EDITORS LUCIFER: The anniversary of the birthday of Thomas Paine was observed by the progressive Liberals of this place. The exercises consisted of singing by the U.M.L. choir, short speeches, select reading and a poem written for the occasion by Miss Rosetta Waters in honor of Thomas Paine.
    The hall was tastefully decorated with mottoes in evergreens and flowers and the Secretary was instructed to send a notice of the meeting to the Liberal papers.
Lucifer the Light Bearer, Valley Falls, Kansas, March 16, 1888, page 4


    In his "News and Notes,"' in Freethought, S. P. Putnam relates how Miss Rosetta Waters, of Talent, Oregon, was "by the logic of a majority," voted out of her position as a teacher in the public schools, because of her Freethinking opinions, whereupon she "opened a voluntary secular school of her own, which has been so well patronized that the public school has hauled its colors down, and the law of attraction has prevailed over the power of the sword." Good! But suppose that the power that wields the sword had forbidden the establishment of "voluntary" schools, what then? Would not independence of thought have been rendered much more difficult? Would not emulation have been made almost impossible? As it is, must not Miss Waters and her friends not only pay all the expenses of their voluntary school but also help pay those of the public school in which she is not allowed to teach because she has opinions of her own which she has the courage and honesty to express? And this is the work of the state; this is its justice; this its protection of the weak! But when we come to the carrying of the mails we find that emulation is killed by a prohibitory tariff upon all mail carried by private parties. In the issuance of money we find competition prevented and monopoly made inevitable by another prohibitory tariff (tax), this time upon banks of issue.. These are greater evils, even, than that of which Miss Waters was the victim, and for the reason that a way out was left partly open for her. Will not Mr. Putnam occasionally say a word in his own bright, breezy way against these two government-created and -protected monopolies, that of the currency and that of the mail carrying business?
Fair Play, Valley Falls, Kansas, July 7, 1888, page 3


    Mr. Harman, Dear Friend:--The following resolution was passed at the 41st anniversary of Modern Spiritualism by the First Spiritualist Society of Southern Oregon in their meeting on March 31st, 1889.
    WHEREAS, It is only an act of justice to those reform journals that stand in the picket line and have to bear the opposition of bigotry and persecution, that those people who have outgrown the old and are in sympathy with the new ideas should sustain those "Light-bearers," therefore
    Resolved: That we, as a society, endorse the course of LUCIFER, THE LIGHT BEARER as a journal of social, political, and especially on sex reform, and give it all the financial aid we can.
Talent, Oregon.
Lucifer the Light Bearer, Valley Falls, Kansas, April 12, 1889, page 3


    I have followed the different views of your correspondents on Sexual Science with interest. I do think that the publication of those outrages which are perpetrated on woman under our present marriage laws will do a vast amount of good, and open the eyes of those who dare think and are not dead to all human feelings.
    I do not agree with the majority of your correspondents that the "root of all evil" is contained in our present marriage laws. I look on life as a great school wherein the good and bad is needed for growth, is needed as an object lesson for all, for teacher and pupil. Three-fourths of our people reason with their stomachs and can and will only be educated and evoluted out of their present routine of eating and sleeping through the force of circumstances, through necessity. I know of what I speak. I have pointed out to my neighbors the evils of society which makes slaves, cowards and tyrants of the majority, but they cannot understand. I have kept up this agitation about four years and I begin to see some change. Circumstances are in my favor. Hard times, monopoly, low wages and the struggle for existence become harder day by day. They begin to see the coils of the monster which manifests itself in authority and has its origin in the animal in men. I can get them to read our progressive papers and tracts and a change is coming, and I have great hopes for the future.
    If we had the power to remove all obnoxious laws, we would do only harm to those who believe in them, and would destroy one of the most powerful levers of progress we now wield. We do not fight any imaginary evil and wrong, but that which causes anguish and suffering to humanity. There is only one remedy. Improve the mental and moral nature of man by agitation or education; point out the foul spots in our social, political and religious life; let people judge if they call that tree good which bears such fruit as crime, misery and degradation, and whenever I have me with one who has had his perception cleared, has been persecuted and suffered from this fruit of the tree of evil such a one will listen and believe me.
    In conclusion I would say, we must deal with causes if we want to remove the effects. All the manifold evils of society can be traced to men--to the individual--elevate the individual and society will raise itself above the present low level and break the chains of ignorance and superstition which now bind both men and women.
Talent, Ore., 1-21-'90.
Lucifer the Light Bearer, Valley Falls, Kansas, February 7, 1890, page 3


    DEAR BRO. HARMAN: I presume you are overrun with letters and I have not written you for that reason, but since the clouds are thickening I feel that it is our duty to help you hold up your hands as the hands of Moses of old were held up, which I now proceed to do in two ways, first by telling you that you have the full sympathy of this family and more especially the women, that is, myself and sister, for we know full well that it is our battle you are fighting, and if human sympathy is any help to you, you must certainly have ours; then I shall send you a little money by P.O. order. It is not much but we hope to send more if we have any crops this year, and as you would rather send out literature for the money I will tell you what I want (list enclosed). I sent to you for "Prodigal Daughter" one year ago, I was almost afraid to lend it around but did, and the outcome is that it traveled till it was almost worn out, then a lady patched it together and begged me to let her have it to send to friends in the Willamette Valley and gave me ten cents to get another one for her. All the LUCIFERs I hand around to those that are liberal enough to receive them, and to those that I know would burn them if I handed them to them in person I enclose it in a wrapper, take it to another town and mail it, for I have learned that people will read things they receive at the P.O. that they would burn if an outspoken Freethinker handed the same to them. We never destroy a LUCIFER and never keep them, only long enough to read them.
    I wonder if your critics think that such evils as O'Neill describes will get any better by being safely covered up? The safer they are covered up in the dark the longer will they exist. If you could hear the way women are talking perhaps you do, but I mean women that are uneducated and have never read anything on social reform. I wish you could hear some that come to talk with myself and sister, and--thanks to LUCIFER and its contributors, for it is there we get most of the knowledge that we divide with them--if you could hear those poor women, some of them can scarcely read, you would rejoice at the rebellion that is going on against these abuses.
Lucifer the Light Bearer, Valley Falls, Kansas, April 11, 1890, page 3


    WOMAN'S FRIEND: Mrs. Breese wrote to you sometime since to send on LUCIFER, it is a most welcome guest here, not because we delight in hearing of such outrageous wrongs done under the cloak of marriage or anything else but because we know the devil is here and the sooner it is generally known the sooner we will be from under the burden we as women are under now. We are glad that you are still a free man and hope against the time does come for the trial that those justice doers (in name only) will understand from both men and women that they have a serious case on hand.
    We think Voltairine de Cleyre knows what to say and how to say it, but it would not be surprising to hear of her arrest any time. She presents things to think of as they should be, and the sooner we as people see and think aright the sooner will light come.
    Many of our public lecturers are but stumbling blocks to their hearers, and I often think that if they cannot present a better example in their lives they had better not pose as teachers; but such obstacles are ever in the path of progress. While we build one part of the temple of Liberty we destroy another.
    We earnestly hope you will be left at the post to keep LUCIFER's flag flying.
Lucifer the Light Bearer, Valley Falls, Kansas, June 26, 1891, page 3


    As yet I have been unable to see my way clear in regard to woman's freedom except by a change in our economic system. History proves it. On every side we see the tyrant to be the one which controls the bread and butter question. A new tyrant is added--the one that controls the means of distribution. So long as production and distribution are controlled for private gain liberty is a mockery, sexual freedom a farce and all our work in that line a waste of time. It is of the utmost importance to rally all our forces and make a main assault on the enemy's line at those two points, and you will find that the most determined opposition will be encountered when we touch the economic question.
    Now I do not wish you to understand that because I think the economic question the root question we should let others alone and confine ourselves entirely to this main question. Evolution teaches us that we must progress all along the line of human needs and wants. To take any other view would be narrow. But I believe that all the wrongs, oppression and tyranny which we see manifested in everyday life are the result of our cutthroat dog-eat-dog competitive system. Some of the extremists in LUCIFER lay all the woes and ills of human life to our compulsory marriage laws. Yes, they are bad enough, but such laws would not last 24 hours if property rights were not back of them. The greatest champion of woman's freedom is democratic socialism. Let us gain that. Let us gain equality, by destroying the wage system, and then we will see light ahead. We see the dawn of a new civilization in the great combinations what are causing such uneasiness to those who cannot see that trusts and combines are the logical development of the joint stock company, and all laws to bolster up the present antiquated competitive system will be abortive and end in failure. Steam and electricity have sounded the death knell of competition, and a lover of humanity will regret to see the specter of want and hunger banished from the earth.
Talent, Ore., Jan. 12, '92.
Lucifer the Light Bearer, Valley Falls, Kansas, February 26, 1892, page 3


    Friend Breese thinks (see Various Voices [above]) that "so long as production and distribution are controlled for private gain liberty is a mockery, sexual freedom a farce and all our work in that line a waste of time," and adds, "the most determined opposition will be encountered when we teach the economic question." The simple fact that men have been sent to prison whose only fault is the persistence with which they urge attention to the sex question, whereas no one has yet been imprisoned because he "touched the economic question," would seem to show that our esteemed contributor is in the wrong. Those who now control production and distribution of commodities fear nothing so much as the agitation of questions relating to maternity and heredity, that is to say, questions regarding the production of human beings. They care but little about politics so long as the supply of contented or gullible slaves is not cut off, but they know full well that sex reform means interference with this supply; and hence their unrelenting opposition.
Lucifer the Light Bearer, Valley Falls, Kansas, February 26, 1892, page 2


    MR. W. N. BURDICK: Dear Sir:--I am a stranger to you in person but not in kindred thoughts. Though I am away where the grand Pacific surges, and the towering old mountain peaks are kissed till they blush like crimson by the grand old luminary each eve, yet the REVIEW is a welcome visitor each week, for the things of home ever touch the tender chord of a wanderer. But what called me to feel closer now than ever before was your editorial on Thanksgiving. The universal humanitarian spirit shines from it. It glows with a feeling of brotherhood. It is synonymous with Goethe's Hermann when he said:
    But how can we be thankful to a God or man when we read of the poor in our large cities, where wealth is banked by the millions by part of our people (or family), and others lying freezing and starved in the streets. The New York Sun said only a short time since that "an old cast-iron stove, bedstead, two tubs, three chairs, roll of carpet, wash boiler, old clock and pine bench were thrown out at 332 East Thirty-Sixth Street, and an old woman followed and sat on them--they were all she had from six o'clock on Friday night until four o'clock Saturday night, and was then carried by a renter into her house." What becomes of those people? The police returns for the year tell the story: 88,152 arrests; 24,350 females.  Lodges were furnished a total of 126,380. The homeless lodgers being 68,854 males and 57,426 females. See the amount of crimes we are responsible for: 492 unknowns were in the potter's field during the year, 93 were picked up in the streets. Deaths by poison, 39; by pistol, 61; by hanging, 30; by gas, 19; jumping from buildings, 4; by stabbing themselves, 20. "The rest by living in dens, slums, penitentiaries, etc. Under such conditions should we be thankful that we live in America or anywhere else? Why can we not practicalize the grand old foundation principles, "that all men are created equal," and should we not as a whole enjoy life, liberty and. happiness, instead of this physical and moral annihilation? Oh, for the "voices in the air" and body to work in harmony and make a heaven on earth, and make it here and now. Hoping these feeble, appreciative words from a stranger will cheer you on I am,
    NOTE.--We don't know whether the above was intended for publication or not but we assume the responsibility of publishing it, as it is a well-written letter and there is nothing of a private character about it. The wish for universal harmony, happiness and heaven on earth is commendable, but we shall never realize it on this earth unless that mythical period, the millennium, shall dawn upon it sometime during the cycles yet to be; neither shall we ever see the time when all will be above want and no one know the pangs of hunger. It was the curse of the fall that in the sweat of the face man should eat bread, and it is only the few that have been given sufficient foresight and financial ability to amass wealth. "The poor we have always with us," and shall have until the end. Ours be it to relieve it to the extent of our ability as the Son of Man did while on earth, and our duty will have been performed when we seek to lift up the fallen and attempt to "pour the balm of consolation into the wounded heart." But we will desist before we run these remarks into a "Sunday Night." We shall be glad to hear from our correspondent again.
Postville Review, Postville, Iowa, December 17, 1892, page 2


    DEAR BRO. HARMAN: Our subscription to the LIGHT BEARER expired some time ago, and we enclose $2.00 to be applied for one year's subscription to one of the best papers which make their weekly visits to our house. We should have remitted long ago but are very busy attending from three to four meetings every week--Alliance and People's Party meetings. The masses can be induced to attend those meetings, and a true reformer will always drop a word for the cause LUCIFER champions so bravely.
    It is true, only free mothers will produce a harmonious and well-balanced offspring, but it is also true as long as children are born by accident that mothers and fathers who suffer and are crushed through our unjust social and economic system--that they will impress a hatred for the present existing conditions on their unborn offspring, which will make the flame of liberty mount sky-high and will illuminate the whole world and make every tyrant tremble.
    Political, social and religious equality is a farce, a sham, as long as we have economic dependence on a few men who now control money, land, transportation and the tools of production. Solve the economic question, loosen the grip of the bandits who control the physical necessities, and then we will see the true individual develop as never before in human history. Not before that time comes will noble, grand men and women go hand in hand to the land of freedom.
    Yes, Bro. Harman, the space occupied in LUCIFER's columns for the ventilation cf financial problems is not wasted. Go on with your work of education; humanity is hungry for radical food; the thinkers are multiplying and their thoughts receive respectful attention from those who only delighted to vilify and scorn them a few years ago. This is true in both physical and psychic investigation.
    The paper now opened in LUCIFER on "Sex Ethics," by S. C. Campbell, is in the right direction. The altitude held up to man is high. But in that direction we find the "Coming Man." The coming man will be strongly magnetic, strong in passion, but reason will control all. Yours for progress,
Talent, Ore., 11-30-'93.
Lucifer the Light Bearer, Valley Falls, Kansas, December 8, 1893, page 3


    BRO. HARMAN:--Enclosed find order of one dollar which apply on subscription account. Your struggle is hard enough and I ought to help more, but times are very close, and just now I subscribed and paid for the Arena, 20th Century, Coming Nation, The Road, People's Party Post, Firebrand, Progressive Thinker, Light of Truth and more to follow. We all have our trials. "Whom the lord loveth he chastenth" is true. Soul growth comes only through pain, sorrow and suffering. To live in ease and only for bodily self-gratification is death to soul growth. The great I and me--all stomach and brain behind the ears--must be evoluted into the heart region and top brain. To make the condition for such growth constitutes the true reformer. Economic reform is the keynote; it will open the doors of liberty to both men and women.
Ever yours,    WM. H. BREESE.
    Talent, Ore., 2-22-95.
Lucifer the Light Bearer, Valley Falls, Kansas, March 15, 1895, page 3


    The following letter from an old-time friend and faithful helper is typical of much of the advice and counsel sent me, with most of which counsel I most heartily agree:
    "I am glad that you are free from the clutches of the bigots. I do not know if it will pay to give such tyrants another chance to incarcerate you again. I think you can do more good by keeping 'within the laws,' even if they are unjust.
    "Conditions under which we live today are the natural result of the past, and we are laying the foundation for higher conditions for tomorrow. Such is evolution. Let us do the best we can; be true to ourselves; have toleration and charity for all; for such only constitute the true reformer.
    ""Enclosed find order for two dollars for Lucifer.
Lucifer the Light Bearer, Valley Falls, Kansas, April 17, 1896, page 2


    Last Thursday the first spiritual wedding in Sacramento took place at the Corson residence, 909 Tenth Street.
    The contracting parties were Fred G. Merrick, a well-to-do mining man from Utah, and Miss Rosetta Waters, a school teacher from Oregon.
    The marriage was conducted by Dr. Alice Tobias, an ordained minister of the Independent Free Thought Bible Spiritualistic Society of San Francisco.
    The bride wore lilac-colored silk, with pearls and white roses. The groom was attired in a suit of black broadcloth, with white satin vest.
    The attire worn on the eventful occasion was intended to typify the purity and spiritual exaltation of the relation upon which the parties had entered.
    Dr. Tobias was very impressive in the marriage ceremony, and after pronouncing them husband and wife, said, in part: "Life itself is the tribute that love brings. The royal gift.of this bride is her name to the prince of her choice. It is the tribute of love and literary attainments placed in the hand of genius, and with it she brings a heart of devotion."
    She pledged them not "to obey," but to be faithful to each other.
    The young couple left by the evening train for San Francisco, where they will spend a day or two before leaving tor their home at Park City, Utah.--Sacramento Bee.
Salt Lake Tribune, June 23, 1896, page 3


    Mrs. Lizzie Darrell is quite ill with pneumonia.
    Mrs. Clark is quite ill with asthma at this writing.
    Chas. Phelps, of Montague, is visiting friends on Wagner Creek.
    Misses Fannie and Katie Beeson returned Tuesday from a few days' visit with Ashland friends.
    Miss Bertha Dunlap closed a three months' term of school in the Bell district on December 24th.
    Mrs. Inman and daughter Velma returned Monday evening from Ashland, where they spent Christmas.
    George Pellett left on the excursion train for San Jose, where he expects to enter a business college.
    Mrs. B. Mount, of Dunsmuir, who has been visiting her parents on Wagner Creek, left for her home on Tuesday's train.
    Mr. and Mrs. John Copeland, of Montague, returned Sunday to their home after visiting a few days with their parents at this place.
Medford Mail, January 2, 1903, page 3


    Mr. and Mrs. Geo. Anderson, of Ashland, were visiting relatives in Talent Sunday.
    Jas. Riley returned to Ashland last week after spending several months in C. W. Wolters' store.
    Dan Hanscom, who has been suffering from a case of threatened blood poison, is rapidly improving.
    Miss Anna Beeson has charge of the primary department of the public schools now. She succeeded Miss Marie Gray.
    R. E. Robison and wife, of Wagner Creek, are the proud possessors of a baby girl, who arrived in the early part of the week.
    J. J. Lane has rented his place on Wagner Creek to O. B. Turner, recently from the East. Mr. Lane expects to travel a while.
    Misses Lizzie Netherland and Minnie Robison attended the St. Patrick's Day box social at Phoenix. They report a good time.
    Mrs. J. Harvey and daughter, Mrs. Lacy, left on Tuesday's train, the former for Cottonwood and the latter for her home at Chico, Calif.
    Jas. Harvey has purchased the Ninegar property, heretofore occupied by Mrs. Crosby, and will move in this week. Mrs. Crosby will move to Mrs. Alford's house on Water Street, which the latter recently purchased of Mr. Duff.
    A Medford timber land locator is somewhere in the hills to the southwest looking for claims. He has a crowbar with him, and if he can find a fulcrum may overturn one of the mountains and locate a few easterners on the other side.
Medford Mail, March 20, 1903, page 3