117 lines
5.6 KiB
Plaintext
117 lines
5.6 KiB
Plaintext
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Conspiracy Nation -- Vol. 11 Num. 19
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=======================================
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("Quid coniuratio est?")
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THE WORLD OF GRAFT
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==================
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Between 1870 and 1880, consequent to the "Crime of 1873"
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(abandonment of the 1792 silver standard; see CN 11.07), the
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numbers of homeless had doubled in the U.S. Josiah Flynt, born in
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1869, grew up in those times. Josiah, from a well-off family,
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nonetheless spent his youth going on "tramps." Josiah, in those
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hobo times, did not lack companions. The trains and roads
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swarmed with tramps. After each adventure, Josiah was "wiser
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than he had been before, and bolder in his dealings with the
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criminals and tramps who were his companions." (*The Muckrakers*
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by Louis Filler. ISBN: 0-8047-2236-6)
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Young Josiah called his wanderings "an insatiable longing for The
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Beyond." He enjoyed meeting people "as they really were when
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stripped of conventions." Friends later described how Josiah
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"could take them with him to the slums of a city, then change
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completely before their eyes merely by shifting his gait,
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altering the movements of his hands and eyes, and talking rapidly
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in a strange, unfamiliar [slang] language." (ibid.)
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Josiah Flynt's chameleon talent later helped him in two ways:
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(1) he was able to easily penetrate the "Under World" (his term)
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and write about it; and (2) when, for example, the New York
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police didn't like what Flynt wrote about them and threatened to
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"get" him and "give him the Third Degree," Flynt simply melted
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away before their eyes.
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In his book, *The World of Graft* (1901), Flynt enriched our
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language by introducing the argot of the criminal to America;
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words like "graft" and "underworld" come to us via Flynt. Flynt
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used his Jekyll & Hyde ability to gain the confidence of the
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criminal element, and got them to talk openly, from their
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perspective, on how various U.S. cities *really* operated. His
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book passes along what he'd learned.
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*The World of Graft* describes the two key elements in any city:
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the "Under World" and the "Upper World." When one in the "Under
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World" got lucky and "made his 'pile,'" he went "up-town" to "put
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on the ritz" and pretend to be "high class." When the
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aristocrat, inhabiting the "Upper World," needed money, he'd head
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"down-town" and scrounge up a "pile" of his own.
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Chicago is described by Flynt as an "honest" city, and New York,
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he says, is a "dishonest" city. In Flynt's nomenclature, this
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means *both* cities are corrupt, but Chicago is honest about it.
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"Reform" comes and goes: "When the present administration
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finishes its operations in the city, it is the opinion of the
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Under World that a reform administration will be necessary in
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order to save something for the next City Hall clique to spend."
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Regarding then-excitement in another city about various scandals,
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one of Flynt's sources opined "that the present (1901) excitement
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in the city concerning corrupt policemen, gambling dens, and
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disorderly houses, is simply a passing manifestation of public
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curiosity... the citizens will get tired before long of the
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chatter about vice, and the town will then settle back into its
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customary indifference to such matters." (*The World of Graft*
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by Josiah Flynt)
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Sure enough, that is the way of America: it gets fired up one
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week, then next week moves on to something else. Last week it
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was anger at the Internal Revenue Service. This week it's
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"shock" about videotapes of White House fundraising. Next week
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it's ________________. Lincoln Steffens, in *The Shame of the
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Cities* (1904), takes what Flynt dug up and carries it one step
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further, into "The Beyond" that young Josiah had been insatiably
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longing for. Steffens says that our corrupt government IS
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REPRESENTATIVE OF US:
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The defeats and the grafters also represent us... the
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corruption that shocks us in public affairs we practice
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ourselves in our private concerns... the bribe we pay to
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the janitor to prefer our interests to the landlord's is
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the little brother of the bribe passed to the alderman to
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sell a city street... The spirit of graft and of
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lawlessness is the American spirit... the "corruption which
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breaks out here and there and now and then" is not an
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occasional offense, but a common practice.
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Steffens ends the introduction to his book with a dedication "in
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all good faith, to the accused -- to all the citizens of all the
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cities in the United States."
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+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
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For related stories, visit:
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http://www.shout.net/~bigred/cn.html
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http://feustel.mixi.net
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-----------------------------------------------------------------
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Views expressed do not necessarily reflect those
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of Conspiracy Nation, nor of its Editor in Chief.
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-----------------------------------------------------------------
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I encourage distribution of "Conspiracy Nation."
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-----------------------------------------------------------------
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New mailing list: leave message in the old hollow tree stump.
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-----------------------------------------------------------------
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Want to know more about Whitewater, Oklahoma City bombing, etc?
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(1) telnet prairienet.org (2) logon as "visitor" (3) go citcom
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-----------------------------------------------------------------
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Aperi os tuum muto, et causis omnium filiorum qui pertranseunt.
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Aperi os tuum, decerne quod justum est, et judica inopem et
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pauperem. -- Liber Proverbiorum XXXI: 8-9
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