 no man would act so under any conditions4 ,i swear ,l have seen such men-- ,impossible-- ,what is there impossible about it8-- ,and the voices get louder and louder1 as the disputants proceed to pick the character to pieces1 speech by speech1 and action by action1 till1 nothing being left1 each finally subsides somehow1 each confirmed in his own opinion1 each convinced that the main purpose of literature--,realism--has either been served1 or not served1 by the author under discussion4 ,to such disputants ,literature the ,mirror of ,man1 means that only such literature as gives so-called absolutely faithful representations of life as it is demonstrably lived1 is a genuine ,mirror4 ,no author is to be considered worthy of a place1 unless his works can be at least twisted to fit this conception4 ,with some slight refinement of idea1 in so far as it recognizes the obscurer recesses of the mind as entitled to representation as well as the externals1 it corresponds to the one-time development of portrait painting1 which esteemed it necessary to paint the exact number of hairs in the wart on ,oliver ,cromwell's nose1 in order to have a true likeness of him4 ,as before suggested1 ,i do not1 when ,i speak of ,literature as the ,mirror of ,man1 have any such #abx#ah mirror in view2 nor the limitation of literature to any one form of it1 to any one age of it1 to any set of standard names2 nor the limitation of ,man to any preconceived notion of just what he may logically be allowed to be4 ,the composite image we are seeking to find is an image wrought as much of his dreams of what he would like to be1 as of his actual being2 that is no true picture of ,man1 which does not include his cravings for the impossible1 as well as his daily performance of the possible4 ,indeed1 the logical1 calculable man1 the man who under certain circumstances may be figured out to turn murderer and under others saint1 is hardly so interesting as the illogical being who upsets the calculation by becoming neither1 but something not at all predictable4 ,the objects of my lecture then are these3 #a4 ,to insist on a wider view of literature itself than that generally accepted4 #b4 ,to suggest to readers a more satisfactory way of considering what they read than that usually received4 #c4 ,to point to certain phases of the human appearance reflected in the mirror which are not generally noticed1 but which ,i find interesting and suggestive4 ,you would think it very unreasonable1 would you not1 for any one to insist that because your highly polished glass backed by quicksilver1 gives back so clear and excellent an image1 therefore the watery vision you catch of yourself in the shifting1 glancing ripples of a clear stream is not an image at all6 ,with all the curious elongating and drifting and shortening back and breaking up into wavering circles1 done by that unresting image1 you know very certainly that is you2 and if you look into the still waters of some summer pool1 or mountain rain-cup1 the image there is almost as sharp-lined as that in your polished glass1 except for the vague tremor that seems to move under the water rather than on its surface1 and suggest an ethereal something missing in your drawing-room shadow4 ,yet that vision conjured in the water-depth is you--surely you4 ,nay1 even more1--that first image of you1 you perceived when as a child you danced in the firelight and saw a misshapen darkness rising and falling along the wall in teasing mockery1--that too was surely an image of you--an image of interception1 not of reflection2 a blur1 a vacancy1 a horror1 from which you fled shrieking to your mother's arms2--and yet it was the distorted outline of you4 ,you grew familiar with it later1 amused yourself with it1 twisted your hands into strange positions to see what curious shapes they would form upon the wall1 and made whole stories with the shadows4 ,long afterward you went back to them with deliberate and careful curiosity1 to see how the figures stumbled on by accident could be definitely produced1 at will1 according to the laws of interception4 ,even so the first ,man-,images1 cast back from the blank wall of ,language1 are uncouth1 ungraspable1 vague1 vacant1 menacing--to the men who saw them1 frightful4 ,mankind produced this paradox3 the early lights of literature were darkness6 ,later these darknesses grew less fearsome2 the child-man began to jest with them2 to multiply figures and send them chasing past each other up and down the wall1 with fresh glee at each newly created shadow-sport4 ,the wall at last became luminous1 the shadows shining4 ,and out of the old monosyllabic horror of the primitive legend1 out of ,man's fright at the projection of his own soul1 out of his wide stare at those terrific giants on the wall who suddenly with shadow-like shifting became grotesque dwarfs1 and mocking little beasts that danced and floated1 ever most fearful because of their elusive emptiness2 out of this1 bit by bit1 grew the steady contemplation1 the gradual effacement of fright1 the feeling of power and amusement1 and the sense of ,creative ,mastery1 which1 understanding the shadows1 began to command them1 till there arose all the beauty of fairy tales and shining myths and singing legends4 ,now any one who desires to see in ,literature the most that there is in it2 who desires to read not merely for the absorption of the moment but for the sake of permanent impression2 who wishes to have an idea of ,man not only as he is now1 but through the whole articulate record of his existence2 who would know the thoughts of his infancy and the connected course of his development1--and no one has any adequate conception of the glory of literature1 unless he includes this much in it--any such a reader1 ,i say1 must find among its most attractive pages1 the stories of early superstitions1 the fictions of ,fear1 the struggles of the ,race-,child's intelligence with overlooming problems4 ,think of the ,ages and ,ages that men saw the ,demon ,electricity riding the air2 think that even now they do not know what he is2 and yet he played mightily with their daily lives for all those ages4 ,think how this staring savage was put face to face with world-games which were spun and tossed around him1 and compelled by the nature of his own activity to try to find an explanation to them2 think that most of us1 if we were not the heritors of the ages that have passed since then1 should be staggered and out-breathed even now by all these lights and forms through which we move2 and then turn to the record of those pathetic strivings of the frightened child with some little tenderness and sympathy1 some solemn curiosity to know what men were able to think and feel when they led their lives as in a threatening ,wonder-house1 where everything was an ,unknown1 invested with crouching hostility4 ,and never be too sure you know just how men will act1 or try to act1 under any conditions1 if you have not read the record of what they have thought and fancied and done2 and after you have read it1 ,oh1 then you will never be sure you know6 ,for then you will realize that every man is a burial-house1 full of dead men's ghosts1--and the ghosts of very1 very ancient days are there1 forever whispering in an ancient1 ancient tongue of ancient passions and desires1 and prompting many actions which the doer thereof can give himself no accounting for4 ,there are two ways of reading these old stories2 and as one who has gotten pleasure and profit1 too1 from both1 ,i would recommend them both to be used4 ,the first way is to read yourself backward into it as much as possible4 ,do not be a critic1 on first reading2 put the critic asleep4 ,let yourself seem to believe it1 as did he who wrote it4 ,read it aloud1 if you are where you will not annoy anybody2 let the words sing themselves over your lips1 as they sung themselves over the lips of the people who were dead so long ago1--in their strange far-away homes with their vanished surroundings2 sung themselves1 just as the wind sung through the echoing forests1 and murmured back from the rocks2 just as the songs slipped out of the birds' throats4 ,you will find that half the beauty and the farce of old-time legend lies in the bare sound of it4 ,far1 far more is it dependent on the voice1 than any modern writings are4 ,and surely1 the reason is simple enough3 for it was not writing in its creation2 ancient literature addressed itself to the ear1 always1 while modern literature speaks to the eye4 ,if once you can get your ears washing with the sounds of the old language1 as with the washing of the seas when you sit on the beach1 or the lapping of the rivers when the bank-grass caresses you some idle summer afternoon1 it will be much easier for you to forget that you are the child of another age and thought4 ,you will begin to luxuriate in fancies and prefigure impossibilities2 then you will know how it feels to be fancy free1 loosed from the chain of the possible2 and once having felt1 you will also understand better1 when you re-read with other intent4 ,when you are ready for such re-reading1 then be as critical as you please1--which does not necessarily mean be condemnatory4 ,it means rather take notice of all generals and particulars1 and question them4 ,you will naturally pose yourself the question1 ,why is it that the bare sounds of these old stories are so much more vibrating1 drum-like1 shrilling1 at times1 than any modern song or poem8 ,you will find that the mitigating influence of civilization1--knowledge1 moderation1--creeping into expression1 produces flat1 neutral1 diluted sounds1--watery words1 so to speak1 long-drawn out and glidingly inoffensive4 ,in any modern writing remarkable for strength1 will be found a preponderance of barbaric yawp--as ,whitman called it4 ,fear creates sharp cries2 the rebound of ,fear1 which is ,bravado1 produces drum-tones1 roars1 and growls2 unrestrained ,passions howl in wind-notes1 irregular1 breaking short off4 ,god carries a hammer1 and ,love a spear4 ,the hymn clangs1 and the love-song clashes4 ,through those fierce sounds one feels again hot hearts4 ,those who perceive colors accompanying sounds1 sense clean cut lights streaking the night-ground of these early word-pictures2 sharp1 hard1 reds and yellows4 ,it is our later world which has produced green tintings not to be told from gray1 nor gray from blue1 nor anything from anything4 ,in our fondness for smoothness and gradation we have attained practical colorlessness4 ,if it appears to you that ,i am talking nonsense1 permit me to tell you it is because you have dulled your own powers of perception2 in seeking to become too intellectually appreciative1 you have lost the power to feel primitive things4 ,try to recover it4 ,another source of interesting observation1 especially in ,english literature of early writing3 this time the eye4 ,it is admitted by everybody that as a serviceable instrument for expressing definite sounds in an expeditious and comprehensible manner1 ,english written language is a woeful failure4 ,if any inventor of a theory of symbols should1 would1 or could have devised such a ridiculous conception of spelling1 such a hodge-podge of contradictory jumbles1 he would properly have been adjudged to an insane asylum2 and that1 every man who ever contrived an ,english spelling-book1 and every teacher who is obliged to worry this incongruous mess through the steadily revolting reason-and-memory process of children1 is ably convinced4 ,but ,man1 ,english-speaking ,man1 has actually--executed such conception2 7he probably executed it first and conceived it afterward1 as most of our poor victims do when they start on that terrible blind road through the spelling-book74 ,whether or no1 the thing is here1 and we've all to accept it1 and deal with it as best we may1 sadly hoping that possibly the tenth generation from now may at least be rid of a few unnecessary e's4 ,and since the thing is here1 and is a mighty creation1 and very indicative of how the human brain in large sections works2 since we've got to put up with it anyway1 we may as well1 in revenge for its many inconveniences1 get what little satisfaction we can out of it4 ,and ,i find it one of the most delightful little side amusements of wandering through the field of old literature1 while in the critical vein1 to stray around among the old stumps and crooked cowpaths of ,english spelling4 ,much pleasure is to be derived from seeing what old words grew together and made new ones2 what syllables or letters got lopped off or twisted1 how silent letters became silent and why2 from what older language planted1 and what its relatives are4 ,it is much the same pleasure that one gets from trailing around through the narrow crooked streets and senseless meanderings of ,london ,city4 ,everybody knows it's a foolish way to build a city2 that all streets should be straight and wide and well-distributed4 ,but since they are not1 and ,london is too big for one's individual exertion to reform1 one consents to take interest in explaining the crookedness--in mentally dissolving the great city into the hundred little villages which coalesced to make it2 in marking this point as the place where ,st4 ,somebody-or-,other knelt and prayed once and therefore there had to be a cross-street here2 and this other point as the place where the road swept round because martyrs were wont to be burnt there1 etc41 etc4 ,the trouble is that after a while one gets to love all that quaint illogical tangle1 seeing always the thousand years of history in it2 and so one's senses actually become vitiated enough to permit him to love the outrages of ,english spelling1 because of the features of men's souls that are imaged therein4 ,when ,i look at the word laugh1 ,i fancy ,i hear the joyous deep guttural gha-gha-gha of the old ,saxon who died long before the foreign graft on the ,english stock softened the gh to an f6 ,really one must become more patient with the un-system1 knowing how it grew1 and feeling that this is the way of ,man1--the way he always grows1--not as he ought1 but as he can4 ,i have spoken of forms3 word-sounds1 word-symbols2 as to the spirit of those early writings1 full of inarticulate religious sentiment1 emotions so strong they burst from the utterer's throat one might almost say in barks2 gloomy and foreboding2 these gradually changing to more lightsome fancies1--beauty1 delicacy1 airiness taking their place1 as in the fairy tales and folk-songs of the people1 wherein the deeds of supernaturals are sported with1 and it becomes evident that love and winsomeness are usurping the kingdom of ,power and ,fear1--through all we are compelled to observe one constant tendency of the human mind1--the desire to free itself from its own conditions1 to be what it is not1 to represent itself as something beyond its powers of accomplishment4 ,in their minds1 men had wings1 and breathed in water1 and swam on land1 and ate air1 and thrived in deserts1 and walked through seas1 and gathered roses off ice-bergs1 and collected frozen dew off the tails of sunbeams1 dispersed mountains with mustard seeds of faith1 and climbed into solid caves under the rainbow2 did everything which it was impossible for them to do4 ,it is in fact this imaginative faculty which has fore-run the accomplishments of science and while1 under the influence of practical experiment and the extension of knowledge such dreams have passed away1 this much remains and will long1 long remain in humankind1 covered over and shamefacedly concealed as much as may be--that men perpetually conceive themselves as chrysalid heroes and wonder workers2 and1 under strain of occasion1 this element crops out in their actions1 making them do all manner of curious things which the standard-setters of realism will declare utterly illogical and impossible4 ,often it is the commonest men who do them4 ,i have a fondness for realism myself2 at least ,i have a very wicked feeling towards what is called symbolism1 and various other things which ,i don't understand2 but as the ,unrealists1 the ,exaggeratists1 the whatever-you-call-them express what ,i believe to be a very permanent characteristic of humankind1 as evidenced in all the traces of its work1 ,i think they probably give quite as true reflections of ,man's ,soul as the present favorites4 ,these early literatures1 most of which have of course been lost1 were the embryos of our more imposing creations2 and it is a pleasant and an instructive thing to follow the unfolding of ,monster ,tales into ,great ,religious ,literatures2 to compare them and see how the same few simple figures1 either transplanted or spontaneously produced at different points1 evolved into all manner of ,creators1 ,redeemers and miracles in their various altered habitats4 ,no one can so thoroughly appreciate what is in the face of a man turned upward in prayer1 as he who has followed the evolution of the black ,monster up to that impersonal conception of ,god prettily called by ,quakers the ,inner ,light4 ,fairy ,tales on the other hand have evolved into allegories and ,dramas1--first the dramas of the sky1 now the dramas of earth4 ,tales of ,sexual exploits have become novels1 novelettes1 short stories1 sketches1--a many-expressioned countenance of ,man4 ,but the old ,heroic ,legend1--and the ,hero is always the next born after the ,monster in the far-back dawn-days1 is the lineal progenitor of ,history1--,history which was first the glorification of a warrior and his aids2 then the story of ,kings1 courts1 and intrigues2 now mostly the report of the deeds of nations in their ugly moods2 and to become the record of what people have done in their more amiable moments1--the record of the conquests of peace2 how men have lived and labored2 dug and built1 hewn and cleared1 gardened and reforested1 organized and coperated1 manufactured and used1 educated and amused themselves4 ,those of us who aspire to be more or less suggesters of social change1 are greatly at a loss1 if we do not know the face of ,man as reflected in history2 and ,i mean as much the reflection of the minds of historians as seen in their histories as the reflection of the minds of others they sought to give2 not so much in the direct expression of their opinion either1 as in the choice of what they thought it worth while to try to stamp perpetuity upon4 ,when we read in the ,anglo-,saxon ,chronicle these items which are characteristic of the whole3 ,a4 ,d4 #faa4 ,this year ,cynegils succeeded to the government in ,wessex1 and held it #ca winters4 ,cynegils was the son of ,ceol1 ,ceol of ,cutha1 ,cutha of ,cymric4 ,and then1 #fad4 ,this year ,cynegils and ,cuiehelm fought at ,bampton and slew #bjdf of the ,welsh4 ,and then #fgh4 ,this year appeared the comet star in ,august1 and shone every morning during three months like a sunbeam4 ,bishop ,wilfred being driven from his bishopric by ,king ,everth1 two bishops were consecrated in his stead4 --when we read these we have not any very adequate conception of what the ,anglo-,saxon people were doing2 but we have a very striking and lasting impression of what the only men who tried to write history at all in that period of ,english existence1 thought it was worth while to record4 ,cynegils was the son of ,ceol1 and he of ,cutha1 and ,cutha of ,cymric4 ,it reads considerably like a stock-raiser's pedigree book4 ,the trouble is1 we have no particular notion of ,cymric4 ,probably if we went back we should find he was the son of ,somebody4 ,but at any rate1 he had a grandson1 and the grandson was a king1 and the chronicler therefore recorded him4 ,nothing happened for three years2 and then the chronicle records that two kings fought and slew #bjdf men4 ,then comes the momentous year #fgh when a comet appeared and a bishop lost his job4 ,no doubt the comet foretold the loss4 ,there are no records of when shoemakers lost their jobs that ,i know of1 nor how many shoemakers were put in their places2 and ,i imagine it would have been at least as interesting for us to know as the little matter of ,bishop ,wilfred4 ,but the chronicler did not think so2 he preserved the ,bishop's troubles--no doubt he did just what the shoemakers of the time would also have done1 providing they had been also chroniclers4 ,it is a fair sample of what was in men's minds as important4--,if any one fancies that this disposition has quite vanished1 let him pick up any ordinary history1 and see how many pages1 relatively1 are devoted to the doings of persons intent on slaying1 and those intent on peaceful occupation2 and how many times we are told that certain politicians lost their jobs1 and how we are not told anything about the ordinary people losing their jobs2 and then reflect whether the old face of ,man-the-,historian is quite another face yet4 ,biography1 as a sort of second offspring of the ,hero legend1 is another revelation1 when we read it1 not only to know its subject1 but to know its writer1--the standpoint from which he values another man's life4 ,ordinarily there is a great deal of ,cynegils the son of ,cutha the son of ,cymric in it2 and a great deal of emphasis upon the man as an individual phenomenon2 when really he would be more interesting and more comprehensible left in connection with the series of phenomena of which he was part4 ,as an example of what to me is a perfect biography1 ,i instance ,conway's ,life of ,thomas ,paine1 itself a valuable history4 ,but it is not so correct a mirror of the general attitude of biographers and readers of biography as ,bosworth's ,life of ,johnson1 except in so far as it indicates that the great face in the glass is changing4 ,it is rather the type of what biography is becoming1 than what it has been1 or is4 ,there are two divisions of literature which are generally named in one breath1 and are certainly closely connected2 and yet the one came to highly perfected forms long1 long ago1 while the other is properly speaking very young2 and for all that1 the older is the handmaid of the younger4 ,i mean the literatures of philosophy and science4 ,philosophy is simply the cordination of the sciences2 the formulation of the general1 and related principles deduced from the collection and orderly arrangement of the facts of existence4 ,yet ,man had rich literatures of philosophy1 while his knowledge of facts was yet so extremely limited as hardly to be worth while writing books about4 ,none of the appearances of ,man's ,soul is more interesting than that reflected in the continuous succession of philosophies he has poured out4 ,let him who reads them1 read them always twice2 first1 simply to know and grasp what is said1 to become familiar with the idea as it formed itself in the minds of those who conceived it2 second1 for the sake of figuring the restless activity of brain1 the positive need of the mind under all conditions to formulate what knowledge it has1 or thinks it has1 into some sort of connected whole4 ,this is one of the most pronounced and permanent features seen in the mirror3 the positive refusal of the mind to accept the isolation of existences2 no matter how far apart they lie1 ,man proceeds to spin connecting threads somehow4 ,the woven texture is often comical enough1 but the weaver is just as positively revealed in the cobwebs of ancient philosophy as in the reasoning of ,herbert ,spencer4 ,concerning the literature of ,science itself1 in strict terms1 ,i should be very presumptuous to speak of it1 because ,i know extremely little about it2 but of those general popularizations of it1 which we have in some of the works of ,haeckel1 ,darwin1 and their similars1 ,i should say that beyond the important information they contain in themselves 7which surely no one can afford to be in ignorance of7 they present the most transformed reflection of ,man which any literature gives4 ,their words are cold1 colorless1 burdened with the labor of exactness1 machine like1 sustained1 uncompromising1 careless of effect4 ,the spirit they embody is like unto them4 ,they offer the image of ,man's ,soul in the time while imagination is in abeyance1 reason ascendent4 ,this coldness and quietness sound the doom of poetry4 ,a people which shall be fully permeated with the spirit and word of ,science will never conceive great poems4 ,they will never be overcome long enough at a time by their wonder and admiration1 by their primitive impulses1 by their power of simple impression1 to think or to speak poetically4 ,they will never see trees as impaled giants any more2 they will see them as evolved descendants of phytoplasm4 ,dewdrops are no more the jewels of the fairies2 they are the produce of condensation under given atmospheric conditions4 ,singing stones are not the prisons of punished spirits1 but problems in acoustics4 ,the basins of fjords are not the track of the anger of ,thor1 but the pathways of glaciation4 ,the roar and blaze and vomit of ,etna1 are not the rebellion of the ,titan1 but the explosion of so and so many million cubic feet of gas4 ,the comet shall no more be the herald of the wrath of heaven1 it is a nebulous body revolving in an elliptical orbit of great elongation4 ,love--love will not be the wound of ,cupid1 but the manifestation of universal reproductive instincts4 ,no1 the great poems of the world have been produced2 they have sung their song and gone their way4 ,imagination remains to us1 but weakened1 mixed1 tamed1 calmed4 ,verses we shall have1--and many fragments1--fragments of beauty and power2 but never again the thunder-roll of the mighty early song4 ,we have the benefits of science2 we must have its derogations also4 ,the powerful fragments will be such as deal with the still unexplored regions of ,man's own internity--if ,i may coin the word4 ,science is still balking here4 ,but not for long4 ,we shall soon have madmen turned inside out1 and their madness painstakingly reduced to so-and-so many excessive or deficient nerve-vibrations per second4 ,then no more of ,poe's ,raven and ,ibsen's ,brand4 ,i have said that ,i intended to indicate a wider concept of literature than that generally allowed4 ,so far ,i have not done it2 at least all that ,i have dealt with is usually mentioned in works on literature4 ,but ,i wish now to maintain that some very lowly forms of written expression must be included in literature1--always remembering that ,i am seeking the complete composite of ,man's ,soul4 ,here then3 ,i include in literature1 beside what ,i have spoken on1 not only standard novels1 stories1 sketches1 travels1 and magazine essays of all sorts1 but the poorest1 paltriest dime novel1 detective story1 daily newspaper report1 baseball game account1 and splash advertisement4 ,oh1 what a charming picture of ourselves we see therein6 ,and a faithful one1 mind you6 ,think what a speaking likeness of ourselves was the report of national1 international1 racial importance--the ,jeffries-,johnson fight6 ,nay1 ,i am not laughing4 ,the people of the future are going to look back at the record a thousand years from now2 and say1 ,this is what interested men in the year #aiaj4 ,i wonder which will appear most ludicrous then1 ,bishop ,wilfred in juxtaposition with the comet star1 or the destiny of the white race put in jeopardy by a pugilistic contest between one white and one black man6 ,o the bated breath1 the expectant eyes1 the inbitten lip1 the taut muscles1 the riveted attention1 of hundreds of thousands of people watching the great scientific combat4 ,i wonder whether the year #cjjj will admire it more or less than the ,song of ,beowulf and the ,battle of ,brunanburh4 ,consider the soul reflected on the sporting page4 ,oh1 how mercilessly correct it is6 ,consider the soul reflected on the advertising page4 ,oh1 the consummate liar that strides across it6 ,oh1 the gull1 the simpleton1 the would-be getter of something for nothing whose existence it argues6 ,yea1 commercial man has set his image therein2 let him regard himself when he gets time4 ,and the body of our reform literature1 which really reflects the very best social aspirations of men1 how prodigal in words it is1--how indefinite in ideas6 ,how generous of brotherhood--and sisterhood--in the large2 how chary in the practice6 ,do we not appear therein as curious little dwarfs who have somehow gotten big heads8 ,mites gesticulating at the stars and imagining they are afraid because they twinkle4 ,i would not discourage any comrade of mine in the social struggle1 but sometimes it is a wholesome thing to reconsider our size4 ,a word in defense of the silly story4 ,let us not forget that lowly minds have lowly needs2 and the mass of minds are lowly1 and have a right to such gratification as is not beyond their comprehension4 ,so long as ,i do not have to read those stories1 ,i feel quite glad for the sake of those who are not able to want better that such gratification is not denied them4 ,i would not wish to frown the silly story out of existence so long as it is a veritable expression of many people's need4 ,there are those who have only learned the art of reading at all because of the foolish story4 ,and quite in a side way ,i learned the other day through the grave assertion of a physician that the ability to read even these1 whereby some little refinement of conception is introduced into the idea of love1 is one of the restraining influences upon sexual degradation common among poor and ignorant young women4 ,the face of man revealed in them is therefore not altogether without charm1 though it may look foolish to us4 ,i said there were some appearances in the ,mirror not generally remarked1 but which to me are suggestive4 ,one of these is the evident delight of the human soul in smut4 ,in the older literature these things are either badly set down1 as law and cursing1 as occasionally in the ,bible2 or they are clothed and mixed with sprightly imaginations as in the tales of ,boccaccio and ,chaucer2 or they are thinly veiled with a possible modest meaning as in the puns of the ,shakespearian period2 but in our day1 they compose a subterranean literature of themselves1 like segregated harlots among books4 ,should ,i say that ,i blush for this face of ,man8 ,i ought to1 perhaps1 but ,i do not3 all ,i say is1 the thing is there1 a very real1 a very persistent image in the glass2 no one who looks straight into it can avoid seeing it4 ,mixed with the humorous1 as it often--rather usually--is1 it seems to be one of the normal expressions of normal men4 ,we deceive ourselves greatly if we fancy that ,man has become purified of such imaginations because they are not used openly in modern dramas and stories1 as they were in the older ones4 ,it may be dangerous to say it1 but ,i believe from the evidence of literature as a whole1 that a moderate amount of amusement in smut is a saving balance in the psychology of nearly every man and woman1--a sign of anchorage in a robust sanity1 which takes things as they are--and laughs at them4 ,i believe it is a much more wholesome appearance1 than that betrayed in our fever-bred stories and sketches which deal with the abnormalities of men1 and which are growing more and more in vogue1 in spite of our cry about realism4 ,personally1 ,i am more interested in the abnormalities1 which ,i find very fascinating4 ,and ,i am very eager to know whether they will prove to be the result of the abnormal conditions of life which ,modern ,man has created for himself in his tampering with the forces of nature1--his strenuous industrial existence1 his turning of night into day1 his whirling himself over the world at a pace not at all in conformity with his native powers of locomotion1 and other matters in accordance4 ,or will they prove to be the revenge of the dammed up1 cribbed1 cabined1 and confined imagination1 which can no longer exert itself upon externals1--since the ,investigating ,man has explained and mastered these or is doing so--and now turns in to wreak frightful wreck upon the mind itself8 ,at any rate1 the fact is that we have some very curious appearances in the ,mirror just now2 madmen explaining their own madness1 diseased men picking apart their own diseases1 perverted men analyzing their own perversions1 anything1 everything but sane and normal men4 ,does it mean that in our day there is nothing interesting in good health1 in well-ordered lives8 ,or does it mean that the rarest thing in all the world is the so-called normal man1 whom tacit consent assumes to be the commonest8 ,that everybody1 while outwardly wearing a mask of reputable common sense1 is within a raging conglomeration of psychic elements that hurl themselves on one another like hissing flames8 ,or does it mean simply that the most powerful writers are themselves diseased1 and can only paint disease8 ,i put these questions and do not presume to answer them4 ,i point to the mirror1--the ,ibsen ,drama1 the ,andreyev ,story1 the ,maeterlinck ,poem1 the ,artzibashev novel1--and ,i say the image is there4 ,explain it as you can4 ,for the rest1 let me recall to you what ,i told you was my intent3 ,first3 ,to insist on a more inclusive view of ,literature2 you see ,i would have it extended both up and down1--down even to the advertisement1 the sporting page1 and the surreptitious anecdote1--up to the fullest and most comprehensive statements of the works of reason4 ,second3 ,to suggest that readers acquire the habit of reading twice1 or at least with a double intent4 ,when serious literature is to be considered1 ,i would insist on actually reading twice2 but of course it would be both impractical and undesirable to apply such a method to most of the print we look at4 ,those who are confirmed in the habits of would-be critics will have the greatest trouble in learning to read a book from the simple man's standpoint1--and yet no one can ever form a genuine appreciation of a work who has not first forgotten that he is a critic1 and allowed himself to be carried away into the events and personalities depicted therein4 ,in that first reading1 also1 one should train himself to feel and hear the music of language1--this great instrument which ,men have jointly built1 and out of which come great organ tones1 and trumpet calls1 and thin flute notes1 sweeping and wailing1 an articulate storm--a conjuring key whereby all the passions of the dead1 the millions of the dead1 have given to the living the power to call their ghosts out of the grave and make them walk4 ,yea1 every word is the mystic embodiment of a thousand years of vanished passion1 hope1 desire1 thought--all that battled through the living figures turned to dust and ashes long ago4 ,train your ears to hear the song of it2 it helps to feel what the writer felt4 ,and after that read critically1 with one eye on the page1 so to speak1 and the other on the reflection in the mirror1 looking for the mind behind the work1 the things which interested the author and those he wrote for4 ,third3 ,to suggest inquiry into the curious paradox of the people of the most highly evolved scientific and mechanical age taking especial delight in psychic abnormalities and morbidities1--whereby the most utterly unreasonable fictive creation becomes the greatest center of curiosity and attraction to the children of ,reason4 ,a ,mirror ,maze is literature1 wherein ,man sees all faces of himself1 lengthened here1 widened there1 distorted in another place1 restored again to due proportion1 with every possible expression on his face1 from abjectness to heroic daring1 from starting terror to icy courage1 from love to hate and back again to worship1 from the almost sublime down to the altogether grotesque1--now giant1 now dwarf1--but always with one persistent character1--his superb curiosity to see himself4 ,the ,drama of the ,nineteenth ,century ,the passions of men are actors1 events are their motions1 all history is their speech4 ,in the long play of the ages a human being sometimes becomes an event2 a nation's passion takes a personnel4 ,such beings are the expression of the gathered mind-force of millions4 ,he only who keeps himself aloof from all feeling can remain the spectator of the hour4 ,all that humanity which is held within the beating1 coiling1 surging tides of passion1 has no individuality2 it sinks its personality to become a vein in the limb of this giant1 a pulse in the heart of that ,titan4 ,only when out of the spirit of the times the event is born1 only when the act is complete1 the curtain rung down1 only then does the intellectuality of the vein1 the pulse1 rise to the level of the dispassionate4 ,only then can it survey a tragedy and say1 ,this was necessary--a reaction1 and say1 ,this was inevitable4 ,yet as a drop of blood is a quivering1 living1 flashing ruby beside the dead1 pale pearl of a stagnant pool1 so is one drop of feeling a shining thing1 a living thing1 beside the deadness of the intellect which judges while the heart is stone2 beside those quiet bayous of brain which reflect back the images before them very purely1 very stilly1 giving no heed to the great rushing river of heart that rolls on1 hurries on so close beside them4 ,bye and bye1 bye and bye1 the river reaches the grand1 great sea1 and the waters spread out calm and deep1 so deep that the stars of the upper sea1 the lights of the higher life1 shine far up from them as a babe smiles up into its mother's eyes1 and up still to the distant source of the light within the eyes4 ,it is to men and women of feeling that ,i speak1 men and women of the millions1 men and women in the hurrying current6 ,not to the shallow egotist who holds himself apart and with the phariseeism of intellectuality exclaims1 ,i am more just than thou2 but to those whose every fiber of being is vibrating with emotion as aspen leaves quiver in the breath of ,storm6 ,to those whose hearts swell with a great pity at the pitiful toil of women1 the weariness of young children1 the handcuffed helplessness of strong men6 ,to those whose blood runs quick along the veins like wild-fire on the dry grass of prairies when the wind whirls aside the smokings of the holocaust1 and1 courting the teeth of the flame1 the black priestess1 ,injustice1 beckons it on while her feet stamp on the cinders of the sacrifice6 ,to those whose heart-strings thrill at the touch of ,love like the sweet1 low1 musical laugh of childhood1 or thrum with hate like the singing vibration of the bowstring speeding the arrow of ,death6 ,i speak to those whose eyes behold all things through a haze of gray1 or rose1 or gold1 born of their surroundings1 and which mist slips away only when the gaze is leveled on that dead ,past whose passions and whose deeds are ended3 to whom the present is always a morning with the dimness of morning around it--the past clear and still--no veil on its face1 for the veil has been shredded asunder4 ,for he only who intensely perceives the nature of his surroundings1 he1 and he only1 who has felt1 and keenly felt1 all the throbs and throes of life1 can judge with any degree of truth of the action of that which is past4 ,you1 you who have loved1 you who have joyed1 you who have suffered1 it belongs to you to people the silent streets of the silent cities with forms now vanished1 to comprehend something of the passions which animated their action2 it belongs to you to understand how the fury of a great energy1 striking terrible aimless blows in the dark1 may yet1 across the chasm of awful mistake1 touch the hand of a greater ,justice4 ,if from a panoramic survey of the past some wisdom may be gathered1 then let the dramas of old ages tell us what have been the mainsprings of their motions2 so we shall understand what action ushered in the drama of the nineteenth century4 ,westward the ,star of ,empire holds its way4 ,following the course of those majestic spheres of fire which whirl each in its vast ellipse1 trending away in a long1 southwesterly path athwart the heavens1 obedient to that superior attraction which through all the universe holds good1 the attraction of greater for lesser things1 the tide of life upon our world has risen and swelled and rolled away to the south and west4 ,away in the orient source of the sunlight1 away where the glitter of ice shines up to meet the morning1 nations have risen and plunged down impetuously over the sleeping regions of darkness and of heat1 bearing with them the breeze-stirring life of the north and the on-trending light of the east4 ,and out of this conquered earth have arisen the mixed passions of another life and another race4 ,still the governing stars wheel on1 and the tide of life which paused only to gather strength rolls up again2 and once more a nation is born1 and new passions dictate the action of the peoples4 ,down1 down it sweeps over the ,altaian hills1 over the ,himalayan ranges1 over the land of the ,euphrates and ,tigris1 over the deserts of ,arabia the barren1 the fields of ,arabia the stony1 and the grasses and waters of ,arabia the happy1 to those low shores1 the home of dark mausoleums and darker pyramids1 on to the now classic land of ,greece1 and golden ,italy1 and the home of the dark-eyed ,moors4 ,sweeps till it touches the frothing sea1 and brightly borne upon its upper crest shines the glory1 the splendor1 the magnificence of the warring powers which dictated the action of ,greece and ,rome4 ,for centuries their hoisted spears send back the burnished glitter of the sun1 and then--the light dies out2 down rushing from the ,north-land again the tide of vigor pours1 and the health and strength of barbarism conquers the weakness of a tottering civilization6 ,far away--away over the miles of sparkling sea1 in the darkness and the silence a continent lies waiting2 waiting for the coming of the light1 waiting for the swelling of the tide4 ,slowly at last a ripple creeps up over the strange beach1 and the flood rolls on1 and again a continent becomes a cradle1 and the ,empire ,star sends on its rays to kiss the forehead of the rising world4 ,over the breadth of all our continent that mighty wave is flowing still4 ,standing to-day almost upon the threshold of another world1 and looking back down this long-vista'd past1 gradually there dawns upon ,reflection's vision1 gradually there grows out of the confusion of forms and the ,babel of sounds1 a clearer perception of the motor powers which have dictated the action of this past1 a better idea of the grand plot which1 driven by these motor powers1 the passions are working out4 ,for1 above the long procession of scenes and events1 above the monster massings of happiness and woe1 above the ,war and ,peace of centuries1 above the nations that have risen and fallen1 above the life and above the grave1 the winged and shadowy embodiments of two great ideas float and rest4 ,and those two principles are called ,authority and ,liberty2 or1 if it please you better1 ,god and ,liberty4 ,the one is all clad in the purple and scarlet of pomp and of power1 while the other stands a glorious shining center in the white radiance of ,freedom4 ,yet not always2 far back in time ,authority stood on thrones and altars1 with the plumed sables of despotism waving on his brow1 while in his hands he held two iron gyves1 the one to fetter thought1 the other to fetter action2 and these two gyves were called the ,church and ,state4 ,liberty6 ,ah1 ,liberty was then a name scarcely to pass the lips2 dreamed of only in solitude1 spoken of only in dungeons6 ,yet out of the blackest mire the whitest lily blooms6 ,out of the dungeon1 out of the sorrow1 out of the sacrifice1 out of the pain1 grew this child of the heart2 and pure and strong she grew until the sabled plumes have tottered on the despot's brow1 and a great palsy shakes the hands that once so firmly held the gyves of ,church and ,state4 ,for1 ever seeking to overthrow each other1 the one for the aggrandizement of self1 the other for the love of all mankind1 these two powers have contended2 and every energy1 every passion1 every desire1 good or evil1 has been ranged on this side or on that1 blunderingly or wisely1 and nations have swung to and fro in their breath as upon a hinge4 ,and one by one the powers of ,authority have been crippled1 and step by step ,liberty has advanced1 until to-day mankind is beginning to measure the forces that1 struggling blindly together1 are yet evolving light1 to drink in the sublime ideal of freedom4 ,yet1 oh1 how long the struggle with vested ignorance1 with greed in power6 ,when upon the ,drama of the ,nineteenth ,century the curtain rose1 ,liberty1 triumphant on the younger shores1 lay prone and hurled in ,europe4 ,against fifteen centuries of crowned and throned and tithed curse and woe unutterable1 she had risen with such a fearful convulsive strength that when she had mown down king1 priest and throne1 and gorged the guillotine with blood1 she sank back1 exhausted from the struggle1 and the hated tyrant rose again4 ,the wild desire to conquer1 to possess1 to control1 to hold in subjection1 seemed to dominate with an unconquerable strength1 and the gathered mind-force of millions of people wrought itself into the single brain of ,napoleon ,bonaparte4 ,this human being became an event--this nation's passion took a personnel6 ,the spirit of the times produced this man1 and ,authority smiled as one after another the despots of ,europe plotted and planned1 only to be overthrown by this incarnation of ,ambition1 while the scenes were shifted from the ,vine-land to the ,rhine-land1 from the sun-land to the snow-land1 and through them all the great event glowed out1 lit high by the rust-red light4 ,how well the plot was working6 ,the ,empire triumphant1 nations subjected1 the fetter of action closing its terrible teeth6 ,liberty manacled on the left6 ,the armies of ,god massing their forces--advancing--preparing to close down the iron jaw of the iron gyve upon the right2 to imprison thought1 to re-establish the union of fetters1 to link up the broken chains1 to burden human hope and human will and human life once more with the awful oppression of ,church and ,state6 ,but ,liberty will not1 cannot die6 ,wounded and bruised and pinioned sore1 condemned to the use of instruments that were none of hers1 she wrought with ,england's jealousy1 with ,wellington's emulation1 with fear1 with love1 with hate6 ,impelled by one motive or another the nations of the coalition moved in concert4 ,napoleon had been ,marengo--he had been ,austerlitz6 ,he became ,waterloo6 ,and when across that awful field rolled the last long cannon boom1 when the silence settled1 when the ,quick and the ,dead lay sleeping and the ,wounded died1 ,justice and ,suffering touched hands across the gulf of blood1 and ,liberty heard them whisper1 ,sic semper tyrannis4 ,in the tableau that followed1 she1 the ideal of our dreams1 still stood pale and fettered2 but a smile lit up her face and a light gleamed in her eyes as she saw ,authority reel and stagger from the blow which1 though it did not sever1 yet shattered half the strength of both its fetters4 ,for the strength of ,god lies in a vast unity1 an ownership of ideas backed up by the brute force under the command of the individual in whom that ownership of ideas is vested2 while the strength of ,liberty lies in the very essence of things themselves1 the fact that no law or force ever can destroy the individualities of existence2 and of necessity the natural tendency to break all bonds which seek to control thought1 and all force which locks up those bonds entailing liberty of action as the outcome of liberty of thought4 ,and just in proportion as ,churches have been dismembered and ,states have been broken up1 no matter that each new ,church and each new ,state were but another form of despotism1 just in that proportion has the principle of liberty been served2 for each new religious establishment has been an assertion of the right to think differently from the fashionable creed1 each change has been a movement away from the centralization of power4 ,so with ,waterloo in the background1 with ,authority lashed to impotent rage before it1 and ,liberty pinioned1 yet with the lit smile still upon her countenance1 the tableau light flames up and dies1 and the curtain falls upon the first great act4 ,those who think1 those who feel1 those who hope1 know why that smile was there4 ,for looking away over the long blue roll of water that swelled like an interlude between1 she beheld the sublime opening scene of the act that followed4 ,far up the wonderful stage the distant mountains lift their circling crests1 at their feet the waters sweep like a march of music1 vast acres of untrodden grass-land shower their emerald wealth1 nearer the front the lower hills rise up1 and then the short ,atlantic slope1 all rife with busy life1 bends down to meet the sea4 ,on the right the hoar-frost sheens and shines on the majestic northern forests1 while the glittering earth1 dipped in its bath of frozen crystal1 spreads like a field of diamonds2 on the left the white flakes of the orange bloom fall like a shimmering bridal veil1 the wind floats up like a perfume1 and the hazy1 lazy languor of warmth creeps all about4 ,behind it all1 behind the hills and the prairies and the lifted summits1 the mystical golden light of the west drops down1 filling the dim-lit distance with the glory of promise4 ,the silver light of the ,empire ,star glides over the ,atlantic slope1 and its rays1 like guiding fingers1 point onward to the gathering shadows4 ,now the ,passions of men begin to move upon this vast platform with an energy never before witnessed4 ,diverted from their old-time channels of struggle against the oppression of ,gods and kings and the bitterness of birth-hatred1 with a freedom of opportunity denied in the old world1 and with such unstinted natural resources waiting for the magic transformer1 the genius of humanity1 ,ambition of power1 ,avarice1 ,pride1 ,jealousy1 all those motors born out of the old rgime of a ,state-propped ,god1 bred and multiplied through generations till they have come to be looked upon as natural laws of human existence1 begin to work together to plant this untrodden earth1 to sow in its furrows the seed of a newer race--and1 paradoxical as it may sound1 to work for their own destruction1 their final elimination from the human brain4 ,or perhaps it were more correct to say1 that1 with the barriers of old institutions taken away1 they naturally begin their retransformation into those beautiful sentiments from which they were originally warped1 distorted1 misshapen by that warped1 distorted1 misshapen idea called ,god4 ,so do they inaugurate the grand era of development2 so do they answer the oft-repeated question1 ,what incentive would there be for labor or genius if the institutions that compel them to struggle were broken down8 ,look at the stage of the past and see6 ,never before had thought been so free1 never before had ability been less cramped1 less starved or less compelled6 ,and never before did genius dare so much for purposes so great2 never before did the engines which drive the tide of life along a continent send forth a stream of so much vigor4 ,a new light breaks along the pathway of the stars1 and swells and rolls and floods the great scene with a dawn-burst so magnificent that the very hills blush in its rising splendor4 ,it is the dawn which the night of ,god so long held shrouded2 it is that which is born when ,superstition dies2 it is that ,phoenix which rises from the ashes of religion2 it is that clear blent flame of all the great forces of nature1 brought to the knowledge of mankind by delving ,reason1 and shot like northern streamers from the heart of her the ,church of ,god so long held throttled--,science6 ,it is that which shone reflected in the eyes of ,liberty when pale and manacled she stood before the field of ,waterloo6 ,the ray of the under earth came up to join the ray of the clouds shot down1 the energies of sky and mine and sea were clasped to bring down the wealth of the mountains to the shore1 and to transport the life of the now populous strip of slope to the unclaimed regions of the west4 ,in the broad blaze of light the scene is shifted1 the golden effulgence melts and flows round that sea-girdled kingdom1 where quietly but surely the two great engines of ,authority are being shriven apart4 ,the dynasties of kings are growing dusty--much of their power is but a legend2 the ,church is shrinking in her garments4 ,the desires of this people are slow to move1 but deeply rooted and strong2 and so far as they have moved forward1 they have never moved back4 ,there have been no gigantic strides1 no reactions4 ,little by little the idea of divinely-delegated power has been crippled till the ,english bishop and the ,english lord have become mere titled mockeries in comparison with their ancient feudal meaning4 ,but stop6 ,close lying there1 almost beneath her stretching shadows1 another island flashes like a green star in its sea-blue setting4 ,and from that island there rises up the cry of a great devotion1 clinging blindly to its greatest curse1 its priest-hedged ,god1 while persecuted even unto death by the fanaticism of another faith2 and the pleading of ,hunger while day long and night long the shuttle flies in the flax loom1 and the earth yields her golden fruition1 only to lade the ships that bear it away from the famine-white lips and the toil-hardened hands that produced it4 ,blindly ,devotion prays to its ,god1 that ,god whom it calls all-wise1 all-powerful and all-just1 and the ,english ,lord1 who cannot thus subdue his own countrymen1 reaches out the long arm of the law across the channel for his rent--and1 with ,god looking on1 it is given2 and still while the hollow-eyed women kneel at the altar for help1 the scene widens out1 and away in the distance the seven-hilled city lifts up from the sea1 and from the dome of the ,vatican1 from that great mortared hill of ,god1 the ,vicar of ,christ calls out1 ,my tribute1 my ,peter pence6 ,and with ,god looking on1 it is given6 ,and then from the foot of that tear-stained altar1 where so many lips of ,woe have pressed1 where so many helpless hands have clasped1 where so many hearts have broken1 comes the ironical promise of ,jehovah1 ,ask and thou shalt receive4 ,oh1 ,god is a very promising personage indeed--very promising1 but1 like some of his disciples1 very poor pay4 ,liberty6 ,shadowed1 invisible6 ,yet a muffled voice is repeating the words which not so long ago rang from the lips of one who stood almost beneath the shadow of the scaffold1 who walks to-day in prison gloom3 ,ye see me only in your cells1 ye see me only in the grave1 ,ye see me only wand'ring lone beside the exile's sullen wave6 ,ye fools6 ,do ,i not also live where you have sought to pierce in vain8 ,rests not a nook for me to dwell in every heart1 in every brain8 ,not every brow that boldly thinks erect with manhood's honest pride8 ,does not each bosom shelter me that beats with honor's generous tide8 ,not every workshop brooding woe1 not every hut that harbors grief8 ,ha6 ,am ,i not the breath of life that pants and struggles for relief8 ,ah1 poor1 panting1 struggling1 misery-laden ,ireland6 ,how ,god laughs with glee to see his shackles weight your misery6 ,the scene is shifting1 the stage is dark'ning--a strange eclipse obscures the shafted light6 ,darker1 darker6 ,now a low1 red fire gleams like a winking eye along the foreground2 it runs1 it hisses like a snake2 there another leaps up1 there another2 ,france1 ,germany1 ,italy--the continent blazes with the fires of the ,commune6 ,that spirit which1 drunken with blood1 reeled from the guillotine at '#ic1 to be crushed beneath the upbuilding of the ,empire1 has once more arisen4 ,and out of the hot hells of ,fury1 and ,jealousy1 and ,hate1 out of the pitiless struggle between vested rights and wrongs with high ancestral lineage1 and the great outcrying of a piteous ignorance against an oppression whose injustice it feels but cannot analyze1 grows the sublime idea which priests have anathematized and ,states have outlawed--the sacred dogma of ,equality4 ,in so far as that ideal was made possible of conception1 in so far as the masses began to understand something of the causes of their ills1 in so far the purpose of ,liberty was served3 no matter that the arms of ,oppression were triumphant1 the dawn of the thought of equal liberty upon the mass of the unthinking was a far greater victory than any triumph of arms4 ,so when the fires died down1 and the low reflection gleamed for an instant over those quiescent ,indian valleys and ,altaian ranges1 where the main plot of old centuries had been laid1 and then paled out before the white flare lighting the tableau of the second act1 ,liberty stood with chained hands lifted toward her enemy1 while a proud look1 playing like an iridescent flame in her eyes1 said1 plain as lips could speak it1 ,i have unbound their thoughts2 they will one day unbind my hands4 ,slowly the curtain falls on the fair prisoner and the glowering ,god4 ,the solemn ocean interlude rolls in again2 again the rising curtain shows the curving slope1 the rock-romance of hills1 the wide1 green valley with its threading silver1 the sweeping mountains with the mirage of the blue ,pacific lifted high in the sky behind them1 the frosted pines1 the orange groves4 ,moving upon the nearer stage two great masses of humanity are seen facing each other2 the fires of ambition1 of stubborn pride1 of determination for the mastery flash like flint-sparks in the eyes of both4 ,rage is gathering as the stage-light darkens6 ,yet these two opposing forces are not all4 ,from under the groves of bridal bloom comes a mournful1 chant-like requiem2 under the bloom four million voices cry in pain2 upon the darkened faces1 upturned to that darkening day1 fall the white petals helplessly1 as ,hope falls on the faces of the dead--to die beside them4 ,in the beautiful land of the sun four million human beings clank the chains of the chattel slave6 ,ah6 what music6 ,liberty6 ,liberty was a wraith1 fleeting ghost-like through the lonely rice-swamps1 terrible ignis fatuus of the quagmire1 strange1 mystical1 vanishing moon-shimmer on the darkly ominous waters lying so silent1 so level1 beneath the droop of ,spanish moss and cypress6 ,there it was they drove thee1 there--there--where the quaking earth shivered with its branded burden1 where the fever and the miasm were thy breathing1 and thy sacred eyes were dimmed with winding-sheets of mist that floated1 ,o so dankly1 ,o so coldly1 a steam of tears that rose as fast as their dews might fall3 there wast thou exiled1 ,thou1 the ,god-hunted1 ,thou1 the ,law-driven1 ,thou1 the immortal6 ,yet1 ,oh1 so dear men love thee1 ,liberty1 that even here in thy last terrible citadel of woe1 ,humanity linked arms with ,death1 and wooed thee still6 ,wooed thee1 with the ringing bay of bloodhounds in its ears2 wooed thee1 with the wolf of hunger gnawing at its throat2 wooed thee with the clinging miasm winding its anacondine folds around its fever-thin body2 wooed thee with the dark pathos of a dying eye1 while the diseased and hungered limbs lay stiffening in their agony4 ,and thou wast true1 ,o ,liberty6 ,out of thy bitter exile thou didst call to them1 and point them on to hope2 and thou didst call1 too1 to those strange-eyed dreamers1 whose faces shone amidst the rank and file of those dominated by local ,hate alone1 as shines a clear star among driving clouds4 ,against them ,authority has hurled his curses4 ,spit upon by the godly1 despised by the law abiding1 they yet have dared to say to ,church and ,law1 ,think what you please of me1 but free the slave4 ,aye1 the ,church persecuted1 and the ,law hunted down1 and for the love of ,god1 men set traps to catch their fellow-men3 even the wise men1 the wise men at ,washington1 against whose mandates it is treason to speak1 aye1 a matter for the scaffold in these days1 even the wise men built a trap to uphold the divine institution and sent it forth to the people labelled1 ,the ,fugitive ,slave ,law1 and as in other days1 human beings died for their opinions--but the opinions did not die4 ,has not one of our latter-day martyrs said1 ,men die1 but principles live8 ,see6 ,the light which has been slowly fading from the right and left shines with a frightful brilliancy upon one point3 ,north and ,south lie darkened1 but ,harper's ,ferry glows6 ,there is a wild1 mad charge1 a shifting of the light1 a scaffold1 a doomed old man bending his grand1 white head1 to mount the fatal steps with a child-slave's kiss yet warm upon his lips1 and then--only a dull1 lifeless pendulum in human form1 swinging to and fro4 ,and the ,church and the ,law were satisfied1 when those dumb lips were cold1 and the dead limbs were stiff1 and ,god and ,harper's ,ferry had no more to fear from old ,john ,brown4 ,but the ,church and the ,law have not always been wise2 they have not always understood that the martyrs to ,creed and ,code have done as much by their death for the propagation of their principles as the martyrs of creed and code2 and ,god and the ,state sowed a wind whose reaping was a terrible whirlwind1 when they hung ,john ,brown4 ,across the dim platform the ,passions of hate and pride move toward each other2 it is the old combat of the forces of ,authority1 each contending not for the vindication of right1 but for the maintenance of power over the other4 ,it is a terrific struggle of brute strength and strategy and cunning and ferocity1 and well might those who conceived the ideal beautiful of freedom1 shrink horror-struck from the blood-soaked path their feet must tread to reach it4 ,not strange if some should pause and shudder and cry out1 ,is it worth the sacrifice8 ,but up from the dust where ,hope lay trodden1 and out of the trenches where the sacrificed lay hid1 and over the plains all scarred with bullets and plowed with shells1 breathed the whisper1 ,it is not vain4 ,it was not in vain2 for as at ,waterloo the struggle of ambition against ambition defeated the first purpose of ,authority1 the centralization of power1 and gave a partial victory to her whom both hated1 so ,antietam1 ,fredericksburg1 ,vicksburg1 ,gettysburg1 while in themselves representing only the brutish struggle of opposition1 based on the desire to domineer1 really wrought out the victory of that ideal which dwelt in the minds of those anathematized by ,god and outlawed by the ,state4 ,for when the hot lips of the iron mouths grew cold1 ,liberty forsook her lonely fastness1 came forth upon the desolated plain1 and mounting still to the summits of the blue-hazed hills looked away over the ruined homes1 the depopulated cities1 the gloom-clouded faces1 and though her tears fell fast1 an ineffable tenderness shone upon her features as the torrent of pale light flowed round her form1 defining its snow-whiteness in relief against the sable of four million freedmen smiling o'er their stricken chains4 ,swiftly following the tableau fire comes the eastern scene1 where1 in the very center of its power the ,church is shaken by an invader1 and ,garibaldi becomes the personnel of the event4 ,then follows the ,conclave of the ,vatican1 where by that singular logic known to the ,roman ,church1 the vote of fallible beings renders the pope infallible2 upon the heels of this1 the breaking of that strong tooth of the ,church in the expulsion of the ,order of the ,society of ,jesus by the ,german ,reichstag1 and the overthrow of kingcraft in ,france4 ,the curtain falls4 ,behind1 the scene is being prepared for the last great act6 ,and now1 in the interval of waiting1 let us think4 ,so far we have been surveying the completed4 ,while we can understand something of the passions which animated this past1 can feel something of the pulsations which throbbed in its arteries1 flowed in its veins1 we yet can speak of it without over-riding emotion either upon one side or the other4 ,the river of heart has reached the sea--the troubled waters have spread out deep1 and up from their depths shine the still reflections of those great lights which gilt the stages of the past4 ,calmly now we can look at the reaction from the ,french ,revolution to the ,empire1 and say1 ,this was inevitable1--of ,napoleon's fall1 this was necessary2 of the awakening of ,science1 this was a natural result2 of the uprising of '#dh1 this was the premature birth of an idea forced upon the people by the oppression of ,authority2 we can forget the choking agony of ,john ,brown1 and declare his death a victory4 ,we can look upon the awful waste of blood in the ,civil ,war and say1 ,it was pitiful1 but the goblet of woe must needs have been spilled full of red life wine1 ere the hoarse and hollow throat of tyranny were satisfied4 ,we can see where each of the contending principles has lost and gained1 and measuring the sum totals against each other1 must decide that the old despotism is losing ground2 that instead of the supreme authority of ,god1 the supreme sovereignty of the ,individual is the growing idea4 ,but now we have come to a stage where we can no longer be cool spectators4 ,in what happens now we too must be part and parcel of the action2 we too must hope1 and toil1 and struggle and suffer4 ,we are no longer looking through the clear still atmosphere of the dead3 around our forms the wheeling mists are circled1 and before our eyes the haze lies thick--the haze of gold or the haze of gray4 ,the dimness of the yet to be befogs our sight1 and the rush of hope and fear blinds all our faculties4 ,you who stand well upon the heights of love1 of comfort1 of happiness1 heeding not the darkness and the sorrow beneath you1 behold1 with up-cast eyes1 the great figures of ,god and ,freedom wound about1 showered with light4 ,to you there is no menace in their darting eyes1 there is no purpose in their full-drawn statures1 there is no jarring in their clarion voices4 ,no6 for your senses are stupid in your luxury1 your brains are dulled1 too dulled to think1 your ears are glutted with the ring of gold4 ,in your vain and foolish hearts you dream that what you see there is a shadowy bridal2 that there1 at last1 ,religion and ,science1 ,statecraft and ,freedom1 are meeting to embrace each other4 ,ah1 go on1 book-makers1 press-writers1 doctors and lawyers and preachers and teachers6 ,go on talking your incompatibilities2 go on teaching your absurdities6 ,dream out your short-lived dream6 ,at your feet1 beneath the shadow of your capitols and domes1 under the tuition of your few-facted1 much-fictioned literature1 from out your chaos of truth-flavored lies1 from before your pulpits1 your rostrums and your seats of learning1 something is growing4 ,something that is looking you in the eyes1 that is analyzing your statements1 that is revolving your institutions in its brain1 that is crushing your sophistries in its merciless machinery as fine as grain is ground between the whitened mill-rollers4 ,freethought is looking at you1 gentlemen6--more than that1 it questions you1 it puts you on the witness-stand1 it cross-examines you4 ,it says1 ,do you believe in ,god8 and you answer1 ,yes4 ,do you believe him to be omnipotent1 omniscient1 and all-just8 ,certainly2 less than this would not be ,god4 ,then you believe he has the power to order all things as he wills1 and being all-just he wills all things according to justice8 ,yes4 ,then you believe him to be the impartially-loving father of all his created children8 ,yes4 ,and each one of those children has an equal right to life and liberty8 ,yes4 ,then look upon this earth beneath you1 this earth of beings whose lives are of so poor account to you1 and tell us1 where is ,god and what is he doing8 ,everyone has a right to life6 ,what mockery6 ,when the control of the necessaries of life is given to the few by the ,state1 and above the seal of the law the priest has set the seal of the ,church6 ,verily1 ,you do take my life ,when you take that whereby ,i live4 ,is this your ,divine ,justice8 ,what irony to tell me ,i am free if at that same time you have it in your power to withhold the means of my existence6 ,free6 ,will you look down here at these whose sight is shadowed with the ebon shadow of despair1 these1 the homeless1 the disinherited1 the product of whose toil you take and leave them barely enough to live upon--live to toil on and keep you in your luxury6 ,you1 the monied idlers1 you1 the book-makers and the journalists1 who do more to cry down truth1 to laud our social lies1 our economic despots and our pious frauds1 than any other propaganda can6 ,you1 the doctors1 whose drugs have cursed the world with poison-eaten bodies1 corroded the health of unborn generations with your medicated slime1 and when the sources of life have yielded to the hungry body so poor a stream that for lack of air1 and earth1 and sun1 and food1 and clothing1 and recreation1 it drooped and sickened1 have bottled up some nauseating stuff1 and with oracular wisdom have taught them to imagine it could undo what years of misery had done6 ,you1 the law-makers1 who have twisted ,nature's code till to be natural is to be a criminal2 you1 who have lawed away the earth that was not yours to give2 you1 who even seek to charter the sea and make the commandment across the middle of this river thou shalt not go unless thou render tribute unto ,csar6 you1 who never inquire what is justice1 but what is law6 ,and you1 the teachers1 you who prate of the glory of knowledge as the remedy for the evils of the world1 and boast your compulsory law of education1 while a stronger law than all the wordy sentences ever graven upon statute books1 is driving the children out of the schoolground into the factory1 into the saw-mill1 into the shaft1 into the furrow1 into the myriad camps of toil1 to the dust of the wheel1 to the heat of the furnace1 till their pallid cheeks and bloodless lips are bleached like bones beneath the desert sun1 and their clogged lungs rattle in their breathing pain6 ,will you look at these1 the under-stratum of your social earth1 and tell them they are free8 ,will you tell them ignorance is their greatest curse and education their only remedy8 ,will you say to these children1 ,we have provided free schools for you1 and now we compel you to attend them whether you have anything to eat and wear or not8 ,will you tell these people there is a good1 kind1 merciful ,god who loves them1 meting out justice to them from the skies8 ,no1 you will not1 you cannot4 ,the words will die upon your lips ere you utter them4 ,do you know what it is they see up there above you1 they whose eyes look through the mist of gray and the shroud of darkness8 ,they see your ,god of justice a pitiless slave-driver1 his ,church more brutal than the lash1 his ,state more merciless than the bloodhound2 they see themselves a thousand million serfs more hopelessly enthralled1 more helplessly chained down than e'en the lashed and tortured body of the chattel slave4 ,for them there is no refuge1 no escape2 in every land the ,master rules2 no fugitive slave law need now be passed--there is no place to flee--the whole horizon is iron-bound4 ,white and black alike are yoked together1 and the master yields no distinction1 shows no mercy4 ,the bare pittance of existence is the meed for him who toils1 and for him who cannot--starvation6 with a preacher to help him die6 ,that is the justice that they see there1 in the shadow lines above your golden haze4 ,and they see1 too1 a conflict preparing between those two antagonistic forces such as never before the world has witnessed4 ,they see your ,god concentrating his strength to fight so bitter a battle with ,liberty as shall crush the spirit of individuality forever from the race4 ,they see him ranging his forces1 those forces blood-imbrued through all the anguished past1 the blacklist1 the club1 the sword1 the rifle1 the prison1 aye1 the scaffold2 they see them all1 and know that ere your ,god will yield his vested rights1 the noblest of the race will have been stricken1 the most unselfish will have been tortured in his dungeons1 the white robes of innocence will have been reddened in her own martyr's blood1 and ,death will have shadowed many and many a home1 unless you shall hearken to the voice of ,liberty and save yourselves while there is yet time4 ,they see the wide stage spreading out1 they see the passions moving over it2 they see there1 in the center1 beneath the rolling brilliance of the ,empire ,state1 the tragic inauguration of the act6 ,they see a grim and blackened thing1 a silent thing1 the demoniac effigy of ,torquemada's spirit1 the frozen laugh of the ,dark ,ages at our boasted civilization2 they see twelve stolid fools before this ,nineteenth ,century gallows2 they see the hiding place of that thing masquerading under the sacred name of ,justice1 which shrinks even from the gaze of the lauding press and the imbecile jurymen1 and does unknown its deed of murder2 they see four shrouded forms1 they hear four muffled voices1 a broken sentence1 and--an awful hush6 ,and then1 ,o crowning irony of all1 they see advancing to speak to them over the bodies of the murdered 7and mouthed back from a hundred pulpits comes the echo71 ,jehovah masked as ,jesus4 ,ah1 the divine cowardice of it6 ,mild is the light in the ,nazarene eyes1 tender the tone of the ,nazarene voice6 ,ah1 people whom ,i love6 ,for whom my life was given long ago on ,calvary6 ,what rashness is it that you meditate8 ,is it that you are weary of the yoke of love ,i lay on you8 ,is this your faith8 ,have ,i not promised you a sweet release when your dark pilgrimage on earth is o'er8 ,exiles ye are upon this world of pain and if oppression comes to weigh you down1 if hunger shows his long fangs at your hearth1 if your chilled limbs are cramped with bitter cold the while your neighbor hoards his fuel up1 if you are driven out upon the street with crying children clinging piteously and begging you for shelter from the storm1 if your hard toil is taken by the law to satisfy a corporation's greed1 if fever and distress gnaw at your heart and still you tread the weary wine-press out1 knowing no rest until the death-hour comes2 if all these things discourage and perplex1 know 'tis for love of you ,i order it4 ,for thus would ,i point you to paradise1 win you from all the pleasure of the world1 and fix your hopes on ,heaven's eternity4 ',whom the ,lord loveth1 him he chasteneth'2 so then it is for love that these things are4 ,for love of you ,i press your life-blood out2 for love of you ,i load you down with pain2 for love of you ,i take your rights away2 for love of you ,i institute the law that slaves you to the grasping millionaire2 for love of you ,i pile the glutted hoards of ,vanderbilt and ,gould and ,rothschild and the rest2 for love of you ,i rent the right to breathe in a poor tenement of dingy dirt2 for love of you ,i make machines a curse2 for love of you ,i make you toil long hours1 and those who cannot toil1 ,i turn adrift to wander as they may--sons into dens where thievery is learned as a fine art1 daughters to barter their virginity till competition forces down the price of lust and death is left them as a last resort4 ,ah1 what a golden crown1 and sweet-toned harp1 what a resplendent whit robe1 await the soul whom so ,god loves while on the earth it dwells4 ,aye1 for the love of you these men were murdered1 and for my glory2 and through my holy love they roast in hell3 for they would take away the instruments whereby ,i lure you to my blest abode4 ,they would have taught you what your freedom meant2 they would have told you to regain your rights2 they would have contradicted my commands and lost you heaven1 perchance--and if not heaven1 hell4 ,keep to your faith1 my people1 trust in ,god6 ,break not the altars where your fathers knelt2 trust to your teachers1 keep within the law2 bow to the ,church and kiss the ,state's great toe6 ,so shall good order be observed1 obeyed1 and as ',peace reigned in ,warsaw1' so anon shall ',peace1 good-will to men reign on the earth4' ,these are the words that fall from the lips of him you call the merciful1 the just4 ,these are the sounds that sink into the ears of those upon whose toil you are dependent for your existence2 judge you how they will be received4 ,and now1 you1 the dwellers on the lifted heights1 listen to the voice that follows him1 for these are words that concern you1 and if you listen to their warning you may yet save yourselves the desolation and the ruin that otherwise must come4 ,this deep1 bell-pealing voice that echoes through the corridors of thought till almost ,death's chill sleepers might arise again1 is the voice which called for centuries to the ,empire1 ,cease your oppressions or the people rise2 and to the ,kingdom1 ,curse not the new world with your tyrannies1 it will rebel2 and to the ,master1 ,put not the lash upon your bonded slave1 for the time will come when every stroke will rise like a warrior armed1 to burn and waste and kill4 ,the ,empire laughed1 the ,kingdom ignored1 the ,planter sneered2 but the time came when laugh and sneer died to white ashes4 ,the time came when ,france got drunk with blood1 to vomit crime1 when ,england lost the brightest jewel in her coronal1 when the ,south waded in blood and tears and knelt her pride before a conqueror4 ,and now1 she1 the liberator1 the destined conqueror of ,god1 calls out to you1 ,yield up your scepters ere they be torn from you2 give back the stolen earth1 the mine1 the sea6 ,give back the source of life1 give back the light6 ,for a black1 bitter hour is waiting you1 an awful gulf unfathomed in its depth1 if now you do not pause and render justice4 ,ah1 thou1 whatever be thy awful name1 which like a serpent's trail hath marked the earth1 whether ,jehovah1 ,buddha1 ,joss1 or ,christ6 ,thou who hast done for love what others do for most envenomed hate1 how hast thou hated these the happy ones6 ,is this impartial justice then to these1 to pour the golden treasures of the earth into their laps1 that these may feast and toast and so forget thee and thy promised heaven8 ,truly thou hast been most unkind to them1 since kindness means with thee a tearing out of e'en the heart and entrails of existence4 ,bah6 how thou liest6 ,to what most pitiable trick of speech hast thou been forced6 ,think'st thou the dwellers in the darkness longer take thy creed of crystalline deception6 ,no6 ,they laugh at thee1 they spew thee out1 they spit at thee4 ,love6 ,say6 ,look--this long procession coming here6 ,here are the murderers1 with their red-hued eyes2 here the adulterers1 with their lecherous glance2 here are the prostitutes1 with their mark of shame2 here are the gamblers1 with their itching hands2 here are the thieves1 with furtive lips and eyes2 here are the liars with their dastard tongues2 here all the train that ,crime can muster up reviews before thee6 ,and after them1 a ghastly1 fearful sight1 follow the victims of their blackened hearts1 slain1 ruined1 desolated by thy love6 ,and now1 behold1 another train comes on--a train whose name is legion6 ,here the dark1 bruted faces from the mines1 here the hard1 sun-browned cheeks from out the furrow1 here the dull visage from the lumber-camp1 here the wan eyes from whirling factory1 here the gaunt giants from the furnace fire1 here the tarred hands from off the stream and sea1 here all the aching limbs that stand behind the fashionable counter1 here1 ,o pitiful sight of all1 those whose home is in the street1 whose table is the garbage pile1 the vast1 helpless body of the unemployed4 ,and1 ever as they march1 they drop1 and drop1 into the earth that swallows them1 and over their graves the march goes on4 ,these are thy victims1 ,god6 ,these are the creatures of thy ,church and ,law6 ,speak no more of the breaking of altars1 thou who hast broken every altar that the human heart holds dear6 ,take thy position at the head of the murderers' column6 ,and when thou hast marched away into the past1 thou and thy preachers and thy praters of justice1 then will the world return to justice and the great law of ,nature reign upon the earth4 ,then will her broad1 green acres yield their wealth to him who toils1 and him alone2 then will the store-houses of ,nature yield her fuel and her light1 not to the corporation whose high-priced lobbying can buy it1 for in that time no wealth nor intrigue can purchase the heritage of all1 but to all the sons and daughters of ,labor4 ,and then upon this earth there shall be no hungry mouths1 no freezing limbs2 no children spending the hours of youth in gaining a miserable livelihood1 no women crying1 ,it's ,oh1 to be a slave ,along with the barbarous ,turk1 ,where woman has never a soul to save ,if this is ,christian work6 no men wandering aimlessly in search of a master for their slavery4 ,but ,o1 careless dwellers upon the heights1 awaken now6--do not wait till reason1 persuasion1 judgment1 coolness are swept down before the rising whirlwind4 ,bend your energies now to the eradication of the ,authority idea1 to righting the wrongs of your fellow-men4 ,do it for your own interest1 for if you slumber on--ah me6 ye will awaken one day when an ominous rumble prefaces the waking of a terrific underground thunder1 when the earth shakes in a frightful ague fit1 when from out the parched throats of the people a burning cry will come like lava from a crater1 ',bread1 bread1 bread6' ,no more preachers1 no more politicians1 no more lawyers1 no more gods1 no more heavens1 no more promises6 ,bread6 ,and then1 when you hear a terrible leaden groan1 know that at last1 here in your free ,america1 beneath the floating banner of the stars and stripes1 more than fifty million human hearts have burst6 ,a dynamite bomb that will shock the continent to its foundations and knock the sea back from its shores6 ,it is no boast1 it is no threat1 ,thus ,history's iron law decrees2 ,the day grows hot6 ,o ,babylon1 ',tis cool beneath thy willow trees6 ,,sketches ,,and ,,stories ,a ,rocket of ,iron ,it was one of those misty ,october nightfalls of the north1 when the white fog creeps up from the river1 and winds itself like a corpse-sheet around the black1 ant-like mass of human insignificance1 a cold menace from ,nature to ,man1 till the foreboding of that irresistible fatality which will one day lay us all beneath the ice-death sits upon your breast1 and stifles you1 till you start up desperately crying1 ,let me out1 let me out6 ,for an hour ,i had been staring through the window at that chill steam1 thickening and blurring out the lines that zig-zagged through it indefinitely1 pale drunken images of facts1 staggering against the invulnerable vapor that walled me in--a sublimated grave marble4 ,were they all ghosts1 those figures wandering across the white night1 hardly distinguishable from the posts and pickets that wove in and out1 like half-dismembered bodies writhing in pain8 ,my own fingers were curiously numb and inert2 had ,i1 too1 become a shadow8 ,it grew unbearable at last1 the pressure of the foreboding at my heart1 the sense of that on-creeping of ,universal ,death4 ,i ran out of doors1 impelled by the vague impulse to assert my own being1 to seek relief in struggle1 even though foredoomed futile--to seek warmth1 fellowship1 somewhere1 though but with those ineffective pallors in the mist1 that dissolved even while ,i looked at them4 ,once in the street1 ,i ran on indifferently1 glad to be jostled1 glad of the snarling of dogs and the curses of laborers calling to one another4 ,the penumbra of the mist1 that menacing dim foreshadow1 had not chilled these1 then6 ,on1 on1 through the alleys where human flesh was close1 and when one listened one could hear breathings and many feet1 drifting at last into the current that swept through the main channel of the city1 and presently1 whirled round in an eddy1 ,i found myself staring through the open door of the great ,iron ,works4 ,perhaps it was the sensation of warmth that held me there first1 some feeling of exhilaration and wakening defiance in the flash and swirl of the yellow flames--this1 mixed with an indistinct desire to clutch at something1 anything1 that seemed stationary in the midst of all this that slipped and wavered and fell away4444 ,no1 ,i remember now3 there was something before that2 there was a sound--a sound that had stopped my feet in their going1 and smote me with a long shudder--a sound of hammers1 beating1 beating1 beating a terrific hail1 momentarily faster and louder1 and in between a panting as of some great monster catching breath beneath the driving of that iron rain4 ,faster1 faster--,,clang6 ,a long reverberant shriek6 ,the giant had rolled and shivered in his pain4 ,involuntarily ,i was drawn down into the ,valley of the ,sound1 words muttering themselves through my lips as ,i passed3 ,forging1 forging--what are they forging there8 ,frankenstein makes his ,monster4 ,how the iron screams6 ,but ,i heard it no more now2 ,i only saw6--saw the curling yellow flames1 and the red1 red iron that panted1 and the ,masters of the ,hammers4 ,how they moved there1 like demons in the abyss1 their bodies swinging1 their eyes tense and a-glitter1 their faces covered with the gloom of the torture-chamber6 ,only one face ,i saw1 young and fair--young and very fair--whereon the gloom seemed not to settle4 ,the skin of it was white and shining there in the midst of that black haze2 over the wide forehead fell tumbling waves of thick brown hair1 and two great dark eyes looked steadily into the red iron1 as if they saw therein something ,i did not see2 only now and then they were lifted1 and looked away upward1 as if beyond the smoke-pall they beheld a vision4 ,once he turned so that the rose-light cast forth his profile as a silhouette2 and ,i shivered1 it was so fine and hard6 ,hard with the hardness of beaten iron1 and fine with the fineness of a keen chisel4 ,had the hammers been beating on that fair young face8 ,a comrade called1 a sudden terrified cry4 ,there was a wild rush1 a mad stampede of feet1 a horrible screech of hissing metal1 and a rocket of iron shot upward toward the black roof1 bursting and falling in a burning shower4 ,three figures lay writhing along the floor1 among the leaping1 demoniac sparks4 ,the first to lift them was the ,man with the white face4 ,he had stood still in the storm1 and ran forward when the others shrank back4 ,now he passed by me1 bearing his dying burden1 and ,i saw no quiver upon brow or chin2 only1 when he laid it in the ambulance1 ,i fancied ,i saw upon the delicate curved lips a line of purpose deepen1 and the reflection of the iron-fire glow in the strange eyes1 as if for an instant the door of a hidden furnace had been opened and smouldering coals had breathed the air4 ,and even then he looked up6 ,it was all over in half an hour4 ,there would be weeping in three little homes2 and one was dead1 and one would die1 and one would crawl1 a seared human stump1 to the end of his weary days4 ,the crowd that had gathered was gone2 they would not know the ,stump when it begged from them with its maimed hands1 six months after1 on some street corner4 ,fakir they would say1 and laugh4 ,there would be an entry on the company's books1 and a brief line in the newspapers next day4 ,but the welding of the iron would go on1 and the man who gave his easy money for it would fancy he had paid for it1 not seeing the stiff figures in their graves1 nor the crippled beggar1 nor the broken homes4 ,the rocket of iron is already cold2 dull1 inert1 fireless1 the black fragments lie upon the floor whereon they lately rained their red revenge4 ,do with them what you will1 you cannot undo their work4 ,the men are clearing way4 ,only he with the white face does not go back to his place4 ,still set and silent he takes his coat1 presses his soft hat down upon his thick1 damp locks1 and goes out into the fog and night4 ,so close he passed me1 ,i might have touched him2 but he never saw me4 ,perhaps he was still carrying the burden of the dying man upon his heart2 perhaps some mightier burden4 ,for one instant the shapely1 boyish figure was in full light1 then it vanished away in the engulfing mist--the mist which the vision of him had made me forget4 ,for ,i knew ,i had seen a ,man of ,iron1 into whose soul the iron had driven1 whose nerves were tempered as cold steel1 but behind whose still1 impassive features slumbered a white-hot heart4 ,and others should see a rocket and a ruin1 and feel the ,vengeance of ,beaten ,iron1 before the mist comes and swallows all4 99 99 99 99 99 ,i had forgotten6 ,upon that face1 that young1 fair face1 so smooth and fine that even the black smoke would not rest upon it1 there bloomed the roses of ,early ,death4 ,hot-house flowers6 ,the ,chain ,gang ,it is far1 far down in the southland1 and ,i am back again1 thanks be1 in the land of wind and snow1 where life lives4 ,but that was in the days when ,i was a wretched thing1 that crept and crawled1 and shrunk when the wind blew1 and feared the snow4 ,so they sent me away down there to the world of the sun1 where the wind and the snow are afraid4 ,and the sun was kind to me1 and the soft air that does not move lay around me like folds of down1 and the poor creeping life in me winked in the light and stared out at the wide caressing air2 stared away to the north1 to the land of wind and rain1 where my heart was1--my heart that would be at home4 ,yes1 there1 in the tender south1 my heart was bitter and bowed1 for the love of the singing wind and the frost whose edge was death1--bitter and bowed for the strength to bear that was gone1 and the strength to love that abode4 ,day after day ,i climbed the hills with my face to the north and home4 ,and there1 on those southern heights1 where the air was resin and balm1 there smote on my ears the sound that all the wind of the north can never sing down again1 the sound ,i shall hear till ,i stand at the door of the last silence4 ,cling--clang--cling--,from the ,georgian hills it sounds2 and the snow and the storm cannot drown it1--the far-off1 terrible music of the ,chain ,gang4 ,i met it there on the road1 face to face1 with all the light of the sun upon it4 ,do you know what it is8 ,do you know that every day men run in long procession1 upon the road they build for others' safe and easy going1 bound to a chain8 ,and that other men1 with guns upon their shoulders1 ride beside them--with orders to kill if the living links break8 ,there it stretched before me1 a serpent of human bodies1 bound to the iron and wrapped in the merciless folds of justified cruelty4 ,clank--clink--clank--,there was an order given4 ,the living chain divided2 groups fell to work upon the road2 and then ,i saw and heard a miracle4 ,have you ever1 out of a drowsy1 lazy conviction that all knowledges1 all arts1 all dreams1 are only patient sums of many toils of many millions dead and living1 suddenly started into an uncanny consciousness that knowledges and arts and dreams are things more real than any living being ever was1 which suddenly reveal themselves1 unasked and unawaited1 in the most obscure corners of soul-life1 flashing out in prismatic glory to dazzle and shock all your security of thought1 toppling it with vague questions of what is reality1 that you cannot silence8 ,when you hear that an untaught child is able1 he knows not how1 to do the works of the magicians of mathematics1 has it never seemed to you that suddenly all books were swept away1 and there before you stood a superb1 sphinx-like creation1 ,mathematics itself1 posing problems to men whose eyes are cast down1 and all at once1 out of whim1 incorporating itself in that wide-eyed1 mysterious child8 ,have you ever felt that all the works of the masters were swept aside in the burst of a singing voice1 unconscious that it sings1 and that ,music itself1 a master-presence1 has entered the throat and sung8 ,no1 you have never felt it8 ,but you have never heard the ,chain ,gang sing6 ,their faces were black and brutal and hopeless2 their brows were low1 their jaws were heavy1 their eyes were hard2 three hundred years of the scorn that brands had burned its scar upon the face and form of ,ignorance1--,ignorance that had sought dully1 stupidly1 blindly1 and been answered with that pitiless brand4 ,but wide beyond the limits of high man and his little scorn1 the great1 sweet old ,music-,soul1 the chords of the ,world1 smote through the black man's fibre in the days of the making of men2 and it sings1 it sings1 with its ever-thrumming strings1 through all the voices of the ,chain ,gang4 ,and never one so low that it does not fill with the humming vibrancy that quivers and bursts out singing things always new and new and new4 ,i heard it that day4 ,the leader struck his pick into the earth1 and for a moment whistled like some wild1 free1 living flute in the forest4 ,then his voice floated out1 like a low booming wind1 crying an instant1 and fell2 there was the measure of a grave in the fall of it4 ,another voice rose up1 and lifted the dead note aloft1 like a mourner raising his beloved with a kiss4 ,it drifted away to the hills and the sun4 ,then many voices rolled forward1 like a great plunging wave1 in a chorus never heard before1 perhaps never again2 for each man sung his own song as it came1 yet all blent4 ,the words were few1 simple1 filled with a great plaint2 the wail of the sea was in it2 and no man knew what his brother would sing1 yet added his own without thought1 as the rhythm swept on1 and no voice knew what note its fellow voice would sing1 yet they fell in one another as the billow falls in the trough or rolls to the crest1 one upon the other1 one within the other1 over1 under1 all in the great wave2 and now one led and others followed1 then it dropped back and another swelled upward1 and every voice was soloist and chorister1 and never one seemed conscious of itself1 but only to sing out the great song4 ,and always1 as the voices rose and sank1 the axes swung and fell4 ,and the lean white face of the man with the gun looked on with a stolid1 paralyzed smile4 ,oh1 that wild1 sombre melody1 that long1 appealing plaint1 with its hope laid beyond death1--that melody that was made only there1 just now1 before me1 and passing away before me6 ,if ,i could only seize it1 hold it1 stop it from passing6 that all the world might hear the song of the ,chain ,gang6 might know that here1 in these red ,georgian hills1 convicts1 black1 brutal convicts1 are making the music that is of no man's compelling1 that floods like the tide and ebbs away like the tide1 and will not be held--and is gone1 far away and forever1 out into the abyss where the voices of the centuries have drifted and are lost6 ,something about ,jesus1 and a ,lamp in the darkness--a gulfing darkness4 ,oh1 in the mass of sunshine must they still cry for light8 ,all around the sweep and the glory of shimmering ether1 sun1 sun1 a world of sun1 and these still calling for light6 ,sun for the road1 sun for the stones1 sun for the red clay--and no light for this dark living clay8 ,only heat that burns and blaze that blinds1 but does not lift the darkness6 ,and lead me to that ,lamp---- ,the pathetic prayer for light went trembling away out into the luminous gulf of day1 and the axes swung and fell2 and the grim dry face of the man with the gun looked on with its frozen smile4 ,so long as they sing1 they work1 said the smile1 still and ironical4 ,a friend to them that's got no friend--,man of ,sorrows1 lifted up upon ,golgotha1 in the day when the forces of the ,law and the might of ,social ,order set you there1 in the moment of your pain and desperate accusation against ,heaven1 when that piercing ,eloi1 ,eloi1 lama sabachthani8 went up to a deaf sky1 did you presage this desolate appeal coming to you out of the unlived depths of nineteen hundred years8 ,hopeless hope1 that cries to the dead6 ,futile pleading that the cup may pass1 while still the lips drink6 ,for1 as of old1 ,order and the ,law1 in shining helmets and gleaming spears1 ringed round the felon of ,golgotha1 so stand they still in that lean1 merciless figure1 with its shouldered gun and passive smile4 ,and the moan that died within the ,place of ,skulls is born again in this great dark cry rising up against the sun4 ,if but the living might hear it1 not the dead6 ,for these are dead who walk about with vengeance and despite within their hearts1 and scorn for things dark and lowly1 in the odor of self-righteousness1 with self-vaunting wisdom in their souls1 and pride of race1 and iron-shod order1 and the preservation of ,things that ,are2 walking stones are these1 that cannot hear4 ,but the living are those who seek to know1 who wot not of things lowly or things high1 but only of things wonderful2 and who turn sorrowfully from ,things that ,are1 hoping for ,things that ,may ,be4 ,if these should hear the ,chain ,gang chorus1 seize it1 make all the living hear it1 see it6 ,if1 from among themselves1 one man might find the ,lamp1 lift it up6 ,paint for all the world these ,georgian hills1 these red1 sunburned roads1 these toiling figures with their rhythmic axes1 these brutal1 unillumined faces1 dull1 groping1 depth-covered1--and then unloose that song upon their ears1 till they feel the smitten1 quivering hearts of the ,sons of ,music beating against their own2 and under and over and around it1 the chain that the dead have forged clinking between the heart-beats6 ,clang--cling--clang--ng--,it is sundown4 ,they are running over the red road now4 ,the voices are silent2 only the chain clinks4 ,the ,heart of ,angiolillo ,some women are born to love stories as the sparks fly upward4 ,you see it every time they glance at you1 and you feel it every time they lay a finger on your sleeve4 ,there was a party the other night1 and a four-year old baby who couldn't sleep for the noise crept down into the parlor half frightened to death and transfixed with wonderment at the crude performances of an obtuse visitor who was shouting out the woes of ,othello4 ,one kindly little woman took the baby in her arms and said3 ,what would they do to you1 if you made all that noise4--,whip me1 whispered the child1 her round black eyes half admiration and half terror1 and altogether coquettish1 as she hid and peered round the woman's neck4 ,and every man in the room forthwith fell in love with her1 and wanted to smother his face in the bewitching rings of dark hair that crowned the dainty head1 and carry her about on his shoulders1 or get down on his hands and knees to play horse for her1 or let her walk on his neck1 or obliterate his dignity in any other way she might prefer4 ,the boys tolerated their fathers with a superior huh6 ,fourteen or fifteen years from now they will be playing the humble cousin of the horse before the same little ringed-haired lady1 and having sported ,nick ,bottom's ears to no purpose1 half a dozen or so will go off and hang themselves1 or turn monk1 or become bold1 bad men1 and revenge themselves on the sex4 ,but her conquests will go on1 and when those gracious rings are white as snow the children of those boys will follow in their grandfathers' and fathers' steps and dangle after her1 and make drawings on their fly leaves of that sweet kiss-cup of a mouth of hers1 and call her their elder sister1 and other devotional names4 ,and the other girls of her generation1 who were not born with that marvelous entangling grace in every line and look1 will dread her and spite her1 and feel mean satisfaction when some poor fool does swallow laudanum on her account4 ,smiles of glacial virtue will creep over their faces like slippery sunshine1 when one by one her devotees come trailing off to them to say that such a woman could never fill a man's heart nor become the ornament of his hearthstone2 the quiet virtues that wear1 are all their desire2 of course they have just been studying her character and that of the foolish men who dance her attendance1 but even those are not doing it with any serious motives4 ,and the neglected girls will serve him with home-made cake and wine which he will presently convert into agony in that pearl shell ear of hers4 ,and all the while the baby will have done nothing but be what she was born to be through none of her own choosing1 which is her lot and portion2 and that is another thing the gods will have to explain when the day comes that they go on trial before men2 which is the real day of judgment4 ,but this isn't the baby's story1 which has yet to be made1 but the story of one who somehow received a wrong portion4 ,some inadvertent little angel in the destiny shop took down her name when the heroine of a romance was called for1 and put her where she shouldn't have been1 and then ran off to play no doubt1 not stopping to look twice4 ,for even the most insouciant angel that looked twice would have seen that ,effie was no woman to play the game of hearts1 and there's only one thing more undiscerning than an angel1 and that is a social reformer4 ,effie ran up against both4 ,they say she had blood in her girlhood1 that it shone red and steady through that thin1 pure skin of hers2 but when ,i saw her1 with her nursing baby in her arms1 down in the smutching grime of ,london1 there was only a fluctuant blush1 a sort of pink ghost of blood1 hovering back and forth on her face4 ,and that was for shame of the poverty of her neat bare room4 ,not that she had ever known riches4 ,she was the daughter of ,scotch peasants1 and had gone out to service when she was still a child2 her chest was hollowed in and her back bowed with that unnatural labor4 ,there was no gloss on the pale sandy hair1 no wilding tendrils clinging round the straight smooth forehead1 no light of coquetry or grace in the glimmering blue eyes1 no beauty in her at all1 unless it lay in the fine1 hard sculptured line of her nose and mouth and chin when she turned her head sideways4 ,you could read in that line that having spoken a word to her heart1 she would not forget it nor unsay it2 and if it took her down into ,gethsemane1 she would never cry out though by all forsaken4 ,and that was where it had taken her then4 ,some ready condemner of all that has been tried for less than a thousand years1 will say it was because she had the just reward of those who1 holding that love is its own sanction and that it cannot be anything but degraded by seeking permissions from social authorities1 live their love lives without the consent of ,church and ,state4 ,but you and ,i know that the same dark garden has awaited the woman whose love has been blessed by both1 and that many such a life lamp has flickered out in a night as profound as poverty and utter loneliness could make it4 ,so if it was justice to ,effie1 what is it to that other woman8 ,in truth1 justice had nothing to do with it2 she loved the wrong man1 that was all2 and married or unmarried1 it would have been the same1 for a formula doesn't make a man1 nor the lack of it unmake him4 ,the fellow was superior in intellect4 ,it is honesty only which can wring so much from those who knew them both1 for as to any other thing she sat as high over him as the stars are4 ,not that he was an actively bad man2 just one of those weak1 uncertain1 tumbling about characters1 having sense enough to know it is a fine thing to stand alone1 and vanity enough to want the name without the game1 and cowardice enough to creep around anything stronger than itself1 and hang there1 and spread itself about1 and say1 ,lo1 how straight am ,i6 ,and if the stronger thing happens to be a father or a brother or some such tolerant piece of friendly1 self-sufficient energy1 he amuses himself awhile1 and finally gives the creeper a shake and says1 ,here1 now1 go hang on somebody else if you can't stand alone1 and the world says he should have done it before4 ,but if it happens to be a mother or a sister or a wife or a sweetheart1 she encourages him to think he is a wonderful person1 that all she does is really his own merit1 and she is proud and glad to serve him4 ,if after a while she doesn't exactly believe it any more1 she says and does the same2 and the world says she is a fool1--which she is4 ,but if1 in some sudden spurt of masculine self-assertiveness1 she decides to fling him off1 the world says she is an unwomanly woman1--which again she is2 so much the better4 ,effie's creeper dabbled in literature4 ,he wanted to be a translator and several other things4 ,his appearance was mild and gentlemanly1 even super-modest4 ,he always spoke respectfully of ,effie1 and as if momentously impressed with a sense of duty towards her4 ,they had started out to realize the free life together1 and the glory of the new ideal had beckoned them forward4 ,so no doubt he believed1 for a pretender always deceives himself worse than anybody else4 ,but still1 at that particular period1 he used to droop his head wearily and admit that he had made a great mistake4 ,it was nobody's fault but his own1 but of course--,effie and he were hardly fitted for each other4 ,she could not well enter into his hopes and ambitions1 never having had the opportunity to develop when she was younger4 ,he had hoped to stimulate her in that direction1 but he feared it was too late4 ,so he said in a delicate and gentlemanly way1 as he went from one house to the other1 and was invited to dinner and supper and made himself believe he was looking for work4 ,effie1 meanwhile1 was taking home boys' caps to make1 and worrying along incredibly on bread and tea1 and walking the streets with the baby in her arms when she had no caps to make4 ,of course when a man drinks other people's teas a great many times1 and sits in their houses1 and borrows odd shillings now and then1 and assumes the gentleman1 he is ultimately brought to the necessity of asking some one to tea with him2 so one spring night the creeper approached ,effie rather dubiously with the statement that he had asked two or three acquaintances to come in the next evening1 and he supposed she would need to prepare tea4 ,the girl was just fainting from starvation then1 and she asked him wearily where he thought she was to get it4 ,he cast about a while in his pusillanimous way for things that she might do1 and finally proposed that she pawn the baby's dress1--the white dress she had made from one of her own girlhood dresses1 and the only thing it had to wear when she took it out for air4 ,that was the limit1 even for ,effie4 ,she said she would take anything of her own if she had it1 but not the baby's2 and she turned her face to the wall and clung to the child4 ,when the tea-time came next day she went out with the baby and walked up and down the surging ,london streets looking in the windows and crushing back tears4 ,what the creeper did with his guests she never knew1 for she did not return till long after dusk1 when she was too weary to wander any more1 and she found no one there but himself and a dark stranger1 who spoke little and with an ,italian accent1 but who measured her with serious1 intense eyes4 ,he listened to the creeper1 but he looked at her2 she was quite fagged out and more bloodless than ever as she sat motionless on the edge of the bed4 ,when he went away he lifted his hat to her with the grace of an old time courtier1 and begged her pardon if he had intruded4 ,some days after that he came in again1 and brought a toy for the baby1 and asked her if he might carry the child out a little for her2 it looked sickly shut up there1 but he knew it must be heavy for her to carry4 ,the creeper suddenly discovered that he could carry the baby4 ,all this happened in the days when a pious queen sat on the throne of ,spain4 ,with eyes turned upward in much holiness1 she failed to see the things done in her prisons1 or hear the groans that rose up from the zero chamber in the fortress of ,montjuich1 though all ,europe heard1 and even in ,america the echo rang4 ,while she told her beads her minister gave the order to torture the ,anarchists2 and scarred with red-hot irons1 maimed and deformed and maddened with the nameless horrors that the good devise to correct the bad1 even unto this day the evidences of that infamous order live4 ,but two men do not live1--the one who gave the order1 and the one who revenged it4 ,it happened one night1 in ,april1 that ,effie and the creeper and their sometime visitor met all three in one of those long low smothering ,london halls where many movements have originated1 which in their developed proportions have taken possession of the ,house of ,commons1 and even stirred the dust in the ,house of ,lords4 ,there was a crowd of excited people talking all degrees of sense and nonsense in every language of the continent4 ,letters smuggled from the prison had been received2 new tales of torture were passing from mouth to mouth2 fresh propositions to arouse a general protest from civilization were bubbling up with the anger of every indignant man and woman4 ,drifting to the buzzing knots ,effie heard some one translating3 it was the letter of the tortured ,nogus1 who a month later was shot beneath the fortress wall4 ,the words smote her ears like something hot and stinging3 ,you know ,i am one of the three accusers 7the other two are ,ascheri and ,molas7 who figure in the trial4 ,i could not bear the atrocious tortures of so many days4 ,on my arrest ,i spent eight days without food or drink1 obliged to walk continually to and fro or be flogged2 and as if that did not suffice1 ,i was made to trot as though ,i were a horse trained at the riding school1 until worn with fatigue ,i fell to the ground4 ,then the hangmen burnt my lips with red-hot irons1 and when ,i declared myself the author of the attempt they replied1 ',you do not tell the truth4 ,we know that the author is another one1 but we want to know your accomplices4 ,besides you still retain six bombs1 and along with little ,oller you deposited two bombs in the ,rue ,fivaller4 ,who are your accomplices8' ,in spite of my desire to make an end of it ,i could not answer anything4 ,whom should ,i accuse since all are innocent8 ,finally six comrades were placed before me1 whom ,i had to accuse1 and of whom ,i beg pardon4 ,thus the declarations and the accusations that ,i made4444 ,i cannot finish2 the hangmen are coming4 --,nogus4 ,sick with horror ,effie would have gone away1 but her feet were like lead4 ,she heard the next letter1 the pathetic prayer of ,sebastian ,sunyer1 indistinctly2 the tortures had already seared her ears1 but the crying for help seemed to go up over her head like great sobs2 she felt herself washed round1 sinking1 in the desperate pain of it4 ,the piteous reiteration1 ,listen you with your honest hearts1 you with your pure souls1 good and right-minded people1 good and right-feeling people1 wailed through her like the wild pleading of a child who1 shrieking under the whip ,dear papa1 good1 sweet papa1 please don't whip me1 please1 please1 seeks terror-wrung flattery to escape the lash4 ,the last cry1 ,aid us in our helplessness2 think of our misery1 made her quiver like a reed4 ,she walked away and sat down in a corner alone2 what could she do1 what could any one do8 ,miserable creature that she was herself1 her own misery seemed so worthless beside that prison cry4 ,and she thought on1 ,why does he want to live at all1 why does any one want to live1 why do ,i want to live myself8 ,after a while the creeper and his friend came to her1 and the latter sat down beside her1 undemonstrative as usual4 ,at the next buzz in the room they two were left alone4 ,she looked at him once as she said1 ,what do you think the people will do about it8 ,he glanced at the crowd with a thin smile3 ,do8 ,talk4 ,in a little time he said quietly3 ,it does you no good here4 ,i will take you home and come back for ,david afterward4 ,she had no idea of contradicting him2 so they went out together4 ,at the threshold of her room he said firmly1 ,i will come in for a few minutes2 ,i have to speak to you4 ,she struck a light1 put the baby on the bed1 and looked at him questioningly4 ,he had sat down with his back against the wall1 and with rigidly folded arms stared straight ahead of him4 ,seeing that he did not speak1 she said softly1 falling into her native dialect1 as all ,scotch women do when they feel most3 ,i canna get thae poor creetyer's cries oot o' ma head4 ,it's no human4 ,no1 he said shortly1 and then with a sudden look at her1 ,effie1 what do you think love is8 ,she answered him with surprised eyes and said nothing4 ,he went on3 ,you love the child1 don't you8 ,you do for it1 you serve it4 ,that shows you love it4 ,but do you think it's love that makes ,david act as he does to you8 ,if he loved you1 would he let you work as you work8 ,would he live off you8 ,wouldn't he wear the flesh off his fingers instead of yours8 ,he doesn't love you4 ,he isn't worth you4 ,he isn't a bad man1 but he isn't worth you4 ,and you make him less worth4 ,you ruin him1 you ruin yourself1 you kill the child4 ,i can't see it any more4 ,i come here1 and ,i see you weaker every time1 whiter1 thinner4 ,and ,i know if you keep on you'll die4 ,i can't see it4 ,i want you to leave him2 let me work for you4 ,i don't make much1 but enough to let you rest4 ,at least till you are well4 ,i would wait till you left him of yourself1 but ,i can't wait when ,i see you dying like this4 ,i don't want anything of you1 except to serve you1 to serve the child because it's yours4 ,come away1 to-night4 ,you can have my room2 ,i'll go somewhere else4 ,to-morrow ,i'll find you a better place4 ,you needn't see him any more4 ,i'll tell him myself4 ,he won't do anything1 don't be afraid4 ,come4 ,and he stood up4 ,effie had sat astonished and dumb4 ,now she looked up at the dark tense eyes above her1 and said quietly1 ,i dinna understand4 ,a sharp contraction went across the strong bent face3 ,no8 ,you don't understand what you are doing with yourself8 ,you don't understand that ,i love you1 and ,i can't see it8 ,i don't ask you to love me2 ,i ask you to let me serve you4 ,only a little1 only so much as to give you health again2 is that too much8 ,you don't know what you are to me4 ,others love beauty1 but ,i--,i see in you the eternal sacrifice2 your thin fingers that always work1 your face--when ,i look at it1 it's just a white shadow2 you are the child of the people1 that dies without crying4 ,oh1 let me give myself for you4 ,and leave this man1 who doesn't care for you1 doesn't know you1 thinks you beneath him1 uses you4 ,i don't want you to be his slave any more4 ,effie clasped her hands and looked at them2 then she looked at the sleeping baby1 smoothed the quilt1 and said quietly3 ,i didna take him the day to leave him the morra4 ,it's no my fault if ye're daft aboot me4 ,the dark face sharpened as one sees the agony in a dying man1 but his voice was very gentle1 speaking always in his blurred ,english3 ,no1 there is no fault in you at all4 ,did ,i accuse you8 ,the girl walked to the window and looked out4 ,some way it was a relief from the burning eyes which seemed to fill the room1 no matter that she did not look at them4 ,and staring off into the twinkling ,london night1 she heard again the terrible sobs of ,sebastian ,sunyer's letter rising up and drowning her with its misery4 ,without turning around she said1 low and hard1 ,i wonder ye can thenk aboot thae things1 an' yon deils burnin' men alive4 ,the man drew his hand across his forehead4 ,would you like to hear that they1--one1--the worst of them1 was dead8 ,i thenk the worl' wadna be muckle the waur o't1 she answered1 still looking away from him4 ,he came up and laid his hand on her shoulder4 ,will you kiss me once8 ,i'll never ask again4 ,she shook him off3 ,i dinna feel for't4 ,good-bye then4 ,i'll go back for ,david4 ,and he returned to the hall and got the creeper and told him very honestly what had taken place2 and the creeper1 to his credit be it said1 respected him for it1 and talked a great deal about being better in future to the girl4 ,the two men parted at the foot of the stairs1 and the last words that echoed through the hallway were3 ,no1 ,i am going away4 ,but you will hear of me some day4 ,now1 what went on in his heart that night no one knows2 nor what indecision still kept him lingering fitfully about ,effie's street a few days more2 nor when the indecision finally ceased2 for no one spoke to him after that1 except as casual acquaintances meet1 and in a week he was gone4 ,but what he did the whole world knows2 for even the ,queen of ,spain came out of her prayers to hear how her torturing prime minister had been shot at ,santa ,agueda1 by a stern-faced man1 who1 when the widow1 grief-mad1 spit in his face1 quietly wiped his cheek1 saying1 ,madam1 ,i have no quarrel with women4 ,a few weeks later they garrotted him1 and he said one word before he died1--one only1 ,germinal4 ,over there in the long low ,london hall the gabbling was hushed1 and some one murmured how he had sat silent in the corner that night when all were talking4 ,the creeper passed round a book containing the history of the tortures1 watching it jealously all the while1 for said he1 ,angiolillo gave it to me himself2 he had it in his own hands4 ,effie lay beside the baby in her room1 and hid her face in the pillow to keep out the stare of the burning eyes that were dead2 and over and over again she repeated1 ,was it my fault1 was it my fault8 ,the hot summer air lay still and smothering1 and the immense murmur of the city came muffled like thunder below the horizon4 ,her heart seemed beating against the walls of a padded room4 ,and gradually1 without losing consciousness1 she slipped into the world of illusion2 around her grew the stifling atmosphere of the torture-chamber of ,montjuich1 and the choked cries of men in agony4 ,she was sure that if she looked up she should see the demoniac face of ,portas1 the torturer4 ,she tried to cry1 ,mercy1 mercy1 but her dry lips clave4 ,she had a whirling sensation1 and the illusion changed2 now there was the clank of soldiers' arms1 a moment of insufferable stillness as the garrotte shaped itself out of the shadows in her eyes1 then loud and clear1 breaking the sullen quiet like the sharp ringing of a storm-bringing wind1 ,germinal4 ,she sprang up3 the long vibration of the bell of ,st4 ,pancras was waving through the room2 but to her it was the prolongation of the word1 ,germ-inal-l-l--germinal-l-l-- ,then suddenly she threw out her arms in the darkness1 and whispered hoarsely1 ,ay1 ,i'll kiss ye the noo4 ,an hour later she was back at the old question1 ,was it my fault8 ,poor girl1 it is all over now1 and all the same to the grass that roots in her bone1 whether it was her fault or not4 ,for the end that the man who had loved her foresaw1 came1 though it was slow in the coming4 ,let the creeper get credit for all that he did4 ,he stiffened up in a year or so1 and went to ,paris and got some work2 and there the worn little creature went to him1 and wrote to her old friends that she was better off at last4 ,but it was too late for that thin shell of a body that had starved so much2 at the first trial she broke and died4 ,and so she sleeps and is forgotten4 ,and the careless boy-angel who mixed all these destinies up so unobservantly has never yet whispered her name in the ear of the widowed ,lady ,canovas del ,castillo4 ,nor will the birds that fly thither carry it now2 for it was not ,effie4 ,the ,reward of an ,apostate ,i have sinned3 and ,i am rewarded according to my sin1 which was great4 ,there is no forgiveness for me2 let no man think there is forgiveness for sin3 the gods cannot forgive4 ,this was my sin1 and this is my punishment1 that ,i forsook my god to follow a stranger--only a while1 a very brief1 brief while--and when ,i would have returned there was no more returning4 ,i cannot worship any more1--that is my punishment2 ,i cannot worship any more4 ,oh1 that my god will none of me8 ,that is an old sorrow6 ,my god was ,beauty1 and ,i am all unbeautiful1 and ever was4 ,there is no grace in these harsh limbs of mine1 nor was at any time4 ,i1 to whom the glory of a lit eye was as the shining of stars in a deep well1 have only dull and faded eyes1 and always had2 the chiseled lip and chin whereover runs the radiance of life in bubbling gleams1 the cup of living wine was never mine to taste or kiss4 ,i am earth-colored1 and for my own ugliness sit in the shadow1 that the sunlight may not see me1 nor the beloved of my god4 ,but1 once1 in my hidden corner1 behind the curtain of shadows1 ,i blinked at the glory of the world1 and had such joy of it as only the ugly know1 sitting silent and worshiping1 forgetting themselves and forgotten4 ,here in my brain it glowed1 the shimmering of the dying sun upon the shore1 the long gold line between the sand and sea1 where the sliding foam caught fire and burned to death4 ,here in my brain it shone1 the white moon on the wrinkling river1 running away1 a dancing ghost line in the illimitable night4 ,here in my brain rose the mountain curves1 the great still world of stone1 summit upon summit sweeping skyward1 lonely and conquering4 ,here in my brain1 my little brain1 behind this tiny ugly wall of bone stretched over with its dirty yellow skin1 glittered the far high blue desert with its sand of stars1 as ,i have watched it1 nights and nights1 alone1 hid in the shadows of the prairie grass4 ,here rolled and swelled the seas of corn1 and blossoming fields of nodding bloom2 and flower-flies on their hovering wings went flickering up and down4 ,and the quick spring of lithe-limbed things went scattering dew across the sun2 and singing streams went shining down the rocks1 spreading bright veils upon the crags4 ,here in my brain1 my silent unrevealing brain1 were the eyes ,i loved1 the lips ,i dared not kiss1 the sculptured heads and tendriled hair4 ,they were here always in my wonder-house1 my house of ,beauty1 the temple of my god4 ,i shut the door on common life and worshiped here4 ,and no bright1 living1 flying thing1 in whose body ,beauty dwells as guest1 can guess the ecstatic joy of a brown1 silent creature1 a toad-thing1 squatting on the shadowed ground1 self-blotted1 motionless1 thrilling with the presence of ,all-,beauty1 though it has no part therein4 ,but the gods are many4 ,and once a strange god came to me4 ,sharp upon the shadowy ground he stood1 and beckoned me with knotted fingers4 ,there was no beauty in his lean figure and sunken cheeks2 but up and down the muscles ran like snakes beneath his skin1 and his dark eyes had somber fires in them4 ,and as ,i looked at him1 ,i felt the leap of prisoned forces in myself1 in the earth1 in the air1 in the sun2 all throbbed with the pulse of the wild god's heart4 ,beauty vanished from my wonder-house2 and where his images had been ,i heard the clang and roar of machinery1 the forging of links that stretched to the sun1 chains for the tides1 chains for the winds2 and curious lights went shining through thick walls as through air1 and down through the shell of the world itself1 to the great furnaces within4 ,into those seething depths1 the god's eyes peered1 smiling and triumphing2 then with an up-glance at the sky and a waste-glance at me1 he strode off4 ,this is my great sin1 for which there is no pardon3 ,i followed him1 the rude god ,energy2 followed him1 and in that abandoned moment swore to be quit of ,beauty1 which had given me nothing1 and to be worshiper of him to whom ,i was akin1 ugly but sinuous1 resolute1 daring1 defiant1 maker and breaker of things1 remoulder of the world4 ,i followed him1 ,i would have run abreast with him2 ,i loved him1 not with that still ecstasy of flooding joy wherewith my own god filled me of old1 but with impetuous1 eager fires1 that burned and beat through all the blood-threads of me4 ,i love you1 love me back1 ,i cried1 and would have flung myself upon his neck4 ,then he turned on me with a ruthless blow1 and fled away over the world1 leaving me crippled1 stricken1 powerless1 a fierce pain driving through my veins--gusts of pain6--,and ,i crept back into my old cavern1 stumbling1 blind and deaf1 only for the haunting vision of my shame and the rushing sound of fevered blood4 ,the pain is gone4 ,i see again2 ,i care no more for the taunt and blow of that fierce god who was never mine4 ,but in my wonder-house it is all still and bare2 no image lingers on the blank mirrors any more4 ,no singing bell floats in the echoless dome4 ,forms rise and pass2 but neither mountain curve nor sand nor sea1 nor shivering river1 nor the faces of the flowers1 nor flowering faces of my god's beloved1 touch aught within me now4 ,not one poor thrill of vague delight for me1 who felt the glory of the stars within my finger tips4 ,it slips past me like water4 ,brown without and clay within6 ,no wonder now behind the ugly wall2 an empty temple6 ,i cannot worship1 ,i cannot love1 ,i cannot care4 ,all my life-service is unweighed against that faithless hour of my forswearing4 ,it is just2 it is the ,law2 ,i am forsworn1 and the gods have given me the ,reward of ,an ,apostate4 ,at the ,end of the ,alley ,it is a long narrow pocket opening on a little street which runs like a tortuous seam up and down the city1 over there4 ,it was at the end of the summer2 and in summer1 in the evening1 the mouth of the pocket is hard to find1 because of the people1 in it and about1 who sit across the passage1 gasping at the dirty winds that come loafing down the street like crafty beggars seeking a hole to sleep in--like mean beggars1 bereft of the spirit of free windhood4 ,down in the pocket itself the air is quite dead2 one feels oneself enveloped in a scum-covered pool of it1 and at every breath long filaments of invisible roots1 swamp-roots1 tear and tangle in your floundering lungs4 ,i had to go to the very end1 to the bottom of the pocket4 ,there1 in the deepest of these alley-holes1 lives the woman to whom ,i am indebted for the whiteness of this waist ,i wear4 ,how she does it1 ,i don't know2 poverty works miracles like that1 just as the black marsh mud gives out lilies4 ,at the very last door ,i knocked1 and presently a man's voice1 weak and suffocated1 called from a window above4 ,i explained4--,there's a chair there2 sit down4 ,she'll be home soon4 ,and the voice was caught in a cough4 ,this1 then1 was the consumptive husband she had told me of6 ,i looked up at the square hole dimly outlined in the darkness1 whence the cough issued1 and suddenly felt a horrible pressure at my heart and a curious sense of entanglement1 as if all the invisible webs of disease had momentarily acquired a conscious sense of prey within their clutch1 and tightened on it like an octopus4 ,the haunting terror of the unknown1 the dim horror of an inimic ,presence1 recoil before the merciless creeping and floating of an enemy one cannot grasp or fight1 repulsive turning from a ,thing that has reached behind while you have been seeking to face it1 that is there awaiting you with the frightful ironic laughter of the ,silence--all this swept round and through me as ,i stared up through the night4 ,up there on the bed he was lying1 he who had been meshed in the fatal web for three long years--and was struggling still6 ,in the darkness ,i felt his breath draw4 ,the sharp barking of a dog came as a relief4 ,i turned to the broken chair1 and sat down to wait4 ,the alley was hemmed in by a high wall1 and from the farther side of it there towered up four magnificent old trees1 whose great crowns sent down a whispering legend of vanished forests and the limitless sweep of clean air that had washed through them1 long ago1 and that would never come again4 ,how long1 how long since those far days of purity1 before the plague spot of ,man had crept upon them6 ,how strong those proud old giants were that had not yet been strangled6 ,how beautiful they were6 ,how mean and ugly were the misshapen things that sat in the doorways of the foul dens that they had made1 chattering1 chattering1 as ages ago the apes had chattered in the forest6 ,what curious beasts they were1 with their paws and heads sticking out of the coverings they had twisted round their bodies--chattering1 chattering always1 and always moving about1 unable to understand the still strong growths of silence4 ,so a half hour passed4 ,at last ,i saw a parting in the group of bodies across the entrance of the pocket1 and a familiar weary figure carrying a basket1 coming down the brickway4 ,she stopped half way where a widening of the alley furnished the common drying place1 and a number of clothes lines crossed and recrossed each other1 casting a net of shadows on the pavement2 after a glance at the sky1 which had clouded over1 she sighed heavily and again advanced4 ,in the sickly light of the alley lamp the rounded shoulders seemed to droop like an old crone's4 ,yet the woman was still young4 ,that she might not be startled1 ,i called ,good evening4 ,the answer was spoken in that tone of forced cheerfulness which the wretched always give to their employers2 but she sank upon the step with the habitual ,my1 but ,i'm glad to sit down1 of one who seldom sits4 ,tired out1 ,i suppose4 ,the day has been so hot4 ,yes1 and ,i've got to go to work and iron again till eleven o'clock1 and it's awful hot in that kitchen4 ,i don't mind the washing so much in summer2 ,i wash out here4 ,but it's hot ironing4 ,are you in a hurry8 ,i said no1 and sat on4 ,how much rent do you pay8 ,i asked4 ,seven dollars4 ,three rooms8 ,yes4 ,one over the other8 ,yes4 ,it's an awful rent1 and he won't fix anything4 ,the door is half off its hinges1 and the paper is a sight4 ,have you lived here long8 ,over three years4 ,we moved here before he got sick4 ,i don't keep nothing right now1 but it used to be nice4 ,it's so quiet back here away from the street2 you don't hear no noise4 ,that fence ought to be whitewashed4 ,i used to keep it white1 and everything clean4 ,and it was so nice to sit out here in summer under them trees4 ,you could just think you were in the park4 ,a curious wonder went through me4 ,somewhere back in me a voice was saying1 ,to him that hath shall be given1 and from him that hath not1 it shall be taken away even that which he hath4 ,this horrible pool had been nice to her6 ,again ,i felt the abyss seizing me with its tentacles1 and high overhead in the tree-crowns ,i seemed to hear a spectral mockery of laughter4 ,yes1 ,i forced myself to say1 they are splendid trees4 ,i wonder they have lived so long4 ',tis funny1 aint it8 ,that's a great big yard in there2 the man that used to own it was a gardener1 and there's a lot of the curiousest flowers there yet4 ,but he's dead now1 and the folks that's got it don't keep up nothing4 ,they're waiting to sell it1 ,i suppose4 ,above1 over our heads1 the racking cough sounded again4 ,aint it terrible8 she murmured4 ,day and night1 day and night2 he don't get no rest1 and neither do ,i4 ,it's no wonder some people commits suicide4 ,does he ever speak of it8 ,i asked4 ,her voice dropped to a semi-whisper4 ,not now so much1 since the church people's got hold of him4 ,he used to2 ,i think he'd a done it if it hadn't been for them4 ,but they've been kind o' talkin' to him lately1 and tellin' him it wouldn't be right1--on account of the insurance1 you know4 ,my heart gave a wild bound of revolt1 and ,i shut my teeth fast4 ,o man1 man1 what have you made of yourself6 ,more stupid than all the beasts of the earth1 for a dole of the things you make to be robbed of1 living1--to be robbed of and poisoned with--you consent to the death that eats with a million mouths1 eats inexorably4 ,you submit to unnamable torture in the holy name of--,insurance6 ,and in the name of ,insurance this miserable woman keeps alive the bones of a man6 ,i took my bundle and went4 ,and all the way ,i felt myself tearing through the tendrils of death that hung and swayed from the noisome wall1 and caught at things as they passed4 ,and all the way there pressed upon me pictures of the skeleton and the woman1 clothed in firm flesh1 young and joyous1 and thrilling with the love of the well and strong4 ,ah1 if some one had said to her then1 ,some day you will slave to keep him alive through fruitless agonies1 that for your last reward you may take the price of his pain6 ,,ii4--,,alone ,i was wrong4 ,i thought she wanted the insurance money1 but ,i misunderstood her4 ,i found it out one wild ,october day more than a year later1 when for the second time ,i sought the end of the alley4 ,the sufferer had suffered out2 the gaunt and wasted shell of the man lay no more by the window in the upper story4 ,the woman was free4 ,rest at last1 ,i thought1 for both of them4 ,but it was not as ,i thought4 ,i expected ease to come into the woman's drawn face1 and relaxation to her stooping figure4 ,but something else came upon both1 something quite unwonted and inexplicable2 a wandering look in the eyes1 a stupid drop to the mouth1 an uncertainty in her walk1 as of one who is half minded to go back and look for something4 ,there was1 too1 an irritating irregularity in the performance of her work1 which began to be annoying4 ,at last1 on that ,october day1 this new unreliability reached the limit of provocation4 ,i was leaving the city2 ,i needed my laundry1 needed it at once2 and here it was four o'clock in the afternoon1 the train due at night1 and packing impossible till the wash came4 ,it was five days overdue4 ,the wind was howling furiously1 the rain driving in sheets1 but there was no alternative2 ,i must get to the ,end of the ,alley and back1 somehow4 ,the gray1 rain-drenched atmosphere was still grayer in the alley1--still1 still grayer at the end4 ,and what with the gray of it and the rain of it1 ,i could scarcely see the thing that sat facing me when ,i opened the door1--a sort of human blur1 hunched in a rocking-chair1 its head sunken on its breast4 ,in response to my startled exclamation1 the face was lifted vacantly for a second1 and then dropped again4 ,but ,i had seen3 drunk1 dead drunk6 ,and this woman had never drunk4 ,i looked around the wretched room4 ,by the window1 where the gray light trailed in1 stood a table covered with unwashed dishes2 some late flies were crawling in the gutters of slop1 besotted derelicts of insects1 stupidly staggering up and down the cracked china4 ,on the stove stood a number of flat-irons1 but there was no fire4 ,a mass of unironed clothes lay on an old couch and over the backs of two unoccupied chairs4 ,on the wall above the couch1 hung the portrait of the dead man4 ,i walked to the slumping figure in the rocker1 and with ill-contained brutality demanded3 ,so this is why you did not bring my clothes6 ,where are they8 ,i heard my own voice cutting like the edge of a knife1 and felt half-ashamed when that weak1 shaking thing lifted up its foolish face1 and stared at me with watery1 uncomprehending eyes4 ,my clothes1 ,i reiterated2 are they here or upstairs8 ,guess-s-so1 stammered the uncertain voice1 g-guess so4 ,nothing for it but to find them myself1 ,i muttered1 beginning the search through the pile on the couch4 ,nothing of mine there1 so ,i needs must climb to the ,golgotha on the second floor1 from which the ,cross had disappeared1 but which still bore traces of its victim's long crucifixion1--a pair of old bed-slippers still by the window1 a sleeping-cap on the wall4 ,some cannot but leave so the things that have touched their dead4 ,one by one ,i found the rough-dry garments1 here1 there1 in the hallway1 in the garret1 hanging or crumpled up among dozens of others4 ,and all the while ,i hunted1 the rain beat and the wind blew1 and a low third sound kept mingling with them1 rising from the lower floor4 ,my heart smote me when ,i heard it1 for ,i knew it was the woman sobbing4 ,the self-righteous ,pharisee within me gave an impatient sneer3 ,alcohol tears6 ,but something else clutched at my throat1 and ,i found myself glancing at the dead man's shoes4 ,when ,i went downstairs1 ,i avoided the rocking-chair1 tied up my bundle1 counted out the money1 laid it on the table1 and then turning round said1 deliberately and harshly3 ,there is your money2 don't buy whisky with it1 ,mrs4 ,bossert4 ,crying had a little sobered her4 ,she looked up1 still with less light in her face than in an intelligent dog's1 but with some dim self-consciousness4 ,it was as a face that had appeared behind deforming bubbles of water4 ,she half lifted her hand1 let it fall1 and stammered1 ,no1 ,i won't1 ,i won't4 ,it don't do nobody no good4 ,the senseless desire to preach seized hold of me4 ,mrs4 ,bossert1 ,i cried out1 aren't you ashamed of yourself8 ,a woman like you1 who went through so much1 and so long1 and so bravely6 ,and now1 when you could get along all right1 to act like this6 ,the soggy mouth dropped open1 the glazy eyes stared at me1 fixedly and foolishly1 then shifted to the portrait on the wall2 and with a mawkish simper1 as of some old drab playing sixteen1 she slobbered out1 nodding to the portrait3 ,all--for the love--o' him4 ,it was so utterly ludicrous that ,i laughed4 ,then a cold rage took me3 ,look here1 ,i said 7and again ,i heard my own voice1 grim and quiet1 cutting the air like a whip71 if you believe1 as ,i have heard you say1 that your husband can look down on you from anywhere1 remember you couldn't do a thing to hurt him worse than you're doing now4 ',love' indeed6 ,the lash went home4 ,the stricken figure huddled closer2 the voice came out like a dumb thing's moan3 ,oh--,i'm all alone4 ,then suddenly ,i understood4 ,i had taken it for mockery1 and profanation1 that leering look at the shadow on the wall1 that driveling stammer1 ,all--for the love--o' him4 ,and it had been a solemn thing6 ,no lover's word spoken in the morning of youth with the untried day before it1 under the seductive witchery of answering breath and kisses1 rushing blood and throbbing bodies2 but the word of a woman bent with service1 seamed with labor1 haggard with watching2 the word of a woman who1 at the washtub1 had kept her sufferer by the work of her hands1 and watched him between the snatches of her sleep4 ,the immemorial passion of a common heart1 that is not much1 that had not much1 and has lost all4 ,years were in it4 ,for years she had had her burden to carry2 and she had carried it to the edge of the grave4 ,there it had fallen from her1 and her arms were empty4 ,nothing to do any more4 ,alone4 ,she sat up suddenly with a momentary flare of light in her face4--,as long as ,i had him1 she said1 ,i could do4 ,i thought ,i'd be glad when he was gone1 a many and many a time4 ,but ,i'd rather he was up there yet4444 ,i did everything4 ,i didn't put him away mean4 ,there was a hundred and twenty-five dollars insurance4 ,i spent it all on him4 ,he was covered with flowers4 ,the flare died down1 and she fell together like a collapsing bag4 ,i saw the gray vacancy moving inward toward the last spark of intelligence in her eyes1 as an ashing coal whitens inward toward the last dull red point of fire4 ,then this heap of rags shuddered with an inhuman whine1 ,a-l-o-n-e4 ,in the crowding shadows ,i felt the desolation pressing me like a vise4 ,behind that sunken heap in the chair gathered a midnight specter2 for a moment ,i caught a flash from its royal1 malignant eyes1 the ,monarch of human ruins1 the murderous ,bridegroom of widowed souls1 ,king ,alcohol4 ,after all1 as well that way as another1 ,i muttered2 and aloud 7but the whip-cord had gone out of my voice71 ,the money is on the table4 ,she did not hear me2 the ,bridegroom had given ,his ,beloved ,sleep4 ,i went out softly into the wild rain1 and overhead1 among the lashing arms of the leafless trees1 and around the alley pocket1 the wind was whining3 ,a-l-o-n-e4 ,to ,strive and ,fail ,there was a lonely wind crying around the house1 and wailing away through the twilight1 like a child that has been refused and gone off crying4 ,every now and then the trees shivered with it1 and dropped a few leaves that splashed against the windows like big1 soft tears1 and then fell down on the dark1 dying grass1 and lay there till the next wind rose and whirled them away4 ,rain was gathering4 ,close by the gray patch of light within the room a white face bent over a small table1 and dust-dim fingers swept across the strings of a zither4 ,the low1 pathetic opening chords of ,albert's ,herbst-,klage wailed for a moment like the wind2 then a false note sounded1 and the player threw her arms across the table and rested her face upon them4 ,what was the use8 ,she knew how it ought to be1 but she could never do it1--never make the strings strike true to the song that was sounding within1 sounding as the wind and the rain and the falling leaves sounded it1 as long ago the wizard ,albert had heard and conjured it out of the sound-sea1 before the little black notes that carried the message over the world were written4 ,the weary brain wandered away over the mystery of the notes1 and she whispered dully1 ,a sign to the eye1 and a sound to the ear--and that is his gift to the world--his will--and he is dead1 dead1 dead2--he was so great1 and they are so silly1 those little black foolish dots--and yet they are there--and by them his soul sings-- ,the numb pain at her heart forced some sharp tears from the closed eyes4 ,she bent and unbent her fingers hopelessly1 two or three times1 and then let them lie out flat and still4 ,it was not their fault1 not the fingers' fault2 they could learn to do it1 if they only had the chance2 but they could never1 never have the chance4 ,they must always do something else1 always a hundred other things first1 always save and spare and patch and contrive2 there was never time to do the thing she longed for most4 ,only the odd moments1 the unexpected freedoms1 the stolen half-hours1 in which to live one's highest dream1 only the castaway time for one's soul6 ,and every year the fleeting glory waned1 wavered1 sunk away more and more sorrowfully into the gray1 soundless shadows of an unlived life4 ,once she had heard it so clearly1--long ago1 on the far-off sun-spaced1 wind-singing fields of home1--the wild sweet choruses1 the songs no man had ever sung4 ,still she heard them sometimes in the twilight1 in the night1 when she sat alone and work was over2 high and thin and fading1 only sound-ghosts1 but still with the incomparable glory of a first revelation1 a song no one else has ever heard1 a marvel to be seized and bodied2 only1--they faded away into the nodding sleep that would conquer1 and in the light and rush of day were mournfully silent4 ,and she never captured them1 never would2 life was half over now4 ,with the thought she started up1 struck the chords again1 a world of plaint throbbing through the strings2 surely the wizard himself would have been satisfied4 ,but ah1 once more the fatal uncertainty of the fingers4444 ,she bit the left hand savagely1 then touched it1 softly and remorsefully1 with the other1 murmuring3 ,poor fingers6 ,not your fault4 ,at last she rose and stood at the window1 looking out into the night1 and thinking of the ruined gift1 the noblest gift1 that had been hers and would die dumb2 thinking of the messages that had come to her up out of the silent dark and sunk back into it1 unsounded2 of the voices she would have given to the messages of the masters1 and never would give now2 and with a bitter compression of the lips she said3 ,well1 ,i was born to strive and fail4 ,and suddenly a rush of feeling swept her own life out of sight1 and away out in the deepening night she saw the face of an old1 sharp-chinned1 white-haired1 dead man2 he had been her father once1 strong and young1 with chestnut hair and gleaming eyes1 and with his own dream of what he had to do in life4 ,perhaps he1 too1 had heard sounds singing in the air1 a new message waiting for deliverance4 ,it was all over now2 he had grown old and thin-faced and white1 and had never done anything in the world2 at least nothing for himself1 his very own2 he had sewn clothes1--thousands1 millions of stitches in his work-weary life--no doubt there were still in existence scraps and fragments of his work1--in same old ragbag perhaps--beautiful1 fine stitches1 into which the keen eyesight and the deft hand had passed1 still showing the artist-craftsman4 ,but that was not his work2 that was the service society had asked of him and he had rendered2 himself1 his own soul1 that wherein he was different from other men1 the unbought thing that the soul does for its own outpouring1--that was nowhere4 ,and over there1 among the low mounds of the soldiers' graves1 his bed was made1 and he was lying in it1 straight and still1 with the rain crying softly above him4 ,he had been so full of the lust of life1 so alert1 so active6 and nothing of it all6--,poor father1 you failed too1 she muttered softly4 ,and then behind the wraith of the dead man there rose an older picture1 a face she had never seen1 dead fifty years before2 but it shone through the other face1 and outshone it1 luminous with great suffering1 much overcoming1 and complete and final failure4 ,it was the face of a woman not yet middle-aged1 smitten with death1 with the horror of utter strangeness in the dying eyes2 the face of a woman lost in a strange city of a strange land1 and with her little crying1 helpless children about her1 facing the inexorable agony there on the pavement1 where she was sinking down1 and only foreign words falling in the dying ears6--,she1 too1 had striven2 how she had striven6 ,against the abyss of poverty there in the old world2 against the load laid on her by ,nature1 ,law1 ,society1 the triune ,god of ,terror2 against the inertia of another will4 ,she had bought coppers with blood1 and spared and saved and endured and waited2 she had bent the gods to her will2 she had sent her husband to ,america1 the land of freedom and promise2 she had followed him at last1 over the great blue bitter water with its lapping mouths that had devoured one of her little ones upon the way2 she had been driven like a cow in the shambles at the landing stage2 she had been robbed of all but her ticket1 and with her little children had hungered for three days on the overland journey2 she had lived it through1 and set foot in the promised land2 but somehow the waiting face was not there1 had missed her or she1 him1--and lost and alone with ,death and the starving babes1 she sank at the foot of the soldiers' monument1 and the black mist came down on the courageous eyes1 and the light was flickering out forever4 ,with a bitter cry the living figure in the room stretched its hands toward the vision in the night4 ,there was nothing there1 she knew it2 nothing in the heavens above nor the earth beneath to hear the cry1--not so much as a crumbling bone any more1--but she called brokenly1 ,oh1 why must she die so1 with nothing1 nothing1 not one little reward after all that struggle8 ,to fall on the pavement and die in the hospital at last6 ,and shuddering1 with covered eyes and heavy breath1 she added wearily1 ,no wonder that ,i fail2 ,i come of those who failed2 my father1 his mother1--and before her8 ,behind the fading picture1 stretched dim1 long shadows of silent generations1 with rounded shoulders and bent backs and sullen1 conquered faces4 ,and they had all1 most likely1 dreamed of some wonderful thing they had to do in the world1 and all had died and left it undone4 ,and their work had been washed away1 as if writ in water1 and no one knew their dreams4 ,and of the fruit of their toil other men had eaten1 for that was the will of the triune god2 but of themselves was left no trace1 no sound1 no word1 in the world's glory2 no carving upon stone1 no indomitable ghost shining from a written sign1 no song singing out of black foolish spots on paper1--nothing4 ,they were as though they had not been4 ,and as they all had died1 she too would die1 slave of the triple ,terror1 sacrificing the highest to the meanest1 that somewhere in some lighted ball-room or gas-bright theater1 some piece of vacant flesh might wear one more jewel in her painted hair4 ,my soul1 she said bitterly1 my soul for their diamonds6 ,it was time to sleep1 for to-morrow--,,work4 ,the ,sorrows of the ,body ,i have never wanted anything more than the wild creatures have1--a broad waft of clean air1 a day to lie on the grass at times1 with nothing to do but slip the blades through my fingers1 and look as long as ,i pleased at the whole blue arch1 and the screens of green and white between2 leave for a month to float and float along the salt crests and among the foam1 or roll with my naked skin over a clean long stretch of sunshiny sand2 food that ,i liked1 straight from the cool ground1 and time to taste its sweetness1 and time to rest after tasting2 sleep when it came1 and stillness1 that the sleep might leave me when it would1 not sooner--,air1 room1 light rest1 nakedness when ,i would not be clothed1 and when ,i would be clothed1 garments that did not fetter2 freedom to touch my mother earth1 to be with her in storm and shine1 as the wild things are1--this is what ,i wanted1--this1 and free contact with my fellows2--not to love1 and lie and be ashamed1 but to love and say ,i love1 and be glad of it2 to feel the currents of ten thousand years of passion flooding me1 body to body1 as the wild things meet4 ,i have asked no more4 ,but ,i have not received4 ,over me there sits that pitiless tyrant1 the ,soul2 and ,i am nothing4 ,it has driven me to the city1 where the air is fever and fire1 and said1 ,breathe this2--,i would learn2 ,i cannot learn in the empty fields2 temples are here1--stay4 ,and when my poor1 stifled lungs have panted till it seemed my chest must burst1 the ,soul has said1 ,i will allow you1 then1 an hour or two2 we will ride1 and ,i will take my book and read meanwhile4 ,and when my eyes have cried out with tears of pain for the brief vision of freedom drifting by1 only for leave to look at the great green and blue an hour1 after the long1 dull-red horror of walls1 the ,soul has said1 ,i cannot waste the time altogether2 ,i must know6 ,read4 ,and when my ears have plead for the singing of the crickets and the music of the night1 the ,soul has answered1 ,no3 gongs and whistles and shrieks are unpleasant if you listen2 but school yourself to hearken to the spiritual voice1 and it will not matter4 ,when ,i have beat against my narrow confines of brick and mortar1 brick and mortar1 the ,soul has said1 ,miserable slave6 ,why are you not as ,i1 who in one moment fly to the utterest universe8 ,it matters not where you are1 ,i am free4 ,when ,i would have slept1 so that the lids fell heavily and ,i could not lift them1 the ,soul has struck me with a lash1 crying1 ,awake6 ,drink some stimulant for those shrinking nerves of yours6 ,there is no time to sleep till the work is done4 ,and the cursed poison worked upon me1 till ,its will was done4 ,when ,i would have dallied over my food1 the ,soul has ordered1 ,hurry1 hurry6 ,do ,i have time to waste on this disgusting scene8 ,fill yourself and be gone6 ,when ,i have envied the very dog1 rubbing its bare back along the ground in the sunlight1 the ,soul has exclaimed1 ,would you degrade me so far as to put yourself on a level with beasts8 ,and my bands were drawn tighter4 ,when ,i have looked upon my kind1 and longed to embrace them1 hungered wildly for the press of arms and lips1 the ,soul has commanded sternly1 ,cease1 vile creature of fleshly lusts6 ,eternal reproach6 ,will you forever shame me with your beastliness8 ,and ,i have always yielded3 mute1 joyless1 fettered1 ,i have trod the world of the ,soul's choosing1 and served and been unrewarded4 ,now ,i am broken before my time2 bloodless1 sleepless1 breathless1--half-blind1 racked at every joint1 trembling with every leaf4 ,perhaps ,i have been too hard1 said the ,soul2 you shall have a rest4 ,the boon has come too late4 ,the roses are beneath my feet now1 but the perfume does not reach me2 the willows trail across my cheek and the great arch is overhead1 but my eyes are too weary to lift to it2 the wind is upon my face1 but ,i cannot bare my throat to its caress2 vaguely ,i hear the singing of the ,night through the long watches when sleep does not come1 but the answering vibration thrills no more4 ,hands touch mine--,i longed for them so once--but ,i am as a corpse4 ,i remember that ,i wanted all these things1 but now the power to want is crushed from me1 and only the memory of my denial throbs on1 with its never-dying pain4 ,and still ,i think1 if ,i were left alone long enough--but already ,i hear the ,tyrant up there plotting to slay me4--,yes1 it keeps saying1 it is about time6 ,i will not be chained to a rotting carcass4 ,if my days are to pass in perpetual idleness ,i may as well be annihilated4 ,i will make the wretch do me one more service4--,you have clamored to be naked in the water4 ,go now1 and lie in it forever4 ,yes3 that is what ,it is saying1 and ,i--the sea stretches down there---- ,the ,triumph of ,youth ,the afternoon blazed and glittered along the motionless tree-tops and down into the yellow dust of the road4 ,under the shadows of the trees1 among the powdered grass and bushes1 sat a woman and a man4 ,the man was young and handsome in a way1 with a lean eager face and burning eyes1 a forehead in the old poetic mould crowned by loose dark waves of hair2 his chin was long1 his lips parted devouringly and his glances seemed to eat his companion's face4 ,it was not a pretty face1 not even ordinarily good looking1--sallow1 not young1 only youngish2 but there was a peculiar mobility about it1 that made one notice it4 ,she waved her hand slowly from ,east to ,west1 indicating the horizon1 and said dreamingly3 ,how wide it is1 how far it is6 ,one can get one's breath4 ,in the city ,i always feel that the walls are squeezing my chest4 ,after a little silence she asked without looking at him3 ,what are you thinking of1 ,bernard8 ,you1 he murmured4 ,she glanced at him under her lids musingly1 stretched out her hand and touched his eyelids with her finger-tips1 and turned aside with a curious fleeting smile4 ,he caught at her hand1 but failing to touch it as she drew it away1 bit his lip and forcedly looked off at the sky and the landscape3 ,yes1 he said in a strained voice1 it is beautiful1 after the city4 ,i wish we could stay in it4 ,the woman sighed3 ,that's what ,i have been wishing for the last fifteen years4 ,he bent towards her eagerly3 ,do you think-- he stopped and stammered1 ,you know we have been planning1 a few of us1 to club together and get a little farm somewhere near--would you--do you think--would you be one of us8 ,she laughed1 a little low1 sad laugh3 ,i wouldn't be any good1 you know4 ,i couldn't do the work that ought to be done4 ,i would come fast enough and ,i would try4 ,but ,i'm a little too old1 ,bernard4 ,the rest are young enough to make mistakes and live to make them good2 but when ,i would have my lesson learned1 my strength would be gone4 ,it's half gone now4 ,no1 it isn't1 burst out the youth4 ,you're worth half a dozen of those young ones4 ,old1 old--one would think you were seventy4 ,and you're not old2 you will never be old4 ,she looked up where a crow was wheeling in the air4 ,if1 she said slowly1 following its motions with her eyes1 you once plant your feet on my face1 and you will1 you impish bird--my ,bernard will sing a different song4 ,no1 ,bernard won't1 retorted the youth4 ,bernard knows his own mind1 even if he is 'only a boy4' ,i don't love you for your face1 you-- ,she interrupted him with a shrug and a bitter sneer4 ,evidently6 ,who would8 ,a look of mingled pain and annoyance overspread his features4 ,how you twist my words4 ,you are beautiful to me2 and you know what ,i meant4 ,well1 she said1 throwing herself backward against a tree-trunk and stretching out her feet on the grass1 ripples of amusement wavering through the cloudy expression1 tell me what do you love in me4 ,he was silent1 biting his lower lip4 ,i'll tell you then1 she said4 ,it's my energy1 the life in me4 ,that is youth1 and my youth has overlived its time4 ,i've had a long lease1 but it's going to expire soon4 ,so long as you don't see it1 so long as my life seems fuller than yours--well--2 but when the failure of life becomes visible1 while your own is still in its growth1 you will turn away4 ,when my feet won't spring any more1 yours will still be dancing4 ,and you will want dancing feet with you4 ,i will not1 he answered shortly4 ,i've seen plenty of other women2 ,i saw all the crowd coming up this morning and there wasn't a woman there to compare with you4 ,i don't say ,i'll never love others1 but now ,i don't2 if ,i see another woman like you--,but ,i never could love one of those young girls4 ,sh--sh1 she said glancing down the road where a whirl of dust was making towards them1 in the center of which moved a band of bright young figures1 there they come now4 ,don't they look beautiful8 ,there were four young girls in front1 their faces radiant with sun and air1 and daisy wreaths in their gleaming hair2 they had their arms around each other's waists and sang as they walked1 with neither more accord nor discord than the birds about them4 ,the voices were delicious in their youth and joy2 one heard that they were singing not to produce a musical effect1 but from the mere wish to sing4 ,behind them came a troop of young fellows1 coats off1 heads bare1 racing all over the roadside1 jostling each other and purposely provoking scrambles4 ,the tallest one had a nimbus of bright curls crowning a glowing face1 dimpled and sparkling as a child's4 ,the girls glanced shyly at him under their lashes as he danced about now in front and now behind them1 occasionally tossing them a flower1 but mostly hustling his comrades about4 ,behind these came older people with three or four very little children riding on their backs4 ,as the group came abreast of our couple they stopped to exchange a few words1 then went on4 ,when they had passed out of hearing the woman sat with a sphinx-like stare in her eyes1 looking steadily at the spot where the bright head had nodded to her as it passed4 ,like a wildflower on a stalk1 she murmured softly1 narrowing her eyes as if to fix the vision1 like a tall tiger-lily4 ,her companion's face darkened perceptibly4 ,what do you mean8 ,what do you see8 he asked4 ,the vision of ,youth and ,beauty1 she answered in the tone of a sleep-walker1 and the glory and triumph of it1--the immortality of it--its splendid indifference to its ruined temples1 and all its humble worshipers4 ,do you know1 turning suddenly to him with a sharp change in face and voice1 what ,i would be wicked enough to do1 if ,i could8 ,he smiled tolerantly3 ,you1 wicked8 ,dear one1 you couldn't be wicked4 ,oh1 but ,i could6 ,if there were any way to fix ,davy's head forever1 just as he passed us now1--forever1 so that all the world might keep it and see it for all time1 ,i would cut it off with this hand6 ,yes1 ,i would4 ,her eyes glittered mercilessly4 ,he shook his head smiling3 ,you wouldn't kill a bug1 let alone ,davy4 ,i tell you ,i would4 ,do you remember when ,nathaniel died8 ,i felt bad enough1 but do you know the week before when he was so very sick1 ,i went out one day to a beautiful glen we used to visit together4 ,they had been improving it6 they had improved it so much that the water is all dying out of the creek2 the little boats that used to float like pond lilies lie all helpless in the mud1 and hardly a ribbon of water goes over the fall1 and the old giant trees are withering4 ,oh1 it hurt me so to think the glory of a thousand years was vanishing before my eyes and ,i couldn't hold it4 ,and suddenly the question came into my head3 ',if you had the power would you save ,nathaniel's life or bring back the water to the glen8' ,and ,i didn't hesitate a minute4 ,i said1 ',let ,nathaniel die and all my best loved ones and ,i myself1 but bring back the glory of the glen6 ,when ,i think1 she went on turning away and becoming dreamy again1 of all the beauty that is gone that ,i can never see1 that is lost forever--the beauty that had to alter and die1--it stifles me with the pain of it4 ,why must it all die8 ,he looked at her wonderingly4 ,it seems to me1 he said slowly1 that beauty worship is almost a disease with you4 ,i wouldn't like to care so much for mere outsides4 ,we never long for the thing we are rich in1 she answered in a dry1 changed voice4 ,nevertheless his face lighted1 it was pleasant to be rich in the thing she worshiped4 ,he had gradually drawn near her feet and now suddenly bent forward and kissed them passionately4 ,don't1 she cried sharply1 it's too much like self-abasement4 ,and besides-- ,his face was white and quivering1 his voice choked4 ,well--what besides-- ,the time will come when you will wish you had reserved that kiss for some other foot4 ,some one to whom it will all be new1 who will shudder with the joy of it1 who will meet you half way1 who will believe all that you say1 and say like things in fullness of heart4 ,and ,i perhaps will see you1 and know that in your heart you are sorry you gave something to me that you would have ungiven if you could4 ,he buried his face in his hands4 ,you do not love me at all1 he said4 ,you do not believe me4 ,a curious softness came into the answer3 ,oh1 yes1 dear1 ,i believe you4 ,years ago ,i believed myself when ,i said the same sort of thing4 ,but ,i told you ,i am getting old4 ,i can not unmake what the years have made1 nor bring back what they have stolen4 ,i love you for your face1 the words had a sting in them1 and for your soul too4 ,and ,i am glad to be loved by you4 ,but1 do you know what ,i am thinking8 ,he did not answer4 ,i am thinking that as ,i sit here1 beloved by you and others who are young and beautiful--it is no lie--in a--well1 in a triumph ,i have not sought1 but which ,i am human enough to be glad of1 envied no doubt by those young girls1--,i am thinking how the remorseless feet of ,youth will tramp on me soon1 and carry you away4 ,and--very slowly--in my day of pain1 you will not be near1 nor the others4 ,i shall be alone2 age and pain are unlovely4 ,you won't let me come near you1 he said wildly4 ,i would do anything for you4 ,i always want to do things for you to spare you1 and you never let me4 ,when you are in pain you will push me away4 ,a fairly exultant glitter flashed in her face4 ,yes1 she said1 ,i know my secret4 ,that is how ,i have stayed young so long4 ,see1 she said1 stretching out her arms1 other women at my age are past the love of men4 ,their affections have gone to children4 ,and ,i have broken the law of nature and prolonged the love of youth because--,i have been strong and stood alone4 ,but there is an end4 ,things change1 seasons change1 you1 ,i1 all change2 what's the use of saying ',never--forever1 forever--never1' like the old clock on the stairs8 ,it's a big lie4 ,i won't talk any more1 he said1 but when the time comes you will see4 ,she nodded3 ,yes1 ,i will see4 ,do you think all people alike8 ,as like as ants4 ,people are vessels which life fills and breaks1 as it does trees and bees and other sorts of vessels4 ,they play when they are little1 and then they love and then they have children and then they die4 ,ants do the same4 ,to be sure4 ,but ,i don't deceive myself as to the scope of it4 ,the crowd were returning now1 and by tacit consent they arose and joined the group4 ,down the road they jumped a fence into a field and had to cross a little stream4 ,where is our bridge8 called the boys4 ,we made a bridge4 ,some one has stolen our bridge4 ,oh1 come on1 cried ,davy1 let's jump it4 ,three ran and sprang2 they landed laughing and taunting the rest4 ,bernard sought out his beloved4 ,shall ,i help you over8 he asked4 ,no1 she said shortly1 help the girls1 and brushing past him she jumped1 falling a little short and muddying a foot1 but scrambling up unaided4 ,the rest debated seeking an advantageous point4 ,at last they found a big stone in the middle1 and pulling off his shoes1 ,bernard waded in the creek1 helping the girls across4 ,the smallest one1 large-eyed and timid1 clung to his arm and let him almost carry her over4 ,he does it real natural1 observed ,davy1 who was whisking about in the daisy field like some flashing butterfly4 ,they gathered daisies and laughed and sang and chattered till the sun went low4 ,then they gathered under a big tree and spread their lunch on the ground4 ,and after they had eaten1 the conversation lay between the sallow-faced woman and one of the older men1 a clever conversation filled with quaint observations and curious sidelights4 ,the boys sat all about the woman questioning her eagerly1 but behind in the shadow of the drooping branches sat the girls1 silent1 unobtrusive1 holding each other's hands4 ,now and then the talker cast a furtive glance from ,bernard's rather withdrawn face to the faces in the shadow1 and the enigmatic smile hovered and flitted over her lips4 99 99 99 99 99 ,three years later on the anniversary of that summer day the woman sat at an upstairs window in the house on the little farm that was a reality now1 the little co-operative farm where ten free men and women labored and loved4 ,she had come with the others and done her best1 but the cost of it1 hard labor and merciless pain1 was stamped on the face that looked from the window4 ,she was watching ,bernard's figure as it came swinging through the orchard4 ,presently he came in and up the stairs4 ,his feet went past her door1 then turned back irresolutely1 and a low knock followed4 ,her eyebrows bent together almost sternly as she answered1 ,come in4 ,he entered with a smile3 ,can ,i do anything for you this morning8 ,no1 she said quietly1 you know ,i like my own cranky ways4 ,i--,i'd rather do things myself4 ,he nodded3 ,i know4 ,i always get the same answer4 ,shall you go to the picnic8 ,you surely will keep our foundation-day picnic8 ,perhaps--later4 ,and perhaps not4 ,there was a curious tone of repression in the words4 ,well1 he answered good-naturedly1 if you won't let me do anything for you1 ,i'll have to find some one who will4 ,is ,bella ready to go8 ,this half hour4 ,bella4 ,here is ,bernard4 ,and ,bella came in4 ,bella1 the timid girl with the brilliant complexion and gazelle soft eyes1 ,bella radiant in her youth and feminine daintiness1 more lovely than she had been three years before4 ,she gave ,bernard a lunch basket to carry and a shawl and a workbag and a sun umbrella1 and when they went out she clung to his arm besides4 ,she stopped near one of their own rose bushes and told him to choose a bud for her1 and she put it coquettishly in her dark hair4 ,the woman watched them till they disappeared down the lane2 he had never once looked back4 ,then her mouth settled in a quiet sneer and she murmured3 ,how long is 'forever'8 ,three years4 ,after a while she rose and crossed to an old mirror that hung on the opposite wall4 ,staring at the reflection it gave back1 she whispered drearily3 ,you are ugly1 you are eaten with pain6 ,do you still expect the due of youth and beauty8 ,did you not know it all long ago8 ,then something flashed in the image1 something as if the features had caught fire and burned4 ,i will not1 she said hoarsely1 her fingers clenching4 ,i will not surrender4 ,was it he ,i loved8 ,it was his youth1 his beauty1 his life4 ,and younger youth shall love me still1 stronger life4 ,i will not1 ,i will not die alive4 ,she turned away and ran down into the yard and out into the fields4 ,she would not go on the common highway where all went1 she would find a hard way through woods and over hills1 and she would come there before them and sit and wait for them where the ways met4 ,bareheaded1 ill-dressed and careless she ran along1 finding a fierce pleasure in trampling and breaking the brush that impeded her4 ,there was the road at last1 and right ahead of her an old1 old man hobbling along with bent back and eyes upon the ground4 ,just before him was a bad hole in the road2 he stopped1 irresolute1 and looked around like a crippled insect stretching its antenna to find a way for its mangled feet4 ,she called cheerily1 ,let me help you4 ,he looked up with dim blue eyes helplessly seeking4 ,she led him slowly around the dangerous place1 and then they sat down together on the little covered wooden bridge beyond4 ,ah6 murmured the old man1 shaking his head1 it is good to be young4 ,and there was the ghost of admiration in his watery eyes1 as he looked at her tall straight figure4 ,yes1 she answered sadly1 looking away down the road where she saw ,bella's white dress fluttering1 it is good to be young4 ,the lovers passed without noticing them1 absorbed in each other4 ,presently the old man hobbled away4 ,it will come to that too1 she muttered looking after him4 ,the husks of life6 ,the ,old ,shoemaker ,he had lived a long time there1 in the house at the end of the alley1 and no one had ever known that he was a great man4 ,he was lean and palsied and had a crooked back2 his beard was grey and ragged and his eyebrows came too far forward2 there were seams and flaps in the empty1 yellow old skin1 and he gasped horribly when he breathed1 taking hold of the lintel of the door to steady himself when he stepped out on the broken bricks of the alley4 ,he lived with a frightful old woman who scrubbed the floors of the rag-shop1 and drank beer1 and growled at the children who poked fun at her4 ,he had lived with her eighteen years1 she said1 stroking the furry little kitten that curled up in her neck as if she had been beautiful4 ,eighteen years they had been drinking and quarreling together--and suffering4 ,she had seen the flesh sucking away from the bones1 and the skin falling in upon them1 and the long1 lean fingers growing more lean and trembling1 as they crooked round his shoemaking tools4 ,it was very strange she had not grown thin2 the beer had bloated her1 and rolls of weak1 shaking flesh lapped over the ridges of her uncouth figure4 ,her pale1 lack-lustre blue eyes wandered aimlessly about as she talked3 ,no--he had never told her1 not even in their quarrels1 not even when they were drunken together1 of the great ,visitor who had come up the little alley1 yesterday1 walking so stately over the sun-beaten bricks1 taking no note of the others1 and coming in at the door without asking4 ,she had not expected such an one2 how could she8 ,but the ,old ,shoemaker had shown no surprise at the ,mighty ,one4 ,he smiled and set down the teacup he was holding1 and entered into communion with the ,stranger4 ,he noticed no others1 but continued to smile2 and the infinite dignity of the ,unknown fell upon him1 and covered the wasted old limbs and the hard1 wizened face1 so that all we who entered1 bowed1 and went out1 and did not speak4 ,but we understood1 for the ,mighty ,one gave understanding without words4 ,we had been in the presence of ,freedom6 ,we had stood at the foot of ,tabor1 and seen this worn1 old1 world-soiled soul lose all its dross and commonplace1 and pass upward smiling1 to the ,transfiguration4 ,in the hands of the ,mighty ,one the crust had crumbled1 and dropped away in impalpable powder4 ,souls should be mixed of it no more4 ,only that which passed upward1 the fine white playing flame1 the heart of the long1 life-long watches of patience1 should rekindle there in the perennial ascension of the great ,soul of ,man4 ,where the ,white ,rose ,died ,it was late at night1 a raw1 rough-shouldering night1 that shoved men in corners as having no business in the street1 and the few people in the northbound car drew themselves into themselves1 radiating hedgehog quills of feeling at their neighbors4 ,presently there came in a curious figure1 clothed in the drapery of its country's honor1 the blue flannel flapping very much about its legs4 ,i looked at its feet first1 because they were so very small and girlish1 and because the owner of them adjusted the flapping pants with the coquetry of a maiden switching her skirts4 ,then ,i glanced at the hands3 they also were small and womanish1 and constantly in motion4 ,at last1 the face1 expecting a fresh young boy's1 not long away from some country village4 ,it was the sunk1 seamed face of a man of forty-five1 seared1 and with iron-gray eyebrows1 but lit by twinkling young eyes1 that gleamed at everything good-humoredly4 ,the sailor's pancake with its official lettering was pushed rakishly down and forward1 and looking at hat and wearer1 one instinctively turned milliner and decorated the shape with aigrette and bows1--they would nod so accordant with the flirting head4 ,presently the restless hands went up and gave the hat another tilt1 went down and straightened the divided skirt1 folded themselves an instant while the little feet began tattooing the car floor1 and the scintillant eyes looked general invitation all round the car4 ,no perceptible shrinkage of quills1 however1 so the eyes wandered over to their image in the plate glass1 and directly the hat got another coquettish dip1 and the skirts another flirt and settle4 ,the conductor came in3 some one to talk to at last6 ,will you let me off at ,ninth and ,race8 ,the dim chill of a smile shivered over the other faces in the car4 ,ninth and ,race6 ,who ever heard a defender of his country's glory ask a conductor on a street car in ,philadelphia for any other point than ,ninth and ,race6 ,the conductor nodded appreciatively4 ,just come to the city1 ,i suppose1 he said interlocutively4 ,the sailor plucked off his hat1 exhibiting his label with child-like vanity3 ,s4 ,s4 ,alabama4 ,here for three days just4 ,been over in ,new ,york4 ,like it8 remarked the conductor1 prolonging his stay inside the car4 ,the hat went on again1 proudly4 ,sixteen years in the service4 ,yes1 sir4 ,six-teen years4 ,the service is all right4 ,the service is good enough for me4 ,live there4 ,expect to die there4 ,sixteen years4 ,you won't forget to let me off at ,ninth and ,race4 ,no4 ,going to see ,chinatown8 ,sure4 ,chinatown's all right4 ,seen it in ,hong ,kong4 ,want to see it in ,philadelphia4 ,o cradle of my country's freedom6 ,these are your defenders1--these to whom your chief delight is your stews and your brothels1 your fantans and your opium dens1 your sinks of filth and your cesspools of slime6 ,let them only be as they were at ,hong ,kong--or worse--and the service asks no more4 ,he will live in it and die in it1 and it's good enough for him4 ,oh1 not your old-time patriotic legends1 nor the halls of the great ,rebel ,birth1 nor the solemn1 silent ,bell that once proclaimed liberty throughout the land1 nor the piteous relics of your dead wise men1 nor any dream of your bright1 pure young days when yet you were a fair greene country towne1 swims up in the vision of the service when he sets his foot within your borders1 filling him with devotion to ,our ,lady ,liberty1 and drawing him to ,new ,world pilgrim shrines4 ,not these1 oh no1 not these4 ,but your leper spot1 your ,old ,world plague-house1 your breeding-ground of pest-begotten human vermin6 ,so there is ,chinatown1 and electric glare enough upon it1 and rat-holes enough within it1 the service is good enough for him1--he will shoot to order in your defense till he dies6 ,rat-tat-tat went the little feet upon the floor1 and the pancake got another rakish pull4 ,presently the active figure squared sharply about and faced the door4 ,the car had stopped1 and a drunken man was staggering in4 ,the sailor caught him good-humoredly in his arms1 swung him about1 and seated him beside himself with a comforting ,now you're all right1 sir2 sit right here1 my friend4 ,the drunkard had a sodden1 stupid face and bleary eyes from which the alcohol was oozing4 ,in his shaking hand he held a bunch of delicate half-opened roses1 hothouse roses1 cream and pink2 the odor of them drifted faintly through the car like a whiff of summer4 ,something like a sigh of relaxation exhaled from the hedge-hogs1 and a dozen commiserating eyes were fastened on the ill-fated flowers1--so fragile1 so sweet1 so inoffensive1 so wantonly sacrificed4 ,the hot1 unsteady1 clutching hand had already burned the stems1 and the pale1 helpless faces of the roses drooped heavily4 ,the drunkard1 full of beery effervescence1 cast a bubbling look over the car1 and spying a young lady opposite1 suddenly stood up and offered the bouquet to her4 ,she stared resolutely through him1 seeing and hearing nothing1 not even the piteous child-blossoms1 with their pleading1 downbent heads1 and with a confused muttering of ,no offense1 no offense1 you know1 the man sank back again4 ,as he did so the uncertain fingers released one stem1 and a cream-white bloom went fluttering down1 like a butterfly with broken wings4 ,there it lay1 jolting back and forth on the dirty floor1 and no one dared to pick it up4 ,presently the drunkard sopped over comfortably on the sailor's shoulder1 who1 with a generally directed wink of bonhomie1 settled him easily1 bestowing a sympathetic pat upon the bloated cheek4 ,the conductor disturbed the situation by asking for his fare4 ,the drunkard stupidly rubbed his eyes and offered his flowers in place of the nickel4 ,again they were refused2 and after a fluctuant search in his pockets between intervals of nodding1 the dirty1 over-fingered bit of metal was produced1 accepted--and still the dying blossoms shivered in the torturer's hands4 ,he was drowsing off again1 when1 by some sudden turn of the obstructed machinery in his skull1 his lids opened and he struggled up2 the image of myself must have swum suddenly across the momentarily acting eye-nerve1 and with gurgling deference1 at the immanent risk of losing his equilibrium once more1 he proffered the bouquet to me1 grabbing the heads and presenting them stem-end towards4 ,a smothered snuffle went round the car4 ,i wanted them1 ,oh1 how ,i wanted them6 ,my heart beat suffocatingly with the sense of baffled pity and rage and cowardice4 ,who was he1 that drunken sot1 with his smirching1 wabbling hand1 that ,i should fear to take the roses from him8 ,why must ,i grind my teeth and sit there helpless1 while those beautiful things were crushed and blasted and torn in living fragments8 ,i could take them home1 ,i could give them drink1 they would lift up their heads1 they would open wide1 for days they would make the room sweet1 and the pale1 soft glory of their inimitable petals would shine like a luminous promise across the winter4 ,nobody wanted them1 nobody cared2 this sodden beast in the flare-up of his consciousness wished to be quit of them4 ,why might ,i not take them8 ,something sharp bit and burned my eyelids as ,i glanced at the one on the floor4 ,the conductor had stepped on it and crushed it open2 and there lay the marvelous creamy leaves1 curled at their edges like kiss-seeking lips1 each with its glory greater than ,solomon's1 all fouled and ruined in the human reek4 ,and ,i dared not save the others6 ,miserable coward6 ,i forced my hands tighter in my pockets and turned my head away towards the outside night and the backward slipping street4 ,between me and it1 a dim reflection wavered1 the image of the thing that stood there before me2 and somewhere1 like a far-off1 dulled bell1 ,i heard the words1 ,and ,god created man in his own image1 in the image of ,god created ,he him4 ,the sailor1 no doubt with the kindly intention of relieving me from annoyance1 and not averse to play with anything1 made pretence of seizing the roses4 ,then the drunkard1 in an abandon of generosity1 began tearing off the blossoms by the heads1 scrutinizing1 and casting each away as unfit for the exalted service of his friend1 till the latter reaching out managed to get hold of a white one with a stem4 ,he trimmed its sheltering green carefully1 brought out a long black pin1 stuck it through the stalk1 and fastened the pale shining head against his dark blue blouse4 ,all hedgehoggery smiled4 ,we had thrust the roses through with our forbidding quills1--what matter that a barbarian nail crucified this last one8 ,the drunkard slept again1 limply holding his scattering bunch of headless stems and torn foliage4 ,pink and cream the petals strewed the floor4 ,where was the loving hand that had nursed them to bloom in this hard1 unwonted weather2 loved and nursed and--sold them8 ,ninth and ,race1 sang out the conductor4 ,the sailor sprang up with a merry grin1 bowed gaily to everyone1 twinkled his fingers in the air with a blithe ,ta ta2 ,i'm off for ,chinatown1 as he slid through the door1 and was away in a trice1 tripping down to the pestiferous sink that was awaiting him somewhere4 ,and on his breast he wore the pallid flower that had offered its stainless beauty to me1 that ,i had loved1--and had not loved enough to save4 ,the rest were dead2 but that one--somewhere down there in a den where even the gas-choked lights were leering like prostitutes' eyes1 down there in that trough of swill and swine1 that pure1 still thing had yet to die4 ,an ,important ,human ,document ,,prison ,,memoirs ,,of ,,an ,,anarchist ,by ,,alexander ,,berkman ,an earnest portrayal of the revolutionary psychology of the author1 as manifested by his ,attentat during the great labor struggle of ,homestead1 in #ahib4 ,the whole truth about prisons has never before been told as this book tells it4 ,the ,,memoirs deal frankly and intimately with prison life in its various phases4 #a4be1 ,,by ,,mail #a4dj ,,mother ,,earth ,,publishing ,,association #gd ,,west #aai,,th ,,street ,,new ,,york ,,anarchism ,and ,other ,essays ,by ,,emma ,,goldman ,including a biographic ,,sketch of the author's interesting career1 a splendid ,,portrait1 and twelve of her most important lectures1 some of which have been suppressed by the police authorities of various cities4 ,this book expresses the most advanced ideas on social questions--economics1 politics1 education and sex4 ,second ,revised ,edition ,emma ,goldman--the notorious1 insistent1 rebellious1 enigmatical ,emma ,goldman--has published her first book1 ,anarchism and ,other ,essays4 ,in it she records the mental and soul struggles of twenty-one years1 and recites all the articles of that strange and subversive creed in behalf of which she has suffered imprisonment1 contumely and every kind of persecution4 ,the book is a vivid revelation of a unique personality4 ,it appears at a time when ,anarchistic ideas are undoubtedly is the ascendant throughout the world4--,current ,literature4 ,emma ,goldman's book on ,anarchism and ,other ,essays ought to be read by all so-called respectable women1 and adopted as a test-book by women's clubs throughout the country4444 ,for courage1 persistency1 self-effacement1 self-sacrifice in the pursuit of her object1 she has hitherto been unsurpassed among the world's women4444 ,repudiating as she does practically every tenet of what the modern ,state holds good1 she stands for some of the noblest traits in human nature4--,life4 ,every thoughtful person ought to read this volume of papers by the foremost ,american ,anarchist4 ,in whatever way the book may modify or strengthen the opinion already held by its readers1 there is no doubt that a careful reading of it will tend to bring about greater social sympathy4 ,it will help the public to understand a group of serious-minded and morally strenuous individuals1 and also to feel the spirit that underlies the most radical tendencies of the great labor movement of our day4--,hutchins ,hapgood in ,the ,bookman4 ,price #a4jj ,by ,mail #a4aj ,,order ,,through ,,your ,,book ,,dealer ,,or ,,send ,,to ,mother ,earth ,publishing ,association #gd ,,west #aaith ,,street1 ,,new ,,york ,the ,modern ,drama ,its ,social and ,revolutionary ,significance ,by ,,emma ,,goldman ,this volume contains a critical analysis of the ,modern ,drama1 in its relation to the social and revolutionary tendencies of the age4 ,it embraces fifty plays of twenty-four of the foremost dramatists of six different countries1 dealing with them not from the technical point of view1 but from the standpoint of their universal and dynamic appeal to the human race4 ,,contents ,,preface ,,the ,,scandinavian ,,drama3 ,ibsen1 ,strindberg1 ,bjrnson ,,the ,,german ,,drama3 ,hauptmann1 ,sudermann1 ,wedekind ,,the ,,english ,,drama3 ,shaw1 ,pinero1 ,galsworthy1 ,kennedy1 ,sowerby ,,the ,,irish ,,drama3 ,yeats1 ,lady ,gregory1 ,robinson ,,the ,,russian ,,drama3 ,tolstoy1 ,tchekhov1 ,gorki1 ,tchirikov1 ,andreyev ,,index ,price #a4jj net4 ,by mail #a4ae ,mother ,earth ,publishing ,association #gd ,west #aaith ,street ,,new ,,york ,,works ,,by ,,peter ,,kropotkin ,the ,great ,french ,revolution1 #aghi-agic 4 4 #b4jj ,mutual ,aid 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 #b4jj ,memoirs of a ,revolutionist 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 #b4jj ,russian ,literature 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 #b4jj ,conquest of ,bread 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 #a4jj ,fields1 ,factories and ,workshops 7cloth7 4 4#ge ,modern ,science and ,anarchism 7new enlarged edition7 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4#ej ,the ,terror in ,russia 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4#ae ,the ,state3 ,its ,historic ,rle 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4#aj ,anarchism3 ,its ,philosophy and ,ideal 4 4 4 4#je ,anarchist ,communism 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4#je ,the ,place of ,anarchism in ,social ,evolution 4#je ,the ,commune of ,paris 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4#je ,the ,wage ,system 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4#je ,expropriation 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4#je ,law and ,authority 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4#je ,war 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4#je ,an ,appeal to the ,young 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4#je ,the ,first ,five ,books1 #aj ,cents ,postage ,extra ,the ,complete ,set1 #i4jj ,,mother ,,earth ,,series ,free ,speech for ,radicals ,theodore ,schroeder 4#be ,psychology of ,political ,violence ,emma ,goldman 4#aj ,anarchism3 ,what ,it ,really ,stands ,for ,emma ,goldman 4#aj ,syndicalism3 ,the ,modern ,menace to ,capitalism ,emma ,goldman 4#je ,marriage and ,love ,emma ,goldman 4#aj ,patriotism ,emma ,goldman 4#je ,victims of ,morality and the ,failure of ,christianity ,emma ,goldman 4#aj ,anarchy ,versus ,socialism ,emma ,goldman 4#aj ,anarchism and ,malthus ,c4 ,l4 ,james 4#je ,the ,modern ,school ,francisco ,ferrer 4#je ,a ,talk ,about ,anarchist ,communism ,between ,two ,workers ,enrico ,malatesta 4#je ,syndicalism ,e4 ,c4 ,ford and ,wm4 ,z4 ,foster 4#aj ,,miscellaneous ,the ,life1 ,trial and ,death of ,francisco ,ferrer ,william ,archer #a4ej ,anarchism--,an able and impartial exposition of ,anarchism ,paul ,eltzbacher #a4ej ,what ,is ,property8--,a brilliant arraignment of property and the ,state ,pierre ,proudhon #b4jj ,the ,ego and ,his ,own ,max ,stirner 4#ge ,the ,life of ,albert ,parsons #a4ej ,speeches of the ,chicago ,anarchists ,cloth1 4#ge ,paper cover1 4#cj ,god and the ,state ,michael ,bakunin 4#be ,francisco ,ferrer3 ,his ,life1 ,work and ,martyrdom 4#ae ,the ,origin and ,ideals of the ,modern ,school ,francisco ,ferrer 4#ge ,news ,from ,nowhere ,william ,morris 4#ej ,useful ,work ,versus ,useless ,toil ,william ,morris 4#je ,monopoly ,william ,morris 4#je ,evolution and ,revolution ,elise ,reclus 4#je ,the ,bomb--,a novel vividly portraying the ,chicago ,haymarket ,events of #ahhg ,frank ,harris 4#ge ,the ,ballad of ,reading ,gaol ,oscar ,wilde 4#aj ,the ,soul of ,man ,under ,socialism ,oscar ,wilde 4#aj ,on the ,duty of ,civil ,disobedience ,h4 ,d4 ,thoreau 4#ae ,by ,price ,mail ,liberty and the ,great ,libertarians ,compiled by ,c4 ,t4 ,sprading #a4ej #a4fj ,the ,science of ,society ,stephen ,pearl ,andrews #a4ej #a4fe ,england's ,ideal ,edward ,carpenter #a4jj #a4aj ,love's ,coming of ,age ,edward ,carpenter #a4jj #a4aj ,syndicalism and the ,co-,operative ,commonwealth ,e4 ,pataud and ,e4 ,pouget 7cloth7 #a4jj #a4aj ,paper1 4#ge 4#hj ,my ,life in ,prison ,donald ,lowrie #a4be #a4dj ,free ,political ,institutions ,l4 ,spooner 4#ej 4#ee ,message of ,anarchy ,jethro ,brown 4#be 4#bg ,on ,liberty of the ,press ,james ,mill 4#ae 4#ag ,political ,socialism ,b4 ,e4 ,nillson 4#aj 4#ab ,land and ,liberty ,w4 ,c4 ,owen 4#aj 4#ab ,the ,social ,evil ,dr4 ,j4 ,h4 ,greer 4#aj 4#ab ,a ,vindication of ,natural ,society 7cloth7 ,edmund ,burke 4#ej ,non-,governmental ,society ,edward ,carpenter 4#ae ,concentration of ,capital ,w4 ,tcherkesoff 4#je ,the ,pyramid of ,tyranny ,f4 ,domela ,nieuwenhuis 4#je ,anarchy ,enrico ,malatesta 4#je ,the ,basis of ,trades ,unionism ,emile ,pouget 4#je ,,free ,,speech ,,series ,obscene ,literature and ,compulsory ,law 7,sold only to libraries and persons known to belong to the learned professions47 ,theodore ,schroeder #e4jj ,free ,press ,anthology ,theodore ,schroeder #b4jj ,due ,process of ,law ,theodore ,schroeder 4#be ,freedom of the ,press and ,obscene ,literature ,theodore ,schroeder 4#be ,in ,defense of ,free ,speech ,theodore ,schroeder 4#aj ,liberal ,opponents and ,conservative ,friends of ,unabridged ,freedom of ,speech ,theodore ,schroeder 4#aj ,paternal ,legislation ,theodore ,schroeder 4#je ,our ,vanishing ,liberty of the ,press ,theodore ,schroeder 4#je ,law-,breaking by the ,police ,alden ,freeman 4#je ,the ,fight for ,free ,speech ,alden ,freeman 4#je ,,the ,,only ,,anarchist ,,monthly ,,in ,,america ,,mother ,,earth ,a revolutionary literary magazine devoted to ,anarchist thought in sociology1 economics1 education1 and life4 ,articles by leading ,anarchists and radical thinkers4--,international ,notes giving a summary of the revolutionary activities in various countries4--,reviews of modern books and the drama4 ,,ten ,,cents ,a ,,copy ,,one ,,dollar ,a ,,year ,,emma ,,goldman ,publisher ,,alexander ,,berkman ,editor #gd ,west #aaith ,street ,,new ,,york ,bound ,volumes #aijf-aiad1 ,two ,dollars ,per ,volume