bumor. Speech of Spartacas. THIS Work

Waikato Times, Volume XXV, Issue 2027, 4 July 1885, Page 2 (Supplement)

bumor. Speech of Spartacas. THIS Work

[x l.aO b- n c. <] r; or r»iu r\-h in Cipu\ | L'jatnli«3, rf'amwi ' wiiu victorious > dv-tf, had aroused Me populate with thes^ir of tbe arnpliit'.ie-wj to an extent bititito un- , si'own even ia thai luxurious city. A Inr^ j , numbei' of the people from tbo mral ili->tnct^ had been in town 10 watch the coniliei iv the arona, and to listen with awe and veneration to the intirm and decrepid ring joker. The shouia of revelry bad died away. The last loiterer had retired from the freelunch counter, and the lights in the palace of the victor were extinguished. The moon ' piercing the tissue of fleecy clouds, tipped this ~1 dark waters of the Tiber with a wavy, tremu- ; lous light. The dark-browed Roman soldier moved on bis homeward way, the sidewalk occasionally flying up and hitting him on the back. No Bound was heard sava the low sob of some lathing wave, as it told its story to tho smooth pebbles of the beach, or the unrelenting boot-jack struck the high hoarding in the back court, just missing the Roman tom-oat in its mad flight, and then all was still as the breast whence the spirit hag departed. Anon the Roman snore would steal in upon the deathly silence, and then die away like the sough of a summer breeze. In the green room of the amphitheatre a little band of gladiators were assembled. The foam of conflict yet.jj lingered on their lips, the scowl of battle y^M hung upon their browi, and the large knoCT on their classic profiles indicated that it had been a busy day with them. There was an embarrassing silence of about five minute*, when Spaitacus, borrowing a ch^w of tobacco from Trifoliatum Aurehua, stepped forth and thus addressed them : " Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen Ye call ms chief, and ya do well to call him chief who for twelve long years has met in the arena every shape of man or beast that the broad empire of Rome could furnish, and yet has never lowered his arm. Ido not say this to brag, however, but simply to show that I am the star thumper of the entire outfit. " If there be among you one who can say that ever in publio fight or private brawl my .ictions did belie my words, let him Btand torth and pay it, and I will spread him around 0 /er the arena till the Coroner will have to rather him up with a blotting paper. If there' be three in all your company dare face me on the bloody sands, let them come, and I will construct upon their physiognomy such capo* las, and royal cornices, and Corinthian capitals, and entablatures, that their own mothers would pass them by in the broad light of high noon, unrecogni&ed. "And yet I was not always thua — a hired butcher — the savage chief of still more savage men. 41 My ancestors came from old Sparta, the country seat of Marcus Aurelius county, and ■ settled among the vine-clad hills and cotto^p groves of Syrsilla. My early life ran 'quiet ss i.b.3 clear brook by which I sported. Aside fioro the gentie patter of the maternal slipper on my overalls, every thing moved along with >xh like the silent oleaginous flow of the ordinary goose grease. My boyhood was one long, happy summer day. We stole the^Roman ruudkmelon, and put split sticks on the tail of the Roman dog, and life was one continuous Lallelujah. When at noon I led the sheep beneath th-i shade and played the Sweeet-bye-and-bye Oil my shepherd's flute, there was another Spartan youth, the son of a neighbor, to join me in the pastime. Wo led our flocks to the same pasture, and together pioked the large red ants out of our indestructible sandwiches. " One evening, after the sheep had been -— driven into the coral, and we were all seated bmieath the persimmon tree that shaded our humble cottage, my grandsire, an old man, ws3 telling of Marathon, and Leuctra and Goorge Franois Train, and Dr. Mary '.Walker, and other great men, and how a litile band of Spartans, under Sitting Bull, had withstood the entire regular army. I did not then know what war was, bat my cheek burned, I kaew not why, and I thought what a glorious tiung it would be to leave the reservation and. go on the warpath. But my mother kissed my throbbing temples, and bade me go soak my head and think no more of those old tales and savage wars. That very night the Romans landed on our coasts. They pillaged thaj| whole country, burned the agency builduigMfl demolished the ranche, rode off the stocajw downed the smoke-house, and rode their war horses over the cuoamber vines. " Today I killed a man in the arena, and when I broke hia helmet-clasps and looked upon him, behold 1 he was my friend. The same sweet smile was on his face that I had known when in adventurous boyhood to bathed in the glassy lake by our Spartan home, and he had tied my shirt into 1752 dangerous and difficult knots. '•He knew me, smiled some, more, ssic!. - 1 Iz, ta,' and ascended the golden stairg. I begged of the Prator that I might be allowed , to boar away the body, and have it packed in \ ic2, and shipped to his friends near Syrsilla, bus he oouldn't Bee it. " Aye, upon my bended knees, amidst the dust and blood of tho arena, I begged this poor boon, aud the prootor answered : ' Lst the carrion rot. There are no noble men but R iruans and Ohio men. Let the show go on. Bring in the bobtail lion from Abyssinia.* And the assembled maids and matrons and tho rabble shouted in derision, and told me to ' brace up,' and ' have some style about my clothes,' and 'to give it to us easy,' with other Roman flings which I do not now call to mind. " And so must you, fellow gladiators, and bo must I, die like dogs. " To-morrow we are billed to appear at the Coliseum at Rome, and reserved seats are being cold at the oorner of Third and Corse Strcuts for our moral and instructive perform-. I ance while I am speaking to you. I "Ye stand here like giants as ye R2e, but I to-morrow some Roman Adonis with a seal- I skin cap will pat your red brawn and bet bis I sesterces upon your blood. I " 0 Rome I Rome I Thou hast been ind«9d I a tender nurae to me. Thou has given to that J gentle, timid shepherd lad, who never kaew ft^fl haisher tone than a flute note, mußcleff^^M iron, and a heart like the adamantine lemoqH pie of the railroad lunch-room. Tnou hasfc^ taught him to drive his sword through plated I mail and links of rugged brass, and warm it I iv the palpitating gizzard of his foe, and to ■ gaza into the glaring eyeballs of the fierce- I Numidian lion even as the smooth-cheeked J Ronun Senator looks into the laughing eyes M of tho girls in the treasury department. fl " And he shall pay thee back till thy rush- ■ ing Tiber uas red as frothing wine ; and in fl ita deepest ooze thy lite-blood lies curdled* H You douoUeas hear tho gentle murmur of my, ■ bazoo. H " Hark 1 Hear ye yon Uou roaring in hi*fl den? 'Tis throe days since he tasted flesh, ■ bat to-morrow hff will have gladiator on H toasc, and. don't you forget it ; and he will H flm^ vertebra; abjut his cage like the staff H bowler of a champion club. "If ye are bruted, then at&nd here like fat I oieu waiting for the butcher's knito. If ya I are men, arise and follow me. Strike down I tha warden and the turnkey, overpower the I police, and out for the tall timber. We will bre*k through the city gate, oapture the war-^H lorje of the drunken Raman, flee away to the^H lava beds, and there do lively work, a? did our sire a at old Thermopylae, soalp the westera-^H bound emigrant, and make the hen-roosift'V around Capua look sick. H "0, ootnrades 1 warriors.! gladiators I ■ "If wo ba men, loi U 3 die like men, beneath ■ the blue sky, and by tho still waters, and be I buried according to Gunter, instoad of having ■ our shin bones polished off by Numidian ■ lions, amid the groans and hisses of a low- J bruad Roman populaoa." — Bill Nye. fl

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