Page:Bierce - Collected Works - Volume 09.djvu/49

Rh fact that it is a land of opportunity and prosperity we feel a justifiable pride; yet the crowning proof and natural result of this — the great number that do prosper — " the multitude of millionaires " — has come to be resented as an intolerable wrong, and he who is most clamorous for opportunity (which he has never for a moment been without) most austerely condemns those who have made the best use of it. An instinctive antipathy to all in prosperity is the common ground upon which anarchists and socialists stand to debate their several interpretations of anarchism and socialism. On that rock they build their church, and the gates of — the quotation is imperfectly applicable: the gates are friendly and hospitable to denominationaries of their faith.

Another thing that these worthies have in common — and in common with many unas- sorted sentimentaliters and effemininnies in this age of unreason — is sympathy with crime. No avowed socialist but advocates a rosewater penology that coddles the felon who has broken into prison to enjoy a life of peace and plenty; none but would expel the warden and flog the turnkey. All are proponents of the holy homily; all deny that punishment deters from crime, although the discharged