1896

From the Archives

Francis D. Tandy, “Free Competition” (1896)

December 12, 2019 Shawn P. Wilbur
FREE COMPETITION By Francis D. Tandy The vastness of the subject which we are to consider [herein] will compel me to take for granted many theories which are controverted. While I believe that every assertion I shall make is capable of demonstration, yet [space] will not permit me to attempt to demonstrate them. Therefore, I would crave your indulgence in advance for many seemingly unwarranted assertions which I may make. The great question of the nineteenth century, which has well been called the modern Sphinx, is that of the readjustment of society upon more equitable principles. In spite of the […]
fiction

Voltairine de Cleyre, “The Old Shoemaker” (1896), with note and response

August 11, 2017 Shawn P. Wilbur
The Old Shoemaker He had lived a long time there, in the house at the end of the alley, and no one had ever known that he was a great man. He was lean and palsied, and had a crooked back; his beard was grey and ragged, and his eyebrows came too far forward; there were seams and flaps in the empty, yellow old skin, and he gasped horribly when he breathed, taking hold of the lintel of the door to steady himself when he stepped out on the broken bricks of the alley. He lived with a frightful old […]
Anarchist Beginnings

Joseph A. Labadie, “The Meaning of Anarchy” (1896)

August 10, 2017 Shawn P. Wilbur
The Meaning of Anarchy. This is a good time, it seems, to enter a protest. You have heard, no doubt, the expression of being killed by kindness. Well, I am not exactly being killed by kindness, but am being put in a false light by friends and foes alike. J. T. Small of Provincetown, Mass., says I am “one of the ablest exponents” of Anarchism; Professor Raymond, of Detroit, calls me “one of the most intelligent philosophical Anarchists in the country”; Rev. E. J. Riggs, of Provincetown, asserts that I am “the high-cockalorum of philosophical Anarchism”; Dr. Maryson declares that […]
The Sex Question

Voltairine de Cleyre, “The Past and Future of the Ladies’ Liberal League” (1895-96)

July 28, 2017 Shawn P. Wilbur
THE PAST AND FUTURE of the LADIES’ LIBERAL LEAGUE. By Voltairine de Cleyre I have assumed a serious and severe office that of historian and prophet. But, pardon me, I intend to be neither serious nor severe; for this is an occasion rather for exchanging greetings and putting ourselves in good humor than being serious, and my talk will be somewhat governed thereby. Our history is short, but, to borrow a ponderous phrase of Renan’s “of interest to the philosophic mind.” At last it ought to be; if it is not so much the worse for the philosophic mind. We […]
fiction

Voltairine de Cleyre, “The White Room” (1896)

July 28, 2017 Shawn P. Wilbur
It was an artist’s masterpiece. He had wrought it all with his own hands, after his idea, which grew as he wrought. It was not square nor long nor round, nor any regular shape, such as we are used to thinking of rooms; it was wider here and narrower there, and had strange turns and niches and carvings and arches; and in all these there were bits of statuary, or tiny fountains, or flowers, or curious sea things gathered from many shores, shells and corals and ocean feathers, picked up years apart. The light came from above as all light […]
obituaries and funeral orations

Voltairine de Cleyre, “Katherine Karg Harker—Obituary” (1896)

July 28, 2017 Shawn P. Wilbur
MRS. KATHERINE KARG HARKER.—OBITUARY.[note]An address delivered at the funeral of Mrs. Harker and at the grave. Mrs. Harker, who died at the age of seventy years, had been an Atheist for sixty years, and a member of the Philadelphia Liberal Club for the last twenty-five years.[/note] BY VOLTAIRINE DE CLEYRE. IN the presence of those solemnly closed eyes, these pulseless hands, these voiceless lips I come to speak, as someday I wish that one will speak for me, telling the truth of life and death, The trust of the dead is very sacred. There is but one thing equally so—and […]
fiction

Lizzie M. Holmes, “World’s Exposition in the Year 2,000” (1896)

July 24, 2017 Shawn P. Wilbur
WORLD’S EXPOSITION IN THE YEAR 2,000. (A sketch which did not win the prize in the late Times-Herald competition.) The sun rose and sent a burst of glory over the sparkling lake, and glittering, smokeless city, that seemed to spring out of the water itself and stretch far away toward the western sky. At the same instant, music rich, soft, all-pervading, swelled out upon the still, sweet air, strains that could be heard in all parts of the city, and whose source could not be determined by the sound; a grand succession of rich harmonies in new and inspiring modulations, […]
Anarchist Beginnings

Peter Kropotkin, “Anarchy: Its Philosophy and Ideal” (1896)

September 8, 2016 Shawn P. Wilbur
ANARCHY. ______ (Translated from the German by Harry Lyman Koopman.) ______ Ever reviled, accursed,-n’er understood, Thou art the grisly terror of our age. “Wreck of all order,” cry the multitude, “Art thou, and war and murder’s endless rage.” O, let them cry. To them that ne’er have striven, The truth that lies behind a word to find, To them the word’s right meaning was not given. They shall continue blind among the blind. But thou, O word, so clear, so strong, so pure, That sayest all which I for goal have taken. I give thee to the future! -Thine secure […]
Anarchist Beginnings

Emma Goldman & John Most, “Anarchy Defended by Anarchists” (1896)

August 29, 2016 Shawn P. Wilbur
To most Americans Anarchy is an evil-sounding word — another name for wickedness, perversity, and chaos. Anarchists are looked upon as a herd of uncombed, unwashed, and vile ruffians, bent on killing the rich and dividing their capital. Anarchy, however, to its followers actually signifies a social theory which regards the union of order with the absense of all government of man by man; in short, it means perfect individual liberty. If the meaning of Anarchy has so far been interpreted as a state of the greatest disorder, it is because people have been taught that their affairs are regulated, […]