The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1875-09-20
'ERMs $500 PER ANNUM, IN ADVANCE.
The Political Sea Serpent.

Among the annals, legendary and histori-
cal, OF every people are to be found vague
and terrible descriptions of monsters that
from time to time have invaded the land and
compromised the safety of the people. 1t is
not proposed TO enter here into any discussion
of the actual existence of the Theban
Sphinx; TO insist upon so circumstantial a
description Of the Minotaur that from il
modern naturalist would be enabled TO con-
struct creature of so composite a style of
architecture; or to pin unquestoning faith
upon the dragon that Perseus slew.
The Double Headed Snake of Newbury, so
quantity described By good Cotton Mather.
and sung in the witty verse of DR.. Holmes
the reptile to which was allotted the embar-
RAISING possession of two distinct and we'll
defined heads, each with views OF its own,
while the thin body, flexible as it might be,
could not move readily enough to adapt itself
to the behests of two heads at the same
time-would seem TO furnish TO our later days
parallel TO the Democratic party. In it
violently drawn at once in the opposite
directions of hard money and paper currency,
yet endeavorng to retain its bodily identity
lest instant death resul.-tradition repeats
tself, and
some in body, but two in will.
The Amphsbena is living STILL"
But not with the trite fables of antiquity,
or the legend that haunted the rocks and
| fens of Newbury, is opr present and imme-
| diate concern. Within the past week in the
| long gray waves of our harbor, and in the
| troubled political waters have been observed
almost simultaneously, the sea serpent and
gain in the Democratic vote. They are
| evident anachronisms, they belong of right
to the dark ages-but they are facts. 1t was
| not suddenly that they were thrust upon
| public notice; heralded by rumor, they de-
| rived much of their consequence from excited
report-and underwent, as is the wont of
"any other fabulous ANIMAL" decided modi-
| fication as to size upon actual inspection.
| The serpent, which, at rare intervals, raised
| a hideous head, or afforded transitory
glimpse of tail above the waves, might-who
could say?-trail unnumbeied leagues of
length. He might be long enough to encircle
the world, like the Midgard serpent-in which
case it might be reasonably hoped that he
was an electric eel and would, by active COM
| petition, reduce the rates of the Atlantic
Telegraph Company. So long as he remained
unseen, save by sample, his possibilities were
unlimited; his dimensions were unbounded
but by the Imagination of man. 1t was his
mistake to leave mis- vague and wstery ele-
ment and to approach too nearly the active
scenes of business and politics. For while
/ he foundered helplessly; then, rightly pre-
ferring the better part of valor, made his way
back to the dark depths which, for his fame,
| he never should have quilted. When the
| brief turbulence of the sea was subsided
| and the waters were clear again-it was
found that the sea serpent had made his
mark, sixty feet in length, upon the soft and
.reacherous mud, where he had rested. But
experienced and sagacious observers COM
puted his actual size to be about one-thrd
of the length of the trace left by his struggles
for escape.
The moral of this fable of to-day Is obvious.
The Democratic party should keep out at sea,
appearing occasionally in town election, or
caucus. Local differences afford it oppor-
tunity for brief and imposing display, and
credulity will accord to it, seem thus, the i'm
portance and size it so notably lacks. Afar
of, it has the respectable prestige of the
unmeasured myth; nearer, it dwindles and
loses its terrors. Brought face to face with
the great principles involved in the Presiden-
tial contest of next year, its actual and
inconsiderable proportions will be clearly
| defined.
To sea serpents and TO Democrats yet one
word more. 1t is not from a soft and duc-
tuating basis of harbor mud or paper money
that return can readily be made to current
coin or channel; and party or python will
find itself stranded and at the mercy of its
foes; or, should its desperate efforts for escape
be successful, it will leave behind it evidence
of its exceedingly moderate dimensions.