The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1872-08-08
Greeley and Grant ON Their Rounds
Tho Danger OF Too Much Mora
Waxw0rks.

Waxw0rks.
Recreation we must admit, is as necessary
to Presidential candidates as to anybody else,
and nobody should say that because man has
received nomination to the Presidency he
should be obliged to wrap himself up in him
self and await results through long summer
season without breath of fresh air. Any
body, however, who has noted the manner in
which Mr.. Greeley has been carried round the
country, like q moral waxwork exhibition, for
the past week or two, will regret the use to
which he has come so soon. The murder Of
the matter is that, like the 'fggers' of the late
Artemus Ward, his most moral points are there
by turned into fountain of ridicule, too much
so for sober-minded voter who has ninety
days left to consider which way he is going to
vote for President. General Grant, with his
Havana, his handshaking and his infinitesimal
oratory among the Thousand Islands, has an
advantage over Mr.. Greeley in this respect
which people so sensitive to the grotesque
and the ridiculous as Americans will not be
slow to appreciate. 1t may not be exactly what
one would define as ha,ae,r, or the more COM
prehensive term, "dignity," but is as distinct
from the late caperings of Mr.. Greeley as the
role of walking gentleman in the theatre is
from that of clown in the circus. The friends
of General Grant have made the fatal error
recently of returning the abuse and invective
of the liberals in kind. How much more
effective would it be to hold up the picture
Of the benevolent Philosopher in his white hat,
shaking hands with the cleun mechanics
and hugging the babies Of Bristol after the
manner of the benevolent Pickwick in the
memorable Parliamentary election canvass
If these tactics were adopted it might suggest
itself to many that Pickwick in Parliament
would form perfect analogue to
Greeley in the Presidential chair; and
if this view were persisted in the
foes of the Philosopher might find as
many oddities in his record Of isms as in that
of the profound writer on the origin of the
Hampstead Ponds and the discoverer of the
famous stone with the peculiar inscription.
We do not wish to injure Mr.. Greeley's pros
poets on this ground, and we shall not, there
fore, follow up the Pickwickian comparison
which, sooth to say might be indefinitely ex-
tended After the baby-hugging at Bristol
comes o scene which should make the friends
of the Sage shudder if they believe that the
preposterously absurd has that power of freez-
ing respect in politics which it has in everyday
life. We refer to the Rhode Island clambake,
where, amid voracious crowd of admirers, he
cuts all sorts of ludicrous figures in scramble
for chowder. The side picture too, of hungry
;v>;
ouay from the table to languish in vain for
the succulence of the bivalvular repast does
not add to the dignity Of the situation.
It would seem from the samples Of how
Greeley's friends intend to ''run him" in the
campaign that the feature of eccentricity
to the border of lunacy is to be kept well be-
fore the people. The woodchopping perform
ances before select few, which it was well un-
derstood would be chronicled for the million
the day after, were passed over with On allow
ance for that form of harmless weakness
among the noted of men which made Fred
erick the Great ostentatiously partial to dogs,
and even King David SO proud of his harp
twanging and heel-kicling that he performed
in public before the ark. But we scarcely
imagined that the moral waxwork idea was to
be so extensively applied as the baby-hugging,
clam-scrambling since would lead us to believe.
1t is funny it will amuse thousands sickened
of the asperities Of political personalities; yet
the side-splitting sport may be death by ballot
to Horace, as the stone-throwing was to the
frog in the fable. Let the white elephant
business be stopped. The Philosopher seems
to be frightened by his friends into compare
tive silence on the solid, well-known ground
that if he opens his mouth he may 'put his
foot in it," They have not, however, put
like embargo on his cavorting propensities,
and they should at once seriously consider the
necessity of doing so. He chafes as it is
under the restraint on his tongue, and makes
malicious jokes on the profession he succeeded
in rs an excuse. Now let him be tied up
altogether before he does the liberal and demo-
cratic cause any further mischief. If his ad-
visers insist on the waxworks let the white
coat, the white hat and the old boots be toted
round the States but let the Philosopher
himself be slowed away like barrel Of winter
pears, not to be served up for dessert before
Christmas. AS the ingenious Mrs. farley was
not particular about licensees, the historical
habiliments might be worn by some venerable
local celebrity wherever the exhibition is made
On the other side of the contest nature has
done good deal for General Grant. 1t denies
him the gay and festive youthfulness of
Horace, and it has fettered his tongue SO
fixedly that nobody is afraid he will ever suffer
from oratorical sorethroat. His fault lies in
letting his underlings do too much of the fan
tastic business in his name, as Mr.. Boutwell,
did in North Carolina and Babcock did in