Democratic Sentinel, Volume 14, Number 40, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 31 October 1890 — SHOOT THEM LIKE DOGS. [ARTICLE]

SHOOT THEM LIKE DOGS.

SO SAYS MRS. LESLIE OF THE ANARCHISTS. And Thereupon the Chicago Socialist] Take Her in Hand and L'enounce Hei Language as Barbarous—The Fair New York Publisher Severely Criticised. [Chicago dispatch.] It having been freely advertised that the socialists would discuss Mrs. Frank Leslie, Waverly Hall was crowded on Sunday afternoon. By way of preliminary, a few minor resolutions were offered and discussed and several articles were read on socialistic subjects, and there was the usual row over Prof. Orchardson and his resolutions. The subject of the day was introduced by Mrs. S. Woodman, who read an interview with Mrs. Leslie which appeared in a recent interview of a local sheet, in which she is accredited with saying many harsh things about the socialists. Mrs. Woodman offered a long resolution, of which the following is a sample: Renolved. That the gentle, tender-hearted representative of America’s uppertendom who hrs done Chicago, during the last week, the honor to visit it, and has kindly consented to enlighten the general public as to her views on the industrial situation and recommend a course of treatment warranted to cure in all cases for discontented workers of all nationalities, is hereby entitled to the thanks of this meeting, for voicing in so unmistakable a manner the secret sentiment of the self-styled elite of our groat cities in regard to the working classes aud the grievances of which they complain. Mrs. Woodman then made a long address, in the course of which she said: “ ‘Shoot them like dogs.’ This is how Mrs. Leslie would have the anarchists treated. It seems strange, does it not, that a woman’s lips should utter such words as these? Stranger still, that a woman’s heart could beget the thought. Even the coarsest and me st cyuel men shrink a little from the woman who advocates coarseness and cruelty, and they are right. From woman —the wife, mother, sister, daughter—one naturally expects gentle thoughts and humane sentiments, and so to hear an expression which would do credit to the most illiterate and brutalized officer on Chicago’s police force from the lips of one whose beauty and grace have become a household word in the United States cannot fail to have called forth a faint shudder even from so callous an individual as a Chicago newspaper man. “ ‘Shoot them down like dogs! Treat, them like mad dogs’’ How redolent with refinement, how suggestive of feminine delicacy, purity, and womanly sweetness in this lapguage! Has this woman no children? No; she is childless. She tells you so. ‘I have no child’s stocking to fill with candy and dolls Christmas morning.’ There is a world of pathos in this thought. After all, with all her wealth of diamonds, she is to bo pitied. Had she been a mother • perchance she would have thought of tho little children left fatherless, of the wives and mothers bereft of their only support and left to struggle singlehanded in consequence of that shameless and infamous execution Nov. 11, which Mrs. Leslie characterizes as ‘a brave and wise thing.’ As a matter of fact, there are few of Chicago's citizens who are not more worthy candidates for hanging than were those. “‘lt is a great nation, this,’ sighed Mrs. Leslie, ‘and will be greater when these social questions are settled.’ They will be settled according to Mrs. Leslie, and that ‘by force.’ There is just one point which the lady has apparently overlooked. It is that the people themselves will be apt to take a hand in the settling. ‘Yes, ‘strikes must be suppressed by law and the strikers be suppressed by force,’ she says. Herr Most could scarcely have delivered himself of more incendiary language than that employed by this cultivated beauty and pet of fashion— Mrs. Frank Leslie. Imagine it; no Judge, no jury, no court, but let every man, woman, and child rush through the streets armed with a revolver, ready to shoot at any suspected anarchists or other discontented person. If this bo not anarchy, what is it? But only the ‘better classes,’ as Mrs. Leslie calls them, may indulge in the luxury of recommending this particular kind of anarchy. “The ‘ better classes ’ —New York’s better classes! Well, you heard some account of their performances at a certain big ball held in that city a little while ago. It is a pity that these refined, cultured, high-bred, bhie-blooded, altogether superior beings, only a little lower than the angels, should have been compelled to enduro any discomforts when they wished to travel, merely that a few thousand commonplace, insignificant, every-day plebeian creaturus like ourselves should have a few more of the necessaries and comforts of life. “Mrs. Leslie at least runs things this way, if her statements are to bo taken at their par value. ‘Do you know your own typesetters’’ asked the reporter. ‘ Every one of them; they all touch their hats to me.’ Think of this! Isn’t it remarkable? Every man who knows enough to go in the house when it rains will touch his hat to a woman, be she washerwoman or duchess. The homage is to the sex, not to the individual, but Mrs. Leslie does not seem to be aware of this. And I believe they would all die for me, says she. Well, either Mrs. Leslie’s organ of credulity is abnormally developed or there must be 400 people in that city who have very little interest in living. Possibly Mrs. Leslie makes life such a ‘demnition grind’ to them, that it's the toss of a penny to most of them whether they live or die, with the odds, if any, decidedly in favor of the latter alternative. “In conclusion, we would like to give the Mrs. Leslies one little word of friendly warning and admonition. It is contained in the old proverb, ‘Better let sleeping dogs lie,’ more especially when they are suspected of being mad and there are a good many of them. Furthermore, it is unwise, to say the least, to invite the attack of an enemy whose real strength you are not in a position to ascertain.”