Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1859-07-26
THouGHTs ON sCARECROws.

1t is not the special destiny of every man 10
be great artist, with the magical Inspiration
and infinite variety of genius. But it does
not follow that most men should fail to be CIV
ilized and neglect to develope taste for the
fine arts. This should be considered more at
tentively by those who have much to do with
scarecroacs Very much depends on construct
ing such things with certain grace and fin
ish, and combining and shaping the materials
with such art as will produce, as near
ly as possible, all the effects OF bril-
liant and endless variety. He who, lack
ing a civilized sense of reason and
propriety in the use of scare-crows, disfigures
his corn-fields year after year with the same
old, dilapidated image, is sure to lose all faith
in them whatever.
But we have at present more particularly in
view that very disconsolate old scare-crow
which is so regularly used by Democratic pol
iticians to muster their forces for presden-
tial election. The old thing was worn out
years ago; and its best days 1t was
not creditable to the taste Of those VINO
believed in it and swore by 1t so
fiercely. They intended to have it Ia
ken for dragon standing with jaws
apart, ready to tear and deyour the Union
and there was time when It's sudden
appearance could brighten terribly few old
women of both sexes, and give them sleepless
nights. But that is past and now the old
thing, grown too familiar and contemplate,
scarcely serves to furnish amusement for the
idle boys. A slight touch of genius, or even
a respectable development of taste for the fine
arts, might have produced results altogether
different, by giving us brilliant series of ter
rors but those concerned in this business
have been remarkable for nothing but poverty
of invention and very barbarous taste in the
matter of scarecrows. 1t would be great re-
lief and refreshment to see an artist among
them.
All through the South, and, in fact, every
where else among the anxious soldiers OF for
tune who manage the Democratic party, there
is, just now, an effort to produce certain
effect in the free states, by the old talk of dis
solving the Union. They are beginning to
use the telegraph in this service. One of the
dispatches printed in this paper, is very
solemn on the subject and talks of another
disunion convention of something like that old
Nashville affair. And the gentlemen who regu-
larly serve the party as fire-eaters, are now I'M
commonly busy parading in the newspapers,
their terrible purpose to destroy the Union and
run off with the treasury, the army, and the
navy, in search of that southern stakeholder s
republic We have heard it all before, we
cannot say how many times. 1t is dreary
stuff, and withal SO ridiculous that not one Of
those engaged in the business can look another
in the face and utter it without laughter. Men
who have studied particular business so long
and pursued it SO industricusly, ought to be
ashamed Of such bungling performance. Il
they really meant what they say, nobody would
care, for they are persons of small value. Al
the case stands, that old scarecrow is disgrace
full beyond expression to all who use it.
observers to regard them as poo
ola few political adventures nor does its per
manency depend on the permission of a few
patrons of border ruffanism and the African
slave trade. Such is now the prevalent belief
and it is along time since any respectable nun
Der ofelderly ladies could be persuaded to thinl
otherwise. The Union may be perverted, Blu
it cannot at present be broken. Some peopl
in this part of the country already question Sc
riously whether we have at Washington a gen
eral government Tor the whole country, o.
merely general agency of the peculiar insti
tuition. 1t is observed that this agency care
fully proscribes those who do not believe il
slavery. and that it is never so vigorous ant
thorough as when hunting slaves, or seeking
to establish slavery in Kansas and other ter
yitories
Moreover, those who manage that old scare
crow so little to their credit, boast that the,
have made the government what it is and
their present public parade of the ludicrous old
fright of their political cornfield is intended +,
contound and destroy those who would rescue
the government from their hands, and make il
again what it was in the days of Washington
and Jefferson. For, if the Republicans elect
their candidate for the Presidency, the
Union is to be destroyed, very certain
ly. The Washington States gives perpetual
warning. Its last intimation is, that "a
sentiment is beginning to develop Itself in the
Slaveholding States which, FIVE mistake not
the signs of the times, will soon be heard in
Washington, demanding of Howell, Cobb,
John B. Floyd, Jacob Thompson and Joseph
Holt, an answer, whether they are prepared
to surrender the purse, the sword and the
navy, to Sewardism, in case of its consolida-
ton, on the 18th of March. 1861"