Two young Volunteers start out for a month's campaign in the cause of
American liberty. We have no money, the extent of our capital being
a bundle of Democratic literature, an appointment from the Bureau of
Volunteer Speakers and a good pair of shoes each. We start at seven
o'clock in the morning from town "A." It is twenty miles to "B" where
we wish to speak at night. We walk six miles by nine o'clock and are
then overtaken by a farm wagon in which we are allowed to ride eight
miles, when it leaves our road. We give the driver a pamphlet, thanks
and a blessing and we part. It is now eleven o'clock and we walk six
miles further when at one o'clock we reach our destination.
In ten minutes we have found a friendly Democrat who, after looking at
our letters, shakes our hands, takes us to his house and provides food.
After resting a couple of hours after dinner, we make an outdoor talk
as suggested in Chapter three, and announce a night meeting.
If those who profess the name Democracy in this village are
overburdened with sham dignity and devotion to what is old and
inefficient and refuse to recognize or aid the appointed speakers
of the people's cause, we must be ready to rely on other resources.
Our afternoon collection may amount to ten cents or it may reach
fifty cents or a dollar. The crowd may, however, refuse to contribute
anything. We may sell literature sufficient to supply our wants, or the
gold standard and the trusts may have caused such a scarcity of cash
that we cannot sell anything. We may be compelled to get our supper and
maybe breakfast by trading a pamphlet to a grocer for crackers and
cheese. After speaking in the afternoon and evening if we should meet
with no success or recognition, expediency would suggest that we shake
the dust from the soles of our feet and proceed on our journey toward a
more friendly community, while the oppressor prepares the way for the
work of education later.
In some places friends will supply car tickets; in others they will
procure a carriage or wagon and deliver us to the next town. From
other villages or towns we may have to proceed as we started and as
the apostles used to travel, walking along the dusty road, the frozen
ground or through mud or snow. This method of travel is not only now
practiced by many of our speakers, but can and will become the method
of thousands more. It is a thoroughly practicable and sensible method
of teaching truth against great odds and adds to the force of the
speakers' message by proving him sincere.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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