Evening Republican, Volume 22, Number 52, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 March 1919 — Spartacus Hero of German Reds [ARTICLE]

Spartacus Hero of German Reds

Leader qj Revolt by Slaves Is Honored by Liebknecht Followers. DEFIED ROMANS FOR YEARS Slaves, Under Leadership of Man Chosen as Godfather of German Revolution, Captured Most of Southern Italy. New York.— Perhaps it’s just as well to call them Sparts. Just when we were learning to say and were learning to give it about as universal an application as we used to give to camouflage before that sorely tried word was officially entombed by the Society for the Decent Burial of Hackneyed Words, along came these Germans, with their Schrecklichkeit and head -cheese, and sprung Spartacus on US; That &a's right in line with their other unfair tactics, gas," flame throwers and gingerbread saloon-fronts. But n«w that we have Spartacus with us, what are we going to do about it? “The Spartacus group” was the name the German ultra radicals adopted when they first hung out their shingle in the blood-letting business. But that sort of name never would do. So, we have the papers, in their extremity, alluding to them variously as Spartacldes, Spartacans, Spartacites and Spartacl. Objection is made to the first-mentioned designation be-

cause it is very close to homocide, suicide, regicide, fratracide, insecticide and such like occupations. There not lacking a considerable party which claims spartaclsm is all of that and more. But, the endfng-“<Me,” from caedo, to kill, always kills whatever it is added to. Kjftls what it goes after, as it were. A liomocide is a mankilier, a suicide is 4 a selfkiller, and an insecticide is an insect killer. So a Spartaeide would be a Spartaeuskiller. And that isn’t what we want to say at all. And Nqt Qnly Thgit— In the Same Way £ Spaftacusser might be accused of heaping profane invective upon a Spartacus and all his works, and a Spartacan might be suspected of being a mere subterfuge for tying a can on one end of Spartacus, and you can see very easily how a Spartacrat might be mixed up with an aristocrat. Maybe it’s just as well to call them Sparts, or just -sparts, aud thereby avoid complications. The sparts take their name from a certain Mr. Spartacus, whose initials have been lost somewhere in the shuffle. started life as a modest shepherd Tn Tnrace, perhaps somewhere in what was recently European Turkey# during the century just preceding the birth of Christ. Thftik of going back that far for noinebddy to name your political party after! The young Mr. Spartacus, tiring of keeping the night watcheu over his sheep became a robber chief, the chroniclers say. They do not specify whether he stuck up banks or picked pockets. Anyway, he was a robber.

A Homan army, in the course of one of its boundary rectifying expeditions, happened upon Spartacus and took him to Rome, The sport fans decided to match him against a Jhuchtouted gladiator recently imported from Asia, and for that purpose put him in a training camp for gladiators. He escaped as soon as he had learned the fundamentals of gladiating. and Issued a declaration of asserting that all slaves were thenceforth free. " Whereupon every gentleman’s slaver began to put on airs, refused to pull the corks or polish the car any more, and, in short started, a revolt. - Held Out for Three Years. Under leadership of Spartacus, the slaves capturg'd most of southern Italy* add held out for nearly ihroe years against the best forces the Roman government c>*uld send against them. But at last they were beaten by an army under Lueullus, Just as they were about seize all the"“shipping board’s ships and dash back to Thrace. Spartacus died with his men, leading a charge. ‘ Su<;h was the gentleman whom the German radicals have chosen as godfather of the revolution tiebknechterines, Uebneckkers, Liebnecktigbts, Liebnecktairs, Liebnecratg or something like that would have sounded so much better!