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Show B PEET HEARD FROM. H He Takes a Text and Has a Lively ij Say Thereon. I ' Editor Truth: Hj In Judges 9:1s vc find the follow- H r ing: "And the bramble said unto the H trees, If in the truth ye annoint mc Hj i king over you, then come and put H V , your trust in my shadow; and if no: H I J let the fire come out of the bramble Hj H and devour the cedars of Lebanon." H if Just previous to the above parable If in the above chapter Abimilcch want- H I cd to be king and by using his kin- Hj ttl ship as a bait he persuaded his bro- H Jjjj tliers to make him king in the fol- H J lowing terms: Vcr. 4. "And they H ' gave him three- score and ten pieces H of silver out of the house of Baal- H hcrith, wherewith Abimilcch hired H vain and light persons which follow- H cd him." Vcr. 5. "And he went un- H to his father's house at .Ophrah, and slew his brethren, being three score H v I and ten persons." Vcr. 6. "And all Hi the men of Schcckcm gatlicrcd to-Ht to-Ht gcthcr, and all the house of Millo, H , and went and made Abimilcch king." Bp- ' Jotham ("Who had done that which H; was right in the sight of the Lord") Hi said, "Hearken unto mc, ye men of H Schcckcm;" "the trees went forth on H ' a time to annoint a king over them.' U'i They first ask the olive tree to be H', their king, but the olive tree said it Hk had too good a job to be king. They Hf then asked the fig tree and then the H vine, but they all made some excuse; H' but when they came to the bramble H bush (the most insignificant of all) H it swelled out its little Tom Kcarns' Hj chest and said unto the trees, "If in a truth ye annoint mc king over you, HJ then come and get under my shadow; HJ and if not, let fire come out of tlic HJ bramble (The Tribune) and devour . Hj To any intelligent person in Salt HJ Lake the above parable can be di- Hj rcctly applied to the American party H who annointcd bramble-bush Tom HJ1 Kcarns to rule over Salt Lake City. H The people knew Abimilech's record HJ before they made him king. They H knew he had taken "three score and HJ ten pieces of silver and hired vain H and light persons to follow him." ' H They also knew lie slew three score H and ten persons. Knowing what kind H of a man Abimilcch was, "All the H men of Schcchcm gathered together H and made Abimilcch king." H "History repeats itself." The pco- H pic of Utah knew Tom Kearns' re- H cord; they knew he left Nebraska H bearing the brand of Cain and under HJ an assumed name; they knew he wis M ignorant, uncouth and revengeful; !" that his record in Utah has been unsavory, un-savory, licentious and vile; that with J "three score and ten pieces of silver Hi! he hired vain and light persons" as HJ pluggcrs and boosters to put him into HJ office. The people of Salt Lake also Hi knew that Kcarns had disgraced the HH United States Senate and betrayed H the people of Utah who put him in Ab office. HJ When Kearns' time in the United HI States Senate was drawing to a close he wanted to be sent back. The Republicans Re-publicans of Utah had turned their backs on him because of his miserable record in the Senate. He (Kcarns) thought he could buy or bully the Mormon church to help him for a second term; he begged and plead with Joseph F. Smith to use his (Smith's) influence. Like the bramble bram-ble bush Kcarns said- to Joseph F. Smith, "If you will use your influcnc; to put mc back in the Senate, come and put your trust in my shadow and if not let fire come out of the bramble (The Tribune) and devour the cedars of Lebanon" (The Mormon Mor-mon church), and ever since the Kcarns-Smith interview, fire and brimstone, brim-stone, filth and falsehood have been belching forth from the Tribune office. of-fice. Kcarns was mad. He said, "Fe, fl, fo, fum, I smell the blood of a Mormon, Mor-mon, dead or alive I'll have some of his bones to butter my bread." He would annihilate, destroy, obliterate, demolish, subvert, ruin, undo, waste and consume every Mormon between the "Far-off State of Boston and the beautiful island of Alaska." That he would take "Three-score and ten pieces pie-ces of silver," would hire Judge Goodwin, Frank Cannon, Charley Owen, the Rev. D. M. Hclmick, and the Rev. S. E. Wishard to buy up all the "Phillironies." form a great rough-riding cavalry, make Ben Haywood Hay-wood general and ride down, slay, murder, assassinate, slaughter, butcher, but-cher, immolate, massacre, put to death and lynch every follower of Joscnh Smith between Ubydam and Dambcyou. When Kcarns was elected Senator great wailintrs and lamentations went up from Zion. Goodwin said, "We utterly condemn the methods which gave him the Senatorship. They amount to a turning back of political politi-cal progress and the progress of Utah a quarter of a century and restored re-stored the old slavery and brutal tyranny," ty-ranny," etc. Many preachers and women wailcl in lamenting anguish because the Republicans Re-publicans had disgraced Utah by sending Tom Kcarns to the Senate. In honor of his election Kearns pave a great drunken dctauch or banquet. The preachers and some of the women wom-en almost exploded in wrath and in dignation to think that such an awful impious feast should occur in Utah. Kcarns was foxcy; lie said: I'll win cm over to mc: T w'll brine them under un-der my bramble bush shadow; if I fielit the Mormons and Utah, they will love and adore me." Tom wat right. When he returned from Washington Wash-ington they gave him a reception and the very women and preachers who condemned his election were the first to do him homage. With the help of the preachers and the sore-heads Kcarns organized the American party. par-ty. Just after Ezra Thompson was elected mayor of Salt Lake City the Tribune bureau of publicity sent out the following to the Utica (New York) Globe, the New Yjrk Herald and many other eastern papers: "The man of the hour in Utah is ex- Senator Thomas Kearns, who organized organ-ized the American party and to whom the credit of victory is due. Mr. Kearns, a popular citizen during hi years of residence in the State, has become a hero. If a biblical simile may be applied to so mundane a thing as a political fight, Utah Gentiles Gen-tiles regard the former senator as 1 Moses who has delivered them from bondage. "It was a close contest, but the American ticket won out, and were it not for Mr. Kearns' native modesty modes-ty he could have accepted the congratulations con-gratulations of every Gentile in the State as a personal victory." The Tribune bureau of publicity not only sent to the eastern paper? the above reading matter but also a cut of Tom Kcarns, President Joseph F. Smith and the Mormon Temple, and they were all illustrated in the New York Herald. The question has been asked many times since the American party victory vic-tory in Salt Lake, why it received so great a majority; why so many intelligent intel-ligent people ai"e led by such untoward unto-ward means. That question cannot be satisfactorily answered. We have asked many students in theology why "all the men of Shcchem gathered together and made Abimilcch king over them, knowing that he had hired vain and light persons to follow him," and also knowing "he went to his father's house at Ophra and slew three score and ten of his brethren." They could give no answer. We cannot can-not understand why a whole band of sheep will follow a leader over 1 ledge of rocks to their death. We cannot understand why the people with almost one accord in the early days of this country burned witches and hung Quakers. We cannot understand un-derstand why for hundreds of years the Christian people believed that their God, the God of the Bible, was an eternal torture-loving demon; that lie had prepared a real lake of hell fire and brimstone and it was his pleasure to throw the great majority of his people, made in his own image, into this lake to roast, sizzle, fry, stew, boil, bake, suffer, burn, groan and moan without intermission throughout all the countless ages of eternity. We cannot understand why nearly all of the intelligent people voted for, sustained and upheld such a Bod. Everything has its cycle. One would not naturally think that pftcr Miimilech had murdered thre; score and ten of hi brethren, all the men of Shcchem would annoint him king. Abimilech's cycle for cruelty and bloodshed was a long one. He destroyed a city and sowed it with salt; he killed a thousand men and women at one time, and another time, while he was trying to capture a tower, "a certain woman cast a piece of mill stone upon Abimilech's head and all to break his skull; then he called hastii .into the young man. his armor-bearer and said unto him, 'Draw thy sword and slay me, that the men say not of me, a woman slew him.' And the young man thrust him through and he died." "Thus God rendered the wickedness H of Abimilcch, which he did unto his H father in slaying his seventy breth- H ren." The cycle of Tom Kearns will H just as surely return to him as did H that of Abimilcch, H I believe that Tom Kcarns' cycle ff or reward will soon return and like Abimilcch, Kcarns will call for Char- H ley Owen, Frank Cannon, Fred Du- I hois, Dr. Wishard or some other of his armor bearers "To thrust him I through with a sword." I Very truly, I V. S. PEET. I Baltimore, M'd., Feb. 7, 190S. I |