“The pictures get sneaked around everywhere.”—_Page 40._
]
“It seems strange to see a king destroying a nation and laying waste
a country for mere sordid money’s sake, and solely and only for
that. Lust of conquest is royal; kings have always exercised that
stately vice; we are used to it, by old habit we condone it,
perceiving a certain dignity in it; but _lust of money—lust of
shillings—lust of nickels—lust of dirty coin_, not for the nation’s
enrichment but for _the king’s alone_—this is new. It distinctly
revolts us, we cannot seem to reconcile ourselves to it, we resent
it, we despise it, we say it is shabby, unkingly, out of character.
Being democrats we ought to jeer and jest, we ought to rejoice to
see the purple dragged in the dirt, but—well, account for it as we
may, we don’t. We see this awful king, this pitiless and
blood-drenched king, this money-crazy king towering toward the sky
in a world-solitude of sordid crime, unfellowed and apart from the
human race, sole butcher for personal gain findable in all his
caste, ancient or modern, pagan or Christian, proper and legitimate
target for the scorn of the lowest and the highest, and the
execrations of all who hold in cold esteem the oppressor and the
coward; and—well, it is a mystery, but _we do not wish to look_; for
he is a king, and it hurts us, it troubles us, by ancient and
inherited instinct it shames us to see a king degraded to this
aspect, and we shrink from hearing the particulars of how it
happened. _We shudder_ and _turn away_ when we come upon them in
print.”
Why, certainly—_that_ is my protection. And you will continue to do it.
I know the human race.
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