Within the memory of many now living, Society was dominated by the
belief that human body-slavery was a Divine institution.
Thirty-five years ago a great war was waged against the institution in
this country, at the expense of hundreds of thousands of lives, and
thousands of millions of dollars worth of property.
That war resulted not only in killing the institution itself, but also
in the extirpation of the idea of its Divine origin.
[Sidenote: Body-Slavery Overcome]
It is no longer a question of debate in any part of the civilized word,
but an established international understanding, that slavery is not
only unjust to the enslaved, but an evil, the effects of which are
shared by the master.
[Sidenote: Mercenary Fashion a Cruel Master]
Negro slavery in America was, however, a mild and beneficent
institution, as compared to the voluntary servitude to Mercenary
Fashion, which enthrals so many at the present time. Mercenary Fashion
places burdens on rich and poor alike, and costs Society more lives and
property yearly, than all that was wasted during the war of the
Rebellion.
Most of the masters of the negro were kindly and considerate, and not a
few of the negro uncles and aunties now living, regret the "good old
times when marster and missus did all the plannin' and pervidin', and
all we uns had to do was work, and sing and dance."
[Sidenote: Ostentation Panders to Fashion]
On the other hand, Mercenary Fashion has headquarters in Paris, in
London, in Vienna, and in Berlin; and sets its traps all over the
world, baited with styles of such absurd taste and uselessness that
interest in them can only be brief. It is part of its deliberate
policy, not to suggest any form or style that has merit sufficient to
make it desirable a second season. It avoids any approach to the simple
and beautiful and comfortable drapery used by the ancient Greeks,
because of fear that its trade will be ruined by the stability of the
wares. Ostentation is the ever-ready victim to take the poisonous bait;
and then, there is a mad rush of the mimicking slaves, to assume the
fetters which bind them to constant toil. Dishonor, infamy, and shame,
are braved by men and women alike, in following the allurements of
Mercenary Fashion.
Fear (of criticism) and Envy are the two phases of the root passions,
that are the most powerful and active agents in securing victims for
Mercenary Fashion; but, if Emancipation were the established rule of
life, these agents would not exist; Ostentation would not be followed;
and Taste, and Usefulness, and Permanence, would be the leaders
instead; and a state of coöperation which might properly be named Good
Fashion, or God Fashion, would succeed the tyrant of the present; and
Fashion, under such conditions, would be a blessing instead of a curse
as at present.
[Sidenote: Bicycle Brings Freedom]
Mercenary Fashion has met with a formidable adversary in the bicycle.
The absurd costumes inflicted by it on a servile world, seem as
ridiculous when mounted on a bicycle, as if they were placed on the
David of Michael Angelo, or on the Venus de Milo. Bicycle costumes for
women may not displace all others; but, with the freedom of movement
enjoyed on the wheel, in a costume suitable to the unhampered action of
a biped; with the constant restraint of position rendered necessary by
the wearing of skirts removed, woman may soon become free to move and
act as Nature designed that she should move and act, and enjoyment of
this new freedom will greatly modify her slavery to Mercenary Fashion.
Fashion (or mimicry) is good, if properly led.
[Sidenote: Make Freedom Fashionable]
If it were fashionable to believe that anger and worry were unnecessary
weeds of the mind, were blemishes that could be removed from the
disposition, were habits that were unbecoming to civilized man, and
were handicaps to energy and happiness that could be put aside at will,
the world could follow _that_ fashion to a state of Emancipation, with
all the enthusiasm it could muster, and benefit itself by being
fashionable.
And, should a just appreciation of the power within us become
_fashionable_, the tendency to mimicry; which is now the connecting
link of resemblance between us and the monkey from which we have
evolved, would become an element of strength, instead of an element of
weakness.
We, as individuals, support the fashions, but we do not suggest them.
We support waste and discomfort, for the benefit of mercenary and
designing fashion-makers, with the product of never-ending toil,
because we ape Ostentation, cringe before Fear, and encourage Envy as
an attribute of Pride.
[Sidenote: Plows with a Stick]
[Sidenote: Druggists Convention]
We are slaves indeed! not only in the matter of clothes, but in the
matter of the distribution of the necessities and luxuries of life and
comfort. We do some things more cleverly than the rest of the world,
but in others we excel in clumsiness and inconsistency. In Mexico (our
nearest neighbor), a sharpened stick is still used for plowing; but,
that is not nearly as crude, of its kind, as some of the business
methods that we support in this country are of their kind; and in
matters of utmost importance, too. For instance: in the city of
Montgomery, Alabama, there is a square, or rather a diamond, around
which, and within a block of which, there are eight or nine drug
stores. This may not be an unusual bunching of druggists, but, as
Montgomery is a meeting point of several terminal railroads, and trains
from all directions are usually detained there one or two hours, I have
had abundant opportunity to study this constellation of red and green
lights, that blink and stare at all who visit the park they look on.
They all seem to be full fledged, and fully equipped drug stores, and
not devoted to specialties, as one would suppose as a reason for there
being so many of them.
[Sidenote: Montgomery, Alabama]
As it is, there are eight stores, eight stocks of goods, eight sets of
clerks, eight insurance policies, eight computations of interest, eight
gas or electric light bills, and probably eight many-other items of
expense chargeable to the profits on the sales, and supported by the
public, when one establishment would serve all the people of Montgomery
better than the eight do now. If these stores were scattered about the
city, the matter of convenience could be urged for their existence. To
support such prodigality, profits ranging from one hundred to one
thousand _per cent._ have to be charged, and the public evidently pays
them, for their existence from year to year is evidence of support from
some one. Suppose the Corporation of the City of Montgomery were to
vote an appropriation of fifty thousand (or perhaps only twenty
thousand) dollars, for the purpose of establishing a first-class
dispensary of medicines, etc., and should put it in charge of a
competent chemist, who would know what medicines were good, and what
compounds were not good? The patronage of the citizens would support
such an establishment on a ten _per cent._ basis of profit, and pay ten
_per cent._ interest on the investment without doubt, and the citizens
would not be at the mercy of chance or imposition, in a matter of prime
importance to health, as they are liable to be, under any but the most
perfect system of selecting and dispensing drugs and patent medicines.
[Sidenote: Slavery to Waste]
This is a single instance among thousands, of the unintelligent
application of the doctrine of _laissez faire_ to matters of vital
social interest; and is given here to illustrate a form of slavery to
inconvenience and waste, that would be cleared away like mist before
the sun, as the result of evolution, from the standpoint of
Emancipation.
It required a million guns, and the assistance of several million men,
with all the waste and blood which war carries with it, to free the
negro; and the advance of humanity the world over, was a fruit, worth
the cost of the war; but slavery of the individual to the parasite
passions, will not enlist the rescue of arms, although it entails
greater hardship than was ever suffered by the average negro slave.
Each individual must gain for himself this freedom; no one else can aid
him except through suggestion and moral help. It is his birthright
however, and awaits his call.
[Sidenote: The Martyr]
The face of the martyr glowed with radiant happiness, when he exclaimed
to his jailers from the confines of his chains, "You have bound my
body, but you cannot bind my soul! Kill my body if you like! it will
only give greater freedom to my soul." But the so-called free citizen
of to-day; who smothers himself under the blanket of worry; or, who
spits angry injustice at a self-created-phantom-cause for resentment,
is a weak and pitiable wretch, as compared with the bonded martyr or
negro of long ago.
[Sidenote: Axiom of the Circus]
Emancipation, or, a perfectly _de-angered_ and _de-worryized_ mind, can
only be secured through _conviction_ of its possibility, and not simply
through an intellectual admission of its possibility. Faith is the
pre-requisite of every successful accomplishment in life. An axiom of
the circus ring warns an acrobat, or a gymnast, never to attempt a
feat, unless he has perfect confidence in his ability to perform it
successfully. Knowledge and the appreciation of the power of the mind
over phantoms of its own creation, and confidence to expel them, is as
necessary in menticulture as is the confidence of the gymnast in
performing wonderful feats of menti-physical skill. The condition
required for growth to Emancipation, is that of perfect faith and
confidence, born of knowledge of the power God has given us to "cast
out evil," and in that condition, Emancipation, when attained, can be
anchored safely, protected from any of the battling and surging
elements of discord from without.
[Sidenote: Psychic Researches]
The researches of many scientific societies along the lines of Psychic
Phenomena, endorsed by every utterance of Christ, reveal the fact that
faith is a pre-requisite to subjection, or control, of the mind. The
best subjects in scientific hypnotism are the strongest minded (who
believe through knowledge), and the weakest minded (who believe through
credulity); while the creatures of vacillating impulses, are hopeless
dolts in the hands of the hypnotist, and will be those who will have to
acquire Mental Emancipation because it is fashionable, and not because
it is sensible.
The condition of Emancipation is one of faith in the beginning; but, as
soon as it is attained, there is no desire to replant mental weeds, and
no struggle to repress them, for there are no roots or seeds from which
to grow them.
Faith must precede, but examples of Emancipation are sure to develop in
every community, and soon the atmosphere will be pregnant with the
possibility of it. Then it will be easy to _follow the fashion_ and
dismiss anger and worry; and, after a little, shame will attach to the
possession of them. Growth and happiness will result from the
elimination of the germs of strife; natural coöperation will follow
natural growth; and we will catch up with Mr. Bellamy's prophecy, long
before the time specified in "Looking Backward," by the simple
unraveling of a silken skein of endless possibilities from the free end
within ourselves.
[Sidenote: Tottering House of Can't]
Fear that individuality will be lost in coöperation, is one of the
hot-shot missiles of mendacity, that is being fired at Coöperation from
the citadel of the condemned passions, by the slaves of the tottering
house of _Can't_, but will fall, harmless, before the armour of
Emancipation.
Does it lessen the individuality of the gardener to weed his soil? Does
it weaken the individuality of a patient to cut out the root of his
cancer? Does it militate against the power of a cause, to rid it of its
faults? Will the runner run less swiftly, or the jumper jump less far,
if they remove the handicap?