Lamoille newsdealer. [volume] (Hyde Park, Vt.) 1860-1877, 1873-12-10
Was II Sarcasm 4!

ihE iertouAi inquiry AoSif u"
form siraight,Bed up a little. and a ghoslil
CLEAN Of what nigh, pass for Conscious
pride shot across his face. or more likely
remembering the great career behind him
and seeing the igsomiRy before. recalling
his own relations 10 politics, TO govern
meet, to the State. and knowing who and
what we're his opponents and. in meas
urc, his suceessors-mOre likely it was
with a eurled LIP asd bitter sheer that be
satirized his age ana country when be an.
swered Statesman" Il may be that he
swept the whole horizon with his eye,
measuring The stature Of our entire cate
CORY Of statesmen, and that, apprehend.
ing from his own experience their methods
and their aims, with deliherstion and pur'
pose he named himself as Of their mum.
ber For certainly now he was no chair.
maker-,hat Vas gone with the dew Of
youth. No fireman or foreman Of IN en-
CINE company ncw-that was but step
ping stone to the offices aRd the oppor.
iuuiucs, whose dilligeni improvement had
brought him here. No, be was not either
Of these. What then ? Gentleman ? All!
that was too common a Heer at snobbery
aud preten,ious usclessDess. Half the
thieves en- 1.-THE Island" have perpetrated
that Joke on society. Nothing so som.
% as that would DO for this uncommen
felop. He might have touched his fore
head and soiloquized, "A thief among
thieves; among them but not ct them
how shall discriminate myself? | did
not steal from pocket or person. | am
no pickpotet. l did not rSb banks or
plumber men in the highway. | an
neither burglar nor highwayman. | am
not here for any such Cffense as the poor
devils who preceded me. Ny crime, if
crime it is, has the responsibility ofseven
figures in it, and the dignity Of having
been committed against government. 1t
isn't treason it must be craftsmanship 4"
Aud so because his plumber was millions
and his victim the public, he, the first
seven-6gurc thief ever uniformed at 1.-THE
Island" was at liberty to name the crime
and designate the profession. And he
called it craftsmanship.
Itmay be that tho New.Zealander who,
10 some distant age, shall sit on broken
pier of the Brooklyn Bridge, coutcmpla-
ting the unfinished Courthouse AMI adj.
mlriug the simple aud beautiful operatiQa
of Mr.. Richardson's process Of specie re-
sumption, and have his attention drawn
TO the ruins of the BlqckwelI's Island
Penitentiary as the prison in which Gov
eminent offenders we're punished. In
proof whereof the blurred and faded
pages Of the records with the name of the
convict. William NJ. Tweed, States.
man." may be adduced. And if the in.
qulsitive New-Iealander shall pursue his
researches int the history of Tweed
time and country, the quality Of its prom
inent aud successful men, the great enter.
prises carried on, the means by which they
were forwarded, the methods of legisla
ton, and the objects aimed at, the rela,
tions Of the holders of public trusts to the
public who trusted them, the atmosphere
Of governmement aud the tone of those
who administered it, it is pretty certain
thai Mr.. Tweed's sarcasm, if so it was in
tended, will have lost its force. For the
wonder will be not that one statesman
wore the uniform and answered 10 the
roll-call Of tho Penit9ntiary, but that the
prison was not full of them.
But if the New-Zealander, spurred by
this descriptive list Of our great felon tc
search through the records of Tweed,
time for cotemporaneous statesmen, shall
marvel at their average hight and weight
and at the claGsfcations aud definitions o.
the age that produced them, what will avail
him when he pursucs his inquiry further
to the records of those who like Tweed
before his keeper, named themselves the
Christian statesmen" of the period
Well Tweed spared us the bitterness Of
that sarcasm. lie did not call himself a
christian statesman" He might. will
equal propriety and truth, but he did nat
Indeed he expressly took himself out o
that category by bis answer to the sue.
ceeding question. Religion ?" asket
the keeper. and he answered "None.
Statesman he confessed himself, but moth
ing more. Aud We thank him,
As TO this man, now at hard labor il
uniform and under keepers on the Island
who does not wear diamonds and dispens,
patronage and held great city under hi
tat thumb any more, aud who is not like
ly to turn upon bis everseer with grin
ing What are you going to do about it ?
or upon his keeper with a jecose 'Yo,
know how it is yourself as to him
well, what did he mean? Was it hi.
cynical jeer flung at the head of societ,
that was about to shut him up? Or wa
ha On ,nivrn;dad hv b;a ,,,l;.:..l 49,.