New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1874-02-20
IN RE SIMMONS

IN RE SIMMONS.
For full four days the responsibility of Bos-
| ton has been sibiant. Ii awOke one morning
| and read with hiss that has not ended yet
the name of Simmons Collector Russell
had resigned and Simmons was appointed in
his place. And everybody said Simmons
twice with an interval of painful silence. The
head of the family read it once, and, to the
horror of the whole breakfast table, pro-
| nounced it with rising infection and an in
terrogatve form as he set down his coffee
and broke the handle off the cup.
Then he rubbed his spectacles and
looked at it again, and with a
falling infection and sibilaton earnest and
prolonged, repeated simmons" On Boston
Common that day there was never nose but
stood in the air at the angle of supreme dis
gust, never mouth or lip but curled, puck
cred, and screwed as though Simmons was
specimen, plucked untmcly and unripe. OF
that astringent fruit whose name he partly
bears and Boston had it on its lips Ii was
puckery time for Boston. The oldest families
went about saying "SimmOns" to each other
and getting ready to curse TIE unhappy hour
that ushcred them into existence. The town
stood with twisted lips and staring eyes and
said briefly, but with irrepressible pathos,
"SimmOns ~
Judge Russell had been an officer of whom
they were not ashamed. He was a man who.
though he INDUCED in oratory on those fire.
quent occasions when there was a political
crisis, yet treated his mother tongue with
filial reverence, and fOrebore, even iii his
highest flights and warmest illusions, TO
maltreat the language for the qualification of
the masses. He had too, the art of balancing
between Gubernatoral asprants, which it was
ever the delight of BostOnians to behold He
had also taste for letters-not meaning
thereby the epistolary missives the handling
of which occupies the energies and
taxes the intellects of so many leading
minds, but letters in the larger sense of COL
lected learning. We do not know that he
painted in water cOlOrs, but there can be no
doubt that he spoke Sanskrit and Arabic with
sufficient huency to give him the entrGe to the
best Boston society, and was well up in the
Rig eda and Zend-avesta. He had scholarship
and culture, and as Collector of Customs he
was, i'll the simple and expressive language of
the statesmen of the period, "no slouch"
Moreover, the Office had been held mostly by
respectable people, its traditions were decent,
and whenever it fell vacant Massachusetts had
written over it in the eyes of the world, "No
"ward politician need apply"
Mr.. Simmons is, if the testimony of the
respectable portion Of the Massachusetts press
can be believed, ward politician" 1t has
been so stated with great solemnity by sew
eIal newspapers, and several Others have
copied it and been shocked by it in the most
graceful and becoming manner. He is not
only ward politician, but a supporter and
conidant, a pillar and prop. of Mr.. Benjamin
+. Butler. He is believed to have been the
author of the foul conspiracy of last Summer
to secure Butler delegates to the State Con-
vention by calling the caucuses at a time
when all the decent people were at the sea-
side OF in the mountains. He was delegate
to the Convention himself, and worked very
ardently for his friend Butler. Being
Supervisor of Internal Revenue, the Conven-
ton aimed one of its heaviest resolutions at
him, but it rolled off like water off duck.
He smiled sweetly and supported it himself
for the sake of harmony. There was nothing
that he and his friends would not do for the
sake of harmony The resolution called upon
the President to remove him-for though not
named, he and everybody else understood who
was meant-for his interference with local
politics. President Grant is very hard of
hearing. This message slipped his ear en-
tirely, until within few days hlr. Butler
has communicated it in person, and the Pres
ident Immediately removed Simmons from the
Office of Supervisor to that Of Collector of
Customs.
With regard to this change there is as we
have already intimated state OF mind in
Massachusetts generally, and Boston particu-
larly, which might be called "some feeling"
The newspapers are unusually vigorous. They
say great many things say them hard, and
the next day say them over again. The mer-
chants hold meetings about it and send on
protests, and the Massachusetts, delegation in
Congress hold consultation over it, from
which Mr. Dawes withholds himself and those
leading statesmen, Messrs. Butler. Hooper
and Buffinton, retire in good order. The
friends of Mr.. Simmons say in his behalf
that no il self-mado man, and the other
people intimate that il is lot crcdltaDle