452 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



indifference and recklessness on the part of the great mass of voters 

 and any accident may start a series of the most dangerous actions and 

 reactions. Such a community is like a ship with an ill-stowed cargo. 

 In light winds and smooth water all may seem secure ; but in the 

 strain of a heavy sea what should be the element of stability becomes 

 an element of danger, and may throw her upon her beam-ends or tear 

 her to pieces. 



What has been going on in California is not out of the natural 

 course of things. The forces that have produced these events have 

 been developed, not imported. And as it seems to me that the same 

 forces exist in other parts of the country, I can not see why, essentially, 

 the same movements may not soon begin elsewhere. It is this that 

 makes these California experiences worthy of attention. Every result 

 becomes in turn a cause ; every event is the progenitor of future 

 events. And it is probable that this California agitation marks the 

 beginning of a new phase in our politics. Whatever be his future 

 career, Kearney has already made what will be regarded by thousands 

 and thousands of men, many of them of much greater abilities, as a 

 dazzlingly brilliant success. An unknown drayman, destitute of ad- 

 Vantages, without following or influence, he has, simply by appealing 

 to popular discontent and arousing the uneasy timidity which is its 

 correlative, risen to the rank of a great leader, and drunk the sweets 

 of power and fame. He knows what it is to be the hero and the master 

 of surging multitudes ; to draw forth their applause by a word, to hush 

 them into silence with a wave of his hand ; to be garlanded with flow- 

 ers ; to be drawn in triumph through crowded streets ; to be attended 

 wherever he went by a retinue of reporters and correspondents ; to 

 rise every morning to find the newspapers filled with him ; to have 

 men, who would not have noticed him had he stuck to his dray, slink 

 by night to his house, or solicit his favors by go-betweens ; to look 

 upon high officials as the creatures of his making ; to be known and 

 talked about, not merely through the whole country, but over the 

 world! Whatever becomes of Kearney and it would be rash to pre- 

 dict that his career is yet over this lesson will not be lost : The wave 

 rises, curls, and subsides, and, where was its white crest, are but some 

 spumes of foam. But the impulse is perpetuated, and another wave 

 swells up. 



When, under institutions that proclaim equality, masses of men, 

 whose ambitions and tastes are aroused only to be crucified, find it a 

 hard, bitter, degrading struggle even to live, is it to be expected that 

 the sight of other men rolling in their millions will not excite discon- 

 tent ? And, when discontented men have votes, is it to be expected 

 that the demagogue will not appeal to the discontent, for the sake of 

 the votes ? It is useless to blink the fact. Nothing is clearer, to who- 

 ever will look, than that the political equality from which we can not 

 recede, and the social inequality to which we are tending, can not 



