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reetings from Australia.
Welcome to this Red-Letter Day. Below you will find today's global celebrations, birthdays and events.
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There is no flag large enough to cover the shame of killing innocent people.
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They hang the man and flog the woman,
That steal the goose from off the common,
But let the greater villain loose,
That steals the common from the goose.
English rhyme, c. 1764
More such quotes at the Martinmas page in the Scriptorium
In Gaul, the holy Martin, bishop of Tours, marched at the head of his faithful monks, to destroy the idols, the temples, and the consecrated trees of his extensive diocese; and, in the execution of this arduous task, the prudent reader will judge whether Martin was supported by the aid of miraculous powers, or of carnal weapons.
Edward Gibbon
(1737 - 1794), on St Martin and the
Christian destruction of paganism; Decline
and Fall of the Roman Empire
A little of what you call frippery is very necessary towards looking like the rest of the world.
Abigail Adams, US first lady born on November 11, 1744; letter to John
Adams, 1 May 1780
Do not put such unlimited power into the hands of husbands. Remember all men would be tyrants if they could. [We ladies] will not hold ourselves bound by any laws in which we have no voice, or representation.
Abigail Adams; letter to John Adams,
March 31, 1776
Learning is not attained by chance. It must be sought for with ardor and attended to with diligence.
Abigail Adams
We have too many high sounding words, and too few actions that correspond with them.
Abigail Adams; letter to John Adams, 1774
Arbitrary power is like most other things which are very hard, very liable to be broken …
Abigail Adams; letter to John Adams, May 7, 1776
Wisdom and penetration are the fruit of experience, not the lessons of retirement and leisure. Great necessities call out great virtues.
Abigail Adams; letter to her son, John Q Adams, 1780
... a habit the pleasure of which increases with practice, but becomes more irksome with neglect.
Abigail Adams; letter to her daughter, May 8, 1808
I am more and more convinced that man is a dangerous creature and that power, whether vested in many or a few, is ever grasping, and like the grave, cries,
"Give, give".
Abigail Adams; letter to John Adams, Nov. 27, 1775
I think if the devil doesn't exist, but man has created him, he has created him in his own image and likeness.
Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Russian author, born November 11, 1821, Brothers Karamazov, Pt II, Bk. V, Ch. 4
Such is life.
Last words of Australian bushranger Ned
Kelly, hanged for murder, November 11, 1880
If you think that by hanging us you can stamp out the labor movement, then hang us. Here you will tread upon a spark, but here, and there, and behind you, and in front of you, and everywhere, the flames will blaze up. It is a subterranean fire. You cannot put it out. The ground is on fire upon which you
stand ... There will be a
time when our silence will be more powerful than the voices you
strangle today.
August
Spies, one of the Haymarket
anarchists who were framed and hanged; spoken to the
judge before his execution on November 11, 1887
That I have made myself
generally obnoxious to the extortionists and fleecers during my
management of the Arbeiter Zeitung [the
Chicago German labor newspaper Spies edited] – this I need hardly
add ... I am proud of the enemies, and no less of the friends I have
made.
August
Spies
A time will come,
when from our coffins
Will rise a powerful voice,
Stronger than that which you want now to choke,
A thousand times stronger, more striking!"
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These were the last words of
Spies ...
Hangmen, what do you gain from this?
Did you annihilate the spiritual giant?
Did you extinguish the sun?
August Spies, by David Edelshtat (October
10, 1890; translated from Yiddish by
Ori Kiritz) from, Kiritz, Ori. The Poetics of Anarchy: David
Edelshtat's Revolutionary Poetry, Lang, Europaischer Verlag der
Wissenschaften, Frankfurt, 1997
Let the voice of the people be heard!
Albert Parsons, one of the Chicago Haymarket Martyrs; shouted as the scaffold's trap door opened
The execution of our Chicago comrades on 11th
November 1887, for the sake of their opinions, has become a recognised
red-letter day amongst labor organisations. On Sunday, 11th November,
1888, the Melbourne Anarchists assembled at the Queen's wharf to
commemorate the martyrdom of their comrades, and to spread the principles
for which they died. J.W. Fleming,
D.A. Andrade, J.A.
Andrews, R.Beattie, J.McMillan, and L.D.Petrie,
delivered appropriate addresses, which were attentively listened to by the
numbers present. A quantity of copies of Honesty, the Australian
Radical, the portraits of the martyrs, and other Anarchist literature,
were disposed of. At the conclusion, an English version of the
"Marseillaise" was sung, after which those present joined in the
memorable cry, which Fischer shouted from the gallows, "Hurrah for
Anarchy!"
From 'On the Lookout', Honesty, February, 1889 Source: Melbourne
Anarchist Club notes 1889
Say what you will about the sweet miracle of
unquestioning faith, I consider a capacity for it terrifying and absolutely
vile.
Kurt Vonnegut, Jr, American author born on November 11,
1922
I had my first talk with Mary in the kitchen of this house … I was as diplomatic as possible, but I had to say I suspected her of making people sick and that I wanted specimens of her urine, feces and blood. It did not take Mary long to react to this suggestion. She seized a carving fork and advanced in my direction.
George Soper, a sanitary engineer, recalling Mary ('Typhoid Mary') Mallon on their first meeting in March, 1907, New York city, USA. Mallon died on November 11, 1938.
Mary was on the lookout and peered out, a long kitchen fork in her hand like a rapier. As she lunged at me with the fork, I stepped back, recoiled on the policeman and so confused matters that, by the time we got through the door, Mary had disappeared.
Dr S Josephine Baker, a physician sent by the New York City Health Department to talk to Mary ('Typhoid Mary') Mallon
I never had typhoid in my life, and have always been healthy. Why should I be banished like a leper and compelled to live in solitary confinement with only a dog for a companion?
Mary ('Typhoid Mary') Mallon
Well may we say 'God Save the Queen'; because nothing with save the Governor-General. The proclamation you have just heard was counter-signed 'Malcom Fraser' – who will go down in history as 'Kerr's Cur'.
Australian Prime Minister Gough Whitlam, on the steps of Parliament House,
after the reading by the private secretary of Governor-General Sir John
Kerr of the proclamation of
his government's dismissal, November 11, 1975. His reference to 'Kerr's
cur' (Malcolm
Fraser) is to the Leader of the Opposition, who succeeded
him as Prime Minister. His reference to 'God Save the Queen' was to the final sentence of the G-G's proclamation (read by David Smith).
My life's work has been accomplished. I did all that I could do.
Mikhail Gorbachev, Soviet leader, November 11, 1991
November 11
is
the 315th
day of the year in the Gregorian
Calendar (316th in leap years), with 50
days remaining.
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Martinmas and the saint of conscientious objection to military service
Feast day of St Martin of Tours
(died November 11, 397)
(Weymouth pine, Pinus strobu, is today's plant, dedicated to St Martin of Tours.)
This saint is usually shown in art as a young mounted soldier and often shown renouncing the sword, for he decided at a young age that military service was contrary to the teachings of Jesus Christ. For his principles, he was thrown into prison.
Once, while on horseback in Amiens in Gaul
(modern France), he
encountered a naked beggar and
impulsively cut his own military cloak in half and shared it. That night,
Martin saw in a vision Jesus wrapped in the half of the cloak that he had
given away. Jesus said to him, "Martin, yet a catechumen, has covered me
with this garment". At this point, Martin decided he was ready for
baptism and holy orders. He became bishop of Tours, France in
371. His
supposed coat became one of Christendom's most sacred relics, held by
the Merovingian kings
of the Franks.
Once, while
St Martin was at prayer in his cell, the devil came in without knocking,
holding in his hand a horn covered with blood. "I've just killed one
of your people," Satan told the saint – indeed, the monastery's
carrier had just been gored by a bull. At this, Martin resolved to fight
the surrounding devils by destroying all the pagan temples in the
district. He was soon seeing devils everywhere, and this enabled him to
keep out of the way of his own devil. This is probably a piece of folklore
that derives from the suppression in Europe of the pagan cult of Cernunnos, the Horned
God.
The monastery
that he founded, known in Latin
as the 'Larger Monastery' or Maius monasterium became known
as Marmoutier in later French. The words 'chapel' and 'chaplain' come from cappella, 'short cloak' in Latin. The men
charged with preserving St Martin's cloak, the cappellani or
'chaplains' and from them was applied to the royal oratory that was
not a regular church, a 'chapel'.
Martin's patronage includes against poverty, alcoholism, beggars, questrians, France, geese, horse men, horses, hotel-keepers, reformed alcoholics, soldiers, tailors, wine growers, and wine makers.
Martin
and the mule
Once, fourth-century saint Martin walked
on a pilgrimage to Rome, meeting on the road Satan, who ridiculed him for
not riding, as a bishop ought. Martin turned the Devil into a mule, then
rode him, spurring the lazy beast on with the sign of the cross. The Devil
cursed him with a Latin palindrome:
