The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1874-02-28
For The Cecil Whig
THE "TURKEY" AND THE DEMOCRAT.

The Democrat of late is rather a curious
study. tits, of course, always Democratic,
but upon any of the questions OF the hour
its utterances one week leave room for
curious guess as to what it will be next;
but it is one of the privileges of genius to
be cratic Poe told the world the story
of his raven, and few Of us young folks
have failed to be chilled with his ominons
croakiug OF Ncvermorc. The Democrats
bird has the advantage; Poe's only knew
one word, but this one gets up some quite
oracular ideas sometimes. ! had heard SO
little of the wisdom of Turkey Of late
that had almost come to the conclusion
that Christmas had been fatal to the bird,
but the last issue OF Tie Democrat gives
evidence that it still lives. AS he has es
capped both Thanksgiving and Christmas,
| presume he is too old and tough to be
worth picking. He seems to be 4 Trustee,
and as ladies do not have brains enough to
be Trustees in this state, l take it for
granted that he belongs to the gobbler
species of the race. Anonymous writing
is something | hold in dctestation, but
were | in search of a nom dc plume and
could not find a better one than /" Turkey,'
l would drown myself. He turns over my
name and looks at it in all possible lights.
much as some members Of his family turn
over worm before swallowing it, Well,
Mr.. Turkey, will my name do? den t
like It much myself, but then didn't Sc
lcct it. am rather glad it got the A. in
it, but such as it is, ii goes with whatever
| may write.
neither claim to be coed scholar nor
a good teacher, but am confident that
speak the opinion of nine teachers out OF
ten, good, bad and Indifferent, in pronounc-
ing the Trustee system a nui sance, and
poultry raisers, 4 good many of them, de-
clare Turkeys are. AS far as my scholar
ship is concerned, it may interest my
fo,clg-named friend to know that gradu-
ated from Ccntreville public school, End
District of Hartford county, on March 31st,
1860, aged 10, years. As Trustees had not
then come in fashion did not get diplo
ma, and as l have not been in school as
scholar since, l make no claim to take
rank as n trained teacher, but there are
such things. | try to live. with my eyes
and ears wide open and try to make that
compensate as far as possible for lack of
education.
am sorry that my predictions as to the
course of the Legislature in general has
been fulfilled, although so far the School
Law does not seem to have been made
much worse. A Legislature resembles
plague of locusts in some things, but one
Gomez every two years the other only once
in seventeen.
suppose owe Mi. Eiadls an apology
for sighting him, but l didn't mean it.
Ir,f,rred to Messrs. England and Everist
because | happen to be personally acquaint-
ed with them while l am not it'll Mr.. B.,
not with any idea Of sighting him or any
one else OF the Commissioners of the
State, who, as far as | l>lew; discharge
their duties faithfully even when puzzled
with the untimely meddling of Turkeys
and other senseless fowls. Our bird thinks
Trustees should be elected. This was
tried few years ago and proved rs COM
plete & failure rs the Trustee system is
now admitted to be 10y ali VIC ion't hold
the office. While the Commissioners no
doubt select as good men as possible, they
seldom succeed in getting men who can
act according to law. Some are meddlers,
some are not willing to act at all and all
are admitted by many OF their own MEM
bers to be useless. 1t is a curious feature
of human nature that everybody wants an
office, and as " Turkey can neither be
President nor Sheriff he is anxious to be
Trustee. Hope the commissioners will let
him be.
l am going to conclude with a little
advice to the :sobbler. You are a gentle
man, | have no doubt, oil social standing
far superior to mine. your education is no
doubt as good, is there any good reason
for hiding yourself behind your gobbling
name. Come out, give US your name, and
let US discuss this question on its merits,
if eitL!ar paper will give us room Il don't
care which,. TO gobpler l bid 4 final
adicu. May his noisy gobble long rise
above the din of Tile Democrat office and |
in leisure hours enchant the sylvan soil
tudes of the Elk, and when his gobble |
sh&m, be heard no more, but he shall have
gone the Way CT all gobblers, may some
other Poe arise to embalm his memory in |
immortal song and send it down to the
last hours of earthly time along with the
famous raven and the sacred geese.
JOHN ALIEN. CALHOUN.
LIST OF PUBLIC SALES.