Ottumwa weekly courier. (Ottumwa, Wapello County, Iowa) 1872-1899, 1873-11-20
From the chicago lntcr.occan.

believe in the efficacy of tricks III pol
itics. If they succeed in local con-
test by cute system of gerrymander-
ing, they grow confident that the same
process, followed on larger scale, will |
give them the control of the State or
the nation. There is an attempt now
being made TO form a new party,
whose whole capital stock shall be
trickery and deception. Like n mag
ician starting out upon tour, tho bag
gage of the new party represents a |
mass of articles, each one Of which |
pretends to be something that it is not,
Tables with secret drawers, cups with !
double lids, vessels with hidden
chambers, marked cards, loaded dice, |
invisible wires worked by confedcr- |
ates--everything that goes to make up
the stock of o professor of legerde-
main, whose success must depend up
on his ability to deceive.
We gaze at the professor in his tog-
gerry who manipulates these articles in
front of the curtain. and we are in
clined to think him stranger: but
strip him of his whiskers and wig, his
wide breaches and scarlet tunic, and
we should very likely recognize him
as one we had seen plying his vocation
in other places and in other years. If
we fail to remember the man in front.
however, we have only TO take peep
behind the curtain, anda familiar sight
greets us. There are those whom we
have known and fought for years.
They are pulling the wires, and watch
ing the 'snew party" on the stage with
great interest. The automaton figures,
which seem to move and speak at the
beck andnod of the magician in front,
are really controlled by the concealed
gentleman in the rear. They dance
but ii is the Democratic hand that pulls
the cord. They speak it is the voice
of our old acquaintance of other days.
| They sing those sonorous cadences we
have heard before, tripping lightly
over the stirring notes of Dixie. They
laugh: it is the hooking tone that jar
red upon our ears when the Union
troops fell back before the rebel forces
at Bull Run, and when their long ranks
rceled shattered, bleeding, and beaten,
from the assault on Petersburg.
There are many who know all this.
Those who have view of the interior
see the parties at work, while many of
the audience in front recognize the
tones and behold the fraud. But there
are others who insist that the feats are
genuine, and that what the wizard
processes to do he actually performs
To drop the simile, there are numbers
of honest men who look upon the new
party as a genuine organization of re-
form, composed of those who are
weary of the corruption of both the
Democratic and Republican parties,
and who heartily desire 10 correct
public morals and elevate public vir-
tue. They sincerely believe that the
immaculate gentlemen who control the
| Chicago Tribune and the Chicago
Times, for instance, have left the old
organizations because their integrity,
their spotless purity, their lofty prin-
ciples of honor, could not longer en-
dure the wickedness of the respective
parties to which they formerly belong
ed. They see men all around them
| crying loudly for honesty and reform,
whose lives have been devoted to dis
honesty and peculation. And yet, de-
ceived by the fair promises and pious
CALCULATIONS ofthese men, honest, hard
working, conscientious voters come
up to the polls and cast their ballots
for the "new party" while the old
managers gigglc and rub their hands
| glcefully behind the scenes.
These men have succeeded in Wis
consin. They have succeeded in some
counties in this State. They will
doubtless succeed in other places; but
that the game of deception will tri-
umph generally, or for any length of
time, is impossible. The principals
may look demure and innocent enough,
but the assistants cannot keep the
joke. 1t is too good. Already they
are telling it and laughing over it
A Wisconsin paper reads these subor-
dinates severe lecture for their i'm
polite mirth, and tells them if they
would 60 on to further victories they
! must conceal their identity. The New
York World is not so discreet, but
boldly claims these results as Demo.
| cratic victories. Says the Woyld.. GAN
thought and all talk of new oppose
| ton party will now be abandoned.
We are safe in asserting that the per.
manence of the Democratic party is
one of the things which the late cleo.
racy will now confidently say: He
that is not with lis is against us. and
he that gathereth with us scattcreth
abroad"
The party has not been able to con-
ceal the cloven foot in some other re-
spects. For instance, in 10 Daviess
County, in this State, a ticket was
nominated composed, with one excep-
ton, of Democrats, crumb being
thrown to the farmers in the shape Of
| one place on the ticket. When it came
to voting, however, all the rest were
elected while the farmer was defeated.
Thus was the insincerity of these men
demonstrated. In all these things lies
the trouble. No system of trickery or
sham professions can long be success
full. 1t exposes and defeats ITSELF
The farcical performance of the ssnew
party" has commenced in good time.
1t will be through with early. The
lights will be out, the curtain down,
the audience gone, before the grand
drama of '76 opens. The Republican
party will enter upon the Presidential
season with the same enthusiastic sup
port that was given it before political
side-shows were in vogue, or be-
spangled gymnasts turned somersauts
to the amusement of the groundlings.
We can afford to be patient. We can
afford to wait.
Mrs. Swain, in closing an interest
ing account of her recent visit to the
State Penitcntiary, says, in conclusion !:
OF all causes operating TO bring
these men to prison, the foremost is
drunkenness. A few weeks ago at
Sunday School tho inquiry was made
of the prisoners at Fort Madison as to
the prime cause of their present con-
dition. Fifty-four of the two hundred
and seventy six men congrcgated there
rose to their feet and testified that ii
was liquor that brought them to their
present degradation and misery.
PREPoNDERANcE OF PRooF.--It has
leaked out that in the discussions in
the jury room on a long-windcd case
in the Circuit Court at this place last
week, a juror argued i'm this wise
GWhy lOoLr a-hapa don't won l,now