Thoughts of a fool
gallery of fame. Let us set Carrie Nation and her redoubtable hatchet
to work demolishing statues of the disturbers of the peace of the
world, that our own peace be no longer endangered.
Can we afford to parade our national heroes as examples to our
working-classes? Do we not already see the insurgency that such ideals
as Washington has instilled in the breast of our humble classes?
George Washington is our great national hero. But suppose we were to
rehearse his history in brief, omitting his name and the glamour that
we associate with it, what would we think of such a man to-day?
Given a commission in his Britannic Majesty’s Colonial Army, he
defaulted allegiance to his king over so sordid a matter as a trifle
of stamp duties. He became commander-in-chief of an army that was
in rebellion against the crown under which he had been exalted. His
triumph consisted in disobedience to law, and he became the father of
his country, much revered by school-children on February 22d, when that
date does not fall on a Sunday, and on July 4th, when it does not rain.
With such ideals, there is no wonder that some Americans follow his
example.
If Lord Cornwallis had been held up for admiration, to-day the results
would have been far different. He was a patriot and a hero. He was a
man who served his king; he was a true pillar of law and order.
The life of Washington was one of disobedience and treason to his king.
The very act of gathering his army was treason. His triumph was by
breaking the law. With Washington as Ideal--what can you expect?
Come down to John Brown, the hero of Harper’s Ferry. For the past
forty years he has been held up before the people for admiration,
as a martyr, a lover of justice, and a friend of man. What did John
Brown do? He deliberately began to form an army and release the
negroes, who were the private property of many of the nation’s best
citizens. Defying the power of the state and the nation’s laws, he
entrenched himself in a little building at Harper’s Ferry. Surrounded
by a few staunch friends and the negroes who had followed his lead,
they attempted to fight, and succeeded in killing a few respectable
law-abiding citizens. Finally, he was hanged by the neck, the
authorities punishing him like a common criminal. That same John Brown
is celebrated in song and in story. Children are taught to know of him
and to love him; and yet, he was a man who defied law and order.
If such people are held up before the eyes of admiring youth, do not
think these lads will be satisfied with things as they are. If you
honor rebels and law-breakers, what can you expect?
Oliver Cromwell, “Old Ironsides,” as he was called, was a hero. At
least the Protestant part of Great Britain thinks so to this day.
Oliver Cromwell hated kings and rulers as they then held sway, and was
the direct cause of one king at least being murdered. Cromwell had
very little regard, or none at all, for the laws of his country. When
the British Parliament did not suit him he drove it out of doors. He
went about agitating the people against the existing powers of the
land. This ended in many bloody battles against the rulers. He managed
to die in bed, but the good people came to their own after his death.
His ashes were dug up and scattered to the winds. In the land where
we find Oliver Cromwell held up as an ideal, we revolt at the idea of
its youth taking him as a model. Had the respectable English been held
up for admiration, or had their representatives been thus honored,
the result would have been far different. But with Cromwell as the
guiding-star, what can you expect?
Or revert to the illustrious figures of long gone.
Take Moses, for instance, the great ideal of the Jews. Place him under
the intellectual microscope. Moses did not have a spark of refinement.
He was an ingrate of the worst kind, and a trickster. He had even
committed murder. Just consider his true history. A foundling who
had been left in a place where fashionable people were accustomed to
bathe, was discovered by the beautiful and accomplished daughter of
the noble King Pharaoh as she was going for a swim, and saw the child
lying in the bullrushes playing with his toes. Instead of calling a
policeman and having the baby taken to an orphan asylum, she bade
her maid-in-waiting to bring it to her. Taking it to her own bosom,
she bore it to the royal palace, and called the royal help to assist
her in bringing him up. Thus she gave Moses every advantage which a
home at court could provide. He throve well and grew strong under
this excellent care. This lad sat at the king’s table, slept in a bed
provided by the king, and his clothes were selected from the royal
wardrobe. He was sent to the king’s school, and doubtless played
foot-ball in the king’s team. One would think that Moses would have
been grateful for all this kindness, and that nothing would be too hard
a task for him to do in the service of the king and his daughter.
Suppose you take the story of Moses, omitting the names of the parties,
and then submit it with this question to our wise men: “If a man had
been treated thus, what ought he to do?” Give us your opinion as to the
answer you suppose you would receive.
Tell us what the wise men of the universities and the big salaried
priests would say to this question.
“Why,” they would all say, “a man should sacrifice his life for his
benefactors.” Now, how did Moses repay for all these benefactions? He
began by fraternizing with the hoodlums of society. He mingled with the
workers in the king’s brickyard, and created disturbances, becoming one
of the lowest kinds of labor agitators, and adopting the methods of a
curbstone orator. The opportunity of his life was for him to become
a member in the cabinet of Pharaoh. He could have had an important
secretaryship had he chosen so brilliant a career, for Moses had
brains, though they went wrong I would say; for rather than to stand
in high places, he chose to cast his fortune with slaves, the scum of
Egypt. Finally he organized this scum into a mob, borrowed jewels of
the Egyptian society people, then sneaked away, followed by all his
dirty and tattered friends. This man Moses is the patron saint held up
as the great law-giver before the Jews and Christians of to-day.
To get the results that you desire you should hold up as ideals Pharaoh
and his daughter. Hold them up with the smart set; hold them up with
the priests and the charity associations of these times. If you hold up
that man Moses as an ideal, what can you expect?
Another example is that of Jesus, whom we hold up as an ideal, yet
whose principles and practices would be regarded as scandalous if
introduced into public and private life to-day. Born without a claim of
legal paternity, his cradle was a manger in a stable; allowed to grow
up in the streets and run around the country like a tramp, leaving home
again and again, causing his mother no end of worry and anxiety.
He discussed anarchism and socialism with a fluent tongue, and confused
the elders wherever he went. He stirred up discontent and subsequent
disorder. He laughed at the laws and customs of his land, and by his
clear-cut oratory he drew to himself a number of followers, who, like
himself, went about fomenting disorder among the people.
The priests and the ruling classes, horrified by his attitude and
presumption, saw clearly that his doctrines were subversive not only of
the status quo, but of all right and justice whatever. He was warned
time and again to behave, yet he did not heed the warning, but kept
right on with his treasonable teachings. The common people heard
him gladly, though it may be said to the credit of the upper classes
that few of them ever attended his seditious gatherings. The better
elements of society saved the country, and they nailed Jesus to the
cross between two thieves. Thus history vindicated itself in advance
by giving us a good working plan for our treatment of the Haymarket
tragedy of Chicago.
And we persist in holding up as an ideal before the young and
impressionable of our day a man who in his time was a criminal and
ignominiously put to death by the priests and the respectable element
of his age. Did we hold up Pilate and Caiaphas as models we would be
acting logically, as they were representatives of the best society of
the times, just as the same pattern is in our own day. But if you hold
up such a man as Jesus for the admiration of the plastic mind of our
unenlightened, what can you expect?
You must not poison the mind of the child with the ideas of anarchism.
The brain of a child is magnetic. It holds fast to its impressions. If
you wish a contented, leave-me-alone, stand-pat kind of a world, change
your ideals.
The revolutionists of the past are the result of the ideals held before
the people.
You must stop inoculating the minds of the people with ideals exalting
insurgency and anarchism if you would be spared the rational results of
such teachings, or you may continue worshiping the ideals, if you like,
in which case, expect not that you can gather figs from thistles. If
you sow the wind you have no right to expect to be spared the whirlwind.
Those whom we hold up to be honored will be honored. If we do not
want to establish the unworthy, why do we not rather extol those who
never break the laws of their country? Why do we not teach our youth
to revere the men and women whose whole object in life is to do what
others do? This discontented mob which threatens society is the fruit
of the ideals in the minds of to-day. We should not wonder at its
existence, but should rather look to its causes and understand them.
Now, what can you expect?
And you, discontented hoodlum, what are you whining and crying
about--the rich oppressing you?
You of the dissatisfied element, I cannot see where you have a kick
coming! You make the solemn declaration that you want a thing, and when
you get it you grumble that you have got it. What do you want anyway?
If I would declare that I believe that standing in the way of an
irresistible force means death, and that I was far too young,
good-looking, or for other reasons known to myself, I did not wish to
die yet, and if by accident I happen to get in the way of this terrible
force, and some one would pull me away from my dangerous position,
should I be angry with him? No, I should be thankful and appreciative.
For it was he who saved my life!
My Christian friends, the way to salvation you have declared, is that
if your coat is taken by any one to give him the overcoat also; if you
are smitten on one cheek, turn the other to be struck as well; if you
are made to walk a mile, to walk another just to show that there are no
hard feelings on your part.
These are the things you declare you will have to do in order to get
yourself into the Kingdom of Heaven. By the money and energy which you
spend in placing your wisdom and knowledge among the savages, by the
large salaries you spend for the pious to induce them to become your
spiritual guides, and by the way you support all of those institutions,
you give evidence that you are very anxious to be saved. And when an
opportunity is offered you to make good and you are not there, it looks
like a bluff on your part, for if you meant what you said you would be
thankful to the man who compels you to give him your overcoat when he
has taken your coat and you have forgotten to give it to him yourself.
He shows that he loves you, or else he would not take the interest in
you to save you. Yes, you should be very grateful to him, but you know
that you are professing ideals that you will not live. You know that if
one smite you on one cheek, you will turn the other in order to spy out