Mother Earth, Vol. 1 No. 3, May 1906

Schweidnitzer prison for my sins in exercising too<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_47" id="Page_47"></SPAN>[<SPAN href="images/049.png">47</SPAN>]</span> much freedom of the press, I was overjoyed one morning by the news that Hauptmann had sent me a box of books. Through his kindness, Gottfried Keller, Konrad Ferdinand Meyer and other authors have illumined many dreary days of my cell life.</p> <p>All the books reached me safely but the "Weavers," which had just been published at that time, and that I could not get hold of, in spite of every effort. The inspector had strict orders to consider that book as contraband.</p> <p>Every time I went into the office to change one book for another, I saw the "Weavers" on the table. The temptation to shove the book under my jacket at an opportune moment was very great and trying, but unfortunately the State Attorney had instilled the idea into the head of the inspector that it was a very dangerous work; he never took his eyes from it.</p> <p>Gerhart Hauptmann remained to the Schweidnitzer prison administration the most dangerous, prohibited author.</p> <div class="center"><ANTIMG src="images/sep12.jpg" width-obs='83' height-obs='16' alt="Decorative separator" /></div> <h2>DISAPPOINTED ECONOMISTS.</h2> <p>Teachers and economists represent the bees as models of diligence. Behold how these little hard workers gather the honey together! Not a sign of obstinacy. They never insist on a certain number of hours for their workday, nor do they crave time for leisure, meditation or rest. Indeed, they employ all their energies, so that the owner of the beehive shall gain high profits.</p> <p>No matter if they gather a thousandfold as much honey as they can consume, they never seek iniquity. Man takes all their wealth from them, and in the spring, in the beautiful month of May, when the flower cups begin to fill, the little hustlers resume their work again without complaint and without murmur.</p> <p>Probably some economists regret that workmen are not endowed by nature with such an instinct for work as would let them feel nothing else but the desire to accumulate wealth for others.</p> <p>It is too bad, indeed, that house builders, railroad workers, miners, garment workers and farmers are creatures with thinking faculties. That <div style="break-after:column;"></div><br />