Politics and Economics
BY THOMAS E. WATSON
In Russia
“A TALE of Two Cities,” written by the great novelist, Charles Dickens, contains a vivid picture, which shows the relation existing between a nobleman of the Old Order in France and one of the common people.
In that day the streets were narrow. Sidewalks did not separate the space used by those who went on foot from that used by those who went in vehicles. From the houses on the one side to the houses on the other, travel was free to all: those on the ground were ever in danger from those who were in vehicles.
Dickens describes the progress of the carriage of one of the French aristocrats, driven at headlong speed along these narrow streets. It whirled around the corners with a wild rattle and clatter, and with an utter lack of consideration for pedestrians. Women and children scattered, screaming, to get out of its way, and men clutched at one another to escape the danger.
At last, whirling round a corner, by a fountain, one of the wheels of this furiously driven carriage strikes a little child and kills it. Amid the loud cries of those who behold the sickening spectacle the horses rear and plunge and the carriage comes to a standstill. The nobleman looks out and calmly inquires what has gone wrong. He is told that a child has been run over.
A man is bending over the lifeless form, screaming with grief.