The Portland daily press., 1873-09-11
Current Notes,

The Springfield Republican appears skepti-
cal in regard to the New England Brahmn.
first introduced to the reading public by DR..
Holmes, though it hesitates TO deprive Amer
lean literature of generally harmless char
acter, and rudely dissipates much cherished
tradition. Santa Claus may be myth but
we don't tell the children so. 1t, however,
resolutely denies that the snob and the
brahmin appear in Massachusetts politics
They are the men who are in chronic state
OF disgust and who never go to the polls.
The st. Louis Democrat thinks if there is
any sight more suggestive than that of a ham
cry buzzarl, soaring in mid air, and anxious
ly awaiting the sight of meal of carrion, it
is that of a decrepit Democratic politician,
with hay seed in his hair, and a lean look
about the jaws. hobblng up TO a farmers
grange and supplicating permission to Sym
pathize with the movement"
Items are in order now about such and such
artists returning from mountain and sea-
side with portfolios full of vigorous sketches.
These artists would show keener appreca-
ton by lingering in the woods for the varie-
gat.d foliage and golden haze of autumn, or
by the side Of the waves for the storm winds
Of the equinoctial, now near at hand. The
vigorous sketches we utterly discredit, for
whoever did anything vigorously, except per-
spring, during dog-days?
The Providence Journal suggests that one
years abstinence from silks and champagne
would place the country in position to COM
mand the money of the world. Meanwhile
what are the silk and the wine merchants to
do?
One would think from reading late Massa-
chusetts papers, that there was person by
the name of Butler around in those diggings.
ROCKY Mountain Clarion. But the Mass
achusetts man who sees things as they are.
on the spot, knows that Butler is nowhere in
Massachusetts.-BoS Transcript
The Baltimore Gazette opines that Long
fellow as a poet is passe, 1t says ''Time was
when he could sip little water from the sa-
cred spring, but now the fountain flows no
laore for him. The wheeling of the pump
alone is heard. Instead of the gush of poesy
we have only the dry hiccough OF imperfect
suction.' how bad Longfellow must have
felt when he read this.
The Hartford Courant thinks that if
the authoritative declarations of Bishop
Reinkens eptomize, as they seem to, the old
Catholic movement, then that movement car
ries with it mere of simple rational religion
than tn majority of Protestant sects can, with
any consistency lay claim to. 1t represents a
tendency towards a minimum of dogma and
maximum of right conduct. Tolerant of hon.
est differences of opinion in a field where, at
the best, there is so much of mystery, it de-
clares uncompromising warfare against arbi-
rrary ecclesiastical authority and the spirit of
indflerentism.
For an example of shrinking modesty COM
mend us to the following from the Troy
Times: ''The direct field of New York joun.
alism now embraces radius of one hundred
miles. This brings it to the suburbs of Pha-
delphia on the south and to Boston on the
east, while in the northern direction it is
there checked by the circulation AID influence
Of the Troy Times.
The Commercial Advertiser says of the
Maine election:
When the figures come in it will be seen
that the two parties have about held their
own, with some signs Of weakening on the
part of the Democrats. and an absolute CO.
apse by the Liberals. The fact is evident,
however, that the Republican party is shorn
IF no strength. 1t still remains a compact
and unbroken mass, true to its past declara-
lions, proud Of its record and mistaken by
The calumnies of its foes and by the venomous
charges so often and so violently brought
against it.
The Graphic draws the conclusion from the
Maine election that practically the Domo-
cratic party has ceased to be party in
American politics, and that it is disturbing
element only as it is in the way, like dead
Jog in the path or an unmelted snow-bank in
he field the farmer wants to plough.
The New York Mail strongly opposes the
lighthouses or forcing system in the education
ofchdren, and thinks that while great i'm
provements have been introduced in our
schools the child's education is not planned
as awhoe but is patched together from year
TO year. The multiplicity of textbooks is a
crying evil.