Wednesday, February 29, 2012
Monday, February 27, 2012
The Indians had no written laws. Their customs were handed down from generation to generation and from age to age by the old men, and had all the force of well-defined and positive statutes, more so than the "common law."
The aborigines of this country enjoyed absolute freedom. Their sachems made their own tools for war and husbandry. They worked the grounds in common with other tribes.
They entered into no great war or scheme without the consent of the whole people or movement of a public nature.
If their council declared in favor of war, their warriors declared their approbation by painting themselves with various colors, and rendering themselves horrid in the extreme to their enemies. In this shape they would rush furiously into the council and begin the war dance, accompanying their steps with fierce gestures expressive of their thirst for vengeance, and describing the manner in which they would wound, kill and scalp their victims; after which they would sing their own glories, exploit the glories of their ancestors and of the nation in the ancient times.
Their festivals consisted of dancing around in a circle of curved posts or a fire built in a convenient part of the town, each having his rattle in his hand, or his bow and arrow or tomahawk.
They dressed themselves in branches of trees or other strange accoutrement.
They had no idea of distinct or exclusive property.
Every man could cultivate and abandon whatever land he pleased. They reckoned their years by the coming and going of the wild geese — "cohunks" they called them — a noise made by these birds. This coming was once a year.
They distinguished the parts of the year by five seasons, viz. : The budding or blossoming of the spring; the earing of the corn or roasting ear time; the summer or high sun; the corn gathering, or fall of the leaf; and the winter, or the "cohunks."
They counted the months by the moons, though not with so many in the year as we do, but they made them return again as the Corn Moon, the First and the Second Moon of Cohunks.
They had no distinctions of the hour of the day, but divided them into three parts — the rise, power and lowering of the sun.
They kept their accounts by knots on strings, or notches on sticks. They were grossly superstitious and idolatrous.
He was the most improvident animal existing; his present necessities satisfied, and he was happy.
He wasted no thought on the morrow.
A man could have as many wives as he could support. He could abandon one and seek another when he pleased, and the wife could do the same.
hon. james henry miller 1906
Confession
'I shall now give a short sketch of my life. I was born in Floyd County, Virginia in 1858. I was raised in the beautiful and picturesque All-egheny Mountains. I lived there until I was twenty-five years old, and moved to West Virginia in 1883. In 1884 I moved to Hinton, Summers County.
In 1886 I married Ann Brown.
Owing to my illiteracy, I will not give a history of my early life. I will commence from the time I came to this State, and give only a sketch of my trouble after I was married. I had always been a hard-working, sober, peaceful and quiet man until I came to the realization of the fact that I had married a vile woman. Being the husband of a woman of this character caused me a great deal of trouble. I considered it the downfall of myself and children. The fact that I had married a woman of that char-acter caused me much trouble, and finally I took to drinking, thinking to drown my mortification and shame ; but it did not suc-ceed. It led to much trouble.
My wife was not true to me, and besides, she was very high-tempered and abusive to me. In spite of all I could do she became worse to me and harder to please. Finally, she got to dividing her attentions between other men and myself. In the fall some men came to my house on account of her, and abused me, and tried to get me to do or to say something to give them a chance to shoot me. She had frequently taken rides with those men, and afterwards they said she was the cause of it, and they had nothing against me.
After this I saw it was danger-ous to live with her, and we parted, she going to Fayette County at my expense. After she had been there two or three months she wrote me to bring or send her some money, and I sent her money two or three different times, and also went to see her. She soon got tired 'of that place, and wrote to me to send her some money so she could come back to Hinton.
She said she could not,would not live without me any longer, and if I did not send her money, she would come if she had to walk.
She said she could not,would not live without me any longer, and if I did not send her money, she would come if she had to walk.
I sent her money, and she came back and lived with me two or three weeks, and left. Her excuse for it was that she would not live with my peo-ple, or where they lived.
She then came across the river opposite Hinton, in Raleigh County, and rented one room in a house that Bud Galloway lived in. After she had rented this room she wrote to me to come and bring her things. After I had received her let-ter I went to see her. I asked her what she was going to do, and how she was going to get along. She said she did not know, un-less I helped her, or would come and live with her.
I told her I thought she was giving me poor encouragement to do anything, but that she knew I would do anything I possibly could for her, and always had, if she would only do right. The way she talked, I thought she was about whipped out running around, and the promises she made me led me to believe that she was going to do better. After we had concluded to live together everything moved along smoothly until two or three days previous to that unfortu-nate trouble.
A man came to the door and knocked one night two or three days before the trouble. When he knocked I was sitting and she was standing before the fire. When he knocked she darted to the door and opened it a very little and looked out. The man at the door gave it a violent shove; it staggered my wife back, but she held to it. When he had thus pushed the door open, he asked her where her eldest boy was; she told him he was at the watch-house, and he walked away. The boy he had inquired for had just set him across the river. I knew there was something wrong by his actions.
The only thing I said was, 'Who is that?' After that there was a considerable change in her treatment to me. The next day she took my revolver and hid it. When I missed it, I asked for it, and her answer was, 'You have got to quit carrying revolvers,' and she would not give it to me. "She had never done anything of this kind before. I had car-ried a revolver almost constantly since we had the trouble in the spring.
The day my wife was killed I went up on the mountain to work, and, as well as I remember, I started home about three o'clock. I came by my sister's, and she told me she had heard that there was some fellows coming to my house to run me off. At the time she was telling me I thought very little of it, and only said, 'Let them come.'
I went on down to Hinton and got to drink-ing a little. I commenced to think of those things my sister had told me, and I thought I might meet with some danger at any time. I went to Mr. Burke Prince's store and bought me a re-volver. I thought if any one came to my house I would not run, for I had done nothing to run for.
I knew-there was a change in my wife, and if any trouble come up she would be the cause of it, and for this reason she had been too intimate with other men. When I went home I had no idea of shooting her, although I was greatly aggravated over the trouble she had caused me after the promise she had made.
While in Hinton I bought some goods and a pint of whiskey. It was about sundown when I reached home, and I was about half drunk. I also bought a pair of shoes for myself.
After the family had ate their supper my wife came into the room and began to grumble about me not getting her a pair of shoes. I told her that I did not know that she wanted a pair, but if I had known it I would have gotten them for her.
As soon as supper was over her oldest boy walked off. 1 did not say anything in regard to what I had heard about the parties com-ing there to run me off, but I walked out of the house to look after the boy. I stood in the yard a few minutes, but did not see any one, but I heard talking down at the ferry.
I went back into the house after drinking at least one half pint of whiskey. I sat down, and she commenced to quarrel about the shoes.
I sat there and listened at her and also listened for some one to slip in and commence shooting at me at any minute.
I thought she had given my revolver to some one to shoot me with. I did not say much to her, anyway. I was standing before the fire and so was she when she said, 'If you can't get what I want, there is a man that can, and he shall do it, too.'
When she said this I thought of my condition. I had broken myself up trying to please her, and all the time I was expecting to be shot at any minute on account of her. I don't know what kind of a condition I did get into.
I flew into a mad fit, and, taking my revolver from my pocket, I fired at her. I was standing in about six feet of her when I shot. When I shot she went towards the room Mr. Halloway stayed in, and I went out of the back door.
It was all done in a flash. I did not know whether the shot struck her or not or how bad she was hurt, or anything about it, until the next day. I came back to the house in the course of the night, and when I stepped in the door I realized I did not want to see my wife, and I walked off about fifty yards from the house and stopped.
I heard at least a half a dozen men talking just a few steps from the house, and I was afraid to go back to the house any more. "The next morning about nine o'clock I went to my sister's, and she met me in the yard and told me that there had been some men there looking for me, and they had said I had killed my wife and left.
I was greatly surprised to hear that she was dead.
When she told me of it, if I had had a million dollars I would have given it if I could have-recalled that fatal shot.
I knew it would not do for me to stay there. I left the country. I was in Virginia and Tennessee until arrested.
In conclusion, I want to say that I hope my sad fate will be a warning to all that wish to live a happy life, to beware of bad women and whiskey.
I want to thank the jailer, Mr. Hawley, and the guards, Frank Godby and Wm. E. George, for the kindness they have shown me while in jail.
I want to thank the jailer, Mr. Hawley, and the guards, Frank Godby and Wm. E. George, for the kindness they have shown me while in jail.
W. I. MARTIN.
Martin was hung October 3, 1890 before five thousand people.
Sunday, February 26, 2012
american flight
university for the idiot
voices heard
stay near your children
don't leave your bag
line up
the scatter blast
and i swim in aquatic airs
over turquoise seas of hair
amid niliac columns
with my sidepocket friend
digging the open
and me just writing down
his thoughts on our
journey to the Field
and the hollows
with dripping streams
fragrant leaves
and giggling flying buzzes
while the wings
sinfonet from the trees
the BIG WELCOME
all this ordering
to save 10%
in their canned misery
directing with a handshake
squaring a living space
but perfumed roses pass occasionally
with self smiles
and the grace of hanging together
he ran to her
her breath still on his skin
and fled with freedom
scouts in the cabin
and they all turn from
the sunrise beauty
in fear that will be invaded too
by the partitioning, placing, timing
selling, confining, lying, disappointing
that is mandatory
in corporate space
where government is the maiden
to Money
more school
endless rules repeated needlessly
smoking, oxygen, masks, risk and disclaimer
economically engineered so there is zero chance
of survival in any crash
grab your life vest
no guarantees on flotation
its just a device
like you
upright and locked
a child sings
says no to the engines
and we lift
Saturday, February 25, 2012
here I go brother looking for shadows good morning brother night
my companion I am dead like my mother I hold my hands over the fire
like the lightning that struck her
I walk through the breeze I am the falcon my dreams the falconer
the jaegers will have to take it from me I intend
to put up a good fight
I remember those guitars under your arms still
this jack tar makes a little headway
in to the past with all its spiders touting hour glasses
where I cut my feet on the crystals that have sprung loose
where some negro burns a leech off my shin with a Lucky Strike cigarette
where we go hunting the bulls in britches spun out of mud like gods with tridents
and split tongued creatures knock their brains out going for the gorget
those fables in the photograph like heirlooms put away in brandy
where I see the lieutenants entering the room in maroon
and lifting the slips off of the women with rapiers
so be it
the dream for all its splendor was run over in the middle of the road
while it was licking itself and we will all go south from the Susquehanna
with my chaplet of ashes and ice I swagger through valleys with a black sash alone
and I see the maidens with the backs of their hands over their eyes
listen to them trill on the S that means sad
and see the teachers in the halls asking for excuses in plain daylight
and go to the school at night and see them taking the pups away
the unweened ones with their eyes still shut see them load them in their sacks
watch the water level carefully where the teachers have all joined hands
do you see that concertina below their feet
do you see how afraid they are the water wheel might come loose
do you see them passing their whispers along in the night like a dead man's wind
do you seem them joined to their lies like cancer
do you seem them joined to their word like an insurance salesman
look at the cankers that signify the name of the club on their belts and lapels
when you enter the city limits the road signs announce the time and place
where the diseases are having their noon day dinners
look at them talking like they don't want to go home watch them go home
watch them accuse the niggers of backsliding
see them grading the paper with a scalpel like a piece of butchers's ice
am I wrong to say there is no place for the parabola or the shipmate in their
shingles of nerves and skin infections
...
I can see all this out the lunchroom window at school and I throw up my dinner
someone slips me a note saying I was betrayed by a rat I see the teachers
assembled like an erector set and one of them is looking over at me what the hell
this place is a port of lies and a sewer of words it is a harbour I must never
allow myself to enter again for the rows of desks are like a regatta of coffins
my teacher has a tongue like a cow it will reach all the way up in her nose
she is saying attention the president will speak they turn on the T.V. up on
the pall the stage it shows a picture of the flag being raised and when it is
tied in place a buzzard sits on the pole speak president cave in my ears
while I am dreaming of submarines
and a rooster on a ladder floating down a canal
frank stanford 1971
Thursday, February 23, 2012
Sunday, February 19, 2012
Friday, February 17, 2012
sometime in my late 20's-early 90s
they started dispensing the bags
whatever you purchased
however small-you got a bag
indifferent evil
short term planeticide
the corp didnt care
waste-it loved waste
it was a tool of seduction
solicitation
the bag might get to the can
outside the door
or at best as far as the door
in your house
4KKKK per year over 20 years
and the hydrocarbons rise
from the surface
crud glittering
in the corp's eyes
diggin kim
double jointed chinaman sees the bum
across five points
holding up his left hand
looking at the sun
not a clue
but got the chicks
now he heard
loser was going all the way
seeing chick things
from the chick side of things
and his hormones
worse than regular chicks
buddhism couldn't do shit for that
hooking did
the familiar acceptance
the handshake and farewell stages
all conducted
in a laundromat
back room
the china bit
went a long way
the loser didn't know shit
about losing
Monday, February 13, 2012
the monkey organizational structures
always think they can get out ahead
of the monkey body
gene swarm
forgetting of what it is comprised
but perhaps is a contest of codes
we re designed to be
moving like tailed 4 leggers
in a tree
where you can do more
than walk
leave your body alone
let it move
with its own will
trust it
exhale it all
pleasure isnt
the half of it
nothing refines
a spirit better
trying to keep it together
outside the door
or at best as far as the one
in your house
4KKKK per year over 20 years
and the hydrocarbons
come to the surface
the smog smut
glitter in the corp's eyes
and frost its smile
the lack of leadership
the fear of your friend
the fear of your friend
in anarchy
keeps it honest
it may just be the early stages
when a movement strikes the difference
but its a plan of ever renewal
of the application of
human kindness and reason
to every group task
it doesn't slice
it stabs
Its the only time in my life I've been drunk.
My comrades and I Secretly gathered over a quart of local wine. I've completely forgotten what happened during that night.
I simply remember taht I was awoken at dawn, by a milkwoman,
on the road from STeyr to Karsten. I was in a lamentable state when I got back to the house of my crux. I had a bath and drank a cup of coffee. Then Petronella asked me whether I had obtained my certificate.
on the road from STeyr to Karsten. I was in a lamentable state when I got back to the house of my crux. I had a bath and drank a cup of coffee. Then Petronella asked me whether I had obtained my certificate.
i wanted to show it to her, I rummaged in my pockets, I turned them inside out, Not a trace of my certificate! What could I have done with it, and what was I to show my mother? I was already thinking up an explanation: I had unfolded it in the train, in front of an open window, and a gust of wind had carried it off. Petronella did not agree with me, and suggested that it would be better to ask at the school for a duplicate of the document. And, since I had drunk away all my money, She carried her kindness so far as to lend me five guilden.
The director began by keeping me waiting for quite a long time. My certificate had been brought back to the school, but torn into four pieces, and in a somewhat inglorious condition. It appeared that in the absent-mindedness of intoxication, I had confused the precious parchment with toilet paper. I was overwhelmed.
I cannot tell you what the director said to me, I am still humiliated, even from here.
I made a promise to myself that I would never get drunk again, and I've kept my promise.
The new Chancellery will have to have permanently at its disposal two hundred of the finest motor cars. The chauffeurs can perform a secondary function as footmen.
Whether as chauffeurs or as footmen these men must be absolutely reliable from the political point of view quite apart from the fact that they mustn't be clumsy fools.
Amongst the religious practice today there is none that goes back further than two thousand five hundred years.
There is less distance between the man-ape and the ordinary modern man than there is between the ordinary modern man and a man like Schopenhauer.
In comparison with the millenary past, what does a period of two thousand years signify?
The universe, in its material elements, has the same composition whether we're speaking of the earth, the sun or any other planet. It is impossible to suppose nowadays that organic life exists only on our planet.
Does the knowledge bought by science make men happy? That I don't know. But I observe that man can be happy by deluding himself with false knowledge. I grant one must cultivate tolerance.
The Russians were entitled to attack their priests, but they had no right to assail the idea of a supreme force. Its a fact that we are feeble creatures, and that a creative force exists.
To seek to deny it is folly. In that case, its better to believe something false than not to believe anything at all. Who's that little Bolshevik professor who claims to triumph over creation?
People like that, we'll break them.
Whether we rely on on the catechism or on philosophy, we have possibilities in reserve, whilst they, with their purely materialistic conceptions, can only devour one another.
But one day England will be obliged to make approaches to the Continent and it will be a German -British army that will chase the Americans from Iceland .
I don't see much future from the Americans.
In my view, its a decayed country. And they have their racial problem,
and the problem, of social inequalitiies. Those were what caused the downfall to Rome, and yet Rome was a solid edifice that stood for something. Moreover the Romans were inspired by great ideas . Nothing of the sort in England to-day, and as for the Americans, that kind of thing is nonexistent. Thats why in spite of everything , I like an Englishman a thousand times better than an American.
-dinners with adolf
Sunday, February 12, 2012
Saturday, February 11, 2012
fear and punishment
you were expected
we do not forgive
we do not forget
this is NATURE
chaos is birth
see the children leak
their parents secrets
theirs to dream
their light
to live
All men dream but not equally
those who dream by night
in the dusty recesses of their minds
wake in the day
to find that it was vanity;
but the dreamers
of the day
are dangerous men,
for they may act their dream
with open eyes
to make it
possible.
All men dream but not equally
those who dream by night
in the dusty recesses of their minds
wake in the day
to find that it was vanity;
but the dreamers
of the day
are dangerous men,
for they may act their dream
with open eyes
to make it
possible.
-lawrence
Monday, February 6, 2012
why does it seem recovery
rather than discovery
all a part
the only proof
we exist is chance
a child query
did you know
a world free
of manipulation
mechanism
you didnt
no particle
without intent
purpose agenda
including this truth
a last struggle
or the final program
ego jacking to the main
by reflection
to stand
strapped quiet
without exit
in front of hundreds
in a can
you bought a ticket for
absalom
Sunday, February 5, 2012
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