THE JAIL
People, even of low estate, realised the significance of the time and the hugeness of the struggle; their eyes kept watch, their ears listened, their hands wrote. We must thank all those anonymous persons, who in the service of the State took upon themselves the odium of so-called denunciators, and assisted us with all their strength. There were not, and there are not, any patriots greater than these, and the very fact that they desired to remain unknown, adorns their heads with a renunciation, nothing less than antique in its virtue.
It was one of these anonymous patriots by whom the treacherous activities of Simon Lamm were divulged to us. Utter this name of Simon Lamm, and if you do not tremble with horror and repugnance, you are not worthy of setting foot upon the soil of our country. Simon,—by what motives was his father actuated when he gave him this name? Simon, who denied our Lord Jesus Christ, Simon who was the creator of the historical crime of simony, or sacrilege. I direct my question through all historical ages: was there ever in the world a father who predestined his child's career thus by the mere name? What inveterate cynicism, what dreadful criminal instincts! You will deny and trade with a people's holiest possession,—its native land. Yes, gentlemen, all this is implied in the name of Simon. But the fact that it was pre-destined is no justification. Kismet or fate holds good only with our glorious Allies the Turks, but we have been given freedom of will, and a man is always what he makes of himself, as the renowned Austrian poet Tschabuschnigg appropriately remarked. How many men have already borne the fateful name, the name Simon, and did not proceed along the path which was predestined to them thereby,—I have in mind Samson, whose name is almost identical with Simon, and how he fought against the Philistines, the enemies of his country. Or the prominent
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