an insuperable bar to a cruel and bloody war upon her American colonies-with the Indians as her allies; but now, that our numbers have increased from three to seventy millions, and our wealth and prowess become the wonder of the world, she discovers that we are her children "feels for us a mother's affection"! 66 "The little cat played on a silver flute, And the big cat sat and listened; The little cat's strains gave the big cat pains, 99 After England had, for two centuries, systematically robbed the industrious Dutch of South Africa, the German "war lord" intimated that the damnable despoilation had to cease and it did. John Bull made a grandstand play anent the Armenian massacres and sent ships of war to "stop the slaughter "—and pick up a few provinces if the Ottoman Empire went to pieces; but Abdul Hamid-knowing that, by unfurling the sacred banner of the Prophet, he could call ten million armed fanatics to his aid—paid no attention to the bluff. The murderous Kurd continued to get in his graft, and finally Lord Salisbury protested to the Christian world that " Great Britain really was powerless, in spite of all her resources, to do more than had been done ”—which was simply to remain at a respectable distance and chew the rag. She could only "use her moral influence" to stop the massacres-which were equivalent to firing a string of Y.M.C.A. resolutions at a Kansas cyclone. Joe Chamberlain thought, however, that Great Britain would not be so "powerless" to stop the atrocities in the Orient if America would come to her aid, and invited Columbia to join the mother country in "a good cause." England is ever ready to wage war on petty nations regardless of whether their peoples be John Bull's brethren, or some other fellow's kith and kin. She never lets slip an opportunity to turn her guns loose on defenseless savage tribes who object to giving her their gold; but when, single-handed and alone, has she tackled a first-class power? Take from her the Scottish and Irish troops, and she would not dare assail the single state of Texas. There is no more fight in John Bull than in a jack-rabbit. He is a professional flunker, the national Falstaff. *** DANIEL WEBSTER'S PREDICTION. WEBSTER declared it "the part of political wisdom to found government on property; and to establish such distribution of property, by the laws which regulate its transmission and alienation, as to interest the great majority of society in the support of the government." With all his wisdom, Webster did not-could not-foresee that wealth might be concentrated in the hands of the few despite the wisest laws respecting its "transmission and alienation." The following quotation is from his famous speech, delivered in 1820, the second anniversary of the landing of the Pilgrim Fathers. Improved machinery had not then crushed out the independent artisan; labor had not yet become the helpless bond-slave of capital-the Creator still stood upright in the presence of his creature. Class legislation was practically unknown, and all men were equal before the law. Vast railway corporations did not then exist to control legislation, and Wall Street had not learned the art of selling by a short and buying by a long yard by the simple expedient of juggling the measure of value. Quite naturally, Webster cast his eye along the vistas of European history, seeking to gather from the mistakes of the past lessons for the future. Quite naturally, he imagined that the abolition of the baneful law of primogeniture and the equal division of inheritances among heirs would assure something like an equality of wealth proportionate to commercial talent. While he did not see the rocks in the path of the new Republic, he realized full well that a nation could not long endure if its inhabitants were divided into two great classes, the very rich and the very poor. This additional extract from the speech already quoted, will be read by thoughtful men of to-day with peculiar interest: "The freest government, if it could exist, would not be long acceptable, if the tendency of the laws were to create a rapid accumulation of property in a few hands, and render the great mass of the people dependent and penniless. In such a case the popular power would be likely to break in upon the rights of property, or else the influence of property to limit and control the exercise of popular power. Universal suffrage, for example, could not long exist in a community where there was great inequality of property. The holders of estates would be obliged, in such case, in some way to restrain the right of suffrage, or else such right of suffrage would, before long, divide the property. In the nature of things, those who have not property, and see their neighbors possess much more than they think them to need, cannot be favorable to laws made for the protection of property. When this class becomes numerous it grows clamorous. It looks on property as its prey and plunder, and is naturally ready, at all times, for violence and revolution." Had Mr. Webster waited three-quarters of a century to make that speech he would have had the pleasure of seeing himself denounced in the thick-and-thin Cleveland organ as an "anarchist." The very conditions which he solemnly declared could not long exist in conjunction with universal suffrage, prevail to-day, and that to an extent such as he could scarce have dreamed of; while the bloody labor riots, the wholesale destruction of property by the proletaire, the frequent attempts upon the lives of millionaires, the spirit of repudiation rife among debtors, and the general unrest -not to say desperation-that is taking possession of the people, proclaim how accurately the Colossus of the North reasoned from cause to effect. If it be true that revolutions never go backward, the child is now born that will see a more equitable division of wealth or witness a monarch enthroned in the chair of Washington. We, who toil with hand or brain, and hoard our scant wage against the proverbial rainy day, are standing in the twilight; but whether of glorious morn or Cimmerian night, who shall presume to say? We know only that "The old order changeth; yielding place to new, And God fulfills himself in many ways." We know that here we cannot linger long; that we cannot serve two masters-that we cannot, will not remain both political sovereigns and industrial slaves. We know that we must rule the wealth we have created at the forge and in the field, or be ruled by it with a rod of iron. We stand hesitating between the daylight and the dark. Men and brethren, which shall it be? *** Times must be dreadfully close in Fort Worth. The ICONOCLAST is informed that several Shylocks have been doing a brisk business loaning money at 10 per cent. a month. It is further said that a prominent banker of Pantherville has been staking one of these bloodsuckers, loaning him money at 5 per cent. a month, which was reloaned at 10, and that when he demanded a settlement with his pal the latter actually had the audacity to plead the usury act and pocket all the swag. Yet we're expected to believe that "there's honor among thieves"! If the state election were held to-day, Dan Stuart could be made governor of Texas by fifty thousand majority. Cause why? He's 66 on the level "—he's every inch a man. Because the people know that, whatever may be his faults, he's no trimmer, policy-player or hypocrite. Because they know that Dan Stuart never betrayed a trust-and that's more than can be said for " our heroic young Christian governor." *** WILLY WALLY TO WED. THE dispatches announce that William Waldorf Astor and Lady Randolph Churchill are to wed. It is an eminently proper arrangement. Willy Wally is a three-ply, gold-plated chump, while Jennie is well, she's aunt to the Jook of Marlborough. That's the polite way of putting it. Many years ago old Johann Jakob Astor drifted hither from Deutschland, an honest, wooden-shoed plebeian who was not averse to holding a gentleman's horse for a few stray coppers. He embarked in the skin business and proved himself a skinner from Skinville. He managed to get possession of considerable land on Manhattan island when it was worth about two coon skins or a pint o' Jamaica rum per acre, and the growth of New York enhanced its value until his posterity realized the old Hindu proverb anent "white parasols and elephants mad with pride." Willy Wally, the blue-blooded descendant of Johann Jakob the skin artist, found America too blawsted vulgah for a gentleman of his kidney, and moved to "Lunnon " where he might breathe a more refined atmos |