New-York tribune., 1874-02-10
% 'TvSTkUENDOEg.p

In the South Carolina Legislature the other
day, the Committee on Claims having reported
in favor of paying one Joe Crews $1,000
for forage furnished the constabulary force
the payment was opposed until more evidence
could be furnished Of the correctness of the
claim, and that 1t had not been paid once al
ready. These unkind suggestions were vigOr-
ollsly denounced by the friends of the forage,
furnisher as cruel and unjust insinuendOes.n
Without venturng an opinion as to the
Justice or injustice of the claim of Mr. Joe Crews.
we may be permitted to express the obliga-
tions which society, and especially sOciety's
representatives in official life, legislators, Cab
met officers and such, are under for an un-
commonly fresh, beautiful, and expressive
phrase. 1t admirably fits the time. 1t il
contribution to current politics as well "a to
philOlOgy. .
There has been no such apt and clever in
ventOn for long time. If we may venture
to do 80 without seeming obtrusive of advice,
we suggest to Congress, which has been
wrestling with the mother tongue for several
months in a vain endeavor to get hold of
word sufficiently expressive of its sense OF
indignation at the public press, that here is
the word for them. 1t defines the brutaitles
of the press with great clearness. The Credit
Mobilier statesmen were attacked with IN
" sinuendoes." 1t was with insinuendoes
that the Salary Grabbers were pursued. that
POmerOy and Harlan and Caldwell and Pat
terson wero followed; insinuendoes' are
what the press has been driving at the small
plckings and stealings with; AttOrney-Gen-
eral Williams was defeated of the Chief-Jus-
tceship by insinuendOes,' and the Treasury
Department has been spattered with them In
connection with the SanbOrn contracts. What
word this would have been for
Mr.. Benjamin F. Buffers bulging cheeks
when he lately wheeled up his rhetorical
artillery against the forty jackass' power of
tho press How it would have helped Mr.
COnkling when he sat down helpless and
heart broken the other day before the enormi-
ties practced by the press representatives In
the Senate gallery, who had actually drawn on
the contingent fund of that body for station
cry to be used in manufacturing "lnsinu-
" "endoes" against Senators. 1t drops into the
current of the language just in time for Mr.
Starkweather of Connecticut to use 1t IN de-
scribing the conduct of the opposition press
of his State, which overflows with "insinuen-
does against him on account of his lately
discovered letter to Mr.. Huntington of Wash
ington, asking for money to be raised "with-
"out publicity for use in the Connecticut
election.
They have another case of it too in South
Carolina, under the very nose, so to speak, of
the Legislature which coined it. Judge K. Is.
Carpenter was the guilty party, upon the trial
before him of person charged with grand
larceny. The jury. composed of twelve colored
citizens, came into court after the case had
been submitted to them, and upon being
asked two OF three times if they had agreed
upon verdict, and having their duties
explained to them by the court, responded,
"No bii.n Upon further explanation they
altered it to None guilty. 1t was then dis
covered that not one of the jury could read
or write, whereupon Judge Carpenter dis
charged them upon the ground that they were
incompetent. The members of the jury and
their friends very properly considered this an
insinuendo," and took the case to the Legis
lature upon petition Tor Judge
Carpenters impeachment. The Commit
tee appointed to inquire into the facts
reported that the Judge said he discharged
the jury because they were incompetent, and
that it was judicial act, and the Legislature
had no jurisdiction in the premises. This
was understood to be another "insinuendO,"
and the Committee simply submitted the
facts, leaving the House to judge of their
Importance and legality The Chairman of
the Committee said he wanted Judge Car
penter to understand that he was elected by
" colorcd people mainly, who were themselves
elected by those very colored men whom he
had pronounced too ignorant to act as
"iurors." The case is still pending in the
Legislature, but there is manifest disposi-
ton on the part of the sable legislators to
put down the " insinuendo" business.
Whatever comes of the case, the fact re-
mains that South Carolina has given the
world the word And the world thanks South
Carolina and Joe Crews for teaching it that
word.
When the yellow fever was at its hight in Shreve-
port two telegraph operators were among the VIC