The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1869-10-29

Sigel and GreeIey-Water and Lager Beer.
The most severely contested battle fields,
in which the victors and the conquered have
both suffered, and when the ground Of conflict
is CHASTITY with the dying and the dead, will
often present q spectacle 80 startling in con-
trast with the horrible surroundings, and 80
grotesque in Its hideous exaggeration, as for
the moment to completely obliterate the more
prominent and real picture-the terrible results
of the fight-when Momus EFFORTS smile from
pain. Writers of fiction, knowing the effect
of these startling contrasts upon the minds of
their readers, and basing in some instances
their own portraiture of such scenes from
actual occurrences, have given them color
ing that at once fascinates and repels the
mind, that excites horror or impels to laughter.
The antics of the clown in the pantomime, and
his practical jokes upon his attendant Panta-
loon are of the most inimitable serio-comic
character, and the laugh which always follows
the de,souement is the hearter because of the
serious dilemma which threatened Pantal0on,
and which was but a phantasy cOnjured mp by
the clown to be as speedily turned into laugh
against his dupe.
The serious part of the political campaign
now upon us, and which will be brought to a
final issue on Tuesday next, as between the
recognized two great parties of the State
the Tammany Regency, under the leadership
of Peter Bismarck Sweeny, and the repub-
licans, accepting as their nominal head
the philosopher Of Printing House square,
Horace Greeley-lies in the struggle for politi
cal supremacy in the State. But the comical
feature of it is presented in the attitude occu-
pied by Greeley, contrasted with that of his
associate on the ticket, General Sigel. The
latter is the nominee for Secretary of State,
the former the nominee for State Comptroller
one the advocate of high tariff upon lager, the
other the representative of the whole German
ranks. 1t was thought to be happy device
Of the Republican State Committee after the
temperance rumpus that was kicked up in the
Convention, and which was squelched by the
New York delegation, and after Curtis and
Hillhouse had both declined to accept the
nominations rendered them, to combine in the
party the cold water and lager beer elements
outwardly if not inwardly-in the persons of
the teetotal and negotiating Horace and the
fighting and drinking Franz. The party finds
quence. On the one hand, if the temperance
men vote for Sigel they vote for the removal
Of all restrictions on the ''rosy;" on the
other, if the -prohibitiouists of the party
vote for Greeley they vote for high tariff
upon their favorite beverages and stringent
Sunday excise law. Thus Greeley, like Panta-
loon on the stage, presents himself to the
electors in a most serio-comic position. He is
regular Janus, having despair depicted on
one side of his phiz and leer provocative of
other; and it is just from the particular
standpoint he is viewed that the righteousness
or the seriousness of his position comes into
bold relief and strikes the beholder. AS a
political Pantaloon he is, therefore, inimitable
in the new role of candidate for Comptroller,
and sauerkraut candidate for Secretary of
State-Sigel. Lager and water are not much
of stimulant taken in equal quantities as a
beverage, and Sigel and Greeley, on the one
ticket, very weak admxture, will hardly 20
down with either branch of the party, being
too strong for one and considerably too weak
for the other. "'Twas ever thus" with the
venerable Horace since he gave up quafang
from his emphoras in the days when he and
the then youthful A. Oakley Hall went whig-
ging together "a long time ago." Had he
stuck to his cakes and his ale, for which our
veracious Mayor says he once had penchant,
he would not be the political Marplot-the
Pantaloon, led about by the nose by every
cunning clown that struts upon the political
stage-that he is at the present time; and the
whole German population of the city might
have to-day adopted as their rallying cry,
''We drinks and votes NIT Greeley and Sigel."
The lager water fusion ticket will, there
fore, secure no combined support in the coming
contest, when two great powers in the State are
arrayed against each other on a social ques-
ton of vast Importance to the community
The temperance party, disguised with the
contempt with which their platform of prin-
ciples submitted to the Republican Convention
at Syracuse was received and voted down,
have no love for the German lager beer and
anti-excise element that preponderated in the
Convention at the time, and to whose influence
they owed the defeat of their measure, and
they will not vote for Sigel. Consequently,
instead of combining fha MARTY tho ticI, nj will
rather tend to weaken it and divide its strength
at the polls.
On the other hand, the position and policy
Of Tammany being clear and well defined in
its opposition to the Excise law and its free
every shade and quality, from Jersey lightning
to lager beer, there is no hitch between the