Life — February 29, 1912 — page 12: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

‘LIFE: trust the strikers will not take the matter too seriously or try to fathom the inscrutable logic of it. Perhaps the authorities were just joking. Per- haps they wanted to arrest Mr. Ettor anyway, and, as they had the power, were not particular about the reason. . We deem it best, therefore, to caution strikers everywhere not to allow it to influence them as a precedent. They might reason from it that, if a striker killed a soldier, the colonel of the regiment would be arrested as an accessory, but he would not be. They might think that, if the strikers killed a policeman, the mayor or the chief of police would be arrested as an accessory. They might think that, if the strikers killed a sttike breaker, the president of the mill would be ar- rested as an accessory. All such conclusions would be wrong. The only fair and safe course in such cases is for the strikers frankly to ac- knowledge themselves laymen unable to under- stand the fine points of the expert dispensers of justice. Ellis O. Jones. faults of their friends. Why, then, do you dare to keep out of the club those who would unquestion- ably lift it up into an entirely new world of pes- simism?” To this friend we have only to say: That one of the objects of the Pessimi Club is to perpetuate itself, and while our friend's information may be first hand, we do not believe that if we should open the club to women of the character he describes that the club would last more than three weeks, Above all things, we must preserve our integrity, for we have a great work to perform. This work is to convince every American that there is no hope left for any of us, and when at last we are all united in this firm belief, we shall then possibly take steps towards the dis- banding of the club, as its object will no longer be nece: sary. But to introduce even a few cantankerous old maids would be fatal to our prime object. We shall, therefore, continue to stand by our former decision. This does not mean at all that any member of the club cannot take ad- vantage of any lady pessimist with whom he may have the opportunity to associate. If your wife, for example, has a tendency to make you more gloomy and to fill you brim- ful with the hopelessness of life in eral, by all means stick to her to the bitter end. If among your women rela- tives there are any first-class pessimists, let them come to you and add to your weight of woe. It is doubtful, in- deed, if the Pessimists’ Club could continue to exist with- out the presence of women. But these women are needed, not inside of the club, but outside of it. SSAQq SSS Murder Accessories P in Lawrence, Mass., in connection with the strike there, a rather unusual mt happened. In the course of events a striker, an eighteen-year-old boy, was killed by the soldiers. Thereupon the authorities became so excited over the fate of the lad that they arrested Mr. Ettor, the leader of the strike, as an accessory to the mur- “YoU STAND THERE AN’ GIT WEIGHED, BILLY, A der. This might seem to indicate that the authorities are ony MIE THE FORTUNE WHEN IT COM determined to protect the strikers at all hazards, but we LL LISTEN TO THE MUSIC. A PAIR DIVISION { comicbooks.com