sorial chair or public office in possession
of a plundering class; and, last not least, the identity of the methods
pursued and the pretences seized by the plundering and ruling class, at
that long ago critical period in the history of the human race, when the
pre-feudal colossus of the Roman Empire was, by force of its own power,
beginning to strangle itself, and, at the present or third critical
period, when the grand-child of that ROMAN SYSTEM and child of
FEUDALISM,--CAPITALISM--, is now in turn, likewise by virtue of its own
ripened colossal power, throttling itself to death, and, with its death
throes, heralding the advent of a new civilization--the SOCIALIST SOCIAL
SYSTEM.

"The Silver Cross," or "The Carpenter of Nazareth," is a pathetic page
from history that holds the mirror up to the Capitalist Class--its
orators, pulpiteers, politicians, lawyers, together with all its other
menials of high and low degree--, and, by the reflexion cast, enlightens
and warns.

D. D. L.

NEW YORK, Oct. 5, 1898.

THE SILVER CROSS

--OR:--

THE CARPENTER OF NAZARETH.

CHAPTER I.

It was about the fifteenth year of the reign of the Emperor Tiberius
that I, Genevieve, a slave of Aurelia, the wife of a Roman named Gremion
and located in Marseilles, departed from Marseilles with my mistress and
her husband for Judea.

The dominion of the Romans, at that period, extended from one end of the
world to the other. Judea had submitted to them, as a dependence of the
province of Syria, governed by a magistrate from Rome. Several vessels
departed from Marseilles for the country of the Israelites. My master,
Gremion, a relative of the Roman Procurator in Judea named Pontius
Pilate, was chosen to replace in that country the treasury-tribune,
appointed to collect the taxes; for wherever the Roman dominion
established itself, the exaction of taxes was established at the same
time.

One evening there was, at Jerusalem, a grand supper at Pontius Pilate's,
Procurator in the country of the Israelites, for the Emperor Tiberius.

Towards the decline of the day, the most brilliant society of the city
repaired to the house of the Roman seigneur. His mansion, like that of
all the rich persons of the country, was built of hewn stone, plastered
over with chalk, and painted a red color.

This sumptuous residence was entered by a square court, surrounded by
marble columns, forming a gallery. In the middle of this court there was