Volume 158 — THE "NEW" WORLD.
Reading edition
["Direct Action," which was regarded as a novelty suitable for an age of reconstruction, has now, by the good sense of the Trades Union Congress, been relegated to its proper place in the old and discredited order of things.]
In these, the young Millennium's years, Whereof they loudly boomed the birth, Promising by the lips of seers New Heavens and a brand-new Earth, We find the advertised attraction In point of novelty is small, And argument by force of action Would seem the oldest wheeze of all. When Prehistoric Man desired Communion with his maid elect, And arts of suasion left him tired, He took to action more direct; Scaring her with a savage whoop or Putting his club across her head, He bore her in a state of stupor Home to his stony bridal bed. In ages rather more refined, Gentlemen of the King's highway, Whose democratic tastes inclined To easy hours and ample pay, Would hardly ever hold their victim Engaged in academic strife, But raised their blunderbuss and ticked him Off with "Your money or your life." So when your miners, swift to scout The use of reason's slow appeal, Threaten to starve our children out And bring the country in to heel, There's nothing, as I understand it, So very new in this to show; The cave-man and the cross-roads bandit Were there before them long ago.
O.S.