COMMUNISM

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Aug 1, 1878

The developments of the communistic spirit grow more alarming. In the West, cities and towns have been invaded by traveling gangs of from two to four hundred, many of them, doubtless, honest laborers looking for work, but hardly to be distinguished from the tramps into whose company they have fallen. Railroad trains have repeatedly been captured by these traveling companies, who took forcible passage to such points as they wished to reach. A picnic in the woods at one point was assailed, when the tables were spread, by a gang of roughs who coolly drove away the owners and devoured the repast.

The New York correspondent of the Ledger of this city says under date of the 16th inst.: “Without desiring to create unnecessary alarm, it is but proper to state, on the authority of the most observant police detectives, that there has been a great influx of tramps from the rural districts into the city within the past few days. They come not from any particular quarter, but from all quarters alike,—Jersey, Long Island, and Westchester. Whether they are acting in concert with one another, or are only having an accidental meeting, cannot as yet be determined, but of the fact itself there is no question.” Whether this is in anticipation of an outbreak like that of last summer, or to avail themselves of the opportunities of burglary which the absence of a large portion of the city population affords, cannot be positively affirmed. Certain it is that the scenes of riot, arson, and plunder witnessed a year ago in Pittsburg, were preceded by just such a gathering of tramps for days before along all the roads leading to the city. It is not pleasant to think that an outbreak, if it should now occur, would take place at a time when General Sherman is hurrying the whole of our little army to the north-west. Garrisons on the seaboard have been withdrawn, and heavy artillery regiments have been armed and drilled as infantry, and are en route to the seat of war. The official list of stations of troops shows that to-day there is only one regiment east of the Mississippi,—the 18th Infantry,—and it is intended to order that West also.—Chris. Statesman.