Balladeer’s Blog continues its examination of the many facets of Fool Killer lore. FOR PART ONE, INCLUDING THE HISTORICAL CONTEXT, CLICK HERE.
AUGUST 1919 RETURN – From January of 1910 to July of 1917, James Larkin Pearson’s monthly Fool-Killer had been published, with his revival of the violent folk figure doing his ages-old job of bashing political and societal fools. In April 1917 America entered World War One and by July Pearson felt that a unified front for wartime was appropriate.
Just as Charles Napoleon Bonaparte Evans’ original Fool Killer had gone into hibernation early in the Civil War, so did James Larkin Pearson’s figuratively hibernate for a few years. In August of 1917 Pearson’s nationwide publication called The Fool-Killer changed its title and format from the hard-hitting satire of Fool Killing in order to show solidarity while the war raged.
In August of 1919, nine months after the end of the war, Pearson changed the name back to The Fool-Killer and resumed the hard-hitting political satire. That month’s targeted fools included:
*** People still pushing President Woodrow Wilson’s claim that the World War (1914-1918) was fought to “Make the world safe for Democracy.” The Fool Killer would swing away at such people while pointing out the less-than-democratic nature of some of the Allied Powers governments from the recent conflict, for instance Italy and Japan.
*** Cowardly or dishonest “journalists” who distort the facts and just produce propaganda for their bosses. (WOW! Pearson should see today’s lying reporters!)
*** People who thought the League of Nations would somehow end war.
*** Society, church and government people who bash the reform movement as “evil.”
*** Bloated rich pigs – “plutes” as this Fool Killer called them, short for plutocrats – who try to blame the “class consciousness” of American laborers wanting better working conditions on the fairly new Bolshevik government in the emerging Soviet Union. (An especially idiotic claim by the plutocrats, since American workers had been striking, etc, for decades before the Bolsheviks took power.)
*** The Fool Killer also spoke in support of Eugene Debs and said that if he was as villainous as the plutocrats said he was then he would have made a fortune on Wall Street by now.
*** White Russians (The fallen Russian aristocrats and their supporters).
*** Mossbacks (Narrow-minded conservatives. Think of the clueless, stuffy white guys in suits at National Review for just one example.)
*** A preacher who publicly said that he “almost wishes sometimes that Jesus would come already.” The Fool Killer added a joke wondering how that preacher would feel if he was on a trip and his wife said that she “almost wishes sometimes” that he would come back from his trip already. (Pearson was, sad to say, ultra religious and often took shots at clergy members he found insufficiently “devout.”)
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*** Henry Ford and all those like him for wanting to pay their workers so little.
*** A group of 1919 preachers who were like the much-later televangelists in their obsession with money. Those 1919 preachers launched the Seventy-Five Million Dollar Campaign to raise that much cash, supposedly for “good works.” Though they did not do what a much-later televangelist did by claiming that God would “Call them home” if they didn’t raise the designated sum.
*** Fellow Socialists who rejected religion, because Pearson and his Fool Killer felt God was needed to help the Socialists achieve their stated goals for the poor and working class. As I’ve mentioned before, Pearson’s Fool Killer had views that both the left and the right would disagree with.
*** A joke was made about perpetually dysfunctional Mexico: “Mexico will be normal in ninety days” experts were saying, with the punchline being a speculation on who would cause the next troubles there on the ninety-first day.
Like I always say, it’s interesting to read the viewpoints presented in this old publication, even the ones you disagree with.
FOR THE NEXT PART CLICK HERE
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Meaningful posts as always. I’m not very familiar with the history of the Fool Killer, but his stories definitely sound interesting to me. He’s a larger-than-life character that reminds of famous killers that I have watched in popular movies. For instance, the character brought to mind the serial killer in David Fincher’s Netflix film “The Killer’. The nameless assassin embarks on a rampage of murder which has disastrous consequences. It is an enjoyable movie but nowhere near Fincher’s finest work.
Here’s why it’s worth watching:
I appreciate it! I’m looking forward to reading your review of The Killer.