WORSE! AND MORE OF IT! NO. 14,630. SCHOOLS, SOCIALISM, LYNCHINGS, MINISTERS, CATHOLICS, NEGROES, REVOLUTION, ENGLAND. PATRIOTIC FELLOW CITIZENS:. . .
[Sykesville, MD: Francis B. Livesey, c.1905]. Folio broadside, 17" x 5-12". Three line headline in bold type, followed by 23 paragraphs in single column form. Signed in type at end, "Francis B. Livesey, Sykesville, Maryland, U.S.A." Old folds [two archival repairs to short splits at fold edges]. Very Good.
Francis B. Livesey [1845-1925] spent much of his life working with his father, a wealthy Baltimore real estate dealer, and was a "staunch Rationalist, a leader in organizing the American Press-Writers' Association... and the 'World's Greatest Volunteer Press-Writer.'"
He was a promiscuous pamphleteer, with subjects as varied as "the Negro problem," public education, schools as a breeding ground for atheism, race suicide, KKK, women's clubs, socialism, unemployment, political corruption. He wrote, allegedly, more than 20,000 letters. Of these, we located only fifteen broadside examples, with few institutional holdings [and no Maryland institutions listed]. Our offering is number 14,630. ["F.B. Livesey Dead," The Truth Seeker, August 22, 1925, p.541.]
A sampling of quotes from this lengthy broadside: "Dr. Seale Harris, of Mobile, Ala, told President Roosevelt the Negro was doomed to extinction by consumption. Somewhat true." "When all the negroes are shipped to Africa, as Thomas Dixon, Jr., demands, Cody Bryand of Mansfield, Ga., ought to be left as a standing monument of what 'might have been' had the negroes been left to work. Cody never went to school, but he is fairly educated. He has earned a 2,00 acre farm. . . He is worth upward of $100,000. He hates the Negro sharper and politician. . . He is the Negro the nation should honor - not Booker T. Washington."
"All the women's clubs of Maryland met at the Arundell Club. . . and renewed allegiance to compulsory education, child idleness, medical inspection of schools and other Socialist demands. They are rich, but when Socialism comes they will work by the side of the peasant girl, as Jack London says." "Gov. Folk of Jefferson City, Mo., is condemned by the Chicago Chronicle, Springfield Republican and other papers for not frustrating the mob which lynched three negroes at Springfield, his State." "The Chicago Chronicle gets off a grand editorial showing how public schools and compulsory education are leading straight up to Socialism. Thirty years ago I began proclaiming it."
The Baltimore Sun's lengthy obituary, with a picture of Livesey, lamented, "Never again will his contributions appear in the letter columns of THE SUN, as they have for the past fifty years. No more will THE EVENING SUN and other newspapers throughout the country receive and print his protests against orthodoxy, Comstockism, militarism, church, educational and political fads and faddists." The Sun claimed that Livesey received money for only one magazine article, which he wrote for Harper's Weekly. "His style was after Walt Whitman, his thoughts strictly those of the free thinker, his pen in turn suave, vitriolic, calm, distempered, but never lacking the courage of his convictions - convictions he defied the world to refute." ["Francis B. Livesey Dies At Age Of 80", Baltimore Sun, July 3, 1925, page 24.]
OCLC [1-NYPL] as of October 2025. Item #41238
Price: $450.00