ne remove from no taxation at all, and would have less
difficulty in securing that desirable end ultimately.

The truth of the matter is, I object to taxation only in so far as it
affects me. I have no objection to other folk being taxed, but I do
not fancy being taxed myself. I agree with Brother Harland that there
is palpable injustice in making an industrious and public-spirited man
pay for the so-called privilege of building himself a home; he pays the
carpenters and masons and painters for making that home, and he is then
expected to pay the city and the State for having invested his hard
earnings in a permanent enterprise which gives employment to the
laborer, which beautifies the neighborhood, and which enhances the
value of the adjacent property. The object of taxation (as Mr. Harland
asserts and as I believe) is to enrich the office-holding class, a
class of loose morality, utterly heartless and utterly conscienceless,
and I agree with Mr. Harland in the opinion that the time is not far
distant when the honest people of this country will arise as one man
and subvert the corrupt hand of politics which is now grinding us under
the iron heel of oppression.

It is seldom that I give expression to my views upon this subject, for
the reason that I fear they may be misinterpreted. I have always had
an apprehension that I would be mistaken for an anarchist, which I am
not; I am an advocate of peace and of the laws; I do not believe in
violence of any kind.

And now that I am speaking of violence, I am reminded of an incident
which illustrates the thoughtless cruelty of too many of our youth. It
was scarcely two weeks ago that I detected a boy (apparently about
twelve years of age) climbing one of the willow trees in our old
Schmittheimer place. I crept up on him unawares and speedily became
satisfied that he was after the eggs in a bird's nest that nestled
cozily in a crotch of the limbs. I shouted lustily at the young
scapegrace, and his confusion convinced me that my suspicions were
correct. I kept him in his uncomfortable position in the tree until I
had lectured him severely for the cruelty he contemplated and until I
had exacted from him a promise that he would forever thereafter abstain
from the practice of robbing birds' nests. The tears which trickled
down his face assured me no less than his solemn protests did that the
lad was indeed penitent, but the fellow had no sooner descended from
the tree a