The Communist papers have succeeded, at least in one instance, with their announcement of a great strike on July Fourth. People have learned to shudder. How thoroughly some people have learned to acquire goose pimples can be shown by consulting Der Westen (Sunday Edition of the Illinois Staats-Zeitung) and referring to the letter addressed to Mayor Harrison. In that letter, which resorted to a fearful abuse of grammar and spelling, it was asserted that the entire police department would be poisoned (by "treating to beer"), that the militia would be blinded by a "certain kind of powder", and that a large number of prominent people would be killed, including Farwell, Field, Leiter, John Wentworth, and the presidents of the horsecar companies, etc. If the letter was not written by a Communist greenhorn who is still unfamiliar with the English language, and if it was not merely a satire (which is possible), then the communication can well serve as an introduction on how to acquire the 2gentle art of shuddering.

It is not necessary to point out that such serious things as are expressed in the letter are far from the ideas of the Communist leaders. Their leaders are wiser! That some of the hotheads following the doctrine should have such conceptions of the "Liberation of Labor," as are expressed in the letter need hardly be doubted when one considers the Communist publications, which show little reluctance in resorting to lies, calumny, and rabble-rousing, and which even advocate murder. Those who are still in doubt ought to visit a saloon patronized by the Communists, not the one which is frequented by the Communist leaders (who can be very nice fellows in a social way), but one of those dives which is sought by the rank and file. In such a place one can hear how the "damned curs", the rich, should be hanged, their homes burnt, and other nice things, the mildest probably being that the damned capitalist, Mr. So-and-so, should have every bone broken in his body. This individual is some person who worked hard for a quarter century, who did not drink or waste his money, a man who amounted to something and thus became a "despicable capitalist".

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But one may readily believe that the strong control which the Communist leaders have over their subjects prevents any such transgressions, provided of course that the leaders themselves don't play too much with fire and start something they cannot put out. The leaders may be confident, but they can be mistaken. After a bullet leaves the barrel of the gun it cannot be guided anymore. If the leaders believe that something may be learned from a member of the despised bourgeoisie (Goethe, for example) then they ought to read that master's Zauberlehrling [The Sorcerer's Apprentice] on July Fourth. In reading the story of that green youngster the Communist leaders will find that he could conjure the spirits of destruction but was unable to banish them after they had appeared. It will be noted, also, that when the experiment failed, the witches' broom was not blamed, but that the apprentice was held responsible.

Reading the story will be useful to the Communist leaders, since they believe that a Communist Putsch will be successful in Chicago--in the beginning at least. That they have admitted it openly has been recorded in our columns at least a dozen times. We do not deny that if the Communists with their four 4or five hundred men intend to raid the city, they will be able to do it. Such an armed mass could "capture" Chicago in a night, burn a part of the city, and slaughter or hang a large number of the fat citizens. The Communists could rule--almost as long as Mas [Tommaso] Aniello ruled Naples. Our few militia regiments, even if every member of the state force were a hero, would not be able to offer resistance. At the hour (at night, of course) when the Communists would launch their attack, the defenders of our country would be tired out from a hard day's work measuring silk or cotton at some store, and the "soldiers" would be at home with mother. In the meantime, two dozen men of the "Lehr und Wehr" Verein (Education and Defense Society), armed with breech-loading rifles, could capture every armory in the city (each is defended by a single, sleepy watchman) and thus obtain all the cannon (three or four pieces), guns, and amunition. When the peaceful fat citizens woke up in the morning, they would find that Jrottkau had been elected two hours earlier as "Paul The First," ruler of the new Zion [Translator's note: The reference is to Paul Grottkau, labor leader. The Letter "J" (instead of "G") is used in derision and is meant to show his East Prussian origin, where the people pronounce their g's like j's.]

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It would have been accomplished in the same manner that the tailor Johann Bockholt of Lexden became the ruler of Muenster or as the fisherman Aniello acquired leadership in Naples.

The Communists can attain all this if they "put their shoulder to the wheel," and particularly if they disregard the consequences. The thought of what will follow is likely to interfere with their resolution. What would follow would, of course, be very disagreeable: The farmers, half stunned by the swift events, would look on with a certain amount of satisfaction, because the despised city dwellers were being overwhelmed by misfortune--but finally, when the tillers of the soil would become aware that the overthrow of the American principle of majority rule was the issue, the farmers would gather and drown the Putsch in blood. The fearful May days of 1871, when Parisian revolutionists and government troops clashed, would then have their counterpart here.

Of course, this would be small consolation for the fat burghers who had lost their lives and property, but it would put an end to communism with its violent 6objections to the American form of government, a government which is based on the ballot. Indeed, it would be an end fraught with terror.

Under such circumstances the leaders of the Communists have at least as much, if not more, of a chance to acquire goose pimples than the fat burghers or the bourgeois. The Communist leaders are quite absorbed with thoughts about a general riot; they probably know that if the insurrection takes shape in accordance with the intentions of the fanatic adherents of Communism, the Putsch may eventually jeopardize the leaders' necks. The rabble-rousers, however, hope that the entire affair will be merely an intimidating demonstration. If their expectations are realized--very well. But if they are mistaken, and the American government proves stronger than the imported conspiracy, then the Communists can learn from the French example that the words vae victis have as much meaning in a free state as in a kingdom or empire.