talian King beloved of his people; such is a part of the recent record
of the regicide whose every entry is a tale of infamy unrelieved by one
circumstance of justice, decency or good intention.

And the great Brazilian liberator died in exile.

This recent uniformity of malevolence in the choice of victims is not
without significance. It points unmistakably to two facts: first, that
the selections are made, not by the assassins themselves, but by some
central control inaccessible to individual preference and unaffected
by the fortunes of its instruments; second, that there is a constant
purpose to manifest an antagonism, not to any individual ruler, but to
rulers; not to any system of government, but to Government. It is a war,
not upon those in authority, but upon Authority. The issue is defined,
the alignment made, the battle set: Chaos against Order, Anarchy against
Law.

M. Vaillant, the French gentleman who lacked a "good opinion of the
law," but was singularly rich in the faith that by means of gunpowder
and flying nails humanity could be brought into a nearer relation with
reason, righteousness and the will of God, is said to have been nearly
devoid of a nose. Of this affliction M. Vaillant made but slight
account, as was natural, seeing that but for a brief season did he need
even so much of nose as remained to him. Yet before its effacement by
premature disruption of his own petard it must have had a certain value
to him--he would not wantonly have renounced it; and had he foreseen its
extinction by the bomb the iron views of that controversial device would
probably have been denied expression. Albeit (so say the scientists)
doomed to eventual elimination from the scheme of being, and to the
Anarchist even now something of an accusing conscience, the nose is
indubitably an excellent thing in man.

This brings us to consideration of the human nose as a measure of
human happiness--not the size of it, but its numbers; its frequent or
infrequent occurrence upon the human face. We have grown so accustomed
to the presence of this feature that we take it as a matter of course;
its absence is one of the most notable phenomena of our observation--"an
occasion long to be remembered," as the society reporter hath it
Yet "abundant testimony showeth" that but two or three centuries ago
noseless men and women were so common all over Europe as to provoke
but little comment when seen and (in their disagreeable way) heard