THE MOB WILL DECLARE YOU CRAZY. _It ridiculed_ COLUMBUS, _and for discovering a

new world_ GAVE HIM PRISON AND CHAINS.

 

_Write a poem to thrill human hearts with pleasure_, AND THE MOB WILL ALLOW YOU

TO GO HUNGRY: THE BLIND HOMER BEGGED BREAD THROUGH THE STREETS. _Invent a

machine to save labor_ AND THE MOB WILL DECLARE YOU ITS ENEMY. _Less than a

hundred years ago a furious rabble smashed Thimonier's invention, the sewing

machine._

 

BUILD A STEAMSHIP TO CARRY MERCHANDISE AND ACCELERATE TRAVEL _and the mob will

call you a fool_. A MOB LINED THE SHORES OF THE HUDSON RIVER TO LAUGH AT THE

MAIDEN ATTEMPT OF "FULTON'S FOLLY," _as they called his little steamboat._

 

Emerson says: "A mob is a society of bodies voluntarily bereaving themselves of

reason and traversing its work. The mob is man voluntarily descended to the

nature of the beast. _Its fit hour of activity_ is NIGHT. ITS ACTIONS ARE

INSANE, _like its whole constitution. It persecutes a principle_--IT WOULD WHIP

A RIGHT. It would tar and feather justice by inflicting fire and outrage upon

the house and persons of those who have these."

 

The mob spirit stalks abroad in our land today. Every week gives a fresh victim

to its malignant cry for blood. There were 48 persons killed by mobs in the

United States in 1913; 64 in 1912, and 71 in 1911. Among the 48 last year were a

woman and a child. Two victims were proven innocent after their death.