Pot-Pourri 207 



upon a corpse, and, lo! the scales fell from their 

 eyes. In a jiffy it was quite obvious to the mean- 

 est understanding that innocent blood had been 

 wantonly spilled, that a shameful and brutal deed 

 had been done beneath the flag and in the name 

 of Labour. Coincident with this 1,400 cars of Cali- 

 fornia fruit were side-tracked in Chicago, and the 

 fruit spoiled! Instantly the common-sense of the 

 public asserted itself. As quickly the Press recorded 

 the fact. Of the mob of gentlemen who write 

 with ease what they are told to write hardly one 

 was left to champion the cause of the strikers, and 

 soon after Mr. Debs was clapped into jail, and we 

 heard no more of him. It was the sense of the 

 West that he had not only fiddled but fuddled 

 away a great political opportunity. 



There are some people West of the Rocky Moun- 

 tains who take the Press seriously. One gentleman 

 I know fathered a bill which provided for the justi- 

 fiable slaughters of editors by those whom they had 

 lampooned. No doubt the gentleman in question 

 had suffered much and often, but being a public 

 man he ought to have known that you cannot kill 

 an editor with a bullet; you are far more likely 

 to kill yourself. The Press received the bill with 

 intense appreciation of its ludicrous aspect. One 

 wit gravely contended that all newspaper men were 

 fair game, but he demanded a close season — say 

 one month in the spring — wherein the brethren of 

 the pen might increase and multiply in peace ! 

 You can hoist such engineers with but one petard 

 which they regard as peculiarly their own — ridi- 

 cule. A story went the round of the newspapers 



