For there, in dens more vile than wolf or jackal
Ever sought, were herded, stifling, foul, the
Writhing, crawling masses of mankind. Man!
Ground down beneath oppression’s iron heel,
Till God in him was crushed and driven back,
And only that which with the brute he shares
Finds room to upward grow.”
Such pictures of horror our martyrs saw in Chicago, as others have seen them in all the great centers of population in the country. But, like the noble minstrel, they proceeded to recite their discoveries and with him moaned:
“And in this world
I saw how womanhood’s fair flower had