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“... put in him. From that moment
Vogt meant no more to De Leon than would have a Siwash
Indian. Himself noble, high-minded, and free from deceit,
he was quick to trust and believe in the genuineness of hu-
manity. It was this which often caused him to believe toa
well of men and take for genuine coin such evident counter-
feits as Frank Bohn, Vincent St. John, Fred Heslewood and
many others, whom most of us who stood on their own mor-
tal plane spotted at once.
This double nature of De Leon, which I discerned early
m our acquaintance, was so marked and withal so curious
that It took me long really to understand it; and I am certain
that there are many of his intimate friends to whom it re-
mained a puzzle forever. It was a passage in Ibsens Brand"
which first gave me the key to this part of his character.
"He who would conquer still must fight.
Rise, fallen, to the highest height.
And yet, when with this stern demand
Before a living soul I stand,
I seem like one that...”
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“...64 WITH DE LEON SINCE 89.
was useless to argue the question with them. The Volkszeitung
in support of its stand on the tax question quoted every Social
Democratic paper of Germany, Austria, Italy, and other coun-
tries. The same Socialist papers may be quoted today as en-
dorsing the bloody butchery now going on in Europe, each in
its own way, either as a struggle for German Kultur; or for
the national ideals of Italy. But the quoting of the European
papers settled the question with the readers of the Volks-
zeitung. Even many who up to that time had stood by the
party now swung around; the taxation question and De Leons
position regarding the same was top many for them.
Now that the ice was broken, the whole position of the
Socialist Labor Party was wrong; the party had to be remodel-
ed, and De Leon and De Leonism abolished forevermore.
How was this noble aim to be consummated? Oh, that was
easy. Simply get the majority of delegates to the general com-
mittee, then...”
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“... weave new nursery tales for children, or themes to illus-
trate the crude beliefs the race accepted while yet its mental
status was infantile.
Aye, in countless thousands mortal things and things be-
got of mortal wants and fears, are chemically changed, or dis-
appear, and all goes with them that they were or stood for
before the transformation.
*
When all the preaching charlatans of old, and all the sor-
did traders of the marts, and all the sturdy fighters of the
wars are long forgotten, what names will our posterity revere?
Those that were borne by great and noble minds who
gave to usand, not to us alone, but to all the world: to those
who are and those who are to benew knowledge and grand
principles to guide the race upon its upward trend along the
glorious spiral to the heights toward which they saw we all
must needs aspire if we would reach the fitting goal of man.
Immortal Marx and Engels; many more in divers lines
Of effort and of thought; the great discoverers...”
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“...DE LEONIMMORTAL. 175
wisdom undefiled, which traveling swiftly down the lanes of
time prompt new ideas in the minds of men, the which in turn
give rise to newer thoughtsprogression that forever will gO
on while progress is the watchword of the race.
From our own little corner of the earth, undying Morgan,
Franklin, Lincoln, Paine, great Phillips, worthy Stephens,
and withal, like Sirius shining in the star-flecked sky undim-
med by many other sparkling suns, our own De Leon.
*
When most of the contemporary names, those who have
sought for prominence or fame, have passed into oblivions
deepest shade, De Leons will by all the world be spoken as
reverently as that of Marx today.
When Castros clever rule and feats of arms are known
no more, men will remember that the great De Leon was of
the Venezuelan sun-kissed coast. '
Though all forget did Spanish men-at-anns or Dutch
first rule in fair Curacaos isle, that twas the birthplace of
this noble mind will be well known...”
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