The Complete Works of Brann, the Iconoclast — Volume 12Brann, William Cowper
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The Complete Works of Brann, the Iconoclast — Volume 12
Brann, William Cowper
Brann, William Cowper, 1855-1898; Essays; Reformers
Success? A Gould must give up his gold at the grave,
the sovereign surrender his sceptre, the very gods are in
time forgotten--are swallowed up in the voiceless, viewless
past, hidden by the shadows of the centuries. Why should
men strive for fame, that feather in the cap of fools, when
nations and peoples perish like the flowers and are forgotten--
when even continents fade from the great world's
face and the ocean's bed becomes the mountain's brow.
Why strive for power, that passes like the perfume of the
dawn, and leaves prince and pauper peers in death? Why
should man, made in the mortal image of immortal God,
become the subservient slave of Greed and barter all of
time for a handful of yellow dross to cast upon the threshold
of eternity? "Poor and content is rich," and rich
enough. With a roof to shelter those his heart holds
dear, and table furnished forth with frugal fare; with
manhood's dauntless courage and woman's deathless love,
the peasant in his lowly cot may be richer far than the
prince in his imperial hall.
Success? I would rather be a fox and steal fat geese
than a miserly millionaire and prey upon the misfortunes
of my fellows. I would rather be a doodle-bug burrowing
in the dust than a plotting politician, trying to inflate a
second-term gubernatorial boom with the fetid breath of
a foul hypocrisy. I would rather be a peddler of hot
peanuts than a President who gives to bond-grabbers and
boodlers privilege to despoil the pantries of the poor. I
would rather be a louse on the head of a lazar than lord
high executioner of a theological college that, to preserve
its reputation and fill its coffers with filthy lucre, brands
an orphan babe as a bawd. I would rather watch the stars
shining down through blue immensity, and the cool mists
creeping round the purple hills, than feast my eyes on all
the tawdry treasures of Ophir and of Ind. I would rather
play a corn-stalk fiddle while pickaninnies dance, than
build, of widows' sighs and orphans' tears, a flimsy bubble
of fame to be blown adown the narrow beach of Time into
Eternity's shoreless sea. I would rather be the beggar
lord of a lodge in the wilderness, dress in a suit of
sunburn and live on hominy and hope, yet see the love-light
blaze unbought in truthful eyes, than to be the marauding
emperor of the mighty world, and know not who fawned
upon the master and who esteemed the man.
* * *
BLUE AND GRAY.
AN ADDRESS TO THE OLD VETERANS.
[The following is a summary of Mr. Brann's address to
the United American Veterans, San Antonio, Feb. 22, 1894.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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