Lizzie M. Holmes Archives - The Libertarian Labyrinth

William and Lizzie M. Holmes, “Anarchism: A Millennial Dream” (1915)

October 14, 2020 Shawn P. Wilbur

William and Lizzie M. Holmes, “Anarchism: A Millennial Dream,” Instead of a Magazine 2 no 3 (May 25, 1915): 5. Vol. II, No. 3, Page 5 ANARCHISM: A MILLENNIAL DREAM (Will and Lizzie Holmes) We have been receiving “INSTEAD OF A MAGAZINE” thru the kindness of some friend who supplied you our address. It is a pleasure to hear again from old intellectuals we used to know either personally or thru their writings. It brings back old times to read Jo Labadie, Parker Sercombe, John Beverley Robinson, Steven Byington, Nellie Carlin, Myra Pepper Weller and Herman Kuehn, all saying about […]

J. William Lloyd, et al., “White-Flag Anarchism”—A Debate (1894)

December 23, 2018 Shawn P. Wilbur

[one_third padding=”0 10px 0 0px”] J. William Lloyd, “White-Flag Anarchism—A Color Line,” Liberty 10 no. 6 (July 28, 1894): 9. Lizzie M. Holmes, “That ‘Color Line,’” Liberty 10 no. 7 (August 11, 1894): 8. C. J. Zeitinger, “The White Flag” Liberty 10 no. 7 (August 11, 1894): 8. J. William Lloyd, “White Anarchism, Force and Sentiment,” Liberty 10 no. 9 (September 8, 1894): 8. William Bailie, “Away with the Red Flag,” Liberty 10 no. 9 (September 8, 1894): 8–9. E. C. Walker, “Timely Utterance to Sane Thought,” Liberty 10 no. 11 (October 6, 1894): 5. F. D. Tandy, “Reds We […]

Lizzie M. Holmes, “To Poverty” (1902)

June 23, 2018 Shawn P. Wilbur

[one_third padding=”0 10px 0 0px”][/one_third][two_third_last padding=”0 0px 0 10px”] To Poverty. Poverty! Miserable curse of a plenteous earth, what horrors are conjured at your name! Shameful shadow falling like a pall over the bright glow civilization would boastfully send forth, you darken every dream of beauty and purity that mortal dares to dwell upon! You drive him to despair, you hound him to the prison door, you call forth the evil within to fight your encroachments, and you crush to earth his aspirations, his genius. Needless, hideous phantom that you are—thing created, not of nature but of men—what mystical words […]

L. M. S., “A Word on Martyrs’ Mistakes,” (1888)

August 15, 2017 Shawn P. Wilbur

A WORD ON MARTYRS’ MISTAKES. — A Woman’s Comment on a Man’s Sentimentality and Long-Range Sympathy. There should be no more of mere sentiment and gush concerning the martyrdom of our comrades from writers and speakers who claim to be fighting for freedom and justice. Either they believe in their innocence and the injustice of their sentences or they do not, and beautiful laudations and flowery eulogies do not set well with paltry excuses for their “mistakes” or vague suggestions that justice would have been better attained if their punishment had been a little less severe. What advantage to our […]

L. M. S., “A Story of a Giant” (1887)

August 14, 2017 Shawn P. Wilbur

A STORY OF A GIANT. A Parable Not Laid Down in the Gospels, but Which Will Bear Careful Reflection. Is a Straight-Jacket the Best Remedy for the Contortions and Writhings of the Blind Samson of Modern Industry? Once upon a tine there lived a great, strong, patient giant who faithfully served some young princes of the realm. The princes ordered him about, sent him out on all sorts of perilous errands, rode upon his shoulders, and loaded him with burdens to carry, as though he were a pack-horse. They knew he was so strong that he could have annihilated them […]

Lizzie M. Swank, “What Are American Institutions?” (1887)

July 26, 2017 Shawn P. Wilbur

WHAT ARE “AMERICAN INSTITUTIONS”? I AM sending this across the ocean, to seek information I cannot gain in my own native land. I have enquired of leading journals and been quietly ignored; I have asked eminent literary people and received only looks that questioned my sanity and civilised citizenship; I have interrogated workingmen, and they simply become terrified. I have decided to enquire of a “blasted furriner.” I only want to know—“what are “American institutions”? Or rather, what are the characteristics of American institutions which distinguish them from English, Russian, German, or French institutions? So much seems to depend on […]

Lizzie M. Holmes, “The Evolution of an Agitator” (1904)

July 24, 2017 Shawn P. Wilbur

The Evolution of an Agitator. Some years ago, a young minister of the gospel was given charge of a good sized church in the southwestern part of Chicago. He had shown such marked ability, such earnestness and enthusiasm in the care of a small village pastorate that his superiors thought he must have a larger field on which to expend his power, and resolved to promote him. So they placed him over this church situated in one of the most populous districts in the city, where the people were nearly all poor. If plenty of work was promotion, young DeWitt […]

Lizzie M. Holmes, “A Rural Romance”(1902)

July 24, 2017 Shawn P. Wilbur

A Rural Romance. In a quiet, pleasant neighborhood in Kansas lives a good woman with whom I sometimes spend a few restful weeks in midsummer. Just up a little slope and on the opposite side of the road from her home stands a beautiful cottage with the grounds about it so well and tastefully kept that one is surprised to learn that only an ordinary farmer and his family live there; usually western farmers are too busy to keep ornamental grounds in order, or to cultivate the desire for them. It was pre-eminently a happy-looking place, from the father and […]

Lizzie M. Holmes, “The ‘Slummers’” (1902)

July 24, 2017 Shawn P. Wilbur

The “Slummers.” Three charming young ladies sat together chatting and eating bonbons and fruit in the pretty, cosy boudoir belonging to one of them, one afternoon in early spring. Some one had quoted the saying “One-half the world does not know how the other half lives,” and pretty Miss Daisy Erwin exclaimed: “Why can’t we learn? I want to know if there are people who live in so opposite a manner from ourselves—let us go and sec them.” Beautiful Miss Kate Durham, the hostess, thought favorably of the idea. The third young lady, older somewhat than her companions, sat at […]

Lizzie M. Holmes, “A Type” (1902)

July 24, 2017 Shawn P. Wilbur

“A Type.” The slaves of slaves—can there be any greater depths of misery? The story I have to tell to-day is of a commonplace little woman who would attract no one’s attention for beauty, accomplishment or ability, who is merely a type of her class, and whose sorrows illustrate a principle. Martha Westcott had once been a simple country girl, pretty in a fresh, youthful way, and was married when but sixteen to a neighboring country boy who had learned the carpenter’s trade, preferring it to his father’s occupation—farming. He had cherished some ambitions which he believed could be carried […]