FOOL KILLER PART SIXTY-EIGHT: FEBRUARY 1914

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 68 – Some of the Fool Killer’s targets on both sides of the aisle in the February 1914 edition of James Larkin Pearson’s version of the folk figure:

*** The Eugenicists of 1913 and 1914.

*** Kentucky’s Louisville Courier-Journal newspaper for its hypocritical editorials blasting air pollution from factory chimney stacks while simultaneously hyping the tobacco industry despite the “air pollution” caused by smoking.

*** Republican and Democrat newspapers for amping up their combined attacks on Catholics. (Pearson found Catholic priests as disgusting as politicians, but found the newspapers’ attacks hypocritical.)

*** Joe Knowles, artist and Forest Survival enthusiast, for failing at his stunt of going into the Maine forests naked and insisting he would not only survive but would emerge after several weeks having made himself clothing that would be fitting for High Society. Knowles did survive but looked like a wild man and his clothing was like something Fred Flintstone would wear.

*** Miss Bana Douglass of Stratton, Maine. She was inspired by Joe Knowles’ stunt and announced her plan to go naked into the Maine forests herself in the summer of 1914. She too claimed she would thrive and create all the clothing and comforts of home for herself. The Fool Killer jokingly predicted that the Maine woods would be loaded with men that summer, all of them hoping to meet up with Bana Douglass.

*** What Pearson and his Fool Killer called “the Four Percent” (today we call them “the One Percent”) for their callousness toward the suffering of the working class and the poor. 

*** The Pope for saying he had the power to forgive sins.

*** Conservatives, for spending their lives figuratively trying to shove full-grown roosters back up into the chicken who passed the egg they hatched from. 

*** The “elastic currency” promised by the establishment of the Federal Reserve System.

*** Democrat President Woodrow Wilson for failing to fulfill his campaign promises from 1912. He also accused Wilson of flailing frantically, experimenting wildly with the economy in hopes that something would help.

*** In one of his most irrational and rabid rants, Pearson claimed that the Democrat and Republican politicians were all being influenced by the Pope.

Some of the Fool Killer’s pithier remarks this time around:

“We all waste a lot of time wondering about things that are none of our business.”

“Fortune knocks at every man’s door, but Miss Fortune just walks in without knocking.”

“We are beginning to need an inspector to inspect the inspectors, and then another inspector to inspect that inspector and still another one to inspect him.”

“My plan is to make a man laugh right big and then cram a truth down him while his mouth is open.”