The New Orleans bulletin. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1874-1876, 1875-09-12
SHAMS,

of whom the number is SO great chat it won
require the analytical genius of a Linnaus
classify them-nor of the religious shams,
whom the Brooklyn missionary may be take
as the most conspicuous specimen; nor y
OF the literary shams, who exc out a doubtfl
reputation by paiming off on a credulo1
public the offspring of other peoples brair
as their own. The particular sham we ha,
just now in our "mind's eye" is the politics
sham, of which offensive genus We hay
enough and to spare in the community W
live in.
The American, or, if you please, the Lou
isiana political sham, is not distinguishe
from his Old World prototype, save by
much smaller supply of brains and an i'm
mensely greater wealth of brass. As an orator
he generally belongs to the "spread eagle
school, unless his lungs are unequa
to the requirements of that peculia
style of public speaking in which
case he goes into the burnt-cork or negr
minstrel specially, his wit and humor being
made up of combination of smutty Jokes
clownish presentations Of his opponents ant
familiar stories borrowed from the lamentec
Joe Miuer's time-honored book. As poll
tician, he has no particular preference for any
party, his views Of public policy being invarl
ably taken from the standpoint of his OWL
bread and butter. If he belongs to higher
class of society than the average ward political
sham, and is not dependent on the per
quisites or stealings of Office to live, but
wants to be Governor, Senator, or even
something less important, his favorite dodge
is to set himself up as performer to de-
nounce the acts and to traduce the motives OF
every man or set of men he imagines to stand
in his way-and by his wholesale slandering
of people who are generally far superior to
him in earnestness Of purpose and integrity of
heart, he usually succeeds in gather
ing around him certain number
of simpletons who believe him to be
q great and good man simply because he
boldly and persistently calls every body else
q knave and fool.
The political sham's career is generally
brief, but we know some who have Fl ourished
in this latitude for a quarter of century
without being found out except by few men
who either feared their influence or disdained
% show them up. They are not so long lived
across the Atlantic, owing, perhaps, to the
act that the competition for the champions
belt in that particular line of business is
much keener in Europe than in it is here,
whence the Darwinian theory Of the strug-
lie for life " and the consequent extinction of
he weaker animals comes into play in their
ase. This has quite lately been powerfully
Illustrated by the sudden collapse of that
magnificent sham. Dr. Kenealy, who year
go went up like rocket as the advocate of the
-ichborne claimant and who has just come
own like q stick of the most diminutive
Having been elected to Parliament by an
gnorant and crazy constituency, he tried to
ct up scene in the House of Commons,
ut was promptly coughed down by the men,
ers, and most numerically fagellated by
nat great master of irony and sarcasm, the
resent Premier of Great Britain.
Hoping to recover the ground he had lost,
e went down to address a meeting of his
wn constituents, who, however, gave him
nmistakeable evidence that he had "lost
is grip )" upon them, by hooting him and
'ering at him; and when he went, as der
Ier resort, to haraague the Radical " Magma |
marta Congress" that met in London three |
eeks ago, the members dumped on the |
rms and denounced DR.. kenealy as more |
rannical and dicsatorial than any of the |
ersons he is in the habit of abusing" The
urnal reporting these proceeding s adds that
SO great was the hostility to DR.. Kenealy
anifested at the Congress, that the Magma
harta Association may be said to be at an
Id" Commenting upon which the
7eehiy Dispatch, one Of the most prom
ent organs of British Radicalism,
rsely says: "The brazen calf whose dis
'rdant cries once reused disquieting echoes
the air, lies PROSTATE. Let him, with all
8 guilt and follies on his head, be staight-
ay buried"
If all the "brazen calves of the same sort
3 have down here should bs "straightway
Tried the undertaken who has that Job will
axe big thing of it. We wish for no mans
'ath, but We do hope that the Board Of
ealth will leave the prosecuted, down.
odden people alone for while and proceed
"disintect" at once all our political shams
It of existence
The remarks of the representative news
per we last quoted will apply with S ich ex-
lisite appropriateness to our own "brazen
Ives" that We shall close this hasty sketch
tn short extract from its editorial upon
9 subject:
After remarking that the Tichborne craze
ew out of the impression, most erroneous
but also most extensively prevailing among
pertain class of the British people that the
claimant" had not had fair trial, and that
tn the judge and the jury were governed
aristocratic inf 1ancas the writar saus.