The Southern Mercury. (Dallas, Tex.), Vol. 16, No. 28, Ed. 1 Thursday, July 15, 1897 Page: 1 of 16
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VOL. XVI.. NO. -8
The Signs of the Times.
DALLAS, TEXAS, THURSDAY, JULY 15,1897.
PÜR ANKTJM
It s
Ever and anon we have our attention
called to occurrences out of the natural
order of things, and are asked what it
portends. The careful observer will not
be slow to note that changes radical and
far-reaching are imminent just now, es-
pecially in the political world. Felix J.
Oswald, in a communication to the Cin-
cinnati Enquirer, gives a few pointers
from history which are significant. Be-
ginning with the first century he philoso-
phises as follows:
"When Mt Vesuvius indulged in that
memorable explosion that hurried three
cities under a hill-range of flaming cin-
ders, the survivors remember a tradition
that a similar catastrophe had occurred
about-a thousand years ago, and a con-
temporary philosopher remarks that at
intervals of nearly the same length the
Titan of suffering mankind awakens from
his fever dreams and surprises his op-
pressors with the suddenness of a world-
changing revolution.
The business activity of Titans has
considerably increased since that time.
According to the observations of Signor
Palmieri the target practice of Veruvius
can now be witnessed about once in six-
teen years, with a more serious bombard-
ment per century and a half. As for in-
surrections, no self-respecting Spanish
American would tolerate the sufferings of
mankind for more than ten years, and
the earth-shaking revolutions of the hu-
man race may be said to occur at inter-
vals of 20 to 11 o years, or an average of
just about a century. The explosion of
hades under Tamerlane, in the fourteenth
century, in the fifteenth the fall of Con-
stantinople, in the sixteenth the outbreak
of the Protestant revolt, in the seven-
teenth the Thirty Years' War and the
Puritan earthquake, in the eighteenth the
tornado of the French revolution, with
gusts of collateral whirlwinds extending
from Madrid to Moscow. And the po-
litical barometers of those times rarely
indicated the imminence of danger. Pic-
nickers roasted eggs at the edge of the
smoking craters, promenaders were rath-
er amused at the first dust whirls of the
gathering storm. Charles I. conjectured
that the Roundheads would manage to
trim the locks of his exuberant privileges,
but never suspected that the clippers
would be applied to his own neck. Fred-
erick the Great, the shrewdest observa-
tory manager of the eighteenth century,
anticipated a storm from the east, and
checked his satirical penchant in bis ner-
vous anxiety to keep on good terms with
his knout-armed neighbors, but failed to
read the omen of the small black cloud
rising in the west and seaming the hori-
zon with twinkles of electric fire. Sultan
Bajazeth made a still stranger mistake,
and. like the elder Pliny, went out of his
way to approach the foot of a seething
volcano.
But the lessons of experience have not
been wholly thrown away, and both the
bankers and princes of monarchial Eu-
rope are beginning to 'hedge.' The ap-
proaching end of the century haunts their
dreams with visions. Police surveilance
has been carried to great perfection of
details, but its results tend to frighten its
managers and make it more and more ev-
ident that no riot law will compel the
masses much longer to submit to the
combined outrages of class legislation
and militarism. Standing armies, such
as the world has never seen de-
vour the fruits of labor, and grow from
year to year till, as a deputy of Austrian
reischstag graphically expressed it: 'Two
hundred million of our Caucasian fellow-
men are now cultivating their land with
all the energy of their physical and intel-
lectual faculties, only to be compelled to
content themselves with the gleanings,
after the harvest has been snatched away
by the government tax collector.'
Still, overtaxation has been carried to
frightful degrees of pressure in former
times, and the risks of the experiment
can be guaged less accurately by the per-
centage of income distrained than by the
prevalence of discontent, the relative in-
telligence of oppressors and oppressed
and the facilities for the activity of agita-
tors. And it must be confessed that in
all three respects the meteorological por-
tents are more ominous than ever before.
The exodus of malcontents has drained
whole districts of central and southern
Italy of their able-bodied males, and to
prevent depopulation they have commis-
sioners who arraign would-be emigrants
—not to bully them out of their purpose,
but to learn their motives and their pos-
sible grievances, and, as it were, to me-
diate between the government and its
truant subjects.
"Have you considered the risks of your
undertaking?" asks the commissioner.
"Times are hard all the world over. Are
vou sure you can better your lot? Or have
you any special cause of complaint
against your native land? Why do you
wish to leave us?1'
The reply is often evasive, but, if
pressed for explanation, and assured im-
munity frorn personal risks, a Urge pro-
portion of the witnesses will surely an-
swer: "Becauss the state of affairs has
reached an extreme that human nature
can endure no longer."
"You may repent you resolve, and re-
turn ruined," the commissioner will add.
••Distress is prevalent in the United
States, and work is very scarce."
"Then I shall try somewhere else; but
you may be sure I shall not return to
this country."
And in ninety-nine of a hundred cases
they keep their word, unless luck should
favor them beyond all expectations. Hun-
dreds and thousands of Great West dupes
have returned from the Pacific to their
humble cabins in the Southern Allegha-
nies, but South European refugees are
homesick proof.
"Ye mountains that see us descend to the
shore
Shall view us as victors, or view us no
Mateo Falcone may dream of a time
when fortune shall enable him to return
as a commercial triumphator, but he re-
members the sand drifts of his native soil
too distinctly to return in quest of bread
If the American placer mines have been
washed out to the bed rock, he will shov-
el gravel on the railways or try his luck
peddling bananas, in spite of license rates
and competition.
And still they come. Every passenger
steamer from the Mediterranean has its
steerage crowded to the top row of bunks;
thousands and thousands arrive every
month to make times harder for their
hard-toiling predecessors, and of those
who stay at home 50 per cent only re-
main because they are unable to raise
their passage, plus the "visible means of
support" required by our immigration of-
fice.
No wonder the Italian government hes-
itates to demand the additional $128,-
000,000 of appropriations for strategic
improvements of the northwestern fron-
tier, and the introduction of cannons
equivalent of the quick-firing breech-
loaders of the Sanet pattern. No won-
der, either, that Italian financiers invest
in foreign securities and private yachts
with safety cabins. Their country begins
to reel under the spur of its riders, and is
in the predicament of a youngster ad-
mitted to the company of two big bullies,
and paying for his honor by bearing the
brunt of their brawls.
Italy, however, has the advantage of a
homogenous population and a fairly pop-
ular dynasty, and has, perhaps, no rea-
son to envy its bi^ nprtijern neighbors,
Her taxpayers are dragging a dreadful
load; still they are, on the whole, all,
dragging the same way, while the Austri.
an Czechs, Germans, Magyays and Dal-
matianr, Croats and Corinthians are pull-
ing in a half dozen different directions,
and every once in a while get the har-
ness rangled, and snap and roll in a
rough and tumble fight like Captain Ca-
pers Eskimo dogs. Twice within the
last quarter of a year the scenes in the
chamber of deputies made the spectators
take to their heels and outsiders gather in
crowds as before the gates of an obstrep-
erous menagerie. Hreling! Rascal!
Traitor! Liar! Thief! Maniac! Gov-
ernment flunky! Pig-hound! were sam-
ples of the epithets flying to and fro in
volleys, like snow balls in a recent fight,
while the vorsitzende rang his bell in a
fire alarm key, and counter partisans ex-
pressed the disapproval by roaring like
four-footers. "They training for a pro-
nuciamento" said a witty Frenchman,
who could not help noticing that the
most rabid of the denunciations were
aimed obliquely at the government.
There are despotisms that have con-
trived to make their prerogative self-pro-
tective. Sir Samuel Baker mentions an
Ashantee potentate who hefied malcon-
tents by maintaining a monopoly of gun-
powder. His powder magazine was
guarded day and night, and as long as he
purchased the loyalty of his sentries he
could to ignore the clamors of other cred-
itors. Logic availed but little against a
champion who was able ty answer arrow
arguments with rifle balls. Ninety-nine
per cent of the native patriots desired a
change of administration, but could not
risk the issue of a joint debate till they
had tunneled the power fort and tapped
the chemicals of the monopolist
The Russian Liberals of Baron Hertz-
en' s time were much in the same predic-
ament "The government of the Czar,"
said the first Napoleon, "has the im-
mense advantage of superior culture ap-
plied to the control of ignorant, almost
barbarously ignorant masses. That bar-
barism will make Russia invincible for
years to come.''
"True strength can never be founded
on ignorance," Coun Las Cases ventored
to remark.
• 'I did not say it could,'' said the ex-
emperor. "The best interests of the na-
tion are trampled in the dust but it is
certain that the culture of the ruling class
es benefits them in more than one way,
Theo can handle the blockaed plebs as
Coatist)«d on'j*!* 8.
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Park, Milton. The Southern Mercury. (Dallas, Tex.), Vol. 16, No. 28, Ed. 1 Thursday, July 15, 1897, newspaper, July 15, 1897; Dallas, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth185718/m1/1/: accessed April 24, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; .