Nothing To Lose

“I could hear the volcanic explosions; I could see the sordid flood of wrath and hunger pouring through these halls; the cataracts of misery bursting through every door and window, and sweeping this splendor into never ending blackness and ruin.” (50)

This passage which comes up in the heart of chapter seven of Caesar’s Column, describes a prediction of how civilization will soon fall as a result of the oppression of the lower class. The novel’s protagonist, Gabriel Weltstein, believes that the people will rise up and destroy the rich men and civilization along with them, because the people have been victims of civilization; they have been abused the rich men –the people in power; and they have been put in a position where they have nothing to lose if they decide to destroy everything.

This theme of the poor destroying civilization comes up many times in the novel. A notable passage that captures this theme appears in chapter eleven, “How the world came to be ruined”. In the passage, Max is tells Gabriel that “As the domination of the ruling class increased, the capacity of the ruling class to resist, within the limits of law and constitution decreased.(76)” He claims that there was nowhere to turn because there was “corruption in every avenue.” The poor man could do nothing to defend himself against the rich and powerful, hence the Brotherhood of Destruction was formed.

The lower class no longer cares for justice or restoration of civilization; they believe it is too late for that; there is no way to fix the damage that has been done; no way to achieve equality in their world. In chapter twenty, The Workingmen’s Meeting, Gabriel wishes to appeal to the working men –trying to make them believe that if they decide to seek justice rather than destruction, they will be able to create a perfect society –a society where nobody starves or suffers injustices under the power of rich men. However, one of the workers replies that the workingmen are not members of society; they are its “victims”. He adds “[The rich men] depend on repression, on force alone; on cruelty, on starvation, to hold us down until we work our lives away. Our lives are all we have; –it may be all we will ever have.(130)” This passage ties back to what I said earlier. How the workingmen have nothing to lose, and they are victims of society.

 This theme is crucial to the story because it explains why the workingmen formed a Brotherhood of Destruction rather than a Brotherhood of Justice. These men don’t seem to believe that they can do anything to improve their lives; they simply want to destroy the thing that is oppressing them, regardless of the fact that this destruction won’t make things better.

Poor Man's Paradise

You don't have to read much into Caesar's Column to be able to make a connection between this novel and Joaquin Miller's, The Destruction of Gotham. By the time you have read up to the fifth chapter of Mr. Donnelly's novel, it is clear that there is a theme of great financial inequality between the classes; and the protagonist is on the side of the lower class --same as Miller's novel.


Donnelly's protagonist, Gabriel Weltstein, despises greed as much as Mr. Walton (from The Destruction of Gotham). Weltstein firmly believes that pursuit of money is the greatest problem in society.

At the beginning of chapter twelve, when asked what his own "Utopia" is, Gabriel replies that he envisions a world where people have no "interest on money". He claims that "Interest on money is the root and ground of the world's troubles" (80). It creates unnecessary inequality by allowing some people to "feel secure" while others struggle to achieve this sense of security.






Keep in mind that this bitterness towards money and upper class people has been a constant theme in all of the riot reading and the novels. There is really no need to overanalyze it --any society that has this unfair financial distinction between its citizens is always going to have people who believe that money and wealthy men are the source of their problems.
    

"Just Shoot 'em Down" -- Railroad Riots of 1877

Had the people risen en masse and put down the rioters on the first day, or had the military acted with promptness and decision, and on the first attempt at violence by the mob shot down half a dozen, dispersed the rest, and set the trains rolling on their way, the great railroad strike of  1887 would never have disgrace the country and it would have been spared the suffering and loss that have followed.  
Page 365

I chose this passage from the great railroad riots of 1887 as the most important passage of the reading.  The passage clearly exposes the author's opposition to the riots, and it gives the reader his solution for preventing these outbursts.  I believe that this solution of shooting down the rioters before they grow out of control is the message that the author wishes to get across in writing this story.

The author raises a valid point in this passage.  He says that if the civilians or the military forces would have shot down the insurgents on the first day of the riots, all of the violence and destruction thar followed would have reached an early end. There is no contradicting the truth of this statement due to the fact that the author and the readers know that the riots of 1877 spread to different states and caused a great deal of violence, death, amd destruction.

However,  if we take the author's words to be an argument that states that all insurgents must be shot down on the first day of a riot in order to avoid violence and destruction at all costs,  the passage becomes controversial.  Rioters should not be shot down by civilians or military forces on the first day of a riot  because there is no predicting how large and out of control the riots will become. Therefore,  nobody knows if killing the insurgents is the best thing to do.

Close Reading Chapter 2: In the Great City

"It is estimated that every day hundreds if young women enter New York never to return more than as many young men, also strangers, young, eager, ambitious, pour in upon the wonderful city from the South, the East, the West --from the four parts of the world."

 

This is the opening passage of the second chapter. It is a fantastic image of people coming into New York, with hopes of finding something that they don't have in their places of origin. 

Some of these young women enter the city looking for work; they know that there are already thousands of women working in the great city, and that there is much money to be earned in this place. 

Other girls come into the city after they have been afflicted by the lonelinesses that haunts them in the rural parts of the country they reside in. These girls hope to find friends or a strong, handsome, romantic man who will be the relief of her troubles.

Regardless of their exact reasons, all the young people who come to New York are blinded by the superficial glamour of the city. These people believe that they are coming to a marvelous place of endless possibilities, where they will escape all their troubles. However, these people will soon come to realize that the perfect city is just an illusion.  

 

"The girl pushed on, confused, frightened, lost in the wilds of civilization! Each step forward bore her only deeper in the heart of this new and to her almost terrible wilderness."

 

In this passage, one of the young women has gotten into New York; she has been stripped of her illusion of the perfect city, now she is only terrified in the "wilds of civilization". She hasn't found any friends or a handsome, kind-hearted man; she is all alone and scared.  And her troubles are just beginning. She will continue to endure hardships in the great city.