GENERAL MARION.
When General Francis Marion with his brave soldier boys was lying in at Snows Island on the Pedee River, North Carolina, preparing to make another one of his surprising and brilliant raids on the enemy, an officer from the British post at Georgetown was dispatched to visit him to treat for an exchange of prisoners. The blooming Britisher was blindfolded and carried by a circuitous route into camp. The bargain arranged, he accepted an invitation to dine. The meal was served on pieces of bark and consisted entirely of roasted potatoes of which General Marion ate heartily, requesting his guest to profit by his example, repeating the old adage that "Hunger is the best sauce." "But surely, General, this cannot be your ordinary fare" said the well fed adversary. "Yes it is," replied Marion, "For months at a time my men have lived on roasted potatoes, and we are especially fortunate on this occasion to be able to provide a double allowance to set before so honorable a guest." The young foreigner was so overcome with admiration for the brave patriots fighting for their country in such a spirit that on his return to Georgetown he retired from the service, declaring his conviction that men who could with such cheerfulness, endure the privations of such a life, could never be subdued.
The blooming Britisher was right. The God of William Tell, of Cromwell, of Washington and Marion, of Garrison and Lincoln, of Moses and of Bryan, never has and never will permit such enthusiasm and faith and patriotism to go unrewarded. Men with purpose so intense, whose flame of patriotism burns so brightly as to consume their love of comfort and dependence upon external things, can never be subdued by hired Hessians nor the combined forces of opulence, ease and greed.
Going out in such a spirit, demanding three full square meals each day for every human being born into the world, yet to obtain this end willing ourselves to live like Marion's band on roasted potatoes, like the Cuban patriots on sugar cane and berries, or on graham bread and apples, or to ease our hunger if necessary by grinding with our teeth dry whole wheat, we will in the name of God and humanity take this country and rescue our world from those who now make of it a living hell.
This unconquerable, independent spirit that rises above physical conditions, social limitations, comforts and luxuries, is and always has been the conquering spirit of the world, always the sure omen of victory.
If Marion and his band could rise superior to physical appetites in fighting for thirteen little colonies away off from the great centers of civilization; if the followers of Gomez and the immortal Maceo can march over perilous mountains and through deadly marshes, suffering continually for want of food and drink, and for years swing with almost supernatural skill their deadly machetes against the brutal hordes of Spain, in order to free one little West India isle, then surely we, who see the brutal arm of a united world plutocracy striking down and destroying all that has been bought so dearly by Washington, Marion, and Lincoln, about to enslave the world's home and refuge of freedom for a hundred years, we should not be unwilling to make any sacrifice, take any risks, perform any drudgery.
In defending our country we decide the destiny of the human race. We fight to make seventy millions of people free and eventually to free the world. Ours is the most sublime, the most terrific, the most inspiring of all historic struggles.
In fighting we will take the advice and learn what we can from any source however humble. We will listen to the hygienist, the vegetarian, even to the soup house reformer, if their words will help free us from those chains of poverty that paralyze the arm of the ordinary slave and make him impotent to strike back against his oppressors.
The man who, because he earns his bread by labor, is looked down upon by the companions of his youth and, because of his helplessness and his clothes, is fenced out of respectable society, such a man requires condensed and highly spiced food. He craves wine and beer and whiskey and every condiment and stimulant that can raise his spirits, depressed by failure, disappointment and the slow plodding life that offers no advancement. Continual drudgery, without opportunity for promotion, engulfs man in a gloom uncheered by a ray of hope.
The reformer, the friend of labor, the idealist, the true Christian believe that such victims should not only have the best food and drink, better clothes and better homes, but that they and their children should also have a chance to rise, should never be debarred from opportunities for advancement or for utilizing any talent or genius before discovered or that may hereafter be discovered, that might lift them to a plane of distinction and honor.
We believe in luxury; so much so that we believe every poor man's family should have an opportunity to enjoy all those healthful and normal luxuries which invention and progress have placed within the reach of men. But the greatest of all luxuries, that which is more appetizing than pepper or salt or cinnamon or garlic, that which is more stimulating than beer or whiskey or even champagne, and which must precede in the hearts of the masses the procurement of all these other and lesser luxuries, is that divinest gift of Heaven—hope. Give a man all the other luxuries that the world affords, and take away hope, and his blood thickens, his eye becomes dull, his color heavy and his pulse irregular. But allow him only dry bread in the open air and sunlight by a flowing brook, and give him hope, and his eye flashes, his heart throbs quicken, his face flushes, his muscles harden and all his physical and mental powers are ready for instant application.
We, the Volunteers of the New Democracy, have an abundant supply of this stimulant more powerful than any liquor, more appetizing than any condiment, more soothing than any narcotic, giving power and increased facility without reaction. We have hope. We have faith. We have purpose. We have absolute knowledge that our cause is just. We know that we shall win. We cannot be suppressed. We cannot be put down. The world is ours. WE ARE INVINCIBLE.