Balladeer’s Blog continues its examination of the many facets of Fool Killer lore. FOR PART ONE, INCLUDING THE HISTORICAL CONTEXT IN THE 1850s, CLICK HERE.
PART 67 – Some of the Fool Killer’s targets on both sides of the aisle in the January 1914 edition of James Larkin Pearson’s version of the folk figure:
*** Child Labor: The Fool Killer unconditionally condemned child labor, fueled by a report in the Christian Herald exposing the plight of a 3-year-old child being exploited.
NOTE: Since it has been quite a while since I’ve covered Pearson’s particular iteration of the Fool Killer I want to point out that it cannot be pigeon-holed into 21st Century ideas about political left and political right. Don’t read too much into him citing the Christian Herald. James Larkin Pearson openly endorsed an unusual Socialist interpretation of Christianity.
He bashed clergymen from all faiths and unleashed his Fool Killer on preachers who conducted themselves like what we would call “televangelists” who pushed for money above all else. He also bashed capitalism and plutocrats, whom he called Plutes. Unrelated, but he opposed abortion yet was an early proponent of women’s right to vote. Pearson had views which would offend both sides of the 2026 political spectrum.
Back to his January 1914 targets:
*** What was already being called the House of Morgan, as in J.P. Morgan, one of the Fool Killer’s frequent rich pig targets.
*** The Federal Reserve Act, which Pearson and his Fool Killer viewed as a wolf in sheep’s clothing, giving big money even more control of the economy under the guise of preventing Financial Panics.
*** Also mocked were people who still voted for the two major political parties.
*** Republican William Howard Taft, former Republican president, for being fat.
*** John D. Rockefeller, one of the most frequent rich pig targets.
*** Harry Kendall Thaw, the murderer of architect Stanford White in one of America’s countless “Trials of the Century.”
*** The Methodist Church for its reluctance to criticize tobacco use because so much of its contributed funds came from Big Tobacco.
*** The Democrats, for “delivering nothing but economic despair.”
*** Catholic Cardinal James Gibbons for extravagant living on the church’s dime.
*** The Fool Killer added the term “Redemocans” to “Republicrats” in his list of insulting terms for what we today call the Uniparty.
*** Both Pancho Villa AND Jose Huerta of Mexico.
*** Democrat President Woodrow Wilson for being as much of an undemocratic dictator as Huerta, whom Wilson called on to resign.
*** On a lighter note, the outlandish hat styles for women of the time were once again ridiculed.
*** High Society Ladies who were calling for vaccination shots to be given on parts of the body where the resulting scar would not show when they wore their ballroom gowns.
Among the Fool Killer’s pithier remarks this time around:
“The combined thefts of all the thieves in all the penitentiaries would not be half as much as the average multi-millionaire steals from the workers every year.”
“Patriotism ends where starvation begins.”
“The reason they ain’t got any Vice President in Mexico is because President Huerta is mean enough to furnish all the Vice that’s needed.”
He also called the War Department “the Legal Murder Department”.
It should go without saying that I don’t agree with all of Pearson’s opinions. That’s the point – that at least his views could offend all sides of today’s political spectrum.
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