Transcriber's Note:
The following Table of Contents was not present in the original and has beenadded for the convenience of readers.
Remaining transcriber's notes are located at the end of the text.
WEALTH AND ITS CONSEQUENCES.
A YOUNG GIRL'S IDEAL.
THISTLE-DOWN.
NOVELISTS ON NOVELS.
A QUEEN'S EPITAPH.
THE COST OF THINGS.
ASLEEP.
A COUPLE OF VAGABONDS.
A MEMORY.
THE NIGHT OF THE FRENCH BALL.
DOES THE HIGH TARIFF AFFECT OUR EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM?
MARCH 4th, 1889.
EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT.
THE PASSING SHOW.
REVIEWS.
THE APPEAL.
A COVENANT WITH DEATH.
Vol. II. MARCH, 1889. No. 10.
When the government established by our forefathers became arecognized fact both at home and abroad, and for three-quarters ofa century thereafter, no one dreamed that the greatest danger whichthreatened its existence was the wealth which might accumulatewithin its realm; indeed, no one ever dreamed of the possibilitieswhich lay in that direction.
It is only during the past twenty years that the accumulation ofwealth has entered into the problem. Down to the period of 1861,the only disturbing element of any magnitude was slavery. It wasthe slavery problem which weighed so heavily upon the "godlike"Webster. It was an ever-present, ghastly, and hideous form, appealingto his patriotic soul. It is certain that it cast a shadow ofmelancholy over his whole life. But Mr. Webster did not live towitness the dreadful loss of life and treasure, and the awful gloom,of its going out.
There is a question now of far greater magnitude than that whichwas settled by the sword, and that is the question of the enormouswealth, and its increase in the hands of the few. No reference isnow made to the owners of the thousands or the hundreds of thousands—tothe industrious and prosperous people scattered all overthe land; for moderate wealth, universally diffused, is the primesafeguard of a nation: but I refer to the millions, the tens of millions,and the hundreds of millions owned and controlled by the few.
The ignorant poor and the no less ignorant rich may ridicule orsneer at the expression of fear that harm may come to the Republicon account of great wealth; but ridicule never settled any question.[482]Ridicule is always the weapon of the ignorant and the vicious. Nonebut the ignorant will ridicule the subject, for the history of theworld reveals the destruction of nations on account of wealth—neverfrom poverty.
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