Show Tho disreputable old scallawag who IH King of the Belgians has decided that ho wont wait for > Parliament to take the initiative but will open certain coalmines coal-mines as a State monopoly 1 In which he will have a share This is I further than any other European ruler would dare to go excepting only the Czar of Russia It is under the civilized rule of this same Leopold of Belgium that the most harrowing atrocities of the century arc being perpetrated in what is satirically called the Congo Free State There men women and children chil-dren are reduced to tho meanest and cruelest forms of shivery and are whipped tortured mutilated nnd killed 1 without ruth or mercy by brutal overseers over-seers for fulling to perform or coming I short of tasks asslgneds to thorn A complete com-plete exposure of the awful outrages ban recently been published from two Independent sources by men who know all about them The old rascal has been made acquainted with these things but refuges to interfere tacitly approving them by his constant requirement of the product of the tasks for the performance perform-ance of which the horrible cruelties are Inflicted Leopold Is a degraded old ruffian ruf-fian and should be deposed from his I I titular rule of the ICongo |